Felix spun around. His boots didn't hit stone; they hit something that looked like cracked porcelain, stretching infinitely in every direction.
Standing behind him was the devil.
"Who are you?" Felix’s voice was a ragged whisper.
"I am the entity that stands at the end of the world," the creature replied, its voice a discordant harmony of a thousand whispers. "My identity is nothing of interest right now. But you, little omen, you are something far more interesting. Do not tremble. I am here to give you a gift. Let us take a walk."
[Sutra: The Palace of Silk]
Adam and Noah moved through the corridors of Serica.
"Why do you think she wants to see us now?" Adam asked.
"We don’t have all the time of the world to stay here. If we’re going to the Kingdom of Light to find Evelyn, the window is closing. I hope that’s the motif of this call.'"
They entered the presence of Selena.
The Mother of Silk was draped across her throne. Lian Mei stood beside her, the other two royal guards, Jian and Tor, weren’t present.
"Welcome back, blossoming flowers," Selena purred. Her voice as elegant as always. "How was your stay in Serica?"
"It was great," Adam said, bowing his head.
"Thank you for your hospitality," Noah added. "We truly can't express how much we appreciate your protection."
"The trip to the Kingdom of Light is closing in. But we are not merely going to rescue your friend, young men. There is something we must bring back. Something of the outmost importance."
"Bringing?" Noah’s brow furrowed. "Does it have to do with Kaiser?"
"Partially," Selena whispered. "It has."
[The Place Between Worlds]
The Entity led Felix through a shifting landscape. The are around him gave way to a memory.
Felix saw himself at five years old. The air smelled of damp stone. He was in a cave in Sutra, his original homeland, holding his father’s hand. His biological father looked young, his eyes bright with the fever of discovery.
"Look, Felix!" his father shouted, pointing toward a pile of ruins.
In the center of the chamber sat a Giant Dice. It was carved from a single block of translucent jade, and as the light hit it, Felix saw that every side was carved with six pips.
The young Felix, driven by a child's curiosity, broke away from his father's grip.
"No, Felix! Wait!"
It was too late. Felix’s small palm pressed against the cold jade surface.
The moment of contact was particularly silent, until it wasn’t. The ceiling groaned, a sound like a giant’s teeth grinding together. Rubble began to rain down, massive slabs of limestone that obliterated everything.
Felix saw his younger self being shoved into a crevice by his father. He saw his father’s face, not with anger, but with a terrifying realization, just before a three-ton pillar flattened him.
"Do you know why your father brought you there?" the Entity asked, its needle-fingers brushing Felix’s shoulder.
"Why... why did he?" Felix sobbed.
"The cave was safe. And he knew that very well. But the moment you touched the Dice, the probability of the ceiling holding became zero. Your 'luck' is not a random favor, Felix. It is an anomaly. The luck that defined your life was never a coincidence."
"Does my luck... does it strip it from everyone else?"
"Precisely," the Entity hissed. "For you to land on a six, a thousand other people must land on a one. Your sister’s health, your father’s life, they are the fuel for your miracles.'"
[Sutra]
"The thing we must retrieve," Selena said, "is an artifact. Or rather, a fragment of a soul."
"An artifact?" Adam asked. "I Didn’t think such a thing existed."
"When the previous Original died, the one who came before you, Adam, his resonance was too heavy for the earth to swallow. It imbued itself into objects, each holding parts of the curses he copied. They became named as the Solomon’s Remnants."
[The Place Between Worlds]
"I can take it from you," the Entity said, leaning close. "Your luck. I can wash it from your veins and make you a normal boy again. Your sister will breathe easily. Your life will be quiet, bitter, and beautifully ordinary. But you must take something from me in exchange."
"Anything," Felix gasped, his eyes wild. "I would do anything to get this curse away."
"Then take another," the Entity smiled. A door of black glass manifested in the void.
[Sutra]
"Solomon fragmented into twelve Remnants," Selena explained, her fingers tracing a pattern in the air. " And one of them... the one we need the most right now... is in the Kingdom of Light."
"Why that one specifically?" Adam asked.
[The Place Between Worlds]
The deal was done. Felix felt a sudden, agonizing lightness in his chest, as if a parasitic twin had been surgically removed. He felt... heavy. He felt the cold. He felt normal.
He walked toward the black door, but stopped.
"That giant dice," Felix asked, looking back at the Entity. "What was it, really?"
[Sutra]
"Based on its premise," Selena said, "it is the only thing that can help us find the path to Kaiser, I don’t know how it works exactly, but I’m sure it was used for similar purposes in the past.", she stopped talking for a second.
"The Remnant you will be looking for,".
[The Place Between Worlds]
"That was a piece of the man who tried to be a god," the Devil replied.
[Sutra]
"It is Solomon’s Wisdom: The Monolith of the Path."
[The Place Between Worlds]
"That was Solomon’s Luck : The Die of Six."
[Sutra: The Heart of the Web]
"Those Remnants," Adam said, "They hold cursed power, right? But the epoch... it only just started. How can they work outside its cycle? Were they working even before I took a bite from the apple?".
"Yes, they persist," she said. "Curses are born and die with the epoch’s activation, a temporary fever of the world. But the Remnants are different. They are not just power; they are the crystallized weight of a man who refused to be forgotten. They are the scars left on reality. We still don't know why they endure, only that they do."
"Then this Monolith," Noah interrupted, his voice sharp, masking the growing unease in his chest. "Where is it?"
"I have no idea," Selena’s projection purred, her eyes shifting toward the shadows. "But based on the few informations I have, I’m certain it is somewhere in the Kingdom of Light."
Noah nodded, his mind already calculating the logistics. "Then we finish the training and start the journey?"
