AN: Major COI Spoiler.
Unit 8 on Williams Street.
Rafter Pound was a man in his early forties. He had light blue eyes and brown hair, but the sides had already turned white. His eyes were puffy and his face had clear wrinkles.
He walked through the house and went to the backyard. There was a hidden door in the ground. He held a Carvite lamp in one hand and a diary in the other. The diary had a Tudor emblem on the cover, a hand holding a scepter.
Rafter said he lost most of his family fortune after his grandfather died. He said the nobles in Backlund took everything from him and pushed him from viscount to baron, then to baronet. He said they used fraud and fake debts against him.
He never mentioned the money he spent on drinking and gambling.
He sold this house a while ago and had almost no money left. He found the diary in the attic of his house on Sivellaus Street. He remembered his grandfather giving it to him and telling him to maintain the family and remember the glory of the ancestors. The diary mentioned the underground palace entrants under this house, so he came back to look for it. If he found anything valuable, he planned to sell it.
If not, he had another plan. If he found nothing, he was going to do something daring.
Now that he had lost everything, only the diary was left. It said there was an evil spirit sealed in the underground palace. He could offer it freedom in exchange for wealth and luxury.
He went into the basement as it was instructed in the diary, opened the secret door, and went down.
The underground area followed Fourth Epoch architecture. There were eight identical circular columns. Metal rods hung from the high dome. Below them were upside-down candlesticks carved with different creatures.
Rafter looked around the place.
At the end of the hall, there was a platform raised half a meter above the ground. The thick wall behind it marked the end of the room. On the left side, there were forty-one inverted candlesticks, and on the right, there were forty. On the platform, there were large ancient seats looking down at the rest. Two symbols were carved on the backs of the seats. One was the Tudor emblem, and the other was the Trunsoest emblem.
At the base of the hall, there were seven large black stone doors. They were arranged in a line. Two on the left, one in the middle, and four on the right. It matched the Fourth Epoch's style of asymmetry.
Each door had one of the six orthodox emblems, and inside each room there was a statue of a god. On the left were the Evernight Goddess and Earth Mother. On the right were the Lord of Storms, Eternal Blazing Sun, God of Combat, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom.
He let out a low grumble. If he could sell the statues, he would be rich and famous, but the church would kill him if they found out he had a statue of their gods. The diary had clearly warned him about this, so he knew he couldn't touch them. Frustration showed in his eyes.
In the center of the hall was another room, but the door was covered in dried blood, and the entrance was blocked by rocks and dirt.
Then he heard a whisper near his ear. It sounded unnatural and close. He turned around at once.
Someone was there, silently watching him.
The figure had no eyes, no nose, no mouth, no eyebrows, and no ears.
Rafter's pupils shrank. A numb feeling crawled up his spine.
He forced himself not to run.
"A-are you the evil spirit sealed in this place?"
"Yes… it must be you."
There was no answer, but he could feel it watching him. He swallowed and spoke again.
"After attempting for so many years, I believe you already understand that killing the descendants of the Tudor family won't help you break the seal.
"Only by working with me, who has the great Tudor Bloodline, can you hope to get out of this predicament that has lasted for more than two thousand years."
"If you promise me luxury and wealth, I'll unseal you. What do you say?"
Right after he said that, his eyes went blank. He suddenly stepped to the side and stopped in front of an intact stone wall.
He slammed his head against it three times, hard, and passed out with blood running down his forehead.
A moment later, he stood up again. His eyes were bloodshot for no clear reason.
The hall lit up with a deep red glow. Three voices spoke at the same time.
"He's such a fool."
"A greedy fool too."
"I hate people like him the most."
"Can you use him to open the door?"
"He's not even a mid-sequence Beyonder."
"No. I'll make him pray to me first, then give him a boon of strength."
"Hehe… wouldn't that weaken you too much?"
"Hehehe… do it."
"Who said the strength is coming from me?"
"Huh?" two voices said together.
Rafter started moving on his own and used his blood to draw a ritual circle on the floor.
"Wait. Wait. Wait!"
"Hehe. Why did you think I let you both merge with me to such an extent?"
Rafter finished the symbol. It was the Symbol of War. The sign of the Red Angel Medici.
Rafter closed his blood-red eyes and recited the honorific name of the Red Angel turned evil spirit.
