The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren did not hide the shocking discovery that he had found on the Ark’s data vault. Everyone, Vivian included was shaken by the truth.

The creator of life in the Plane of Dreams, the giver of life to ninety percent of life in the Plane of Dreams, the almighty Goddess of Creation, was killed. By mortals no less!

Of course, the Ark’s data vault had only limited information, and the details of what happened ten thousand years was still murky, the whole idea of the denizens of the stars too were unproven. But regardless, Hao Ren had managed a breakthrough in the investigation of the Goddess of Creation and the destruction of worlds. It is just that the progress was heading in a rather uncomfortable direction.

“I…am not sure how am I supposed to tell Big Beardy this.” Hao Ren sighed as he relayed the whole thing to everyone at home. “As open-minded as he is… I think he’ll probably off himself when he hears this.”

“Then lets keep this under wraps.” Vivian raised an eyebrow. “Lets us at least find the remnants of the Goddess before we say anything. I think a Goddess as capable as her should leave something behind even after she died.”

Y’zaks nodded in agreement. “Yes. The Goddess may have fallen, but her powers are still active. The divine abilities of the Disciples of Glory and the resonance of their belief are real. Besides, the death of a powerful being over at my place will probably leave some unusual phenomenon or trail behind that could last for ages. A Goddess her stature shouldn’t lose to those country bumpkins at the very least.”

Y’lisabet was sitting her papa’s shoulder tinkering with a mini radio at the time, and as Y’zaks finished she quipped happily. “So that’s why I didn’t not believe that papa had died. A powerful king like papa if he was to die would probably curse an entire race to their doom, and that’s normal. The Allied Army were well prepared for one of the component race to perish at such a curse, but nothing happened after half a year. So that’s how I came to believe that papa was still alive…”

Hao Ren gave Y’zaks an odd look. “… Your daughter’s thought process sure is something.”

Y’zaks awkwardly rubbed his bald head. “My bad, my bad…”

After visiting Nasaton upon arriving back to Earth, the Mr and Mrs Nangong stayed at Hao Ren’s place. And just with a blink of an eye, half a month have passed, and the searing summer heat was now at full force. The hot summer day had left Hao Ren sleepy, and the free days had left the somewhat intrepid adventurer now bored. Knowing how sudden he may get a new assignment, Hao Ren could only stay at home, spend time with the zoo-like household of his.

Lily was still up to her old routine. After breakfast she would be out and about giving the local stray dogs veterinary check-ups. According to her, this was a peak period for contagious diseases to spread, and she wanted to give the strays vaccination to ensure that her Army of Woofenstein is at peak performance. But no one could see the combat strength of that ragtag bunch, aside from them lining up more neatly than ever when Lily does a roll call.

Despite lugging her medical box outside for a good part of the day, Lily was still energetic when she got home by lunch. Tossing the box aside, she immediately flopped by the window to stare at the scenery. AT the same time, a old yellow dog was outside panting to cool itself. Lily titled her head before sticking her tongue out as well. “Heh.. heh… hehh…”

Vivian was in the hall reading as she heard the noise. Her expression incredulous. “Would you look at that.”

Lily had not registered Vivian’s presence and belatedly realised that her mortal enemy was just seating right across her. She immediately stopped panting as her expression stiffened. “I was just having some fun. Say, where’s Wuyue? I want her to make some ice cubes to chill.”

Vivian’s twiddled her fingers. “You want ice cubes? To chill? Don’t move then. I’ll give you something to remember.”

Lily immediately bounced backwards. “Hey, did I even antagonised you?”

“Vivian, turn on the AC. It is rather hot today.” Hao Ren was seated not too far away twiddling with the MDT (he was actually playing DOTA). After hearing the bat and the dog’s argument he added. “Wuyue and her parents are out. They wanted to get to know the lay of the land and see if there’s anyway to earn a living in the modern era. After half a month watching TV, they are probably anxious about assimilating back into the society.”

Vivian shrugged and with a snap of her finger, cold mist started appearing around her as cool air quickly cool the entire house down. The electricity bill saved from this walking AC throughout the summer could cover her rent.

Lily took a few deep breath as she felt the cold air and gave a sigh of relief. “Well, there’s at least something Battie can do right…. Say, just look at the Nangongs, and then yourself, even the two elders know that they need to earn a liv….”

Before she could finish, Lily only saw a gust of frostwind coming at her and the careless werehusky was turned into an ice block.

Vivian looked back down to continue reading. “Hush, you and your nonsense. Even Mr Landlord hasn’t said anything.”

Hao Ren quickly went ahead to clear the ice off Lily’s body before turning towards Vivian with a curious question in mind. “You’ve been reading that since morning, what is it about?”

“Received it two days ago from Athens. Not sure where Hessiana got her hands on these ancient tomes.” Vivian said as she lifted the ancient looking black leather tome. “Not sure who the author was, probably from the middle ages. It’s written in Latin. To humans, it’s probably some heretical nonsense… but I think it has something to do with me.”

Hao Ren’s interest was piqued as he went to have a look. He saw four solitary words on the black leather cover of the tome: Spiritus Malignos et Mythologos, the discussion of evil spirits and mythology. There was nothing about the author at all.

Vivian turned the tome open and Hao Ren noticed that the ancient tome was still well-preserved, the writings were still clear on the yellowed pages which were inscribed with the very distinctive dark ages art style. The edge of the pages were framed with intricate patterns. In on of the drawing was a group of people around a bonfire while the smokes above detailed a devil was taking a peep. These reminded him vividly of the dark ages, of the heretical lunatics, the superstition, the heresy that spread from all corners of the land. It was clear that, regardless of the time, this is not a ‘normal’ work.

“You’re sure that this thing had lasted all the way from the middle ages?” Hao Ren touched the pages out of curiosity, but a sense of dread immediately overwhelmed him as his fingers felt the texture of the page. This was not your normal piece of paper. “F*ck… is this….”

“No worries, that’s not human skin.” Vivian tapped on the page. “It’s the skin of a black goat that is cured with magic. So it’s not the same as your goatskin books. I’ve never seen these sort of method for a long time… Making these would need one to raise a black goat in the darkest of caves that will never see sunlight, and the sacrifice would need to be made on a moonless night. The subsequent curing and processing of the skin must also be done personally by the sorcerer. Ahh… such tedious stuff.”

Hao Ren was perplexed as he listened to the whole mumbo jumbo regarding ancient sorcery, and he failed to understand why. “That tedious? Why?”

“Well first, it could last a thousand years or longer.” Vivian picked up the book. “Next, using magic to cure the pages is an imprint. To mark that the book is a real grimoires, not some knock-off copy-pasted nonsense that swindlers tries to paddle. These sort of grimoires were popular back then. Even with religious suppression, many people, nobles included were enthusiastic about collecting these sort of tomes to show how ‘learned’ they are. But most of the time what they have are fakes as only a real sorcerer, otherworldlings, demon hunters or clerics would be able to tell and obtain a real one. Lastly…. books back then were very expensive stuff and nobles would use expensive vellum to write, and to put gold ringlets on books, or to add scents to the ink that they use to increase the ‘value’ and ‘class’ of the books. And those sorcerers could not help themselves but to indulge in it as well, so they kept coming up with more ridiculous ways to create their grimoires, as a living proof of their knowledge and mastery.”

Vivian then added. “Of course, I think that anyone who does that are just plain idiots. This will leave a very visible trail for the demon hunters, and if they were to get their hands on the grimoire, the author’s lifespan is drastically shortened.”

“So they were using their lives to act cool?” Hao Ren summarised with a stunned look.