The Roundtable shattered like a mirror breaking apart. The fabric of reality folded inward, turning soundless. He reached for what remained, only to see it vanish into particles, just like every other time.
A muffled sound echoed, calling out thousands of names, but none belonged to him.
'Aberration? What could this mean?'
Blurring, his vision eventually turned off, disabling him from seeing.
Annoyed at the rather peculiar situation, he sighed. He put a hand to his forehead, closing his eyes amidst the deep end facing him.
'My mind is being toyed with… Who dares use such underhanded trickery against me! Leonhard will not get away, not with that daring question of his.'
At the same moment, he felt a surge of anger, and a sound of a bell resounded, forcing him to open his eyes again despite the ache in his head.
In front of him lay a torn, abandoned village that extended as far as he'd seen.
However, what surprised The Polymath was that it was located beneath a massive layer of cracked stones.
'Hm…'
For him, he'd never seen such a place before, even in Amorium, where structures and buildings were made of pure Infracta, tampering with the essence itself.
'Not that anyone knows about Amorium, besides me.'
His role as an Ephor allowed him the opportunity to learn about Amoria and its whereabouts. Not that he particularly cared, but it was because Amoria — or Amorium — was blocked from the real world by an invisible barrier.
However, that wasn't his main focus. Firstly, he should learn more about the large village.
Strangely, it had light as if there was a sun illuminating the area; however, there was no such thing, as it was located under a cave.
'One that has been explored, as it seems.'
He leaned down, then put his hands on a rock next to him. Slowly, he rubbed his fingers over it as if wiping the dust.
He moved his hands back, only to see the stone being outlined by a blue-ish color. At an agonizingly slow pace, it started being turned into particles.
Its fragile remnants slowly faded into nothingness, carried by the wind. It flew over the village, revealing a handprint below where the rock was situated.
The Polymath used one of his 'tricks' of Infractum.
Using Frequency, a branch of Infracta, he noticed old handprints and footprints leading inside the village.
As usual, he was the only one in on this method, as he had invented it.
The handprint seemed to be unfamiliar to The Polymath. Not of a human, and not even of a creature.
"How unusual. Could it be the leftovers of a Quantum Creature?"
His eyes slightly widened as he was inspecting the handprint.
"Quantum Creature? I don't recall… learning such a term." His voice uncertain, he muttered.
Lost in a daze, whispers sounded through his ears, almost as if calling for him.
He squinted his eyes before taking the first steps into the unknown. The Polymath showed no signs of fear, only because he was used to facing the unknown.
He adjusted his black glove and stood.
"Creeping up on others is never a good idea."
Behind him, the whispers only loudened.
When The Polymath turned, he saw nothing but an empty abyss, as the whispers had also stopped.
He clicked his tongue, then proceeded to venture into the mysterious village.
The village exuded an unsettling yet striking silence. Old moss. — almost ancient — blanketed the ground, and countless cobwebs hung in eerie abundance.
"How filthy."
As he walked along the rotten stone street, he saw one of the doors open inside a building.
It was practically destroyed, left with nothing but a ruined sight.
He stopped on his feet. A sense of annoyance grew within him.
Not at the current situation, not at Leonhard, but at himself.
"I'm being too hasty. This is unlike me. I haven't even found out the history, location, and source of this place."
"It feels as if I'm being driven to something completely different. 'I' wasn't looking for information about this village, in fact, 'I' was… never here."
His body shivered for but a moment, unlikely for an Ephor.
"How would that make any sense? What am 'I' even saying!"
He shook his head, using the best of his techniques to put aside the thoughts tampering with his mind.
The Polymath wanted to first find out about how the village came to be, and the perfect place was none other than this ruined building that stood in front of him amidst the looming silence.
As he stepped inside, the wood creaked. The bugs scattered, finding a place to hide.
Hanging in the center of the room was a lit-up lantern, giving light to the inside of the house.
The Polymath went deeper into the building. It was nothing special; however, on a certain table, there was a book, ink, and a quill.
"Interesting."
It caught his attention only due to its giving off a weird sense of familiarity, and it also smelled good.
He took the book with little to no hesitation.
Slowly, he inspected it. The book had no title, only what seemed to be an insignia embedded on the top of the book.
It resembled a star, one that shone brightly in the past, but now holds no light.
He rubbed his palm over the face of the book, wiping the dust off it.
After doing so, he opened the book to further see its contents. At first, he expected it to be another language, but to his surprise, it was written in the same language he spoke.
Regardless of the language, he'd still be able to understand it, due to his Ancient Relic, the Grandmaster of Knowledge.
"Diary of an Unspoken King," he read out, the first paper of the old book.
He continued, reading the writing carefully.
"Certainly, whoever wrote this had a lot to say… and a lot of ink," he laughed under his breath, seeing the papers were filled to the brim.
However, that smile ceased to exist after he read the first part.
"I told them. I warned them of the consequences of gazing at HIM, beyond that monstrous gate! No one listened, no one even cared to listen!" he read the beginning of the book.
The Polymath furrowed his brows, seeing that the writing, 'HIM', was highlighted differently.
He looked further into the book only to see the same line repeated over and over.
"No one listened. No one listened…"
He turned the page, seeing the same thing being written over and over. Until he eventually found something different.
"They… they crossed the boundary. I can't be bothered anymore. I hope it all rots. I hope they all rot. I hope their so bright Divinity rots."
The rest of the papers in the book were all filled with hatred against the villagers whom he tried to warn.
'Divinity… that is above me, even as an Ephor. What could they have done?'
After scrolling through the pages, he was at a loss for words. Finally, in the last paper, blood covered half the page.
"4922 AE, the end of Caelum Leonis."
The Polymath's body shivered, his eyes widened.
He continued to read, making up the missing parts covered by blood using his own intellect.
"Their curiosity killed them. Their 'devotion' led to the ultimate demise of our race. I write as I watch. HIS gaze had set upon our land, and HIS gaze alone brought…"
The Polymath came to a halt in reading. He threw the book across the room as his breath grew heavy.
"No, no, no! This is Forbidden Knowledge!"
He quickly ran outside, a trail of fire made from Infracta following his footsteps.
The blaze erupted, engulfing the house with a fire that illuminated the entire cave.
"My mind is breaking apart. My body feels as if it's being torn inside out. I… I."
His body surged with immense nausea and pain, from every side, every spot; he felt nothing but pain.
He let out a loud groan as he fell to his knees, fighting back the consequences of learning Forbidden Knowledge.
"Great… Great Sages and Blessed… Mother." He slightly called out, a prayer from his hometown.
"Purify the evil… lurking within. Topple all injustice and end all who seek to fight the…"
The taste of iron rushed up his neck, jolting out of his mouth abruptly,
"The Equilibrium!"
Having said that, a bright, dark blue liquid fell onto him from above like a divine object, bringing peace to his eternal heart.
The blue liquid struck his torn body, then enveloped him. It ran through his insides, purifying every corner.
He had used the ancient blood of the Supreme Archon of Equinox.
Slowly, but surely, he started recovering from the grave cost of delving into Forbidden Knowledge.