"The Great God of War. The Symbol of Iron and Blood. The Ruler of Chaos and Strife.
I pray to your unending spirit.
Grant me strength."
The symbol lit up in blood-red light. Heat rose around him. Crimson fire gathered and burned his clothes. When it stopped, a burning red mark was on his chest. The mark of the Red Angel.
Only laughter of the Red Angel echoed through the hall.
Rafter walked to the pile of rocks and dirt blocking the door. With his new strength, he cleared it easily and pushed the bloody door open. But before evil spirit Sauron-Einhorn-Medici could leave, Rafter stepped through and closed the door behind him.
The room inside was lit by red flames on chandeliers. The floor was covered in liquid blood, like thousands had died there.
Inside that room were three high-back chairs of different styles, all facing a single point in the middle. Two other chairs beside it were both broken and empty.
On the middle high back chair sat a translucent man in blood-stained black armor. He looked young and handsome, with red hair, but his face was partly rotting. A flag-shaped mark was on his forehead, and he had bloody mouths on both cheeks.
His expression froze. The control on the man suddenly vanished, like his control faced some kind of Error for a moment.
Rafter mouth formed a teasing smile, then he took out a crystal monocle, and put it on his right eye.
"You really need to work on that provocation."
"Hahahaha…" "Hahaha… he got you there." Both mouths on Medici's face laughed loudly.
"What? You two are still awake?"
He looked at Rafter and clenched his teeth.
"Amon!" Medici spat with his voice full of vitriol. "Why are you here?"
"I'm just here to say hi and check if my wayward useless uncle is doing well."
The room flared with crimson fire and the flames shot toward Amon. His figure glitched and he appeared on the other side of the room, dodging the attack like it was nothing.
Medici clenched his teeth.
Amon adjusted his monocle and spoke in a hurt tone. "What? Isn't that the way you taught me to greet people? Why are you angry now?"
"Wait, you taught him that?"
"Huh. That explains a lot of the things he's done."
"Both of you shut up!" Medici snapped, teeth grinding as he glared at Amon.
"Okay, okay. Enough pranking."
Amon leaned forward and spoke in a serious tone. "You see, I've figured out a fraction of father's plan, and I'm already working toward it."
Medici's voice turned cautious. "What do you mean?"
Amon started pacing back and forth across the room, his shoes stepping into the liquid blood on the floor.
"Do you remember how someone becomes a Calamity of Destruction?"
All three of them fell silent.
Amon continued, "The proper way is to keep switching between the Demoness and Red Priest pathways, climbing higher and higher. It doesn't have to be an even balance. You just need to meet the concept: 'Pure Yin does not last, Pure Yang does not grow. Yin contains Yang, Yang contains Yin. The union of Yin and Yang gives birth to everything.'"
Sauron and Einhorn stayed quiet, only Medici spoke.
"I remember. What are you getting at…"
Amon stood walking and stood in the middle for a moment, he pinched his monocle and continued, "That method is correct, and it's the only way, but only until the final step. Because in that state, trying to accommodate the City of Calamity will always end in failure. The union of yin and yang means returning to the beginning, the Original Creator recreating the world, and that would bring back a Mirrored Original Creator, stable enough to not instantly destroy everything."
Amon paused, and leaned forward as if he was explaining forbidden knowledge. "But… did you know this part? 'Everything was threefold, giving birth to all things. Only then could it be stable.'"
The words hit all three of them like a bolt of lightning.
Medici's eyes widened as he repeated the line under his breath. "Everything was threefold, giving birth to all things. Only then could it be stable."
"In the First Epoch, the Primordial God Almighty saw the danger of a Mirrored Original Creator and personally stepped in. He used the chaotic head of himself as a barrier to stop yin and yang from fully merging. That's how everything stayed stable."
"Sauron-Einhorn-Medici, you three were another attempt to complete yin and yang by father, but starting from the spiritual level, making you suitable for the Calamity of Destruction. Medici is yang. Sauron and Einhorn, who were female, are yin."
"You see, Medici? Father has prepared everything for us. We just need to follow it."
Medici clenched his teeth while the other two stayed unnaturally silent. "So why are you telling me this? Are you here to mock me? To say I failed My Lord again?"
"Because I need your help." For the first time, Amon showed a trace of sincerity. Whether it was real or another trick, no one could tell.