The Deceitful One



Thursday, 1st October 1582.

The affluent neighborhood of Calm Springs was as peaceful as ever. The streets were still empty, devoid of any people or steam cars. After all, the sun had yet to rise. It was the time of twilight when the sky was neither dark nor completely lit.

Regardless, it was the beginning of the month, a new beginning so to speak. For the owner of the mansion on 16 Calm Springs, it was definitely a new beginning. Bryan was pacing around in his meditation room on the second floor in sheer nervousness.

From time to time, he would start biting his nails or fidgeting with his fingers. He couldn't remember the last time he was so nervous. It was probably when he had sex for the first time. No, perhaps even then he wasn't this nervous.

And he had every right to be tense. After all, it was the first of the month and only minutes before sunrise. That was the time appointed by the mysterious Lady Fate for the beginning of the gathering.

Bryan still didn't know how he would reach the place of the gathering. Lady Fate had been very vague when he had asked her about the location. All she had instructed him to do was to prepare a ritualistic array formation and activate it at sunrise.

He still didn't understand how everything would work. In his panic, he couldn't help but mock, "Is she going to teleport me? How stup—" His eyes suddenly widened as he stopped himself from finishing his sentence.

Bryan looked around in apprehension. He nearly mocked someone whom he speculated to be an actual deity!

"Fuck!" Bryan cursed aloud. In his anxiousness, he had almost overstepped his boundaries. Imagine trying to mock a god…. How stupid!

He took a few deep breaths and tried his best to calm down. Getting jittery wouldn't help him at all. But how could he not be nervous? After all, other than Bryan's confusion regarding how he would join the secret society's gathering, there was also something else that really made him tense.

And that was the Transcendents who would be at the gathering. After all, Lady Fate had mentioned to him that she had been personally choosing people over the centuries. If this mysterious lady was indeed a deity, then naturally the person she chose must be strong.

Just thinking of all this made Bryan feel dizzy. And not to mention, the Illuminatos was an organization that was founded at the beginning of the 4th Era. That meant this secret society was more than 1500 years old!

Bryan finally sat down in the middle of the ritualistic formation that he had long since prepared. Just the materials required to carry out this ritual were so expensive. He felt thankful that he still had a lot of money left in his pocket watch.

Looking at all the materials with high spirituality kept at different nodes of the formation all around him, he couldn't help but shake his head with a wry smile. The Path of a Transcendent not only required talent and dedication but also money.

If one was without resources, one would surely have a very difficult time advancing. For example, the spiritual materials needed for this ritual could barely be afforded by a Rank 1 Transcendent. Moreover, Bryan had to buy these materials every month.

Just thinking of all the money it would cost him in the future, Bryan began to rub his temples. "I really need to go rob someone…. Or else, at this rate I'll go broke."

The next moment, he took out a small pyramid-shaped object from his pocket watch. This pyramid was silver in color and at the center of it was an eye. The entire thing was the size of his fist.

This was an artifact given to him by Lady Fate. She had instructed him to hold this artifact while sitting at the center of the ritual formation. Only then could the ritual succeed.

Bryan intently scrutinized the artifact. Apart from the strange design and the way the eye seemed to be looking at him, he found nothing else. Lady Fate had only mentioned that it was an artifact, as for what rank it was, she didn't say anything about it.

After staring at the artifact from all angles, Bryan stopped and simply kept it in his grasp. He took a few deep breaths and calmed down. Or at least tried to calm down. He turned his head to look toward the window.

Outside, the sky was beginning to light up; the sun was about to rise. Bryan's heartbeat sped up and his breathing quickened. He intently stared at the horizon, waiting for the sunrise.

In less than a minute, the first rays of the sun finally dawned. The moment the ray of sunlight passed through the window and entered the meditation room, the pyramid-shaped artifact in Bryan's hands trembled.

And before he knew it, the artifact set up a spiritual force barrier around Bryan. To be more precise, it erected the barrier alongside the boundary of the ritual formation. The lines on the array formation glowed with resplendent light.

Before Bryan could look around and see just what was happening, his eyes rolled back involuntarily and his vision darkened. He began to feel lighter and lighter until finally, his vision returned.

When he looked around once again, he was shocked. The first thing he saw was himself! He saw his body still sitting in a lotus position at the center of the ritual formation and his eyes were rolled back, showing the whites.

He then looked at himself and realization finally dawned on him. "Spiritual body!"

His soul had been separated from his body! Before he could even panic, he felt the space around him distort. The next moment, his spiritual body seemed to stretch and elongate. Following that, he disappeared from the place.

Meanwhile, Bryan's physical body was still in the meditation room, sitting at the center of the ritual like a statue. If anyone were to enter the room and cast a glance at him, they would be scared out of their minds when they see his motionless body and rolled back eyes.

...

Bryan felt as if he was moving at the speed of light. The surroundings were passing by at such a quick speed that he felt like he'd pass out at any moment. Although this entire experience was terrifying, it was also exhilarating at the same time.

As he focused on the scenery, especially the one beneath him, he felt as if the ground was becoming smaller and smaller. He was being pulled up! He saw his neighborhood become smaller in his vision.

The next moment he saw the entirety of Nadir City. However, that too became smaller as he flew higher and higher. He was soon able to see the entirety of the Belize Kingdom, the Dicentra Empire, and eventually, he was able to see the whole of the Western Continent!

"Whoa…." Bryan's eyes shone with disbelief. But that wasn't it, he was continuing to be pulled higher. The Western Continent was becoming smaller in his vision, he was able to see the water bodies surrounding it.

He was also able to glimpse at a large landmass right beneath the Western Continent. Bryan believed that to be the Southern Continent. He didn't have much time to dwell on it because the next moment, his eyes widened.

Bryan was high enough to see the entirety of the world. For the first time, he could see that the world in which he lived was actually a spherical planet. His gaze then fell on the landmass right above the Western Continent.

"The Dark Continent…." He muttered in a daze. Suddenly, Bryan was overcome by curiosity and tried to look at the void surrounding the planet. But the moment he swept his gaze over the vast expanse of nothingness, he was overcome by sheer terror.

He had never seen anything darker and lonelier than the void. But for some reason, he wasn't able to avert his eyes from it. He felt he would die any moment if he continued to look at the black space.

And then it happened….

In a certain corner of the void, a pair of malevolent eyes with yellow iris and black vertical slits slightly opened and stared back at Bryan!

GASP!!

Before something unwarranted transpired, the void above Bryan tore open and he was pulled inside of it. In the depths of the void, the pair of eyes stared at the space Bryan was earlier at for a few moments and then shut its eyes back.

...

Bryan clasped his chest and began to gasp for air. Even though it was just his spiritual body, for some reason it felt very real to him currently. And beads of sweat even began to form on his forehead.

With lingering fear in his eyes, he thought to himself, 'W-What the fuck was that!?'

There was actually someone or something resting in the darkness of the void! Bryan would have never even imagined such a thing. Just as he was going through a panic attack, a warm and sturdy hand patted him on the shoulder. "Are you alright, kiddo?"

At once, Bryan calmed down. He looked around and found himself sitting at a large round table and all the people sitting there were looking at him with amused and curious expressions. He then turned to his left and looked at the person who had just tapped him.

The person had brown wavy hair, and a mustache and beard of the same color. He was wearing a regal-looking luxurious robe and looking at him with a gentle smile. This man naturally emanated a noble aura, something you'd only find in people of high authority.

Bryan couldn't help but ask, "W-Who are you?"

The man replied, "My name is Solomon Dicentra."