Luca looked at Mareen and Crestfall, where they were sitting, now charred black; it was truly a little nauseating… but never mind… Luca could only focus his attention on the current task; after all, he hadn't even taken care of himself yet, so why worry about anyone else?
At this moment, the butler looked at them and smiled as if nothing had happened.
He said nothing, turned around, and walked away. Everyone was exhausted, especially Luca, who was out of breath. Eirene had been awake for a while and slowly stood up. She didn't waste any time going over to Luca.
"Thank you for saving me."
After saying that, she left, while Rivenhart, carried away by Sol, also disappeared. Now, only Luca and Arknight remained.
"Hey, hey, how did you escape his control? And even enter other people's minds?"
Arknight walked over to Luca and stared at him with wide, curious eyes.
Am I some kind of test subject or something that everyone's so curious about...?
Luca thought to himself, while just smiling awkwardly to brush it off. He didn't have the energy to talk, let alone resist Arknight. Arknight noticed that she was just giggling like a madwoman and looked at Luca's shoulder.
Arknight simply left, leaving Luca to sit there for a while longer, this time staring intently at the picture of the husband on the wall.
Luca sighed and took out an album from his pocket, which was so small it was like a wallet, about the same length and width. It only contained one picture, and although it was in the picture, Luca felt something was off.
Besides the child's face, was the husband's face really in the picture? Even stranger, why was his face there? Wasn't the mistress supposed to be the wife?
A thousand questions raced through Luca's mind; if he wanted to escape, he probably had to explain all of this first.
Luca then left the dining room and headed towards his room. It was pitch black, but Luca probably didn't have the energy to focus on that anymore. As soon as he entered his room, he lay down on the old bed in the corner. To be honest, this room wasn't much different from his room in the apartment building.
All of Luca's fatigue disappeared as he lay down on the bed and slowly drifted off to sleep.
......…
Sol and Rivenhart were sharing a room, with Sol sleeping soundly on Rivenhart's lap, while Rivenhart, like Luca, sat thinking about the things they had collected, especially about the cellar, they hadn't done anything there yet…
If I get the chance, I'll definitely have to go try it out...
Rivenhart stroked Sol's head, smiling at how adorable Sol was while sleeping. Sol just pulled Rivenhart down onto the bed and sighed.
"Just go to sleep, bae."
Rivenhart, helpless, agreed and lay down in bed with Sol.
...…
While everyone was fast asleep, the figure of a girl approached someone's room and knocked on the door. It was indeed Eirene knocking, and the room she was standing in front of was Arknight's.
"Hey, what are you doing here, cute girl?"
"I need your help."
Arknight, who was outside, simply went to the door, opened it, and gestured for Eirene to come in. Arknight entered, closed the door, sat down on the bed, and smiled.
"So, what do you need help with?"
"You're the strongest person here, aren't you? I want you to help me find out about this mansion, and I know there's something I need on your first floor."
"Aren't you going with that interesting young man?"
Arknight leaned against the wall, looking at Eirene with the same confident expression, showing no sign of tension or seriousness regarding Eirene's offer.
"What if I said I could help you change your identity? You've already noticed, haven't you?"
"No need to say it. I bet anyone with a brain would have figured it out already."
Arknight replied to Eirene that although her offer was interesting, Arknight was perfectly capable of achieving it himself, so it didn't hold much value. Eirene remained calm.
"But I knew you wouldn't refuse, would you? After all, this is a mutually beneficial deal."
"Okay, that's not too bad."
Eirene nodded after hearing the answer.
"Then see you tomorrow."
Eirene ran back to her room as soon as she went outside, since no one knew what was happening outside anyway. Arknight just looked at her, then went into her room, closed the door, and did what she needed to do before falling asleep.
......
In the morning, all they saw was everyone sitting in their chairs in the dining room, just like every morning, even though it was only the second day, and almost half the group had already left. Maybe it was a new game mode, but there were too many high-level players, so it was no different from the game the veteran players played.
Basically, he was just unlucky…
Luca is currently the only first-time player among the survivors.
More importantly, perhaps because the players have a few hours left, their mistress, who was once a charred lump of flesh, has now become more presentable, like a human being. This only highlights her beauty, a woman with short, shoulder-length, jet-black hair and a white dress, truly beautiful.
The only thing is that she has a few birthmarks on her face, but to them, that doesn't necessarily make her unattractive.
Thanks to this, Luca also became less scared; after all, their mistress was now really no different from them, except she still ate burnt food, and this time she looked at Luca and opened her mouth.
"Hey, why did you do that?"
The entire dining room suddenly fell silent, and Luca, who was about to eat, stopped, his mind a battlefield, not knowing how to respond.
"Why are you competing with me?"
The mistress continued to ask, while Luca knew what was going on, she wanted to take her daughter back. Luca could only smile, but it was a smile of fear, his voice trembling. To the other players, he looked like nothing more than a trembling chick.
