The man didn’t respond as he simply turned around and walked to the middle of the magic circle that had been glowing before. There lay the Demon skull that they had brought back, only that this time, it was much smaller, and the charred bones on it were completely dyed white.
It was carefully handed over to Gregoria, who looked at it for a moment and then presented to the group. “This is what I wish to pass on to you.”
“Is that the Almarian we brought to the fort?!” Eden asked with surprise as she took a few steps forward to have a better look at it. “It is! Look! It’s even missing the same bits and pieces that were lost in the battle.”
Natalia took a more defensive stance right after hearing what Eden said, while Marcus didn’t seem to have much of a reaction as he simply tilted his head to the side. Kent on the other hand remained quiet at the back, the shadows of the hall mixing with the shadows of his own magic to keep him as hidden as possible—even if everyone knew he was there.
“What is the meaning of this? Isn’t that a Demon?” Natalia questioned, her guard up.
“That it is,” Gregoria simply responded with a nod.
“Why would you evil pass on to us?” Natalia continued.
A laugh came out of Gregoria, shaking her head as she did. “Evils aren’t determined by something like this. This is part of the Gods’ creation, and to believe that one of their creations is evil, is to believe that the Gods gave shape to evil on purpose. No, evil is something that we all determine by ourselves, and it has nothing to do with the shape of the body that it holds.”
Marcus laughed out loud once Gregoria was done, causing everyone turn to look at him as well—looks that he ignored. “I can’t believe this nun. I’m really starting to like you to the point of not calling you an old cunt anymore.”
Every robed person in the room stirred, some of them grunting while others opened and closed their mouths, all of them were looking at Marcus. Gregoria waved her hand and everyone in the room settled down. “It’s ok, I won’t hold that against you.”
Eden turned to look at Marcus with a wry smile, while Natalia simply turned to look at him with what was sure to be a glare behind the silvery helmet. Kent remained at the back, quietly watching the exchange between everyone in the hall.
Natalia didn’t waste much more time glaring at Marcus and turned to respond to Gregoria. “I won’t accept such a thing.”
“It was to be expected,” she said with a nod, turning afterward to Marcus. “What about you?”
Marcus tilted his head to one side and the other. He seemed to be considering whether he should accept that skull or not. After a couple more tilts, he uncrossed his arms. “What is the use of carrying that shit around? Seems more like a hassle to me.”
The robed men started stirring again, but Gregoria lifted her hand up to quiet them down again while still looking at Marcus. “This gift carries great power, the amount of power that would make any person desiring it to drool over it and do anything to get it,” she calmly responded.
Gregoria paused for a moment to look down at the skull, and with the same hand that she had raised before, she plucked a very small piece of the skull, which came apart as if taking a crumple from a cookie. She held that small piece between her thumb and her index finger, before finally crushing it. There was a bright release of white light from the piece that made her body glow white for a moment and her eyes burn again.
“This is but a fraction of the whole thing,” she continued, pointing her open palm forward, and from it, a white laser fired at the ground, burning it for a second until the light from her body and her eyes faded once again.
Eden had jumped to the side when she saw Gregoria glowing, just in case that something that the old woman did hit her. Everyone else in the hall remained unfazed, since Gregoria had fired that beam at nobody in particular. Marcus hummed for a moment, considering what to do, since he had yet to accept or deny the offer.
“Marcus, this is an evil thing, it’s the skull of a demon, one that almost killed us both,” Natalia said to him once she realized he was seriously considering the offer. “And you said it yourself, this whole place is wrong, you cannot accept that thing. We should leave.”
“Sure but…” Marcus trailed off as he looked at the burn mark left on the ground and Gregoria afterwards. “This seems pretty interesting.”
“Marcus!” Natalia shouted.
Marcus removed the helmet from his head, looking at Natalia with annoyance for a moment. “You know what? I’ll take it.”
Natalia didn’t shout back and simply stared. “Fine, but I won’t hesitate to strike you down if I need to.”
Marcus laughed with a mocking tone. “We’ll see if you can even do that,” he turned to look at Gregoria. “How would you go about giving me that power? Do I also need to just crush that thing in my hand and I’ll glow holy power as well?”
“No,” Gregoria responded with a shake of her head, “It requires a higher level of understanding and experience in magic to do it like that, but fortunately, there is a way to pass on the power of this skull to you,” she looked at the Imperator Core in Marcus’ armor. “We’ll channel the power into the artifact you’re wearing, making it possible for you to wield its power.”
“Ohoho! We’ll mess with Jerry’s toys! I like that!” Marcus excitedly said, taking a few steps closer to Gregoria.
“Wait,” Natalia interrupted, making both Gregoria and Marcus turn to look at her. “Are you sure you want to do this? It could completely ruin the armor.”
“Why would it ruin it?” Gregoria asked, looking at Natalia’s Imperator Core this time. “Power like this, on this scale, has been transferred to magic cores many times before, and the extremely high grade ones you have on your artifacts can handle even more than this.”
“What? Magic cores?” Natalia asked this time, looking down at her own core. “But there is no magic in our world.”
