The Magician's Rune

Late at night, in Roundtable Hold.

At the center of the enormous round table, the golden Grace burned quietly.

Leon sat at the head of the table, his hands clasped beneath his chin.

The letter floated quietly to one side, but Leon paid it no attention. Instead, he gazed silently at the Greater Grace in the center of the round table.

Tiny points of light slowly emerged from his body and flowed into the Greater Grace.

The Grace suddenly flickered. Its flames shot up, then quickly fell back.

Leon narrowed his eyes as a golden ring slowly emerged from the center of the flowing light.

It was only the size of his palm, like a red-hot gold coin, but it was not made of metal.

Fine patterns of light flowed across its surface. They were not purely writing or symbols, but something more primordial: traces of law.

It drifted out of the flames and flew silently toward Leon, hovering in midair before him as it slowly turned.

Leon reached out, and the moment his fingertip touched the edge of the ring, a passage appeared in his mind.

[Magician's Rune sculpted by the Lord of the Stars: made from the Beyonder Characteristic of a Sequence 7 Magician of the Seer Pathway.]

[Through the abilities of the Tarnished Pathway, the abilities of that Sequence can be used for a short time.]

[It can also be used directly as a Potion's main ingredient.]

Leon stared at the Rune in silence for a moment, then said with some disbelief:

"It actually worked."

Magician, it seemed, was the name of the Sequence 7 Potion of the Seer Pathway to which Klein belonged.

The fighting style that Clown had used, like performing magic tricks. Forming Air Bullets by hand, swapping places with flames, paper figurine clones...

After killing that Beyonder, Leon had not absorbed the Characteristic on the spot as he had at the sacrificial site. Instead, he had temporarily stored it in the Elden Ring.

He had wanted to conduct an experiment, but he had not expected it to go more smoothly than he had imagined.

"Just as I thought. Even in another world, the essence of a Tarnished is still plunder," Leon said to the ring, his voice calm.

"That Beyonder died by my hand, so the Beyonder Characteristic was converted by the Tarnished Potion. Under normal circumstances, it can only be absorbed passively to strengthen me."

In the Lands Between, Runes were the physical manifestation, under law, of blessed life-forms after death.

But law did not exist in this world, so the abilities of the "Tarnished" of an Outer Deity's Pathway could only affect Leon himself. They could even convert only the part of a Beyonder Characteristic that belonged to Spirituality, while the special abilities in the Potion could only dissipate along with it.

That was wasteful, so Leon thought of the source of Grace: the Elden Ring.

The Elden Ring, which he had restored to perfection, had regained its ability to sculpt Grace.

He had wanted to try preserving the part of the Beyonder Characteristic that belonged to authority. His original intention had been merely to give it a try.

After all, this world did not need the Erdtree to maintain its basic workings, and the native deities held their respective authorities firmly in their grasp. Yet, unexpectedly, he had actually succeeded.

The flames burned quietly.

Leon closed his hand around the ring. It was light, almost weightless, but the moment he grasped it, he could feel a faint Spirituality pulsing in his palm.

Unlike the Spirituality he had encountered before, which had carried a sense of corruption, this was purer: clean authority that had been filtered.

As the ruler of the Lands Between, in possession of several complete or unfinished laws, he knew exactly what this represented.

Thus, he made a very bold deduction.

The reason he could only use the abilities of the converted Sequence 7 Beyonder Characteristic for a short time, rather than plunder them completely, was that this portion of authority was incomplete.

In Low Sequence Potions, the core authority accounted for a very small share of the Beyonder Characteristic. Once activated, it would be reclaimed by the greater share of that authority.

Although Leon did not know whether this world had any research on the subject.

"But this experiment indirectly proves that if I kill the group of beings with the greatest shares of authority-the gods of this world-I can use my own laws to take over Their authorities directly."

Leon held the ring up before his eyes, looking at the flames of Grace through it. "As things stand, I can either use it as a single-use item in an emergency, or keep it as a Potion's main ingredient for later."

He paused, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.

"Or give it to Klein?" After all, he still wanted Klein's help to see whether he could divine who had sent the letter.

If he offered this as payment, he thought Klein would probably be happy to help.

