chapter14

 It was a night destined to be a sleepless one.

　　Haphazardly passing through a box, experiencing a series of thrilling and exciting events inside, having a Russian-accented cat in the house, deciding to go on a pilgrimage, knowing a few secrets and more secrets waiting to be explored.

　　It would be a big heart to be able to sleep peacefully.

　　Gregorio sat on a chaise longue in the doorway of the balcony, looking out the window at a bright moon, the stars shining in the deep blue velvety night sky. It was a starry sky that was hard to see in the real world, and the wind blew in through the half-open window, bringing with it the scent of unknown flowers and plants, and a mysterious aura unique to this place.

　　This world, it seemed, was not at all what it seemed to them.

　　Everything promising and bright and honest had slipped through their fingers with the car accident that wasn't an accident, shattering like a flower in a mirror.

　　Gregorio closed his eyes, his handsome face half bathed in moonlight, half drowning in shadows, the junction of light and darkness sweeping across the high bridge of his nose without a sound.

　　And in the bedroom a wall away, Marvin in his bed was not sleeping soundly.

　　He was truly exhausted from his time in Hameln, and the exhaustion of laying on the ground had caused him to drift off to sleep in a daze even after all he had learned, but it wasn't long before he inexplicably woke up suddenly.

　　The moonlight came through the cracks in the curtains, illuminating a narrow slice by the bed, and he stared blankly at the light, suddenly smelling a few fishy-sweet and cloying flavors.

　　... What?

　　The cold, sticky liquid dripped from the ceiling and landed with a soft thud on his face, sliding down his cheek and staining the sheets.

　　The smell intensified, and it was sickening.

　　Marvin shivered, holding his breath as he raised a hand to his face, the blood smeared away and reflected clearly in the moonlight.

　　Two huge lizards lurched out of the darkness under the bed, hissing and grinning their fang-filled maws at him, their sharp claws tearing through his skin, a spiteful light in their eyes -

　　Marvin's eyes snapped open.

　　The teenager gasped violently, a heart nearly beating out of his chest. The white cat that had been sleeping at the foot of his bed was nowhere to be seen, and the bedroom door was hidden, with the shadow of a water fountain tucked in the corner.

　　The smell of blood and the stench of the lizard's mouth seemed to still be in his nose. Sleepy now, Marvin hunkered down under the covers for a while longer, with the old feeling that something was indeed hiding in the darkness and that the ghosts of the two lizards he had brutally murdered were haunting the surroundings, emitting cries and screams that he could not hear.

　　Growing more and more frightened at the thought, he decided to go and sit in the parlor.

　　Stomping into his slippers and donning his jacket, Marvin pushed his way out of the bedroom and caught a glimpse of Gregorio, who was sitting in a chair by the balcony door.

　　"Brother?" Surprised for a moment, Marvin called out softly.

　　Gregorio, who was thinking about something with his eyes closed, opened his eyes and looked at the teenager, who was looking a little worse for wear, and asked, "Why did you come out?"

　　"I couldn't sleep," Marvin replied honestly, taking a seat on the couch, he hadn't given anyone the benefit of the doubt about what he'd experienced after the handyman took him away from Hamelnry. The feel of the knife cutting through flesh and blood, the adrenaline rush of the kill, and the panic and excitement when the blood spurted out, all bottled up inside of him and left him terrified.

　　"Sit down for a while then." Gregorio shifted to a more comfortable position; Marvin looked like their father, ordinary in appearance but masculine and circumspect, while he followed more closely the mother who had died in childbirth due to an amniotic fluid embolism, the woman who, in his world, existed only in photographs.

　　The brothers sat in silence in the living room, the fourth night since their arrival in the pure white realm, the tiny silo room that would no longer be filled with the sounds of yelling down the stairs for dinner and cozy lights, and how the middle-aged man and woman, Gregorio's father and stepmother, would crumble when they learned of the simultaneous loss of their two children?

　　There was no way for them to know any of this.

　　Feeling a little cold, Marvin shrank back and said, "Brother, I just had a nightmare. I dreamed that the two lizards I killed in the box came after me for revenge and tried to eat me."

　　Gregorio looked up a little surprised, but not too surprised, the box had gone by in a blur, the plot had fragmented with Sylver's intervention and they hadn't had a chance to properly talk about what had happened, "Was it in the kitchen?"

　　Marvin nodded again, "I woke up in the kitchen, a lizard was trying to throw me into a tumbler of water, and in my haste, I killed it with a knife .... Then I found another aunt who was about to be killed and eaten, and to save her I cut up the chef."

　　It wasn't hard to tell these things in person, but Marvin's mood didn't become easier, the shadow of taking another person's life with his own hands still loomed over his head, both the spreading blood and the expression of the dead man's face made him jittery.

　　Gregorio took a deep breath, he understood his brother's inner struggle, after all, Marvin was still too young compared to him, a teenager of his age had yet to enter society, his eyes were not ready for sand and his heart was not hard enough.

　　But in the pure white land, these points were enough to kill him.

　　Gregorio whispered, "Marvin, this is no longer the world we are familiar with, you should be able to understand that here if you are soft-hearted, the one who will die will only be yourself. What's more, do you think those lizards are human?"

　　"I know, they are not human, and I can also guarantee that when the situation is critical, I will let myself live first, only ... only still feel bad inside." Marvin whispered, "I also understand that there will definitely be more bloodshed and death on the pilgrimage afterward, and maybe one day I'll get used to it and take it for granted ... but right now, it's a little too much for me to take."