"No," Selena said. The word was a soft snap, like a thread breaking. "You won't be going with him, Noah."
The silence that followed was absolute. Noah’s breath hitched. His throat tightened, the muscle jumping in his neck unable to process such a sentence. "What does that even mean?" His voice was a jagged, cracking. "I... wh… why?."
"You will stay here," Selena commanded. She finally moved, a slow, fluid motion. "There is much you must learn. Your power is special, Noah."
"But Adam, "
"Lian Mei will accompany him," Selena said, her eyes flicking to where Lian stood. "Along with a detachment of trained warriors that I will send with him. He will be protected by the most efficient soldiers in Sutra. You, however, are needed for something else."
"But, why does Noah have to stay here, what is it that you need him for?", Adam asked with an agitated voice.
"Because I'm like her," Noah whispered, the realization hitting him with the force of a raging tide.
"Precisely. I am impressed you already picked on that Noah.", she said with a proud tone.
"What does that mean?", Adam looked back at Noah who stood at his side, with a confused expression.
"I am connected to every Eldritch beast and Holder in this kingdom. The moth you rode didn't attack you because its mind is a peripheral of my own. I found you before anybody else because I had eyes on the City of light, I saw it burn because my threads are buried in the very nerves of the world."
"The tunnels," Adam said, his voice hushed with horror. "The Silk... you spread yourself by silk underground, and you have you subordinates act as scouts who are connected to you by that silk."
"At a heavy price," Selena said.
In the center of the room, behind a veil of translucent silk, sat the Cocoon.
Adam stared at the mass. It was a grotesque, pulsating mound of white fibers, several meters high. It didn't look like stone; it looked like a lung. Every few seconds, it expanded and contracted like a giant, bioluminescent organ. It was impressive.
Suddenly, the projection of Selena stopped moving. She stood like a wax doll, that same serene smile fixed on her face.
"I have been in this form for two hundred years."
The voice didn't come from the projection. It erupted from the Cocoon itself, a gargantuan, echoing sound that vibrated the very stones of the dome. It was the voice of an almighty divinity, layered with the resonance of a thousand hollow chambers.
"The body you see before you is a projection, a ghost made of silk. My real self is fused into this cocoon. I cannot leave. I cannot sleep. I am the machine that keeps Serica breathing, further more, this primary cocoon only holds sixty percent of my soul, two other smaller empty cocoons are spread around the world, each holding twenty percent of it, one is in the southern continent, the other is in the kingdom of light."
"You're trapped," Adam whispered.
"Yes. That is right. Perhaps this form was needed to ensure I could find you before Utopia or anyone else does, but now it has become unnecessary. However, going back to my old self now is impossible."
"Does Utopia know you are compromised?" Noah asked, his voice now showing clear stress.
"Luckily, they don’t. But if they do, we will have new problems to face."
"So what is your plan?" Adam asked, his eyes darting between the still projection and the breathing mass. "Is there really no solution to this?"
"As I said, we have to find Kaiser, as he is our only hope."
The room went silent for a moment, until Selena broke it
"I was planning to extend your stay here for another month Adam, but due to an urgent circumstance, your departure will be in two days, we prepared the team that will accompany you, under the lead of Lian Mei."
"May I ask the reason behind this urgency?", Adam asked with a worried voice.
"Utopia is coming."
[The Cathedral]
Felix stood on the dais, and for the first time in his life, the air felt thin. The crushing weight that had sat on his chest since he was five years old was gone. He felt light. He was liberated.
He looked down at the long, snaking line of desperate people, a parade of human ruin that seemed to bleed into the very architecture of the Cathedral.
The first in line, a merchant who had once commanded fleets, placed a velvet box on the altar. His hands shook so violently that the emeralds inside clattered. Behind him, a mother reached up with a trembling blade that carried stories and was a family treasure.
Then came the old farmer, his knuckles swollen and caked in the very earth he was surrendering; he smoothed a yellowed, brittle parchment onto the stone, a deed to ancestral lands that had survived centuries only to be traded for a single pinch of black dust. He was followed by a blind man who didn't speak, but simply wept as he handed the worn leather leash of his guide-dog to a silent guard, severing his last link to the visible world just to stay within it.
The weight of the tragedy grew heavier with every step. Finally, a scholar offered up a collection of rare, leather-bound scrolls, the only copies of a forgotten history.
Each item was a life dismantled. And the more rare and valuable it was, the more soil they got.
Maybe the luck I provided was enough, Felix thought, his mind finally quiet. I’m not needed here anymore. Even if the 'miracles' stop... Anika will be okay. The siphon is closed. She'll get her breath back, and this soil, it is special with or without me, this fake ritual should be stopped.
His father, Alaro, stood to his left, looking out over the crowd with that same greedy smile. He turned his head slightly toward Felix, his rings glinting.
"Felix," Alaro murmured, his voice booming with artificial warmth. "The chant. The people are waiting for the Omen to speak."
Felix took a breath. He felt his lungs expand fully, no longer restricted by the guilt he always felt.
Everybody will be fine, he thought.
The world went red this time, not white.
A fountain of warm liquid erupted over Felix’s face. It was thick and hot, sticking to his eyelashes and clogging his nostrils.
He looked to his left.
Alaro Asher was still standing, but the blonde hair and the proud smile were gone. Where his father’s head had been, there was only a jagged, pulsing stump. Blood soaking the white ceremonial brocade.
The body swayed for a heartbeat, the rings still catching the light on the twitching fingers, before it collapsed.
The silence in the Cathedral lasted for exactly one second. Then, the screaming began.
Felix stood frozen, the "Soil" on his hands mixing with his father’s blood. He realized then that the Entity hadn't just taken his luck, it had taken the shield that kept the world's claws from finding this settlement.