Chapter 35: Face to Face

Thursday, 30 August 1349. Mission Day.

Adjusting the straps tighter over his white shirt, accentuating his figure a little more, Adryan grabbed his black leather jacket and slipped it on. Checking the hidden pockets of the same and the charms and multiple paper figurines in them, he gave a soft nod.

Two black gloves covered his hands, one of which was Creeping Hunger in Faceless mode. Stashing Vecchio Pomodoro and Tauk Millenium in one of the free pockets, the man nodded in satisfaction.

Like last time, he was not in his usual Harvey Wayne disguise but that of a man with no significant detail to highlight apart from a mole under his left eye.

"Ready, Flora?" The black-haired man questioned the air.

"Let's just get this over with."

The young man could only sigh and shake his head slightly at the demigoddess' cold reply.

While looking relaxed and calm, he was a bit nervous. 

He was confident that Hunters Hallow knew that he wanted it to protect Flora when they entered the Tower. But he couldn't help but fear for her safety.

'You saved me from the Divine Whore and the Flesh Wrecker. I'm sure you can protect her from this.'

All was done, and with that, the shadows enveloped Adryan, and he disappeared from the room he had rented in a minor hotel...

Half an hour later. Helikon District.

Taking a step out of the shadows, Adryan found himself inside a dark wardrobe.

'Of course.' Rolling his eyes, Adryan grabbed the handle and pulled it open.

"Excuse me."

"It's good to see you, Mr. Adryan." One of the two occupants of the room answered. He was a man with malicious eyes, pale skin, and a brown waistcoat.

Sitting in the chair of the room was a beautiful blonde woman, pale-skinned and wearing a gothic dress with a large hat. Her cold, expressionless blue eyes were closed, and she appeared to be taking a nap.

Zombie Maric and Wraith Sharron. They stood in a small private reading room at a bookstore where they were supposed to meet.

Smiling at the duo, he gave a soft nod as he removed the Burnt Band from his forearm.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Zombie. Miss Casper.

"How has Azshara been treating you?"

Maric looked at him for a few seconds before answering, "Not much to say. We're just following what you told us; we haven't interacted much with the population."

"I simply said to be careful when going out, not to be antisocial and lock yourselves in your rooms," Adryan replied with a flat face.

An eyebrow on the Zombie's face twitched. Other than that, nothing more happened.

Huffing a little, the black-haired man gave them a serious look; "I'm using some of my contacts to find an artifact to deal with the full moon's effects; I'm assuming the one who will be using it the most will be Miss Sharron, right?"

Since Sequence 8 Lunatic, the Beyonder of the Chained pathway would suffer from different curses. Each time they advanced, a new one would replace the previous one.

Zombie's curse was that they will begin to increasingly thirst for the warm blood and fresh meat of human beings. This state will be severe during the full Moon, causing them pain. While Wraith's curse would be on the night of a Full Moon, they either need to consume a certain number of Human Souls or become extremely weak. Choosing the former is equivalent to being on the brink of losing control at any moment.

Certain artifacts of the Moon pathway, specifically those made of the Lunar Scholar, could suppress these curses, allowing them to maintain their rationality and strength.

Maric was taken a little by surprise, his eyes widening and his eyebrows rising slightly. The zombie looked to his side toward his companion, who at some point opened her eyes and looked at the black-haired man in front of them.

"Is that true?"

"As far as I know, I have never told you a lie, Miss."

Looking at the man, Sharron closed her eyes and gave a soft nod: "I thank you. With the artifact, the nights will be much easier."

"You are under my wing now. I have my pups to look after." Adryan smiled slightly, approaching them.

Maric looked sideways at him, his gaze not as malicious and much more controlled. There was a hint of curiosity in it. "You are more familiar with our pathway than I thought."

"I have a good information center." The red-haired man replied with a smile.

"Before we go. You are not familiar with the Tower, are you?"

"We've heard of it, but we've never been inside," Maric replied.

"Only certain members were chosen to enter. And several of them never returned, and many of those who did failed to complete the floor." Sharron added without opening her eyes.

The black-haired man listened intently, his brow slightly furrowed.

"So, are you guys ready to go in?"

Sharron gave a soft nod as her eyes opened.

"We are, Mr Adryan."

He looked at them for a while, then nodded slightly. "If anything happens, just stay close to me."

With everything in order, the now trio left the room on their way to the rendezvous point.

A while later...

In the middle of a park, with giant trees and a few clearings with ponds and paths and seats, was the Temple of Knowledge. From the outside view, one would think that one of the many Greek temples went through a hole in space-time, crossed centuries and millennia, and landed here.

But strangely enough, as strange as it looked, it was not an eyesore. It blended in nicely with the colorful roofs of the numerous buildings surrounding its edges.

