Chapter 9: Misunderstandings

  Mr. Magician looked down in embarrassment, not knowing that Ms. Astral was smiling in front of him. After getting off the carriage, the two of them walked into the detective agency and saw a tall blond haired man standing at the counter.

  “Ah! You’re back!”

  A calm and happy voice filled the mystics’ ears. Ms. Astral was the first to greet the tall man because Mr. Magician was still feeling rather embarrassed.

  “Good evening, Andrew. For now, it’s only the two of us. Olivia is turning around to pick up the others.”

  “Why did you split off?”

  Ms. Astral looked at Mr. Magician then at Andrew and pondered on what to say for a moment before speaking.

  “The new guy’s desires are going haywire. He was ogling my nape in the carriage.”

  “Huh?!”

  Mr. Magician looked up from the floor and looked at the short haired woman in front of him. She had a rather tame but mischievous smile on her face.

  “Wait, desires?”

  Ms. Astral turned her body to fully face him after hearing his question. Andrew did his best to hold back his laughter behind his hand, but soft giggles leaked out.

  …

  After seeing his subordinates leave through the front door. Rouge started exorcizing the spirits. He inspected the burned bodies in the room that Mr. Magician had sealed.

  “Except from them being burned, the bodies look untouched from how we last saw them.”

  The captain turned to talk to Mr. Zephyr. Zephyr was a rather tall and muscular man. Though he can boast about his height, in front of Rouge, his muscles pale in comparison.

  “I agree. Good thing the new guy, the Magician, was it? Didn’t eat them.”

  “He probably didn’t get a chance to. Keep an eye on him! To think his desires lean towards a demonic nature.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The two of them heard a knock coming from the door as Ms. Snow stepped in moments later.

  “Captain, Mr. Zephyr! The Sleepless from the church of dreams have recounted their experiences after separating from Mr. Zephyr and

  Ms. Astral.”

  Rouge answered calmly. He nodded slightly before speaking.

  “I see… Did they say something worth our attention?”

  “Yes! Apparently, their teammates got hurt and they sealed themselves into a room. Moments after they heard a weird sound and decided to ask if someone was outside.

  A mystic was standing outside, they asked if the mystic could help them by chasing away the spirits.

  The mystic answered that he was there for the spirits and that we, the believers of the silver moon has come.”

  Zephyr listened attentively but noticed something odd in Ms. Snow’s report.

  “The unknown mystic called us believers of the silver moon?”

  “Yes…”

  Both Zephyr and Mr. Rouge understood something from that simple sentence.

  A smile cracked on Ms. Snow’s face as she did her best to keep a straight face. Rouge was the first one to say anything.

  “Continue, Ms. Snow.”

  “Yes! They divined if they could trust the mystic before asking him to handle the spirits. Apparently, it came out as a failure. At that time, they used the Coin Flip Divination method.”

  The smile on Mr. Rouge’s face grew larger and Mr. Zephyr had trouble holding back his laughter.

  “As to not anger the mystic outside the door, they decided to trust him. After me and Mr. Specter found them, they tried to perform another divination. This time they used Spirit Pendulum Divination.”

  “How many Divination Spirit Characteristics did the one doing the divination have?”

  When Ms. Snow heard her Captain’s question she had difficulty holding back her laughter and answered with a grand smile.

  “One, but the mystic had six spirit characteristics. Rather low for a sleepless out on a mission. They were probably sent as to gain some experience.”

  Mr. Rouge bellowed a loud laugh as he looked at Zephyr and Ms. Snow. After calming himself down, Mr. Rouge looked at Ms. Snow as she continued to explain.

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  “Our newbie has 2 Divination characteristics and technically 2

  Anti-Divination characteristics if you count the spirit in his pendant.

  Which means that he is practically invisible to the current team of Sleepless.

  They only know that a powerful mystic has come into town, the Magician.”

  …

  Ms. Astral led Mr. Magician into the underground temple while explaining that the thoughts of wanting to commit cannibalism was the desires that stems from the spirits he had contracted.

  “One of my guesses is that because you contracted four spirit characteristics at once as your first time, you received an ever worse desire than what you would have developed if you had contracted the spirits one by one.

  Its either that or the spirit you contracted had absorbed at least one demon before you had met it, meaning that the impulse you received after you made a contract comes from a demon.”

  Mr. Magician barely heard anything that Ms. Astral said. He focused on what he was going to do in the future… I have to quench these desires at some point, but cannibalism.

  A problem with a solution Mr. Magician feared and was disgusted by appeared.

  Ms. Astral noticed that the new employee had a very heavy expression on his face. She thought for a moment and then sighed.

  “I need your help with something.”

  The young man in a dark suit was dragged out of his own thoughts and looked at Ms. Astral as he asked his question.

  “With what?”

  “Nothing dangerous… for you.”

  For me? Does she mean that what she needs help with is dangerous for her or someone else… Magician thought for a moment. Before he could say anything, Ms. Astral interrupted him.

