Darkness enveloped the room.
Zavi's body suddenly stiffened for several seconds. He rushed to the table in the living room, quickly lit a candle, then carried it into his mother's bedroom.
There was no wind entering the house, making the candle flame extremely steady.
Zavi raised the candle higher than his head, and the warm yellow light revealed his mother sleeping, a blanket covering her entire body except for her head.
The sound of her breathing was clear, easing Zavi's earlier tension and allowing him to breathe more calmly than before.
After making sure nothing was wrong, he gently placed the candle on the bedside table.
"Mom... forgive me," he whispered, his voice barely audible.
He took a deep breath, turned around, and left his mother's room. After closing the door behind him, Zavi walked toward his own room.
Click...
The door opened, and a few seconds later, he closed it again. Zavi stepped back and sat on the chair, placing his feet on the table.
He pulled a silver revolver from the pocket of his coat, raised it in front of his face, and stared at it while slowly spinning it.
A question suddenly surfaced in his mind.
Who is he really? Why is he so kind to me? We only met about a day ago, and he knows what happened to Forn and how to deal with that winged creature.
Zavi thought silently.
He drew a deep breath, then opened a drawer and put the silver revolver inside, hiding it behind several books.
"Oh, what time is it now?" Zavi took out his watch and, startled, realized it was no longer working, meaning it had been damaged by the rain. In the end, he placed it on the table.
Zavi walked to the wardrobe, took a wooden hanger, placed his coat on it, and hung it on the wardrobe handle.
"It'll be fine, right?" he asked himself, shrugging slightly.
Zavi only changed into a warmer shirt because the night was extremely cold, and besides that, he did not turn on the heater.
After doing what he needed to do, he decided to sleep and try the ritual tomorrow. Drowsiness slowly began to take over. Zavi forced his eyes open, but he could not.
In the end, he surrendered to sleep and fell soundly asleep, leaning to the right with his cold palm touching his cheek.
———
Morning arrived, the horizon glowing with warm sunlight, illuminating the world and making everyone eager to begin something new.
At 7:50 a.m., Zavi woke from his sleep, still dreaming of the same thing, forgetting his original purpose of consulting someone.
He quickly opened the door and ran as fast as he could to the bathroom to relieve himself. He did not expect that waking from deep sleep would make his body feel refreshed and energized.
Instead, Zavi felt cramps in his groin and right hand, and his body felt as if it had been beaten by a group of people.
"Damn..." Zavi turned on the faucet, cupped water in his hands, and splashed it onto his face.
"So refreshing..." he muttered in relief.
Just as he was about to wash his face one last time, a flat and trembling voice called his name.
"Zavi..." Ren said, holding his left shoulder.
The sound of running water stopped, and Zavi splashed water onto his hands before drying them with his pants.
"What is it?" Zavi asked with a blank expression.
Instead of answering, Ren widened his eyes, staring at him with his mouth slightly open.
"Hey, there's something strange about you. Look at the mirror properly," Ren said, slightly shocked.
What?
Zavi quickly turned his head and looked at his face in the mirror, but there was nothing strange about him.
"This guy's drunk," he muttered, giving Ren a strange look.
After that, Zavi stepped forward, leaving the bathroom to prepare breakfast. But unexpectedly, Ren followed him and told Zavi to look at the mirror properly.
Why does he keep telling me to look at the mirror?
Zavi was confused, his hands and eyes focused on making a sandwich while his thoughts circled around Ren's words.
He turned around and walked back to the bathroom, eating the sandwich in his hand bit by bit.
His eyes narrowed as he stared at his reflection in the mirror.
"Look carefully," Ren said calmly, leaning against the bathroom door.
Zavi glanced and focused on his reflection in the mirror. A few seconds later, he was shocked by a supernatural phenomenon. There was a creature with a humanoid physique, a terrifying face, two black wings beneath its shoulders, floating above his left shoulder.
Zavi reflexively stepped back. Unable to keep his balance, he slipped and fell, crashing into the bathroom wall.
"Ouch... ow ow... ow." He braced both hands on the floor to stand up and looked back at his reflection out of curiosity.
"What kind of creature is this?" he asked, turning toward Ren.
Ren chuckled softly. "That's a phantom, but how did it end up following you?" he asked, his tone weary due to his poor condition.
Huh? A phantom, so that's what this creature is called? Zavi thought.
