Chapter 132: Star cards

Chapter 132: Star Cards

The grotesque being reached toward Mo Fei, who was still frozen.

Just then he felt something similar to the cold sensation of a mist, which took the shape of cloudy tentacles as they curled around him.

The very second the entity came into its contact, a large shockwave rushed through the air before the spirit threads connecting it snapped one by one.

The world slowed down as Mo Fei’s frozen state moved again and he grunted then moved his revolver in slow movement before slamming it against the entity’s eye.

BAM!

The grotesque entity’s head exploded outward before the surrounding air rippled, throwing both Mo Fei and the entity in the opposite direction as he slammed onto the walls and let out a whimper. "Argh!"

Mo Fei’s eyes twitched as he watched the headless being still trying to move.

Lionel, who watched it happen, lunged toward the entity, his hand covered in fire as he pulled a chair and shifted the gravity before smashing it onto the being.

The chair broke apart, leaving behind a sharp wooden leg, which Lionel stabbed it with, letting the blood sprinkle around before its body went still.

He finally took a few steps back and looked around the hall. "It wasn’t a low-ranked mission..." He turned toward Mo Fei, who seemed to breathe hard before slowly standing up.

Lionel casually walked toward him. "Well done, partner." He waved his hand toward him as he got closer.

Mo Fei deliberately stepped back toward the wall. "Yes, Mr. Lionel." He said with an annoyance creeping onto his mind. ’Why is that guy acting like he knows me?’

He looked down through the railings and saw a silhouette of a woman moving out from the place toward the right side of the backyard exit. "Look there!"

Hearing that urgent tone, Lionel rushed and looked down, but the woman was already gone. He quickly jumped to the second floor without wasting a second.

However, Mo Fei moved through the stairs deliberately to follow the artifact, which was at the left door. ’There should be something.’

Taking a brief glance around, he entered the door, which led him to a large pathway that connected him to the same right door. "Is it moving toward it?’

Through the sides, he looked at Lionel, who came out of the second door, but just as he looked ahead, the silhouette of the woman was now clear. She hid behind a blue hood and entered a room.

Both of them ran toward her. With a loud thud, Lionel opened the door and saw the woman grabbing a pendulum attached to a thin thread. She glanced back before her body scattered into butterflies as one of them reached toward Lionel to bite him.

He moved back and watched them fly away. "What did she take?"

"Must have been an artifact, but why was it here?"

Hearing Mo Fei, he thought for a moment and exited the room. "Could it be that she is from one of the churches of the Great Mother... or maybe from the dark counterpart of Her church?"

Both of them came out of the warehouse before entering onto the streets.

After meeting the bakery people, they walked out of the case while looking at the moon in the sky. Lionel spoke first, breaking the silence. "I would say that you aren’t as weak; you did well for that mission. How long have you been an Ascended?"

Mo Fei paused for a moment; he knew he couldn’t answer at the right time as he changed it. "Two years."

"That’s a lot, and you are still Ordinal Ten?"

"I couldn’t find the severed record book pages." Mo Fei shrugged as they got into a carriage and stopped near his house again.

Although, Lionel didn’t question him about how he managed to defeat that being, but that guy was too observant to miss that.

After taking Mo Fei safely to his house, Lionel bowed slightly and spoke. "Two days later, there will be a mission regarding a corrupted artifact; be ready for that." After saying that, he reached into his pocket and pulled out three pounds and seven shillings before handing them over to Mo Fei.

He took the money and entered back into his rented apartment after giving him a nod.

Leaning against a wall near his bed, he heaved a long sigh of relief. ’What happened that time? Why am I seeing that grey fog now...?’ Mo Fei pondered for a long time but couldn’t find an answer and only stared down at his palm. The paper of the three gold pounds and the seven silver shillings glinted in the dim moonlight coming through his window.

He had earned the currency; at least it’d be enough for a week or more, although the price had nearly been his own flesh.

Finally, his thoughts shifted back to when those cloudy tentacles of grey mist had materialized around him during the battle. They felt identical to the protective aura of the primary throne inside the Lenormand Club, but they were thicker and exhausting for his mind. ’It’s bleeding into my physical reality now. What did that ritual actually do...?"

