It hit Vincent all at once. So that's what the ever-growing blessing slots and the ever-growing army of "employees" were building toward.
With a hungry box like this in play, no amount of grey crystal would ever feel like enough.
Which put him in a dilemma: advance to a higher Sequence as a priority, or try the Nation of Disorder's Dark Box and see what you could pull from it?
Rationally, advancing should come first — hitting demigod was the first real watershed in the world of Lord of the Mysteries. But what if the Dark Box could yield something of even higher value…?
Let's experiment first and see what this thing actually does.
Vincent raised a hand, broke off the one peanut-sized fragment of grey crystal left on the Scale's left pan, and while continuing to feed the Scale spirituality, gave the mental command to activate the Dark Box.
The next instant, boundless darkness poured outward from his body and swallowed everything around him in the same way it had during the advancement. In moments he was standing in the dark again, the twelve chairs lit from above, the black vortex spinning at the centre.
His spirituality nudged him: throw the crystal into the vortex.
"So this whole dark space is the 'dark box' that the Nation of Disorder built."
He gazed at the vortex, wondering what — or who — was on the other side.
He stepped forward, held up the grey crystal between two fingers, and flicked it in.
It disappeared without a sound.
A few seconds later, the vortex slowed and gradually formed a round, pitch-black opening.
Following his spirituality's prompting, Vincent extended his hand into the dark opening — feeling around in a space that seemed no different from the outside — and his fingers closed on something hard and cold.
He pulled his hand back.
A heavy silver pistol gleamed up at him.
!!!!!
Vincent's eyes went wide. He stared.
The gun in his hand was unmistakably a Desert Eagle.
He quickly dropped the magazine, checked it over completely, and confirmed: yes, this was a real Desert Eagle.
But how had a Desert Eagle ended up in the world of Lord of the Mysteries?
Could Roselle have had one made as a toy for himself at some point?
...
Back in reality, Bernadette had been waiting for Vincent to return for quite some time and was starting to wonder. Every previous advancement had had him back in his body quickly, then immediately blindsided by the negative aftereffects. Had he not taken the "potion" yet? Or was this advancement genuinely different from the ones before?
It was different, yes — because this time, unlike before, there had been no supplementary ritual.
Don't tell me something's gone wrong.
She entered the Nation of Disorder herself, made her way to the parlour, recited the Lord of Chaos's Honorific Name, and called out to ask what was happening.
No response.
She waited patiently a while longer, then returned to reality and continued to wait.
Time slipped by. Without noticing, it had reached 8 AM Loen time. And then, in a brief moment of disorientation, Bernadette felt her body again and took back control.
"Ssss."
Her brow creased. A sharp, tearing pain ran through her body — the lingering damage from the Ambition State. Even a demigod's rapid recovery didn't seem to do much against this kind of after-effect.
"It's been hours. Whatever it is, it should be finished by now. What happened to him?"
Bernadette felt her worry increasing. Taking the advancement potion wasn't guaranteed to go smoothly at the best of times — especially when the "potion" came from something as unknown as the Scale, and when there hadn't been any ritual involved. What if—
No.
Nothing has gone wrong.
She rose and went to the window, looking out at the sea beyond, still dark and restless, letting her mind settle.
After a while, she retrieved two things from the hidden compartment: the Wishing Compass, and the Wishing Lamp. Both left behind by Father — one entrusted to Nast and his descendants, the other hidden in the tomb connected to the Tudor family.
Why had Father hidden both of them? Was the "danger" he'd warned Nast about the same as what that priest had described?
"Studying those two things again?"
Suddenly Vincent's voice sounded in her mind.
Bernadette's heart jumped. She said urgently: "You're back? Are you alright?"
Vincent asked, genuinely puzzled: "Why wouldn't I be? You didn't fuss like this after any of my other advancements."
"You've been in the Nation of Disorder for three or four hours."
"What?"
Vincent went still. "That can't be right — I couldn't have been in there more than ten minutes." Then the implication caught up with him. "And we've already swapped?"
"So after I entered the Nation of Disorder, our time went out of sync?"
They both knew the two worlds didn't move at the same speed — three days in the LOTM world corresponded to a week in the HP world. But that was a different matter. He'd just been inside the Nation of Disorder.
He told her everything: the advancement to Sequence 5, the Dark Box and its abilities, all of it. "…And that's the only ability Sequence 5 gave me. My spirituality increased considerably across the board, of course, and all the previous abilities got stronger. And now I can use your Clairvoyant Pathway's first five Sequences freely as well."
Bernadette listened, thought for a moment, then said: "If the time desynchronisation really was caused by you entering the Dark Box inside the Nation of Disorder, then the Dark Box itself has a serious problem."
"What do you mean?"
"You said the Nation of Disorder's Dark Box is built around the Scale and can receive unknown things from the 'outside.' So — what does 'outside' mean here? Is it the world outside the Nation of Disorder?"
Vincent understood immediately. "You're saying it might be… my old world?"
"Just saying the possibility exists," Bernadette said quietly. "But consider — the gun you pulled out of that black vortex: isn't it from your world?"
Compared to the scenario where Roselle had personally engineered a Desert Eagle as a novelty, Bernadette's guess had considerably more going for it. Combine that with the fact that the Nation of Disorder was apparently what had triggered the soul exchange between them in the first place, and that it could be used to communicate across the two worlds — the likelihood only grew.
Vincent had a dim feeling that the mystery of their soul exchange was getting closer to being solved.
But he also felt something like disappointment. If true, it meant the Nation of Disorder's Dark Box was of drastically limited value to them — the gap between what the two worlds could produce was simply too great.
Even if he pulled a nuclear warhead out of it, for an angel-level Beyonder it would just be a somewhat larger firecracker.
"On the practical applications of Dark Box in combat — what's your thinking?"
To be continued…
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