"Stop him!"
The moment Dorian saw Botis's crazed actions, terror flashed across his face.
Nowhere in the Abraham family's records was there any mention of what exactly lay within the third level of the Box of the Great Old Ones.
Yet that very silence was itself a kind of warning: don't touch it, don't try to understand it, don't open it.
All he knew was that if that level were opened, something unimaginably dangerous would happen. The corruption that had once killed an angel without effort might descend again, bringing ruin down on this world.
But as a low Sequence Beyonder, even knowing what was happening, Dorian had no way to stop it in time. Beside him, Fors just looked bewildered. Antia, though she could have intervened, missed her chance because of her unstable condition.
"Heh heh..."
At that moment, a cruel, deranged smile spread across Botis's face. His fingers closed on the third level of the Box of the Great Old Ones, ready to wrench it open.
Then his smile froze.
No matter how hard he pulled, he couldn't open the third level of the box.
Even as a demigod, exerting strength far beyond human limits, he couldn't force so much as a gap. It was as if that shallow compartment held an entire world.
Emotions flickered across Botis's face in quick succession: the cruel madness of wanting to drag everyone down with him, astonishment that the box wouldn't open, and finally overwhelming terror, as though he'd suddenly understood something.
"Ah... that's..."
His face twisted as he muttered, lost in horror.
Then, in the next instant...
Drip. Drip.
One brilliant cluster of light after another slid off his body. They hit the ground and turned into strange worms made of starlight.
The worms writhed before curling into semicircles and dying, each one glowing faintly like a doorway into the unknown.
Like a stack of blocks toppling over, Botis's body collapsed rapidly. Only his eyes remained, bloodshot and wide with terror, madness, and despair, before they too sank into the dirt beside the terrible jeweled box.
The mighty Saint of Secrets, Botis, a Sequence 4 demigod, had died in the strangest way: simply by trying to force open the third level of the Box of the Great Old Ones.
"He's... dead?"
Fors stared, unable to believe it.
One bizarre thing after another. She was honestly struggling to keep up.
First her teacher had suddenly reached out to her. Then Botis had shown up to attack them. Then Mr. Temperance's messenger had taken control of the situation without even trying. And now Botis had forced the box open and killed himself doing it.
Whatever the reason, Botis really was dead. Wasn't he?
She'd set out to hunt down Mr. X, Lewis Wien. Instead, somehow, the man who'd died was Botis, the one who'd brought disaster down on the Abraham family. This was a far better outcome than she'd ever hoped for.
Her teacher's vengeance had finally been answered.
Fors turned instinctively to look at Dorian Gray beside her.
Then she saw him writhing in agony.
"Ah! Ah!"
The big Astrologer clutched his head and screamed, as if enduring some unimaginable torment. He convulsed, rolling across the ground, clawing at his own hair.
"Teacher, what's wrong?"
Fors crouched beside him and tried to help him up, but he was thrashing so hard she could barely get near him.
Something about it struck her as familiar.
"Teacher looks just like I did, when I heard that voice during the blood moon!"
She thought, anxious.
But it was clearly daytime now. She hadn't ended up like that...
"This... is the side effect... of the Traveler's Key..."
Through the pain, Dorian forced the words out. "My... coat pocket..."
A side effect of a mystical item?
That was it.
Fors understood immediately. She remembered how she herself had been cursed after using those stones. Following his instructions, she dug through his coat pocket and pulled out a small metal bottle. She uncapped it and held it to his lips.
He forced himself to drink.
But the potion did far less than she'd hoped. Dorian's suffering barely eased. He kept writhing, kept screaming. Worse, his body had begun to change: his nails and hair growing wild, as he slipped closer and closer to losing himself completely.
"Your Excellency Messenger!"
Panicked, Fors called out to Antia. "Please, help my teacher!"
"Mm."
Antia frowned. She glanced first at the wreckage Botis had left behind, then took a single step toward Fors and the others, closing the distance with ease and appearing right beside them.
She bent down and studied Dorian for a moment.
"I can't help him."
Antia's frown deepened. "Whatever's affecting him is acting directly on his soul. And it feels dangerous. I don't want to touch it."
Even this powerful messenger couldn't save him?
Fors's face fell as she watched her teacher slip further into madness.
"Kill... me!"
Dorian seemed to understand what was happening to him, and he shouted at Fors, "Let me... die... as a human."
As a descendant of the Abraham family, he still had his pride, his dignity.
"Teacher!"
Fors cried out in panic. "What are you saying? You're going to be fine!"
"It's... all right..."
Dorian forced out a faint smile. "Botis... is dead... I'm... so happy..."
The side effect of the Traveler's Key was terrifying. It let its user hear that dreadful voice even without a blood moon, and the effects lasted even longer than they did during one. Back when he'd fled with Fors, he'd already made his peace with dying because of it.
Compared to that, getting to watch the man who'd brought such ruin on his family die a miserable death felt like more than enough.
"Don't worry. Just like I told you before... you'll find... a new teacher... to guide you..."
Dorian spoke in broken fragments.
The pain was tearing through what was left of his will. He could feel himself sliding closer to the edge, closer to losing control entirely.
His expression hardened with resolve.
"Hurry... do it..."
But through his blurring vision, he saw that his student hadn't listened. Instead, she'd pressed her hands together, bowed her head, and started praying to something.
A moment later, her eyes snapped open and she rushed to him.
"Teacher, do you believe me?"
she asked.
Dorian froze.
Did she even need to ask?
If he didn't believe her, would he have laid out all his final wishes to her so carefully?
"Teacher, there's no time. I'll explain everything after. But I have a way to save you!" Fors realized at once what he'd been thinking and shouted urgently. "Please, pray with me!"
Calling on Hermes, she guided Dorian as he haltingly recited the words:
"The Fool... who doesn't belong... to this era..."