Chapter 84 Key (Second update, please give me a monthly ticket) In the bright sunshine beside the winding river outside the village of Koldu. Aurore sat on the floor in her light blue dress, closed her eyes, and listened to Lumian's feedback and speculation. She was silent for a while, as if lost in thought. After nearly a minute, Aurore spoke carefully: "If something went wrong during the Twelfth Night ritual, causing the power from the hidden being to dissipate, bringing about a time loop in the entire Cordu village and the surrounding areas, then I believe that the people and even the spirits in this area at the time would not be spared." "What do you mean?" Lumian, who was also sitting on the ground, didn't quite understand his sister's logic. Aurore elaborated: “What I mean is that it is both power and pollution. Once it dissipates, everyone in this area will bear this pollution relatively equally. Only those who have the black thorn symbol or the protection of other high-level beings can barely avoid being affected. "Think about it, the situation at that time was like a dam collapse, and the flood quickly submerged the entire place, including the roof. Unless you prepared a boat in advance, your body would definitely get wet." Lumian imagined that scene and hesitated. "In other words, everyone in the village has been contaminated by the scattered power, which is equivalent to being part of the cycle?" The "part" he mentioned does not mean being included in the loop or being affected by the loop. A more accurate expression is that it is one of the components that make up the loop.

Aurore closed her eyes and nodded slightly with her blond hair tied up: "I suspect that not only will killing the parish priest lead to a restart, but killing the villagers of Koldu will also lead to a similar situation. This is equivalent to trying to destroy the components of the cycle, and there will inevitably be changes in stress." “But we just killed the midwife yesterday afternoon…” Lumian stopped talking without finishing his sentence. He thought of a lot in an instant and said hesitantly: “Is this because the people in the castle are blessed by other high-ranking beings? “Is that also why Mrs. Pualis said she could break out of the loop at certain moments? "She is not contaminated by that power, and is not part of the cycle. She is one of the people who are affected. Can she use a loophole or opportunity to leave?" Aurore sighed softly: "That's why she said she couldn't save us, couldn't take us out, because we've been contaminated and are one with the cycle." At this point, she smiled bitterly: “Or rather, we are already dead and are currently alive as circulating components. "No wonder the mysterious lady said that if she forcibly ended the cycle, everyone here would die, because we are the cycle that was forcibly ended." Lumian was silent. He wanted to refute his sister and say that she was not so pessimistic, but this was a good confirmation of the mysterious lady's words. What he could not understand was that, with the lady's ability to enter and exit the cycle freely and her courage to mention the secret existence, even if she could not break the cycle intact, it should be easy for her to protect two or three people from leaving. There is now a more reasonable and more desperate explanation for this problem. After a few seconds, Lumian looked for a counterexample: "Ava, Raymond, and Naroka are all dead, but it didn't cause the cycle to restart." Aurore closed her eyes and said with a complicated smile: "Perhaps they died before the cycle began, and did not participate in the Twelfth Night ritual, and were not contaminated." Her meaning was very clear. In the world line before the cycle, Naroka died before Lent, and Ava and Raymond were sacrificed at the celebration. They did not wait until Twelfth Night and were not part of the cycle. She thought for a moment and said: "Jean Mori, who disappeared today, might have been in the same situation. According to normal development, he should have discovered something unusual after Lent and before the Twelfth Night and tried to escape, but was killed. Our investigation only brought this matter forward. "The only thing I can't figure out is, wasn't Raymond's body sacrificed? He shouldn't have been in the cycle from the beginning..." Hearing his sister's words, Lumian immediately thought of what happened under the church. The "invisible man" in a black robe is made up of the spirits of Raymond and others! Lumian combined his knowledge of occult science and tried to speculate: “It is possible that the sacrifices during the Lenten celebrations were not directly offered to the hidden being, but the altar was part of the Twelfth Night ritual, so Raymond’s spirit appeared in the church’s basement.

