Pravitatem's Secrets

Once the smoke dissipated, the four people continued on to the path on the other side of the large chamber. Graham had switched with Valentine again because his curse detection was more needed for the time being. Besides, if they needed something burned, they could just switch back.

Cough! Cough!

"The smoke is still around," Johann coughed and complained. It seemed that his lungs were the weakest among the four, probably from excessive smoking, as seen from his darkened lips.

"Anyway, thanks for holding me back, back there. Otherwise, I don't know what would have happened," he looked at Valentine with genuine gratitude then quickly back at the dark path ahead.

Valentine nodded and didn't say anything.

Their night visions enabled them to see the path ahead clearly. It was a similar one to the path before; rocky flood and wall and wide enough only for three people to walk side by side. It seemed that the secret underground passage was built in a consistent fashion.

"If we meet that man again, we must make sure to incapacitate him. I have questions I want to ask,"

"Was that person the one who killed your girlfriend?" asked Luuk, who was walking next to Agatha at the back.

Johann shook his head slowly. His right hand clenched in a fist.

"No. I didn't feel her artifact in him. Anyway, what do you think this place is built for?" he turned his attention to Valentine beside him.

The detective with light blue eyes looked around once more and shrugged. Besides the long straight paths and the large chambers full of cockroaches, they hadn't found anything else there.

"I have no idea. Maybe it used to be a secret escape route? But it won't make sense to escape from that old house, so the real entrance should be from the opposite direction," he guessed.

Johann nodded in affirmation.

"*Cough* That's also what I'm thinking about. But now it's a kind of hideout for that evil organization, although I am sure this is not their main one. The security here is too lax-- we easily entered with just the four of us," he paused and tapped his temple, "This place must serve as something else,"

After walking for more than five minutes, they finally reached yet another chamber, but this time, it was filled with shelves that were full of old-looking books. There wasn't any speck of dust resting on top of the books despite their location, which meant they must be well taken care of. Besides that, there was no sign of cockroaches or other insects either.

"Is this a library?" Agatha gasped. She didn't expect to see something like that underground.

"Looks like it," Johann nodded.

Luuk had a dejected look on his face.

"I hope we have time to read even just one book here. Whenever we stumble upon something secret, it's either we get kicked out by something or our time runs out," he complained and exhaled heavily.

"The cockroach man is still alive, so he must have warned whoever other people are here. We don't have a lot of time so let's search for the most valuable information," Valentine reminded them.

The other three nodded and quickly spread out.

Valentine went to the shelves on the right side of the room while Agatha went for the ones on the left. Luuk and Johann scanned the shelves in the middle, the latter's armored spider familiar standing guard near the other entrance to the room.

"G, I regret switching back. Reading should be your job," Valentine sighed and began searching the shelves carefully. His eyes were scanning the titles of the books with nimbleness.

Most of the books there were books that could be easily found on the surface, so he skipped them. There were also books written in different languages, which Valentine couldn't read. Graham's Deity of Fire Divination had actually granted him the ability to learn languages faster, but the man hadn't had the chance to actually do that.

"That's why you shouldn't neglect your studies, G," Valentine complained.

His attention was then caught by a book with a peculiar title. He directly picked it up and opened the object that was just a little bigger than the size of his palm.

"The Handbook of Curses, written by Cercie. This is like striking a jackpot!"

Valentine's eyes lit up as he opened the first page. There was an illustration that looked old. It showed a method of building an altar that would be used in the cursing ritual.

Reading only the important parts, he began transferring the knowledge to his brain.

'To inflict a stronger curse, a proper altar is necessary. The most ideal one would be using an altar-shaped artifact that can enhance the strength of the curse, but such a thing is hard to come by. The second alternative is to use human bones and skin to create the altar, but in the future, something like that will surely be largely against the law,'

Valentine stopped reading and checked the publication date of the book on the back. It was written in 1900 EH, more than sixty years ago.

"This writer sure has a good foresight about the future," he chuckled and then continued reading.

'Something that won't lose out to the effectiveness of human bone and skin altar is to use any other artifact that has a flat surface and has a strong negative aura surrounding it. However, by doing so, the artifact will grow more resentful with each ritual until it comes to the point where its negative effect is enhanced to such a degree that it's unusable without killing the user. Only use an artifact that you don't plan to use for its intended effect as an altar. That kind of artifact will boost the power of the curse because of its strong supernatural and negative energy.'

"G, don't we already have something like that? Although, it's too small so maybe it won't work if we can't put everything on top of it, but we should try either way."

'The last alternative is to hunt and use the bones and skin of powerful supernatural creatures, the kind which can only be killed by at least a Prince rank. Their remains will strongly boost the effectiveness of the curse, although not as strong as using an altar artifact or an artifact as an altar.'

Valentine stopped reading there.

"That is something we can safely disregard for now. Prince must be the rank above Marquis so it's still a long way to go,"

He closed the book and stuffed it inside his pocket after placing an Anti-Divination on it. After that, he began scanning the shelves again for something else that might be useful.

