章 42: Sketch
Moving through the crop fields, silence was present thanks to the lack of mirror world inhabitants nearby and the human and entity's lack of desire to make small talk.
"..."
Rose was aware that this was not really the young man's usual mood, but considering where they were heading, and the reason why they were doing so, it was understandable.
While it was true that the young man had developed some resistance, that didn't mean it didn't affect him at all, as one couldn't really change the beliefs you had formed over the years in only a few days.
A breeze then swirled around the young man, centering on his left cheek, the touch being tangible enough for him to feel, but not enough to hurt.
It was a caress from the wind.
"There's no need to go to the farm" Rose said in a softer voice than normal, "Even from here I can already know what happened exactly, I can tell you if you want me to, and thus avoid... something unpleasant for you."
These words woke Noah, who had been deep in thought. It was a tempting and unexpectedly kind offer from Rose, who seemed to want to save him the trip and what it would bring.
However, the young man did not seem interested in this offer.
"...Thank you, but no, I want to see this with my own eyes." The young man replied, putting his hand above the wind on his face.
Unexpectedly, he could feel some warmth upon contact with the wind, though he could not appreciate this sensation for much longer, as the wind quickly dissipated.
"Well then, you'd better hurry, at least if you want to get home on time."
With that, they both continued on their way, though they didn't exchange words again, the mood was much lighter.
After a while of walking, Noah was finally entering the grounds of the farm house.
Just at a glance, it was noticeable that the owners of this farm, despite its extensive grounds, did not seem to be having a good time.
Whether it was the barn, the roads, the fences separating the crops, or even the house itself, they all had a worn and old look that could not be fully attributed to the mirror world.
However, all these details faded into the background when the young man looked at the center of the farm.
A red circle was in front of him, with a strong metallic smell present in the air, almost being the only thing he could smell in the place. The culprit of this might look like the red circle, but it was actually that which was in the middle of it.
There were two small masses of flesh whose shape was almost impossible to distinguish from what they once were.
The sight was grotesque, but more than that, what Noah felt about this ritual, what really seemed to have affected him, was that this ritual was giving off strong emotions.
Just as with the [Ritual: Horrendous Web], the young man was able to feel very vaguely that which characterized this ritual.
Of the three parts that made it up, first there was malice, then cruelty and finally, humanity.
The malice was that the victims of this ritual had been elderly people, killed in front of their loved one.
The cruelty because they had taken their time in killing them.
And the humanity, because the materials used were human, nothing more than that.
"...E-EeliI...!"
"!"
Suddenly, Noah could hear a voice coming from one of the masses of flesh inside the circle of blood.
It was a woman's voice, a voice that seemed to be coming from a broken throat, but one that was doing its best to keep talking anyway.
Approaching quickly, Noah crouched down right next to the mass of flesh.
As much as he wanted to grab it, he didn't even know where to do so, making the nervousness inside him increase.
"...EE-eEliI...!"
The wailing continued to come from the seemingly non-existent throat of the mass of flesh, screaming something that the young man was trying to understand but was much easier said than done.
He didn't know what to do in this situation other than simply watch as the being in front of him writhed in pain, the vitality of its body diminishing more with each passing second.
"LiI...liii...!"
The more the mass of flesh tried to speak, the more Noah could feel the emotions behind each of the letters.
There was the pain, the persistence, but most of all, the wailing.
"El...IsAa!!!" Shouted the mass of flesh with the last of its strength.
It had said a name, and it had said it with so much regret, lament, and sadness, that even without having a vision, it managed to let Noah know immediately what this name meant for it.
After saying the name, the mass of flesh, as much as it seemed to be struggling, went still, never to move again.
"..."
"..."
Rising from the ground, the young man then proceeded to look more closely at the circle of blood.
"...Elisa was... their daughter, right?" The young man asked the only person who might have the answer to this, Rose.
"That's right, it seems that even in that state, what they regretted most was leaving her alone." Explained the woman.
Even though he heard this answer, Noah no longer responded, only looking at the circle of blood down to the smallest detail.
He was trying to extract as much information as he could about this circle with his left eye, not only for the sake of learning about this ritual, but to see if he could find out anything from those who did it.
This attempt of his was going so far that his left eye began to hurt, but at the same time, incredibly faint visions of the past began to appear.
He had already used his left eye to see a vision, so this attempt was already hurting quite a bit, and the fact that Noah was straining it didn't help at all.
"!"
From one moment to the next, his left eye closed on its own, the pain being such that it was now almost unbearable.
Bringing one of his hands up to cover his eye, Noah knew he had overdone it, his body forcing him to cease his attempts to discover more.
Fortunately, while he had not been able to discover more about the perpetrators, he had discovered the purpose of this ritual.
