It was another quiet night, Lea once again wandered around the street. Even without her parasol, she could maintain Cloak to hide herself, but her parasol was something she was used to.

  Though it is retively safe, hiding in the dark for so long makes Lea realize what is wrong with this city as a whole.

  Although there are no homeless people, there is still a slum district in one corner of the capital. She admits the condition there is better than the slum back in Ein. Yet there are a few Pathstriders loitering around, offering poor people money to be volunteers for their experiments.

  If it were the old her, she would've fought against them or reported them. But now, she understands...

  For the ecstasy of completion, everything is worth it.

  Now, she thinks about what to do for her Fourth Step, for her to officially step onto the Path of Divinity.

  For putting people to sleep, she could use her Hexes, but the problem is how to distribute them... and without anyone noticing.

  In the end, Malediction is all about doing harm from afar, in a safe pce. Then the complication with Silence...

  Shaking her head, Lea continued forward.

  Since knowing that all the gods possessed Laws that define them... Lea originally thought the Laws would be normal. It was obvious what Lady Keter's Law is; it is in her resume.

  But some other gods, not so much. The Goddess of Madness is a dangerous one. She possesses the Law of Sentience, which means all life, with no exception, is under Her domain. And what made Lea's heart stop for a moment was that accursed Tome of Light, possessing the Law of Tales... It is a book, and that book contains the story of the entire world...

  She gets why people go crazy when it shows up; she herself experienced it. It held the secret of the entire world, yet it never told the complete story...

  "Oh my~ thinking about that book?", a voice she shouldn't have heard came from behind.

  Lea instinctively summons her Cursed Construct, attacking whatever is behind her.

  Turning around, she activated several talismans, cursing everything in her general direction.

  There was that woman, dressed in bck military clothes, with ethereal white hair that seemed to float. And those lightless bck eyes... as if Lea was looking at darkness itself.

  Sincir Apocrypha, the leader of Akasha Monodrama. Wrapped in her tendrils and affected by the curses, even something as incomprehensible as the Disciple of the Heretic cannot get off scot free.

  "Come on now, you don't need to be that aggressive, this is only our third meeting~", she chatted casually, as if her predicament meant nothing in the slightest, "Eh, this won't even faze me."

  Easily, she broke off two tendrils holding her arms. Sincir held her head—

  Crack.

  —and she snapped her own head off to Lea's horror. Her body crumbled and turned into corrupt mud, making the poor woman reel in disgust and panic.

  That is one way to escape.

  "Heh~ that's because it's the easiest method~", her voice came from somewhere.

  Lea quickly retracted her tendrils and looked around, finding Sincir casually walking around a pole.

  "I can help you with your Fourth Step~", she said innocently, as if she wasn't a derranged mass murderer, "Hey now... that's a low blow."

  Lea was confused... why does it seem like she's talking to someone else?

  "Don't worry about it~", she waved Lea's thoughts away, "To put a bunch of people to sleep is quite easy for you, right?"

  But to Sincir's dismay... Lea was already running away, sinking into the shadows and vanishing. She has to warn the officials about the Disciple of the Heretic—

  "I can summon the Tome of Light whenever I want to~", her voice somehow reached Lea, even in the darkness.

  "!!"

  Lea got out of the darkness, looking at Sincir, who was already in front, somehow. In her hand fshes a sigil bearing the symbol of a book with an eye inside...

  "All revealing Light~"

  Lea's eyes constricted, pulling her sword out of its sheath, and she came straight for Sincir. With a swift motion, she sliced her head off. And the same time, she snatched the sigil and expanded her emotion radar...

  And she found nothing that would equate to Sincir...

  Gritting her teeth, Lea sinks into the darkness and runs. She needs to warn Dawn that the Akasha Monodrama is here...

  But she stopped in her tracks, far away was the royal castle. She could come here and possibly bring suspicion on herself.

  So she sank into the darkness, heading for the next best thing - the Mystic Bureau, IS7. It is just a few blocks away.

  Looking at the unassuming building with no bel, normal people would think it is just a normal house. But being privy to the secrets as a Shadow Guard, this pce was not normal.

  But how would she do that? She just can't go in to reveal herself, her mask is too distinct...

  How can I get them to notice the emergency?

  Looking around, she noticed a few rocks on the sidewalk. And Lea remembered her old trick...the mask morphed into a smile.

  Picking up a rock and using Illusion to change her mask to look like a bird mask... the shadow beneath her rippled, Lea dropped Hastur into it, letting her weapon sink into the darkness.

