The girl said to God, "I am guilty. After my sister became like this, I realized I could no longer love her as I had before."
God said, "If you no longer love her, then let her return to death's embrace and be buried beneath the earth."
The girl hesitated. She thought of the dead cat, of the slick blood on her hands when she killed the man, and of the skin scratched by rose thorns.
She had already sacrificed so much. She only needed to kill a few more strangers, and her sister would regain her beauty... How could she give up now?
The girl bowed before the idol and made an oath: "I will not let her leave. She must stay with me, forever."
Qi Si put down the notebook and narrowed his eyes.
The first three lines of the four-line poem on the notebook's title page were probably the honorific name of the God who had made a deal with Annie.
After going through the whole instance, Qi Si had developed an inexplicable interest in the God lurking behind the scenes.
The God had lured Annie into the trap with a small price and enormous rewards, forcing her to make greater and greater sacrifices, step by step, until she was on a path with no way back.
The huge investment she had made early on had become a hefty sunk cost. By the time Annie realized something was amiss and wanted to back out, it was already too late. All she could do was keep going and make the best of a bad situation.
He had to admit, this deity understood human nature as well as the devils of legend.
"But what's the difference between gods and devils, really?"
Qi Si laughed. His laughter was as light as a ghost's whisper, with a chill that made the scene all the more unnerving.
There was too little information, and what he had was too scattered. He couldn't piece together the full picture of the deity from the instance's backstory. Nor did he intend to invite trouble by reciting the honorific name just as the instance was about to end.
After giving the room one more quick search and confirming he hadn't missed any important clues, Qi Si let the smile fade from his lips and silently left the room, descending the stairs.
In the garden, the young and beautiful Annie stood facing the old, rotting Anna. Now that time had passed, the contrast between beauty and ugliness had been reversed, creating a rather fascinating bit of drama.
Pain welled in Annie's eyes, while Anna's gaze was vacant and bewildered. All the feelings Annie poured into her sank as if into a mire, unable to stir even a ripple.
Qi Si gazed at Annie, the corners of his lips lifting in a gentle smile, while his eyes brimmed with malice.
He had never been kind enough to help people get what they wanted. On the contrary, he liked tragedies. He liked the deeper despair that came after hope was shattered.
He smiled, looking like a ghost straight out of a nightmare. "Miss Annie, I'm afraid your beloved sister doesn't love you. She's even afraid of you and wants to get away from you."
The Rag Doll he had found in Room 2 on the third floor came to mind. The eerie nursery rhyme about hide-and-seek repeated the words "Don't look at me," sending a shiver deep into his bones.
He looked at the monstrous Anna again, lowering his eyes with godlike compassion. "And, Miss Anna, I'm afraid your sister killed your lover because of her twisted love for you."
Anna seemed to understand, yet not quite. A low, rumbling growl came from her throat, like that of a young beast unfamiliar with the ways of the world.
Qi Si tilted his head and glanced at the Butler beside her. As if remembering something amusing, he grinned like a child who had gotten away with a prank. "Of course, now that you two star-crossed lovers are both ghosts, you're not exactly separated by the divide between the living and the dead."
"I've temporarily gained control of Rose Manor. Annie can't do anything to you now. I'm curious—what will you choose?"
This time, Anna seemed to have finally understood Qi Si completely. She let out a low growl, dropped to all fours, and raced across the ground like a beast, heading for the manor gates.
Her frenzied steps crushed the roses along the way. Black-green vines and bright red petals tangled together across the ground, as broken and scattered as a shattered dream.
Behind her, the Butler followed with stiff, straight limbs, always half a step behind, but at least he wasn't left too far back.
The two terrifying ghosts stopped before the iron gates. The gates slowly swung open in front of them. They grew restless, swaying as they gathered themselves to spring.
"No!"
Amid the sea of flowers, Annie, pinned in place, finally let out a piercing howl.
Breaking free of the hold of time reversal was no easy feat. Tears streamed down her cheeks, mixing with the blood spilling from her nose and mouth and flowing without restraint. In only a few breaths, they pooled on the ground like a spring.