“I had been wondering about that myself…” Eden followed up with a tilt of her head. “I wasn’t really sure about it, but if they’re extremely high grade cores then I wonder what kind of beast your people killed to get it.”
“Indeed, such cores are usually kept by the Holy Family,” Gregoria continued.
Marcus shrugged. “Who cares about that? Let's do the thing that will let me have magic!”
There was a small chuckle from Gregoria. “This won’t let you wield magic just like that, it’ll simply empower your artifact more.”
Marcus pouted slightly in disappointment. “Fine whatever, just let me see what you’re going to do.”
“Very well. Please stand in the middle of the circle,” Gregoria said, standing to one side and pointing to the magic circle.
Marcus calmly walked over to the circle, his posture not quite as lazy as the one he usually had as he looked excitedly around the drawings on the circle and the robed people around that were now starting to hold hands again, like how they were when they first got there.
The gauntlets in Natalia’s back quickly moved on to her arms as she stood ready outside the circle, while Eden started pulling papers and quills to write with, her eyes focusing on everything that was happening.
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Once the people in the circle started chanting like they had been doing before, the circle drawn on the ground started glowing, and Gregoria walked over to Marcus, the white skull slightly glowing on her hands as she was approaching. She stopped just one step away from Marcus, who looked at her with a half-smirk, which didn’t change the serious expression on her face.
She closed her eyes for a moment and faced up, only for her to open then once again, this time, intensely burning with white light. She looked up at the ceiling, and like the robed people around her, she started chanting. However, her voice couldn’t be heard. Only her mouth was moving.
From her hands, the skull started breaking apart, and the particles started floating in the Imperator Core’s direction instead of falling to the ground. They were glowing and they were slowly moving in the air, until eventually, they made contact with the Core.
Marcus recoiled slightly when the particles touched the Core. He wanted to instinctively reach for the Core, since it felt for him like his chest was getting hot, similar to when the Core was placed on him back in Doctor Hobb’s lab, only that this time, he wasn’t burning. So to avoid getting in the way of this ritual, he resisted the urge and pulled his hand to the side.
“Marcus?” Natalia asked, her voice carrying a hint of worry.
“It’s cool, just a bit warm is all,” he responded, trying to sound calm.
The skull continued to steadily crumble down, until finally, there was nothing much of it as the last bits of glowing white particles entered the Imperator Core. It shined for a second before turning back off to the usual gem-like appearance it has.
The people chanting all stopped suddenly, and the light of the magic circle faded with their voices. In the middle, Gregoria slumped down, her shoulders going up and down as she heaved heavily and a few sweat drops dripped from her face. She looked back up at Marcus, who looked back at her with a confused expression as he inspected his hands and touched the Core in his chest.
“How do you feel?” Gregoria asked after a moment.
“Not too different,” he calmly responded, pulling his helmet back on after looking at his hands. “Systems don’t show me there’s anything different either.”
“Are you sure?” Natalia asked from outside the circle, her weapons and stance ready to jump at him.
“Yep, I don’t feel any different,” he continued, removing the helmet after a moment and looking down at Gregoria. “So… did it fail or something?”
Gregoria took a couple more heavy breaths, before standing straight again and wiping the sweat off her face with the sleeves of her robes. “No, it went perfectly, even better than most rituals, since when this transfer of power is done like this, the other side usually screams, and moves too much due to pain, making it difficult to completely channel the power.”
“But I didn’t feel anything besides just a bit warm,” Marcus responded.
“I do not know why that was. Maybe you’re just resilient, or maybe that artifact of yours helps with that,” she said with a shake of her head.
Natalia put her weapons away and walked into the circle, closer to where both Gregoria and Marcus were standing while still keeping a certain distance from them. “Yeah, that was likely due to the armor. The same thing happened when it was fitted on us, since when the Imperator Core was placed on Marcus it was extremely painful for him, while for me, with most of the armor pieces in place, it was just warm.”
“Huhuhu,” Eden silly laughed as she scribbled on her paper, “How very interesting!”
Gregoria looked at the girl for a second and nodded. “That is indeed interesting,” she said, turning her attention back to Natalia. “I could still have a gift for you, if you would take it.”
Natalia shook her head. “I said before and I’ll say it again: I’m not interested in having power from demons.”
“There’s no need to deny me so fast, there’s something else I can give you that would be more in line with your nature,” Gregoria said and turned to Rogier—who didn’t participate in the ritual. “Please bring the feather.”
Rogier slightly bowed and left the hall by going up the stairs and the wooden double doors from where the group had come into.
While he was leaving, Natalia kept her attention on Marcus. “Are you sure you don’t feel anything? Like hearing voices? Or something weird in your body?”
Marcus shook his head. “Nope, nothing at all. Maybe it takes time to digest, or something like that.”
Gregoria chuckled and nodded. “It could be something like that. It could also be that those cores that you have in your artifacts are so much more powerful than the amount that I transferred and it didn’t create any problems with the energy it already has. Only time will tell, but…” she trailed off as she looked down at the Imperator Core in Marcus. “I believe that there’s more to those artifacts than you know.”
