Sun rays was shining through the window and right on her face. Rose yawned as she woke up.

“Why didn’t the alarm turned on?” She complained as she rubbed her eyes.

She looked at her her surrounding, it wasn’t her room, it was the living room. She thought it was strange, no matter how exhausted she was, she has never slept on the living room like this before. Then she remembered what happened last night, the meeting, the start of the game, and Rein. She massage her head.

“Oh yeah, yesterday that happened.”

When she stood up the blanket that covered her body fell to the floor. She noticed that there was a breakfast ready on the table in front of her, and a hot coffee. She smiled.

“So he can act like a gentleman after all.” Rose said as she sipped the coffee.

The breakfast was good, it was a simple breakfast, but she liked it.

After finishing her breakfast, Rose searched for Aldwin. The coffee he served was still hot, so he must have made it recently.

She searched him everywhere on the first floor, then the basement, the second floor, the third floor, and the attic, but she couldn’t find him inside the house at all. Then, she remembered that last night Aldwin asked her about suing the computer.

She walked to the library in the second floor to search for him. She already searched for him there, but she only took a glance when she was in the library, possibly missing a clue about his whereabout.

The library was not that large, but it was filled with tall bookcase that reached the ceiling. The library were full of book, but she doesn’t have any interest there, for she already read most of the book, and the rest that she doesn’t read were her father’s philosophy book that doesn’t hold any interest for her.

Between the rows of bookcase there was an old computer that haven’t been used since she got her own laptop. On the computer table, there were a few books about the history of the game of Spirit that she owned.

She sighed as she picked it up and placed it back in their respective bookcase.

“Couldn’t you at least put it back after reading it.”

She turned on the computer, and looked at what Aldwin searched for last night. At first glance all he searched was some useless stuff, but after digging deeper, He actually searched about what happened in the world recently, world war 1, and disaster that happened in the 19th and 18th century. Two thing stood out, the battle of somme, and the great lisbon earthquake.

“The battle of somme, and the great lisbon earthquake….. Why was he searching for this?” She asked herself.

Shiver ran down her spine as something touched her neck. She slowly turned her face. It was Aldwin.

“Where were you? I was searching you all over the house.” Rose asked.

“I went to the local supermarket since the food stock almost run out.” He answered. He lift his right hand that was still holding the grocery bag.

Rose looked at him with a puzzled face. “Thanks, but are people not staring at you? You know, your eyes.”

Aldwin chuckled. “Well people will assume it’s a contact lens.”

“Anyway, let’s go to the living room to plan our movement today.” Said Rose while turning off the computer.

“So what is our plan for today?” Aldwin asked after he placed the grocery in the kitchen. He sat on the sofa opposite of Rose.

“Well first, we have to find the address of Rein house, then we bring him to the warehouse. After that… well…. we see what happened next.” Rose answered.

“And how do you plan to find his address in a city this big?”

“By asking friend, we’re in the same class in college. Someone in class ought to know his house.” Rose answered. “Also i wanted to ask you something….. Why did you searched that last night?”

“Searched what?” Aldwin raised his eyebrow.

“Don’t act like you don’t know. Battle of Somme, Great lisbon earthquake.”

“You don’t know?” He asked with a big smirk on his face. “I thought someone like you, a head of a mage family would have known.”

“AAhh!Why can’t you just answer me, instead of acting like that!”

Aldwin sighed. “ Didn’t your father or someone told you about the previous game of spirit?” Rose remember now, battle of somme and the great lisbon earthquake was also a game of spirit. “From the look of your face you remembered it now.”

“But that still doesn’t answer why were you searching for them” Rose asked again.

“I just wanted to know how big is the scale of the game of spirit in this age, since the game tend to get worse each time. And from the look of it, it’s pretty bad.” Aldwin answered. “Just think about it, what would happened if a battle the size of battle of somme happened in this city, or a disaster as big as lisbon earthquake. how many million of innocent people would die.”

“That wouldn’t happen, we the heroic faction are trying our best to reduce the number of possible victim.” Rose answered full of confidence. Aldwin chuckled.

“I don’t believe the heroic faction could do that Rose. One faction wanted to protect the civilian while the other 6 doesn’t care. what do you think would happen?” He asked. “Think about it, the heroic faction participated in both last century and 18th century game of spirit, and ten of thousand of people still died.”

“Well that’s not gonna happen this time” Rose replied.

“And how is that?” He asked.

