Chapter 32: Eve of the Celebration
"My inclination is to sabotage the celebration and the ritual."
Ning Lu calmly told Aurore and Lumian in front of him, weighing the pros and cons:
"For a meticulously planned grand ritual, fleeing solves nothing—as long as the ritual remains intact, the closer we get to its crux, the stronger the surrounding Seals become. So we have only one path: destroy the ritual's core."
Lumian hissed, "For example, make Lent stop unexpectedly?"
While he'd often played harmless pranks on the villagers, disrupting something as big as Lent… he'd never tried that before.
[Judging from the ritual in the dream, you actually have two other choices.]
In Ning Lu's eyes, the Celestial Venerable's figure appeared not far away:
[You can simply eliminate whoever's conducting the ritual—or the sacrificial offerings. Though I doubt you'd pick the latter, right?]
"Sabotaging a part of Lent and bringing it to an abrupt halt still won't solve the bigger problem; the organizers can always find another pretext to gather the villagers."
Ning Lu shook his head. "The most effective way is to kill the cultists headed by the Parish Priest."
"Kill the Parish Priest…" Hearing this, Lumian felt a sudden pull toward the second option.
"…You're right." Aurore's knitted brows slowly relaxed; she murmured absently, "Then we keep up our usual appearance today, and tomorrow—tomorrow we take the initiative and strike the Parish Priest."
"Tonight I won't explore that dream of mine. I think we can plant traps around the Lent grounds in advance to weaken the Priest and his lot…" At this point Lumian added worriedly, "Aurore, you look off. Are you hearing those voices again?"
"I'm off?" The reminder jolted Aurore: "Hiss… am I?"
"Yes." Seeing his sister like this, Lumian's face darkened. "Mr. Ning Lu told me you're hearing the Hidden Sage's whispers—are you really okay?"
"…Maybe the weirdness in the village lately has aggravated whatever's affecting me." Aurore sounded uncertain. "Once we're out of here I'll find a Psychiatrist and get myself straightened out…"
"Whatever the case, rest and conserve your strength today." Ning Lu interjected: "Laying traps is mine and Lumian's job. Besides, Lumian didn't run into those official Beyonders who came investigating yesterday; we'll go see if we can bump into them in the village."
—Ning Lu knew the 'Aurore' before him was only a dream-figure stitched from fragments of the real Aurore's soul, not the genuine person.
As Lumian drew closer to the dream's essence, those soul fragments would lose the intelligence of a complete spirit, becoming more a reflection of Lumian's subconscious.
In the original "first loop" Lumian had never grasped Cordu Village's true nature; after Ning Lu gave certain hints, Lumian still didn't consciously realize the village was only a dream, yet subconsciously edged closer to that image.
As the cycles continued, Lumian would gradually accept the answer he didn't want… perhaps far sooner than before, he might actively end this dream… Thinking this, Ning Lu gave a self-mocking mental chuckle:
"Heh. Fate."
He had to admit, the idea of cooperating with the Celestial Venerable had sprouted; from their recent mutual probing he could basically confirm the latter could no longer influence him through his body or mere verbal promises.
Piecing together what the Celestial Venerable had said, his own rank was extraordinarily high, and he'd had no consciousness before his first awakening.
Thus the Celestial Venerable had turned the "soul" that had crossed into this world into a special cocoon, reserving it as a final resurrection trump card.
Then, in the present timeline, after Klein became a god he released all the old day remnants onto Earth, triggering the mechanism the Celestial Venerable had left behind and reviving that will within his own spirit body.
Originally, the Celestial Venerable should have been thrown to Earth like the other old day remnants to complete his "resurrection."
But right then he himself awakened—because he was an existence this universe should never have had, the symbol of Error shifted onto him without his awareness, forcibly opening a new timeline.
In short, like a usurping dove he squeezed the Celestial Venerable's will out, leaving the latter a shallow Parasite who could only see and hear what he did yet couldn't interfere—locked inside this spirit body.
Because of his existence the destined fusion with Klein had almost been overturned, only for Fate to shove it back on track.
"Lumian." After finishing with Aurore, Ning Lu turned to him:
"Go find those three official Beyonders shortly, tell them about Lent, and let them decide for themselves—edit what you tell them; I trust you to judge the limits."
Then confirm who's chosen as the spring sprite and where the Lent celebration will be held."
—The spring sprite was the star of the Lent festivities and also the sacrificial offering in this dream-version of Lent.
He paused: "In addition, we assemble there at midnight tonight to set the traps; tomorrow, as the celebration proceeds, we'll deal with the Parish Priest and company one by one."
"Planting traps around the church needs extra care; if you're not confident, wait for me—then we go together. Any questions?"
With Sefirah Castle's top-tier protection on him, Ning Lu was confident the Fate believers in the dream wouldn't spot him.
"No problem." Lumian's gaze was firm, flames blazing in his eyes.