　　"The United States surveyed World War II, which showed that most soldiers had extremely low bullet utilization rates and that they would rather be killed by the enemy than kill easily."

　　Gregorio looked at the teenager pursing his lips in the darkness and slowly said, "Later, to change this situation, the U.S. Army modified ordinary moving targets into human shapes during target practice, so that during the war, it would be easy for the soldiers to shoot the enemy based on the instincts of hitting the target. This succeeded in allowing the U.S. Army to win several subsequent wars, but at the same time, it also caused numerous soldiers to suffer from severe battlefield syndrome."

　　"Saving Private Ryan?"

　　Gregorio nodded, "Right. It's a normal human instinct not to want to kill creatures that resemble us, and it's only natural that one would be upset and saddened by it, but here, everything is out of the question, so if you're feeling scared, feel free to come over and see me anytime."

　　His words trailed off and he softened his voice, "Sylver's right, you're relying on me a little too much, but that's okay, it takes a while to get used to, no matter who you are."

　　The brothers' late-night conversation was not known to anyone else, at the moment Sylver wasn't staying in the Prisoner's Space, he was sitting on the rooftop of the silo's roof with Victor, who had slipped away midway through the conversation.

　　The evening breeze blew through the teenager's frontal hair with a damp coolness unique to late nights, and Victor sat in a graceful crouch, gazing into the distance.

　　Just now Sylver had given him an account of everything that had happened in Hameln.

　　The emerald green stream of light shimmered in Sylver's palm, and the shard called "Good Intentions" had a hidden fluctuation of spatial energy, Victor touched the soul with the tip of his tail, and felt the joy it conveyed.

　　"The most important thing right now is to find out what happened to Zoey, Madeline, and Amanda, the Joker told me some bad news after you were summoned. There has been no word from Madeline and Amanda since we left, Zoey is fine, and now that we have the soul fragments, we have a clue."

　　"It's the two of them I'm most worried about right now." Sylver held the bit of light in his palm, the three seals on his wrist then manifesting for a brief moment, "But with the Elemental Controller in place, it's a relief that Hera can't kill them."

　　Victor had, and after a moment of contemplation, said, "You said you met The Mystery of the Worms in the box? That would be an offshoot of its consciousness, used to oversee Zoey's soul fragments."

　　"Yeah, it's just a very weak branch, but it's a bit of a pain in the ass, at least now Hera's goons know about my return." Sylver mouthed trouble but didn't let it cause him any headaches, having dismissed the idea of hiding for a while when he decided to kill Henry to give him a break.

　　No matter how much more he hid, he would always be found anyway.

　　Victor: "According to the character of The Mystery of Worms, it shouldn't tell Hera and the others for the time being, after all, the struggle between their successors has reached an irreconcilable point now, right? Being able to restrain us or kill us outright would be a great feat in front of Hera, it won't easily share such a good thing with others."

　　Sylver sighed softly and took Victor in his arms, "I hope so."

　　The white cat rubbed its nose comfortingly against the side of his face and whispered, "Don't worry, I'll always be there for you."

　　"By the way, how are you feeling about that person you signed a prisoner contract with?" Victor already knew that there was another layer of blood contract between Sylver and Gregorio, and in that case, how Gregorio was, was completely crucial.

　　"He should be a good help." Sylver gave a pretty good assessment.

　　It seemed that was quite good, and Victor couldn't help but smile, "I think so too, not only him, but that boy has a lot of potential as well."

　　"I'm relieved to hear you say that uncle, I trust your eye for people."

　　Victor smiled and teased, "At least I feel a little better than when you first entered here, I remember when you needed Zoey and me to save you every time."

　　"I was just sixteen back then alright, Gregorio he's a grown man, how can he be put in the same category as me, and Marvin is a gym student, isn't it normal for him to be in better shape than me?" Sylver hugged Victor and got up, his eyebrows tinted with a bit of weariness, "Let's go, it's a bit too cold here, go back and have a good rest."

　　According to Sylver's plan, they would enter the next box after resting for two days, earning enough points before Blood Night. However, plans often fail to catch up with changes, and when the news that the entrance to the random box [Labyrinth of Time] had suddenly appeared nearby reached Sylver's ears, he immediately decided to change his plan and enter this box.

　　"What's that," Marvin asked before entering.

　　"You should have read the manual in the past two days, the acquisition of tickets, besides buying them with points in the trade market, there is also the possibility of getting them directly in the box, but that's very unlikely, and the Labyrinth of Time, is the box that can produce tickets," Sylver explained:

　　"If we can get the ticket inside, then we can go straight to the next area, and then we can go and awaken our abilities, saving us from having to spend a lot of time-saving up points in the Novice Zone box."

　　The news came suddenly, and Gregorio didn't have time to make any special preparations, except that to increase the survival rate of the two, Victor and Marvin signed a contract to become his summoned beasts. With Sylver and Victor around, there shouldn't be too many variables in this trip to the random box.

　　嗯... Even though Victor was only a cat in appearance now and hadn't shown much combat power, Marvin's intuition told him that this definitely wouldn't be an ordinary cat.

　　So on the evening of the third day, Gregorio and Marvin left their home and went to the commercial center of this area, pushed open the door of a coffee shop, placed a bag of coffee beans on the front counter as a fee, walked through the unoccupied storefront, lifted the curtain and walked into the working backstage, and opened the refrigerator that stood in the corner.

　　Inside the refrigerator was a strange world.

　　They stepped inside.