Nighttime.
Maric was invited to Hastur's house. When he reached the entrance, Butler Neil came out to greet him.
"Where's Hastur?"
"The Baron is handling some matters. Please, sir, go upstairs to the study and wait for a while."
"Alright." Neil led Maric to the second-floor study. The door was slightly ajar, and with a gentle push it opened.
Maric glanced inside first, no sign of Hastur. He stepped in naturally and sat down on the sofa.
"Please have a seat, the Baron will be here shortly." Neil excused himself and left.
At first, Maric could sit patiently, but after waiting a while with no sign of Hastur, his gaze drifted toward the bookshelf to his left. There were many books arranged there.
Most of them were related to law, and some on linguistics, Elvish, Jotun, and Ancient Hermes.
Other than those, there were only a few scattered volumes on mysticism.
Since he had nothing better to do, Maric rose, picked a book that caught his interest, and returned to the sofa to read.
After ten minutes or so, he set the book aside with a slight frown. Something felt odd.
In his impression, Hastur was a man who valued punctuality. It wasn't like him to keep a guest waiting this long.
Could something have gone wrong? He thought about it, but chose not to go looking. Instead, he remained in the study.
Neil returned twice, once bringing drinks and snacks, another time with fine bottles of wine.
"Something's off."
The more Maric thought about it, the stranger it seemed. He stood and wandered the study. When he returned to the sofa, someone was already seated there. Hastur.
"You, when did you come in?" Maric glanced at the door, which was still shut.
Hastur smiled. "I've been here all along."
"Don't joke. If you'd been here the whole time, there's no way I wouldn't have noticed."
Maric dropped onto the sofa beside him.
"Perhaps it's your eyes that deceived you."
"Heh. I'd rather believe it's you deceiving me."
Maric chuckled, casually opened a bottle of wine, and poured himself a full glass.
"Maric, do you know why human eyes can see things?"
"…" Maric blinked, puzzled. "If eyes couldn't see, they wouldn't be called eyes, would they?"
Hastur laughed lightly. "Then, do you know how the blind lose their sight?"
"Because their eyes are broken. Naturally, they can't see anything."
"That's not entirely wrong. But it's neither precise nor scientific."
"??" Maric's head filled with question marks. Hastur was acting strange today, speaking in riddles.
"If only Miss Sharon were here instead," Hastur sighed.
Maric felt as though Hastur was mocking his intelligence. Before he could respond, Hastur, who had been right before his eyes, suddenly vanished.
Maric's expression turned grim. He called out cautiously: "Hastur?"
No reply.
"Invisibility?" His brows arched. He set down his wine glass and slapped quickly at the spot Hastur had just been sitting.
Nothing, completely empty.
"What an amusing trick." Now intrigued, Maric wanted to uncover Hastur's little stunt.
He moved around, circling the room, occasionally throwing punches and kicks into empty air.
Still, no sign of Hastur.
At this point, Maric began to take it seriously.
He realized why Hastur had invited him here and kept him waiting, it was clearly to test this new ability on him.
"Not visible to the naked eye… could it also deceive spiritual vision?"
Opening his spiritual vision, Maric swept his gaze across the study, still no sign of Hastur.
"You didn't slip outside just now, did you?"
As he spoke, the sound of pages turning came from the other side of the bookshelf. Hastur was clearly signaling that he was still here and hadn't left.
"Interesting… the Beyonder version of hide-and-seek?"
Maric hurried toward the sound. No one was there, but instead of disappointment, a smile spread across his face.
Frosty air emanated from him, spreading in all directions. He transformed into his werewolf form, wolf ears standing tall, listening intently.
Where the frost spread, a thin layer of ice formed across the floor.
Seconds later, Maric's ears twitched. He lunged five meters to the left.
Bang!With great speed, he crashed straight into Hastur, knocking him out of his so-called invisible state.
"Invisibility isn't so flawless." Maric lifted his chin, voice brimming with undisguised pride.
Hastur rubbed his shoulder with a wry smile. "As expected, still many flaws."
"Hastur, planning to use that ability to peep on some noble lady's bath?"
Hastur gave him a long look and sighed. "I'm not like you."
"…." Maric felt strangely insulted.
"Ahem, back to the main point."
Not giving Maric a chance to explode, Hastur changed the subject.
"What areas of my invisibility do you think still need improvement?"
"When you move, there's a faint sound. You try to be subtle, but my ears still catch it."
Maric thought further. "Also, against wide-area Beyonder abilities, you can be forced out of invisibility quite easily."
"And, there's a faint scent of perfume on you. It's weak, but some Beyonders have sharp senses. They'd notice abnormal changes in the air."
Hastur accepted the advice humbly, these were indeed points he needed to fix.
"As for other issues, I can't think of any now. You could ask Sharon to test it for you."
"Would Miss Sharon help with this?" Hastur was tempted. Compared to Maric, Sharon would be a far more suitable tester.
"Don't worry, I'll talk to her. I'm sure she'd be interested in your ability."
Maric grinned, as if to say "leave it to me."
"Tomorrow night then. I'll need some time to improve my invisibility."
"I'm really looking forward to seeing Sharon's reaction." Maric was clearly eager to watch the show.
"If I get found out too easily, that would be embarrassing."
"No shame in losing to Sharon. I became a Sequence 9 earlier than she did, but she surpassed me later. Now she's far ahead of me."
Maric stayed a while longer, giving Hastur further advice, though he never asked how Hastur achieved this power.
After sending Maric off, Hastur remained in the study alone, continuing to refine his invisibility.
The reason he'd been able to fool both Maric's eyes and spiritual vision today was because he had prepared two rules in advance.
First Rule:Within a certain range around him, no light would be emitted.
In simple terms, by deceiving the eyes, he achieved the effect of invisibility.
This involved modern science and was complicated. Without Beyonder powers, Hastur couldn't have done it.
In addition, he relied on the authority of Secrecy.
Without it, he couldn't have hidden the fluctuations of these rules.
From Maric's perspective, he couldn't sense the rules, and his eyes couldn't see Hastur, thus, invisibility.
Second Rule: This one targeted spiritual vision, and with the aid of Secrecy, it was comparatively easier.
Deceiving both the eyes and spiritual vision, rendering them useless, that was the foundation of Hastur's current invisibility.
It sounded powerful, but the limitations were many.
Beyonder abilities far surpassed those of ordinary people. As Maric pointed out, with heightened senses, even closing one's eyes would be enough to locate him.
Physical invisibility relied on the principles of light and optics, but not all Beyonders perceived the world through such means.
And then there was the problem of Sequence rank, he was only Sequence 7. Against higher Sequences, his trick would be exposed easily.
His "invisibility" was closer to the Emperor's New Clothes.
"If I were only in spirit form, invisibility would be far easier."
Hastur soon realized that no matter how he set the rules, the limitations of the physical body meant it could never be fully concealed.
In spirit form, the naked eye couldn't see him, he could float without making noise, and he had no scent to betray him.
Like a ghost, naturally better suited as the vessel of invisibility.
If he wanted to fool someone like Sharon, only his spirit form might succeed.
With this direction clear, Hastur continued working on the second version of his invisibility.