Chapter 83

Chapter 83

Chapter 83

Chapter 83

“Aurelia was charged with feigning to be the ‘Holy Maiden’ and ended up condemned as a heretical sorceress,” Dale communicated.

“In the frigid domains of Saxon, her body turned to ash after burning at the stake.”

That represented the official outcome given to the “Holy Maiden Aurelia.”

“So, to the outside world, I no longer exist,” Aurelia mentioned, sketching a bitter gesture.

“A fitting destiny for one who claimed to be a puppet of the heavens,” Dale retorted.

Aurelia’s expression carried a marked, ironic mysticism. Her facet as a marionette of the firmament had concluded. Kneeling, she buried her metal blade into the earth.

“Guide my edge toward the correct target from the shadows,” she uttered in a whisper.

That weapon no longer represented the neat tool of an honorable paladin. She had ceased suppressing her somber longings and her hidden facets.

In order to satisfy her thirst for revenge and experience the delight of mortal combat, she wielded the blade of the hidden executioners, guarded in the darkness by direct order of the “Black Prince.”

The Black Maiden.

Hidden in the dark corners of Saxon, an anonymous executioner displayed a cold grimace.

Clearly recounting the experiences that occurred on the lands of the island of Britannia and detailing the reality of the Holy Maiden Aurelia was far from a simple matter, particularly when presenting it before the Duke of Saxon.

For that reason, Dale opted to unveil the facts in a transparent and absolute manner.

He recounted everything from how he obtained the “Book of the Black Goat” after emerging victorious in the conflict between the white and black factions within the Sistine Pontifical States, passing through the fall of Cardinal Nicolai in the Library of Hell, to the moment when the Geass of Absolute Obedience was firmly engraved upon his own chest.

The Duke of Saxony no longer represented a figure who could be kept at a distance with deception.

Beyond the filial bond that united them, they were consolidated as allies in pursuit of an identical end. Just as the Black Duke had previously revealed details about the “World of Truth” to him, Dale needed to show his own reality without reservations.

—Are you referring to the “Book of the Black Goat”? —The Duke’s features stiffened upon hearing such a revelation.

“I never intended to hide the reality from you, father,” Dale replied, maintaining a prudent attitude.

“I was only wary of the impact that the name of such a forbidden text carries and the fears that it might provoke in you.”

Contradictorily, he had shielded himself by using the image of a twelve-year-old child as a facade.

“I felt fear of showing myself completely transparent,” he admitted, resembling a child exposing a fault before their parents.

The Black Duke remained in reflective silence, evaluating the relevance of the legacy belonging to the pioneer of Saxon, the immortal Duke Frederick, whose dark influence was actively enveloping Dale’s heart with dark filaments.

“Do you still keep that object with you?” inquired the head of the house.

“Indeed,” asserted Dale.

“From that perspective, the pieces fit,” the Duke declared, allowing a grimace of strangeness to be drawn upon his lips.

“I finally find a justification for your astonishing victories.”

Being an heir of the Saxon lineage and possessing Dale’s unique capabilities, it was completely logical that he would have established a pact with the “Book of the Black Goat.”

The reprimand for Dale’s risky procedure could take a back seat for the moment. In fact, that very audacity constituted an irrefutable confirmation of the traits proper to the Saxon lineage.

A dynasty linked to the darkness, resolved to submerge itself into the depths of the void in order to grasp absolute certainty.

“It is evident that the traits of the lineage cannot be erased,” the ruler pondered.

At the moment Dale addressed the section of his experiences linked to the island of Britannia and the intervention of the Holy Maiden Aurelia, he added: “Regardless of whether her gifts come from an authentic ‘celestial proclamation,’ her combat capacity on an avatar scale possesses incalculable value.”

“You decided to execute a highly dangerous play,” observed the Duke, showing a gesture of subtle irony. However, evaluating the audacity shown by Dale, he felt unable to reprimand him.

Instead, a sort of esteem sprouted inside the mandatary.

