As she spoke, she turned to look around and said, "I can sense an aura from the Underworld here. That should be why this 'Underworld Pearl' suddenly activated."
Dark suddenly understood. "I roughly get it now. This is how we enter the 'Heavenly Court' now."
Lily said, "The moment I entered the 'Heavenly Court,' I sensed it... Oh, right, what are you all doing? Where's Cynthia? Have you found her?"
Dark did not expose her clumsy attempt at changing the subject and said directly, "We still haven't found Principal Arte, but we can now confirm that someone has been manipulating this incident from behind the scenes all along. Hermes, the [God of Commerce, Travelers, Thieves, and Herdsmen]—his consciousness should be somewhere nearby. If we find him, we should be able to find Principal Arte."
Professor Lily said, "Hermes himself? He should be stronger than his statue, right?"
Dark said, "Who knows? But in any case, he still hasn't made a move, so there must be some reason for it."
He had been about to say that Hermes might be trying to complete some sort of ritual when Angri suddenly walked over and said, "The contaminants are about to reach this floor." After a brief moment of thought, Dark said, "Return to the top floor."
After returning to the top floor.
Dark discovered that the barrier on this floor had long since vanished.
There was no black fog or contamination outside the windows at the very top, so they could leave whenever they wanted.
But as he had said before, if they wanted to find Principal Arte, they first had to find Hermes's consciousness.
Of the twelve god statues in the ritual site, one was gone, leaving only eleven.
If Hermes still wanted to complete the ritual, he would have to