"Mistress… uh… well… well…"
"I'm just role-playing… with the little mistress…"
Luca spoke each word slowly, while the mistress just stared with empty eyes; it was unclear if she saw through him, but it only made her look more terrified.
She almost accepted it, so she turned to look at Eirene, the petite girl sitting there staring intently at her mistress.
The two of them stared at each other until her mistress turned to look at Sol, who was still eating, and Rivenhart, who was watching.
Just as her mistress was about to ask something, Rivenhart looked back at her.
"If you're going to ask, we're lovers."
The mistress merely glanced and tilted her head. Rivenhart had partly guessed this from the information they had shared earlier; she was certainly someone lacking love. Or perhaps betrayed, that was a mystery.
The mistress then turned to look at Arknight, who also looked at her, but with an indescribable indifference, as if merely observing.
The mistress had no questions for this eccentric girl, so she stood up at that moment and walked out. The butler came back to them once more and began assigning tasks.
"I'll go with her."
Eirene interrupted him and went outside, with Arknight following, giving the butler a defiant look. Rivenhart sighed at the sight.
"Then I'll go with him."
Rivenhart led Sol away, leaving Luca standing there looking at the butler. The butler looked at Luca, sighed, and then left as well, leaving Luca standing there alone.
Damn it, saved them all, and now they're abandoning me…
Luca thought for a moment, then followed them, since going along wouldn't hurt anyway.
"Hey, would you mind if I came along to the garden?"
Rivenhart and Sol both agreed that Luca was their savior, after all. The three of them went to the garden and found Eirene and Arknight standing there as well.
But that wasn't the main point. The real concern was that the mistress was in the garden. While there wasn't a rule against entering when the mistress was present, caution was still advised. Just looking at her, it was clear that stepping inside would lead to death.
It was highly likely they should be invited in, or even if the mistress wasn't there, they should still perform their duties as servants.
"Madam, what do you think about having a gardener?"
The mistress was standing there, looking at the withered rose, then at Eirene. Luca, however, was focused on the garden.
The garden here was almost out of place compared to this rose-filled mansion. First of all, the flowers surrounding the mansion were all roses, and they all looked so healthy, as if someone had been tending them, even though Luca knew there used to be.
Meanwhile, in the garden, every rose was withered, lacking its usual beauty. Some were even burnt, leaving fragments on the ground. For someone who loved flowers as much as the mistress, to the point that there's a law against harming flowers, this was highly suspicious.
Crack…Crack…Crack
The mistress walked up to them, staring intently at each of her steps as if hearing the sound of bones shattering, before finally uttering a single sentence:
"Did he send you?"
"No, madam, we only wanted the flowers in the garden to grow better."
Eirene replied to Rivenhart, who was standing there watching to see if she needed help. To put it bluntly, if he sensed anything amiss, he would immediately pull Sol away, while Arknight just watched, as it wasn't her turn to intervene yet.
"I want the flowers to bloom."
The group just laughed it off, saying that the rules stated they should comply with any request she made, while also saying they didn't trust the staff member.
They questioned whether they should follow the rules he mentioned, as most of what they did was based on the system, but this time, it was practically shut down. However, to get in, they had to satisfy the boss, but breaking the rules could cost them their lives instantly.
Generally speaking, the only option right now is to agree first, and then they'll think of a way later. That's the only option right now because they're in a desperate situation; so many have already died in just a few days, and the longer it goes on, the more likely they'll all die together.
"Of course, miss."
Eirene maintained that smiling face, and the owner simply glanced at them and walked away as if nothing had happened.
Sol looked at Eirene and asked her for a living thing, so Eirene took a seed from her bag, and Sol threw it into the garden, and to their surprise, it was perfectly normal.
Sol felt more at ease and stepped inside, followed by the others, into the garden of withered roses. Arknight walked beside Eirene, watching her to see what she would do, whether she deserved Arknight's trust. Eirene noticed this but didn't pay much attention.
"Aren't you going into the cave?"
"You know perfectly well I am,"
Rivenhart replied to Arknight's question. He knew Arknight had followed Sol and him when they discovered the secret cave or tunnel.
Rivenhart went to the flower garden first, and now, how fresh it was, it's all withered. Perhaps only people like Arknight, Rivenhart, and Sol, who have been there more than twice, realize this, while most people, being new visitors, will only think it's different from the surrounding area of the mansion.
Rivenhart simply deciphered the code as he had before, opening a path down to Luca, only to be met with a terrible surprise.
It turned out there was a secret tunnel here?!
While Luca was deep in thought, everyone, including Eirene, descended into the tunnel. Luca quickly followed. Sol was the first to descend; this time, he landed safely, and when he saw Rivenhart approaching, he positioned himself to carry Rivenhart like a prince welcoming his princess.
Arknight also landed quickly and smoothly. Eirene had a slightly more difficult landing, perhaps because she wasn't used to it, but it wasn't too bad. Finally, Luca landed face-first on the ground.
Boom!
