...

  The debriefing was mercifully brief, praises to the goddess. Ulrich recounted the standard details of his Rank 2 advancement, falling through infinite darkness, voices in unknown languages, the sticky sensation of descent through layers of reality. Captain Ottis recorded every detail with mechanical precision while Rosaline listened with the attention of someone cataloging a pattern.

  He omitted the graveyard, Autumn Hall, and everything that was needed, as always. Having advanced to Rank 2, his ability to lie through his teeth only got better. At this point, he wondered if he would manifest a talent relating to lying in the future.

  "Mental state appears stable," Captain Ottis concluded after his final questions. "No signs of corruption or personality fracture. You're dismissed for recovery. Report back in three days."

  Ulrich left the Sanctuary as the afternoon shadows lengthened across Euston Street. His body felt different from the Rank 2 transformation. The Vital Rune within his psyche was darker and bigger, like a shadow gradually growing from the sunset.

  He needed to understand his new capabilities before night fell.

  The tea shop occupied a quiet corner two streets from the Sanctuary, frequented by Ministry members, mostly other civil servants, due to its proximity to the Sanctuary and the church. Ulrich claimed a corner table, ordered black tea and pastries he had no appetite for, and settled in to explore what the bestowment had granted him as he closed his eyes.

  Mainly, there were three new floating cards in the depths of his psyche. He’d like to say it was flashing, but it was more like pulsing with a menacing, almost black aura.

  Is it because the Rune of Shadow is inherently dark? That thought was amusing, and tugged at his curiosity a little. Though he’d have to ask Captain, Freddy, Victor, or Rosaline to know the answer.

  Ulrich placed his attention back on the cards floating in front of him.

  

Shadow Thread (Spell):

  A spell that felt like a natural evolution of his shadow manipulation. Ulrich activated Shadow Vision, watching the tea shop transform into gradations of darkness and light. To put it more accurately, it was a black and white world. Shadows became tangible territories, and within those territories, he could now weave with some effort.

  He focused on his own shadow, extending his will downward. Threads of darkness manifested, thin as spider silk but strong as steel cable. They responded to his thoughts with perfect precision, coiling and uncoiling at his spirituality movement.

  But what range did they have? Ulrich stretched a thread toward the shadow of a nearby chair. Five meters, maybe six, before the connection grew tenuous and difficult to maintain. He could push it further, but the spirituality cost increased exponentially with distance, just like Shadow Step.

  Can normal people see them? A patron walked past, completely oblivious to the shadow thread that crossed his path.

  So they are invisible to ordinary people without supernatural perception…

  Ulrich did not doubt that Rosaline could see it, though he hadn’t had the chance to test it. He should, maybe later.

  The second card was stranger.

  

Blessing of Night (Talent):

  Requirement: Blessing of the Shadow

  Blessing of the Shadow had transformed into something called Blessing of Night. Ulrich poured in his spirituality carefully, feeling the familiar enhancement of senses and physical attributes. But now there was more, a connection to darkness itself that was similar to kind sort of shadow affinity.

  He could feel the absence of light as a tangible, opposing force, and could sense things moving in darkness that his eyes couldn't perceive.

  Why the name change? What's the difference between Shadow and Night? The question nagged at him, suggesting depths to the transformation he didn't yet understand. Ulrich let the question rest behind him and looked at the final card.

  

Puppet Mastery (Talent):

  The third ability, Puppet Mastery, was indeed less like a spell and more like an innate talent. Ulrich couldn't quite grasp its full implications until he tried understanding what puppet refers to. Then, an idea appeared in his mind as he waited.

  A waitress approached his table, a young woman with tired eyes who moved with the efficient grace. Her shadow pooled beneath her feet, ordinary just like any other person.

  Ulrich activated Shadow Vision and extended a Shadow Thread toward her shadow's core. When contact was made, the feedback from Puppet Mastery was immediate and prominent, enhancing his control beyond what the thread alone should provide.

  He could feel her shadow responding to his will if he so chose to do something. Not completely, not overwhelmingly, but enough to influence its movement. Ulrich tested the connection gently, nudging her shadow's left arm upward.

  The waitress's physical arm twitched, rising slightly before she caught the movement and lowered it with visible confusion. She glanced at her hand as though it had betrayed her, then shook her head and continued toward the kitchen.

  "What was that?" she muttered to herself. "Did I just...?"

