The key

Under the bright Sunlight, a small river meanders past the Cordou Village.

Sitting on the ground, Aurora, wearing her light blue Long Dress, listened with her eyes closed to Lumi's feedback and speculations.

She remained silent for a while, seemingly lost in thought.

After nearly a minute, Aurora carefully chose her words and spoke:

"If something went wrong during the Ritual on the Twelfth Night, causing the power descended by That One Hidden Being to dissipate and bring about a time Loop in the entire Cordou Village and the surrounding area, then I believe that no one, and even no spirit, was spared in this region at that time."

"What do you mean?" Lumian was also sitting on the ground, didn't quite understand her Older Sister's logic.

Aurora explained in detail, "What I mean is, it is both power and Corruption. Once it spreads, everyone in this area will suffer from this Corruption relatively equally, with only those Protection by the Black Thorn Symbol or other High-Level Being able to barely remain unaffected."

"Think about it, wasn't that situation like a dam collapsing and Flood quickly inundating the entire area, including the rooftops? Unless you had boats prepared beforehand, you were bound to get soaked."

Lumian imagined the scene and hesitated before saying, "So, everyone in the village has been Corruption the dissipated power, making them part of the Loop?"

The part he was referring to wasn't about being incorporated into or affected by Loop Loop; a more accurate expression would be that it's one of the components that make up Loop.

With her eyes closed, Aurora, her blonde hair Blond Hair tied up, nodded gently:

"I suspect that not only killing the Parish Priest will trigger Reboot, but killing the villagers of Cordu will also cause a similar situation. This is equivalent to trying to disrupt a component of the Loop, which will inevitably lead to stressful Change."

"But we just killed that midwife yesterday afternoon..." Lumian stopped mid-sentence.

He thought of many things in an instant, and hesitated before saying, "Is it because the people inside the Castle are being Protection by other High-Level Being?"

"Is this why Madame Pualis said she could break free from the Loop at certain times?"

"She wasn't Corruption by that force, she wasn't part of the Loop, she was one of those affected, and she could leave through a loophole or opportunity?"

Aurora sighed softly:

"That's why she said she couldn't save us, couldn't take us out, because we've been Corruption and are now part of the Loop."

At this point, she gave a bitter smile:

"Or rather, we are already dead, and are currently alive as a Loop component."

"No wonder That One mysterious Lady said that forcibly breaking the Loop would cause everyone here to die, because we are the Loop itself that was forcibly broken."

Lumian fell silent. He had wanted to refute his Older Sister, saying that things weren't that pessimistic, but this perfectly confirmed That One mysterious Lady had said.

What he could never understand was that, given That One Lady's ability to freely enter and exit the Loop, and her status in daring to mention the Hidden Being, even if she couldn't break the Loop without damage, Protection two or three people and getting them out of there should have been an easy thing for her.

There is now a more reasonable, yet more Despair, explanation for this problem.

After a few seconds, Lumian began searching for counterexamples:

"Ava, Raymond, Naroka are all dead, but that didn't cause the Loop to Reboot."

With her eyes closed, Aurora said with a complicated smile, "They may have died before the Loop even started, and since they didn't participate in the Twelfth Night's Ritual, they weren't Corruption."

Her meaning was clear: in the timeline before the Loop, Naroka died before Lent Festival, while Ava and Raymond were sacrificed at the celebration. Neither of them lived to see the Twelfth Night, so they were not part of the Loop.

She thought for a moment and then said, "Jean Maurice, who went missing today, may also be in the same situation. According to the normal course of events, he should have discovered the anomaly after Lent Festival and before the Twelfth Night, tried to escape, and was tragically silenced. Our investigation has only brought this matter forward."

"The only thing I don't understand is, wasn't Raymond's Corpse sacrificed? He shouldn't have been in the Loop in the first place..."

Upon hearing her Older Sister's words, Lumian immediately connected them to what had happened Church Underground.

The "Invisible Man" wearing a black Robe was composed of the spirits of Raymond and others!

Based on his existing knowledge of Mysticism, Lumian tried to speculate. "Perhaps the sacrifices at the Lent Festival celebration were not directly offered to That One Hidden Being, but rather to that Altar, which is part of the Twelfth Night Ritual. That's why Raymond's spirit appeared in the Church's Underground."

"His Corpse serves no purpose, but in the development before the Loop, Pons Béné and others could leave Cordu. In order to prevent people downstream from discovering the Corpse, reporting it, and attracting an investigation, they may have retrieved the Corpse after completing the 'floating downstream' part of the Ritual."

"After the Loop began, that power had its own limits. It couldn't reach the area where Pons Béné and the others were retrieving the Corpse. They were also affected by the Corruption within their bodies and couldn't even think about leaving the area."

