“Nameless Lord? Will this book explain why the world is in the state it currently is?” Alhen got his hopes up, and his hand trembled as he held it.

  He took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

  If what he thought was the case, it would be a huge help for him to understand more about the world surrounding him.

  “Did I stumble upon this church by a stroke of luck? Or was it destiny? In any case, I should be prepared for disappointment. Maybe the title of the book is misleading, and I’m going to read another diary,” Alhen muttered under his breath.

  The library seemed dead silent apart from the usual scurrying of feet he heard a few feet away, but the people on the aisle he was in had long since left.

  Alhen opened the book with difficulty, considering he only had one arm, and landed on the first page, which was empty.

  ‘What? Well, it’s just the first page, some books leave it empty, right?’ Alhen asked before he started flipping through the book.

  One page, two pages, twenty pages, no matter how far he went, all he saw was nothing.

  “I don’t even have the energy to be mad at this,” he muttered under his breath.

  Alhen sighed heavily and closed the book before leaving it in the bookshelf, and just as he started walking away, he stopped.

  He felt something in his hand, and when he looked at it, he saw the same book that he should have put back in his hand.

  Alhen’s eyes widened before he jumped in fright.

  “What the hell!?” he screamed, letting the book slam on the ground, and when he realized the situation, he froze.

  ‘Crap! I’m being loud, aren’t I? I hope I don’t get kicked out,’ Alhen thought.

  He waited for a few minutes, but nothing happened; the church was still silent.

  Alhen breathed a sigh of relief before he looked at the book on the ground and picked it up.

  ‘I can’t believe I was scared by a simple book,’ he thought, looking at the cover.

  He was about to place the book back on the shelves when he suddenly decided to look at its contents one more time.

  Alhen supported the book on his leg as he leaned against the shelves to keep balance, and opened the book to the first page.

  ‘What did I expect? It’s still empty,’ he thought while shaking his head.

  He turned another page just to make sure the book was unchanged, and he quickly held his breath once he saw a word on it.

  The word read, “Diary.”

  Alhen’s face fell, and a look of disappointment quickly crossed his face.

  ‘So it’s just another diary. I did all of this for nothing,’ he thought.

  He was about to put the book back on the shelf, but he held back and turned the page.

  On the following page, the diary owner, Nell, wrote about the first time he set foot on the continent of Nexia, which was supposedly the continent Alhen was on.

  Nell came from the continent of Iga, a hot and barren place with few resources for survival.

  He lived in small, movable camps with his group and survived by hunting for their own food and finding water sources.

  Everyone in the group wished to improve their living conditions and their surroundings to gain more opportunities, but they didn’t have guidance on where to travel.

  One day, they saved a traveler who, when hearing their situation, gave them a boat and told them how to use it to reach the continent of Nexia.

  Alhen kept reading and skimming the uninteresting parts he didn’t care about, like how they studied for the trip, the process of getting the boat, gathering resources, and setting out to sea.

  He sighed, getting bored by the lack of action or information and wishing for something interesting to happen.

  ‘I thought this was supposed to be about the Nameless Lord? So why has this man not mentioned him even once? I’m going to read two more pages, and if nothing changes, I will stop reading this,’ he thought.

  Alhen kept skimming the diary’s content until his gaze landed on a passage that left him looking shocked by the man’s experience.

  ‘We stepped foot in new lands, everything was great at first, we celebrated and started scouting the area, but then, it happened,’ it read.

  ‘The sun, once shining brightly and full of vigor, was eclipsed by a moon thrice the size of it, enveloping the place in partial darkness, the moon acting as a small light which lit up the beach we found ourselves in.’

  Alhen couldn’t believe his eyes; it was a diary about what had happened when it all started.

  ‘How old is this diary? Considering that supposedly it has been thousands of years since the Nameless Lord appeared, it must be very old. The thing is…’ he paused.

  Alhen looked at the cover, and it looked brand new.

  ‘No, that probably doesn’t mean anything, this is probably a copy, but a weird one,’ Alhen thought, remembering when he opened the book and couldn’t see its contents the first time.

  His curiosity piqued, and he kept on reading with newfound diligence.

  ‘My crew and I stared at the moon in complete amazement; it was beautiful. My attention and amazement were cut short when I heard a yell to my right, however. Momuth, one of my trusted allies, began spasming on the ground. We rushed to his aid, but we couldn’t help him.’

  ‘His death was a gruesome one, and I cannot even begin to describe the amount of pain reflected in his expression.’

  ‘This was not the worst of it, however, yells and curses were heard all around us coming from our group, and similar situations were repeating themselves all over the place.’

  ‘I felt something touch my arm and then fall to the ground, and that is when I realized that Nia, my wife, had crumbled beside me, her eyes had lost all their luster, and at that moment, I realized that she was dead.’

  ‘My heart shattered.’

  ‘I screamed hard, and everyone’s attention focused on me.’

  ‘I was trembling, feeling the rage and sadness keeping me down, but I had to be strong to help the rest of us survive.’

