Chapter 45 The Truth of the Soul Artifact
"Traitors... all must die..."
I jolted awake, my chest feeling like something heavy was crushing it. The first breath I drew carried that cold dampness typical of underground caves, mixed with the lingering sickly-sweet smell of decay.
Not the wheat field, not the ship.
It was still that massive, empty underground cavern, lit only by the ghostly blue glow of stalactites. Beneath me was rough stone, so hard it made my spine ache. Not far ahead lay that deep, unnervingly calm "Lake of Souls" that made my scalp prickle. Above the lake's surface, countless orbs of light still drifted and shifted in silence.
I lay on the ground as I'd just been dragged out of a drowning nightmare, drenched in cold sweat that had soaked through the shirt under my school robe. It clung to my skin, cold and sticky. My arms and legs felt weak, like all the strength had been drained from them. My head spun in waves, and my ears still seemed to echo with Klaus's roar and the explosion of the wasp's self-destruction.
I really blew him up.
I pushed myself up to sit, my heart still pounding wildly in my chest, hammering against my ribs.
"Awake?" Bone Lord's familiar, irritating voice rang in my head, carrying that troublemaking amusement. "How do you feel, Charles? Sweet dream or nightmare?"
"Sweet dream, my ass!" I practically shouted, my voice bouncing off the cavern walls and startling even myself. I lowered my voice, but my anger didn't ease one bit. "You call that a sweet dream? I got straight-up killed in there!"
Without that sword, I wasn't nearly so calm anymore.
Honestly, if it weren't for that sword in the dream, I probably would've died a few more times before getting out.
"Oh?" Bone Lord sounded interested. "Looks like you ran into a rather... well, lively dream. Tell me more. What did you see?"
"First, a country road, sunshine, wheat fields, and an old lady picking mushrooms who invited me for coffee." I quickly recounted it, and just thinking of those eyes made my stomach churn again. "Then I discovered that all the wheat stalks had eyes growing on them. Thousands and thousands of them, all staring at me. And that old lady smiled and reached out to grab me... Jesus."
Just retelling it made my back go cold.
That kind of twisted warmth was more unsettling than having a monster jump in your face.
"...A pathetic, obsessed wretch." Bone Lord chuckled knowingly. "She twisted the last bit of her conscious mind into that form."
"Then I found myself on a ship..."
I started describing what happened on that boat.
When I got to the finger bone - Bone Lord's other horcrux - I paused. Bone Lord seemed to notice the change in my tone, and the playfulness in his voice faded.
"You... have other horcruxes?" I asked.
"That's right." Bone Lord's voice was terrifyingly calm, like he was describing someone else's business. "When I realized I would ultimately fail, that I'd face complete annihilation, or worse—become like 'Otis,' a despicable thief stealing others' victories... I chose another path."
Even now, he couldn't resist mocking Otis.
"I took my soul, memories, knowledge, power... everything, what could be divided and what couldn't, tore it all apart and sealed it into different vessels. The ring is just one of them, and perhaps the luckiest one—it met you and still retained a relatively complete 'me' with most of my core memories."
My scalp tingled as I listened. My mouth hung slightly open, and I couldn't make a sound.
Tearing apart his soul. Scattering it and sealing it away.
"So... what about the others?" I asked instinctively. "The other 'yous' in other horcruxes... are they still you?"
This was the key question.
If each Horcrux held a part of Bone Lord, would they have independent consciousness? What were they thinking? What did they want to do? If they were like the one in the ring, trying to resurrect themselves...
"Them?" Bone Lord's tone finally revealed a clear, almost bone-deep mockery and... an indescribable complexity. "Of course, they're also me. They carry different sides of me, different obsessions, even... different personalities."
Different... personalities?
I froze.
"The arrogant one, the obsessed one, the cowardly one, the one filled with destructive desire, the one lost in dreams... and more 'mes' than you can imagine." He spoke slowly, each word like an ice pick hitting the ground. "Some might just want to find a quiet corner to sleep forever; some might be silently gathering strength in some hidden place, plotting earth-shattering revenge; some... may have already lost themselves in the long years, becoming monsters even I can't understand."
"So," he concluded, his voice returning to its previous calm, even carrying a cold amusement, "you'd better pray that in your lifetime, you don't run into them. Especially... the more active ones."
A chill shot from my feet to the top of my head.
More than one.
This sharp-tongued, sarcastic old guy on my finger, who so far had been reasonable and had actually helped me, he was just one of them.
Out there could be dozens, maybe scores of "Bone Lords" scattered around—with different personalities, unknown intentions, varying powers.
They could be hiding anywhere in the world. They could be picked up by anyone. They could have good intentions or be full of malice. They could want to resurrect... or want to drag the world down with them.
What a disaster.
When I agreed to help him find "materials" and build a "body," I never imagined this situation. I thought it was just a somewhat troublesome but clear-cut deal. And now? This wasn't a deal—it was like sleeping every night with a magical bomb in my arms that could go off at any time, maybe even trigger a chain reaction.
Anxiety wrapped around me like vines.
Not regret—Bone Lord had given me a new life, that couldn't be denied. But... it felt like I'd been suddenly thrown into the center of a huge, complex, and uncertain whirlpool.
I'd only wanted to get stronger, to shake off the shame of being a Squib, to see the view from the heights of this magical world.
And now? Not only did I have to help an old monster find materials to resurrect, but I also had to constantly watch out for other versions of that old monster that could pop up from any corner. Who knew if they'd target me, too? Or if they'd sense each other and end up in conflict with one another?