“Because the heroic faction is strong, plus… we got you.” Rose answered. Aldwin eyes opened wide, he doesn’t expect such answer. His surprised face slowly turned into a wide grin.

“Well, i’m flattered. But even i can’t do everything by myself. Do you realize Rose what kind of enemy we’re facing?” He asked.

“No, since at the meeting all the spirit were hiding.” Rose said. Aldwin burst in laugh. “What’s so funny?”

“You were scared weren’t you?” Aldwin asked.

“N-no i’m not. How can i call myself a mage of Acturus family if i can’t handle the pressure from such event.” Rose answered. Her face was red.

“Well you’re hopeless. You always pride yourself as a high class mage, but you’re scared by just that.” He answered. Rose was really embarrassed. “Well you just lack any real experience i guess. The point is when i watched the meeting from far,even i can sense numerous A+ ranked spirit, some even felt like an A++ spirit.”

“A++ spirit? But that’s…. they’re extremely rare, they are almost impossible to be summoned normally and have to be summoned by using a catalyst. I can even count all the A++ spirit i know with my finger.” Rose placed her hand on her mouth as she think. She just realized how bad the situation was.

“But that is all the more reason we should searched for that kid right?” Aldwin asked. Rose looked at him for a second.

“Yeah, you’re right.” She answered.Rose called her friends. Asking anyone who might know about Rein house. After an hour bouncing around asking, she knew that Rein house wasn’t that far from hers.

After knowing that, she prepared for the day and after that ,walked there with Aldwin.

She was surprised to see that it was a church. At first she was unsure, since Rein doesn’t look to be someone religious, or someone who believe in god at all. But it was the only address she got, and she doesn’t have anymore clue.

Without option, she opened the church door. The inside was even smaller than what it looked from outside, and from outside it already look small. The church was empty, aside for the priest on the altar.

“Good morning!” She greeted with a smile. The priest answered her greeting. “Excuse me, Is this Rein house? I’m Rose, his friend from college.”

“Well, well Rein never told me about having a beautiful lady as a friend.” He answered with a smile. “His house is technically behind this church. Why don’t we have a tea first while we wait for him?”

Rose agreed, but she told Aldwin to wait outside to stood watch. The priest opened a small door leading to a small room with a table and 4 chair surrounding it. She sat on one of the chair as the priest prepared a tea. There, the priest introduced himself as father Marcus.

“I’m sorry Rose, but yesterday Rein was acting really strange. He rarely come back late at night, but yesterday he came back at midnight with his face was full of bruises and wound. He walked half conscious and he doesn’t even respond when i called him. He is still sleeping right now, but he should wake up pretty soon.” He told her while serving a tea. His face showed concern and sadness.

“It’s okay father. I can wait him here.” Rose answered. “I’m sorry to ask this, but since Rein never talk about himself and his family. Are you his father?”

“No, not really. I’m his guardian. I’m his father friend, but since his passing three years ago, i...try my best to act like his father, but he never actually accepted me as his family. he is a very pitiful child you know, he is afraid to get close to anyone, he is afraid to have a family. ” Father Marcus explained.

“I’m sorry, if i may ask, what happened to him in the past?” Rose asked. The way father Marcus described Rein made her curious.

“Well, of course he doesn’t tell you. Even he doesn’t tell me.” Father Marcus sat in front of her and placed both of his hand together. “Since child Rein has... experienced multiple accident that result in the death of his family. After that every time he got a new family, a tragedies happened, which resulted in the death of people around him. In every single one of this tragedies, he is the only survivor, and he blamed himself for all of that.

My friend, his last father, was the only one who was able to raise him properly, he’s able to take care of him for eight year, before he passed away. Rein was really attached to him, he is probably the only real parent he ever known. ” Father Marcus explained with a heavy voice . Rose remembered about what Aldwin told her, about a curse that enveloped him.

“I-i’m sorry, i shouldn’t ask.” She apologized.

“Don’t worry.”

A loud sound of an explosion and shock wave was coming from behind the church. The shockwave was strong enough to shook the whole church.

“What was that?”

They both immediately stood up and ran outside to see what caused it.

An explosion happened in front of Rein house. And in the center of it, Rein and a woman with black hair, and in front of them, the three companion of Reinhard.

***

Earlier that day….

His body heavy. He couldn’t move his arm, his leg, or anything for that matter. He couldn’t see or feel anything, all of his 5 sense wasn’t working. It felt like he was hovering in an empty dark space that was devoid of anything but him.