  Without her parasol, Lea felt a bit naked... so she summoned more Cursed Construct, letting them wrap around her into the vague shape of a hood.

  Now she looks nothing like her usual self... just more shady and more horrifying.

  She hurled the rock with a flick of her wrist. It struck the window of IS7 with a sharp crack, shattering a pane and scattering tiny shards across the sill.

  Inside, the agents froze for a split second, stunned by the rock coming from nowhere. Then chaos erupted.

  "Outside, now!!", one of them called out.

  Several agents moved outside, then they froze. Lea was staring at them in the form of a horrific monster made of tentacles.

  Everyone drew their guns out, pointing at her.

  "Speak, who are you?!", the oldest man shouted.

  Everyone was ready to deliver their Command in case Lea tried to attack. There was no hostility coming from her...

  "Akasha Monodrama is here.", a message was all she said.

  And before she could expin further, Lea sank into the darkness... vanishing. She was gone from there really fast...

  The agents look on with confusion, looking at each other, wondering what to do.

  Meanwhile, Lea was already at home.

  Reappearing in her living room, Lea exhaled with excitement...

  That was the coolest thing she did!

  She raised her hands in joy, feeling the thrill of being all mysterious and dangerous. She felt like Dantès, the cool count Lady Keter named her after.

  Shaking her head, Lea let out a sigh...

  Lea dismissed her Cursed Constructs, watching as the tendrils dissolved back into shadow. The Rorschach on her mask shifted back to its usual patterns as she pulled it off, setting it carefully on the side table.

  Her hands were still trembling, not from fear, but from the lingering adrenaline. She'd just encountered Sincir Apocrypha. Again. And somehow lived to tell the tale.

  Colpsing onto her sofa, Lea repyed the encounter in her mind. The way Sincir had snapped her own neck so casually, the sigil that could supposedly summon the Tome of Light, and those unsettling comments as if she'd been reading Lea's thoughts...

  "She knew what I was thinking...", Lea whispered to herself, "How? Was it the Law of Tales? Can that accursed book see everything?"

  The thought made her skin crawl. If Sincir really could summon the Tome of Light whenever she wanted, then nowhere was truly safe... that woman holds a literal divine bomb in her hands.

  Lea stood up and began pacing. She needed to think this through rationally.

  First, she'd warned IS7 about the Akasha Monodrama's presence. That was good.

  They'd take it seriously; they had to. But would they believe a mysterious tentacle monster that appeared out of nowhere and vanished just as quickly?

  Second, Sincir had offered to help with her Fourth Step.

  Why? What did the Disciple of the Heretic gain from helping someone ascend the Path of Divinity?

  Nothing was ever free, especially from someone like her.

  Third, and most troubling— Sincir seemed to know things she shouldn't. About Lea's thoughts, her pns, maybe even everything...

  Lea retrieved Hastur from the shadows, the parasol sword materializing in her hands. She ran her fingers along its length, finding comfort in its familiar weight. This weapon had been with her through so much already.

  "I need to be more careful...", she murmured, "If Sincir is watching me, then I can't afford any mistakes."

  But even as she said it, Lea felt a strange pull. Sincir had mentioned the Tome of Light so casually, dangled it like bait. And despite knowing better, despite all her training and experience...

  Part of Lea wanted to know more.

  The secrets of the entire world, contained in a single book. The answers to questions she didn't even know to ask. The truth behind the gods and their Laws.

  She shook her head violently, "No. That's how it gets you. That's how people go mad."

  Lea moved to her window, peering out at the quiet street below. Somewhere out there, Sincir was walking free. Somewhere out there, poor people were being recruited for experiments by unethical Pathstriders. And somewhere out there, the Tome of Light might appear at any moment.

  The world was more complicated than she'd ever imagined when she first joined the Shadow Guards.

  "Focus on what you can control", Lea told herself, "The Fourth Step. You need to complete it properly without Sincir's help."

  Lea sat back down, recalling Malediction. There had to be a way to do this that aligned with the principles of the Path— do harm, but stay out of reach.

  An idea began to form in her mind. Not a complete solution yet, but the seed of one.

  She would need time to pn it properly. Time to prepare. And time to make sure Sincir Apocrypha wasn't watching when she made her attempt.

  Lea gnced at her mask on the table, its Rorschach patterns seeming to shift even while inactive.

  "One step at a time...", she whispered, "Just focus on the next step."

  But even as she tried to focus on her Fourth Step, Lea couldn't shake the image of those lightless bck eyes, staring at her as if seeing straight through to her soul.