Upon arriving at his landlord’s home, Elmer found the door halfway open, an occurrence that anyone who knew the man living within the apartment would detect as weird—too weird—and Elmer was no exception.

What is this…?

Elmer creased his brows and cautiously took a step forward, his paper bag and waist bag cradled between his left arm, while his right hand stretched out and shoved the door slowly, opening it wider with a continuous creak that only fiddled out once he’d stopped his pushing.

Paused at the doorstep, Elmer noticed that a light was flickering from an oil lamp on the table at the center of the room, and that gave him the impression that his landlord was inside. The room was also arranged just as he’d remembered it to be with empty glass vials scattered across the rug-covered floor.

Nothing seemed strange.

Then why is the door open…? Did he leave and forget to put off the light…? No… He would have locked the door then…

Elmer shook his head before shifting forward, a step at a time, until he found himself within the walls of his landlord’s room. And oddly, he was right, nothing was strange about the interior. It looked perfectly fine.

That was until his nose caught a whiff—a very unpleasant one.

He immediately realized that it was the lingering scent of the rain which had prevented his nostrils from being bombarded by the smell soiling the room when he had been outside.

But since he was no longer being guarded, the air he was now breathing in carried a nauseating and suffocating pungent smell. It forced his nose into a repulsive squeeze while reminding him of the odor he had encountered on his first day in his apartment, only this was lighter and less stale.

It was unmistakable. It was the smell of a fresh corpse!

With that assumption taking over his mind, Elmer shifted around stiffly like a wooden toy being forced to move by its owner, his head turning before his body while he took his eyes to glimpse the entity that was seated on the floor beside the room’s door.

What he saw was… Mystifying.

He instantly jumped backward as his body changed its position to fully face what remained of the person near the door, the effects of his ability’s use dispelling at once as though it had never been there.

“What…” He trailed off as his breathing hastened. “What in the world happened here?!”

His view was of his landlord with his back to the wall, the man’s head hanging in a weak manner to the side from his neck.

He was dead!

But… the man’s situation was more than that.

His skin, once plump and full of flesh, had shriveled so much that it now clung loosely to his skeleton’s frame, showcasing the array of bones that lay within his body. His limbs had become frail and withered so much that they were unrecognizable. And his eyes, if only they were not closed as a testament of death, Elmer felt he would have been seeing a deep sunken void where they were meant to be.

Elmer had caused three deaths tonight, but this, which he had not had a hand in, filled him with a greater horror.

His landlord had gone from a healthy man in his prime to a grotesque corpse with decaying flesh and slowly depilating hair, each strand of a pure white color pertaining to that of someone who had met old age.

Elmer knew he had not lost his senses, not now and not when he had seen his landlord a few weeks ago. The scenery before him was not of a normal cause, he figured at once…

Someone killed him…! Someone with supernatural powers…

That was all the deduction his head could come up with.

The reason why? He knew he could not find out. Same with who exactly the person who had harmed his landlord was, and what supernatural powers they had used.

No…

Elmer closed his eyes and shook his head with a heavy inhale as an incentive to relax himself.

His landlord’s bizarre death was a horrific sight, but he did not have the time to either be amazed by the mysterious powers that had caused it, or distraught that the man who had once mixed his elixir had died.

Despite the help from his landlord not being attainable any longer, he had to do what he had come here for and instantly flee from Tooth and Nails street.

If he was already being searched for, his information was at the bureau, and it was only a matter of time before they arrived. Everything he’d done would amount to nothing then. His whole actions would be pointless.

Elmer wrenched his gaze from his decaying landlord, rushed to pick up the oil lamp on the table, and went ahead to survey the room.

As soon as he caught sight of a bucket of water beside the rusty stove beneath the window, he hurried there, placed both the oil lamp he was holding, along with his waist bag and paper bag, inside the wooden shelf that embraced the wall. Then he went ahead to scoop up the cauldron on the floor, placed it upon the now-lit stove, and poured a cup of water into it.

He knew not what he was doing, but he followed his intuition and what he had seen his now deceased landlord do during the mixture of his essence elixir.

Next, he took a shedded gecko skin, his body inching toward mixing the elixir for ascending into the Echelon 10, but then his mind stopped him with an unhinged idea.

He looked back at the paper bag and brought out the second shedded gecko skin, then paused as he stared at it for a while.

What if I mix both the ingredients for the Echelon 10 and 9 at the same time…? That way I’m not skipping over an Echelon to get to 9, and I’m not restricting myself to the Echelon 10… Will it work since I’m not omitting anything but just kind of speedrunning the ascent…?

His brows caved in as he wondered anxiously.

