Thomas is a modern person who is interested in alchemy, and today he bought a strange book from a sketchy old lady saying it would show him the 'truth', Thomas was of course not going to believe such a thing but since he is in England and people have a lot of strange historical relics, he bought the book without a pinch.
Now, in his apartment, right where his carpet used to be, he made a circle called the 'Gate of truth' as said by the book. It was a type of ritual that was very easy to do, using a chalk bathed in the holy water of a church, the feather of an untainted Peacock and then ink from an octopus, using the feather as a medium and putting it in the ink, he would have to draw symbols which were described by the book as the 'Souls of Homseisus'.
He was able to get the peacock feather... but he wasn't mad enough to go to a church and submerge chalk into their 'holy water', and he may not be religious, but he still respected all regions so what he did was use treated water and the squid ink was easy to get, he just had to go to the docks and bought it with a 'small fee.'.
After he was done with that, he had to stand in the middle of the circle and chant the words on the souls of Homseisu, which he was about to do.
Thomas stood in the centre of his hand-drawn circle, his heart thudding louder than he expected. The symbols glowed faintly under the dim light of his apartment, as if the ink had soaked in something more than just darkness. The book's pages were cracked and stiff, yet the words written in a faded, spidery hand burned into his eyes the longer he looked.
He licked his lips, gripping the peacock feather like a conductor's baton.
"Onseil… Hara… Vethri… Lumestra… Homseisus."
The syllables spilt awkwardly from his mouth, each one vibrating the air around him. At first, nothing happened—just the hum of his refrigerator and the muffled noise of cars outside. Then, the temperature dropped. His breath misted in front of him, though the windows were sealed.
The circle responded. Lines he had drawn with ordinary ink began to shimmer as though molten silver now ran through them. The faint light swirled and shifted until the floor itself looked less like carpet and more like a mirror of black glass, reflecting him with impossible clarity.
Thomas took an uneasy step back, but the moment he did, the feather grew hot in his hand and anchored him in place.
BANG.
With a sound reminiscent of a gunshot, his head exploded, and the book in his hand immediately turned to ash. His body fell onto the now glowing circle, and a faint illusory voice was reciting.
Onseil… Hara… Vethri… Lumestra… Homseisus
---
The sound wasn't physical—at least, not in the sense Thomas could understand. His head hadn't really exploded; rather, his mind was torn open, every thought, every memory unravelling like threads in an ancient tapestry. His body remained on the circle, twitching faintly, while his consciousness plunged into something far deeper.
He floated in darkness.
It wasn't the simple black of closed eyes—it was a black so vast, so absolute, it contained him. Within it, he could still hear the chant, now repeated endlessly by countless voices, layering over each other until it was impossible to tell where one ended and another began.
Onseil… Hara… Vethri… Lumestra… Homseisus…
The words dug into him. Each syllable wasn't a sound but a law.
And then, light.
Thomas found himself in bed. Before he could make sense of what happened, he was assaulted by memories not of his own.
"This...I was transported into another world and this boy's name is Kalmas Miruel...well my new name is a guess and I am a worshipper of the Church of Alchemia and have an older brother and two younger siblings, we have no parents too...." He turned to his side and saw a worn-out book and a diary on a desk. He knew what the book was...he wondered how the Book of Truth followed him here.
He got out of bed and went towards the diary and then opened it.
"Day 1:Today was the day I took my siblings to get baptised at the church, honestly I don't know why I bought this diary but I thought I would need it, as I said I took my siblings to the church to get baptised by the Divine water of Alchemia, the God of creation and truth."
"Day 2:...I have been feeling strange today. No, it began after I came back from the church last night..."
Kalmas flipped the page more, reading about his daily life before the words began to be fewer and fewer.
"Day 50:hahahhahahahahha, I'm going insane. No, it began going insane ever since I bought that damn book from that old woman."
Kalmas furrowed his brow and continued flipping the pages. The more he read, the more he realised that the original body of this person was slowly going insane.