Earlier he had been able to sense that this ritual was made up of Malice, Cruelty and Humanity, and thought they were equal parts, but now he had realized that he had been wrong.
For while there were three parts, the vast majority of the ritual was centered on just one word, Malice.
"The ritual is not complete." Noah said, expressing his discovery but also wanting confirmation.
"Insightful as always, that's right, this ritual is in its first phase, for it to be complete and show its full power, something is needed." Rose replied, her tone becoming more ambiguous at the end, not wanting to give Noah the full answer.
For this ritual, whose main word was malice, which was expressed in killing a married couple in front of each other, the bar was high to do worse.
However, difficult did not mean impossible, and Noah already had an idea of what the perpetrators might do that would fall into the malice category.
Something that involved the victim couple's daughter and the very circle where her parents' remains rested.
Under a heavy silence, Noah and Rose lingered for some time in the farmhouse, leaving no stone unturned if that meant that it would give them the slightest bit of information.
---
Several hours had passed, and even though Noah could still stay longer in the mirror world, he didn't and decided to get back early so he could get something done.
Rose didn't object either, as he had already been there long enough in addition to having excellently complied with his "diet".
Not to mention of course that she had also played a part in the young man leaving in such a hurry.
It happened when Noah asked why it was that the couple, after death, were able to express so much emotions.
After all, following this logic, then he should be able to feel everything that other dead beings expressed, as were the inhabitants of the mirror world.
As for where to find them, it wouldn't be a problem at all, since their remains were somewhat easy to find if one looked hard enough.
However, for better or worse he hadn't been able to sense anything, and it was something that had been puzzling the young man.
Seeing him in trouble, Rose then told him the reason for this.
"Flesh and soul have power, the former lasting for a long time if left alone, but the latter only shortly after the death of their owners."
The moment Noah heard this, although he had already decided to return, he hurried even faster, and upon arriving to his room, started searching the internet for local news in the city, especially in the area of the Baughan compound.
He searched and searched, but nothing that was concerning two murders came up in the results.
More than that, all he found were ads and information about grants from Baughan Construction, information that was of no use to him at this point.
"That's what I get for putting in that family's name, I should try the farm alone..."
Persevering, the young man kept looking, but other than seeing the farm on a map of the city, he couldn't find much.
Or at least that's what it looked like at first.
On the same city map, the farm was marked as a special place, having several photos at his disposal showing both the farm and the visitors, and also, the owners.
In one of the photos, specifically, there were only three people, an older couple, along with a young woman who seemed to be in her early twenties.
The man, though older and already balding, still possessed much of the firmness and vitality of his days when he worked the farm, while the woman had a gentler, calmer look that seemed to complement her sharp eyes, as well as silky red hair.
This last detail was something she shared with the younger woman, with whom one did not need to look closely to find that he had features of both the man and the woman.
In the photo, the three of them stood hugging looking at the camera, with the words, "We welcome you with open arms at our farm." written underneath.
All of these photos had been uploaded by a single person, whose account was none other than "ElisaSP."
"...I found them." Noah said, his expression turning to one of pity.
He had found the victims, but it seemed that their death had been so recent that even the news hadn't gotten around to covering it.
Still with the family photo on his laptop, the young man then pulled out one of his notebooks from a desk cabinet.
This was a different one from the one he used to record his discoveries about the mirror world, it was an almost new notebook.
Picking up one of the pencils he kept nearby, Noah wrote first of all, at the top of a white sheet, as a title, "Farm."
Underneath then he set about writing down everything he had managed to discover about the murder that had taken place at the farm.
From the number of people present, the shape of their bodies, the face of the leader, as well as anything that could be used to identify them.
After the descriptions followed the capabilities that this group might have.
Here were things Noah considered dangerous about them, such as their numbers, the familiarity they seemed to have in committing murder, the knowledge of rituals they possessed, and especially, the necklace he had seen in his vision.
It was the latter that Noah was most concerned about, as he was almost completely certain that it was something that came from the mirror world, or at the very least, had some relation to it.
Because he was unaware of its effects, he would have to be especially careful with this, but to his luck, the man wasn't the only one with mirror world objects.
Bringing his gaze back to his weapon, with its tip wrapped in the hanged man's rope, Noah felt more confident.
Finally, Noah wrote down the details of the ritual, including how it worked, what it seemed to be able to do, and the fact that it wasn't finished.
In this, more than the ritual, what stood out most was the final "component" it needed in order to be finished, a sketch of the couple's daughter having been drawn in haste.
Despite being a sketch, each of the strokes Noah had used to draw her were filled with a fondness that did not belong to him, but had been etched within him as he had heard the mother say her name with her last breath.
"...I think it affected me more than I thought it would." Noah said as he looked at Elisa's sketch.
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