Arthur's point of view
I opened my eyes and there was only white. An infinite void filled with a thick white fog. I was naked, but at least I hadn't returned to my previous body; I was still myself, with the strength I had built in this world.
"Well, well, well... At last we meet, Arthur. Or should I say... Arthur Dola."
That voice made my stomach churn. It was a mixture of mockery and superiority that seemed to come from everywhere. In front of me appeared that white figure, strutting with a confidence that made me want to erase him with a single blow. Hitogami.
"Dola?" I wondered. Why was he linking me to Perugius? It made no sense, or at least not one that I knew yet.
He let out a chuckle, enjoying the confusion I couldn't hide for long.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Hitogami. I'm just Arthur," I snapped, keeping my guard up.
"Oh, so you already know who I am. I'd love to see what else you're hiding in there, but you have some kind of block. It's... frustrating," he said, tilting his head like a spoiled child. "You have a very annoying lock in that head of yours."
I sighed, fed up with his theater and his cynical movements.
"Stop wasting time with nonsense. You know perfectly well why I'm here."
"My, how impatient..." he replied, waving it off with a flick of his hand. "I've made it so easy for you. You just have to kill her. Get rid of the demon and you will have a long, peaceful, and happy life. What's more, you'll be a lucky guy: three wives. What more could you ask for?"
He took a couple of erratic steps, his form distorting as he approached.
"Besides... Rudeus is of no use to me anymore. You took care of that problem yourself, but in doing so, you created others that are much more annoying," he declared with a coldness that made my blood boil.
I stood there staring at him, processing his words. He wasn't just admitting that Rudeus was no longer useful to him because of my interference, but now I was in his crosshairs.
However, instead of feeling fear, a cold, humorless smile appeared on my face. I already had what I was looking for.
"Well... now I know what I needed to know," I said, taking a step forward.
Hitogami tilted his head, his white silhouette filled with curiosity.
"You think you're omnipotent, a puppeteer who can pull everyone's strings from up here," I continued, letting my contempt seep into every word. "But now that I know you plan to interfere with my life, I promise you something: I will find a way to get in here or drag you out of this place, you false god."
The white void seemed to shudder at my words. The thick smoke floating around us swirled violently. Hitogami's silhouette lost its sharpness, distorting into a mass of white static before regaining its shape, but this time, his posture was no longer relaxed.
"False god?" he repeated. His voice lost its mocking tone and became deep, resonating through the space. "You think that because you're good with a sword and magic, you can do something to me? I will eliminate you, no matter what it takes."
"If it were that easy to eliminate me, you would have done it already," I spat, closing the distance without breaking eye contact with that faceless void. "You're scared. It bothers you that you can't see my future, it terrifies you that your threads are getting tangled, and above all, you've seen something in Roxy's future that scares you quite a bit, hasn't it?"
The white void became extreme. The air—if it even was air—became heavy and erratic. Hitogami's figure convulsed, losing its human form for an instant before regaining its mask of superiority, now shattered by fury.
"You? How dare you...?" he hissed. His voice was no longer melodic, but a burst of static and hatred. "You are nothing but a simple cockroach!"
"Then try to crush me," I challenged him, feeling how the Great Sage was beginning to force my disconnection from the dream plane. "But do it soon, because the more time passes, the closer you will be to having your throat slit, and you won't know when that day comes."
Before he could answer, the white world began to crack like broken glass.
I snapped my eyes open.
I sat on the edge of the bed, trying to calm the trembling in my hands. Fenril approached slowly, resting his snout on my knee while looking at me with evident confusion in his yellow eyes. Even he, a wolf, seemed uneasy by the energy I was giving off.
"It's okay, Fenril. It was just a talk with a very annoying guy," I whispered, stroking his silver fur.
I stood up and walked to the window, watching the deep blue of the night begin to give way to a pale gray. My mind was working at a thousand miles per hour.
"If I want to enter his domain or find a way to defeat him, I have to become much stronger," I muttered to myself. "And for that, I need to find that person... Orsted."
He was the only one with the knowledge and power sufficient to face that bastard, but approaching him was suicide if I did it without preparation. There was only one person in the entire Magic University who could help me locate him: Nanahoshi. She was the bridge to the Dragon God, and although our relationship isn't great, I would have to convince her to help me.
However, another doubt gnawed at me from within. "Dola?" Why did Hitogami call me that? I looked at my hands in the dim light. Could that name be related to this body?
Besides, I had to talk to Rudeus about this as soon as possible.
I left the room in silence, with Fenril following my steps, and stopped in front of Rudeus's room. I stood there for a few seconds staring at the wood of the door.
"Rudeus... wake up," I whispered while knocking softly with my knuckles.
