Meanwhile, in another location, in another forbidden zone, night had fallen.
The night brought such a silence that the crackle of the campfire was all that could be heard, a natural music in the black-duvet night. Flames sent red sparks dancing into the breeze. Ella and Alvinia were sitting around the campfire, they had just finished their soup and cleaned the dishes, and now it was the time to chat.
”Nui, how do you ever feel closer to someone even when you’ve never seen him before?”
Alvinia knew Ella must be talking about Orpheus; her memories from the past were what made her feel like this. Her awakening must not be too far. Come to think they would turn eighteen soon; it is probably why. Still, she wouldn’t interfere much.
”No, but it’s maybe because you’re interested in this person. You feel at ease when thinking about this person. You should follow your heart; it would never be wrong, at least your heart act with your interest in mind.” Alvinia suggested.
”I see. Thank you for the suggestion. I will talk to him after this expedition. I want to know him more. He is connected to the dreams I kept having.” Ella decided to talk with Orpheus again at the end of this expedition. She felt like a huge load had been discharged from her shoulders. Speaking of him, she wondered how he was doing; hopefully, he didn’t get too close to Kaguya. Somehow she was uncomfortable with this; her heart hurts just thinking Kaguya would be closer to him like Nemesis.
Alvina looked at her friend and sighed. She wondered what kind of game Orpheus was playing.
•••••
Back to the floating castle.
Brünhild thought he would follow her plan and calmy sign the contract, but he didn’t do that. He used his own method. He made Brünhild his familiar, his slave. It happened too fast that she could not react; beside, she had never expected he could touch her soul’s form.
The only positive point is that she gained body and could be together with him once again. This made her smile.
Somehow, Orpheus felt happy seeing Brünhild smiling face; he could watch her smiling for hours, but now wasn’t the time.
“Take me to where the energy I felt from Priscilla is stored,” Orpheus ordered. After putting Brünhild under his command, he gained access to a few things; although he still couldn’t bypass the mysterious being’s defense, he was not in a hurry, one thing at a time. He had turned Brünhild into someone incapable of betraying him; she would die terrible death if she were to try, and he would not make another mistake again.
”Certainly, master.” Brünhild obediently nodded before teleporting them.
They reappeared in front of a room; the door of this room was ancient, it was purple; Orpheus could feel that behind this door was a powerful and mysterious force.
Even though he tried to use his sense to see if he could know what was behind this door, it didn’t work. His sense couldn’t bypass this purple door, as if a mysterious force was blocking it.
It was the first time something like this had happened to him; it was frustrating and interesting at the same time. Interesting because he wanted to know what was behind this door. He turned his head and looked at Brünhild questioningly.
“Master, push open this door and go inside. This is a training room or, in your current case, a room that could help you heal your injuries. But be sure to come back after step in quickly, do not try to stay too long in there; it won’t do you any good. On the contrary, it will be harmful. Don’t go too far.”
Orpheus smiled and dismissed the overly serious Brünhild before stepping forward to push the purple door.
The moment he touched the door, his heartbeat quickened. He felt a sudden resonance with something on the other side. He could feel that something familiar with him was calling him to step in. Intrigued, he pushed the door open and entered; immediately, his sight was shrouded in a purple hue; there was a purple mist inside this room, and everywhere he looked at was shrouded in purple mist.
Orpheus was left speechless; his mouth hung agape because he knew what this purple mist was. It was the same energy he felt from Priscilla when sucking her blood. The mysterious energy that healed him faster than anything, to think that this whole room would be shrouded in purple energy, he couldn’t stop his face from grinning.
Orpheus started walking; for every step he took, his injuries were healing at an extremely fast speed; on his hundredth step, almost half of his injuries were healed, he could feel strength coursing through every cell in his body.
A powerful pressure burst out from Orpheus’s body and shook the whole room.
Unbeknownst to him, the girls outside sensed the phenomenon; the pressure awakened Kaguya while Brünhild sighed, praying that her master would come out and wouldn’t go too far; it had been more than one hour since he went in, and it was time to come out.
Unfortunately for her, Orpheus was not planning to do that; even though he was half-healed and should have left, he couldn’t stop because he could feel that whatever was calling him wasn’t too far from here; hence he decided to continue and see what was waiting on the other side.
However, it had become difficult to walk after taking another fifty steps; he felt a powerful pressure pushing him down; he was almost kneeling. Furious, his crimson eyes flashed in crimson hue as he stood up again under the pressure that was trying to crush him, crush his pride.
Refusing to yield, Orpheus continued to walk forward; it was becoming harder with each step he took; for a moment, he even considered giving up, but the mere thought of giving up left him in an intense rage that threatened to destroy everything, himself included.
Still, he couldn’t stop; no, he didn’t want to stop; dragging his tired and battered body, Orpheus continued to push forward.
Suddenly, he saw two shimmering purple lights in the thick purple mist in front of him.
Even though he didn’t know what these two lights were, he was awed; his cold heart was beating so hard that one could hear the sound from the outside.
Ba-dump! Ba-dump!!!
Orpheus was sure that these two lights were calling him, so he stretched his bloodied arm toward the shimmering purple lights, there were so close yet so far.
“!!!”
Suddenly, a terrible force pushed his knees toward the ground. It happened too suddenly. This force was tenfold the one he had been experiencing.
“What-”
Orpheus didn’t get the time to finish his sentence when one of the shimmering purple lights disappeared and when it reappeared, it was in front of him; however, before he could observe it, with a whooshing sound, it entered his left eye.
Bang!
He heard a terrible explosion in his head followed by intense pain; the pain was so intense that he almost lost consciousness, but he did his best not because he felt like something inside him would change if he were to lose consciousness now.
”Ahhhh!” Orpheus released all his strength.
BOOM! BOOM!
Multiple explosions rang out shaking the castle, almost turning it upside down.
”Ugh! What the hell?” Kaguya touched the bump on her head after she fell from the bed. She wondered what the hell was happening. She was curious; she wanted to know where Orpheus was but couldn’t leave her room. She could only wait, hoping for everything to end quickly.
Brünhild, on the other hand, tried to rush into the room, but unfortunately she couldn’t; she could only bite her lips, frustrated. It was not what she had planned; everything went wrong since the contract didn’t follow the original. It was not like she was trying to deceive Orpheus, but the original contract, if followed, would have helped him more, so she thought, but this thought quickly vanished, and she was now thinking of how to help her master. She would try to bypass the seals to learn more to inform Orpheus.
”There are some answers inside the Ruins. I must help him reach the deepest part of the most powerful Ruins to strengthen him quickly. Master is anxious about something.” Brünhild felt from her master’s emotions that he seemed in a hurry; as for why she didn’t know; however, she would do everything to help him as he desired, not as someone else planned.
While the will planted inside Brünhild was slowly overwriting her into a useful tool, Orpheus, the master, the one that did this, couldn’t endure anymore and fell unconscious; however, before this happened, he devoured the purple energy as much he could, he even refined the thing that penetrated his left eye, not completely but to the extent that he could use without fearing being controlled or observed. He would make every opportunity his own. He would devour them.