They? Lumian was surprised to hear Raymond's answer.
He originally thought that Raymond had "self-" drowned in the river and became a sacrifice to some existence, but now it seemed that there was human involvement, not just an invisible force that dragged Raymond into the water.
"Who are they?" Aurore asked.
Raymond's expression was twisted and stiff, his eyes were full of hatred and looked dull. He shouted in great anger:
"Pons Bene, it's Pons Bene and his people!
“They held me in the water!”
After Ava and I left the water, Pons Bene and his thugs appeared where Raymond had landed, pushed him into the river, and drowned him alive, becoming a sacrifice? Lumian reconstructed the original situation based on Raymond's fragmentary words.
The entire Lenten celebration has completely turned into a ritual of sacrifice to evil things!
Aurore asked for further details, but Raymond only repeated a few sentences over and over again, as if that was all he remembered.
Phew, I missed the best time for spiritual communication. I can only harvest the remaining obsession... Aurore thought for a moment and decided to ask something that Raymond might be impressed by or might not be impressed by:
“Did they sacrifice you to some being
"What are her characteristics and where is she?"
Aurore learned her lesson this time and did not ask for the full honorific name directly. She only planned to collect some indirect information to assist in her judgment.
She believed that if Raymond's spirit was still conscious during the sacrifice, he would definitely be able to "see" and "hear" certain things and leave a deep enough impression, otherwise it would not.
Raymond stood there in a daze, with more and more transparent tears turning blood-red in the corners of his eyes.
Lumian had a sullen face, and as he looked at him like this, he clenched his hands without knowing when.
Suddenly, Raymond shouted:
"Underground! Underground of the church!"
What? Aurore almost doubted her ears.
Combined with her question, Raymond was clearly saying that the secret being he was offered as a sacrifice to was located under the church!
It's impossible. It's the Fifth Epoch. How can a god walk on the earth? Aurore calmed down and thought that Raymond's spirit only had some obsession and spirituality left. His answers to questions were very confusing, and he always stuck to a few points. In other words, he might not be pointing out the person hiding in the church's underground, but just producing a stress response.
But no matter what, no matter whether Raymond was giving a truthful answer or repeating his own obsession, there must be something wrong under the church, and the key part of the sacrificial ceremony is hidden!
Aurore only hoped that the secrets hidden there were not too terrible or exaggerated.
She asked other questions, but Raymond's spirit would only repeat "They drowned me", "Pons Bene", "Under the church" and other answers.
Seeing that there would be no further gains, Aurore ended the channeling and watched Raymond's figure disappear above the candlelight, and watched the blue color on the altar fade away quickly.
After she removed the spiritual wall, she found Lumian standing there in a daze, not saying a word.
"What are you thinking about?" Auror waved her hand in front of her brother's eyes.
Lumian pulled up the corners of his mouth and tried to force a smile:
"I regret that I didn't use enough force when I hit Pons Bene yesterday."
Although he also hit Pons Bennet with his knee, causing him great pain, but considering that they had to wait for the Twelfth Night and it was better not to intensify the conflict with the parish priest, he wisely restrained his strength and did not directly turn Pons Bennet into a disabled person.
"There will be a chance," Aurore said comfortingly.
Lumian nodded and said, “Huh?”
"In fact, we have fallen into a misunderstanding. Before Lent, not only we were afraid of exacerbating the conflict, but the parish priests were also afraid. They were not ready and had not started the ceremony yet."
In other words, if he really wanted to cause Pons Bene to suffer irreversible injuries, the parish priest and his men would probably only pretend to retaliate and not take any real action.
They will endure until Lent, and no matter whether Lumian has offended them or not, once the Lenten celebrations "begin", all normal people in the village will be their target.
Aurore understood what Lumian wanted to say and nodded slightly.
"You decide how to take revenge on Pons Bene.
"The question we need to consider now is, when Lent comes and the parish priests gain powerful powers, how can we survive and live until the Twelfth Night?"
Lumian immediately fell into thinking about this question.
Aurore expressed her thoughts:
"At present, there are only two choices. One is to join forces with the three outsiders, and the other is to find a way to improve myself."
She hesitated for a moment and then said:
"If we can confirm that Mrs. Pualis has nothing to do with the loop and is trapped here, we can even cooperate with her appropriately."
"Ah?" Lumian was shocked.
Madam Pualis is such a terrifying and evil extraordinary person!
Aurore sighed and said:
“A philosopher from my hometown once said that when doing things, we must distinguish between the main contradictions and the secondary contradictions, and unite all the forces that can be united.
"Well, there must be something wrong under the church. There must be key clues hidden there. We must explore it before Lent. After that, I'm afraid there will be no chance."
As far as Aurore knew, most churches in this world had underground areas, some for storing sealed objects, and others for burying the remains of important people. Although the church in Cordu Village had neither sealed objects nor important people who needed to be buried, it was still equipped with a large basement according to regulations during its construction.