"Day 99: Hah...I can't continue living anymore, you know when I read the book I saw that different 'Pillars' exist with nine different 'rows' but they are all incomplete, a person can gain access to a Pillar and become someone known as a Pillager, a being who begins walking down the path of professions, for example the church i worship belongs to the pillar of truth also known as the pillar of creation, alchemy, fusion, Philosophy and all that....hahaha the knowledge is poison to me and I feel like I'll turn into a savage monster one of these days and kill everything I see...so today I took a glass of rat poison I bought and plan to drink it later...ahhh, Helsia, Crole and big brother Gerald, I am sorry for inconveniencing you all by killing myself so I wish you all to burn the book and never try to come in contact with any of the twenty pillars, I beg you as this is my final wish..."
Thomas—no Kalmas ceased his brow, he closed the diary and then turned to the book of truth, he paused for a second before ultimately opening it.
The moment he did, he didn't feel anything wrong at all. In fact, he could even read and somewhat understand the language known as the Soul of Homseisus. "The twenty-two pillars each contain over nine rows, and each pillar corresponds to a life expansion, it is simply a way for humans to become Pillagers, beings with bizarre and terrifying abilities, each pillar only needs a single spell and a specific action to begin and entering a row is easier at first but if you wish to enter the rest of the rows, you need to gather ingredients and make potions."
"The twenty-two pillars as listed are."
1. The Pillar of Truth (The Alchemist): Creation, Alchemy, Fusion, Philosophy, and truth. This Pillar governs fundamental laws of existence, transmutation of matter, and the pursuit of ultimate knowledge. Its Pillagers become masters of potions, symbols, and transformation.
2. The Pillar of the Void (The Wanderer): Entropy, Nothingness, Space, Silence, and the Great Filter. This Pillar embodies absence and distance, granting Pillagers the ability to bend space, erase presence, and bypass physical barriers.
3. The Pillar of War (The Tyrant): Might, Conquest, Strategy, Fear, and the Bloody Blade. This Pillar thrives on conflict and domination, granting Pillagers overwhelming combat prowess and control over the tides of battle.
4. The Pillar of Life (The Druid): Nature, Vitality, Growth, Healing, and the Evergreen Cycle. This Pillar connects to the essence of living things, offering restoration, communion with flora and fauna, and the power of renewal.
5. The Pillar of Death (The Reaper): Mortality, Decay, Souls, Spirit-Walk, and the Cold Hand. This Pillar rules over endings, allowing Pillagers to commune with the dead, drain life-force, and wield entropy itself.
6. The Pillar of Shadow (The Assassin): Stealth, Illusion, Darkness, Subterfuge, and the Hidden Dagger. This Pillar bestows mastery of concealment, letting Pillagers fade into darkness or conjure phantoms that deceive the senses.
7. The Pillar of Light (The Saint): Purity, Illumination, Judgement, Faith, and the Sun's Grace. This Pillar radiates divine authority, granting protection, searing brilliance, and the strength of conviction.
8. The Pillar of Fortune (The Gambler): Chance, Luck, Probability, Risk, and the Fickle Coin. This volatile pillar allows its Pillagers to twist fate's dice-roll, turning calamity into fortune—or fortune into ruin.
9. The Pillar of Time (The Chronos): Past, Present, Future, Stasis, and the Unseen Clock. Among the rarest Pillars, it grants dominion over causality, permitting Pillagers to alter, halt, or glimpse the flow of moments.
10. The Pillar of Fate (The Oracle): Destiny, Prophecy, Sight, Thread-Weaving, and the Unwritten Scroll. This Pillar unveils the hidden web of inevitability, enabling Pillagers to foresee paths and subtly shape outcomes.
11. The Pillar of Stone (The Golem): Durability, Earth, Weight, Pressure, and the Unmoving Mountain. This pillar grants unyielding resilience and the power to command stone and metal with monumental strength.
12. The Pillar of Wind (The Zephyr): Motion, Air, Sound, Speed, and the Endless Breath. This Pillar governs swiftness and atmosphere, granting Pillagers command over currents, storms, and sonic force.
13. The Pillar of Water (The Deep): Fluidity, Emotion, Tides, Depth, and the Silent Tear. This Pillar unites the physical and emotional, allowing control of water and influence over hearts and minds.
14. The Pillar of Fire (The Phoenix): Destruction, Passion, Heat, Transformation, and the Everlasting Flame. This Pillar ignites devastation and rebirth, granting mastery of flame and the power to rise anew from ashes.
15. The Pillar of Mind (The Seer): Thought, Telepathy, Psionics, Memory, and the Unblinking Eye. This Pillar channels mental dominion, enabling Pillagers to read, alter, and project the force of thought.
