"My inclination is to disrupt the celebration and sabotage the ritual."
Nimrod calmly addressed Aurore and Lumian before him, weighing the pros and cons:
"For an elaborate, meticulously planned ritual, fleeing won't solve anything-as long as the ritual remains intact, the closer we get to its critical moment, the stronger the sealing power around it will become. So our only option is to destroy the ritual's core."
Lumian drew in a sharp breath. "For example, making Lent end prematurely through an accident?"
Though he had often played harmless pranks on the other villagers before, a prank on the scale of sabotaging Lent... he had never attempted anything like that.
[Judging solely by the ritual in the dream, you actually have two other options.]
Before Nimrod's eyes, the Celestial Worthy's figure appeared a short distance away:
[You only need to eliminate either the people performing the ritual or its sacrifices-but you wouldn't choose the latter, would you?]
"Disrupting part of Lent and forcing it to end prematurely through an accident still won't solve the larger problem. If the organizers can't use Lent to perform their ritual, they can find another pretext to gather the villagers."
Nimrod shook his head. "The most effective method is to kill the cultists performing the ritual, starting with the Father of the Parish."
"Kill the Father of the Parish..." At Nimrod's words, something stirred in Lumian's heart, and he leaned further toward this latter approach.
"...You're right." Aurore's furrowed brows gradually relaxed, and she murmured in a somewhat dreamy tone, "Then we should carry on as usual today. Tomorrow, yes, tomorrow, we'll take the initiative and attack the Father of the Parish."
"I won't explore my dream tonight. I think we could set traps at the site of the Lent celebration ahead of time to weaken the Father of the Parish and the others..." At this point, Lumian turned to Aurore and asked worriedly:
"Aurore, you seem a little out of it. Are you hearing those voices again?"
"I'm out of it?" Lumian's reminder abruptly jolted Aurore awake:
"Huh... am I?"
"Yes." Seeing his sister like this, Lumian's expression darkened. "Mr. Nimrod told me that what you're hearing is the Hidden Sage's ravings-are you really all right?"
"...Perhaps the strange things happening in the village lately have aggravated the part of me affected by it." Aurore grew uncertain herself and said thoughtfully:
"Perhaps once we get out, I'll be much better after seeing a Psychiatrist to get my condition under control..."
"Whatever the case, you should rest and conserve your energy today," Nimrod told Aurore just then:
"Leave setting the traps to Lumian and me. Besides, Lumian didn't see the official Beyonders who came to investigate yesterday. We'll go see if we can find them in the village later."
-Nimrod knew that the Aurore before him was essentially just a "dream figure" in Lumian's dream, formed from fragments of Aurore's soul, rather than a real person.
As Lumian gradually approached the truth of the dream, "Aurore's" soul fragments would gradually lose the intelligence of a nearly complete spirit body and become more consistent with Lumian's subconscious image of her.
During the "first loop" Lumian had originally experienced, he had not realized there was anything wrong with Cordu Village as a whole. After Nimrod gave him a few hints, Lumian still did not understand that "Cordu Village itself was only a dream," but his subconscious had drawn closer to that conception.
As the loops continued, Lumian would gradually accept the answer he was unwilling to accept... Perhaps it would not take as long as it originally had for Lumian to end this dream of his own accord... At that thought, Nimrod suddenly gave a self-mocking laugh inwardly:
Heh, fate.
He had to admit that he had indeed begun considering cooperating with the Celestial Worthy-judging by their mutual probing during this time, he could now be reasonably certain that the Celestial Worthy could not influence him through his body or through verbal promises.
Putting together the information the Celestial Worthy had previously provided, his own status was extraordinarily high, and he had possessed no consciousness before his first awakening.
Thus, the Celestial Worthy had fashioned the "spirit body"-like thing that had transmigrated into this world into a special Light Cocoon, intending to keep it as a final contingency for resurrection.
Then, in the current timeline, after Klein became a god, he released all the Remnants of the Great Old One onto Earth. This triggered the mechanism the Celestial Worthy had left behind, reviving the Celestial Worthy's will within Nimrod's spirit body.
Originally, the Celestial Worthy should have been sent to Earth like the other Remnants of the Great Old One, completing his "resurrection."
But at that very moment, Nimrod had awakened-because he himself was an error that should not exist in this universe, the symbolism of Error had shifted onto him without his awareness, erroneously opening up a new timeline.
In short, he had usurped the Celestial Worthy's place and squeezed his will out, leaving the Celestial Worthy like a Parasite parasitizing him at only a shallow level, able to see only what he saw and hear only what he heard, but unable to interfere with him. In effect, he had locked the Celestial Worthy inside this spirit body.
Because of Nimrod's existence, the Celestial Worthy had nearly overturned his destined assimilation with Klein, only to be forced back into place by fate.
"Lumian."
After finishing his conversation with Aurore, Nimrod said to Lumian:
"Go find those three official Beyonders later and tell them about Lent. Let them make their own decisions-you can decide what to leave out. I trust your judgment."
"Then find out who's been chosen as the Spring Elf and where the Lent celebration will be held."
-The Spring Elf was the central figure of the Lent celebration, and also the sacrifice in the dream's Lent celebration.
He paused:
"Also, we'll meet there at midnight tonight to set the traps. Once the celebration begins tomorrow, we'll deal with the Father of the Parish and the others one by one."
"You'll need to be more careful when setting traps around the church. If you're not confident, wait until I arrive and we'll set them together. Is that all right?"
With the highest level of protection from Sefirah Castle upon him, Nimrod was confident that the followers of fate within the dream would not detect him.
"No problem."
Lumian's gaze was resolute, a fierce fire burning in his eyes.
Before you continue