Satoshi began recalling the information he read about the Mythical Shadow. The idea that there was one particular deity that governed the realm of shadow had been heard since the Third Era, and for a time, the whole world was on a roar trying this newly known deity that hadn't been known before.
Unlike the Raijin Duality, the Golden Crow, the Simurgh or the likes of them, this so-called Mythical Shadow had never made itself known, even to its most staunch believer. For quite some time forces all over the world were on a hunt for it, tempted by the rumored power and might it hold over the elusive realm of shadow.
In the end, after an extensive effort and research, it was the Imperial Family of the Third Era itself that curbed the enthusiasm with an Imperial Decree.
The so-called Mythical Shadow was not a mythical deity. Every deed credited to it was simply deeds of other mythical deities that were simply unaccounted for before. They even provided an extensive list of proofs to support this, in the end the hunt died down and people believe that there was no such thing as the Mythical Shadow among the deities and divinities.
But now, Kirgio posted his inquiry in such confidence, as if he knew for sure that the Mythical Shadow did indeed exist. He even implicitly claimed that it was part of the Bestial Siblings. It made Satoshi wonder what kind of information Kirgio had on him to be so sure. He made a note to ask Kirgio if he got the chance later.
Satoshi continued to browse the board, but now he was consciously looking for Kirgio's inquiries. He was just curious what else Kirgio was working on. He smiled when he found another one, and another one, and then another one.
By the end, Satoshi's smile disappeared.
'What the..this Kirgio guy..what in the world is he planning?!'
The first and second times Satoshi only deemed those inquiries by Kirgio as interesting. But as Satoshi found more and more, it began to paint a sinister picture.
'Universal treasures, bloodline powers, reincarnation body…He even posted an open request for a specimen of Kmetafar's Warrior Gods bloodline!' Satoshi was flabbergasted by what he saw.
'There was also something about the Boundless Wave Red Arches..I don't know what they are but they sound important. But more importantly he is also looking for this…the Evil-eye!'
Satoshi recalled his conversation with Mulah and Sepphira before they separated.
'Isn't this what Mulah came here for? Something that belong to Sepphira…'
Satoshi found this Kirgio guy to be very suspicious, at least judging from his inquiries. He felt he must notify Mulah and Sepphira as soon as possible.
"Hey there, brother Satoshi."
Satoshi almost jumped out of his skin, that voice came out of nowhere with no indication that anyone was even that close to him. It was Kirgio.
"Heh-hey there brother Evil-eye." Satoshi was so startled that he twisted his words.
Kirgio was surprised by this answer but then he looked at the Inquiry board, it was the one he posted about the Evil-eye.
"Hahaha, you have anything for me about the Evil-eye?" Kirgio asked
Satoshi obviously wouldn't tell Kirgio that Sepphira might have the Evil-eye, not when he was very suspicious of Kirgio's intention with those inquiries.
"I'm sorry, I'm not even familiar of what the Evil-eye is, I'm just reading it cause I saw your name on it."
Kirgio looked at Satoshi half-believingly, then smiled at him and said, "I see, then allow me to explain in case you stumbled upon it one day."
The Evil-eye, not eyes, is a Magical artifact that originated from the Second Era. It came from a place somewhere that would now be between Asira and Kmetafar.
It was said to possess the power of prophecy, and could predict the future with utmost certainty. Among the various treasures of numeracy and predictions it had the highest degree of accuracy.
But the most terrifying thing of all was not this ability to predict the future. It was the fact that the Evil-eye was actually a half universal treasure! That meant, it was not a universal treasure at the beginning, but it could turn into one as it matures.
The Evil-eye also possessed other sinister abilities such as charms, curse, and illusion. The illusion it casted was so terrifying it was said to be impossible to break. This was due to the way the illusion itself works, it wasn't actually an illusion, but another reality other than this one where the things it prophesied didn't happen.
To mature, the Evil-eye needed to trap countless numbers of souls in its alternate realities, essentially using them as a power source to fuel its ever expanding alternate realities. Once it matured, the holder of the Evil-eye would have the power to turn and bend realities as they saw fit, or even potentially trap the whole world in a false reality!
Satoshi was fully convinced by now, that if those things were true, no one should have a hold over it.
"Why are you looking for such a sinister thing?" He asked Kirgio.
"Oh I wasn't, it was the Human King, and don't be alarmed, the Human King doesn't have the intention of ever using it, he just wants to make sure it never got to the wrong hands." Kirgio said to Satoshi, smiling all the while.
This smile looked very suspicious in Satoshi's eyes, he thought, 'Like hell he won't use it, then why would he even bother looking in the first place… '
Right now Satoshi wanted to shake off Kirgio as soon as possible and go find Mulah and Sepphira.
"Well, that was ni-"
"Have you got the chance to visit the Inner Study? " Kirgio cut him off as Satoshi was about to say his goodbyes.
"The Inner Study is a place that previous elders and masters of the Palace Museum created to reproduce a place of enlightenment from the Second Era." Kirgio explained.
Satoshi's interest was piqued so he decided to listen for now.
