217 A Deceit of Secrets

The night was getting late. The sounds of thunder kept on roaring in the sky and while the flashes of lightning were flaring. Luckily, it hadn't started to rain yet by the time he came back.

Before entering the hotel, he waited outside where no one was around for the duration of Graham's Transformation to be over. It shouldn't take long since he could feel his skin began to itch. Valentine became three centimeters shorter and the big scar that was distinctive of Rood's feature disappeared. His face became more ovalish with sharp jawlines and a stubble growing on them.

Upon returning to his original appearance, Valentine entered the hotel without delay and returned to his room. The receptionist, who wasn't Stefan, smiled and nodded at him, to which he replied with a nod.

Click!

The sound of his hotel door being unlocked could be heard faintly amidst the rumbling thunder outside. Valentine opened the door and locked it from inside. After hanging his jacket on the hook, he sat at the table and focused.

"Now let's see. Those Deities like playing little secrets. Which ability should I use this time to uncover it..."

Valentine was pondering hard when suddenly he had an epiphany. He felt that something that he had long forgotten had resurfaced on his brain. It was as clear as day despite him being sure about not having known about it before.

"It's... in my brain?"

He dug up his brain to make the memory clearer. The line for summoning his Deity was then laid bare in his mind, ready to be recited at any time.

Bracing himself for what was about to come, Valentine opened his mouth and spoke loudly.

"Lirach tasa Malphas ayer!"

Roar!!

The thunder roared loudly outside while an orange illusory curtain began descending above Valentine. The curtain, thicker than usual, was hanging low, swaying in the invisible breeze gently.

Another flash of lightning came outside the window, followed by a rumble of thunder not long after. More layers of curtain descended until the ceiling was no longer visible. It was as if the hotel room had been turned into the setting of a grand finale.

Valentine's heart was beating faster and faster in anticipation.

Slowly, a strong for came from above, forcing Valentine to fall on his knees and prostrate. The force only got stronger and stronger, and he had to struggle harder and harder not to get crushed flat on the floor, which strangely remained unaffected.

Valentine then felt a grand presence hanging above where the curtains were. Despite not being able to see the presence, he could feel the majesty and horror that the presence was emitting. His heart was filled with terror while his brain somewhat felt all-knowing.

Blare!!

He had been smitten!

However, he was strangely alive, despite the devastating pain that he was feeling. He felt like his head had just been crushed by a giant meteor, repeatedly so. He even almost lost consciousness, if not for his inability to do so at the moment for some reason. He was being forced to remain aware of all the pain that he was feeling.

The crushing agony remained only for a few seconds, but it felt like centuries to him.

Roar!!

Another roar of thunder exploded, and following that, the presence slowly ascended, lifting the pressure that was agonizingly weighing Valentine down. The pain in his head was also slowly receding.

Following the presence, the thick orange curtains also ascended back into nothingness, returning the room to its original state.

Valentine wiped out the drops of sweat on his pale forehead. After massaging his head, he sat back down on the chair and concentrated on the new knowledge that had been painfully transferred into his brain.

With heavy breathing, he leaned back on his chair and looked at the storm that was brewing outside. The thunders were rumbling in the distance, but he could swear that just now, they were inside his hotel room.

"Alright, G. The painful encounter has evolved my abilities. First, the usage limit has been increased to fifteen times per day, just like yours. This means I can use Mass Illusion, Illusion Substitute, and Memory Erasion more times now."

He crossed his arms and placed his feet on the table while leaning back with his chair, balancing himself with his legs. He was looking out the window, and if not for the frequent flashes of lightning, it would be pitch black outside.

"Let's do it the way you did it. I'll start from my Earl rank abilities first. So I have eight Earl rank abilities: Night Vision, Concealment, Anti-Divination, Interrogation, Reconstruction, Reveal, and the passive ones, Sense of Secrets and Lie Detection. I didn't include heightened reflex, hearing, and speed because it's, you know, like a physical upgrade."

"First, my Concealment will now erase people's memory of what's concealed and can conceal up to ten things at a time. Although it's still bound by distance, that upgrade is really powerful, G, but can also be detrimental when we're fighting in a group. It seems that this Deity is meant for people who fight alone,"

Valentine used concealment and a thin yellowish mist came down to engulf his right hand. The mist looked more complicated now, and although somewhat thinner, the object it was covering was no longer visible.

As the caster, Valentine knew that his right hand was still there, even more so since he could feel it. However, if he wasn't focused, he felt that his right hand was never there in the first place.

He then lifted his Concealment on his hand and put Graham's lighter, which he had placed on the desk, under the yellowish mist instead.

Valentine still knew what was behind the mist, but again, if he didn't focus, he would forget that something was on the table at all.

"In a team fight, if our teammates forget about us, we might put the whole formation into disarray. But alone, this upgrade is perfect for missions," he concluded after canceling the Concealment on the lighter.

"Next is Reconstruction. It can now show perfect scenes of what has happened in a spot. That means the color and everything, at a reduced cost. I think it's because of the influence of Mass Illusion, so instead of seeing blood-constructed figures, we just pay the blood price to recreate past events using illusion. That is another useful upgrade, although it is very situational since we can't really use it in public. Maybe if we could conceal a whole area..." he said longingly.

