Reveal

Valentine had come back home after successfully losing his chasers. It was not really difficult because he had his presence concealed. He was more worried about the others because the Police members chasing them were Contractbounds.

"I hope they don't get caught. At least Luuk and Jacco should be able to get away. As for the others, they don't know anything crucial,"

Valentine sat in his chair and gulped down a glass of water quickly.

"Anyway, what was that with the ability that got activated during Reconstruction? Do you think it's because of the belt, G? If that's the case, it'll be useful, albeit very situational. Someone must use their ability first and only then can I use Reconstruction to reactivate the same ability. Not to mention the amount of blood needed and the fact that the ability is weaker..."

Valentine took off the pale leather belt that he was wearing and put it on top of his desk.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, declare my presence no longer a secret!"

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, declare the presence of this belt a secret!"

A thin yellowish mist enveloped the bone-buckled belt completely and then disappeared. He put it aside for now and then went back to his thoughts.

"The Deity of Uncovering should have been pleased now. I wonder how I will get to see His true name,"

Just as Valentine finished saying that, his spirituality was triggered. He had a sudden urge to use Reconstruction in this very room. He got up and used the space in front of his desk to do the ritual. He used his knife to create a cut on his palm and let the blood flow down to the wooden floor below. The red liquid kept coming out and collected on the floor, creating a puddle of blood. Once he felt that it was enough, Valentine covered his wound and concentrated on the blood.

"Show me what is needed to be shown!"

He followed his spiritual instinct and said the words. Shortly after he finished his sentence, the blood on the ground rose, floating in the air in the form of words that he didn't recognize. However, since it wasn't his first time, he knew what it was and what kind of pain was waiting for him. He braced himself and read the line out loud.

"Tasa Fubin Andromalius On Ca!"

Suddenly, the blood thickened and enveloped the whole room, blocking Valentine's surroundings. The wall of blood started spinning violently, preventing anything from going in or out. He instinctively closed his eyes because he knew what would happen next. Being in the presence of a Deity was an extremely painful experience; he didn't want to find out what looking straight at one would feel like.

Rumble!

Everything started shaking, and his body felt very heavy. There seemed to be pressing him from above, forcing him to get on his knees. Valentine kneeled still with his eyes closed. The pressure felt heavier and heavier with each passing second, which felt like forever to him. He felt like he was being crushed by a heavy press machine and there was nothing he could do about it.

Valentine couldn't see it, but he was sure there was something above him, looking at him from up high. He couldn't hold on any longer, so he fell flat on the ground. The heavy suppression from above was even stronger now, crushing his body very slowly and painfully. He could feel his bone being squashed one by one and his organs were macerated. He kept telling himself that the pain wasn't real to make himself feel better, but it felt as real as it could be.

The brutally spinning wall of blood abruptly stopped along with everything else. Time seemed to have frozen, but the pain that he felt didn't go away. His crushed organs and bones were still agonizingly painful. Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, the blood around him suddenly shot towards him and entered his body through his orifices. A large amount of blood filled his whole body until he could feel it bloated. The blood kept coming and when he was sure he was about to explode into piles of flesh everywhere in his room, everything went back to normal.

Pant... Pant...

Valentine was lying down on the floor face down. He got up with difficulty and checked his body to make sure he was still in one piece while breathing heavily. His limbs were all still there, and there was not a trace of blood anywhere on his body. In fact, the blood on the floor was also gone. He wiped the sweat on his forehead and sat back in his chair.

"Why is literally nothing about Deities pleasant?" he complained.

Valentine then concentrated on his abilities. After being graced with the Deity's presence, his abilities should evolve.

"Let's see now. The limits to all my Denuder abilities have been raised to fifteen per day. Interrogation and Reconstruction don't evolve; they only work better. It's a bummer,"

He paused and looked at the space in front of him.

"However, I get this spiritual intuition if there are secrets that I can uncover around me and I can reveal secrets about my target by chanting my Deity's name. Let's call this ability Reveal. This ability wasn't mentioned anywhere in the ancient book. I wonder how it works..."

He grabbed a pen and put it on the desk in front of him. Valentine concentrated on the pen and then started chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Uncovering, ask you to reveal your secrets to me!"

As he finished chanting, an illusory text appeared above the pen, floating in the air.

'A normal pen. It was stolen by Graham Hymes from the Bank of the Republic three months ago. Its ink is almost completely all used up,"

Once he had finished reading, the text disappeared gradually. Valentine was surprised by how the ability worked.

"G, this is similar to your divination. Did I get this ability because I have you, or because I'm in contract with Secrets? In any case, this is very useful. I can only use this fifteen times per day, however,"

Reveal was the most useful upgrade he got to his Denuder abilities. He wasn't sure if other Denuders also had that ability since the ancient book didn't mention it at all.

"Anyway, if this ability works like how I think it does, it can reveal the enemies' weaknesses to us, can't it? If other Denuders have this as well, they will be a danger to us."

Valentine, who was still curious about his newly-found ability, wanted to experiment with it some more. He took out the ancient book from his safe and laid it down on the desk. He concentrated on the thick book with a plain leather cover.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Uncovering, ask you to reveal your secrets to me!"

