The notebook is a miscellany of different papers of varying thicknesses, materials and colors, all contained within a leather cover with 3 openable metal rings for inserting pages into it. It has a pocket on the inside, that contains all notes and sketches Viper has written and drawn on previous missions. There is a pocket on the other side, that contains letters from Mildred, and copies of their own letters to provide context for the others.
I am contained. The foundation said I broke a lot of rules, and the crocodile that the body hopper let free wasn't normal. It destroyed everything in its path. I hurt a lot of people with one small decision. Killed them even... I am... sad does not describe it. Angry? Confused? Alone... All of these and more. I did a horible thing, and now I must repent. A man calling himself Dr. Mauntak jr. claimed to be my "keeper". He called it "cross testing", and he was going to put me in a room with other weird things anomolies, and see how I reacted to to them. The first room had a table with a cage on it and a rabbit, and it seemed scared of me, so I sat and let it get close to me and sniff my hand, but it turned out to be evil, and it bit my finger off. I killed it, and a few seconds later, two more appeared in the middle of the room. I killed them, then thinking quickly, I closed the cage and put it in the place they kept coming from, so that now when they poofed real, they were trapped in the cage. The speaker came on and said I had passed, and guys with guns came to take the rabbit away, and then left me in the room with three beadles. They seemed harmless enough, but they turned into me, and I was removed from the room. I have a feeling this won't be my last doing this.
I stayed behind. We had to fix what we had done, and stop the brewing storm. And by storm I mean the growing shadow full of eyes growing across the land. I went with Kurt before going home, and his boss had us go somewhere to grab something that could fix this. This something turned out to be a sleeping woman, and we carried her back to a safe house, since we were being attaked by an imvisibleinvisible monster. I accidentally broke the ward in the safe house by touching it with my spear, which seemed to turn off the magick and shatter the rune circle holding it, so we bailed and got the woman to where she needed to be, and Kurts bosses woke her up, where she grew four arms and conjured a jiant wolf to fight off The Hanged Man/Fallen Creator.
New Abilities
The main ability of a Scholar of Yore is to get help from history. This ability is divided into two parts. The first ability is the ability to borrow strength from their past self. They can borrow power any number of times as long as they have enough spirituality. To a certain extent, this is something that’s self-perpetuating, preventing themselves from ever being in a nadir until their spirituality is completely drained. Before their spirituality is drained, they can always borrow energy from their past self. There’s no limit to the number of times. The second ability is the ability to summon Historical Projections from the Historical Void. They can summon people or objects that existed in the past for a limited time. There are three factors that influence the probability of successfully summoning the target and the duration of the summoned target: The more detailed and the better the understanding one has of the corresponding piece of history and matters, the higher the chance of success is and the longer it will last. The lower the target’s level is, relative to the Scholar of Yore, the higher the chance of success and the longer it can be maintained. Increasing one's affinity with the target will increase the chances of success and the time it can be maintained. For a Scholar of Yore that has digested at least 80% their potion, if it’s the most ordinary item or something that was once theirs, they can maintain its availability for a maximum of 15 minutes. They can only summon 3 Historical Projections at one point in time, this includes those who are summoned by their Marionettes. Successfully summoned Historical Projections of a higher level than their summoner will only have a portion of the strength and quality of the original. Historical Projections do not have intelligence, and can only act upon orders from their summoner. They can only answer questions that the Scholar of Yore knows the answer to. This is because everyone is essentially unique, at one point in time there can only be one consciousness for each person. If the summoned target's true body hides in the Historical Void or gets into a Secret/Concealed state, they can send their consciousness to their Historical Projection, directly controlling it. The summoned target does not have to be of the Fool Pathway to do this. They cannot summon things directly related to a Uniqueness. This includes Uniqueness as objects, and Angels, and Gods who have successfully accommodated a/multiple Uniqueness within them. However there are ways to bypass this restriction to some extent, they can instead summon projections of objects/people which the Uniqueness can exert power on.