The trio was moving along a hidden path through the forest.

The path was hidden by means of rituals and diversions. Only if you knew of its existence could you pass through, and even then, you would have to know how to move along it. If not, you would end up in one of the clearings in the park.

They only knew how to move because the older woman who brought the documents with their new identities had shown them the way.

'Not even a Hunter could find this path. I doubt I would have if I didn't know it was here.' Adryan admitted to himself.

He would have been lost long ago without knowing which way to go.

Unable to help himself, a chuckle came from him.

'I could say that about my whole life here. Without Klein, I would have been dead long ago. Most certainly, he was and is my guiding light.'

His sudden laughter caught the attention of the duo walking silently behind him. Maric looked at him with a slightly raised eyebrow while Sharron tilted her head to the side slightly.

'Sounds a bit like a fox...' The Wraith couldn't help but make a mental comparison. Her head tilted a bit more.

Thus, and without much witticism, the trio followed the path until they finally reached the discreet entrance to the Temple of Knowledge, which was a door hidden in a tree.

Beside it stood a Bayam ascent man with deep brown eyes accentuated by slight dark circles under his eyes and short black hair.

He held in his right hand an open pocket watch. His gaze focused solely on it.

"You are 10 minutes early. Good work, Mr. K." With a click, he closed the watch and put it away.

Adryan smiled; "It's a Church mission. The least I can do is to be on time.

"I assume you are Mr. Uron Maltir?"

"That's right." Uron nodded calmly. He then looked at the people behind him.

"Are they all you're taking? Is anyone else joining us?"

The red-haired man was about to answer 'Yes' but stopped himself. After some consideration, he shook his head. "We may be joined by someone else once we're in the Tower."

A black eyebrow rose. "And why would that be? Why are they not with us right now?"

"I'm afraid you are mistaken, Mr. Uron. She's already with us right now; she's just unsure whether to join us."

The man narrowed his eyes slightly, and they gained a certain silvery glow; Adryan could feel as if such a gaze was reading him.

Those glowing eyes moved from Sharon and Maric to the forest around them. After a while, the man's frown softened a little, and the silver glow disappeared.

"If that was a joke, I must say your humor is awful. There's no one else here but us."

"You might want to check your eyes, you idiot. I'm here!" A familiar mocking shout rang in his ears, and the Conspirator couldn't help but laugh a little.

Deciding to play along, he nodded his head and winked at Uron.

"Fufu~ What do you want me to say? I know how to break the ice~"

If the man wanted to take it as a joke, so be it; whatever happened, he had already been warned. He just refused to listen.

"That's the members of the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom for you. A bunch of tight asses who refuse to listen to any truth other than what they believe is right." As if reading his mind, Flora added between derisive chuckles, drawing another chuckle from her charger.

This seemed to further strengthen Uron's resolve. He rolled his eyes in boredom and walked over to them.

"If you're done laughing at your lousy joke, Mr. K., We have places to go, and the clock is ticking."

Giving an exaggerated bow, Adryan extended his arm behind him, inviting Uron to come forward. "Please show us the way, sir."

Flat-faced, Uron accepted the invitation and took the lead, with Adryan, Sharon, and Maric following behind him, the latter giving a glance at their leader's back.

This time, Uron took a different path from the one the trio had come from and stayed around the Temple of Knowledge.

After walking for a while, they left the park/forest and re-entered the city. Calmly, the duo moved through the crowded streets of Helikon without much inconvenience until not long after they left the district.

After a long while, the curious group stood before a bar in the Artelia district.

On a large brown sign, 'Joe's Bodega' was written.

"Are you sure this is it?" Adryan asked, looking sideways at the man, who nodded nonchalantly.

Without answering, the man entered, followed by the trio. The bar was not unlike what he was used to, with a long table in the back, several stools in front of it, and several circular tables on the floor, with people drinking quietly.

It looked more like a place to drink with colleagues than with friends.

Uron just walked on by without talking to the bartender or any of the waiters moving around the place. He went straight to the staircase, which was guarded by a tall man of sturdy build.

Uron pulled a set of keys from his pocket, and the key ring was a small owl.

The guard gave a simple nod and let them pass to the next floor...

Locking the door to the room with the owl key ring, Uron turned to look at the group with a deep and serious gaze.

"I'm sure you briefed them, but I'll still repeat what we're about to do."

"We are about to enter the first floor of the Tower. What it is will be better explained once inside. What you need to know is that your Sequences will be suppressed to Sequence 7, the same with your artifacts. So, if you have any higher than this, I recommend you put them away now. If you take it inside, it will be confiscated, and you can only get it back if you complete the floor.

