Soren laid the three sheets of human skin paper across the round table, illuminated by the vibrant flame overhead. He continued to stare at them cautiously, as if an ominous future awaited him…

"Are you sure about this," said the radiant flame. Its flickering embers betraying its usual calmness.

After a moment of silence, he nodded back slowly. "The authorities present within these pages… I can feel them with my mystical eyes. They are beyond my comprehension.

"If we don't do this, we'll never find out what exactly they are and how they operate…"

Soren's plan was indeed very simple. Simple, but deadly. If not for the fact that this ancient space exists outside the purview of regular space-time, he would never have even considered it… Something which he done once in the past:

A divination.

If simply glancing into the Beyond with [Eyes of the Fairy] won't work, then it was now time to use his conduit's connection to its absolute maximum. However, rather than using chess as a medium like last time, Soren decided to consider a different approach. One that was beyond his usual insanity…

His own body. He was going to use his very vessel itself as the divination medium.

If anyone had heard of his plans, they would indeed label him as insane. A label he himself didn't mind all that much—after all, it was true… He was insane. And also very rotten to the core.

As for why he would even entertain such an absurd idea? There were two main reasons, and both were related to the flaws he had noticed in his previous divination medium.

Chess, at the end of the day, was never fully made to simulate chaos. With 64 squares, the number of legal chess positions and variations could reach the thousands, if not the tens of thousands… However, that number was still extremely finite.

To truly simulate chaos and randomness, a medium needs to have a near infinite amount of possible outcomes—something that chess, in its many rules and restrictions, could never reach.

However, that was still only a part of the issue. After all, a divination medium does not only need to be able to simulate chaos effectively… It also needs to be closely related to the person performing that divination. The closer one feels to that object, the better the interpretations become.

That was why chess was so effective as a medium for him… Soren was able to use it to not only obtain glimpses into his fate, but he was also able to use the visions he obtained to obstruct The Whispering Dream from achieving all of his goals.

Still, it was clear to him that the limitations didn't end there. The visions he obtained were also extremely fragmented and hard to interpret. Aside from a few, the rest were simply impossible to understand without further context. This was likely the result of having his divination be hijacked by unknown forces—something neither the flame nor him expected to happen.

All of this now brings him to his new, "brilliant", idea… To utilize the randomness plaguing his own mind through the Fairy Bind spell to simulate chaos.

After obtaining Fairy Bind—a spell that obfuscates the very foundations of his Three Layers—he had initially used it to suppress the corruption festering within him. Before that spell, Soren was mainly relying on the [Traveler] blessing to do that for him, but it was obvious from the start that such a boon was never going to last long.

With Fairy Bind, he was able to not only keep the Echoes of the Rift from growing within his Three Layers, but also made sure that no outside influence ever made it inside either… Not even Myrin's Inherent Ability could penetrate through its defenses to read his thoughts.

And that was exactly what he needed. That obfuscation—it was created through invoking illusions inside his own Three Layers. And these illusions operate without any pattern… Chaos was at the very heart of this spell.

The idea was fairly simple. Using an illusion of the Nameless Mist, he will command the flame to rid him of his own memories temporarily—freeing his mind from any unnecessary thoughts. Then, while in this mentally deprived state, have the flame perform the connection to the conduit on his behalf to perform the divination and to feed the visions directly to him using [Record].

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After all, aside from chess, what else could be considered close enough to him to be a decent divination medium aside from his own body and mind? And since the Figment of his Imagination was also closely related to his identity, there was no reason to believe it would have any trouble interpreting the divination process.

Soren smiled as he leaned back against his chair.

"If we were to simplify it, this would be akin to a Spirit Affinity magi performing a dream divination. We are using our Astral Projection to simulate chaos, rather than using it to find chaos within the Beyond itself."

"Your vessel… It may be immortal within this ancient space, but it is not without risk." The flame reiterated, "Are you truly certain about this?"

"I am certain," Soren replied instantly. "I know what you're concerned about—you believe I might cause damage to my Runic Existence. After all, you do plan to take over this vessel eventually, right? You're afraid I might damage your future body."

The flame didn't answer—its embers flickered softly, as if his words had no effect. Though, Soren could tell that it was all just an act. His smile widened as he closed his eyes one final time:

"Let us begin this… mind fracturing divination."

By his orders, the flame got to work. With the powers of [Fictionalization], it manifested a dark black substance that engulfed his form… Soren was now drowning in a shell made of the Nameless Mist.

His memories… were vanishing. Rapidly.

Every thought, every sensation… Every emotion.

All of it was slowly disappearing. It was as if he was becoming a spectator to his own body. An empty husk of a vessel—one that could only observe the world around it, but had no way of giving an opinion on the matters at hand. A cold hearted machine unaware of its own wretched existence.

Where am I? He thought. Who am I?... There was no indication of anything. Darkness. Pitch black and eager to consume him… That was all he could see.

Then, a tiny spark of light appeared… Then many more lights. A whole array of them clustering together—shining in gold. Forming a strange and mysterious window that hovered at eye-level.

[Divination]: The Ossuary Pages.

Target Question: How were the Ossuary Pages created?

Start Time: 59 seconds.

Divination? He thought to himself in complete and utter disregard… The words invoked no emotion within him, and yet, they felt familiar…

He watched as the timer began to slowly descend, second by second. Eventually, however, the inevitable occurred.

The timer hit zero.

Just when he thought nothing would happen, a sudden barrage of thoughts and scenes ruptured through the darkness like a swarm… A maddening swarm of ideas and whispers. He closed his eyes, and yet, the light of the truth burst through regardless.

There was no hiding from it. He had finally understood what was happening—The Records was sending the scenes it was interpreting from the divination back to him using [Record]!

And those scenes… They were horrid…

A crimson tower made of bones stretched up into an ominously dark sky… Peering from its bricked walls were open eyes that glanced freely around… Each iris was inscribed with strange runes that could be felt… They shifted freely, until his gaze met Theirs… An ominous sensation rang inside him the moment their eyes locked.

It was a strange and ephemeral feeling. As if his very emotions themselves were dying. The scene was etched into his memory, and yet, his eyes in that moment became blurred—as if his vision had lost its luster.

"AHHHHH!" He screamed. Not out of pain, but out of fear. His gut felt as if it was filled with maggots crawling endlessly through his blood stream. A sensation that was both disgusting and hard to grasp. And then the whispers came…

Cold, chilling whispers. Every word felt incomprehensible yet his mind still processed them the same… There was a sinister edge to each one that could cut through his sanity the moment he heard them.

Sitting in his seat, Soren continued to spazz out as his body recoiled from the countless sensations. His eyes rolled back as foam poured from his mouth. Time itself slowed in that moment—he had no idea how long these sensations had lasted…

There were other strange scenes within the tower as well. Beyond the scarlet walls and the bleeding rune eyes, terrifying truths were hidden. Objects that seemed to peer from within—close to reach yet far to see. And past this decaying horror, was a strange mist slowly moving towards the spire.

Before it could reach its destination, the visions had ended.

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