Chapter 81 - 81 Key

81 Key

Beside the serpentine river outside Cordu Village, under the piercing sunlight, Aurore, clad in a casual blue dress, sat on the ground with her eyes closed, listening to Lumians conjectures and a.n.a.lysis.

She remained silent for a while, as if lost in thought.

After nearly a minute of contemplation, Aurore spoke, If something truly occurred during the ritual on the twelfth night, causing the hidden ent.i.tys power to disperse and trigger a time loop in Cordu and its surroundings, I believe that the people and even the spirits in this area at that time wouldnt have been spared.

What do you mean? Lumian, also seated on the ground, struggled to grasp his sisters reasoning.

Aurore elaborated, I mean that its both power and corruption. Once it disperses, everyone in this area will endure the corruption on relatively equal footing. Only those bearing the black thorn symbol or under the protection of other high-level ent.i.ties can barely remain unaffected.

Consider this: isnt it like a dam bursting, flooding the entire place up to the rafters? Unless a boat was prepared beforehand, wed undoubtedly be drenched.

Lumian envisioned such a scene and hesitantly inquired, So, does that mean everyone in the village has been tainted by the dissipating power, effectively becoming a component of the loop?

By component, he didnt mean partic.i.p.ating in or being affected by the loop. More precisely, people became part of the loops structure.

Aurore, her eyes still closed and her blonde hair tied up, gently nodded.

I suspect that not only will killing the padre result in a reset, but also slaying other villagers in Cordu will trigger a similar effect. Its like trying to dismantle the loops components. There will surely be a reaction to such disruption.

But we just killed the midwife yesterday afternoon Lumian trailed off before finis.h.i.+ng his sentence.

Suddenly, numerous thoughts raced through his mind, and he hesitantly proposed, Is it because the people in the castle are protected by other high-level ent.i.ties?

Is that why Madame Pualis claimed she could leave the loop at a specific moment?

She wasnt tainted by that power. Shes not part of the loop. Shes affected, but she can exploit loopholes or seize opportunities to escape?

Aurore sighed softly. Thats why she said she cant save us or take us with her. Weve already been corrupted and are fused with the loop.

At this, she managed a bitter smile. Or rather, were already dead. Were merely existing in the form of loop components.

No wonder that mysterious lady said that if she forcibly ended the loop, everyone here would die. Thats because we are the forcibly dispersed loop itself.

Lumian fell silent. He yearned to contradict his sister and argue that they shouldnt be so pessimistic, but her words aligned with the mysterious womans.

What he couldnt comprehend all this time was that, given the womans ability to freely enter and exit the loop and her audacity to mention the hidden ent.i.ty, even if she couldnt break the loop without causing any harm, it ought to be simple for her to safeguard two or three people and facilitate their departure.

Now, there was a more plausible and disheartening explanation to this conundrum.

After a few seconds, Lumian found a counterargument.

Ava, Reimund, and Naroka are all dead, but their deaths didnt cause the loop to restart.

Aurore, her eyes still closed, offered a complex smile. Perhaps they died before the loop began, so without partic.i.p.ating in the ritual on the twelfth night, they werent tainted.

Her implication was clear. In the timeline before the loop transpired, Naroka had perished before Lent, while Ava and Reimund had been sacrificed during the celebration. They didnt survive until the twelfth night and were not part of the loop.

She paused for a moment and continued, Jean Maury, who vanished today, might be in a similar situation. According to normal developments, he should have discovered something abnormal after Lent and before the twelfth night. He wanted to escape, but was silenced. Our investigation merely expedited this event.

The only thing I dont understand is that Reimunds corpse was sacrificed, right? He shouldnt have been in the loop from the start

Hearing his sisters words, Lumian instantly recalled the events beneath the cathedral.

The invisible figure in the black robe was composed of Reimund and the others spirits!

Lumian combined his knowledge of mysticism and attempted to speculate.

Maybe the Lenten sacrifice wasnt made directly to the hidden ent.i.ty, but to the altar. Its part of the twelfth nights ritual, so Reimunds spirit appeared beneath the cathedral.

His body is useless, but before the loop began, Pons Bnet and his a.s.sociates could leave Cordu. To stop those downstream from finding the body and alerting the higher-ups, they might retrieve it after completing the ritual of sending it downriver.

Once the loop started, the power had limits. It cant cover the area where Pons Bnet and the others recovered the body. Theyre affected by the corruption in their bodies and wont consider leaving this area.

