On the second floor of the all-white Brown Hotel, a well-dressed and civilized young gentleman was slowly eating freshly fried steak in his room.
Standing next to his table was a maid in a state of soul. She had a pure white translucent spirit body and looked like she was only seventeen or eighteen years old. She was dressed similarly to a "fox" and was not wearing any clothes.
A white priest's robe with a religious crown. Only the spine on her body is solid, so through her translucent white body, the pale color of her spine can barely be seen.
Suddenly, the girl leaned over and said something in the gentleman's ear. Her mouth moved, but she didn't make any sound.
The gentleman seemed to have heard something. He raised his eyebrows, took out a solid gold pocket watch inlaid with gems from his arms, and opened it.
"It's almost over."
He glanced at the time and put it away, then stuffed the remaining small piece of steak into his mouth.
He chewed it happily and with all his strength, the meat juices continued to leak out. Some of the chewy tendons made a crunching sound. But because he had good teeth, he chewed the meat into pieces and swallowed it.
The young gentleman was a little satisfied, but also a little reluctant to give up and murmured in a low voice: "I really can't let go of such a young and healthy body..."
at the same time.
In the gentleman's room downstairs, the room was being slowly cleaned. The maid who looked similar to the newsboy also sighed worriedly.
"It's finally over... It's such torture. It's also terrifying."
Sherlock, who was hiding in the abandoned chemical factory with Lulu, had nothing in common with Her Royal Highness, so he maintained a polite but somewhat awkward silence.
He focused on looking at the sun gradually rising to its highest point in the sky, and suddenly said: "It's almost time."
"What?"
Lulu, who was holding the child, asked subconsciously, then immediately reacted and became energetic: "Is the ceremony about to end?"
"There are four survivors. Those two survived until the end."
Sherlock whispered: "'Bone Sculpture'... Lars Graham? I will investigate him."
"If not - don't say it was me!"
Lulu whispered nervously.
The newsboy sighed.
"My respected Princess," he said lazily, "Normally, even if I tell him, he won't know it's you. I know 'Lulu', not 'Isabelle Du Lac'
'."
"...Huh?" Lulu, who was trying her best to play "Anne Alexander" when her real name was suddenly told, immediately opened her eyes wide.
"Master Yanis is too irresponsible. Although there will be no punishment for failure in the first advancement ceremony, you are not afraid of being exposed to your real identity because of your dignity. But I think some common sense things
You still need to be taught something in advance. Not all setbacks are meaningful - especially the setbacks you have endured."
The newsboy pulled his newsboy cap, lowered his head and said quietly: "I will report to Her Majesty the Queen in detail about this ceremony. Including the unusual difficulty of this ceremony, the 'bone carving', 'knight', 'fox' and '
Cocoa's information, as well as the matter between you and Mr. Fox. Of course, including the mistakes you made during this ceremony - I have recorded them all in my mind, exactly.
"That's it this time. But please remember... starting from the second advancement ceremony, you will have to pay a certain price for failure and death in the ceremony.
"I am one of the very few extraordinary people on the path of wisdom in Avalon. If nothing else happens, Her Majesty the Queen may entrust me to advance simultaneously with you and protect you during the ceremony. I hope you can make some corrections when we meet next time.
Get rid of your naive bad habits."
Having said this, the newsboy stared at the somewhat confused eyes of "Anne Alexander" and pondered for a while.
Then he added: "I will try to investigate the real identity of the 'Fox' for you. But please don't expect too much, my priority for the next period of time will be the 'Sweater Brotherhood' and the 'Bone Sculpture'.
"
"...Eh? Then, thank you, Mr. Sherlock..."
Although Lulu didn't know when she was exposed, it wasn't surprising that her true identity was found out by the famous Mr. Sherlock Hermes. So she wasn't actually too shocked.
But when she heard Sherlock say he wanted to help her investigate the "Fox", she was still a little shy. But she didn't refuse.
Seeing this, Sherlock sighed again and said nothing more.
At this moment, a light suddenly lit up in front of everyone's eyes - it was the pure white light that burst out when the world collapsed and disintegrated.