"But don't forget that it will also reconstruct an ability's effect, as shown when we accidentally used Gloom's ability when I used Reconstruction. With the reduced cost, I can see myself using it more often in combat,"

Wanting to try out its effect, Valentine got up and stood in one spot of the room. He then placed Concealment on several spots of the floor, creating a circle of mysterious yellowish mist around him. After that, he lifted the Concealment and returned to his chair.

He sat down straight and took out his dagger. The sharp metal edge was then pressed against the soft flesh of his left palm, cutting it open. He let his blood flow out and drip down to the floor below. Concentrating on the spot where he had stood up before and the timeframe that he wanted, he opened his mouth.

"Show me what happened in that spot!"

His blood evaporated right away while an illusory orange curtain, which was much thinner than usual, descended. However, instead of showing him an illusion, it recreated a past event that had happened in that specific spot.

There was another, perfectly replicated, Valentine standing on the spot. The replica Valentine used his Concealment ability and created a circle of yellowish mist around himself. The real Valentine, being not the caster of that ability, now couldn't remember what was concealed by the mist. To him, it seemed that his replica was standing on a floating panel of the floor, separated from the rest. Even if he racked his memory, he couldn't recall what was being shrouded by the mist.

After that, the replica Valentine lifted his Concealment and revealed the floor that was hidden there. The real Valentine suddenly remembered what it was as if he had never forgotten about it in the first place. The Reconstruction then ended as the illusory curtain ascended.

"That means targetted abilities might not be useful even if replicated since the target will also be the replica of the real person. However, wide area abilities should be usable," he concluded and then leaned back on his chair.

"My other Earl rank abilities didn't get any upgrade, so that's that, G. Next, let's see my Deceit abilities. Just like yours, their evolution was influenced by the previous contracted Deities. First, Mass Illusion. The cost has been reduced, which is great, but the biggest improvement is the Concealment that comes with it. When the orange curtain comes down, the whole area will be shrouded in Concealment, so anyone except us and our targets won't be able to see what's going on,"

Valentine switched his legs, placing his left leg over his right leg on the table.

"Although so far it hasn't become a problem, it will surely come in handy. It also means we can use Mass Illusion in public because nobody else will be able to see it. We just have to make sure the area of effect is not too big or it will drag innocent passersby into it,"

"Second, Illusion Substitutes. This one seems to have also been influenced by Secrets. After it's triggered, we'll be concealed for two seconds after reappearing, so the enemy shouldn't be able to pinpoint our location too easily. Although we are still unable to reappear far from the initial position, this upgrade is already powerful enough,"

"I just realized we didn't even have it triggered once while facing that deranged woman. That shows how powerful we are now, G," he muttered proudly.

It was true that during his fight with Eveline, he was in total control of the battle despite not being able to put the enemy under his control effect. He just lacked an offensive ability to finish off his enemy, especially since he had lost his gun.

"Alright, the last one is Memory Erasion. This one has also been upgraded, and in an interesting way, in my opinion. We can still only erase people's memory of us. However, now we can use Concealment in combination with this ability to 'seal' someone's memory of something. Just like Concealment, it's bound by distance, so if the target gets out of the radius, their memory will return."

"Unlike Concealment, G, this ability still needs chanting, though, and we still have to be in close proximity with the target. Using it in a fight will be tricky, but with a little control effect, we can seal their memory of their own abilities. If we can utilize it well, we'll get the upper hand in combat just with this."

Valentine crossed his arms while his eyes were glimmering.

"Maybe, it's even possible to seal someone's memory about being a Contractbound, thus effectively turning them into a normal human. This needs testing, although the chances of it being capable of doing that are low. I think for now we'll only be able to seal small fragments of memories, not something essential like that,"

Valentine then got up and walked up to his leather jacket that was hung by the door on the hook. He took out the contract scroll tucked inside it and walked towards his suitcase. He also took out a contract scroll that was hidden deep inside it.

With the two scrolls in his hands, he returned to the chair and laid both scrolls on the table. One was the scroll for the Deity of Serpents and Death, who would grant curse abilities to His Contractbounds, while the other one was the mysterious scroll that required him to have pleased three Deities.

"I'm indeed interested in the Demise contract scroll, G. I think curse abilities will be the offensive abilities that I'm really lacking. They will be perfect for assassination and finishing blows against enemies. However, I'm curious about this other scroll as well,"

First, Valentine opened up the scroll for the Deity of Serpents and Death. The sigil showed four interlocking crosses and a sideway crown on the right. Once he saw the sigil, knowledge of the required materials was also transferred into his brain.

"We definitely can't do the ritual tonight. We need the six tongues of Leyaks, six hair strands of a Gorgon, and six essences of Dybbuks. Besides the Leyaks, we don't know what or where the rest are. Even if we know where to find Leyaks, they will melt into a pool of blood if killed, so we have to cut off their tongues before they die, which won't be easy..."

Valentine rolled the scroll and put it back on the table. He then picked up the other, identical scroll and opened it. The last time he had done so, there was nothing on the scroll and only the instruction came into mind.

Slowly, the scroll was unrolled, revealing the sigil on it. Surprisingly, the sigil was strangely familiar to him. He had seen it before-- in fact, he had seen it numerous times before.

"G, isn't this the sigil of the Deity of Fire Divination?"

However, the knowledge that was transferred into his brain was not that of the Deity of Fire Divination.

It was the scroll of the Deity of Pyromancy and Agony! A President rank Deity that wasn't listed in the ancient book!