Chapter 62: Asleep
Monday, 11th December 2023.
5 days had passed since Gray joined the Right-Hand Path.
Many things happened in those days.
To start it up—he and Nekare had done a great job in their project, gaining a great mark.
The meeting they had allowed them to understand each other with a broader perspective, allowing them to work together in a group.
The same couldn't be said about their companions.
Veronica barely knew the argument while her 'ex' skipped school to avoid it entirely.
Rowan felt a newfound sense of respect towards his dear friend as he inwardly wondered how many things had 'progressed' between Gray and Nekare during their meeting.
Speaking of Rowan, Gray also found the guy whom Veronica was toying with by the use of Intra—he was an older guy in their school, being two whole years older than Gray and Rowan, evoking a great anger from the latter.
Then came the Nephilim matters.
Casanova had recently sent Gray his first paycheck—3000 euros. The man had put a greater amount of money than expected for many reasons.
Firstly because of his troubles with Selene.
Secondly because of the animosity felt by the council of the Right-Hand Path. And right like how Franz had said, the Shaman did not do anything detrimental towards Gray.
Thirdly in the case Gray needed to buy materials.
Not only did Casanova provide Gray with money, the man had also sent him a suitcase.
There were many things inside.
First, there were various pictures of two women.
One had black hair and wore a red dress, exuding a mature charm.
"Pay attention to this woman." Casanova had warned from inside the miasma. "She's an exceptionally dangerous Nephilim and the one who murdered those girls in Corveno. Inform me if you get a revelation about her."
There was an elderly woman in the other. She had a warm smile, but her complexion was tremendously pale—she seemed extremely sick.
"This is a human she's been experimenting on. If you get dreams about her, dreams depicting blood, syringes and caduceuses—a winged staff with a snake curled around—warn me immediately."
Secondly, there was a new communication device for Nekare.
Gray sneakily texted her at school and told her to come on the emergency stairs, passing the device to her and teaching the girl how it worked.
The two became more familiar with each other as Gray even helped on how to properly learn Intra with it.
The girl was making progress—she only needed a few more tries, and she would succeed in attaining it.
Nekare had initially felt a great sense of unease by experiencing the almost-death-like state the training of Intra brought, causing her to initially stall in her progress.
Gray, aware of what happened to her brother, comforted her as best as he could from the other end of the line.
After a brief moment, the girl gave herself with the determination to keep moving forward.
She was dejected that it was so slow, but after revealing that most Nephilim took more than a week, some even months, she understood that her progress wasn't bad at all.
If anything, if she hadn't slowed down once the felt the near-death state, she would've already attained it.
Gray felt the need to lie when she asked him how much time he had taken.
"Oh, me? A week and some days, haha."
If he had said the truth, she would've felt down about it, possibly to the point of slightly hindering her progress once more.
As the Mnemosyne's Antiques went through many reparations, Gray immersed himself in the art of making Sigils at home, creating as many Five-Star Pointed Pentagrams as he could.
As he expected, after Xanadu's awakening, His quintessence was still roaming around his body, but after a while, it gradually vanished.
With it, his blood made it so the flames he created became slightly weaker.
Gray could create one Sigil per day—but he would be left with many symptoms of anemia, making his appearance turn zombie-like once more.
To think he barely escaped it…!
Because of Gray's official entrance inside the Right-Hand Path, Franz also had tons of paperwork to tend to, not allowing him to even leave Mnemosyne's Antiques.
Because of this, he could not train Gray.
He did make sure to give him back his sword's scabbard, though.
One of those mornings, Gray chatted with Kathy.
"How come I keep finding circle of salts in my bed?" she mumbled as she ate her breakfast.
Gray coughed dryly.
"…No idea."
It had been him!
He had been purposely creating circle of salts to protect her!
'You know, just in case…'
All in all, even though Gray had many things going on, those days were peaceful nonetheless.
Now, it was time to work.
Not figuratively, but literally.
Mnemosyne's Antiques restoration plan had been completed!
Gray found himself at its entrance once more.
Now, although the armors he had seen before were now different, he felt it signaled the proper start for his future!
Gray wasn't as weak as he had been with Selene!
Now, even if still far from a proper, full-fledged Nephilim, he was miles closer to one that he had been that day!
And so, he entered the store!
"…"
'So many boxes…'
Gray instantly noticed the presence of them.
Franz soon came in view.
"Ah, Gray! Right as I needed you! Fetch those boxes and put them inside their respective compartments, you can find them written down on them!"
…The store seemed severely underworked. No wonder Franz needed him so badly.
"Coming right up!"
Gray ran inside the employees' office and hung his coat.
He then took his working attire, one that was specifically tailored for him, and wore it.
It was a burgundy color and tightly fitted while the pants were black and slightly looser.
After readying himself to work for the first time in his life, he grabbed one box and read its contents.
"Ancient Pottery and Jars—Fragile, handle with care!"
He instantly tensed up.
Gray had to be careful!
He slowly walked inside the Ancient Pottery and Jars section, putting the box inside it, slowly moving the jars down, paying attention not to shatter them in pieces.
'Phew, one box is done.'
He returned inside the entryway, grabbed a different box, read its contents carefully, and placed it where it was meant to sit, carefully putting the items where they were needed to be!
He was at the third box, until a guy, maybe a few years older than him entered. He was tall, sporting short black hair, while having two bright, blue eyes.
"Oh, you're the guy Selene hates." he gave a brief laugh. "I'm Felix, your new coworker. It's good to meet you."