"You can leave it here if you like; this room has been treated with various rituals. No one can enter or leave until the key reopens the door, freeing this space."

Adryan looked at Uron with a raised eyebrow.

Did this guy really think he'd trust his artifacts to some shoddy ritual?

Grabbing his left glove, he pulled it off, revealing... another black glove underneath.

As Creeping Hunger left his hand, his face, hair, skin, stature, and musculature began to change. Within 8 seconds, his appearance had returned to that of Adryan Kenway.

For Creeping Hunger's Faceless ability to work, the glove had to be on him at all times, the moment it was removed he would return to his original appearance.

Grabbing a strip he had prepared earlier, the red-haired man tied his hair into his usual high ponytail, leaving as always a few loose strands that framed his face.

"What?" With a raised eyebrow, Adryan asked Uron, who was looking directly at him.

"It's nothing." The man shook his head, looking away from him.

Rolling his eyes, Adryan pulled several red poppies, vials, candles, and the symbol of the Scarlet Monarch from his jacket.

He quickly placed everything in its place before Uron's hard stare, who said nothing and made no attempt to stop him at any point. He just stood and watched, as did Sharron and Maric, who stood to the side closer to the red-haired man.

With the red poppies, candles, and symbol in place, Adryan looked up at the duo. "Do you have anything you need to keep?"

Sharron shook her head curtly.

The youngest in the room nodded in response, placed Creeping Hunger on the 'altar', he knelt down, clasped his hands together in prayer and closed his eyes.

"The Scarlet Monarch who burns Depravity;

The Calamity forgotten by Time;

The Stranger that comes from the Unkown;

Your devoted servant prays for your attention;

I pray for you to take this offering;

I pray for you to open the gates to your Kingdom!"

With the whispers reaching his ears, Adryan began to draw the sphere of light in his mind. 

After a few seconds, the candle fire that illuminated the altar rose, and a fiery gate formed...

"Praise the Monarch!"

Opening his eyes, clearing the altar, and now with the glove in a safe place, Adryan turned to look at the duo.

"Ready?"

They both nodded.

Turning to look at a serious Uron, no words were exchanged, the message clear in his smile.

The dark-skinned man merely nodded and held out his right hand. In the palm of it, a tattoo formed. It was a circle interspersed with several rings, with various symbols and triangles all pointing in one direction.

This black tattoo glowed purple; the next second, Uron opened his mouth, Ancient Hermes reverberating off the room's walls.

"Open!"

The next instant, the tattoo pulsed, and the once-fanned room was now empty.

...

To his eyes, he had barely blinked, and the room with its soft cream walls and single bed was replaced by a strange black ceramic floor.

Grasping his head, the redhead only grimaced slightly at the hammering in his brain.

'Is this what it feels like to become suddenly stupider? Urgh...' Blinking slightly, he looked up and looked around.

Maric and Sharron were only a little further away from where they were before, both had their hands on their heads, surely going through the same thing he was.

A few feet ahead was Uron, his eyes tightly closed and one hand on his head.}

Seeing Sharron and Uron's reaction, alarm bells immediately went off in Adryan's head.

Flora still hadn't said anything yet!

Taking advantage of the fact that the others were still in a daze, he was about to whisper to check her condition when suddenly everything spun around.

Thud!

Dropping to one knee, the red-haired man clutched his chest in pain. Feeling as if multiple knives were stabbing at his heart and lungs.

Huff! Huff!

Breathing heavily, Adryan blinked several times in rapid succession trying to clear the lights in his eyes.

What was happening to his body?!

His eyes widened.

'Flora!'

As soon as he thought that name, a blinding white light formed in the air above him. Drawing the attention of everyone present who had finally recovered from the effects of the suppression of their sequences.

Adryan didn't look at the people around him or listen to what they were saying, his eyes were completely focused on the blinding light above him that was getting smaller and smaller and a figure could be made out in it.

Reacting quickly, the red-haired man leapt several metres into the air as the light suddenly vanished and a figure fell.

Extending his arms, he caught it princess style and he fell gracefully to the ground. His scarlet eyes never leaving the beautiful face in his arms.

She was a young woman, her long woolly white hair reminding him of clouds in the sky. Her eyelashes were delicate, and her features were very pleasing to the eye. She was wearing an elegant purple dress that only accentuated her beauty.

The red-haired man looked dazedly at the woman in his arms, in an uncertain voice he asked, "Flora?"

The woman's eyelids twitched slightly, with some annoyance they fluttered open revealing beautiful pearly gray eyes full of confusion.

"Eh?" the woman mumbled, her voice identical to the one Adryan hears in his mind, only this time coming from the woman in his arms.

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Wednesday, September 18th. Adryan's art drops.