LOM: Lord of Mysticism

"There's something over there," Klein said, pointing at the steps separating the living room and dining room.

He once read in the Nighthawks' confidential records that if similar situations appeared in one's spiritual perception, it may imply that there was something evil and corrupted hidden at the target location, and it was best not to interact with it alone.

Dunn, with his high spiritual perception, similarly sensed something abnormal and instructed Klein, "Divine and see if we would be successful in our investigation."

Klein nodded and released the topaz bracelet within his sleeve. He held the silver chain with his left hand and silently recited a suitable statement.

His eyes darkened as a breeze spiraled around him. "The investigation of the hidden place in the ancient castle would be successful."

...

After reciting the statement seven times, Klein's eyes regained their normal color, and he saw the dangling topaz rotating clockwise, indicating that the investigation would be successful.

Klein, who was a true Seer, nodded at Dunn and Frye. "The danger will be manageable by us, or there could be no danger at all."

Dunn pinned the Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem to the left side of his chest and briskly walked toward the steps to search for a mechanism.

Soon heavy sputtering sounds sounded from the staircase, and the floor split open, revealing a set of steps heading down. A cold and corrupted vibe emanated, condensing into something corporeal.

Dunn glanced over and removed Sealed Artifact 3-0782 from his chest, tossing it directly into the trapdoor.

After a few clanks, the Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem stopped, and the lingering feeling dissolved away, while warmth and purity now blanketed the entrance of the trapdoor.

"Klein, go down with me. Frye will stay here and prevent anyone from destroying the mechanism." Dunn made a decision.

"Alright."

Dunn went down first. He didn't prepare any sources of light, since for a Beyonder that went down the Sleepless pathway, the darkness was not an obstacle, and their vision wasn't hindered by such an environment.

After taking a few steps down, Dunn turned around. "I forgot that you don't have night vision. I'm not used to preparing objects that provide illumination..."

"Captain, you don't need to mind about me. I have my Spirit Vision."

In his Spirit Vision, the darkness before him was screened by a gray film. Even though it was very blurry, it was enough for him to make out where the steps were.

Klein made his way down slowly.

The flight of steps wasn't long. Fifteen steps ahead Sealed Artifact 3-0782 was lying on the ground, releasing its purity and warmth and radiating a faint glow.

Klein could see much more clearly with the help of the illumination. He surveyed the surroundings. In the middle of the basement was a black coffin, with dark red nails driven into the lid. The lid of the coffin had been pushed open slightly, allowing one to see a headless corpse made of bones.

Dunn looked around, then bent over to pick up the Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem.

"Captain, this coffin was intended to prevent the dead within from becoming a zombie or a wraith."

Klein looked at the dark red nails in the coffin and the formation they were in and relied on his fairly good knowledge of mysticism to determine that this was an ancient ritual to prevent corpse reanimation.

At the same time, he muttered inwardly. But under normal circumstances, who would be wary against their loved one from reanimating? Hmm, the people who helped bury the corpse may not necessarily be relatives... And if they placed the coffin in the basement instead of a tomb, they must have been afraid of someone else finding the corpse...

Dunn, who wore Sealed Artifact 3-0782, approached the coffin and inspected it. "The deceased was probably poisoned to death. That means the person who poisoned him could have used ritualistic magic to prevent him from reanimating and seeking revenge. This should have happened about 1300 years ago? He became a wraith in the end... The resentment of this spirit is simply shocking!"

Klein also walked in front of the coffin. "Where is his head? Such ritual does not call for the head to be sliced off..."

Dunn thought for a moment before saying, "I have a guess. This wraith didn't exist for that long and only appeared recently. It's only a fifteen-minute walk from the town to the castle, and throughout the years, troublemakers must have frequented this place, but before this incident, there were no rumors of there being a wraith in this ancient castle."

"Captain, what you mean to say is that someone came here recently, opened the coffin, and took away the head of the deceased?"

"Yes, the ritual prevents the corpse from reanimating, but it also seals and preserves its resentment within the coffin. When the coffin was opened and the ritual dispelled, this resentment quickly evolved into a wraith with the help of its gauntlet...

There's no corpse of the person who opened the coffin. He couldn't have been an ordinary person... but why did he take away the head of the deceased?"

Dunn stared at the skeleton in the coffin. "For resentment to be preserved for such a long time, there should be some reason other than the ritual. He could've been a Beyonder when he was alive, perhaps a descendant one or two generations removed of a Mid-Sequence Beyonder. I am talking about the Mid-Sequencers as defined in the past, Sequence 5 or 6.

Such corpses are always special. His head might be usable in some kind of ritual or on some other occasion."

Dunn paused before continuing, "What I said just now was all conjecture. But we could try to verify some of it. We can split up later in town and investigate to see if anyone was injured before in their youth. Well, if they are still alive, it would prove that the wraith only appeared recently."

"A logical train of thought," Klein praised. He quickly searched the basement but didn't find anything else.

He tried using ritualistic magic to make a sketch of the "guest" that entered the basement, but because it had been more than a month since it happened, as well as the disturbed environment due to the frequent appearance of the wraith, there wasn't much of a result.

He then took Frye's place, allowing the expert on the dead to conduct further tests.

Fifteen minutes later, as the sun was vanishing below the horizon, Dunn and Frye followed the steps and returned to the hall of the ancient palace.

Dunn felt for the switch to the trapdoor while Frye gave a short description: "The deceased was indeed poisoned to death. The traces near the neck appeared recently, at the very most three months back."

This means that most likely someone came here before... Klein nodded in thought.

The three Nighthawks returned to Lamud Town before it got dark and asked for two rooms at an inn. The member that got the Sealed Artifact 3-0782 was to take this dangerous item for a stroll outside the town where no one would be. They would change their shifts once every two hours and thus only needed two rooms.

After a simple dinner, Klein, Dunn, and Frye immediately split up and covered all corners of the town, asking the residents who had lived in this town for extended periods of time.

In situations like this, their identification documents as policemen proved useful.

...

"Officer, why are you asking this? I used to head to the abandoned castle to play when I was young... Injured? Definitely, how could a child not have fallen while playing? I remember, yes—I've been cut by a sharp rock on the outer walls of the ancient castle in the past..." A forty-year-old blond man looked puzzledly at Klein, but answered his question honestly.

This was the fourteenth person Klein had asked, of whom two vividly remembered being injured in the castle when they were young.

The Captain's guess is correct... Klein put away his identification documents and said, "Thank you for your cooperation; I have no more questions."

He was about to leave when the forty-year-old man called after him, "Officer, are you interested in the ancient castle? I have an oil painting of the first Baron that once resided in there. He was the grandfather of my grandfather... Well, anyway, it was a long time ago. He took away an oil painting from the castle and told me that it was that of the first Baron Lamud.

Do you want it? It's a true antique!"

If it really was a true antique, wouldn't your family have sold it a long time ago? Klein adopted the attitude of a window shopper and said, "Take it out and let me see it."

The man returned to the room and rummaged for it. Sometime later, he walked out with an oil painting in hand.

Klein casually looked at the oil painting. He saw that the baron, who wore a white curly wig, had gentle features and bronze skin, his eyes hiding an indescribable range of human experience.

Huh, he looks a lot like Mr. Azik! Klein's eyes widened, and his gaze subconsciously fell below the right ear of the baron at the unremarkable mole near his ear, whose position was exactly the same as Mr. Azik's!