The Advent of Madness: My Twin Sister And I

The sight came lightly.

Gently.

Only a couple of meters around me.

It allowed me to gaze up at Nemora, to see her.

Her face remained stern and focused, but I also noticed vague glimmers of both regret and fierceness brewing in her depths. Emotions she likely allowed to leak while assuming I couldn't see her face.

The next second, the Curses fizzled away from my eyes, and the backlash drizzled through me. It burnt badly, but nothing deep enough to distract me.

Giving myself a few more seconds to recover, I poured words onto the Book of Heresy again after the draining burns dissipated.

[Alora - Nemora Von Martinere - Darkness - Intermediate Resistance - 1 Hour]

Ignoring the piles of Curses rushing from my body and into the Book of Heresy, I gazed up towards Nemora's face, at where her eyes should be.

The vague outline of emotions spreading through her face abruptly disappeared the moment my Curses moved from the Book of Heresy and into her eyes. She twitched uncomfortably from the pain, as expected, but after that, she surveyed her eyes across The Canary and then down at me.

I smiled and waved at her, "You figured it out?" She asked.

Nodding, I pointed back at Hildekar, Elden, and Jill, then formed a cross over my arms.

"You didn't give it to them?"

I shook my head.

"Are you testing it on yourself and me before taking the risk of spreading it to the others?"

I nodded.

"Good decision. From what I can tell, this should be a 50 metre range in all directions. Not bad. How long does it last? Less than 30 minutes or more?"

I pointed up.

"45 minutes?" The most update n0vels are published on NoveI-Fire.ɴet

Again, up.

"An hour?"

I nodded.

"If you had the choice to shorten it, you should have. That way, we can test the repercussions of your Manifestation better."

In regard to that, I shook my head. We couldn't take that risk. If my orders to help them see in this darkness had a backlash that they couldn't handle, then it was for the best that Nemora could spend this hour guiding Hildekar in navigation.

"You can't decide the time limit?"

I shook my head.

"So you can, but there's a reason why you made it an hour?"

I nodded.

"Understood. If it's even within your capabilities, check if there's a method to help us communicate. I can connect myself to others with my Blessing, but I can't connect you to Hildekar, for example."

Again, I nodded.

That was something I'd already started thinking about. It was crucial that we could communicate amid the noise of these thundering waves.

Nemora tapped my shoulder, "Stay here. If anything happens, wave over at me. I'll be watching."

Nemora ran down the stairs connecting this raised deck to the main one, stopped by Elden and Hildekar to tell them something, then bolted over to the quarterdeck where Hildekar stood on his lonesome.

It certainly helped a lot to hear a familiar voice in the boundless darkness while listening to the terrifying noise of thundering waves.

This was, after all, their first time encountering an ocean.

Not only that, this ocean wasn't too kind to strangers.

Anyways, I momentarily put Nemora's situation to the back of my mind and directed my attention to two places.

The outskirts of The Canary and a way to set up communication between everyone while standing atop the vessel. Not the belly, not for now, it would be a waste of both my Manifestation and backlashes for an aspect that wasn't necessary.

Unlike before, I couldn't see the vastness of the outside world.

The memory of that terrifyingly large, vague outline lingered in my mind while I surveyed our immediate surroundings.

Once I spotted anything shifty, I'd immediately get to work.

Till then, though-

[Alora - Nemora - Mental Communication - Distance, 30 Meters - 10 Seconds]

-I wrote my first order down.

After waiting for a moment...

I can't.

I instinctively came to an understanding that this instruction wouldn't work. It wasn't an exaggerated instruction that would get me murdered for even attempting it, but it was also outside the boundaries of my capabilities.

There are two possible reasons for that.

First is that the sound waves produced by the thunderous, crashing waves of liquid black are at a scale that my Manifestation isn't powerful enough to counter as of now.

Or, two, the instruction itself isn't correct. Without the correct keywords, my Manifestation doesn't function properly.

I can't, for example, write:

[Alora - Get Much Stronger - Many Times Stronger - Forever]

That would never work.

It requires specific words that my Book of Heresy can recognise.