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"The vision about the Inner Study came to the late Royal Teacher of the Imperial Family during the Third Era, and ever since many efforts to replicate the vision that he saw had been failures. Except the one here we have in the Palace Museum. For some reasons yet unidentifiable, the one that we have here works perfectly!" Kirgio further explained
By this point Satoshi couldn't curb his curiosity, such a place with such a unique background must be quite something. He asked, "What kind of place is the Inner Study? "
"In appearance, it is just a simple study reminiscent of that of the Second Era. There are not even any kind of magic formation or restriction involved, really just a simple study. But it has become a place of great enlightenment. People that enter the study for the first time will be able to experience clarity and a state of mind that result in enlightenment. Those that have entered before, if they are facing a bottleneck they can't break through, just staying inside the room and meditating will greatly improve their perception, put them in a state of enlightenment, and essentially help them break through! "
Satoshi was very surprised to hear those descriptions, if this were true, that means people can essentially cut back on the copious amount of time and resources needed to break through! Such things were too good to be true, so obviously there must be a catch.
Kirgio almost looked disappointed as he continued, "Unfortunately, one can't be staying in it perpetually. It does help with enlightenment, but if one doesn't go out and gain experience at all, what l would one use as basis for the enlightenment?"
"So we can't abuse this unique property and instead should only use it sparingly and if really necessary, lest we stun our own growth."
"That makes sense. If it were to be without this weakness, all the big powers would have waged war over it after all. It might have even ceased to exist at this point" Satoshi thought to himself.
"So, are you curious? Want to try it out?" Kirgio asked
Satoshi would be lying if he said he wasn't tempted, he thought for a bit and after he decided it should be okay to delay looking for Mulah for a few minutes, he nodded.
Kirgio gave a wide smile and said, "Great! Let me lead you there! "
As he began leading Satoshi deeper into the common hall. The two walked away from the sparsely occupied common hall to a more secluded corridor. After they went past rows of rooms that looked like individual studies, they found a large hall.
The hall was empty with nothing on every side of the walls except a door on one of those walls. There were no windows. The entire hall was dimly illuminated by several illumination crystals, not enough to adequately lit up the large hall.
There were some academias sitting on the floor near the singular door on the wall, each of them had their eyes closed and only opened them for a brief moment when Kirgio and Satoshi arrived. After seeing who it was they closed their eyes again.
Kirgion whispered to Satoshi in a low voice, "They are either students that have just gone out of the Inner Study and are now sorting their enlightenment, or those that plan to use the Inner Study and are now gathering their thoughts. Either way, we shouldn't disturb them."
Satoshi briefly looked at those students and asked Kirgio in an equally low voice, "So how does it work, what do I need to enter the Inner Study?"
"You just open that door and enter, then you begin to meditate."
Satoshi was surprised by the seemingly simple process, "That's it? I don't need to recite a chant, make a seal, or something?"
"Hahaha, that's it. I told you it is essentially just a regular study. Oh, you need to turn on the light tho, otherwise it would be dark and that's also how others know the room is occupied."
Satoshi couldn't believe how simple it seemed, he even began to doubt if it would really work.
"Once you are inside and begin to concentrate on your thoughts you will enter a state of quiet and calmness, then your mind will become clear, and enlightenment will slowly begin to flow. How much you can get out of it depends on yourself, after all everyone is different, but generally first timers will get quite a drastic enlightenment so you should look forward to that." Kirgio tried to explain further to convince Satoshi.
Satoshi no longer hesitated and opened the door, he looked for the switch to turn on the light, when he found it and the light turned on, he saw the entirety of the study. Satoshi closed the door behind him and observed the study in a close detail.
He looked at the ceiling and saw the light source that lit this whole room. Satoshi had seen this kind of illumination crystal before, it was a model that was very popular during the Second Era and was entirely powered by electricity. On such a low amount of power it was able to produce a very bright light.
He looked at the small bookshelf on the sides, they were full of books with titles written in symbols that he hadn't seen before. He took one of them and opened the pages, but it was blank. He put it back, took another book and opened it, it was also blank.
'So the Royal Teacher's vision didn't cover the pages of these books, huh?' Satoshi thought.
Satoshi looked at the rows of books, closely reading each of their titles, he was startled when he saw a name he noticed. It was Folkien and there were several books with his name on the shelves.
"Folkien?? Is this the same Folkien that authored "The Phylogeny of Species?!" Satoshi was no longer thinking about it, he was saying his thoughts out loud.
"That can't be, right? Didn't Kirgio say the room is reminiscent of a Second Era study? What is this..dammit, I can't read what it say.. something-he..lo-something-something..of.. something-he..something-in-something, how the fuck would I understand that.."
"Lets try this one, something-something-e…something-il-something-something-something-illion, fuck that wasn't any better..what the fuck is an "illion" does it mean million? or billion? or maybe trillion?? Fuck I dont even know..." Satoshi put back the book onto the shelves, he was kinda pissed.
Satoshi stopped looking at the shelves because the books pissed him off. He only noticed Folkien names because he once saw it when he read Folkie's work "The Phylogeny of Species", there was an excerpt that showed a copy of an original note made by Folkien and his name was on it. It was written in different symbols than the ones Commoners used.