“Oh I wouldn’t doubt that!” Marcus responded. “I’m sure that Jerry has some fucked up shit installed on this, but as long as they don’t get in the way of what I want, then I don’t care.”
Gregoria smiled slightly but refrained from saying anything else as Rogier was already walking back inside. He carried a large box with both his hands. It didn’t seem to be that heavy, since he neither had any difficulty opening the doors or walking down the stairs to get to where Gregoria was standing, presenting the box with his arms extended to her.
She opened the box right away, revealing a bright white light coming from it as she did.
“Oh damn, it’s like a treasure box!” Marcus exclaimed, covering part of his face to not get blinded by the white light.
There was no response from anyone else as Gregoria carefully took with both hands the treasure from the box. Once she pulled it out, she revealed to everyone what was stored inside the box.
It was a large and bright white feather, its shape revealed no flaw as it looked as if it was perfectly crafted by someone and not something that fell from a common feathered animal.
Gregoria walked towards Natalia, standing a few steps away from her, due to Natalia defensive posture. “I offer this to you. It’s an Angel Feather, and while it doesn’t contain as much power as the skull we used before, this one still carries considerable power.”
The blinding light that it had when it was pulled out had dimmed slightly after Gregoria carried it for a while, allowing Natalia to have a better look at it. She stayed quiet for a moment as she looked at the details on it, before looking up at Gregoria. “Do I have to do that ritual as well?”
“I offer this one to you as a gift, so you don’t need to do this ritual. You can just carry it with you,” Gregoria said, presenting the feather closer to Natalia.
“It’s pretty bright…” Natalia said, neither moving nor rejecting the feather.
“It shines like that right now because of the box it was being kept in, but with you, it’ll look just like any other decoration that a knight would carry,” she responded.
Natalia looked down at it again. Marcus scoffed from the side after a moment. “Can I take it instead?”
“No, you already have your gift. This one is only for one person,” Gregoria said without turning to look at Marcus as she kept her eyes on the cold helmet on Natalia.
“Then…” Natalia finally responded, “I’ll carry it with me for now, but if I sense something strange from it, I’ll not hesitate to dispose of it.”
“That is up to you,” Gregoria said without any change in her expression or tone of voice.
Natalia finally reached out to it and carefully picked it up with one hand. She looked at it closely, turning it to one side at the other and then placed it on her belt, strapping it tightly with a bit of suturing string and making it seem like a simple decoration on top of the small metal skirt her armor has.
Gregoria lowered her hands and looked at Natalia for a moment, then to Marcus and finally Eden, who was busy scribbling things on a paper. “There’s nothing more for you here, so you may leave and go on your journey.”
“Just like that? Ain’t gonna offer us something to drink?” Marcus mocked as he started walking out of the circle.
Gregoria chuckled. “You are intruders in the Gods’ house. Perhaps when you are invited there will be treats for you.”
“We… are sorry for this,” Natalia said, her tone of voice somewhat awkward. She did a small nod and started leaving the hall.
When she noticed Marcus and Natalia were now leaving the hall, Eden put aside her quill and paper, turned to look at Gregoria, did a deep bow and started quickly following after them, skipping a couple of steps to catch up to them.
Gregoria turned to look at the man not moving in the hall, whose shadows still kept him somewhat obscured from sight. He noticed her look and instead of leaving with everyone else, he walked closer to her.
“Your Eminence,” he politely said with his head lowered.
She hummed for a moment as she looked at the man. “Tell me Kenty boy, are you doing your job properly?”
Kent stumbled slightly and the shadows covering wavered for a split second as he recovered himself. “Y-yes, His Highness is harsh but he doesn’t demand more than what we can do.”
“That’s good. That child has always been a troublesome one,” Gregoria said, a small smile floating on her lips. “I heard that you’re going to the capital with that Bardsley girl. There will be quite a few surprised people. Do these Knights-from-another-world know of her?”
“I believe they’re privy to some things, but I’m not sure they know everything,” Kent responded, still not looking up at her eyes.
Gregoria chuckled slightly. “I wonder what is going to happen…” she trailed off as she looked at the people already leaving the hall. “When you get to the capital, please give my regards to His Holiness. You can leave now.”
“Yes,” Kent responded and he swiftly started going after the group.
Gregoria kept her eyes on the hall’s doors. Rogier took this opportunity to approach her as she was contemplating the group that left.
“Are you sure that this was the right thing to do? Those were quite the important tools for His Holiness,” he asked in the same monotone voice he used.
“Yes. He will notice it too. After all, I got reminded of Him here and He would’ve done the same, no hesitation,” Gregoria answered without turning to look at Rogier.
“Then there are no doubts. Anything else we should do?” Rogier asked.
“Nothing else, have everyone rest for the day,” she responded without looking at Rogier. He didn’t say anything and simply bowed, turning around afterwards and walking to speak to the rest of the people in the hall with the same monotone voice to relay what Gregoria said.
Gregoria's eyes lingered on the closed doors for a moment.
“He will do the right thing for both of our worlds, there is no doubt,” she said to herself as everyone else in the hall started leaving as well.