Underground

"Them? "Lumian was quite surprised to hear Raymond's answer.

He had initially thought Raymond had drowned himself in the river, becoming Sacrifice to some being, but now it seemed that someone was involved, and it wasn't just an invisible force that dragged Raymond into the water.

"Who are they?" Aurora asked.

Raymond's expression Distortion and stiff, his eyes filled with hatred yet also appearing blank. He shouted in extreme anger, "Pons Béné, it's Pons Béné and his men!"

"They held me underwater!"

After we and Ava left the water's edge, Pons Béné and his Thug appeared where Raymond had come ashore, forced him into the river, and drowned him alive, making him Sacrifice? Lumian reconstructed what happened based on Raymond's fragmented words.

The entire Lent Festival celebrations have turned into Ritual of sacrifice to Evil spirits!

Aurora pressed for more details, but Raymond only gave the same few sentences over and over again, as if that was all he could remember.

Sigh, I really missed the best time for Spiritism; all I can get are remnants of my Lingering Obsession... Aurora thought for a moment and decided to ask Raymond something that might or might not leave a deep impression:

Did they sacrifice you to some being?

What are His characteristics? Where is He?

This time, Aurora was smarter. She didn't ask for the Honorific Name directly, but only planned to gather some indirect information to help her make a judgment.

She believed that if Raymond's spirit was still conscious during the sacrifice, he would have been able to "see," "hear," and feel something, and be deeply impressed by it; otherwise, he would not.

Raymond stood there, stunned, tears welling up in his eyes, turning Blood-Colored.

Lumian looked at him with a somber expression, her hands clenched tightly without her noticing.

Suddenly, Raymond shouted:

"Underground! Under the Church Underground!"

What? Aurora almost couldn't believe her ears.

Based on her question, Raymond was clearly saying that That One Hidden Being to whom he was offered as Sacrifice was located Underground the Church!

"Impossible! This is the Fifth Epoch. How could a god walk on the earth?" Aurora calmed herself down and concluded that Raymond's spirit only had a part of his Lingering Obsession and a little bit of spirituality left. His answers to questions were very chaotic, always fixated on a few points. In other words, he might not be pointing to the That One hiding in the Church's Underground, but rather it was just a kind of reactive response.

But regardless of whether Raymond is giving a genuine answer or repeating his own Lingering Obsession, there must be something wrong with the Church's Underground, hiding a crucial part of the sacrificial Ritual!

Aurora only hoped that the Concealment hidden there weren't too terrible or outrageous.

She asked about other things, and Raymond's spirit would only repeat answers such as "They drowned me," "Pons Béné," and " under the Church Underground."

Seeing that there would be no further gains, Aurora ended the Spiritism, watching Raymond's figure disappear above the candlelight, and watching the eerie blue color on the Altar quickly fade away.

After she removed the Spirit Wall, she found Lumian standing there, lost in thought, not saying a word.

"Hey, what are you thinking about?" Aurora waved her hand in front of her brother's eyes.

Lumian forced a smile, pulling at the corners of his mouth.

"I regret not punching Pons Béné harder yesterday."

Although he did deliver a knee strike to Pons Béné, causing him considerable Pain, he Rationality restrained his strength, considering the need to wait for the Twelfth Night and the desire to avoid escalating the conflict with the Parish Priest, thus preventing Pons Béné from becoming crippled.

"There will be opportunities," Aurora reassured her.

Lumian nodded and chuckled.

"Actually, we've fallen into a misconception. Before Lent Festival, not only were we afraid of escalating the conflict, but the Parish Priest were too. They weren't ready, and the Ritual hadn't even begun."

In other words, even if he were to inflict some irreversible injury Béné Pons Bennet, the Parish Priest would probably only pretend to seek revenge and not take any real action.

They will remain patient until Lent Festival, and regardless of whether Lumian has offended them, once the Lent Festival celebrations "begin," everyone in the village who is still normal will become their target.

Aurora understood what Lumian meant and nodded slightly, saying, "You decide for yourself how to get revenge on Pons Béné."

"The problem we need to consider now is how we will survive until the Twelfth Night, after the Parish Priest and the others gain great power at Lent Festival."

Lumian immediately fell into thought about this question.

Aurora shared her thoughts:

"Currently, there are only two options: either join forces with those Three Foreigners, or find a way to improve ourselves."

She hesitated for a moment, then said, "If we can confirm that Madame Pualis has no connection to the Loop and is also trapped here, we might even be able to cooperate with her appropriately."

"Huh?" Lumian was quite taken aback.

Madame Pualis was such a terrifying and Evil Beyonder!

Aurora sighed and said, "A philosopher from my Homeland once said that when doing things, we should distinguish between the primary and secondary contradictions and unite all forces that can be united."

"Yes, there's definitely something wrong with the Church's Underground; it holds crucial clues. We absolutely must explore it before Lent Festival, or we might not have the chance again."

As far as Aurora knew, most Church in this world had Underground Area, some used to store Sealed Artifact, and others to bury the remains of important people. Although the Church in Cordou Village had neither Sealed Artifact nor important people to be buried, it was still equipped with a sizable Basement according to regulations when it was built.