  “I have been hunting cultist for days, then the haunted house happened. My desires are much worse than yours right now. I need someone to get me out of the water after I lose consciousness.”

  “Huh?”

  Before Mr. Magician could ask a question, Astral stripped, took off her suit jacket and black vest, then jumped into the water full of silver fishes… Another woman jumped into the water in front of me. Why do they do that?

  Mr. Magician was shocked by the fact that now two people had jumped into the temple waters right in front of him.

  He took a step closer to the edge and watched as Ms. Astral struggled for air in the water. Unsure of what to do, he simply watched and waited for her to lose consciousness as he was told to do.

  After two whole minutes, Ms. Astral stopped struggling and started floating up to the surface. Mr. Magician saw this as his cue to take off his black suit jacket and purple cape.

  He jumped into the water and swam towards the floating meal. He shifted her body and held her head up so she could breathe.

  After waiting for a moment, Mr. Magician started to worry… Why isn’t she waking up? Should I do something? But what?

  Ms. Astral opened her eyes and started breathing heavily. Unable to swim on her own, she leaned into Mr. Magician’s arms. The scene was straight out of a novel.

  The water in Ms. Astral’s short hair dripped down elegantly, almost seductively. Mr. Magician’s eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to her wet skin.

  He held back as much as he could, but he noticed that he was slowly opening his mouth… Bite her, what are you waiting for? Why don’t you do it? It will be incredible. Look at her skin! Doesn’t she look tasty?

  Unknown voices filled Mr. Magician’s head. Madness was slowly taking over his mind, feeding his desires for blood and flesh… After tasting her blood and flesh, why don’t you move on to that guy on the first floor?

  Magician felt how there was multiple entities within his body. Each one of these entities screamed out in madness and pleasure. They all pushed him to feast upon the meal in front of him.

  The water around Ms. Astral and Mr. Magician was stained black. As if noticing the impurities in the water, the silver fishes stopped swimming around and looked at them.

  Unable to hold back, he drew the beautiful woman in her twenties closer to his body. Just as he was about to bite, the fishes in the water started swimming sporadically beneath them.

  Starting from the outer parts of the black water and moving in towards the pair of mystics, the silver fishes purified the water, Mr. Magician regained his sanity when the water turned pure.

  The woman in his arms regained her lucidity and felt around her neck with her hand. After inspecting her body, she locked eyes with the young man that was panting loudly while holding her.

  Mr. Magician was in a sudden daze, he didn’t feel Ms. Astral pushing away from him. His mind was preoccupied by the feeling of having foreign entities within himself.

  He felt scared, sad, but something was still hiding within him. Something different from what he felt before. It was quiet, silently watching him.

  “Let go…”

  Mr. Magician snapped to and regained his lucidity after hearing Ms. Astral’s voice and let her go. He watched as she swam away.

  She got up to the large circular platform connected to the three bridges and looked at the young man in the water in front of her. With a graceful movement of her hand, Mr. Magician was carried by a strong current and was gently put down on the marble platform.

  “Right, I forgot.”

  With another movement of her hand, a giant gust of wind enveloped the two of them, drying their clothes within a moment.

  Astral made some gestures with her hand and small droplets of water levitated from the pool with fishes and a gentle but warm wind enveloped the two of them.

  Their clothes were not only dried but also ironed to perfection. She then gestured towards the clothes on the floor, and a wind picked them up, handing the respective piece of clothing to its rightful owner.

  Mr. Magician watched in disbelief, while Ms. Astral took something out of her suit jacket and gave it to him.

  “Next time, bite. Having to draw blood now and then is a chore.”

  The young man quietly looked at what she had placed in his hand and recognized it. It was the same blood vial the captain had shown Shade on his second day in the temple… How do I know that it is the same vial?

  “Now, drink!”

  Shade was reluctant to even open the vial, much less drink the content. His will to drink blood disappeared after being in the temple’s water.

  Ms. Astral noticed his reaction to the blood, she sighed and grabbed the vial from his hand. She punched him in the stomach and then threw him to the ground and sat down on him, restricting his movements.

  She opened the vial, grabbed Shade’s mouth and held it open with brute force. She poured the content into Shade’s mouth while he squirmed below her in an attempt to get free.

  When the liquid touched his tongue, Shade stopped squirming and felt great ecstasy. After gulping down the liquid in his mouth, Shade noticed a difference with his mental state. The madness and desires had lessened significantly.

  “You are a mystic now, act like it. Or do you want to die an early death?”

  A calm but harsh voice reminded Shade about his current situation. Tears started to stream down from his eyes. Mr. Magician nodded and wiped his tears as he gave an answer.

  “I understand…”

  With his hand covering his face, Mr. Magician panted heavily as he heard footsteps approaching.

  “What are you two doing?”

  The pair of mystics looked towards the direction of the stone staircase. There stood their comrades watching the current scene of one of their coworkers mounting the other in the middle of the temple. Ms. Astral was the first one to speak.

  “He helped me with something.”

  “With an itch you couldn’t reach?”

  “Specter… kindly die.”