The sunlight beyond the window was bleak, and the atmosphere in the lounge was oppressive. The white Ouroboros patterns on the black wall tiles seemed especially fond of this mood. They had originally remained motionless on the tiles, but now they began to rotate silently.
In the middle of the lounge, on the coffee table, within the chessboard.
Under Mike King Ceplano's hand, a knight moved diagonally one step. Beyond the opposing pawn stood one of the opponent's cannons. Cole swallowed, staring at that cannon piece in terror.
Rather than staring at the cannon, he was staring at the copy of The Bible beneath his hand.
Cole discovered in horror that the Ouroboros mark originally branded onto his wrist was crawling down from it bit by bit in time with Ceplano's voice. It took not a shred of flesh with it. The hollow Ouroboros imprint simply crawled down from the wizard's wrist and plunged headfirst into the cover of The Bible beneath his right hand.
Outside the chessboard, Ceplano continued explaining his train of thought at an unhurried pace:
"...As a knight, it cannot run too far. If it runs beneath the enemy's cannon like this, with a pawn between them, and takes a blast from that cannon, then everything comes to nothing. There is nothing left."
"B-but, I... I didn't do anything, sir!" Cole's lips trembled as he mumbled in a quavering voice. He noticed that only half the tail of his Ouroboros brand still hung from his wrist. Most of the rest of its body had already sunk into the cover of The Bible.
Ceplano seemed not to notice the strange occurrence with The Bible, nor did he pay any heed to Cole's explanation.
"As a knight," the leader of the Xiangqi Society said, stopping Cole from speaking