Demon Lord Shapeshifting System

[I fail to accept even after we had the burial that he truly passed. That was no burial, there was no body to be buried. It was only a ceremony, for we know that his grave truly lies far north. The Farthest North to be ever reached by the great Edmund Walton.]

Harker had to squint to read the words, since the handwriting was visibly shaky. There was also a stain that didn't look the same as all the other ink blots. It looked like a splatter, as the ink was mixed…..

By a drop of water.

Harker guessed that it must have come from Henry Clerval's eyes. He could imagine it vividly in his mind's eye. A man barely able to write the words to express his grief, and in the end wasn't really able to as the words got even more muddled in the end and he had run out of pages.

But despite having his written eulogy be cut short, Harker could still feel all the anguish that Henry Clerval had for the death of his friend. As he was experiencing it himself, this boundless grief.

[I should have stopped him. Nay, I should have been the one who had fallen into that coffin of ice and been buried there. I could have called out to him the moment I saw the cracks appear, but as they did, I saw his fate before it even happened. It felt like my vision was doubling over, and I could already see him falling right before I yelled.]

[I am the one at fault. A frozen lake, and yet I still allowed him to take that rope and retrieve that Malum. That sphere of pure evil, the fruit born from Satan's Judecca. I am the one who condemned him to that tragedy, and therefore worthy of falling into the pits myself.]

Harker frowned. "It really isn't his fault, what is he on about? If Edmund took Malum, that's his choice and his fault."

The Malum then must be a sphere, and the reason why they learned of its existence was from the cartographer's journal. Harker continued reading to learn more about the connection of what's happening now to the past of a captain and his crew.

[I would have thrown myself into the lake with him too. But he must know it. He did not allow it, for from the fruit in his hand a shining light appeared. Creation borne from destruction, light borne from darkness. Eden came before our eyes. In the middle of this Judecca, paradise had appeared like Elysium among the gloom of the Underworld.]

[I can see him in every leaf, every flower, everything that was from this paradise. I knew this paradise was his, and I would not allow anyone to desecrate it. Where he laid rest, providing us a shelter to stay in his absence. He allowed us to take anything, but not to dig up any soil. A foolish one attempted to do so….]

[And he too had sunk, Eden eating him up.]

[When that happened, I knew that we must leave. No one could stay in Eden for too long, no one was worthy. They will covet to gain more, they will covet Malum. And he would rather protect that evil fruit from being released into the world. For ye who feed on the forbidden fruit….]

[Will be banished from Eden, and they have become like God. They shall not live forever, while my dear Edmund stays alive in this paradise forever.]

Harker closed the book. That doesn't explain why Victoria would easily believe that finding Malum would make them like God. Would she just believe the words of some grieving quartermaster?

It doesn't make any sense. How exactly would Malum make them all like God? Through the power of creation, like what happened with Edmund producing Eden?

But that was at the cost of his life. And Henry himself warned that if they tried to take Malum and desecrate Eden, they would be swallowed whole by it.

As Harker tried to make sense of Victoria's plans, he heard the sound of the door. He quickly dissolved into SS cells and hid into the crevices and the shadows once more. He waited patiently for the woman to enter so he could get some of his SS cells through her ears….

And enter her brain to really understand what's going on in her mind.

But instead of Victoria, the one who entered the door was a man.

It was no other than Roland. Harker's eyes widened as he stepped inside, not wearing the appearance of Doctor Evan Sornione anymore.

Instead, he looked like his usual self, his blond hair glistening from the pale moonlight on Victoria's window. He was moving slowly, but deliberately, heading for the drawers.

Harker re-materialized in front of him, giving him a questioning look.

"What are you doing here, Rol? Did something happen to the girls?" Harker asked.

Roland looked at him, but Harker felt that those eyes were too empty. Like they weren't looking at him even when they stayed affixed on him. His friend went to reach for the side of his face, his lips stretching into a smile.

"My dear….. How my poor heart ached for you…."

Harker felt a shiver down his spine, and he quickly smacked his hand away.

"Who are you?" He gritted his teeth, but his clenched fist shook.

The smile suddenly turned into a more sinister smirk, as Roland brought out what seemed to be a red flower he picked from the garden. It was a red carnation.

"In 1797, exactly 200 years from now, there was a drunkard. A wastrel in the streets. More than that, he used to be born from an aristocratic family. But he became a madman, and he grew into a middle aged madman with no money, no family, no aspirations to keep living. All he ever did was to drink himself to death with the alms he can get….."

He smiled. "And look into a broken compass, believing that it would lead him to a treasure lost at sea. It didn't lead him to that treasure. But it did lead him to a bridge, to a nearly frozen lake where he could end his suffering."

Harker's eyes widened, and he could only mutter. "No….."

The one inhabiting Roland's body continued:

"Two centuries later, a heartbroken man also found himself in the same bridge. He jumped, and found the wastrel's body down into the seabed. Barely anything was left but bones, but it was more than enough to keep all the memories of the treasure he wanted to find…. and the secrets of that treasure."

Harker suddenly felt something strike him. It was the harpoon with red camellias painted over it. It struck him in the heart, causing him to vomit blood.

"And the heartbroken man didn't feel like sinking down and despair. Instead, he will find this treasure and claim it. There's only one way to find the treasure, really. Any guesses?"

Harker watched as his blood mixed into the ground, the soil of Eden…..

And it soon turned into ice. Under the ice was a hand holding a Shard of the Orb of Omniscience.