16. The Pillar of Flesh (The Beast): Mutation, Hunger, Instinct, Sensory Input, and the Primordial Urge. This Pillar empowers the body's raw essence, granting shapeshifting, heightened senses, and feral strength.
17. The Pillar of Order (The Judge): Law, Structure, Rules, Correction, and the Binding Chain. This Pillar enforces logic and discipline, granting the ability to impose contracts, bindings, and absolute control over chaos.
18. The Pillar of Chaos (The Jester): Madness, Anarchy, Randomness, Change, and the Broken Mirror. Opposing Order, this Pillar thrives on unpredictability, allowing Pillagers to warp logic and destabilise reality.
19. The Pillar of Dreams (The Oneiromancer): Sleep, Subconscious, Phantasms, Awe, and the Ivory Gate. This Pillar bridges waking and dream, letting Pillagers enter, shape, and weaponise the dreamscapes of others.
20. The Pillar of Artifice (The Crafter): Invention, Mechanism, Repair, Perfection, and the Cog's Turn. This Pillar awakens genius in craft, granting mastery of machines, constructs, and intricate creations.
21. The Pillar of Soul (The Shepherd): Essence, Spirit, Empathy, Willpower, and the Inner Fire. Unlike Death, this Pillar governs identity and resolve, allowing Pillagers to strengthen themselves or ignite the spirits of others.
22. The Pillar of Corruption (The Parasite): Contagion, Addiction, Poison, Influence, and the Spreading Rot. This Pillar spreads decay both physical and moral, granting insidious control through disease, temptation, and corruption.
"For now the rows of each pillar are limited from nine to six and since the book of truth is a Pillar of truth thing, I am pretty sure I can unlock its secrets by becoming an Alchemist, the ninth row of this pillar is 'Homunculi'."
He ceased his brow and frowned a little when he read the description. "You are not creating a Homunculus but instead turning yourself into one and becoming 'pure' from 'lies'...well, it matches with the pillar of truth. And the rows begin from 9 to 1."
Kalmas whispered the words, his voice barely audible in the quiet room. A strange sensation coiled in his chest, as though something within him had already shifted. The moment he had read the description of the ninth row, a faint itch had stirred beneath his skin, crawling through his veins like static.
He leaned back in the creaking chair, staring at the worn ceiling. Not creating a homunculus… but becoming one. Purging lies to embrace truth.
He shivered.
The Book of Truth pulsed faintly on the desk, its pages shimmering as though it breathed. A new line of text began to scrawl itself across the parchment, the letters bleeding through the fibres like ink from nowhere.
"Row 9: The Homunculus is not made—it is awakened. Baptism is the first key. The Lie is the lock. One cannot step into Truth without first discarding Falsehood."
Kalmas clenched his fist. Baptism. The diary had spoken of it too—his siblings being blessed with the Divine Water of Alchemia. The church, then, wasn't just a place of worship. It was a gateway.
Yet, another thought gnawed at him: the original Kalmas's final words, the plea to burn the book, to never touch the Pillars. That desperate scrawl of a man driven to insanity… Was he repeating the same steps?
He closed his eyes, but instead of darkness, he saw fragments. A boy's laughter. The face of a girl with bright hair. The stern gaze of an older brother. They weren't his memories, but they pressed into his skull as if demanding recognition. The remnants of the real Kalmas still lingered.
When he opened his eyes again, the Book had shifted once more. Now, a circle was drawn across both pages—complex, detailed, a spiral of runes he instinctively recognised.
"The Gate of Homseisus: Revised. Drawn with true water beneath the gaze of the moon. Only then may the Lie be confronted."
The letters twisted, rearranging themselves, and a final sentence appeared at the bottom:
"Your Lie will resist you. Fail, and you are consumed."
A chill crawled down Kalmas's spine. He pushed himself away from the desk and glanced toward the window. Beyond it, the sky of this strange world shimmered with dusk, the horizon bleeding into violet. The bells of the Church of Alchemia rang again, calling the faithful.
Kalmas tightened his jaw. He had no choice now. The diary's owner had failed, drowning in madness before completing the path. But Thomas—no, he—would succeed.
He would need to infiltrate the Church, obtain the Divine Water, and under the moon, finish the Gate.
The air seemed heavier as he whispered to himself, "The first step into truth… is theft."