The words hit like a punch to the gut. "Tampered? How?"
Agnos's face darkened, the usual calmness replaced by sothing colder, sothing I hadn't seen in him before.
"Must be the magical artifact. It must have been used on him for another purpose. Sothing powerful. Sothing... dangerous."
Baku's moaning intensified, and I stepped forward again, but Agnos stopped with a sharp glance.
"Don't," he said firmly. "Let him work through it."
I hesitated, but then I looked at Baku again—he was trembling, clearly caught in so kind of ntal wringer that I couldn't even begin to understand.
I looked back at Agnos, hoping for so kind of answer that could ease the knot in my chest.
"There's only one artifact that could do sothing like this," Agnos continued, his voice tight. "And it belongs to one of the servants of the Unknown Gods."
My mind raced to catch up with the implications of what Agnos was saying.
"You an from another Unknown God?" I echoed, trying to make sense of it.
"Who... who were they?"
Agnos stayed silent.
I blinked, startled by the lack of response.
I had expected—no, needed—a bit more than that.
My gaze darted between him and Baku, who was still clutching his head as though trying to hold his brain together.
The air between us thickened with unanswered questions, with things Agnos wasn't telling .
And it felt... off.
Like the world was shifting just out of view, and there was no way to stop it.
"Who was it?" I pressed, my voice firr now, my frustration starting to creep in.
"Who was the servant of that Unknown God?"
Still, Agnos remained silent.
Baku's pain continued to escalate.
His body trembled violently, and I could feel the ripple of discomfort in the air—like it was spreading through the space around us.
Every second that passed without an answer made feel more like a helpless bystander in soone else's nightmare.
I stood there, watching this unfold, my thoughts racing.
Who would go to such lengths to cover their tracks?
And what about the human who had sohow known about the fragnt?
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Agnos turned to , his expression grim.
"We're dealing with sothing far more complex than we thought, Carl. This isn't just about fragnts anymore—it's about the forces trying to control them."
Agnos snapped at Baku, his tone sharp and commanding.
"Control yourself, Baku. Do you still rember who you are?"
The words seed to cut through the chaos. Slowly, Baku began to calm down, his erratic breathing evening out as Agnos's firm presence anchored him.
The Baku, now recovered, visibly distressed, sat back down.
"I run a Dream Therapy Clinic. I help people work through nightmares. But I... I don't know what happened when I tried to rember the incident. I have no recollection of who would have done this except that it's a human."
Agnos was silent for a long ti before finally speaking.
"We'll get to the bottom of this. But right now, I need you to focus. Get back to work. We're leaving now."
As the conversation hung in the air, a faint chi echoed through the clinic.
The Baku straightened, forcing a small smile. "Before you go, might I offer so tea? Lullabloom blend. It helps with clarity and focus."
My eyes lit up with curiosity.
"Lullabloom? Interesting."
I glanced at Agnos, trying to sound casual.
"You don't mind, do you? I an, I'm kind of thirsty, you know..." I reasoned, hoping he wouldn't argue.
Agnos didn't seem to care much. He waved his little purple paw dismissively, a clear sign of his indifference. I smiled, taking that as approval.
When I accepted the steaming cup, the warmth seeped into my hands, instantly soothing my frayed nerves. It felt like a small comfort in the middle of all the chaos.
But as I sipped, my thoughts churned.
Who was this human that dared to ddle with fragnts?
And what kind of power could erase mories from a dream specialist's records?
I couldn't shake the feeling that we had just uncovered a much darker web than I had expected. Sothing—or soone—was orchestrating this, and the truth was slipping further and further from our reach.
As we left the clinic, Agnos spoke, his voice low.
"We're running out of ti. This detour was supposed to give us answers, but now we have even more questions."
"Hate to sound like a music on loop, but who was that human? Do you know?" I muttered as we trudged back down the path. "And more importantly, why did the recording just vanish into thin air?"
Agnos didn't answer imdiately. But when he did, his voice was colder than I had ever heard it. "The answers lie within the fragnts. But there are so truths... even I am not ready to face."
And with that, I realized—this journey wasn't just about fragnts anymore. It was about uncovering a conspiracy much larger than I could imagine.
And I had no idea who was behind it all.
Not yet.
My thoughts buzzed like a hive of angry hornets. There was too much to process, too much swirling around in my head.
The fragnts, the guardians, the cryptic human who'd crossed paths with the sixth one.
I'd barely begun to digest everything Agnos had told , but there was one thing gnawing at the edge of my mind, demanding attention.
I couldn't hold it in anymore.
Turning to Agnos, who had been walking beside in a brooding silence, I asked, "So… why do you care so much about who tried to take the fragnt?"
My voice was steady, but inside, my curiosity was spilling over.
"I an, we already have the fragnt, right?"
Agnos didn't answer imdiately. His golden eyes were distant, his tail flicking nervously as it always did when he was lost in thought.
For a mont, I almost thought he hadn't heard .
But then he spoke, his voice low, almost as if he was speaking more to himself than to .
"It's not about the fragnt itself," he began, his eyes flickering to the ground as if the answer was buried in the earth beneath our feet.
"It's about what happens when the fragnt is consud. You see, when I ate my fragnt, the power inside it didn't just beco mine. It multiplied, yes, but sothing else happened. There's a trace left behind. A trace of the creator's will."
I blinked, taken aback.
My feet faltered for a mont, but I quickly recovered, keeping pace.
"The creator's will? What do you an?"
Agnos slowed his steps, and I could see the weight of sothing—fear, maybe?—pressing down on him.
His expression turned grim as he faced .
"The creator, Carl," he said, his voice heavy, "the one who originally gave and the others our powers, the one that made the fragnts... when I consud mine, I felt their will—a connection, like a calling in my mind. It's a tether, a bond to the one who crafted all of this."
He swept a hand through the air, encompassing the land around us as if it were all part of the puzzle.
I swallowed hard, a knot forming in my throat.
"So, it's like you're linked to the creator now? That sounds... like a good thing, right? A powerful thing?"
His golden eyes darkened, the shadows of his thoughts clouding his usually calm deanor.
He shook his head slowly, and the heaviness in his voice grew.
"That's what I thought too. But it wasn't pure. The will I felt—it was tampered with. It was as if soone had twisted it, corrupted it. The creator's intentions, the pure purpose of the fragnts… it's all wrong now."
I felt the breath catch in my chest.
I hadn't expected that. The power of the fragnts, the connection to the creator—it was supposed to be sacred, wasn't it?
"Tampered with? But why? Why would anyone ss with that?"
Agnos's voice dropped lower, his eyes flicking around us like he was afraid soone might be listening in.
"That's why I need to know who tried to take the sixth fragnt. Whoever it was... they were involved in changing the creator's will. They're part of sothing bigger, Carl. Sothing that's been manipulating the fragnts for their own purposes."
The air around us seed to thicken with the weight of his words, and I felt a chill crawl up my spine.
The realization hit like a tidal wave—these fragnts weren't just powerful relics to be hoarded. They were pieces of sothing much larger.
Soone had twisted the creator's will, and that wasn't just so petty theft.
This was manipulation on a scale I hadn't even begun to fathom.
"So… whoever took the fragnt and didn't absorb it properly—they didn't just fail to take it. They corrupted it, didn't they?" I murmured, piecing it together.
The fragnts weren't just dangerous because of their power.
They were dangerous because of what could be done to them—what had already been done.
Agnos nodded, his usual stoic expression now replaced by a fierce determination.
"Exactly. And whoever did that... they're playing a dangerous ga. They're ssing with forces they don't fully understand. And I won't rest until I figure out who's behind it all."
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