Slowly, an illusory text formed above the book. However, there were several parts that were blurred. Valentine was already not surprised by it.

'The Supernatural Encyclopedia, written by --------. The book was the only one of its kind since the author decided not to publish any copies of it. It contains many secrets of the supernatural world, but only the strong can read them. If someone --------- the book, they'll be able to ---------.'

The text then disappeared. Instead of quenching his curiosity, it instead made him more curious.

"The blurred words from the text must be some kind of ritual to do something involving the book. But as we are right now, we are not qualified to know, I guess, G."

Next, he concentrated on the leather belt with the bone buckle on the desk and chanted.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Uncovering, ask you to reveal your secrets to me!"

Illusory letters started forming above the belt, slowly forming a whole text.

'Purloin: a belt made from a brutal sacrificial ritual. It has the ability to copy two other abilities and use them up to twice a day. However, the extent to its full potential has yet to be known'

"Just as we guessed. There are still some secrets involving this belt. Your divination nor my Reveal can uncover it, so this one must be strong enchanted equipment,"

Valentine wore the belt around his waist and put the book back inside the safe, but before he locked it, his attention was drawn by the scroll lying there. He picked it up and placed it on the desk in front of him. It was the scroll that he had stolen from Mevrouw Cornelia; the one that he couldn't get anything out of until he had pleased three Deities.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Uncovering, ask you to reveal your secrets to me!"

Nothing happened. He waited for some more seconds, but no text came up. Valentine concluded that he wasn't strong enough to know anything about the scroll. He put it back inside the safe and locked it with a combination. He then got up and went to his bedroom, where he stood in front of the vanity mirror to look at his own reflection. He focused on the 'he' in the mirror and chanted.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Uncovering, ask you to reveal your secrets to me!"

Slowly, a text was trying to form in the air above the Valentine in the reflection. However, the text became very blurry and it disappeared quickly. Valentine understood right away what might have happened.

"I think it means anti-divination works against this ability. It's good to know. But I'm really curious about what my Reveal will say about me,"

He got back to the office and stood next to the corner of the room, where there was a bloodstain on the floor. After making sure it was still there, he went to the kitchen to grab cleaning supplies. Valentine sprayed some cleaning agent that he always used to clean bloodstain from scenes and rubbed the floor really hard with a piece of cloth. Slowly, the stain disappeared, leaving only a clean wooden floor.

"Now it should work,"

After returning the cleaning supplies back to the kitchen, he stood in front of the mirror again and chanted.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Uncovering, ask you to reveal your secrets to me!"

Slowly, an imaginary text started to float above the 'Valentine' in the mirror. However, most of it was still blurred.

'Valentine Hymes. A cold-blooded killer who is ---------------------------------------. He is currently in a contract with the Deity of Secrets and the Deity of Uncovering, --------------------------------------------------------------------. --------------------------------------------------------------------------.'

"...." Valentine stood there quietly. "Why can't I know things about myself? It doesn't make sense that I'm more powerful than my own ability? This is bullshit..."

Valentine was not satisfied, but he quickly brushed it aside.

The text disappeared and Valentine quickly went back to his office. He stood in the corner and slit his palm and placed a new anti-divination in the house. Once he finished chanting, he dropped his blood to the floor and it emitted a wave of thin yellowish mist that spread around the whole apartment.

"G, if there was no limit to the use, I would spend the whole day using Reveal on everything," he said in amusement. "Since I have some more uses, let's get the best out of it,"

Valentine put on his leather jacket and left his apartment. He went to his next-door neighbor's door and rang the bell.

Ding... dong...

He stood by the door patiently with hands inside his pockets and shoulder leaning against the wall.

Step... step...

Valentine could clearly hear Luuk's footsteps and his movement of opening the door. Luuk saw his guest and wasn't surprised. Nowadays, if there was an unexpected guest, it would always turn out to be the detective. He wasn't surprised either that the detective could get away from the Police safely.

"What is it?" asked Luuk curiously.

Valentine didn't respond. Instead, he started chanting right away.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Uncovering, ask you to reveal your secrets to me!"

Luuk was taken aback. He wanted to close the door but Valentine quickly prevented it. Slowly, a text floated above his head.

"Relax. Can you see the text floating above your head?"

Luuk looked up and saw only the ceiling. He shook his head in confusion.

"It seems it's only visible to us, G," Valentine muttered. "I'll read it out for you then,"

"Luuk van der Meer, the youngest son of the rich van der Meer family. Currently studying medicine at the University of Sloten. His grades are falling and his family has stopped all financial support. His hobbies include stealing and collecting various items, which he does mostly at night. His birthday is 8 January 1948 EH and he is currently in a contract with the Deity of Theft and the Deity of Herbs and Precious Stones."

Luuk was flustered. His cheeks had turned red from embarrassment. He felt like he was stripped naked and shown to the whole world to see.

"What kind of ability is that??" he asked.

Instead of responding, Valentine just shrugged.

"Aren't you supposed to be in class soon? You told me that this morning,"

Luuk felt personally judged. He took a deep breath and then spoke, "The city is going to be destroyed anyway, so why does it matter? And I heard if the University is destroyed, everyone will automatically graduate,"

"We can't argue with that, can we, G?" muttered Valentine.