  Ulrich released the connection immediately, his heart racing. The implications were staggering. Shadow Thread let him control shadows, and it wasn’t his own. Puppet Mastery enhanced that control to the point where manipulating a shadow affected the physical body casing it, or perhaps, it made it much easier to control than what shadow thread should allow.

  He could turn people into literal puppets. The ethics of that capability would require serious consideration later. And on that thought, how many threads could he create? Was it possible to control an entire horde of skeletons, given that he have enough spirituality?

  For now, Ulrich simply needed to understand the mechanics. He spent the next hour experimenting subtly, testing range, duration, the spirituality cost of maintaining multiple threads. The tea grew cold as he worked through different variations.

  By the time the twilight shade consumed the street outside, Ulrich had a functional understanding of his new abilities. Shadow Thread provided limited control, and Puppet Mastery enhanced that control to an extraordinary degree, while Blessing of Night enhanced his overall strength and senses.

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  But none of that eases him any less from the vision he’d seen during his advancement.

  Autumn Hall. The woman with Selena's face, kneeling at his grave six hundred years in the future.

  How could he find her? His only connection was Ma'am Felanor, the mysterious Servant of Night who had shown him that graveyard in the first place. But approaching her meant risk. The last time they'd met, Cygnus had basically burned him alive just to slight Ma’am Felanor.

  Still, what choice did he have?

  Ulrich paid for his untouched tea and left as twilight settled over Belham. His terraced house waited three streets away, close enough to Selena's residence that he often saw her tending her flower boxes in the morning. Tonight, those flowers looked wilted in the failing light.

  Inside, Ulrich prepared for sleep with methodical care. He set protective wards around his bed, basic precautions against spiritual intrusion. Father Lorel said practice make perfect, and he considered this an opportunity to practice. After making sure everything was fine, Ulrich lay down and closed his eyes, waiting for that familiar dream.

  And it came with familiar inevitability.

  Ulrich opened his eyes and found himself sitting on a wooden bench on a busy sidewalk in Donghai City. The dream's starting point was exactly as it had been for thousands of cycles, and a hundred more to come.

  But something was different.

  Ulrich looked down at his hands and felt the Vital Rune throbbing within him. Not Rank 2, but Rank 1. The crystallized version he'd achieved in the graveyard, with all his abilities from that stage intact.

  His mind raced through a series of implications. Before advancing to Rank 2, had he possessed any power in this dream? He couldn't recall ever testing that accurately. After all, there was no reason to. Sure, he'd perform divination as an 'ordinary' person within this dreamscape a couple of times to test its effect. But nothing extraordinary.

  But now, having reached Rank 2 in reality, the dream placed him at Rank 1 as the starting point, it was strange.

  The pattern suggested a connection he didn't fully understand yet. Was this dream somehow linked to his advancement? Did each rank in reality unlock the previous rank in this future vision? Like some kind of checkpoint?

  Ulrich stood from his seat, testing his Rank 1 abilities to confirm they functioned as they did in the real world. Dark Arrow manifested instantly, and Shadow Vision revealed the city's shadows in tangible detail. Everything worked exactly as it had before his advancement. As for Blessing of the Shadow, it could only manifest in darkness, and Ulrich didn't feel the need to see its effect anyway.

  After testing his abilities, he walked to a secluded alley and performed the ritual from memory. Three makeshift candles, a dark-colored stone as an offering, and the precise Hermes phrases invoking the Night Mother's attention.

  ", Ulrich Constantine, pray to the Great Mother. The Lady of Night. The dusk after dawn. The Perpetual Listener beyond the Stars."

  The final line was the only one that changed. After more general lectures from Father Lorel, he'd learned that the last line usually dictates the request of the individual praying.

  "I pray for guidance toward Autumn Hall, the seeker of truth."

  Fire erupted from the candles, burning with unnatural intensity before extinguishing completely. The familiar sensation of being watched pressed against Ulrich's awareness and intuition, which stems from his current Rank 1 status. Ma'am Felanor materialized from shadows that hadn't existed moments before like a splash of ink dropped into the world.

  She wore the same starry black dress, her eyes holding that mechanical quality that made her seem simultaneously present and impossibly distant. But when she saw Ulrich, something flickered across her expression. Surprise? Recognition? The emotion vanished before he could identify it.

  He thought but didn't dwell on it. It wasn't like she would answer if he were to ask about it.

  "Ulrich Constantine." She called, her voice carrying no inflection.

  "Ma'am Felanor." Ulrich bowed respectfully. "I apologize for the sudden summons."

  "The Mother permits it." Her gaze moved past him, studying the alley with clinical detachment. "What truth do you seek?"

