\Chapter 4\

The flower in front of me was unmistakably the same flower which I came across on the cliff, the red hue which was unique to the flower was much brighter and rich than that one but the same.

Seeing the flower as it was there was a sprout of hope in his heart which thought this is a horrible nightmare and he was lucid dreaming. That was the most logical explanation as this flower might have released substance which put him in a deep hallucinating state, and this was his vivid imagination. He wasn't much of a reader of fictional works but his sub-consciousness might have held on to something he might not remember. This theory gave Dax much hope to wake up from this nightmare.

Lost in his new found hope Dax completely forgot he was being carried by the scary butler, the vision of the butler was a million times superior to that of Dax. While Dax only saw the flower shining in the bitch black abyss, Butler saw the barren ground around it from afar and the traces it had only increased the doubts in his heart. If his doubts were proven right it would be groundbreaking in the entire history of Hyvelon. All the realms of the Hyvelon would be shaken if the candidate ever steps out of his manor.

As he surveyed the ground from afar his doubts were indeed proven true, the black soil surrounding the flower of 30 meters has rune formation which read along the lines of 'connection to nether world' & 'a world on the other end'. The formation proved incomprehensible to him, which was pretty surprising to him, cause his existence crossed over 1200 years and he knows most of the runes by heart.

If there was a formation which he couldn't comprehend it only meant it was a formation made by someone at demigod level, and that only gave further headache to him. Even though the formation was temepered to cover up, he should understand the purpose and make out power level of it. Even if he can't make out what the formation is for exactly, he can sense the lingering power of space in the surroundings. His domain of magic is Space so he is very sensitive to changes in it and moreover the entire space inside of the Deadlock Manor is under his control, so if there was even a slight change in it he should be the first one to notice.

Now standing getting closer and closer to the neather gost flower, he could clearly sense that someone tampered with space and even put a barrier of sort to hide from him. Who it was is a complete mystery because this is a sealed dimension and no one can enter or exit without his permission. So it should be someone already inside the manor who performed a rite to neather gost flower. Culprit was already in his hands, cause from the traces it was evident the candidate was the one who performed the rite. But he knows candidate was innocent and a mastermind guided the boy to perform it.

He still couldn't understand purpose of the rite and that made him uncomfortable, he has been the guardian of this sealed dimension for over 10 millennials but this sort of incident never happened. He looked at the with suspicion but knowing that he was probably a victim of the mastermind he only sighed in reluctance. This is a major incident, someone has opened portal to who knows what in his manor and it should be resolved quick before anything major happens.

Looking at the boy head butler asks

"Do you remember what happened here?"

Dax who was in the arms of the butler looked at flower, he still can't see the formation on ground or blood spilled all over the place. Even if the flower was radiating bright the surroundings are pitch black, he can also only see the eyes of the butler which was quite spooky. But believing this to be a lucid dream he told himself to not be afraid. To question he was asked he slightly shook his head.

Head Butler has already guessed that the boy would proves pointless to question so just focused on the scene of crime. Inside the formation surrounding the flower were traces of blood and claw knife which had crest of house Pequox, it was the knife which the boy bought with him when he entered the manor 4 months ago. Head butler began to put pieces together in his head, from earlier he understood that boy cut of his left hand to perform the rite.

The left of the boy holds a significant role cause it bears the insignia of murder paragon, which means the rite required the power heald within the blessing. Paragons are nigh omnipotent beings in Hyvelon, they live in a parallel realm of Hyvelon and doesn't interfere much in the matters of this world. One of the few major things they do is bless the people from chosen race according to their personality and compatability.

The first reason for the existence of this sealed dimension called Deadlock manner is to isolate and educate the blessed beings of paragon of the murder domain. The reason was simple, the candidates who actually get this blessing are generally people who have high blood lust which they can't control. And they only grow powerful from all the killings, and so when the chosen race was picked to be blessed with all 64 paragons after the 23rd world War 10 millennials ago Paragon of murder blessings were rarely found.

But whenever one does get the blessing of Paragon of murder he loses himself in the bloodlust and grows powerful day by day till the extent that when there was a second generation of blessed of Murder Paragon, all the 8 realms sent their heros to subdue him. That alone proves the might of blessed of Murder Paragon, so from the 3rd generation of blessed they decided to prevent the disaster and made contract with head butler to educate and raise the blessed candidate. As rare as it was to be blessed of the Murder Paragon in the long span of time head butler raised a total of 499 blessed in the these 10000 years.

And for the 500th candidate from House of Lequox he found his job hard for the first time ever. As per contract he can't harm the young candidate but he also need information on to what happened in his manor that required power of a paragon to open a portal. The barrier which also worked as to prevent whatever came out of portal to stay inside which meant only the boy knows what happened here.

"I'll ask you for one more time tell what happened here with every detail you remember"

Head butler said softly, even if he said it softly there was hint of impatience in his voice.

Hearing head butler speak again, Dax got spooked at but he wasn't scared as last time cause he believed this to be his luicd dream.

"I.. I Don't remember anything that happened here" he replied with a slight shiver on his voice.

Seeing as head butler wasn't responding to his answer he added

"I think this is my first time ever coming here"

Hearing the boy's reply head butler bent and picked up the claw knife from the ground. With slight chat of a spell a brilliant light came forth lighting the surroundings. And this was when Dax finally saw the traces of blood on the black soil and the claw knife in the butlers palm.

The knife had a black handle with a bright green crest which looked similar to patterns on peacock feather. The rest had a golden print in middle, it looked unique and looking at the crest Dax felt nostalgic for a moment but he couldn't recall anything. It was as if he was very familiar with the knife, in the palm of the butler it looked like a needle.

Head butler pointed at the family crest and asked "Do know this means?"

Dax looked at the crest and shook his head in denial. He just want to wake up from this nightmare as soon as possible and couldn't bare any longer, the pain and suffering he endured at first was still lingering in his mind. He was afraid that if he kept dreaming something like that might happen again.

Seeing the boy shaking his head it confirmed the head butler's suspicion that the boy doesn't remember anything at all, cause the personality of the 500th candidate would not stop bragging how great his family is. Taking a step back while holding the boy in his arms head butler vanished from spot and reappeared what seemed to be a luxurious lobby. Putting down the boy he says "we will post pone today's classes, go and get some rest"

Dax looked at the head butler with a struggling expression, he wanted to ask where his room was but he was too scared to ask that.

"it's to right of the second floor stairs, the one with the biggest room in the floor"

Hearing those words Dax quickly made his move and arrived in the room after few takes, the room was too huge and has simple but elegant furniture made of bright leather. The wood works were crafted to perfection, the smell of the room also felt nostalgic to him. Falling face first onto the huge bed in the middle of the room Dax just wanting to wake up from his hallucination he fell asleep quick.