Ten minutes later, Angel saw a black ball riddled with cracks wobble its way into the hidden space.
The moment he saw it, Angel understood that Gabriel had won the challenge.
This black ball before them was the defeated Book Demon.
Under Angel's gaze, and with Gabriel arriving shortly afterward, the black ball shed its shattered shell in midair, turning into streaks of pitch-black "ink snakes."
The ink snakes danced wildly before finally imprinting themselves upon the blank woven cloth, leaving behind the maxim of its lifetime.
"I guarded the tomes to preserve the truths He had scattered."
Angel stared at the line of writing on the cloth for a long while, but failed to discern any profound meaning from it.
Like the maxims left behind by the other Book Demons, it described "Him" obliquely from the perspective of a devout believer, yet offered no clear clue pointing to any specific god.
Angel sent the maxim unchanged to the team chat.
Everyone discussed it briefly in the team chat, but found nothing worth digging into, so they could only set it aside for now.
Not long afterward, Angel and Gabriel returned outside the simulated waters and reunited with Gray Porcelain.
The three did not linger, continuing onward along the pitch-black corridor.
Half an hour later.
Another Location Cursor appeared on the Guidance Radar.
This also meant Angel had passed another Book Sprite's trial.
Once the three met up, before they could even celebrate the end of the new trial, they saw Angel staring ahead with a thoughtful expression.
"What is it?" Gray Porcelain followed Angel's gaze curiously.
They were currently at the center of a simulated water area, standing on a "small island in the middle of the lake" piled high with countless shells.
These shells were actually shell-books