It was a risk, anyone with a single atom of sense could see that, but should he allow the fear of failing to stop him from trying?

Granted, it was more than just failing. He could run mad or turn into a Lost, but was he to let the thought of that happening to put a leash on him?

“What more do I have to lose?” Elmer mumbled before instantly throwing the two skins into the cauldron with a deep breath, causing the water to gurgle erratically as though it had already gone past its boiling point.

He had once thought himself to be lucky, this would prove if he was.

Following his actions up, he stretched forth his hand and grabbed hold of his waist bag, then took out the money wrapped around the bullet coated with Ms. Edna’s blood, loosened it, and turned it to ashes with the stove’s fire.

He took the oil lamp next and placed its fire beneath the bullet as he twirled it around, using the heat to liquefy the blood on it.

As soon as the red substance started to fall, Elmer put back the oil lamp into the shelf before extending the bullet over the edge of the cauldron.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

After waiting patiently for three drops of blood to pour into the gurgling water, he instantly spread his other palm beneath the bullet to prevent any mishaps from happening before pulling it back as a sizzling sound emerged from the cauldron.

Luckily, he smelled nothing wafting through the air, so he did not have to bother about covering his nose due to any wicked scent similar to that of the snake’s heart. He was equally relaxed that his deceased landlord’s odor was of a lighter feel, he had been able to push his mind away from it because of that.

He took out, from his left pocket, the bullet coated with Eddie’s blood and repeated the same procedure as he had done with Ms. Edna’s, equally without any mistakes so he would not find himself facing any unforeseen dangers he hadn’t readied himself for.

All these he had done with haste, since he had no knowledge on what exactly he was doing, and he felt that wasting a single second during the mixing could potentially cause the potion to turn out a different way than what he wanted.

He was mixing the ingredients for two Echelon ranks in one after all, and even as ignorant of the supernatural as he was, he could see that it was obviously not the norm.

The sizzling sound emanating from the cauldron intensified after Elmer dipped Eddie’s bullet back into his left pocket—where Ms. Edna’s had already been lying in wait. And afterwards, an abruptly hot steam erupted from the cauldron, one that forced Elmer to shift away from it in caution.

His instinct caused him to fear the steam coming in contact with himself, because it seemed like something that would burn his body without remorse if such happened.

But before he had shuddered backward he had been able to glimpse both Ms. Edna’s three drops of blood, and Eddie’s, congest in the middle of the awkwardly boiling water while the gecko skins melted completely as though they had never existed.

A very different reaction from when my essence elixir was mixed… Elmer took a moment to think as his breathing paced.

He was not sure if the reaction was significant to the illegal ascension method of using elixirs, or if it was because he had mixed for two ranks together.

Although—whichever it was—he shoved the thought aside as he noticed the sizzling and gurgling sound from the cauldron fade away, and the steam which had erupted from his concoction mix in with the invisible air.

Elmer swallowed a lump then before repositioning himself in front of the stove he had shifted from, his neck stretching forward so as to allow his eyes a peek of what made up the content in the cauldron.

And it was not what he had expected, considering the previous elixir he had seen had been the equivalent of a drink—even though it had been tasteless.

This one, looked not like an elixir, if anything, it resembled a heart the most, and all the water in the cauldron was lost, seemingly evaporated without a trace—the steam obviously.

The result of his mixture was a small, black squishy substance, only a bit lesser than a baby’s palm, and it was throbbing weakly in a way that reminded him of the snake’s heart which represented the Pathway of Desire, only, it was without a disgusting smell.

I'm going to eat this…?

A tenseness took over Elmer’s stomach in that instant and caused his forehead to wrinkle. But he knew better than to hesitate now, not after all he’d already done.

Quickly, he dipped his hand into the cauldron and took hold of the beating substance, but just as his hand touched it then did it naturally cry out in response, causing Elmer to yelp in pain as he yanked his arm away.

The substance had burned his palm.

“Blimey…!” Elmer muttered as he inhaled heavily to relax the sudden spike of his heart rate. “How am I going to eat something that’s as hot as a furnace?” he wondered as he used his left hand to caress the one which had been burnt, not being able to see what had come to be of his skin in the dim brightness.

His mind suddenly wandered to the direction of healing the burn he had sustained, and because of that he now found an idea to consume the somewhat weird elixir he had created.

Activating his spiritual eyesight without wasting a second, Elmer directed the illusory green streak of color which represented the essence of vitality onto his burned palm, wrapping it around his hand in a way that it turned into the silhouette of a glove.

Taking the dwindling sensation of the cozy warmth surrounding his palm to be that of his burn being totally healed, he stretched his hand once again into the cauldron, but now with an illusory green glove around it, and took hold of the beating substance once more.