But as soon as the thought occurred to him, he decided not to rush it. He would wait a while longer.

Klein was still at Sequence 9, a long way from Sequence 7. Dealing with a secret organization that had been entrenched for years was not something he could get involved in yet.

Besides, something sculpted by Roundtable Hold might not be entirely compatible with this world's rules of advancement.

He needed to find a suitable candidate for the experiment. If something really went wrong, his work partner would be done for.

The next morning, at the Blackthorn Security Company.

"Your work from here on is simple. To start with, you'll follow Old Neil, the most senior support staff member we have here, and systematically study the Nighthawks' internal knowledge."

Dunn sat in his office sorting through reports, without looking up.

"Klein happens to need occultism lessons too. I'll schedule the two of you together from now on."

"All right."

I suppose I've landed an official post, Leon thought. Then he slowed his steps, pretending to leave, and tried counting silently to three.

One, two, three-

"Wait."

Sure enough, before he could open the door, Dunn's voice came from behind him.

"One more thing. Remember to get a revolver from Old Neil. You get thirty bullets a day, and there's a dedicated shooting range on the street. You can go practice."

As he spoke, Dunn quickly wrote out a slip, signed and stamped it, and handed it over.

Is this one of the perks of being an official law enforcer? Leon took the slip and glanced at it. He had just turned around when-

"One more thing."

Dunn stopped him again.

How does he keep forgetting things in stages...? Leon suddenly understood why Klein had worn an expression that said, "You'll understand when the time comes," before work.

"What else can I do?" he asked with a smile, his tone already carrying some of the ease of someone settling into his role.

"About the details of what happened in the early hours yesterday, you may need to write a report as well. If you don't know the format, you can ask Klein or Rozanne."

"Understood. I'll give it to you before I leave work."

After answering and making sure there was nothing else, Leon turned and left the room.

He left the captain's office and returned to the hall. Klein had already gone to class, leaving only Rozanne, who had returned after recuperating, at the front desk, fast asleep.

Yesterday's fright did not seem to have affected the young woman's quality of sleep.

Though it was broad daylight, she looked as though she had stayed up several nights in a row, and did not notice anyone passing by.

Leon did not disturb her, walking quietly down the stairs.

Klein had already told him where the class was being held that morning in the carriage.

He went down the corridor and turned right at the intersection.

There were two iron doors at the end of the passage, one of which led to the armory where Old Neil was.

Leon curled a finger and knocked on the iron door.

"Come in."

A somewhat aged, raspy voice came from behind the iron door, with a touch of hearty good humor.

Leon pushed the door open and walked in. Only one lamp was lit inside, and the lighting was dim enough to give the room an atmosphere suited to occultism-it was just a little too dark.

Klein, who was sitting and listening to the lesson, saw Leon and waved to him. Behind the desk sat a man in a classical black robe, with graying hair and a kindly smile.

The faint fragrance of essential oils filled the air.

Leon felt someone's gaze on him in the darkness. It was a little uncomfortable, but he paid it no mind and walked slowly inside.

Then he sniffed involuntarily.

It was not his imagination. He had caught a trace of a familiar scent again.

Old Neil stopped writing and looked up. "You must be Leon Kaspar? Our new colleague? Klein was just telling me about you. He said you saved his life."

"I was just lucky. I didn't think much about it at the time." Leon politely removed his hat.

"Luck is the most important strength any Beyonder can have."

Old Neil seemed quite talkative. He pointed to a chair beside him. "Please, have a seat. Would you like a cup of hand-ground coffee? We were just discussing the precautions for Ritualistic Magic."

As Leon walked toward the seat, he followed the scent to find its source. He discovered that the familiar smell was actually coming from Old Neil's direction.

"Yes, please, Mr. Neil." Leon sat down beside Klein and looked up at Old Neil's dark red eyes.

Then the third pair of eyes staring at him in the room caught his attention.

They were not Klein's, nor were they Old Neil's.

They were a conspicuous pair of eyes floating in the empty space behind Old Neil.

On one side was a transparent eye without eyelashes; on the other, there was no eyeball, only a decaying, empty socket smeared with black blood.