"Could it be that this creature appeared when I met Carlz, or maybe when I was with Mr Albert?"
Zavi cleared his throat once, trying to break his own tension. He turned again, staring at his reflection, and this time reached out to touch the phantom floating above his left shoulder.
Shocked.
"Hey, Ren. I can touch this strange creature by looking at my reflection in the mirror," he said in disbelief. "And why is it that when I look directly, the phantom isn't visible?" he asked in confusion.
Just as Ren was about to open his mouth to answer, Zavi continued speaking.
"Could it be that you have something?" Ren was startled as he continued, "Something like a medium for supernatural abilities? A charm? An artifact? A relic? Or some other object related to the occult?" Zavi's expression turned serious, his eyes fixed on Ren's calm face as Ren looked back at him.
"So you already know," Ren said. "That's good. There's nothing left for me to hide."
After saying that, Ren straightened his posture and stretched his stiff body. Then he walked forward, leaving Zavi alone in the bathroom, a small smile etched on his gentle face.
And Zavi, now knowing what kind of ability Ren possessed, watched him as he walked up the stairs and disappeared into the hallway a few seconds later.
From downstairs, in the living room, Zavi grew curious about his mother again. He quickly moved toward her room to make sure. Even though he knew that at this hour, his mother had already gone to the market to sell goods.
Still, there was no harm in confirming, if only to calm his shaken mind after seeing the phantom earlier.
"As expected, nothing strange happened to her," he murmured softly.
He wondered if Carlz's earlier statement had merely been a joke, which made him laugh.
That night, before returning home, Zavi had gathered information from Carlz's Avatar. He asked one question that had been lingering in his mind: the steps required to obtain the ability known as "Magician."
The answer was not simple.
A sacrifice was required for the Avatar to gain its own consciousness. Part of the original memories had to be released, surrendered, so it could function and act on its own will.
Even though it was only an Avatar, and Carlz's true whereabouts remained unknown, Zavi had his own way of making it speak. A method that was not entirely clean, but effective enough.
And in the end, he obtained the information.
Doubt arose after hearing the ritual's conditions. Strange, unnatural, and far too specific to be called coincidence. Yet his curiosity prevailed.
Now, Zavi had left his house. Coincidence or not, his home was not far from the abandoned area, only about fifty meters away. A place avoided by everyone. No one wanted to pass through it, let alone stop.
A perfect place.
After painstakingly gathering all the required materials, in the late afternoon, Zavi stepped into the area that should have been part of the Chapena district, preparing to perform a ritual that might change everything.
Inside the empty house.
A chalk circle made from strange sea creatures called Xie was drawn without the slightest gap. Inside it, Magician symbols were arranged to form an inverted triangle, connected by thin lines that served as channels for the flow of will. Each symbol was not a letter, but a command directed at a power unrelated to human language.
At the center of the circle, a watch damaged by rain was placed facing upward, motionless, useless, with its hands pointing at 08:00.
Zavi pierced the tip of his finger with a kitchen knife. Blood dripped, touching the floor of the empty house, precisely within the circle's boundary.
A bottle of night seawater was poured slowly, followed by jasmine flowers and red Terami leaves numbering around twenty strands, a three-framed bloom called Netaraxi, and the core material of the ritual, something disgusting: Secceter, a root with a sharp, alien stench.
The aromas mixed, sweet yet piercing.
As he stepped forward, the blood from his fingertip had already stopped flowing. Zavi swallowed hard, afraid of what would happen next, but it was too late to regret it, even though he knew that if the ritual failed, he would die or more precisely, be taken to another world.
The blood and all the materials reacted. As whispers began to echo, the circle remained intact.
The watch also remained intact. The hands that should have stopped began to move again.
The ritual was accepted. However, a part of him did not return.
From within the empty house, a thick red aura mixed with dark purple emerged, then shot toward the roof, racing into the sky and creating a powerful surge of spiritual energy.
This made it difficult for Zavi to keep his body upright. He struggled not to think about what surrounded him and waited for the final moments.
Objects like wood, roof tiles, and rusted iron flew around the room. This made it hard for Zavi to concentrate properly.
"What is this," he muttered, his voice slightly tense.
His face twisted, and his jaw hardened, a sign that the ritual was not proceeding as planned.
"Huh? Is this the end of my life? Defying the gods was a bad idea, damn it," he said in resignation, certain that he would soon be devoured by the circle.
----