  ‘Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jacob, my son, look up at the moon, only to drop like the others.’

  ‘I bit my lips hard, and the metallic taste of my own blood brought me back to my senses.’

  “Everyone! Do not look at the moon!” I shouted.

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  ‘It took them a few seconds to process what I had said, but they eventually looked down and didn’t move.’

  ‘The seconds passed, and no similar situations were repeating themselves.’

  ‘It worked; no more people were affected.’

  ‘We grieved what we had, but eventually we had to move on.’

  ‘We carried their bodies through a nearby forest before finding a cave and taking shelter there.’

  ‘Our food reserves were low, but enough to survive for the night.’

  ‘After sleeping and looking outside the cave, we all paled at the realization that it was still nighttime, and we had no idea when the sun would rise again.’

  ‘That’s when we heard screams where the corpses were; they had come back to life as terrifying monsters, attacking everyone on sight.’

  ‘I rushed to the scene and found my wife tearing into the neck of one of my crewmates.’

  ‘The amount of pain I experienced killing my wife was one I wish not to describe in this writing. We had to defend ourselves; it was a tough battle, but we emerged victorious in the end.’

  ‘Seeing that the moon didn’t seem to be going down any time soon, we built curved hats that went downwards, covering most of our faces.’

  “Null,” one of my trusted men spoke.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked.

  “I mistakenly glanced at the moon. If I show symptoms of turning into one of those monsters, I want to die by your hands.”

  ‘My expression fell, but as a leader, I had to take responsibility.’

  “One more thing. When I looked at the moon, I swear I could see a faint shape of something in it. It was-”

  Alhen didn’t have time to finish reading as he heard a voice right beside him.

  “What are you reading? Boy. It seems very interesting,” the voice was weird, it didn’t seem to belong to a man or woman.

  He didn’t know why, but he had the feeling that if he moved even a muscle, he would die.

  His body froze, and he didn’t dare respond to the question.

  ‘I am sure of it, something changed. The air seems different, and the person right next to me emits the same uncanny and dangerous aura as Erne,’ Alhen thought.

  He heard the voice getting closer, now standing close to his neck.

  “Why are you not answering? Could it be that you cannot see me? That is a problem, a very big one. Look at me, look at me, look at me,” the voice, which now sounded more feminine, kept repeating.

  Despite the feminine voice trying to be charming, there was something wrong with it; Alhen could feel it.

  He did his best not to look, and the owner of the voice touched his back. The palms felt surprisingly big, enveloping all of his back, but he was also a kid, which meant he was smaller.

  ‘What do I do? Should I run? No, I don’t know what this thing is capable of, and for now, it hasn’t hurt me. Maybe if I don’t pay it attention, it will go away.’

  Alhen decided to keep playing the same game of staying still and keep on ‘reading’ the diary.

  Despite his gaze, which was on the words, his brain didn’t process them; he instead paid attention to the movements of the person right beside him.

  His back began to grow cold, and he resisted the urge to shiver or show any expression on his face.

  The hand moved from his back to his neck, and the voice got closer, this time whispering in his ear, “I know you can see me, turn around and look at me.”

  Alhen could feel the lips of whoever was speaking against his ear, and he gripped the diary with strength.

  He held on for a few more seconds before he felt the slight pressure on his neck and body disappear.

  The sound of footsteps echoed away from him, but Alhen didn’t lower his guard.

  He kept on ‘reading’ the diary, flipping pages occasionally but never paying it any attention.

  ‘Did the person leave already?’ Alhen thought.

  It had been more than ten minutes, and he was ready to get the hell out of there.

  Looking beside him, he saw nothing, but with no explanation, the feeling of danger returned with full force.

  ‘It’s still looking at me!’ Alhen exclaimed to himself, then looked everywhere for the source of the feeling.

  His gaze swept the place until it landed on a pair of thin, elongated legs barely visible at the end of the aisle.

  His head went up to see who’d spoken to him, and he almost fell backwards when he saw that the person who resembled a creature was massive.

  Alhen didn’t speak, only staring in shock; he’d never seen someone so tall in his life.

  The book slipped from his hands, making him return to reality.

  He went to pick it up, and when he saw where that person was, he jumped, her face being extremely close to him

  It reminded him of Erne; she had a thin, expressionless, and pale face with small eyes and big lips.

  Her long, black hair covered part of her face, leaving only one eye looking at him.

  Everything about it screamed wrong; a human was not supposed to look like that, making his heart start beating faster.

  “Don’t worry, child. I am not going to harm you. I have just a simple question: what are you reading?”

  The tall woman asked with a smile that seemed forced and fake, considering the circumstances.

  Looking closer, Alhen realized that her neck stretched almost to his face, and that her body remained just outside the aisle.

  “Uhh, I found this book, and it seems interesting. Is there a problem with me reading it?” Alhen asked with his voice trembling slightly, and the woman laughed at his words.

