“I’m going crazy…”

Vincent got up with the support of a chair nearby. He was exhausted. Extremely exhausted. He felt as if all his energy had been drained from him. He still got up and looked at the rune drawings he had made on the piece of paper. He picked up the piece of paper and gently shredded everything.’Well, that sure was dangerous… haha’

Vincent gave off a smile and sat on the chair in front of him ‘Recklessly using runes from an element different from my own can cause massive troubles… I can probably fix this by balancing the heat effect with cooling but… let’s not try anything dumb for now. Firstly I should find my element.’

Vincent began drawing the runes of various elements one by one on the sheet of paper. The fire rune which contains the word ‘Flame’. The words were further contained inside a pattern that represented The sun. And the sun was surrounded by patterns which represented flames.

‘Alright, let's give this a shot’ Vincent closed his eyes and began drawing the patterns in his hands. After a while, he opened his eyes and attempted to use the rune but to no avail. Disappointed he crossed out the flame rune from the sheet of paper and began trying the others.

He tried water, but that too failed.

He then tried air, but success wasn’t on his side.

But after all of that, he tried the nature rune. He closed his eyes and drew the rune shaped like a spiralling tree with the word ‘nature’ inside. And… “It’s a success!”

He could feel calming green energy in his hands.

***

“I honestly expected this to be much harder but I’m not complaining” Spoke a woman in a crimson robe. She was the same person from the ritual earlier. They still stood at that very same place. After all, it hasn’t been long since Abraham had left. “It seems that ‘The most ancient creator’ that these people believe in didn’t even bother putting an effort to save his followers.”

Spoke the same boy who had been dead earlier. The big hole in his stomach had already been healed and he looked lively… but it was highly unlikely it was the same person. The boy had reddish hair and his eyes were wide. His chin was narrow and his skin was white. He also looked quite soft and full of energy. His eyes were green. The woman on the other hand had dry skin. There were several scares on her skin and it was darker than the boy. Her hair were long but dry. Her eyes gave off a crimson glow as her hair fluttered from the slight gusts of wind. She raised her head to the boy’s comment and replied with melancholy “It’s not that he didn’t, he couldn’t”

“Puff.” Both of them burst into laughter as they mocked the ‘Ancient creator’ after a while, they walked over to the body of the lifeless man in the middle of the ritual. “Thank god the traces are still left”

The boy spoke with great happiness. He had earlier been expecting for the worst but now a big smile was on his face. “Of course. It hasn’t been long since your death. The spirit won’t die this early.”

The woman placed her hands on the man’s forehead. Some runes began appearing on the forehead and the surroundings became cold. It was slowly getting harder to breathe and the atmosphere was eerie. “This isn’t the first time but it’s still just as comfortable.”

“Get used to it. We will be doing these more often from now on.” The woman replied with a serious tone. The rune on the man’s forehead began spinning in a spiral. It looked as if a demonic ritual was being conducted here. A bright red light shone from his forehead which was soon consumed by a vile crimson light. After a while, from the light an orb could be seen. The orb was red in colour and it had the hotness of fire. The orb had two crimson pupils that were looking at the woman with their eyes wide open. It had a mouth with several big teeths and a huge grin. It had around 4 hands on each of its side and a wing-like shape on its back. “Still as disgusting as before.”

The woman put away the orb in her bag and walked over to the boy. “Make it appear.”

The boy nodded and a bright blue light began shining from his forehead. After a while there could be seen another orb. This orb was shaped blue in colour and had the calmness of the water. It had two innocent-looking eyes with dark blue pupils. Apart from that there was nothing special about it though. The woman put away the blue orb and took out the red orb. “This will be hurting more than usual this time because of the opposite elements. Prepare yourself.”

She spoke as she filled her hands with several runes. She pressed the orb on the boy’s forehead. And the orb began moving inside the boy’s forehead. The man’s mind was filled with a huge pain and it felt like his brain was splitting apart. “Keuk AAAARGHH”

He let out a scream but the women shut his mouth with magic on time. She continued pushing the orb inside with great force. ‘This body’s rejecting it quite a bit huh’

It was getting hard to push the orb in but she soon succeeded. “Huff huff…”

The man fell on the ground and closed his eyes trying to catch his breath. “Do you want me to put in the boy’s as well?”

“W-wait! Let me rest for a bit… Since I already have mine, putting the boy’s in will hurt much more…” The man’s expression became grim. He pleaded with the woman but to no avail. “We’re against the clock.”

The man’s expression dulled. “Fine.”

He got up with difficulty. “Are you sure? This time even with the calamity’s blessing… You may likely lose control.”

“It doesn't matter. At the end of the day, I am but a mere pawn anyways.” The man spoke with a distorted expression.

***

“I see. So do you have any other symptoms?” Vincent asked Abraham irritably. He had finally gotten some sleep after a long time but not even an hour later, Abraham came and disturbed him. ‘Sigh. I want to sleep like a corpse… but Abrahams's problem is more important. Fuck I want to punch this guy so bad.’

Vincent thought inwardly. His personality had become extremely irritable because of the drug’s effects and the lack of sleep. But even so, he knew this matter was important so he controlled himself. “If you want to punch me so badly just do it.”

Abraham replied to Vincent nonchalantly. Vincent looked at him for a while before adding “It seems we need to add mind-reading to the list of symptoms. How long have you been able to do this?”

“Not sure. But most probably since the beginning.”

“Hmmm, I see. I will make sure to find a cure. But before that, let’s find your element.” Vincent spoke happily. He was excited to show his friend the result of his hard work.

“Ah, I already know it. It’s the sky. Alfred had already made me do the test long ago.” This quickly took away Vincent’s happiness. “Then why didn’t he… ah fuck dammit. Goodbye and I’ll go and look for reasons why you could be behaving strangely”

Vincent grumbled and left the room. He walked out of his house and began heading in the direction of the ‘Library.’

***

“What happened Neil? Something wrong with Vincent?” Alfred spoke to Neil. Who wore a robe that covered his face. “Vincent had left to find the cause of Abraham’s abnormality. And the calamity’s followers have started taking action.”

Neil responded nonchalantly. Alfred took out a book from a drawer nearby and began praying. “Are the preparations done yet?”

Alfred asked Neil with a serious expression. Neil responded quickly as if he had been expecting this question from Alfred. “They are.”

“Well then. There’s nothing to worry about.”

***

“Weird… usually I would have been stopped right at the stairs” Vincent spoke as he went down the dark stone stairs and entered a room. The room was massive. It was better to call it a hall. The hall had several bookshelves but… Only some had any books at all. The lighting wasn't that great in the hall but it wasn’t bad either.’I honestly expected there to be more.’

Vincent began searching for anything that could help him. After searching for a while, Vincent stumbled upon a certain book. “The records of gods..”

***

St. Ein - and another book “The tales of Jack stone, the legend who tried to fuck the goddess of eternal darkness”.. ‘Hmm. a good wank shouldn’t hurt’