The Seeker | Volume 2

"He" wanted to resurrect himself? Why would "he" need to do so? If "he" was an angel born in the previous epoch where things were a lot more different, "he" probably isn't adjusted to the modern world and seeks to reform "his" own private section of it.

"And why would you want to do that?" I pressed him further. De-Taylel's eyes suddenly turned illusory as "his" shadow turned crimson red. The shadow soon lost its shape, and transformed into a pile of blood. The blood began to expand and contract like lungs, and it began to rise and reconstruct itself into a new form.

De-Taylel remade "himself" with "his" own blood. After a few moments "he" began to speak again. "When I died, my power also was diminished to a rather dangerous degree. While I still have a fraction of the Destruction authority, the differential properties I seek have vanished from my body and have disappeared." 

"If I am able to resurrect myself I will reclaim my authority, restore my previous empire and once again rule the south." "He" said solemnly. After that, "he" turned towards me. "And I'll need your help in doing so, Almighty Apocalypse." the ends of "his" lips curled up slightly.

I was taken aback by "his" motives. This could very well be a rational deception, but it could also be a genuine factor in "his" plan. If a Lord of Angels from the previous epoch is only able to project "himself" through avatars, he'd very much want to escape.

"And I know exactly where the remnants of the Destruction authority are. They're inside the Destruction Routeway Card of Replication. If you can track down the card and give it to me I'll reward you handsomely with what you wish to seek."

The blood-fused shadow began to move. Behind the blood shadow was another shadow, this time a genuine and real one. The shadow had the scorpion body and upper man half just like De-Taylel, except a pair of wings extending about 2 meters stretched from the back of the shadow. 

"What are you doing?" I asked in curiosity as the illusory shadows eyes lit up with crimson and orange. A tiny wormhole began to grow on the floor, and De-Taylel watched in satisfaction. "Establishing a connection to it…" I looked at the wormhole for a few seconds before darting back to De-Taylel. "To what?"

"His" limpid eyes widened slightly as a smile tore at the corners of "his" lips. "I'm establishing a true connection to The Underworld, my domain, my crown." "he" explained. "The Underworld? Aren't you not fully resurrected, wouldn't you not be able to affect the real world from this state?" I asked in puzzlement and a little caution. 

The angel looked back at me with a mysterious smile. "With an avatar with the right knowledge I could. But in this state I'll never reach my full power. With harnessing the influence of my Divine Kingdom I'll be able to channel enough power to resurrect myself even more. But your help in getting the Destruction card will allow me to fully resurrect." 

Suddenly, the wormhole turned rectangular as an illusory door of light formed where it stood, going downwards into the floor. De-Taylel crawled forward a little as "he" glared into the wormhole with a smile. 

The blood avatar that "he" created, along with the illusory shadow merged into one singular entity, before collecting back into "his" body, merging back into where "his" shadow should be. After a few moments a pair of crimson red wings sprouted from De-Taylel's back, and with a quick swoop, he descended into "his" divine kingdom. 

…

After leaving the sewer following my encounter I managed to pull up Ian Vinigrad's corpse. This corpse was a lot more mangled than the state that we found Demetruis in a few weeks ago, so I had no chance of resurrecting him. The streets were quiet and I could hear the ocean in the distance, the waves calmingly colliding against the shore.

I approached the kingdom wall and peered through the cracks, seeing the forest with evergreen trees in the distance from where I had first fallen into with my companions, that mistake I accidentally made that wasn't in my control. 

I figured I had to dispose of Ian's body one way or another, or I could search his mangled pockets for anything useful. Regardless of his state I could still divine him into my throne room even without having to bring him back. I closed my eyes and envisioned the 4 armed statue, before bringing both me and him into this state.

The throne room after the adjustments The Umbridge made a few days ago was large, empty and almost depressing. Whenever I needed some time to recollect myself or process difficult emotions I'd often come up here and stare into the endless expanse of the cosmos. It was oddly therapeutic looking into the sea of red stars plastered across the black canvas.

I turned back and approached Ian's body, the smell of rotting flesh nullified by the throne room's effects. I could spot that his corpse was wearing rather intricate and fancy wear from what I could see of his tattered, blood stained clothes. Luckily all of his pockets were left intact, but they gave me the alluring suspicion that he might have been robbed by Mr. Debois before he lost control and ate his corpse.

When I searched through his pockets I pulled out 2 things, a wooden doll and a golden laced wooden pen, which I could feel were very miscellaneous and weird items to have in the same pocket. There were other things in his pocket, some spare change and a handkerchief. 

I tossed the unimportant items aside and picked up the doll. I analyzed the doll closely and noticed there weren't any strange symbols or details, it was an ordinary doll. On the top of its head was a few strands of golden hair, most of the other hair strands were ripped out. I was unaware if Ian Vinigrad had any children, but from what I could tell this was probably a gift for a young girl.

The golden lined wooden pen had his initials engraved on it. When I rolled it around in my hand something suddenly caught my attention. It felt like something was moving inside the pen as if sealed inside. The tip of the pen was rather loose as if to be easily removed for convenience, so I carefully removed it and stuffed it inside of my pocket.

A small object fell out of the pen and onto the ground. When I knelt down and picked it up it looked like a small metallic sphere, almost like a marble. Often when I was bored, I'd join Carter, Demetruis and Shinso in a round of marbles as a form of stupid amusement, but something about this one was different; it was metal.

Metal marbles weren't used as a component in a game, but rather were used as common divination ingredients. Marbles symbolize a round complexity of emotions, so it can also mean the infinite number of possibilities. When coupled with other artifacts the marble would either roll left or right as an indication of true or false, yes or no, etc.

I had to pack all my divination ingredients when I first visited Daxters establishment, and all I could see inside was an assortment of cheap candles. The sun-charm that I received from Aaron's closet when infiltrating the council building was probably worth about 10,000 silver Lumin, or about 1000 gold lumin. With that money would you rent the average apartment complex for 50 years!

Using this information I could deduce that Ian didn't have much money, and that the house that Daxter is staying in is actually Ian's previous house before his death. The reason he had little to no divination ingredients was because he couldn't afford them. And the lack of divination ingredients can lead to less accurate divinations and possible corruption from a malevolent entity! 

Maybe Ian wasn't murdered by Mr. Debois, but rather he lost control to the influence of an entity in the cosmos when doing a divination! When someone does a divination, it's often custom to engage in the worship of a deity before beginning. But since I didn't know nor worship any deities, that should be the reason why I haven't lost control.

So I came to the conclusion that Ian lost control, and Mr. Debois had the same fate. They were both looking for the Cards of Replication…what if it's a deity, what if it's the cards that are at fault? What if they're cursed? What if Sylvie Mulligan has the same fate?!