  ‘At this point, I can only pray and hope that she is not dangerous. If she is, I don’t know if I will be able to escape from her.’

  “You can really read it?” She asked with a serious tone, which seemed impossible since she had a wide smile on her face, making her tone sound strange.

  Alhen didn’t know how to respond, but he ultimately gave a small nod, opened the book to the first page, and showed it to the woman.

  “There’s nothing written there,” she said, slightly tilting her head sideways.

  He raised an eyebrow and looked at the contents before looking at the text; the pages had remained unchanged.

  ‘Can she not see the text?’ he wondered.

  They stared at each other for a few seconds, saying nothing until the woman spoke.

  “It is dangerous for a boy such as yourself to be out here reading alone. Come with me, I will take you someplace fun,” she said as her smile widened even further.

  Chills spread across his body at the sound of those words.

  ‘Fun is the least I want right now. This is wrong. I have to get out of here.’

  His gaze wandered to the sides, and just as he suspected, they were alone, something that seemed impossible in this place.

  “Are you nervous? Fret not, allow yourself to be taken by me, we will have much fun, I promise.”

  She slowly stretched her hand from the bottom of the aisle at him, and Alhen froze for a few seconds, not taking his gaze off her face.

  The hand neared him, and he couldn’t move, his muscles feeling as if they were frozen.

  ‘What is happening? I have to run, now!’ Alhen gritted his teeth with all his might before regaining control of his body.

  He threw the diary at the creature’s face, then darted down the aisle and towards the exit.

  Behind him, he could hear the creature’s frantic screams and footsteps growing closer each second.

  The place was dead silent, and no one was in sight.

  “Come back here! You ungrateful child, I was going to be merciful, but now I will make you regret it for the rest of your life!”

  This was the most emotion he had ever heard from her, and he didn’t want to find out whether her threat was real or not.

  The exit came into view soon after, but he felt a hand taking hold of his leg and making him fall face-first onto the ground.

  ‘Shit!’ Alhen exclaimed in his mind.

  He instinctively grabbed the axe at his back before slamming it with all his strength into the hand with his sign activated to increase his chances of doing damage.

  “Thwack!” The axe struck the skin and revealed the flesh underneath, and the creature screeched in pain.

  Alhen felt the creature’s grip on his leg loosen, and he took that opportunity to leave the church through the closed doors.

  Surprisingly, the doors were unlocked, and once he took a step outside, the feeling of danger disappeared.

  Looking around him, everything returned to normal.

  There were countless people inside and outside the church, but Alhen still didn’t dare lower his guard and ran towards the church of Father Vincent.

  As he ran, countless thoughts about what had happened began to invade his mind.

  ‘That was dangerous. I shouldn’t return until I’m stronger. Wait a second, why do I want to return? That’s a dangerous thought, I should probably never return at all,’ Alhen thought.

  His heart had yet to settle down, and now that he walked through the streets, the feeling of being in constant danger intensified.

  That feeling on his chest surfaced once again, the feeling of being looked at, that something at any second would pop up and try to hurt him.

  He breathed deeply, his feet never stopping until he stood just outside the Church of Orgurd.

  ‘I wonder how long it will take for the king to discover that it was me who killed his son. I do not doubt that strange methods outside my understanding exist, and it’s only a matter of time before they find out,’ Alhen finished thinking with a sigh.

  ‘I have to become more powerful if I ever want to survive this mess.’ Finishing his thoughts, he entered the church.

  Alhen walked to his room, opening and closing the door before throwing himself onto the bed.

  His muscles relaxed, missing the feeling of being enveloped by the mattress; it wasn’t quite the same to lie on a nursing bed than his own.

  Those cycles spent with that bastard Kalle left him with a burning feeling passing through his veins, and it made him tired, more than normal.

  Just as he thought about it, he relaxed, reminding himself that he was dead.

  He’d killed him after all.

  “Sigh!” Alhen didn’t bother taking off his hunter clothes, only his boots and thuls, and allowed himself to close his eyes, falling asleep in record time.

  Alhen opened his eyes and checked his pocketwatch, realizing that in about an hour, Sloan and Sierra should be in the tavern.

  He closed the pocketwatch with a flick of his wrist and got out of bed, picking up his thuls and putting on his boots, then left for The Crying Halberd.

  As he walked through the streets, his mind felt clear, and his body moved with confidence now that he had rested.

  He arrived at the establishment in no time and checked the time.

  ‘About ten minutes left until Sloan and Sierra arrive,’ Alhen thought.

  Opening the doors, he immersed himself in the familiar atmosphere before taking a seat in a new place.

  ‘Now that I think about it, there are no servers in this tavern.’ A random thought popped into his head, but he still found it curious.

  His mind wandered until he heard the bells of the entrance ringing.

  In came Sloan and Sierra, and they looked different from when he last saw them; something seemed to be bothering them.

  They didn’t look around and sat in an empty spot in the distance before discussing something.

  Alhen stood and approached, ready to catch up.

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