During the events on the island of Britannia, Dale gave proof of his skill to command forces on the field of combat as if he controlled every piece at his whim. The feats performed by the “Black Prince” spread with force throughout the Empire, transcending the borders of the Saxon family’s territory.

An authentic military bulwark of the Empire.

“We will evaluate her capabilities by putting her against the ‘Grave Guards’ belonging to the ducal fortress, and based on that, we will resolve her definitive role,” the Duke proposed.

“I appreciate that we proceed in that way,” nodded Dale.

“Do you feel any kind of regret for her current destiny?” the Duke wanted to know.

After a brief reflective pause, Dale affirmed with a movement of his head.

“She was nothing more than a simple instrument handled by celestial forces,” he stated.

A piece that executed movements without full consciousness of its reality.

“For that reason, I decided to show her an alternative that she could take using her free will,” Dale detailed.

“By using the influence of ‘that’?” the Duke questioned.

“I allowed her to visualize the darkness that inhabits her own interior,” replied Dale.

“She confronted her dark zones together with her most hidden longings, and it was Aurelia herself who determined her course.”

“Certainly,” conceded the Duke, manifesting his agreement through a gesture.

“Given that you have witnessed that aspect, the understanding of the facts becomes more direct.”

Evoking the deal established previously between Dale and his progenitor, the latter proceeded with his explanation.

In the instant the Empire attempted to approach the World of Truth again, with the purpose of not incurring the failures of the past, the Duke assumed the commitment to instruct Dale in the management of the energy he had extracted from the World of Truth.

Just at that fragment of time, the environment suffered a mutation.

From one moment to the next, they left the private room located in the Saxon ducal fort to find themselves immersed in the “World of Thought,” a plane molded by the will of the most renowned dark sorcerer in the continental lands.

Flap!

Multiple birds with dark plumage took flight starting from the position behind the Duke.

They set their course toward a territory covered by the shades of a twilight light.

The “World of Thought” dominated by a mystic of high hierarchy lacks a static appearance. It possesses the quality of modifying its environment and functionality according to the creator’s needs.

—Manifest the forbidden text —indicated the Duke.

—Very well —nodded Dale, responding upon realizing the pressure that the filaments exerted on his cardiac zone.

“Shub.”

— Here I am.

A woman who wore black goat horns made her presence known to the side of Dale.

Below the limit of her dark garment, an infinity of branches moved constantly.

From the Duke’s perspective, that corresponded to a distorted aberration coming from an alien dimension. An entity constituted by a set of branches that stirred, emulating the movement of thousands of larvae.

Despite this, this external appearance represented merely a fraction of the real entity reflected in this plane.

“Iä Shub-Niggurath,” pronounced the Duke, using a tone of profound solemnity.

“Our primordial progenitor of the shadows.”

His tone reflected a previous familiarity with said entity.

— Ah, the descendant of Saxon presents himself before me.

Shub emitted her response, leaving aside that naive attitude and the cheerful gesture she usually manifested habitually.

“…!”

A female figure of mature and distinguished bearing remained at the site, with her dark hair falling around the characteristic horns of a black goat. She showed a gesture provided with the distinction proper to an aristocrat, while her dark attire moved softly with the wind.

“Death,” pronounced the Duke, summoning the presence.

Instantly, the twilight illumination was extinguished completely. It was not simple nocturnal gloom. It was a blackness of incalculable density, charged with danger and absolute mystery.

In the middle of that vacuum devoid of light, the Duke’s sacred text appeared, known as the “Scales of the Heart.”

A male figure wearing formal wear made his appearance.

He showed the bearing of an aristocrat from nineteenth-century England, wearing a bowler hat and completely dark attire. He firmly held a cane whose tip exhibited the shape of a skull.

Despite this, his facial features were perceived so diffusely that it was impossible to retain his image in the mind. No matter how much someone fixed their attention on him, the memory failed when trying to evoke it.

Plop!

Again, a group of dark birds took flight from the rear part of his position.

“Death.”

— Your call has been produced prematurely, my descendant.