"Is this death?" He asked himself. No sound came from his mouth for he couldn't even move his lips.

It felt too real to be a dream, but recently his dream also felt far too real.

His finger twitched.His arm moved slightly. Sense of feeling started coming back to him, and he could finally moved a little bit.He tried to move his arm more, but his arm was bound. Bound by something smooth like a cotton, but strong as a steel cable.No matter how hard he struggled to escape, he couldn’t.

His vision started to came back. He opened his eyes. But all he could see is pure darkness. Even if he open his eyes there's no light for him to see….No, he was wrong. It's not that there's no light, his eyes, his whole body was covered by something, by something pitch black, by the same thing that bound his arm.

This black thing does not move, it simply held his body still. But something changed.

As if knowing that he was conscious and got his senses back, the thing started to move.It squirmed on his skin at first, then pierced his body like a needle from his fingertips. Intense pain struck him. It slithered under his skin like a worm, slowly moving from his limb to his chest and up to his brain. With every centimeter of it moving inside his body the pain became more and more excruciating.

Fear crept up his spine, the fear of the something moving beneath his skin, like a scene from a horror movie he saw as a child. The fear of knowing that the thing that covered his whole body could easily rip him apart anytime. This was definitely not a dream. if it was, he would have woken up.

When the thing touched his nerve, his nerves fired up, sending electrical signal from every part of his body to his spine and up to his brain. His nerve screamed every possible feeling a human could felt, touch, pain, cold, hot. He felt emotion like never before. Pain, Agony, Fear, Sadness, Anger, Hatred, Happiness, Pleasure, Ecstasy, Love, all of it crashed down on him like never before.

When the black thing finally reached his brain, His brain was fried. After all of that feeling, his nerve finally died.Now he couldn’t feel anything again, yet he knew that the black thing is still moving inside his body. Slowly transforming him into something else. It entered every organ in his body and starting to replace anything it touched. It replaced his nerve, his blood, his organ, it replaced everything, until there was nothing inside but the black thing.

The black thing finally let him go. After transforming him, it let him go, the bound was undone and the thing that covered him fade away. He could finally see again…..

Yet what await him after his release was not a peaceful sight, but a terror unlike any other. A giant, floating eyeball stared at him, and him alone. He shouldn’t be able to feel anything anymore, but he felt fear and dread. Not a natural fear that is born from self preservation instinct. No, it was much,much more, it was a primal fear born from nothing. It exist only to exist.

He heard many voices, men, women, children, elderly, ghost,monster, angel,devil,god, anything, and everything at the same time. coming from inside his brain, not telepathy, not magic, the sound came from the thing inside his body, that has already replaced everything inside.

“Finally, you are mine now.” They sounded delighted.

Rein jumped out from his bed. His chest heavy and his heart almost exploded, it was beating so fast, even faster than from a few day before.

He couldn’t believe that wasn’t a dream. The pain and everything felt too real for him. He placed his hand on his chest and noticed something. Blood soaked Bandage wrapped him completely from his waist up to his chest.

As the real world sensation started to flow back to him, his head started to hurt, like it was hammered all night, and he became nauseous. Every time he moved he felt a shock running from his back to his head that made his headache and nausea even worse.

“What happened last night?” He asked himself. His mind was too hazy to remember anything that happened.

He heard sound from the kitchen, the sound of cooking utensil, and the sound of fire from the stove. It’s probably Albert or Friede he thought, making breakfast for him. He Tried to get up, but when he stood up, fatigue washed over him, sending his body back to the bed.

After many tries he was able to stand up. With each step he took, darkness overtook part of his vision, and his headache became even worse. He stood still for a rest after only 5 step, and he took a rest again after every 5 step.

After many minute struggling to keep himself from falling, he arrived at the kitchen. The kitchen and the dining room was dark, the light wasn’t lit and the curtain was still closed, but He saw something unexpected.

There was a black haired woman in the kitchen, cooking something. She was absorbed by what she was doing and doesn’t noticed his arrival.

The soft yellow sunray coming from the small gap in the curtain illuminated her from the rest of the dark room, as if the sun itself trying to highlight her. Her long black hair that reached her knee was tinted with blue at the end. It swayed as she moves around, busy with what she was doing. Rein stood there staring at her for a few minutes, doesn’t know what to do.

After a while she turned the stove off. Finally, she noticed his presence and turned her head slowly. He doesn’t recognize her.

“Master?” She asked with Her soft soothing voice.