For the past few days, I felt like I had been doing nothing but walking back and forth between Grim's hut and the Royal Palace.
Palace.
Hut.
Palace.
Hut.
At this point, even the road between the two places felt like my second home.
I pushed open the wooden door to Grim's workshop.
As expected...
He was buried beneath a mountain of books.
Actually, calling it a mountain would be an understatement.
The entire workshop had practically disappeared beneath stacks of ancient tomes. Books covered the floor, filled the tables, leaned against the walls, and had even been piled up high enough to nearly reach the ceiling.
I stared at the scene.
“Grim.”
No response.
I stepped farther inside.
“Sir Craftsman of Death?”
Still nothing.
I sighed.
“It looks like your pile of books has somehow gotten even larger. Care to explain?”
A muffled voice answered from somewhere deep within the mountain.
“These are books about fairytales, Sir Crimson Card.”
I froze.
Fairytales?
For some reason, I had been hearing that word far too often recently.
I walked around the nearest stack.
“Grim, why exactly are you reading fairytales?”
“I am researching.”
“Researching what?”
“Everything.”
That wasn't an answer.
I pushed aside another pile.
“Where are you?”
“I am here.”
The voice came from directly in front of me.
I moved another book.
Then another.
And there he was.
Grim was sitting in the middle of a literal cage made out of books, with only his head and shoulders visible.
I stared at him.
“Can I ask what you're doing in there?”
“Researching.”
“Why are you imprisoned inside your own books?”
“Deep thinking.”
I rubbed my forehead.
“I genuinely don't know how to respond to you anymore.”
Grim simply looked at me.
Then his expression changed.
A strange excitement appeared in his eyes.
“Erik.”
“What?”
“You are going to be extremely interested in what I discovered.”
That caught my attention.
“Did you find Angel?”
“No.”
“Nemesis?”
“No.”
“Then what exactly did you find?”
Grim slowly pulled himself out from between the books.
His usual careless expression was gone.
“We are in serious trouble.”
I stared at him.
“How serious?”
He picked up one of the ancient books.
“Potentially world-ending.”
I sighed.
“Can you stop speaking in riddles and tell me what you found?”
Grim opened the book.
“The books you brought from the Royal Archives were extraordinary.”
“And?”
“They contain countless historical accounts.”
“Stories?”
“Yes.”
“Fairytales?”
Grim nodded.
“But there's something strange about them.”
He turned several pages.
“The same story keeps appearing.”
My expression hardened.
“Which story?”
Grim placed the book on the table.
“The Incantation of Evil.”
I frowned.
“That again?”
“You've heard of it.”
“Yes.”
I remembered the legend we'd uncovered before.
The ancient darkness.
The Phantoms.
The thirteen Supreme Devils.
The hero who defeated them.
The mysterious Angel.
And the sealing of the darkness.
“What did you find?”
Grim pointed toward the books surrounding us.
“Every single one of these books contains another fragment of that story.”
“Another fragment?”
“Yes.”
He tapped the page.
“The problem is that the stories are not identical.”
I looked closer.
“Different versions?”
“Exactly.”
Grim's voice became increasingly serious.
“Different eras recorded different fragments. Some describe locations. Some describe appearances. Some describe battles. Others describe strange phenomena connected to the Incantation of Evil.”
I slowly understood.
“The stories aren't different.”
“They're pieces of the same history.”
Grim nodded.
“Precisely.”
He flipped another page.
“And that leads to the problem.”
He looked directly at me.
“The Incantation of Evil was never completely destroyed.”
My expression froze.
“What?”
“Eight hundred years ago, the darkness was sealed within the Mountains of Desmondes.”
“I know.”
“But the entire Incantation wasn't destroyed.”
Grim pointed toward another passage.
“A single fragment escaped.”
I stared at the words.
“I know that as well what happened after that?”
“Another fragment emerged one hundred years later.”
My eyes widened.
“Wait.”
I stepped closer.
“You mean there wasn't just one fragment?”
“No.”
Grim shook his head.
“There are multiple fragments.”
My mind raced.
“How many?”
“One fragment every hundred years.”
Silence.
I stared at him.
“Since the war eight hundred years ago?”
“Correct.”
“Then...”
I counted silently.
“One at the beginning.”
“Then another one hundred years later.”
Grim nodded.
“Then another.”
My voice became quieter.
“Eight fragments...”
“Not quite.”
He pointed at the book.
“The first fragment was already present when the original Incantation of Evil was sealed. The subsequent fragments were released afterward.”
I frowned.
“So how many are out there now?”
“Seven additional fragments.”
I stared at him.
“Seven?”
Grim nodded.