Aurora thought for a moment and nodded in agreement:

"In all these days of Loop, apart from you who retained your memories, those Three Foreigners, Madame Pualis and her Subordinate, none of the other villagers had the idea of leaving Cordou Village to hunt or gather wild fruits in the mountains."

"If you hadn't reminded me, I would have done the same."

At this point, Aurora gave a desolate, self-deprecating smile:

"We are already a bunch of Monster, barely surviving as humans only through this Loop."

"No, there must be a way to salvage it. That One Lady said there was!" Lumian interrupted her Older Sister's self-pity.

Aurora slowly exhaled and said, "Can't you let your Older Sister be vulnerable for a few minutes?"

She then said, "Following this line of thought, we really can only rely on ourselves; external forces breaking the Loop are tantamount to killing us."

Lumian sighed with some emotion:

"Unfortunately, this speculation cannot be verified at present; it can only be confirmed on the Twelfth Night."

"Verification is possible, but it would waste a lot of our time, and besides, I can't bring myself to do it," Aurora replied.

Yes... Lumian roughly understood her Older Sister's meaning or plan:

Kill a villager who is not currently in the Parish Priest's group to see if it will cause Reboot. If it will, then try to kill one of the Three Foreigners to see if it will trigger the Loop. If it won't, then it will confirm Aurora and Lumian's guess—most of the people in Cordou Village were Corruption and were part of the Loop. The later people were just affected by the Loop and had the opportunity to break out of the Loop by taking advantage of loopholes or external forces.

But that would waste the days of waiting, and Aurora isn't the kind of person who would kill innocent people, especially those with whom she's already had a good working relationship.

Lumian didn't have this moral obstacle. In his view, dying in the Loop wasn't really dying; it would most likely just leave some lingering problems, which was much better than being trapped in the Loop to death.

Of course, if he were to actually do that, he certainly wouldn't try to murder or kill Lya and the others; he would simply reason with those Three Foreigners.

Given Valentine's fanaticism and Devout, he was quite confident he could "persuade" the guy to try committing suicide.

The siblings looked at each other and fell silent, unsure of what to say.

After a while, Lumian changed the subject:

"Older Sister, what do you think is the key to breaking this Loop from within?"

Aurora had been pondering this question, and as she thought about it, she said, "Breaking the Loop from within can't just be about breaking the Loop itself; we must use this process to remove the Corruption from everyone's body. Otherwise, what's the difference between this and suicide?"

"Yes, according to our previous guess, the Ritual went awry, causing the entire village to enter Loop. The reason for the Ritual's disruption is that you bear the mark of That One Great Ones. It was activated, sealing the severe Corruption within you at your heart..."

As she spoke, Aurora looked her younger brother up and down.

Lumian instantly understood:

"You mean, the key to breaking the Loop is me?"

Aurora nodded:

"The Source of the change lies with you, and the key to breaking the Loop may also lie with you."

"Of course, this is just speculation. Perhaps the key to the Loop lies in the vessel that receives the power of That One Hidden Being during the Twelfth Night Ritual, such as the Parish Priest or someone else..."

Aurora suddenly fell silent, looked at her brother for a few seconds, and said, "Is it possible that these two speculations are equivalent, and that you are the vessel? Otherwise, as Sacrifice made from scraps, Corruption, even if something unexpected happened, the Ritual wouldn't have completely failed, and the power wouldn't have dissipated uncontrollably."

Uh... the more Lumian thought about it, the more she felt that her Older Sister's guess made sense.

He muttered to himself:

"Therefore, the Black Thorn Symbol on my chest is a darker color than the Parish Priest's..."

"Therefore, when the Parish Priest was dealing with me, he suddenly showed signs of Loss of Control and was defeated by me..."

"So, That One mysterious Lady never revealed the key to breaking the Loop, only instructing me to explore the Dream Ruins and unravel its secrets..."

Aurora seemed quite excited:

Yes, that could be a hint!

"The Dream Ruins may originate directly from the Corruption within your body, or be closely related to it. Therefore, while you are there, you can rely on the Black Thorn Symbol to suppress every Monster you encounter."

"Once you grasp the secrets there, you can control or safely unleash the power within your body to some extent, recovering the Corruption from everyone in Cordou Village, thus breaking the Loop."

"Well, that might only be possible at a specific time, like during the Ritual on the Twelfth Night."

Lumian brushed the ground and stood up:

"I'm going back to dreaming now!"

"No rush." Aurora used her hands to support herself as she slowly stood up. "Weren't you injured? Why don't you rest for a bit?"

Lumian patted his chest:

"The water that Madame Pualis sprinkled healed all my wounds and completely restored my spirit."

"Uh, Mango Pomelo Sago... the Goddess of Mercy who grants children..." Aurora murmured.

"What?" Lumian didn't understand at all; her Older Sister was speaking a completely unfamiliar language.

Aurora closed her eyes and smiled slightly, "What I mean is, go home, fill your stomach, take a nap, and then explore in your dreams!"