This time, he had no burns from his exploit, and the sensation on his palm was just a mildly intensified warmth that was neither cozy nor unpleasant.

A smile crept on Elmer’s face at that moment, almost brightening his dull eyes significantly, as he realized that his idea was effective.

He then went ahead to wrap his tongue, gum, and teeth with the spiritual essence of vitality just like he had done for his hand, before throwing the throbbing jelly-like substance into his mouth and munching on it briskly as though it was an overcooked piece of meat.

Maybe it was because his mouth was wrapped in spirituality essence that he was unable to taste anything from what he was chewing, but Elmer was glad that it was that way. The product of his concoction had had the ambience of something that would have had the taste of anything unpleasant, but now he would never find out if that was true. And he had no complaints.

It had only taken a few seconds before Elmer had finished chewing and swallowing the once-throbbing substance, causing him to put an end to his spiritual eyesight, but somehow he was still waiting for a response from the supernatural for the step he’d taken.

His body had no agonizing sensation take over it like it had done the first time he’d tapped into the supernatural, and he wanted to believe that he just had to wait a bit longer, but his impatience was not letting him relax. He needed to leave Tooth and Nails street soon.

Don’t tell me it didn’t work because I mixed two ranks ingredients together…?! No… Then all those uncanny boiling and whatnot it had done shouldn’t have happened… Maybe I just have to—

All of a sudden Elmer’s thoughts slowed down before being forced to a cease as he dropped to his knees and vomited blood onto his hands—a lot more than they could contain.

The instantaneous sensations that raged his body at that moment left him with an inability to process his situation. There was his failure to breathe, the feeling of his neck being struck with various blows by a hammer, and the internal organs that made up his stomach being pounded by a large pestle.

His every emotion turned chaotic, and his skin creepingly cold.

But just as they had stormed Elmer’s body in an instant, so did they suddenly subside, gifting him a moment to suck in air greedily through his gaping mouth while his bloodied hands trembled.

“What have I done…?” Elmer queried himself as his narrow eyes took on a wider appearance, somewhat discarding the dullness that had been cloaking them. “Am I going to die?”

As though his latter question had been heard by some supernatural force, and they had decided to answer him, the rug-covered floor suddenly turned hallucinatory.

It twirled and spinned, and as well took on the guise of it rapidly sinking.

Elmer wanted to stand up and run at that, but his muscles did not have any strength to move an inch. It was as though every ounce of energy he had had been siphoned away from his body in a way that was reminiscent of the effects of the purgatory talisman.

I’m really going to die…! Elmer cried out in his mind, and just then countless pale hands sprouted from the spinning floor, each one reaching for him from all directions as echoes of multifarious indistinct words, shrill and painful, stormed his ears.

He immediately clenched his jaw as his head trembled in denial of what his situation entailed.

I should not have done it… I should not have mixed both Ms. Edna’s and Eddie’s bloods together… I should not have been greedy… I should not have tried moving faster than I could handle… I should not have thought of myself as a lucky person…!

Now I am going to die…!

On the spur of Elmer’s great moment of fear, a thick wisp of white smoke instantly materialized without a second’s notice around his neck, and with its appearance came a feeling he knew all too well—a feeling of peace and calmness, ones which dispelled the ravings he had been hearing.

Twin…

Elmer deduced at once through his newfound ataraxis, but he heard no wind-like voice with a sarcastic nature to prove his thoughts. Although, because of the emergence of the smoke that was now swirling about his neck, his rationale seemed to return in full force.

He could see everything clearly now.

The countless palms growing out of the floor were not pale, they were translucent, each one reaching for him but because they gave off no sense of touch, it felt as though they weren’t.

It was just an illusion. Elmer understood it all now.

What was happening shared similarity with what he had seen in the dreamworld on his first day as an Ascender. The real but fake occurrence of what had happened in Meadbray five years ago.

He was not going to die if he played by the rules of the mystic realm, he was only going to die if he feared it—if he ran away from it.

Becoming one with the supernatural meant that he had to stop avoiding it—that he had to embrace it. Only then would he be able to bring Mabel back, restore her to who she used to be, and fill her shell with the life that was its.

I have to act like they do, think like they do, become them in all entirety…

With those words running through his head, Elmer noticed that the blood he had poured out of his mouth no longer existed, seemingly as though some person had snuck in to wash both his hands and the floor clean of them.

And in that regard, Elmer found himself devoid of fear. He then took in a deep inhale and stretched out his arms as he closed his eyes, allowing the translucent hands that were creeping upon him to engulf his body whole.

…

The fear of what is unknown implies the loss of courage, and the greatest strength of mankind is courage.