So, I doubt that it's the first option. If I were able to Counter the Darkness, then I should definitely be able to communicate through it.

Let's try again, this time...

[Alora - Nemora - Communication Link - 30 Metres - 10 Seconds]

But, again, nothing.

Clicking my teeth, I pondered for another minute whilst enduring the shuddering sways of The Canary:

[Alora - Nemora - Communication Connection - One Way - 30 Metres - 10 Seconds]

Nevertheless, again, zilch.

My ideas were falling apart at the seams.

Discovering the specific keywords necessary was difficult.

It's not that these keywords aren't recognised, but they aren't being recognised for what I want them to accomplish. 'Communication Connection' and 'Communication Link' won't achieve what I want.

And there's a secondary issue.

There's a limit to the number of times I can carry out instructions in my Book of Heresy in a day. I can't commit to too many attempts; otherwise, I'll run out and won't be able to use it until tomorrow.

---

'It's getting cold.'

Elden shivered beneath the Cloak of Verdansk, stuck in this boundless darkness with only the vague warmth of Jill on his back; his body heat was rapidly drifting away with each second that went by.

Unable to reinforce himself with Blessings to resist the heat, he could only suffer amid the cacophonous noises.

Tap. Tap.

Jill's hand patted his back twice, sending brief shockwaves of Blessings around his skin to keep the heat in.

Elden thanked him inwardly with deep appreciation.

He couldn't do it himself, but having others help him was allowed.

This Curse worked in roundabout ways.

Not too serious, but also frustrating enough to keep him working for warmth around the clock.

'How does that kid handle it all?' Her golden hair zipped through his mind, drawing his eyes to the sole Cloak of Verdansk hovering over at the tip of The Canary.

It was an open secret that no one mentioned, but they all had their suspicions already. There was no concrete evidence, but, being real, they've all but confirmed it to be the truth already.

And that fact terrified him dearly. Both in the form of worry over Esme's sister and at the amount of agony the poor soul must be in all day long; this terror for the sake of others and empathy were helplessly etched into his soul-

"Enough."

Cracking down on his rising core, his twitched his lips into a sneer and spat, "I'll give that retard Hildekar a run for his money soon, just you watch."

But so he said, so he stated, yet, inevitably, his heart, his soul-

'I should give that lonely bastard a hug soon.'

---

Fwish.

Flipping down the panel of the oil lamp, Hilda flicked off the lit matchstick. Staring down the dim corridor with emerald and golden eyes, her heart twitched with a mangled mess of contradicting emotions.

Holding it down, she turned and shrugged at Esme, "Anything?"

"I'm not sensing anything yet. You neither?" Esme responded.

Again, Hilda shrugged, "Other than the smell of the oil and flames, nothing. I can't hear or feel anything. My senses aren't picking up any direct dangers towards me."

"That's good." Esme pulled a strand of her tied-up hair forward and twirled it around with tense eyes.

The girls continued onwards through The Canary.

Their goal was to light it up from the inside and survey for any 'intruders', Heathens, that planned on killing them.

Alas-

"Still can't stop thinking about her?" Glancing backwards and down at Esme, Hilda stalled her steps to land by her side.

"Can't you?"

"I trust her."

"But just because-"

"She also trusts us. Do you think she's not worried about us? Of course, that little dummy is; she cares more for us than she does herself. She'd throw the world to the pits of the abyss for us, but she trusts us."

"-I know..." Esme awkwardly scratched her face.

She wasn't clueless; she understood the principle behind it, but her emotions, these fiery, bellowing, vaguely familiar emotions:

They twisted her rational thought processes.

Lightly tapping her modest chest, Esme slowed down her steps to a snail's pace. She remained behind Hilda, allowing her to take the lead and light the lamps as they passed each one.

Listening to the creaking of the wooden panels beneath her feet...

Thinking about how to explain this mess of events to Lily...

Imagining her dear sister standing on the deck all on her lonesome...

And standing too far behind Hilda-

She didn't pay attention.

She strayed.

Hiss....

Vague pulses of steam oozed from the quivering pair of golden and emerald eyes.

Their first Heathen was about to make its appearance.

And worst of all, it was to be birthed in the belly of The Canary.