"His body is useless, but in the development before the cycle, Pons Bene and others could have left Cordu. In order to prevent people downstream from discovering the body and reporting it to the higher authorities, which would lead to an investigation, they may have fished the body back after completing the 'floating downstream' part of the ritual. "After the cycle began, that power had its own limits and was unable to reach the place where Pons Bene and his men retrieved the bodies. They were affected by the pollution in their bodies and were unable to think of leaving the area." Aurore thought for a moment and nodded in agreement: "During these many days, except for you who have retained your memory, the three outsiders, Madam Pualis and her men, the other villagers have not thought of leaving Cordu Village, going into the mountains to hunt, and collecting wild fruits. "If you hadn't reminded me, I would have done the same." At this point, Aurore revealed a sad, self-deprecating smile: "We are already a group of monsters, relying on cycles to barely survive as human beings." "No, there must be a way to save it. The lady said there was!" Lumian interrupted his sister's self-pity. Aurore exhaled slowly and said: "Can't you let me, your sister, be vulnerable for a few minutes?" She then said: "According to this line of thought, we can only rely on ourselves. External forces breaking the cycle will kill us." Lumian sighed: "Unfortunately, this speculation cannot be verified at present. We can only wait until Twelfth Night to confirm it." "It can be verified, but it will waste a lot of our time, and I can't do it." Auror replied. That’s right… Lumian probably understood his sister’s intention or plan: Killing a villager who is not currently in the parish priest's team will see if it will lead to a restart. If so, find a way to kill one of the three outsiders to see if it will trigger the cycle. If not, it will verify Aurore and Lumian's guess - most of the people who were in Cordu Village before were contaminated and were part of the cycle. The people who came later were just affected by the cycle and had the opportunity to use loopholes or the help of external forces to escape the cycle. But that would make the previous days of waiting go to waste, and Aurore is not the kind of person who would kill innocent people, especially those who have had good cooperation with them. Lumian had no moral obstacles in this regard. In his opinion, dying in a loop was not really dying. It was most likely just some residual problems. This was much better than being trapped in a loop. Of course, if he really wanted to do this, he would definitely not try to murder or kill Leah and the others, but would directly reason with the three outsiders. With the fanaticism and piety shown by Valentine, he had a good chance of "persuading" this guy to try suicide. The brother and sister looked at each other and fell silent for a moment, not knowing what to say. After a while, Lumian changed the subject: "Sister, what do you think is the key to breaking the cycle from the inside?" Aurore was thinking about this question just now, and said as she pondered: “We cannot simply end the cycle from within, we must use this to remove the pollution in everyone’s body, otherwise what is the difference between this and suicide? "Well, according to previous speculation, something went wrong with the ritual, causing the entire village to enter a loop. The reason why the ritual went wrong was because you had the mark of that great being on your body. It was activated, sealing the severe pollution in your body in your heart..." As she spoke, Aurora looked her brother up and down. Lumian suddenly realized: "You mean, I am the key to breaking the cycle?" Aurore nodded. "The source of the misfortune lies with you, so the key to ending the cycle may also lie with you. "Of course, this is just a guess. Perhaps the key to the cycle is the carrier of the power of the mysterious being during the Twelfth Night ceremony, such as the parish priest or someone else..." Aurore suddenly fell silent, looked at her brother for a few seconds and said: "Is there a possibility that these two speculations are equivalent, and you are the carrier? Otherwise, as a leftover sacrifice or contaminant, even if something unexpected happens, it will not cause the ritual to fail completely and the power will not dissipate uncontrollably." Hmm...the more Lumian thought about it, the more he felt that his sister's guess made sense.

He whispered to himself: "So, the black thorn symbol on my chest is darker than the parish priest's... "So, when the parish priest was dealing with me, he suddenly showed signs of losing control, and I killed him... "So, the mysterious lady never told me the key to breaking the cycle, but just asked me to explore the ruins of the dream and unravel the secrets there..." Aurore was somewhat excited: “Yes, that might be a hint! “The Dream Ruins may be directly caused by the pollution in your body, or may be closely related to it. Therefore, when you are there, you can rely on the black thorn symbol to suppress every monster you encounter. “And once you master the secrets there, you can control or safely stimulate the power in your body to a certain extent, and recycle the pollution from every person in Koldu Village, and the cycle will naturally be broken. "Well, maybe this can only be done at certain times, for example, during the Twelfth Night ceremony." Lumian stood up: "I'm going back to dreaming now!" "Don't worry." Aurora supported herself on the ground and slowly stood up. "You are injured, aren't you going to take a rest?" Lumian patted his chest: "The water that Mrs. Puaris sprinkled healed all my injuries and restored my spirituality completely." "Uh, mango sago... Guanyin, the Goddess of Fertility..." Auror whispered. "What?" Lumian didn't understand at all. His sister was speaking a very strange language. Aurore closed her eyes and smiled slightly: "I mean, go home, fill your stomach, take a nap, and explore in your dreams!" PS: I am asking for monthly tickets for the second update~ Thank you for your daily reward to the Silver Alliance (End of this chapter)