The individual in dark attire expressed himself with total serenity.

— I pray that you excuse my audacity —declared the Duke, performing a bow with his head.

“The imposing presence that no one wishes to receive, but from which it is impossible to escape.”

He turned his attention to where Dale and that aberration of dimensional origin situated at his back were located.

“Under what concept do you define a grimoire?” interrogated the Duke.

“A receptacle tasked with projecting the mental conceptions of a mystic,” answered Dale.

“Under that logic, how do you define mental conceptions?” continued the Duke.

“An ordered structure of internal perception based on accumulated experiences,” replied Dale.

“Considering that, these entities that are positioned at our backs,” remarked the Duke.

“Do they constitute merely derivations emerged from our own accumulated internal perception?”

“……”

Dale fixed his gaze on the entity named “Death.”

Death.

Finally, a portion of the enigma that enveloped the Duke was exposed.

He turned his sight toward the entity that accompanied him from behind. Shub, returning to her facet of a naive girl and provided with a habitual smile, remained in the place.

Dale expressed his refusal by moving his head. Internally, he possessed the certainty of the facts. Those beings did not correspond to manifestations that could be created by the simple mental activity of a common sorcerer.

The definitive link of the mental process that not even an object of the category of the “Book of the Massacre” managed to replicate.

“In the limit of the mental process, the internal perception of human beings converges in a primordial nucleus.”

The outcome of mental activity, the final arrival point for internal perception.

The collective unconscious.

In the deepest strata of internal perception, there exist representations shared by the totality of human beings.

Narratives that take analogous forms through mythical tales or ancestral chronicles, overcoming the barriers of time and geographic divisions, even connecting distinct realities.

Representative figures such as deities, malignant entities, maternal divinities, heroic figures, monstrosities, redeemers, the final transition…

Primordial models that have subsisted since remote eras, previously to the record of historical events.

“And there were individuals who, moved by the desire to reach absolute sorcery, managed to invoke said representations of the remote past.”

In this precise instant, those representations of the remote past took physical form behind both figures.

In a past epoch, the immortal Duke Frederick had consolidated said achievement, and the current Duke had also reached the limit of his mental activity.

The final transition and the ancient progenitor of the shadows.

“Under that understanding, what do you consider is the provenance of these representations shared by the human species?”

The Black Orb inquired, causing Dale to finally hold his breath.

“The world of truth….”

The environment of absolute certainty did not represent an alien or external plane. He finally managed to understand the reason why this reality manifested currents of faith and currents of thought analogous to those of Earth, as well as the motive that its historical events emulated the processes of said planet.

It corresponded to the collective unconscious that linked the inhabitants of diverse realities, and crossing that threshold was the world of truth.

The energy from which mystics supplied themselves emanated from that identical plane, and the entities that provided shelter to both came from the same site.

“Are you in conditions to measure yourself against these entities of the remote past?”

The Black Orb took the floor once more. With insistence, Dale’s progenitor had manifested an identical warning. And facing each questioning, Dale’s determination did not show any variation.

“A component linked to the fourth ring has been structured in my cardiac zone.”

“…!”

“This conjuncture presents itself as ideal.”

From Dale’s perspective, no path possessed greater certainty than the path of a mystic.

“With the purpose of further optimizing the influence coming from Shub.”

Dale nodded with a movement of his head.

—Is it possible for you to assume the formative guidance of my descendant?

The Black Orb formulated the request by addressing the individual in formal attire who remained at his side.

— You possess great determination and audacity, young man.

The subject, dressed in the style of a distinguished gentleman of the English nineteenth century, showed a laughing gesture, finding the concept associated with “death” striking.

— However, I perceive certain traits in this child that capture my pleasure.

He manifested clear complacency.

—Particularly because my “old ally” is at this site.

With a strong beating of wings!

In that precise instant, multiple birds of dark plumage took flight from the rear section of Death.

— Despite this, stay alert, young man.

Death warned.

— Because there is no force capable of containing death.

Chapter 83