  "Autumn Hall. I've heard she is searching for answers about Belham's destruction." Ulrich kept his tone carefully neutral. "I need to speak with her. Can you help me find her?"

  Silence followed. Ma'am Felanor studied him with eyes that seemingly penetrated deep into his thoughts. Finally, she spoke.

  "Autumn Hall visits the graveyard almost every day before dusk, and stays for half an hour. You can meet her there if the timing is correct."

  "Today?" Ulrich's heart rate increased. "She's there?"

  Ma'am Felanor nodded. For some reason, she felt much stranger and more foreign than the last time he met her. Was there something happening in the background that he was unaware of? Regardless, Ulrich was appreciative of her answer.

  "I understand."

  Ma'am Felanor nodded once. "Then go. The graveyard is on Belham Island, the wilderness where a city once existed. I assume you already know the location."

  She began to fade back into the shadows, not before Ulrich called out.

  "Ma'am Felanor, one more question. The Eternal Club, is it connected to—"

  "No." Her voice cut through his query with absolute coldness. "That topic remains forbidden. Seek other answers."

  She vanished completely, leaving Ulrich alone in the alley.

  He stood motionless for several minutes, processing the conversation. Autumn Hall was at the graveyard. He could meet her, learn why she had Selena's face, discover what connection existed between the person he knew.

  But something nagged at him. Selena had mentioned dreams before, after the kidnapping case, vague references to graveyards and tombstones that Ulrich had dismissed as a coincidence. What if they weren't? What if some connection existed between Selena's dreams and this future timeline?

  If Autumn Hall saw him, recognized him, would that knowledge somehow transfer to Selena in the present? The metaphysical implications were unclear, but the potential consequences felt severe. Who knows what sort of effect this could have on the present? The only reason Ulrich didn't care about the consequences in the dream was precisely due to the fact that a dream cannot affect reality. And if that was to change... There was no question what could happen.

  He needed to hide his identity.

  Needing to wait until the right time, Ulrich wandered the street market. He purchased a black and gold mask, simpler than the ornate Chinese fox design Autumn Hall wore. Then he bought a dark suit to replace his usual casual attire, transforming himself into someone unrecognizable, not that anyone here could recognize him.

  This time, he didn't stop by Zheng San to get a plane ticket. With his intuition and powers, Ulrich was able divinate a way to get to the island the fastest. And that was a ferry which was scheduled to head to the island.

  The ferry to Belham Island departed from the eastern docks. Ulrich paid the fare and stood at the railing as the boat cut through dark water. The island appeared gradually from evening mist, a shadow of land that had once housed a city he grew familiar with.

  Now it was anything but a city, just some remote Island for tourists at best. And that made him feel a certain way, not sure which, but admittedly, it affect him.

  The graveyard occupied the western side of the island, surrounding a collapsed church that time and weather had reduced to rubble and ruined remains.

  Ulrich approached slowly, his enhanced senses painting a picture of the once sacred ground. Maybe it was due to his spirituality being awakened, or enhanced, but there was a corrosive force on the very earth beneath his foot that he did not notice before. What's more, it felt extremely similar to that same aura of degeneration from the Twilight Order.

  His expression dropped slightly as he made his way forward, greeting a familiar figure. She stood exactly where his vision had shown her.

  'Autumn Hall' knelt before his tombstone, white flowers arranged carefully at its base. The Chinese fox mask covered her face, ornate and beautiful in the gray light of approaching dusk. Her dress was elegant, expensive, the kind of clothing that spoke of wealth and care for appearance.

  Ulrich's breath caught in his throat.

  Even masked, even at a distance, he could tell. The way she moved, the curve of her shoulders, the precise angle of her head as she studied the inscription. This was Selena, or someone who shared her body down to the smallest detail.

  He stepped forward, deliberately making noise to announce his presence. Autumn Hall turned, rising gracefully to face him. Behind the mask, her eyes were visible, hazel and warm but carrying a sharpness that Selena's possessed.

  They stood separated by ten meters of overgrown grass and broken stone. The air felt thick with unspoken mutual understanding, with connections neither fully understood. The rain clouds gathered overhead, turning the gray sky darker. A drop fell, then another, beginning the downpour that would transform the graveyard into something even more melancholy.

  If there was anything that changed in his thousands of loops, it would be the bipolar weather. The mechanism of which he could never grasp.

  Autumn Hall spoke first, her voice carrying across the distance with perfect clarity.

  "Who are you?"

  ...