Part 1: Fate
After the cold betrayal by Haruto, Rebecca walked straight back to the grand cathedral.
Despite knowing she couldn't do anything to alter the tragic outcome, her feet dragged her toward the holy grounds anyway.
At that exact moment, the entire cathedral was plunged into utter chaos over the sudden theft of the sacred Peter Saint Book.
High Scholars were shouting orders, guards rushed through the stone halls, and lanterns flickered erratically against the walls.
Rebecca didn't hear or register their panicked voices as she walked past them with a hollow gaze.
She moved directly to a quiet recovery room located deep within the medical wing.
And when she pushed open the heavy wooden door, she stood frozen in absolute shock.
Because after three long weeks of remaining completely comatose, Valker had finally woken up.
Rebecca rushed straight toward his bedside without holding back.
And she threw her arms around him, holding his shoulders tightly as tears spilled down her face.
"You finally wake up... thank God," she wept desperately.
Valker felt her violent trembling and instantly recognized the shattered tone in her cracking voice.
He quickly asked, his eyes narrowing with deep concern.
"What happened with you?"
"I feel like something terrible has happened to you..."
"Like you were completely broken by something..."
"Does anything happen to you while I was unconscious?"
Rebecca sat beside his bed and slowly began to confess everything to Valker, line by line.
And Valker listened in absolute silence, trusting her words without a single shred of doubt.
Valker gritted his teeth and said firmly.
"For now, we don't have any concrete proof against him."
"I trust you entirely."
"And I promise you... I will make that boy regret breaking you like this."
"Haruto Tabata."
Meanwhile, the scene shifted back to Haruto.
Haruto quickly rode toward the Fate Castle on a fast, powerful horse.
It was Koi's personal horse, borrowed under a quiet agreement.
He had taken this horse specifically to reach the castle in record time after leaving the cathedral district.
By doing this, nobody would suspect that he had ever been present anywhere near the church grounds tonight.
As soon as the high authorities realized the Peter Saint Book had vanished, there was a high chance that anyone seen lurking near the cathedral would be questioned.
And eventually, the church might begin to suspect his presence.
Furthermore, traveling from the cathedral to the castle on foot would take far too much time.
If Haruto had traveled at his normal walking speed, people on the night streets might have noticed him passing by.
To ensure absolute speed, Haruto activated his Olympia Bracelet, using its innate resonance on the horse to increase its galloping speed even further.
The horse blurred past the dark outskirts, kicking up clouds of dust beneath the moonlight.
After reaching the outer gates of the castle grounds, Haruto thanked Koi and returned his horse back to him without making a sound.
Everyone inside the castle complex was fast asleep at that hour.
So Haruto secretly slipped into the dark entrance of the Fate Castle underground base.
He navigated the quiet subterranean corridors until he reached the exact stone gate where the words Hermit Zero were inscribed in faint, small letters.
Haruto held the heavy Peter Saint Book directly in front of the gate.
And immediately, the ancient stone gate unlocked and swung open on its hinges.
Haruto stepped inside, and the massive door automatically sealed shut behind him.
Haruto understood the mechanism clearly now: whenever he held the Peter Saint Book facing the gate, the barrier would recognize it and open automatically.
Inside the hidden passage, Haruto saw numerous white flame lamps attached to the cold stone walls.
The white flames burned silently without emitting any smoke or ash.
Haruto recalled the enigmatic instructions left by Hermit Zero regarding how to unlock the hidden world:
Look as a Hermit Tarot, and act as a Fool Tarot.
Haruto analyzed the esoteric meaning behind the words.
In the real world, the Hermit Tarot card represents deep soul searching, solitude, and inner wisdom.
According to the guidance, to look as a Hermit, he needed to hold a white flame lamp firmly in his right hand.
To act as a Fool Tarot, he had to perform the symbolic posture of the Fool card.
In standard Tarot iconography, the Fool walks directly toward the dead end of a steep mountain cliff, completely unaware or indifferent to the drop, representing a leap of faith into a new beginning.
That meant he had to carry the white lamp to match the Hermit's appearance, recreate the Fool's physical stance at a cliff edge, and recite a specific line to cast the ritual.
It was what could be called a practical ritual—a process requiring a specific physical action performed in tandem with spoken words to activate hidden mechanics.
Through this, he could potentially unlock the pathway to the hidden world.
Haruto looked at the rows of lamps along the corridor.
He unhooked one of the white flame lamps from the wall bracket.
He walked deep into the subterranean cavern until he reached the sharp dead end of a high internal cliff edge overlooking a pitch-black abyss.
He walked straight to the absolute corner of the ledge.
A single extra step forward would cause him to fall directly off the mountain drop.
Standing on the narrow edge, Haruto recreated the exact posture of the Fool Tarot card while holding the white flame lamp in his right hand.
And he chanted the required words calmly:
"With the divine protection of white flame, grant me to see the glimpse of imaginations."
Then suddenly, the white flame inside the lamp vanished instantly into thin air.
Nothing else happened. The air remained still, and the dark cavern stayed silent.
Haruto understood immediately that the ritual attempt had failed.
He realized that he would have to attempt the ritual again later.
Because of the natural structural limits of the mechanism, he could only bring and consume one white flame lamp per day.
Now, he was forced to repeat the exact same ritual every single day.
The scene shifted forward across time to the exact point where Chapter 36 had left off.
Haruto stood back at the subterranean cliff edge, realizing that only 1 single white flame lamp was left attached to the walls.