"Oh, good evening." Gray rubbed the back of his neck as he offered a handshake. As Felix reached to shake Gray's hand, the young Nephilim noticed a bizarre fact.
Felix had six fingers!
'Uh?'
"Well, I'm going to rest—been working overtime for a while."
"No, you did not!" Franz yelled from a different room. "Stop letting the kids do all the work!"
"Damn it." he rolled his eyes.
Felix looked at Gray in a tired manner and asked him to pass one of boxes. Gray was slightly surprised to see he did not care one bit about his fight with Selene.
"Remember to teach Gray what I told you!" Franz added.
"Yeah yeah…"
"Come." Felix briefly said.
Gray instantly followed suit.
As they entered into the War Section, Felix bent and opened the boxes. Inside it, there were old knives, short swords, and axes.
He placed them under their respective categories based upon the civilizations and age before saying,
"Franz told me you lost your memories. You should learn more of history since you're going to work here for a while."
Gray agreed.
"Come here," Felix took an ancient sword and showed it to Gray. "You must handle our articles with gloves. You don't want the oils in your skin to ruin them."
Gray stared at Felix's hands.
…He did not wear gloves.
"…Understood."
He took a microfiber cloth near him and carefully cleaned it.
"Be gentle, these items are old—you don't want to break them."
He then grabbed a small bottle, mineral oil was written on it. Felix then grabbed a brush and used its soft bristles on the blade.
"This is mineral oil, it protects the steel and its really useful. We use it for the weapons, the armor, and many other things I'm too tired to recall."
"…"
"Got it."
"Since the shop still needs many articles to be replaced, we'll have to manually restock the items. Only then we will reopen to the public. I'll teach you how to work at the counter then."
"Follow me, I'm going to show you where to put everything."
Gray followed Felix.
As they placed the boxes in their respective spaces, Felix took a more indirect approach as he told Gray what to do from the side, explaining the purposes of the objects and where to put them.
Gray almost felt like a slave.
'He's lazy…'
"You must have really angered Selene to make her act that way." he commented. "Even I can't make her go so overboard. I guess you have a talent in pissing people off."
"…"
Gray rubbed the back of his neck as he laughed awkwardly.
"Do you know where she is?" Gray asked.
Felix raised an eyebrow.
"You don't know?"
Franz then appeared, his expression complex. After a brief moment, he spoke.
"Gray, follow me. Felix, tend to the shop in the meantime."
Feeling Franz's seriousness, Felix did not object.
Franz led Gray in the farthest rooms of Mnemosyne's Antiques. Near the talismans, he opened one of the rooms they did not enter last time.
Instantly, he saw Selene.
She lay amidst a hand-knitted blanket, her white hair falling on her cushion, her eyes closed. Near her there was hospital machinery, used to detect heart rate and brainwaves.
Their soft beeping sounded rhythmically inside the room.
On the walls, there were many pictures.
Pictures of Selene with the Nephilim children he had seen before, the kids' laughter almost heard from outside the image. Her hair was blonde while her eyes were blue—this effect was achieved by wigs and lenses, as her white hair and red eyes would bring unwanted attention.
"She's still…" Gray looked at her. "…asleep?"
"She's been like that since you left the Moon God Sin's World."
Franz glanced at Gray briefly before returning to his original position.
"We know something happened with you and Sin, but what was it?"
"…?!"
Gray's eyes dimmed.
"…The Sult-Hurni I fought…he told me Sin's true name—my body became stiff, not responding to my command. I felt my soul be expelled from my own body, losing control of myself by 'something,' a creature whose details I cannot and don't want to remember. Then something else happened but…I just…can't remember."
Gray's hair covered his eyes.
"…"
"I'm sorry for not telling you. I was afraid to know what would follow after it."
Franz wore a complicated expression.
"…Don't apologize. It's understandable why you decided to do so."
He continued.
"…Now we know that your Fragment awoke after you heard Sin's True Name. In a way to protect you, we theorize He used His true strength to defend you from Sin's True Form, possibly even killing Him for good…"
Gray's heart dropped.
He had felt this inexplicable feeling He would not harm him anymore, to think it was because of this…?!
Franz then revealed how Sin's altar inside Selene's Mercurial Fragment had split.
"No Nephilim can perform something like this."
His voice tensed up.
"…Only Divinities can."
Gray was fearful.
He felt deeply afraid, having the need to throw up.
The Monolith.
Xanadu was The Monolith.
He had been so all along.
This was the final proof he needed.
'…To protect me…What a joke…He's the one who turned me into a Nephilim to begin with…!'
Gray gritted his teeth.
Franz glanced at him, placing his hand on Gray's shoulder.
"Become stronger. Only then will everything make sense."
Gray looked at Selene, his expression complex.
"…Will she ever wake up?"
Although she had tried to murder him…
He really couldn't help but empathize with her.
Maybe, just maybe—if they only had tried to talk before fighting, things would have gone differently.
Franz explained what would happen lest a Mercurial Fragment got damaged, including the symptoms to oneself.
"She could become mad, schizophrenic, change personality, or even lose herself. If she does return, she may not be the Selene Mnemosyne's Antiques knows."
There was a greater concern, however.
Would she face consequences only because of Sin's departure, or would His powers hurt the girl in some way?
…Frankly, it was unknown.
Franz had thoroughly inspected her, but by seeing the amalgamations of shadows Gray had, even if he saw something from Him, he would not have enough power to pry into its mystery.
And so, he told Gray this.