She howled and wailed, unable to form a single complete word, like a crazed beast.
Anna and the Butler seemed not to hear her. They stepped into the white mist beyond the iron gates, and the instant they vanished from sight, they exploded with a thunderous crash, scattering into a carpet of blood-red rose petals.
Annie stared wide-eyed at the scene, her eyes pitch-black, their sockets stretched wide to a grotesque degree.
Suddenly, she remembered where the familiar feeling she got from Qi Si had come from.
The red-robed God had once appeared as a phantom, sitting beside her and smiling as He said, "Your desire is quite interesting. You'd make a worthy addition to my collection."
Long-forgotten fear began to grow in her heart. Annie briefly broke free of time's reversal and took a step forward, leaving a shallow print in the slick mud.
But the next second, countless withered vines writhed out from the ancient castle behind her. They coiled around her limbs from every direction, constricting them tightly as they dragged her backward.
She was dragged inch by inch back into the castle. Rose thorns tore her black skirt, while dust and broken branches stained the black veil.
Realizing what was about to happen, she struggled violently, but the vines only tightened further, digging into her flesh.
Blood covered her from head to toe. At last, despairing, she let her limbs fall and allowed herself to be dragged completely into the pitch-black castle behind her.
The moment she vanished into the darkness, the castle gates slammed shut with a heavy crash.
The rain pouring down from all around shifted direction once more, falling from the high heavens.
Time reversal had ended.
There was no rose in Qi Si's hand, no wound in his chest.
He stood alone amid the sea of flowers, ghostlike in human form, savoring the curtain call of the drama.
A deafening rumble came from above. It sounded like thunder, but deeper and more powerful.
Qi Si watched as the stone walls of the castle before him cracked apart, block by block. The monstrous building collapsed with a roar. The ghosts that had existed through countless cycles vanished into thin air, leaving only clouds of dust floating and settling.
Perhaps there had only ever been one person imprisoned from beginning to end. And now, an absurd tale was buried here...
[All rules and worldbuilding have been deciphered] [Congratulations, player, on clearing the team survival instance Rose Manor] [Obsession born of self-righteousness always comes at a price. Perhaps death and tragedy are the best answers to beauty.]
Faded images appeared before his eyes.
In the dust-filled attic, the girl, now beautiful, asked the stone-carved God, "You've given me so much. What can you gain from it?"
The God lowered His eyes, His scarlet gaze falling upon the girl.
He replied, "I want to see your sins. They will be the finest nourishment for the Rules. I also want to see how the story ends. Tragedies are etched into the heart forever."
The girl was frightened. To her, this was the talk of a devil. Even though she was now no different from the devils in the eyes of the world, she was still afraid of powerful beings who harbored malice.
She wanted to pray, to pray to the righteous God in her hazy memories—the one her parents had once worshipped, the being she had forgotten and cast aside...
She realized she had already forgotten the prayer.
The God's gaze was compassionate, His smile teasing. "God does not love mortals."
[Small wishes lead to vain greed. Once chosen, sin leaves no way back. Everyone is guilty, born into a cage.] [Rose Manor True End—"Cage of Obsession" has been recorded] [You will be automatically transported out of the instance in three minutes]
On the ruins of the castle, torrential rain poured down.
Qi Si stood in the rain, staring at the rubble before him, lost in thought.
After a long silence, he rubbed his chin and muttered, "The house collapsed. Even with plot armor, they couldn't have survived..."
It was a bit of a shame. He'd finally found two useful tools, and just like that, they were gone.
Still, there was no need to feel too disappointed. Judging from what Chang Xu had said earlier, forming a team in the Eerie Game seemed to require a special item, so it wasn't very convenient.
As for tools like those, he could always find more in the instances. He was sure he'd come across plenty of other interesting instances and people in the future.
Beneath the grayish-purple sky, Qi Si lowered his eyes to the Pocket Watch of Fate clasped in his left hand and put on a hypocritically sorrowful expression, as if mourning the dead. "Chang Xu, Lin Chen, I'll remember your sacrifice and carry your hopes with me as I go on living."
Then he calmly slipped the Pocket Watch of Fate into his shirt pocket.
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