I kept the knocks gentle, enough to wake him but careful not to alert Sylphie. Fenril sat on his haunches beside me, ears perked, watching the door.
After a moment, I heard the rustle of sheets and heavy footsteps. The door opened just a crack, revealing Rudeus's face.
"Arthur...?" Rudeus murmured, rubbing his eyes with evident exhaustion. "What's wrong? It's barely five in the morning..."
"We need to talk," I said in a low voice. "It's about Hitogami."
The name was enough to clear his sleep. His eyes snapped wide open and his expression shifted from confusion to alert in an instant.
"...How do you know that name?" he asked, lowering his voice even further. "Don't tell me... he appears in your dreams too?"
I didn't answer immediately. I looked over his shoulder, making sure Sylphie was still asleep.
"Not here," I indicated. "Let's go to another room. I don't want to wake your wife."
Rudeus hesitated for barely a second but nodded. He opened the door carefully and stepped out into the hallway with me. Fenril walked by my side, silent as a shadow, something that did not go unnoticed by him.
We ducked into an empty room they used as a makeshift office. Rudeus lit a small magic lamp, just enough to illuminate the room without drawing attention. He closed the door and cast a simple silencing spell, out of pure habit.
We sat face to face.
I took a deep breath before speaking.
"I'm going to tell you something, and I want you to take it seriously," I said, looking him directly in the eye. "Don't follow his advice anymore. Don't pay attention to his threats or his promises."
Rudeus frowned, his expression turning from confusion to alert.
"What are you saying...?"
"I didn't tell you before, but Hitogami tried to destroy the mansion," I continued. "Sylphie... and your sisters. They were in danger."
Silence fell like a slab of stone.
Rudeus clenched his fists on his knees
"That's impossible..." he whispered. "If something like that had happened, Sylphie would have told me."
I shook my head.
"No. She doesn't know.
He looked up sharply.
"How...?"
"I prepared magic circles around the mansion," I explained. "They weren't common defenses. They were designed to react to malicious intentions. The moment something tried to cross the perimeter, it was rejected."
Rudeus swallowed hard.
"Arthur..." he finally said, his voice breaking. "If that's true, then he..."
"He's not on your side," I stated without hesitation. "He never was. And now that his strings are breaking, he's going to become more dangerous."
Rudeus closed his eyes tight, squeezing his eyelids as if trying to erase the images of all the times he had trusted that man. The silence in the room became stifling until he spoke again.
"Then... what do I do?"
I looked at him steadily, letting the gravity of my words sink in.
"We have to defeat him. And for that, we'll need Orsted's help."
At the mention of that name, Rudeus shuddered violently. Instinctively, he reached for his chest, right where the Dragon God had pierced him in the past. The trauma of that encounter remained burned into his memory.
"Orsted?" his voice faltered. "But he... Arthur, you don't understand. That man is... he's not someone you can just sit down and chat with. He's a monster."
"You don't have to be afraid of him," I told him, trying to convey a confidence that was hard for even me to maintain. "I know what happened, but think about it: Orsted hates Hitogami more than anyone in this world. His entire existence is dedicated to destroying him."
I took a step closer to him, forcing him to hold my gaze.
"If we talk to him and tell him we want to cooperate to kill Hitogami, I'm sure everything will be fine. We are not his enemies, Rudeus. Although it will be a bit difficult to convince him, we will succeed."
Rudeus swallowed hard, releasing the breath he had been holding. The idea of seeing Orsted again terrified him, but the look of determination I gave him began to gain ground over his fear. He knew I was right; on a board where a god is the enemy, only a monster can be your ally.
"All right," he finally conceded with a resigned sigh. "We'll talk to Nanahoshi. She might be the only one who knows how to find him."
I nodded, but before leaving, I stood up and placed my hand on his head. Without giving him time to react, I placed my palm directly on his forehead.
"What are you doing, Arthur?" Rudeus asked, bewildered, trying to instinctively back away.
"We don't want Hitogami to see our plans for now," I replied.
I concentrated my mana. With the guidance of the Great Sage, I executed an advanced mental interference spell, creating a "block" similar to the one I possessed.
Rudeus went rigid for an instant. His eyes clouded over and a faint bluish light glowed between my fingers and his skin. I was using magic to hide his most recent thoughts and memories regarding our plan. From now on, anything we discussed about Orsted would be encrypted, invisible to the Human God if he tried to peer into Rudeus's mind.
"Done," I said, withdrawing my hand.
Rudeus blinked several times, shaking his head as if trying to rid himself of a strange tingling sensation.
"That felt... strange," he murmured, rubbing his temples.
