C178: Relationship between each Essence
Izzy looked down at the small containers filled with colorful liquids, the essence bottles and vials they had recovered from Roson's body.
'These bottles and vials, even if a Stagefarer drinks their contents, cannot increase their condensed essence or accelerate their advancement toward the next stage.'
She remained uncertain whether those essence bottles could affect Isidora in any meaningful way, since their nature was that of a Curse, not a true Stagefarer. They should not possess essence in the first place.
Izzy opened her notes and checked back through all the information she had gathered thus far.
'So, to summarize:'
There were six known types of essence: Pure Yan, Harmony Yan, Violence Yan, Pure Yi, Cold Yi, and Serene Yi.
[
Pure Yan bottle - Orange - cleanses the mind, grants detection capabilities, offers protection capacity, and purifies evil influences.
Harmony Yan vial - Yellow - healing, protection, endurance.
Violence Yan bottle - Crimson - strengthens power and willpower, grants vigor and energy.
Pure Yi vial - Blue - creates obscuring barriers, restores a man's sanity and calms his mind.
Cold Yi vial - Violet - corrosion, enhances agility, healing for Moon Faction Stagefarers, limited vision mist.
Serene Yi vial - Gray - hidden, stealth, obscuring.
]
Pure Yan essence and Pure Yi essence could be used as substitutes for the other Yan and Yi essence types when activating abilities recorded on Contract Pages.
Pure Yan essence and Pure Yi essence could serve as universal exchanges for the other Yan and Yi essence types when one needed to activate contract page abilities, functioning as versatile substitutes across factions.
Besides this substitution property, there also existed a fascinating web of interactions between the various types. Each faction's essence could affect the others in specific ways:
[
Yellow = Crimson: Harmony Yan and Violence Yan were equals. The two factions could freely use each other's essence, and compete with each other on equal footing. When the two clashed directly, whoever was stronger would prevail.
Yellow <-> Violet: Harmony Yan and Cold Yi opposed one another, each weakening the other upon contact. Like fire meeting water, they annihilated each other's potency. To each other, they acted as poison, each eroding the other's effectiveness.
Yellow >+< Gray: Harmony Yan and Serene Yi could mutually strengthen one another.
Crimson >+< Violet: Violence Yan and Cold Yi could mutually strengthen one another.
Violet -> Gray: Cold Yi could weaken and devour Serene Yi.
Gray -> Crimson: Serene Yi could calm Violence Yan, weakening its aggressive potency.
]
For a practical illustration of these principles: if a violet essence vial were thrown down and released, it could weaken a Stagefarer from the Harmony Faction. The same principle applied in reverse, releasing a yellow essence vial could weaken a Stagefarer from the Moon Faction.
In addition, Pure Yi essence and Pure Yan essence also had their own interactions.
Pure Yi essence vial could function as poison and weaken Stagefarers belonging to the Harmony and Violence Paths. Should they ever consume the substance, they would grow older; their bodies would experience feverish cold, weakening their physical body,
Pure Yan essence bottle was poisonous to those from the Moon Faction and the other gray Faction that used Serene Yi. They would grow feverishly hot and act erratically, as though they were burning from within, weakening their abilities.
There might potentially exist more interactions beyond these documented ones, but Davis did not have knowledge extending further than what he had already shared.
Furthermore, there also existed the mysterious Deviant Paths, employing essence colors outside the standard spectrum.
Izzy wasn’t sure whether those Paths also had their own essence container. But given how complicated those existing relationships already proved, she sincerely hoped such products did not exist.
After finishing her notes, Izzy stood up from her velvet seat in the theatre and flew toward the black monument. She inscribed all of the newly acquired knowledge onto its dark surface, preserving the information for the future iterations if they exist, then hovered near it for a moment.
'This is already complicated enough.'
So this was why Davis had remarked that they needed a proper school for this subject matter. How else could any person ever hope to remember all of these interactions?
Izzy was an exception, though, since she had this mindscape that could literally record anything she placed here.
'Hmm.'
The green contract page still lingered in Izzy's thoughts.
Feeling curious, she raised Arnold's hand and touched its surface, feeling the parchment's warmth beneath his fingers.
‘What will happen… if I try to use this?’
[Unseen Hands] Contract Page.
By logic, Izzy would need a coin infused with green spirituality to activate this page.
But among the Alan coins they had looted from Roson's body, there was no appropriate green-aura coin whatsoever.
However...
That green mist, it bore some resemblance to the green aura that their main body absorbed to fill their energy reservoir.
Life energy.
Was this green contract page somehow related to the life energy they consumed? Or was it perhaps...
Was it the same substance?
'Is it life energy?'
Deviant Path.
Green color.
Isa's color.
‘If it really is the same, then that would also suggest that...' Izzy narrowed her eyes.
She raised one of her palms into the colorful air. Simultaneously, Izzy slowly directed her mind into her energy reservoir, probing its depths.
She was mimicking what Davis had demonstrated earlier.
She had never once attempted to emit her energy outward before. She found no reason to, and had no understanding of it. Most of the time, when using their abilities, their energy would drain automatically.
Slowly, her palm changed color. A faint aura emanated steadily from it.
A gray color.
'Gray?'
A sudden revelation brightened inside her thoughts.
'I see. Is this proof that I belong to the Deaf Path?' She stared closely at the gray aura emitting from her palm.
'Gray color, so this should be Serene Yi. From the Path that Davis stated should not exist within the four Factions. It should be.'