A series of ever-changing scenes appeared before their eyes, including those who had died and those who were still alive.
The young pastor with black hair and blue eyes put his hand on the back of the child's neck, and his palm glowed with light;
The young supervisor, who was seriously injured and disemboweled by an iron hook, turned his back to the fleeing civilians behind him. The dagger in his hand, which symbolized the authority of the law, glowed with pure white light, and he still stood there;
The dark green water demon's claws tightly grasped the iron hook demon, and white smoke emitted. The iron hook demon had a ferocious face, and seemed to be shouting something at the top of its voice;
A bone staff was thrown into the air and bloomed with a dim yellow light. Pure white smoke was drawn out from it, wrapping the bone staff to form a translucent girl ghost with a blurred face;
The young pastor took a paper knife and slit his own throat with it firmly and fearlessly;
A pale and skinny right hand held the entire head of a dark-skinned fat man, with the fat on his face leaking out from between his fingers and his frightened and trembling eyes;
Anne Alexander held the sleeping little Aiwass in the sunset, with a look of sadness and strength on her face.
——The next moment, the scene in front of me, along with the entire world around me, began to turn into sand.
Everything before my eyes dissipated like flying sand.
The sand flew in the air and then rose up against the current. It was sucked back into the body by the huge glowing hourglass.
Aiwass came to his senses and sorted out his complicated emotions. He decided to at least make some circumstantial questions first and not draw any conclusions yet.
After all, the information given in the ceremony may not be completely correct...right?
...But saying that, he actually had similar conjectures in his mind.
This is also expected.
Aiwass sighed and raised his head. He found that he had returned to his original "faceless priest" image, still sitting in his big and scary chair.
But there was no longer darkness in front of him, and there were no other eight chairs or eight other ritual participants.
But it is bright.
Just like when he advanced for the first time, there was no shadow in the bright world.
Light curtains fell quickly in front of his eyes, which were Aiwass's settlement points:
[The necessary tasks have been completed (points: 600)]
[Preserve yourself: ensure your own survival (unfinished)]
[The heart is the sanctuary: Don’t choose to hide in the Candle Cathedral, take the initiative to go to the Justice Square (Points: 100)]
[My unforgettable nature: Healing people who are destined to die (Points: 100)]
[Once and for all: Find and kill the murderer (Points: 500)]
[My Favorite Jasmine: Ensure the survival of your wife Anne Alexander (Points: 500)]
[Live longer: Live as long as possible among the nine ritualists, or try to die as late as possible (Points: 100)]
[The beginning of everything: Find the mastermind (points: 1000)]
[Total points are 2900, ranking first]
The familiar figure of a stag, as transparent and pure as ruby, appeared in the distance again.
His blood dripped to the ground, igniting red flaming footprints.
He approached Aiwass again and gently licked Aiwass's cheek.
The black thorns on His neck pierced Aiwass's cheek, leaving a slightly invisible wound from which black blood seeped out——
Three words were reflected in front of Aiwass' eyes again.
[Light Affinity LV1 (Blue): You were scratched by Si Zhu’s sin thorn, and you learned some of the nature of light from it. 】
Before he had time to see if there were expansion entries in the remaining two lines, the two lines of blue and white text were completely burned by the black flames.
Two purple rays of light shined and overflowed, making a heavy buzzing sound.
This extremely familiar voice made Aiwass instantly open his eyes and become energetic.
——It’s shipped!
It’s shipped after the first upgrade!
Still two!
…Could it be that point ranking really determines the quality of shipments?
This is a setting that is not available in the game... but it makes more sense.
But this seems more like a setting that should have been there in the first place, but was cut off due to fairness considerations...
Aiwass opened his eyes wide and saw two lines of rare purple entries:
[Container of Burning and Brilliance (Purple): Light is born from fire, and fire floats in light. Your soul is nourished by both. 】
[Fallen Light LV1 (Purple): No light is absolutely pure, just like the human heart. You try to temper your own light with strong poison. 】