He walked over to his desk, carefully resting his revolver beside the dusty cover of The Primordial Prefect of Eternal Night.

The woman in the blue hood who had dissolved into a swarm of malicious butterflies—was an entirely new, terrifying variable. Lionel had mentioned the Church of the Great Mother and its dark counterpart; he knew about the Great Mother from the world Six, but she has a church here too, which was surprising but not unexpected to him.

More importantly, if a high-Ordinal faction like that was actively harvesting artifacts and pendulums from localized anomalies in the Aloman District, then could it be that the bakery incident wasn’t random? And Lionel Rofocale was tracking them down. Did that mean both organizations were enemies?

Mo Fei collapsed onto his bed as his eyelids went heavy for sleep as the healing flesh in his temples finally stitched itself completely shut alongside his eyes being closed too.

***

The next morning.

The yellowish-brown smoke of Ciradyl scattered on the streets of the west in a soot-stained twilight.

Mo Fei awoke with a dry throat and a fierce hunger as his body stirred. He quickly pocketed his newly acquired funds, leaving a few shillings on the table for emergencies, and adjusted his newly trimmed, short layered hair in the mirror before grabbing the book.

Well, without his signature long ponytail, he looked remarkably different, almost like a tired clerk who seemed to be grumpy about routine.

He pulled the Mask of Abyss from the air, pressing it over his face as his bones shifted with a brief crunch, changing his persona back into the grizzled detective, Murphy Law.

Thirty minutes later, Murphy walked through the city before stopping near the headquarters, where he looked around before pulling his mask out and entering the basement of the Midnight Wings headquarters.

Bypassing Supervisor Hugh Atson’s desk with a curt nod, he pushed open the doors of the subterranean archive.

The scent of leather and dried ink immediately enveloped him. Standing near a tall stack of historical grimoires was Old Bai, his snow-white hair catching the dim gaslight as his silver spectacle chain swayed gently over his black trench coat.

Looking back at Mo Fei, the old man’s eyes twinkled before he spoke in his old warm tone mixed with the softness of an experienced man. "Ah, Mr. Sherlock." Old Bai’s wrinkled face split into a warm, hospitable smile as he noticed the change in the young man’s silhouette.

"I have heard about your work. I see, you survived your first assignment with young Lionel; that’s a great thing to celebrate."

"It was neutralized with a bit of effort, Old Bai." Mo Fei replied as he sat on a chair before him. "Through Lionel, you might have gotten the news that it was anything but a low-rank mission. A woman in a blue hood managed to steal the primary catalyst, which was a brass pendulum, before we could secure it."

Old Bai’s warmth wavered for a second before he slowly set down the leather ledger he was holding, his eyes narrowing behind his spectacles as a small chuckle came. "A pendulum...? Don’t worry about it, you both got no scratches. It’s better than that."

The old man paused and murmured softly. "But, they want to strengthen their organizations, Mr. Sherlock. You did well to return with your sanity intact." Old Bai reached into his desk drawer, pulling out a small leather pouch and sliding it across the wood. "As promised, here are the available bounties for local anomalies. I have two minor cases regarding a haunted steam vent in the industrial docks and a localized spiritual leak in the Lower Slums. Resolving them will grant you an additional five gold pounds."

Mo Fei quietly pocketed the pouch, keeping his eyes fixed on the old man as he put the book on the desk. "Thank you, Old Bai. But I need something more specific from the archives today. I am looking for historical records regarding an Authority called the Threadbinder... and any documented ciphers for the oracle cards, which have 13 and 22 arcanas."

Old Bai froze as suddenly he felt a strong gaze from the walls. "Why so specific?"

"I just enjoy reading about them..."

"There are a total of 13 major arcana of star cards and 22 of tarot cards."

"Star cards?" He asked, well, he knew about tarot cards, although he had known about star cards too from Mirror of Truth, but he didn’t know much about them.

"There are a total of thirteen of them. Some connect them with authorities."

Hearing that, Mo Fei paused for a second. "Can you give me a book about these, including what I asked about Threadbinder?"