The Dark moon was there in the sky, partially hidden by clouds, exactly where it always was. Compared to the normal, white moon it was ominous and the source of many ghost and horror stories. It didn't help that the triple eclipse, or a dark moon eclipse was considered very bad luck, compared to an eclipse with the regular moon.
Nero never gave it much thought specifically. The moons were just there. They were a part of life and no one could do anything about them, not even the sages.
That was exactly why, when Lex saw a silver moon hanging in the sky, he was stumped. For a moment he thought he was caught in some kind of illusion curse when the Ascendant also looked up.
"Oh yeah, that. You were in the basement when that happened so you didn't get to see it. Around the same time you lost power in the basement, the entire city lost power too. Right after that, a brillight, silver beam of light shot out from the fog towards the moon, turning it silver. The world seemed to dim when that light shot out, as if all the light in the world was absorbed into that silver beam.
That light is one of the reasons that the situation on the warfront changed so much."
"All light… last light…" Nero murmured to himself as he realised some things - or rather, made a few assumptions. Based solely on Oana's testimony, what she described sounded a lot like it might be called Last Light protocol. But he had no actual proof. Even if he did, it wasn't like he knew anything about it, or what it signified. It was best to keep it to himself.
"Is it dangerous?" he asked.
"As far as we can tell, besides the changed colour of the moon, there are no other changes."
Nero nodded
"In that case, let me get started."
"I'll escort you to the stairs," she said, and brought Nero inside the library. The entrance lobby was simple yet regal, like it once welcomed the noble, the educated, the curious. Now, though, it only welcomed soldiers and curses.
The rooms that followed were strippled clean, leaving behind countless empty shelves and while Nero suspected this was the work of the army, there was no way to be sure. The deeper they went into the library, the more grand it seemed while retaining a theme of simplicity.
The walls were not carved from top to bottom, there were no elaborate paintings, there was no decorative furniture. Through subtle touches, each room and hallway was made to feel like it was the home of kings.
Nero almost felt the mood of the architecture infect him. If he did not need to focus so much on his current task, he may have allowed himself to be swept up in the emotions of this place. Whoever the architect of this building was, they must have loved books.
At last, at the very end of the first floor, behind a bookshelf that had clearly been moved aside manually, there was a tunnel that descended into the fog.
"Don't forget, you have limited time. But don't end up getting yourself killed in your haste either. There will be a very loud siren ten minutes before the fog comes back into the city. If you manage to hear it wherever you are, you better start running back."
Nero simply nodded, and waded into the fog, his dagger already drawn. The fog was still light here, but he did not let that fool him into developing a sense of security. In this world, not even the dead were safe till their corpses were burnt to ash.
While there was a shortage of time, Nero's boost in strength had not made him blindly arrogant enough to rush into an unknown environment. Step by step, he descended the stairs, the dagger ready at all times.
He also used Aether pulse consistently to search for curses, and found one soon after. It did not look dissimilar from any other step in the entire staircase, but Aether pulse reacted to one of the steps, indicating that it was a curse.
From a distance, Nero threw a burning snowflake. His new flame was resilient to begin with, using temperature to fuel itself while it fought off cursed energy. But in the absence of high temperatures, the snowflakes his mothers innate ability produced just as well.
That was why when the snowflake embedded itself in the stair, Nero's blue flame began to flicker wildly, but it didn't go out. For an entire minute the flicker continued, causing a thin layer of frost to begin covering the step, until finally the fire stabilised.
There was no indication that the curse was gone save for the steadiness of the flame, and nothing seemed to change. Yet when he used Aether pulse, it did not react anymore.
Nero smiled softly, and after extinguishing the flame, continued his descent.
The reason Nero smiled was because now, all alone, he did not need to hold back. The Vault had given him the perfect cover, so now he could use Radix Augmentation with wild abandon, draining every foe he bested.
Unfortunately, Radix Augmentation needed living things, so it had no reaction to the cursed object that was the single stair. Even so, he was not deterred.
Nero continued his descent until finally he reached an open hall, though the fog interfered from letting him examine it thoroughly. The level of fog was equivalent to a 2nd level basement, which meant it was obstructive but not completely so. The effectiveness and range of Aether pulse was also reduced, but he made do.
Yet before he proceeded forward, Nero used all three of his detection cards. He used Mind's Eye, Echo Location and Aether pulse one by one, searching for any abnormal shadows. The fog made it harder to be sure, but as far as he could tell, he was truly alone.
With the concern of being followed gone, Nero finally picked up the pace. He stuck close to the walls, moving silently through the room as he searched for any signs of a team having passed.
"Nero…" he heard a breathy whisper, as if someone had spoken right into his ear. Yet when he turned around there was no one. He used an Aether pulse, ready to once again use all three cards to search for any signs of Vanessa, but the pulse immediately reacted and Nero's eyes constricted.
An invisible curse had wrapped itself around him without him noticing at all! As soon as it was detected, the curse tightened itself around his body with such immense strength he could not resist at all.
"Nero don't resist…" a sensuous voice whispered in his ear, carrying a mild hypnotic effect. Nero's eyes drooped while the curse wrapped itself even tighter around him, as if a lover embracing him.
"Nero relax…" the voice whispered again, nearly causing him to doze off. His body lost its balance and fell on the floor, the jolt suddenly waking Nero.
Without a second's hesitation he lit his entire body on fire, and immediately the invisible curse detached from him. But it was too late, for his azure flames had taken hold.
Nero saw his flames randomly dancing around in the air, and knew that the curse, whatever it was, was suffering. His fire would kill it soon enough, but Nero was pissed.
He hadn't even ever had a girlfriend yet! Who would have thought that a curse of all things would try to take advantage of him?
Keeping his distance, he launched a few burning snowflakes all around him, and to his surprise, all of them landed onto the invisible curse! Whatever it was, it had a huge body.
Instead of being intimidated, Nero instead felt assured knowing that the chances of him missing were few.
He waved his burning dagger at the thing, and felt the dagger actually cut it! That was all the confirmation he needed before he started waving his dagger through the air as if fighting a formidable foe instead of an invisible enemy, hoping a hit lands.
It didn't take long before the flickering flames became steady, and fell to the ground, beginning to spread frost. Nero used Radix Augmentation, unsure if he would get a response from the invisible enemy, but the feedback was instantaneous.
A rush of energy filled his body, travelling into all of his muscles, subtly enhancing his physical body.
But Nero could not enjoy the sensation for long. Through the pale fog, Nero spotted several dark shadows approaching him. His arrival had been silent, but a fight, especially an extended one, could not be.
Alone, in the basement, surrounded by curses and monsters, Nero was not intimidated. Instead, he smiled. This was the most direct, and quickest way he could come up with to become stronger. No, instead of fear, he felt excitement.
Nero dashed through the fog, choosing to attack first rather than be attacked. He saw the familiar figure of a berserker. But the menacing silver monster no longer looked threatening to Nero. Instead, he looked like a birthday gift that was waiting to get unwrapped.