However, at that same moment, she noticed something peculiar and troubling.
The flower on her chest, its blue color...
"...?"
Her sight flickered for one brief moment.
The whole colorful sky flickered, transforming into black and white, draining of all vibrancy.
"Hmm?"
There was no change in the flower on her chest.
It remained blue.
There was no change.
tHERe was no change here.
tHERE WAS NO change HERe.
'?'
Izzy closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again.
There was no change here.
She still hovered beneath the colorful sky, that brilliant rainbow canopy. The amusement park still blazed with vibrant color, and at the very center of it all, the black monument stood.
'How strange.'
A wave of exhaustion washed over her mind. Izzy shook her head, forcing herself to clear the troubling thought away.
'Is this the consequence of drawing out my own energy without using any ability?'
Izzy raised her hand again. Instead of drawing her Serene Yi from the energy reservoir, she delved deeper, tapping into that familiar element she had sensed before—the very thing that sustained her life: her life energy.
The grayness of the aura emitting from her hand slowly transformed its color, shifting toward a distinctly greenish hue.
Then, she connected herself to Arnold's perspective.
In the outside world, Arnold raised the green-ink Contract Page. His green eyes glowing with a flickering luminescence as he attempted activation.
"Izzy?"
"?"
Inside the mindscape, Izzy turned, gazing at the young mind hovering behind her, who had apparently been there for who knew how long. Izzy had been so focused that she had failed to notice the girl sneaking up behind her.
"What is it?"
Izzy casually dismissed the energy on her hand, letting the greenish aura fade into nothingness.
The young mind wore a mildly complicated expression. She hesitated, pressing two fingers nervously together.
She regarded Izzy with openly worrying eyes.
“It’s dangerous around this place. Shouldn't we move to a safer place?"
"Hmm?"
Izzy's eyes flickered with surprise. For once, she had not expected this girl to be so observant.
That assessment was reasonable. After all, Arnold and company had remained in this place for far too long. From the time they had killed Roson to the present moment of inventory examination, at minimum, an hour had passed.
Given the fact Davis had just related, this Rowan Dhampir assassin possessed an emblem that potentially allowed other family assassins to track its location down.
It was safest to assume that this location could be exposed at any moment.
Izzy became aware of a dull pain flaring across her body. It came from Arnold and Jack’s wounds, transmitted through the connection to her mind.
The night had already deepened. Cold wind brushed over the bare leaves of the surrounding trees, creating a persistent rustling sound.
—
Davis still watched and waited for Arnold in silence.
In his mind, the boy had remained motionless and silent for so long, it had generated considerable psychological pressure on the thin man. Izzy could clearly observe the man's nervous eyes dilating, wandering anxiously toward the surrounding tree line, his whole body trembling beneath the cold night's biting air.
“Let’s get out of here.” Arnold stood up from his crouched position.
Simultaneously, Izzy and Isa returned to the crimson theatre and settled themselves into the plush velvet seats.
“Have you arrived yet?”
“Isa has just arrived, Izzy!”
“Good.”
Earlier, when Isa had severed the connection to their headless marionette Rudolph, Izzy had commanded the young mind to control another corpse waiting at the mansion and move their horse toward Arnold's current position.
Since they had already used all five puppet slots during the fight against Roson—Arnold, Arriet, Jack, Florence, and Rudolph—they could no longer control any additional puppets. And since Rudolph's headless corpse was no longer suitable for continued use, Izzy had decided to cut him off, freeing one precious puppet slot. This way, they could possess one of the flesh corpses hidden inside the basement back at the mansion.
In the interim while Arnold conducted his loot examination, Isa had controlled the male corpse, guided their horse, and brought the wooden cart toward the rendezvous point.
The horse looked strangely obedient when being handled by a walking corpse, though.
Izzy nodded with satisfaction, controlled Arnold, and began cleaning up the scattered loot.
"Let Ari handle it!"
From a short distance away, Arriet shouted excitedly while raising one hand into the air.
Her face had turned a little red. This was the unavoidable result of having stood quite close to Arnold and Jack earlier, vessels of the opposite gender.
Arnold considered the offer for a moment, and then nodded in agreement.
“Alright.”
He stood up, threw the Rowan emblem far away into the darkness, then moved toward the black-haired corpse of Roson.
Behind them, the little girl and the maid had also begun working. They crouched down, neatly rolled up the Contract Pages in order, gathered the Alan coins into their pouch and retrieved the remaining daggers.
Meanwhile, Arnold gestured toward Davis.
“You take the legs. I’ll take the head. Let’s move her.”
“…Move her?!” Davis looked horrified at the proposition, his face draining of color.
But in the end, he had no choice but to accept the order. After all, Arnold had killed her and helped him avenge Danz's death.
"You yourself declared you would do anything, right? I remember.." Arnold said while gripping the corpse's head and shoulders, lifting the upper body.
"...Junior, I did indeed say that..." Davis hesitated, then grimly lifted the legs. "But... pray, ya will not make me... do something dangerous, will ya?"
Arnold began moving. He would need to transport this corpse to the location where Isa's new marionette waited with the wooden cart.
“I need the help of your colleagues too.”
"My colleagues?" Davis's hand trembled, every hair standing on end at the ominous phrasing. "Is it dangerous?"
“Don’t worry.” Arnold's mouth corner lifted slightly. "There won’t be anything dangerous involved. It is, in fact, the safest job I know of."
No one wished to bother the dead, after all.