Breathing deeply to regain his senses after the bloody fight, Lysander realized how messed up and stupid his plan was.
'He could have killed me easily right from the start, but by being a soul meant to be sacrificed for the goal of his master, he was lenient, and it was the only reason I survived.'
The young man clutched his head in his hands, as if to stop his mind from going anywhere other than the present, preventing himself from imagining the multiple ways he could have died.
'Fuck, will I escape this damn Nightmare?'
After a few seconds, Lysander slowly got up with difficulty, pain all over his body making his brain scream for him to rest. But Lys knew that he had already taken more than enough time to rest than he was allowed, considering that the ritual was drawing near.
Lysander looked at the messed-up room resulting from his fight with the Butler, books spread on the ground, cracks on the walls, and blood spilled on the carpet.
'I need to search for information about the ritual, to find a way to stop it or, at least, prevent it from killing me when it explodes.'
Focusing on the Butler's desk, for it was probably there that Qeius would keep important things, Lysander began to search through papers and records. The Nightmare Spell automatically translated the information that he saw, preventing him from suffering from a linguistic barrier.
'Prisoners' Logs'
He skimmed it, but it only recorded the date and the number of prisoners brought to the castle and locked in the dungeon.
'Around 50 prisoners, that's quite a lot. Maybe I could use their numbers. But how useful would they be, either physically or mentally broken?'
Lysander didn't dwell on it anymore and skipped to the next record.
'Master's Attempts'
He learned that tonight would be the 7th attempt by the castle's master since the start of the ritual.
'Not a lot, but the number 7 has a deep spiritual meaning in the real world, and probably this one too, so maybe it is a sign.'
Finally, the young man found what he was looking for.
'Ritual of the Stone Saint'
Lysander didn't know what a Stone Saint was, so he began to read the record to understand what was happening here.
********
1st: Master brought back a living Stone Saint from his expedition to the Hollow Mountains. One of the Daemon of Destiny's children!! My master is extraordinary!
2nd: The Stone Saint is currently locked inside the dungeon. She is restrained by heavy iron chains and massive essence suppression runes, but the bitch still managed to wound Master and kill several of the elite combatants of House Pendragon before being suppressed.
3rd: Master went to the Bright City, seeking knowledge related to the Stone Saint and the ritual. He found the answer to his questions, but the Stranger, the kin of our prisoner, has become wary of House Pendragon. Master said that we had to hurry. He brought the Stone Saint to the Ritual Chamber and began forming a pool of an unknown substance, plunging her into it.
6th: Knight Abel came back with several young adolescents, captured around the vicinity of the castle, and locked them inside the dungeon cells. Master picked one of the children and closed the door. He didn't come back, but Master was angry beyond measure when he exited the chamber.
7th: Failure.
8th: Failure.
...
12th: Master believes tonight will be a success.
********
Dumbfounded and comprehending less than a third of what he had read, Lysander tried to piece together the few clues he had.
'So the ritual is related to a being named the Stone Saint from a region called the Hollow Mountains, who was strong enough to injure Qeius's Master, the latter who is already stronger than anything I have seen in my life.'
Holding his hair, Lysander continued brainstorming.
'The Master is in a hurry because a higher entity, the Stranger, from the Bright City, had caught on that one of his kin was kidnapped. So, he started taking children from the surroundings of the castle to speed up the ritual, which is happening inside a chamber with an unknown pool holding the Stone Saint. Tonight will be the 7th attempt and the one he thinks will succeed.'
That was what Lysander understood from the Butler's records, but it was just a presupposition based on Qeius's thoughts, who was probably not aware of all the information related to the ritual, as he was just a Butler.
As for the part about the Stone Saint being a child of the Daemon of Destiny, Lysander didn't have a single idea what it meant. He already didn't know much about the Nightmare Spell, and the name Daemon of Destiny didn't ring a bell, but anything with 'Destiny' in its name sounded powerful and important.
The young man sat on the wooden chair and muttered in his breath.
"Fuck... what kind of shit am I in?!"
While he was processing what he had read, a hand knocked on the wooden door.
An old woman's voice sounded from the corridor.
"B-Butler Qeius, I-I heard weird sounds. Are y-you alright?"
Lysander rose from the chair, a cold light appearing in his eyes. He picked up a pencil from the desk.
Hearing no answer, the old maid asked again, her voice trembling.
"Butler?"
After a few seconds, the door slowly opened, revealing to the maid a scene of chaos.
Before she even had time to scream, a blurry figure appeared in front of her and repeatedly plunged something into her chest while covering her mouth with a bloody hand, preventing any sound from leaving her body.
She never saw her killer, as life abandoned her old body before her destined death.
———
Tell what you thought about this chapter, any critics are welcomed.
The plot of Lysander's First Nightmare is thickening!!!