Satoshi looked away from the book shelves and to the rest of the study. There were two tables, one bigger, the other smaller. There were stationeries on top of those tables. On the bigger table Satoshi saw some kind of device that he felt familiar about.
"This looked a lot like that illuminated slab of crystal that I dreamed of, is this some kind of display unit?" Satoshi was unsure
There was also an integrated control unit with unique input nodes. Satoshi tried pressing the input nodes but nothing happened, the machine didn't seem to be operational.
Satoshi took a final look around and finally sat down in one of the chairs facing the table. He recalled what Kirgio told him, it didn't look like he was lying, this looked like a regular study room.
Satoshi closed his eyes and began trying to calm and concentrate with his mind. He was actually quite curious what kind of enlightenment he will get out of this. Satoshi took his time and wasn't impatient, his mind slowly began calmer and calmer as he put aside all distracting thoughts.
It got to the point Satoshi could hear the sound of his own breathing and his own heart beating in his chest. The faint quivers of his eyes movements were gone from his closed eyelids, his pulse beating slower and slower.
Within his mind he could feel the space begin to expand outward and the few scattered thoughts seemed to grow smaller and smaller as they floated around.
Suddenly Satoshi felt something that woke him from his meditation, he unconsciously opened his eyes to have a look. The feeling came from a space near him on the right side of the table he was facing, but when Satoshi looked, there was nothing.
'Did I imagine it?' Satoshi thought to himself, but since he found nothing he no longer paid it any mind and was going to continue to meditate.
Right after Satoshi closed his eyes another feeling came from somewhere near the other table behind him. This time Satoshi was quick enough to react and he caught a glimpse of something moving, but it quickly went without a trace.
'Now I'm sure I definitely didn't imagine that, heck, I even saw it! What the hell was that?' Satoshi thought to himself.
'Is this supposed to be some kind of test? To see if I can calmly meditate and deserve to get enlightenment?' He began to wonder as his eyes glued to the table behind him. He waited for quite some time but still found nothing and was convinced that it must be some kind of test as he suspected.
Satoshi turned back his gaze to the table in front of him, intending to continue his meditation, but that was when he saw the shadow on the table. The rustic Second Era display unit did indeed cast a shadow on the table and Satoshi had noticed this before, but right now the shadow seemed…darker.
Satoshi squinted his eyes as he tried to focus better on the shadow, he felt like his senses were messing with him right now. As Satoshi drew closer to the display unit, the shadow that was now darker did something he totally didn't expect, it moved!
The shadow moved so fast as it was jumping toward him, it happened so quickly Satoshi didn't even get the chance to avoid it. He only got the chance to curse, "Fuck nope!!"
Unexpectedly, the thing that looked like a shadow didn't touch Satoshi at all, it went through him instead. Satoshi was startled that something just "went through" him like that so he spontaneously turned around to look.
On the floor where it met the wall behind him, Satoshi saw a patch of dark shadow that should be there.
"What the fuck is that?? Is this some kind of prank, am I getting punked?!" If Satoshi was startled by the unexpected thing before, now he was kind of scared.
Before he could react in any way, though, the patch of shadow "melted' onto the wall behind it. It moved up slowly up the wall and casted a dark shadow over it. Satoshi could only watch as horror slowly drenched him the higher the shadow crawled up the wall.
"No, god!" Screamed Satoshi, he didn't realize that his voice had suddenly turned hoarse.
"No, god please no. No!" The shadow didn't care about his pledge and had now moved to the ceiling.
"No! NO!" His scream got louder and louder as if by doing so he thought the shadow would recede. But it moved nonetheless and had now covered the entire ceiling.
It finally stopped when the entire ceiling of the study was covered in shadow, Satoshi stood there with his gaze drilled to the ceiling, absolutely terrified. If there were any other person in this room right now they would see something very strange, a man and a shadow, locked in a staring contest, as if waiting for what the other was going to do next.
Satoshi stared at the ceiling for quite a few seconds unsure of what to do when, suddenly, he felt a chill crept down his spine and his mind overwhelmed with premonition of what was going to happen next.
"NOOOOOO!!" Satoshi let out a long shriek as he watched his premonition came true, the shadow went at him! This time, it was no small patch of shadow, but instead the whole entire shadow there was in this study room!
Satoshi could no longer hold it and let out a blood-curdling scream that sounded inhuman. He almost kicked the study room door off its hinges as he hauled his ass out of the room. Outside, the few students that were gathering their thoughts were flabbergasted when he saw Satoshi ran out like that, terrified for his life.
Satoshi didn't even look at those students as he ran, he wanted to quickly get away from the inner study. Heck, he even wanted to get the hell out of the Palace Museum even. He almost completely ran over Sepphira and Mulah when he got to the corridor lined with the private study rooms.
Mulah and Sepphira were entirely confused why Satoshi would run for his life like that, both of them asked what was wrong at the same time.
To which Satoshi replied, "Ghoterfuckers there was a mhost!!"