Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability - Chapter 81
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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 Lumianâs conjectures and analysis.
She remained silent for a while, as if lost in thought.
After nearly a minute of contemplation, Aurore spoke, âIf something truly occurred during the ritual on the twelfth night, causing the hidden entityâs 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 wouldnât have been spared.â
âWhat do you mean?â Lumian, also seated on the ground, struggled to grasp his sisterâs reasoning.
Aurore elaborated, âI mean that itâs 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 entities can barely remain unaffected.
!!
âConsider this: isnât it like a dam bursting, flooding the entire place up to the rafters? Unless a boat was prepared beforehand, weâd undoubtedly be drenched.â
Lumian envisioned such a scene and hesitantly inquired, âSo, does that mean everyone in the village has been tainted by the dissipating power, effectively becoming a component of the loop?â
By âcomponent,â he didnât mean participating in or being affected by the loop. More precisely, people became part of the loopâs structure.
Aurore, her eyes still closed and her blonde hair tied up, gently nodded.
âI suspect that not only will killing the padre result in a reset, but also slaying other villagers in Cordu will trigger a similar effect. Itâs like trying to dismantle the loopâs components. There will surely be a reaction to such disruption.â
âBut we just killed the midwife yesterday afternoonâŠâ Lumian trailed off before finishing his sentence.
Suddenly, numerous thoughts raced through his mind, and he hesitantly proposed, âIs it because the people in the castle are protected by other high-level entities?
âIs that why Madame Pualis claimed she could leave the loop at a specific moment?
âShe wasnât tainted by that power. Sheâs not part of the loop. Sheâs affected, but she can exploit loopholes or seize opportunities to escape?â
Aurore sighed softly. âThatâs why she said she canât save us or take us with her. Weâve already been corrupted and are fused with the loop.â
At this, she managed a bitter smile. âOr rather, weâre already dead. Weâre merely existing in the form of loop components.
âNo wonder that mysterious lady said that if she forcibly ended the loop, everyone here would die. Thatâs because we are the forcibly dispersed loop itself.â
Lumian fell silent. He yearned to contradict his sister and argue that they shouldnât be so pessimistic, but her words aligned with the mysterious womanâs.
What he couldnât comprehend all this time was that, given the womanâs ability to freely enter and exit the loop and her audacity to mention the hidden entity, even if she couldnât 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.
âAva, Reimund, and Naroka are all dead, but their deaths didnât cause the loop to restart.â
Aurore, her eyes still closed, offered a complex smile. âPerhaps they died before the loop began, so without participating in the ritual on the twelfth night, they werenât tainted.â
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 didnât survive until the twelfth night and were not part of the loop.
She paused for a moment and continued, âJean 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.
âThe only thing I donât understand is that Reimundâs corpse was sacrificed, right? He shouldnât have been in the loop from the startâŠâ
Hearing his sisterâs words, Lumian instantly recalled the events beneath the cathedral.
The invisible figure in the black robe was composed of Reimund and the othersâ spirits!
Lumian combined his knowledge of mysticism and attempted to speculate.
âMaybe the Lenten sacrifice wasnât made directly to the hidden entity, but to the altar. Itâs part of the twelfth nightâs ritual, so Reimundâs spirit appeared beneath the cathedral.
âHis body is useless, but before the loop began, Pons BĂ©net and his associates 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.
âOnce the loop started, the power had limits. It canât cover the area where Pons BĂ©net and the others recovered the body. Theyâre affected by the corruption in their bodies and wonât consider leaving this area.â
Aurore pondered for a moment and nodded in agreement.
âIn 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.
âIf you hadnât reminded me, I wouldâve been the same.â
Aurore revealed a desolate, self-deprecating smile.
âWeâre already a group of monsters. Weâre barely surviving as humans by relying on the loop.â
âNo, there must be a way for redemption. That lady said it exists!â Lumian interrupted his sisterâs self-pity.
Aurore exhaled slowly and stated, âCanât you let your sister be vulnerable for a few minutes?â
She continued, âBased on this line of thought, we can only rely on ourselves. Breaking the cycle with external forces is equivalent to killing us.â
Lumian sighed. âUnfortunately, thereâs no way to verify this speculation at the moment. We can only confirm it on the twelfth night.â
âWe can verify it, but itâll waste a lot of our time. Besides, I canât do it,â Aurore replied.
Thatâs true⊠Lumian roughly grasped his sisterâs meaning and plan: Kill a villager not currently on the padreâs 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 Lumianâs 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 wasnât the type to kill innocents, especially those they had a good partnership with.
Lumian had no moral qualms in this regard. From his perspective, dying in the loop wasnât 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 wouldnât try to murder Leah and the others. Instead, he would reason with the three foreigners.
With Valentineâs 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.
âGrande Soeur, what do you think is the key to ending the loop from the inside?â
Aurore had been pondering this question. As she thought, she said, âWe canât just end the loop from the inside. We have to use this situation to remove the corruption in everyoneâs bodies. Otherwise, whatâs the difference between this and suicide?
âYes, 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 entity. It was activated and sealed the heavy corruption in your heartâŠâ
Aurore assessed her brother as she spoke.
Lumian instantly grasped her meaning.
âYou mean Iâm the key to ending the cycle?â
Aurore nodded. âThe source of the accident lies with you, so naturally, the key to ending the cycle is with you.
âOf course, this is only a guess. Perhaps the key to the loop is the vessel that will bear the power of the hidden entityâs descent during the twelfth nightâs ritual. For example, the padre or someone elseâŠâ
Aurore suddenly fell silent and looked at her brother for a few seconds.
âCould these two speculations be equivalent? You are the vessel? Otherwise, as an auxiliary sacrifice and contaminant, even if something unexpected happened, the ritual wouldnât have failed disastrously and its power dissipated uncontrollably.â
Uh⊠The more Lumian thought about it, the more he felt that his sisterâs guess made sense.
He muttered to himself, âThat black thorn mark on my chest is darker than the padreâs wasâŠ
âSo when the priest tried to deal with me, he showed signs of losing control, allowing me to kill himâŠ
âTherefore, that mysterious lady never said how to end this loop. She just told me to explore the dream ruins and figure out their secretsâŠâ
Aurore got a little pumped. âYeah, thatâs probably a clue!
âMaybe 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.
âOnce 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.
âYeah, maybe this can only be done at certain times. Like at the ritual on the twelfth night.â
Lumian leapt to his feet. âIâm heading back to dream now!â
âNo rush.â Aurore slowly sat up. âArenât you hurt? Arenât you going to rest?â
Lumian patted his chest.
âThe liquid Madame Pualis sprinkled healed all my wounds and restored my spirituality.â
âOh, was that pomelo sago⊠child-giving GuanyinâŠâ Aurore muttered.
âHuh?â Lumian didnât get it at all. His sister was speaking a totally foreign language.
Aurore smiled with her eyes closed.
âWhat I mean is, go home, fill your belly, take a nap, and explore your dreams!