He had already used 21 lamps over the past three weeks, and every single attempt had ended in complete failure.
Now, this was his final remaining chance.
He walked to the dead end of the underground cliff face once again, holding the last white lamp.
And he began to perform the exact same practical ritual.
He recreated the Fool Tarot pose right at the sheer drop.
He raised the white lamp and chanted:
"With the divine protection of white flame, grant me to see the glimpse of imaginations."
For a few seconds, absolute silence filled the chamber. Nothing was happening.
Haruto thought to himself quietly.
"I guess this ritual has also failed."
But then, out of nowhere, a small stray dog stepped out from the shadows near the ledge.
The dog began to bark aggressively at Haruto, growling and snapping as if warning Haruto to step back from the dangerous edge.
Haruto's eyes shifted down slightly.
The missing symbolic piece required to complete the Fool Tarot card's true imagery was the warning dog at the traveler's heels.
Now, with the dog actively warning him at the edge of the precipice, the posture of the Fool was perfectly recreated in physical reality.
Suddenly, the white flames from the lamp flared violently outward, reshaping themselves in the air.
The pure white fire expanded instantly, washing over the surrounding stone and covering everything around Haruto in blinding white light.
The sudden surge of energy forced Haruto's consciousness to cut out, and he fainted on the spot.
After an indeterminate amount of time passed, Haruto opened his eyes and woke up.
He found himself standing inside an endless, mysterious dimension.
Thick, pale mist swirled endlessly beneath his feet and across the vast expanse.
Above him, there was no normal sky; instead, a vast cosmic firmament stretched out infinitely, filled with glowing nebulae, rotating galaxies, and brilliant clusters of ancient stars.
Suddenly, a massive creature appeared directly in front of him, initially hovering upside down in the misty void.
The creature was gigantic, its physical presence looming over the space as it flared out its massive hands freely.
Its lower garments were obscured by the shifting fog, but its head was terrifyingly distinct.
It possessed a giant, menacing creature head with a wide, vicious grin that exposed rows of razor-sharp teeth and pointed fangs.
Long, curved, demon-like horns swept dramatically outward and upward from the sides of its skull.
Hovering directly between the two horns sat a large, glowing golden ring that floated silently above its forehead.
Small, intensely glowing circular eyes sat beneath heavy, expressive brows.
The back of its head flowed into a thick, wild mane of spiky, swept-back hair that resembled dark, motionless flames.
Its upper body consisted of a towering demonic torso with a broad, muscular chest and a surprisingly narrow waist.
Directly through the center of its chest was a large, clean, hollow circular hole that went entirely through its body.
Surrounding its torso were six completely floating, unattached muscular arms hovering freely in the air without connecting to the shoulders or sides.
Each of the six floating arms ended in heavy, clawed hands, with a floating golden ring circling each wrist like an ornate bracelet.
Another large golden ring floated horizontally around its narrow waist.
Below the waist, its lower body tapered down into a long, thick, reptile-like tail tipped with a sharp spike.
The massive creature slowly rotated in the air, shifting from upside down to an upright position.
Then, it extended one of its massive, floating six hands downward toward Haruto.
"Master... I have been waiting for you for centuries," the giant creature spoke, its deep voice vibrating through the cosmic space.
"Stand upon my hand. I will convey you directly to your throne."
Haruto looked at the massive clawed palm without showing any surprise or fear.
"What do you mean by master, and who are you?" Haruto asked calmly.
"I am Oujuro," the creature answered, lowering its head slightly in reverence.
"Your most loyal servant throughout all time."
"Please grant me the honor of standing upon my hand, my Master."
"I will explain everything to you," Oujuro stated.
Haruto considered the situation for a brief moment without reacting emotionally.
Then, he stepped forward onto Oujuro's open palm.
Oujuro lifted his hand smoothly and began to float through the misty dimension, heading toward a specific point in the distance.
As they moved through the vast expanse, Oujuro began to explain the nature of the domain.
"This is the Dream World."
"Everything here is sustained by the eternal mist, beneath a cosmic sky of stars and galaxies."
"And you are the sole ruler of this entire realm."
"In your honor, countless Dream Spirits reside throughout this Dream World, existing solely to serve your command."
"You possess absolute control over everything within this domain."
"You may perform anything you desire here."
"You can enter this world whenever you sleep, or whenever you consciously wish to enter."
"Your physical body is not present here in the material sense."
"It is your soul that enters the Dream World."
"My Lord, we are almost there. We are reaching the throne."
Haruto looked out across the misty horizon and observed numerous translucent Dream Spirits drifting through the ethereal fog.
The entire landscape was cosmic, vast, and incomprehensible—equally beautiful, mysterious, and silent.
"So this is the world Hermit Zero was talking about..."
"The Dream World," Haruto thought silently.
After floating a short distance further, Oujuro brought him directly before a massive, elevated throne constructed from dark, ancient material.
Haruto stepped off Oujuro's hand.
He noticed that he was standing firmly upon the thick white mist, despite there being no solid ground or stone beneath his boots.
The heavy, mystical fog held his weight effortlessly.
Haruto walked forward with steady, unhurried steps and sat down upon the throne.
As soon as he took his seat, two distinct, echoing voices resonated faintly from somewhere beyond the distant mist.
Oujuro shifted his floating arms and stated respectfully.
"My Lord, it seems two individuals are calling out to you from beyond."
"If it pleases my Lord, I recommend you summon their souls directly into this Dream Dimension."