"Okay," Lumian agreed. "I'll talk to those Three Foreigners tomorrow."

He then turned to Raymond's condition:

"Why did he only say a few words? Didn't he successfully summon his spirit?"

Aurora sighed again:

"There is a crucial time for Spiritism: within one hour of death."

"After more than an hour, the spirit of the deceased will quickly dissipate, losing all original memories, leaving only the most lingering thoughts, emotions, and images—what we in my Homeland call Lingering Obsession."

Lumian nodded slightly in agreement.

"In the next Loop, if we summon Raymond at the very beginning, does that count as one hour after death?"

"Wait, why does Raymond have memories from the Loop before that?"

He then realized the problem: after the Loop Reboot, shouldn't Raymond have forgotten about drowning?

This stumped Aurora. Considering her thoughts during the Ritual, she carefully replied, "I think so."

"At this point in time, it's not yet Lent Festival. According to the timeline, Raymond hasn't drowned yet and shouldn't know who the murderer is. But because he lost his body, he can only exist as a spirit, which is equivalent to being dead. He will have Lingering Obsession. So, the one we just summoned remembers some things that happened in the previous Loop."

Simply put, Raymond's state became special due to losing his body, so much so that some of his memories are retained when the Loop Reboot!

"Hehe, this is due to a bug."

The Loop went slightly Error because Raymond's body was sacrificed? Lumian roughly understood what her Older Sister meant.

Aurora then laughed and said, "It seems that the power that keeps us in this Loop is quite mechanical and rigid. It should no longer be under the control of its original master and should be operating on its own. Otherwise, it could have dealt with Raymond's spirit more effectively."

At this point, she seemed to relax a little:

"Haha, in that case, we still have a chance to break the Loop."

Influenced by her Older Sister's emotions, Lumian's gloomy state brightened somewhat:

After so much effort, we finally see a glimmer of hope.

The two worked together to tidy up the Altar and went up to the Study on the second floor. Aurora then taught him the corresponding Hermetic and Ancient Hermetic words one Vocabulary Vocabulary, following the Lumian written Ritual in a Error order.

Lumian had already mastered some of this, so his progress was quite good.

Under the bright light of the Radio Lamp, Aurora would sometimes explain the pronunciation and structure of Vocabulary to her younger brother, and sometimes, while he was reviewing, she would make Candle using Musk, Lilac, blood, and other materials.

While studying diligently, Lumian would occasionally look up at her Older Sister bustling around her, feeling as if she had returned to her original, warm life, free from any Loop or Evil God.

The night outside the window was peaceful.

Lumian woke up in the bedroom, which was filled with a faint Gray Fog.

He jumped out of bed, walked to the table, took out Paper and Pen, and wrote down the Ancient Hermetic Hermetic Vocabulary still remembered in the Error order before finally assigning them the correct numbers.

Having finished this task, Lumian breathed a sigh of relief and looked ahead.

Near the window on the Wooden Table were four items: two Gray-White Musk Candle made by Aurora (one with Lumian's blood, the other without); the bottle of Gray Ambergris Perfume; Metal Vial containing Tulip powder; and a silver Dagger provided by Aurora.

That One Lady indeed brought it in for me... Seeing this, Lumian felt much more at ease.

He took the items, found a stick of incense made by Aurora, went downstairs, placed them on the dining table, and then went to the kitchen area to get a glass of water and a dish of coarse salt.

All the materials related to the Ritual have now been prepared.

Before going to sleep, Aurora worried that her younger brother didn't have the corresponding symbols for his Gift, so he wouldn't be able to draw them on the Imitation Sheepskin Paper and burn them to convey his desires to the target Deity. But then she thought that since That One mysterious Lady hadn't mentioned it, it probably wasn't necessary. After all, it was essentially a prayer to the power within Lumian, which could directly "hear" all the prayers without needing any additional "documents."

Looking at the items on the dining table, Lumian took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

Without further hesitation, he placed the White Candles with his own blood on the Altar, in the position representing the Deity, while placing the other candle in front of him.

After lighting the Candle using spiritual friction in the order of first the gods and then the humans, Lumian somewhat clumsily sanctified the Ritual Silver Dagger, creating Spirit Wall.

As spiritual energy burst forth from the tip of the Ritual Silver Dagger, connecting with the surrounding air, he inexplicably felt that this was Mysticism.

Soon, the Spirit Wall was completed, and Lumian's spirituality was also partially emptied.

With the help of incense he found at home and his own Meditation, he made his senses become ethereal, entering a state where he could perform Ritual Magic.

With a soft "drip," Lumian "dripped" Gray Ambergris Perfume and Tulip powder into the Candle representing the Deity.

A strange fragrance wafted out, and everything seemed to become magical.

Lumian glanced at the cheat sheet placed beside the Altar, took a step back, stared at the Burning Candle, and cried out in a deep voice in Ancient Hermetic, "The Power of Fate!"