“And according to the ancient records, only one more fragment is necessary to restore the Incantation of Evil to its complete form.”
My blood ran cold.
“One more?”
“Yes.”
“So you're telling me that after eight hundred years...”
I looked toward the window.
“...we are one fragment away.”
“Exactly.”
I slowly turned back toward him.
“Why are you so calm?”
Grim shrugged.
“Because we're seven hundred years late.”
Silence.
I stared at him.
Then I finally spoke.
“That's exactly why I'm angry!”
I slammed my palm against the table.
“We're seven hundred years late! We can't just sit around and wait for the final fragment to appear!”
Grim calmly picked up another book.
“We can find them.”
I stopped.
“How?”
“These books contain locations.”
“What?”
“Each fragment left traces behind. Ancient records, sightings, legends, unexplained disasters...”
He stacked several books on the table.
“They all point toward places where the fragments appeared.”
My expression changed.
“So you're saying...”
“Yes.”
Grim smiled.
“We can hunt them.”
I stared at the books.
Then at Grim.
Then back at the books.
“So my job now is to track down the fragments of the Incantation of Evil before they destroy the world?”
Grim nodded.
“You're starting to understand.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Then tell me who is going to find Angel.”
Grim remained silent.
“And who is going to find Nemesis?”
Silence.
I stared harder.
“Grim.”
“Yes?”
“I only have two years and ten months left on my contract.”
“I am aware.”
“I have an entire world to investigate.”
“I know.”
“Angel.”
“Yes.”
“Nemesis.”
“Yes.”
“The Incantation of Evil.”
“Yes.”
I pointed at myself.
“And somehow, all three of these problems are now my responsibility?”
Grim shrugged.
“I don't see another suitable candidate.”
I stared at him.
“You know, sometimes I really want to kill you.”
“I know.”
“Give me one reason not to.”
Grim smiled.
“Without me, you wouldn't even know where to start.”
I went silent.
...
Dammit.
He was right.
I took a deep breath.
“Fine.”
I sat down beside the pile of books.
“Tell me where the first fragment is.”
Grim's expression changed.
“You're going to start hunting them already?”
“No.”
I stood again.
“I have another objective.”
“Angel?”
“Exactly.”
I clenched my fist.
“I have less than three years to kill Angel. I can't spend the entire time chasing ancient fragments unless they directly connect to him.”
Grim nodded.
“That's why you need information.”
“Then where do we get it?”
Grim reached for another book.
“The Land of Vampires.”
I blinked.
“The Land of Vampires?”
“Yes.”
“You mean vampires actually exist?”
Grim gave me a tired look.
“Do you really still call everything you don't understand a fairytale?”
I paused.
“...Fair enough.”
“Vampires are an ancient race.”
Grim opened an old map.
“They possess extraordinarily long lifespans. Some have existed for centuries.”
“Which means they might know things that humanity has forgotten.”
“Exactly.”
I studied the map.
“If they've been around for that long, they may know more about Angel, the devils, the Phantoms...”
“And the Incantation of Evil.”
My eyes narrowed.
“You found a fragment there?”
Grim nodded.
“According to the records.”
He pointed toward a mark on the map.
“There is evidence that one of the fragments was sighted within the vampire territory.”
I stared at the mark.
“So I have to go there.”
“You don't have to.”
Grim shrugged.
“You can stay here.”
I glared at him.
“You know damn well I'm going.”
“I thought so.”
I sighed.
“But I'm only going to investigate.”
Grim raised an eyebrow.
“I'm not fighting some ancient fragment just because you found a story about it in a book.”
“Suit yourself.”
I picked up the map.
“How am I supposed to get there?”
“Do you remember the spatial portal I used to send you directly into the Royal Palace?”
“Yes.”
“I can use the same system again.”
“To the Land of Vampires?”
“Exactly.”
I looked at the map.
“How long?”
Grim adjusted one of the magical devices on his desk.
“Precisely ten days.”
“Ten days...”
I folded the map.
Not too bad.
A new country.
A new race.
Possibly ancient knowledge about Angel.
And perhaps a fragment of the Incantation of Evil.
I smiled.
“Looks like I have another adventure waiting for me.”
Grim sighed.
“Don't call it an adventure.”
“Why not?”
“Because every time you call something an adventure, someone tries to kill you.”
I paused.
“That's usually true.”
Grim returned to his books.
“Then prepare yourself.”
“For what?”
“The vampires.”
I smiled.
“Ten days.”
I turned toward the door.
“That's not too bad.”
A completely unknown land awaited me.
And for the first time in several days, I finally had somewhere new to go.
The Land of Vampires.
I had a feeling this journey was going to be very different from the last one.
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