“Okay.” Lumian agreed. “I’ll discuss this with the three strangers tomorrow.”
He turned to Raymond's status:
"Why can he only say a few words? Didn't we successfully summon his spirit?"
Aurore sighed again:
“There is a critical time for spiritual communication, which is within one hour after death.
"After an hour, the spirit of the deceased will quickly dissipate, and no longer have the original memory. Only the most reluctant thoughts, emotions and images will remain. To use the professional terminology of my hometown, it is obsession."
Lumian nodded slightly.
“When the next cycle starts, if we summon Raymond at the beginning, does that count as death within an hour
"No, why does Raymond have the memory of the previous cycle?"
Only then did he realize the problem: after the loop restarted, shouldn't Raymond have forgotten about being drowned
This question stumped Aurore. She considered the question carefully and said:
“I think so.
"At this point in time, it's not Lent yet. According to the world line, Raymond hasn't been drowned yet, so he shouldn't know who the murderer is. But because he has lost his body, he can only exist as a spirit, which is equivalent to death. He will have obsessions. So, the one we summoned just now remembers certain things that happened in the previous cycle.
“To put it simply, Raymond’s condition has become special due to the loss of his body, so that when the cycle restarts, a certain amount of memory will be retained!
"Haha, this is a bug."
The cycle went a little wrong because Raymond's body was sacrificed? Lumian probably understood what his sister meant.
Aurore then smiled and said:
"It seems that the power that makes us circulate is very mechanical and rigid. It should no longer be controlled by the original owner and is in a state of self-operation. Otherwise, it can deal with Raymond's spirit in a targeted manner."
At this point, she seemed to relax a little:
"Haha, in this case, we still have some hope of breaking the cycle."
Infected by his sister's emotions, Lumian's gloomy state became brighter:
After making so much effort, I finally saw a glimmer of hope.
The two of them worked together to clean up the altar and went up to the study on the second floor. Aurore taught Lumian the corresponding Hermetic and Ancient Hermetic languages word by word according to the chaotic and erroneous ritual that Lumian had memorized.
Lumian had already mastered some of this, so his progress was pretty good.
Under the bright light of the radio station, Aurore sometimes explained the pronunciation and structure of words to her brother, and sometimes used musk, cloves, blood and other materials to make candles to be used next while he was consolidating and reviewing.
While Lumian was studying seriously, he would occasionally look up and see his sister busying around him. He felt as if he had returned to his original warm life, without any cycles or evil gods.
The night outside the window is quiet.
… …
Lumian woke up in a bedroom filled with a faint gray mist.
He jumped out of bed, walked to the table, took out a pen and paper, and wrote down the ancient Hermetic and Hermetic words he still remembered in the wrong order, and finally gave them the correct numbers.
After finishing this task, Lumian breathed a sigh of relief and looked ahead.
There were four things placed on the wooden table near the window. One was the two gray-white musk candles made by Aurore (one had Lumian's blood, and the other did not), the second was the bottle of gray amber perfume, the third was the small metal bottle containing tulip powder, and the fourth was the silver dagger provided by Aurore.
As expected, the lady brought it in to me... Seeing this scene, Lumian felt much more at ease.
He took these items and found a piece of homemade incense made by Aurore, went downstairs, placed them on the dining table, and then went to the kitchen area to get a glass of water and a plate of coarse salt.
The materials related to the ceremony are now ready.
Before going to bed, Aurore was worried that her brother didn't have the corresponding symbols to pray for the gift, so he couldn't draw them on parchment and burn them to inform the target god of his own desire. But then she thought that since the mysterious lady didn't mention it, there should be no need. After all, he was essentially praying to the power in Lumian's body, which could directly "hear" all the prayer language without the need for additional "paperwork".
Looking at the items on the dining table, Lumian took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
He no longer hesitated and placed the gray-white candle with his own blood on the position representing the gods directly above the altar, and placed the other one in front of him.
After lighting the candles by spiritual friction in the order of gods first and humans later, Lumian unskillfully sanctified the ritual silver dagger and created a spiritual wall.
As spirituality gushed out from the tip of the ritual silver dagger and connected with the surrounding air, he inexplicably felt that this was the mysticism.
Soon, the spiritual wall was completed, and Lumian's spirituality was drained of half.
With the help of incense he found at home and self-meditation, he allowed his senses to become ethereal and enter a state where he could perform ritual magic.
As Zi sounded, Lumian "dripped" gray amber perfume and tulip powder into the candle representing the gods.
A strange fragrance filled the air and everything seemed magical.
Lumian glanced at the cheat sheet next to the altar, took a step back, looked at the burning candle, and shouted in ancient Hermetic:
"The power of fate!"
PS: Ask for monthly ticket~