"Now, even if he speaks to you in dreams, he won't be able to get out of you what we're going to do next. Let's go to the university. Nanahoshi is waiting for us."
We left the mansion, heading for the laboratory that held our only hope of contacting the Dragon God.
Upon entering her room, the first thing that hit us was the chaos.
Crumpled papers covered the floor. Open books, half-written scrolls, and fragments of magic calculations were piled without any apparent order. The entire room was a reflection of its owner's mental state.
Nanahoshi was sitting on the floor, legs crossed, concentrated in front of several half-finished magic circles. She had deep dark circles under her eyes and her hair was a bit messy, but her hands continued to write without stopping.
"...this doesn't fit..." she whispered to herself while erasing a part of the drawing and redrawing it. "If the flow reverses here, it should stabilize..."
The slight sound of the door closing snapped her out of her concentration.
She looked up abruptly.
For a second, her expression was one of alert... until her eyes widened in surprise.
"Rudeus...?"
She stood up immediately, completely forgetting the mess around her. A genuine, almost relieved spark appeared in her eyes.
"It looks like you came back in one piece," she said, looking him up and down as if making sure he was really there. "I'm glad to see you like this."
Then her gaze shifted to me, evaluating me for just a moment, before returning to Rudeus with urgency.
"Now that you're here," she added, pointing to the floor full of diagrams, "help me with these magic circles. I need to test them."
Rudeus exchanged a brief look with me. I nodded in silence.
Rudeus took a step forward, observing the complex patterns on the ground with a mixture of fascination and concern.
"Nanahoshi, wait," Rudeus said, raising his hands in a conciliatory gesture. "We'll help you, I promise. But first we need something from you. Something that can't wait."
Nanahoshi frowned, her initial enthusiasm fading at Rudeus's serious tone. She dropped the magic chalk she was holding and crossed her arms, wiping the dust off her hands on her white lab coat.
"Something that can't wait?" she repeated skeptically. "Rudeus, I'm about to stabilize the invocation sequence. If I can keep this flow from collapsing, I'll be one step closer to going home. What could be more important than that?"
I stepped forward, letting my footsteps echo in the silence of the laboratory.
"We need to contact Orsted," I said bluntly.
"Why do you want to talk to him...?" Nanahoshi asked, her voice heavy with a mixture of disbelief and reproach. "Did you forget what he did to you that time?"
As she said this, she fixed her gaze on Rudeus. There was no need to be specific; the memory of Orsted piercing Rudeus's chest with his bare hand floated in the air like a frozen ghost.
Rudeus instinctively shrugged his shoulders, placing his hand on the scar. His breathing became a bit heavier, but he did not back down.
"I still remember," Rudeus admitted firmly, "but right now the most important thing is that god wants to murder my family. I can't just stand still and wait for it to happen."
Nanahoshi watched him intently, looking for any trace of doubt in his gaze. Finding none, she let out a long, heavy sigh, surrendering to the determination of both.
"All right. If you're so eager to die, I won't be the one to stop you," she said with resignation.
She walked to her desk, pushing aside several maps and scrolls until she reached a small locked drawer. After searching for a moment, she pulled out an object: a silver ring with a detailed engraving of a coiled dragon.
"I have this," she said, showing it. "It's a direct communication device. I don't know exactly where Orsted is right now or how long it will take him to answer the call, but if I activate it, he will know I need him urgently."
I approached and looked at the jewelry. I could feel a strange mana emanating from the ring.
"Fine, that works for now," I said, looking at Nanahoshi firmly. "Do it. The sooner we establish contact, the sooner we can end that bastard."
Nanahoshi nodded gravely. She closed her eyes and squeezed the ring between her fingers, whispering a short incantation. Suddenly, a thin line of intense red light sprouted from the gem, shot through the window pane with a dull hum, and fired into the sky, quickly disappearing among the clouds of dawn.
"It's done," she whispered. "I've sent the signal. But don't get your hopes up that he'll show up tomorrow. Orsted moves through routes nobody knows and is constantly hiding his trail from Hitogami's eyes."
"How long will it take?" Rudeus asked, still with his hand on his chest.
"It could be two months. Maybe a little less if he's near the area," Nanahoshi replied, sitting back down in front of her magic circles. "I don't know for sure."
Two months.
That gave us some time. Time to prepare, reinforce defenses, and plot more than one plan before Hitogami moved again. It wasn't much, but it wasn't nothing.
For now, there was someone I had to contact first: Perugius. If Hitogami had uttered that title with such intent, it couldn't be a simple provocation. Besides, I remembered that Nanahoshi had already had contact with him in the past.
I looked up at her; perhaps he holds the answer.
To be continued...