Aurore pondered for a moment and nodded in agreement.

In the past few days of the loop, other than you, the three foreigners, and Madame Pualis and her subordinates, none of the villagers have thought of leaving Cordu to hunt or gather wild fruit.

If you hadnt reminded me, I wouldve been the same.

Aurore revealed a desolate, self-deprecating smile.

Were already a group of monsters. Were barely surviving as humans by relying on the loop.

No, there must be a way for redemption. That lady said it exists! Lumian interrupted his sisters self-pity.

Aurore exhaled slowly and stated, Cant you let your sister be vulnerable for a few minutes?

She continued, Based on this line of thought, we can only rely on ourselves. Breaking the cycle with external forces is equivalent to killing us.

Lumian sighed. Unfortunately, theres no way to verify this speculation at the moment. We can only confirm it on the twelfth night.

We can verify it, but itll waste a lot of our time. Besides, I cant do it, Aurore replied.

Thats true Lumian roughly grasped his sisters meaning and plan: Kill a villager not currently on the padres team to see if it would trigger a reboot. If it did, they could find a way to lure one of the three foreigners into a death trap and see if it triggered the cycle. If not, it would validate Aurore and Lumians guesses. Most people in Cordu Village had been corrupted and were part of the loop. Those who came later were only affected by the loop and had a chance to escape it with the help of loopholes or external forces.

However, that would squander many of the past few days, and Aurore wasnt the type to kill innocents, especially those they had a good partners.h.i.+p with.

Lumian had no moral qualms in this regard. From his perspective, dying in the loop wasnt true death. There was a high chance of only residual problems. That was much better than being trapped in the loop.

Of course, if he really wanted to do so, he wouldnt try to murder Leah and the others. Instead, he would reason with the three foreigners.

With Valentines fanaticism and piety, he was confident he could persuade him to commit suicide.

The siblings exchanged glances and fell silent, unsure of what to say.

After a while, Lumian changed the subject.

Grande Soeur, what do you think is the key to ending the loop from the inside?

Aurore had been pondering this question. As she thought, she said, We cant just end the loop from the inside. We have to use this situation to remove the corruption in everyones bodies. Otherwise, whats the difference between this and suicide?

Yes, according to my previous guess, something happened to the ritual, causing the entire village to enter a loop. And the reason an accident occurred was that you bear the mark of that great ent.i.ty. It was activated and sealed the heavy corruption in your heart

Aurore a.s.sessed her brother as she spoke.

Lumian instantly grasped her meaning.

You mean Im the key to ending the cycle?

...

Aurore nodded. The source of the accident lies with you, so naturally, the key to ending the cycle is with you.

Of course, this is only a guess. Perhaps the key to the loop is the vessel that will bear the power of the hidden ent.i.tys descent during the twelfth nights ritual. For example, the padre or someone else

Aurore suddenly fell silent and looked at her brother for a few seconds.

Could these two speculations be equivalent? You are the vessel? Otherwise, as an auxiliary sacrifice and contaminant, even if something unexpected happened, the ritual wouldnt have failed disastrously and its power dissipated uncontrollably.

Uh The more Lumian thought about it, the more he felt that his sisters guess made sense.

He muttered to himself, That black thorn mark on my chest is darker than the padres was

So when the priest tried to deal with me, he showed signs of losing control, allowing me to kill him

Therefore, that mysterious lady never said how to end this loop. She just told me to explore the dream ruins and figure out their secrets

Aurore got a little pumped. Yeah, thats probably a clue!

Maybe the dream ruins stem from the corruption in your body or are closely linked to it. So you can rely on the black thorn mark to take down every monster you run into there.

Once you unlock the secrets, you can rein in or safely tap into the power in your body to some extent and siphon off the corruption from everyone in Cordu. The loop will break on its own.

...

Yeah, maybe this can only be done at certain times. Like at the ritual on the twelfth night.

Lumian leapt to his feet. Im heading back to dream now!

No rush. Aurore slowly sat up. Arent you hurt? Arent you going to rest?

Lumian patted his chest.

The liquid Madame Pualis sprinkled healed all my wounds and restored my spirituality.

Oh, was that pomelo sago child-giving Guanyin Aurore muttered.

Huh? Lumian didnt get it at all. His sister was speaking a totally foreign language.

Aurore smiled with her eyes closed.

What I mean is, go home, fill your belly, take a nap, and explore your dreams!