They can enter The Gray Fog (Fog of History) and hide inside its gaps, also known as the Historical Void, as long as their spirituality allows. This allows them to temporarily avoid their enemy, but they would come out on the exact spot in the real world. While hiding in the Historical Void, they are able to send their consciousness back to their Historical Projection and control it by themselves. Should they attempt to borrow power from themselves or summon a Historical Projection inside the Historical Void, a prerequisite is that they have a corresponding projection within the history inside the gap they are hiding in.
The gaps they can hide inside The Gray Fog are limited to their understanding of the corresponding history.
They also gain the ability to produce fog and reduce the temperature of an area
Strengthened Abilities
Their previous abilities are enhanced:
Flaming Jump: Its range has increased to 5 kilometers. It Is now able to transfer objects to them or their Marionettes.
Air Bullets: It's now equivalent to coastal defense artillery and its power could be adjusted at will.
Damage Transfer: It's now able to transfer a certain part of ailments, curses, prophecies, attacks and observations (gazes) to Paper Figurine Substitutes.
Paper Figurine Substitutes: It has undergone several qualitative changes, to disrupt divination, prophecy powers, tracking, and observation (gazes). It can now also substitute certain parts of a target (like organs). Before one discovers that it’s fake, things can continue proceeding as per normal. The Beyonder ability to transform into an animal improves, now they can transform into any creature that is within a certain limit. Some the organs of the creature they transform to would work, others wouldn't.
Strengthened Marionette Abilities
Their ability to control Spirit Body Threads has been massively strengthened. The initial range for controlling Marionettes has also increased to 500 meters. The range of controlling Marionettes and exchanging positions with them has increased to 5 kilometer. The initial control time of a target is now reduced to just 2 seconds, and full control is achieved in 10 seconds. Historical Projections of Creatures can be turned into Marionettes.
Mythical Creature Form
The divine pattern on their Worms of Spirit become more complex and has become more expressive of the themes of the Fool Pathway. This change is a result of the acquired Beyonder characteristic and mythical knowledge contained in the potion. The pattern can differ from person to person because it also relates to personal traits. They can now split about 600 Worms of Spirit from their Mythical Creature form. After complete digestion of the potion, the Beyonder would be able to recover from having nearly 500 Worms of Spirit die at once. Losing all corresponding Beyonder characteristics wouldn't cause them to lose their status and level. They can slowly recover by absorbing Beyonder Characteristics of the Fool Pathway.
As a Sequence 3 Beyonder, they can listen to prayers within a certain range. Worms of Spirit can individually respond to simple prayers and turn in the complicated ones to the main body.
Potion Formula
Main Ingredients:
Hound of Fulgrim (also known as Sefirah Castle Keeper) pair of eyes.
One Demonic Wolf of Fog’s transformed heart.
Supplementary Ingredients:
100ml of Hound of Fulgrim blood.
30 grams of White Frost Crystal of Demonic Wolf of Fog.
a large amount of real ancient historical records.
Advancement Ritual
Be separated from reality for at least three hundred years and consume the potion after one becomes history and doesn’t belong to the present era.
Acting Method
Be a scholar from ancient times.
Search for real ancient history, study it, and make new conclusions out of it.
Witnessing fate, affecting the present, and the inability to reverse the past.
Hounds of Fulgrim
The Hounds of Fulgrim or the so-called Sefirah Castle Keepers, are a type of unique creature of the spirit world. They reside in the gray fog surround the Sefirah Castle. Even the Seven Pure Lights only know of them and are unable to interact with them unless they leave the Historical Void and attempt to hunt.
It looked like a hound. Its entire body was covered in black short fur, and in its eye sockets were two balls of dark-red burning flames. The ends of its mouth extended to the back of its head. It clearly existed there in its corporal form, but it gave off an illusory feeling that felt surreal.