The shelves in front of him had four levels, and luckily, he was tall enough to reach all the way to the top shelf to grab another book that struck his fancy. It was titled 'The Dead and Hidden Deities by P'. The author only used a pen name, but the title got his curiosity.

Skipping the lengthy introduction that talked about how the world wasn't as it seemed and how supernatural power existed, Valentine went straight to the point of the book.

'Besides the Deities that are alive and actively grant power to those deemed worthy, there are several others that are already dead or are in hiding for several reasons. Know that the Deities' relationships with each other might not be all harmonious, so Their own safety might be the reason for their hiding.'

'The first Deity that has been confirmed dead is Amada, a Deity with the ability of True Sight and Hexes. Her death was caused by attacks from the degenerate but powerful beings called Angels when She was already weakened. Upon her death, Amada left behind some powerful artifacts whose locations are unknown. Some said the army of Angels took them away, and some said another Deity managed to secure them, keeping them safe for someone worthy to take them.'

'The second Deity that has been confirmed dead is Clauneck, the Deity of Wealth. He was killed by a fellow Deity sharing the same domain in order to take over His authority. Clauneck's death left nothing behind except more power for His killer, but legends said that He had hidden a vast amount of wealth for those worthy enough to seek it. However, even until this day, no one has managed to even glimpse a trace of said treasure.'

After that, there were some illustrations about the so-called treasure; a mountain of gold and jewelry that could feed tens of generations of families. There were no maps nor any clues regarding the whereabouts of the treasure, however, the knowledge alone was enough to stir Valentine's curiosity.

"Let's say we were lucky enough to get our hands on this treasure, we wouldn't need to work the rest of our life, G. And getting stronger will just be a matter of sending people to find materials for us for the right price," he amused himself, and then his expression turned serious, "Remember the mural we saw? That means Angels are an actual threat, to be able to kill a Deity like that. Also, Deities can get stronger by killing another for their authority?"

Valentine continued reading.

'The next dead Deity is Turgmam, the Deity of Pyromancy. She was killed by a fellow Deity sharing a similar Domain for Her authority. Upon her death, She wounded Her killer in an explosion, causing Him to go into hiding for fear of His own life. However, some lucky individuals might encounter this Deity and be granted His blessing.'

He looked up and crossed his arm with the book still in his right hand.

"That sounds like your Deity of Fire Divination, isn't it, G? And now the Deity of Pyromancy and Agony. No wonder He isn't listed in the book."

After that, he continued reading more about dead Deities, but besides Amada, no other Deities left behind powerful artifacts. Most of them were also killed by Angels, which caused their power not to go to other Deities.

'Deities in hiding. The first one is the Deity of Fire Divination, Pyromancy, and Agony, who was forced to take a step back from the front line because of His injury. Although He is recovering, He still needs time to get back to His original strength, especially after digesting the domain of Turgmam. Only a select view can be granted the strength of this Deity.'

'The next one is the Deity of Omniscience, Guidance, and Time, one of the King rank Deities, who went into hiding because of His knowledge of the Doomsday, the past, the present, and the future. It is said that He is being hunted by the army of Angels to silence Him and to prevent Him from spreading the forbidden knowledge.'

The information after that was not really useful, so Valentine stopped reading. He placed an Anti-Divination on the book and stuffed it inside one of the many pockets of the coat that he was wearing, making it even heavier. Whenever he walked, the coat swung from its own weight.

The other books on the shelves in front of him had nothing that could be useful, so he quickly went to where the others were. Johann and Luuk had also stopped reading, the latter had an exhausted look on his face.

"You're a medical student but you don't like reading," Johann tapped the young man's back.

"I'm sick of reading all those thick medical books, I don't want to read anymore," he said in his defense. He wasn't even shocked that the detective knew about his status.

"Anything valuable?" asked Valentine to the two men who seemed to get along well enough.

Johann and Luuk shook their heads.

"Not really. All these books are just common ones that we can find on the surface. I don't know why they put it here. Probably to hide those important ones among the useless ones, but there is none on these shelves here," the detective explained.

"Same here. I scanned all the titles and nothing was important unless you want to learn how to manage a city or something like that," Luuk shrugged, "What about you?"

Valentine took out the two books that he had found.

"I found these two. You can have a read later, but it's not going to help us at the moment," the tall detective replied.

Just right at that moment, Agatha walked gracefully from behind a shelf carrying a book the size of a common encyclopedia-- even the thickness was similar.

All the eyes were on her, the sounds of her boots caught their attention. Although concealed by the mist, the link made it possible for them to hear them.

"What have you got there, Ms. van Nostrand?" asked Johann, eyeing the thick book.

There was no pride on her face, but only confusion and concern. Lifting the book up, she replied.

"It is... a book of complicated rituals that I do not really understand. But I have a strong feeling that Pravitatem is trying to do one of these rituals," she said with a heavy tone.