The whole group watched Luca respond in the most humiliating way possible, even kicking up dust. Eirene sighed and pulled Luca up.
"Be careful, we don't have any change of clothes."
Luca nodded, brushing the dust off his clothes. Luckily, Luca only had a few minor scratches on his face and thighs; nothing too serious.
The group then followed the tunnel, with torches placed every 5 meters to illuminate the path.
Everything was normal until Arknight stopped, looked at some walls, and then approached them, seemingly enjoying something. Eirene also stopped, and when they stopped, the others followed, looking at Arknight and smiling slightly.
"That's interesting, I can smell the blood here."
"Really? I can't smell anything at all."
"Maybe my nose is just more sensitive than yours."
Arknight replied to Sol while Rivenhart looked over the wall Arknight was standing in front of.
"It seems there are some words on this."
Eirene heard this and took out her oil lamp to shine on it, but they couldn't see any words. Luca then looked around, and Eirene extinguished the lamp, and the words reappeared.
"Perhaps it only appears when there are no lights or surrounding illumination."
Luca finished speaking, and Sol chuckled, taking out a white talisman.
[God A]
[You have activated the skill 'Basic Charm']
[Loading…]
[The god sees you want to extinguish the light…]
[Successful]
A talisman in Sol's hand glowed and then instantly vanished, extinguishing all the flames immediately.
"The problem now is how to read the inscription," Rivenhart replied.
"Just wait for your eyes to adjust to the darkness, and you'll see," Rivenhart answered Sol, who simply nodded in understanding.
After a short while…
Finally, they adapted to the darkness. This time, they realized that almost everywhere on the walls there was a strange kind of writing, like another language. Everyone here recognized it as Rune writing; it's just that Luca was a little slower to understand, so he realized it later, and now he doesn't even understand what it says.
"These runes... they look strange."
Eirene tried to look more closely while Rivenhart sighed.
"No need, they're just trying to imitate runes. More accurately, this person doesn't know anything at all; they're just trying to write or draw something that looks similar to runes. This is likely a draft."
"A draft?"
"Yeah, it's a useful discovery anyway."
Rivenhart continued walking, Sol followed behind, and Eirene, still wanting to learn more but finding more interesting things ahead, followed Arknight, giving Luca a wink.
Luca felt a chill down his spine, but as he followed the words, he felt like he'd seen them somewhere before… but he didn't pay attention. Meanwhile, the arm on his back began to tremble, and it seemed like this was the first time since saying goodbye to Luxie that it had started to move.
But Luca had to go because he wasn't confident he could stay here alone… The group walked a short distance before stopping in front of a door that required a key. Sol used his skill again. He pulled out another piece of paper.
[God A]
[You have activated the skill 'Basic Spell']
[Current status… Loading…]
[The god sees you want to open the door to enter the room…]
[Successful]
The piece of paper vanished, leaving Sol with the key. Sol used it to unlock the room, and upon entering, they found something truly unusual.
Before them were walls of blood, a ritual drawn in blood in the middle of the floor, surrounded by candles resembling a summoning formula for powerful entities, or perhaps angels and gods of the people present… were they also attempting to become players but failing? Or was there something more secretive behind it all?
"This is probably an unofficial summoning ritual."
An unofficial summoning ritual?
Luca wondered, looking around at the people nearby. They all seemed to have some basic knowledge, unlike him, who had foolishly gotten himself caught up in this game called 'Infinity Void.' Eirene noticed Luca's bewildered expression and sighed.
"This unofficial form of summoning is a method of summoning power, but not from gods or angels. Instead, it summons another entity, which could be a monster, a spirit, or even a human; in general, it's not recognized by the player community."
Luca's eyes widened in surprise as he memorized this information. He couldn't believe there was such a thing! So, was the power he summoned truly legitimate or illegitimate? He was curious.
Returning to the main point, they sat watching the ritual. Of course, no one knew who they were summoning, but…
"It's highly likely a demon summoning ritual."
Luca spoke up, and everyone agreed.
"That's probably true, but if we combine it with the child's painting from basement 2, then this is a demon summoning ritual. The question is, who is the one summoning them?"
Eirene voiced her opinion, which everyone already knew, but this wasn't enough information to conclude the final answer to this level.
Arknight went in and looked at the books. Rivenhart followed suit; they were looking for a book that might give them some information, perhaps helping them uncover the truth about the mansion.
Sol crouched near the ritual area.
"We can rule out the child. The width and length of this circle are quite large; I don't think a child would have that much blood. Besides…"
"Besides, she's the one who drew it; she's the victim."
Luca finished Sol's sentence. After all, he was the one who deduced it when he found Luxie's crayons in basement 2.
"So, there are only three people left who could have summoned the demon, right? It could be the husband, the mistress, or the butler, after all, besides us, those are the only ones left in the mansion."
Rivenhart said, taking out a book and opening it to another wedding photo of the three of them. The husband and wife were in the photo, and the butler was the other.
More importantly, the arm on Luca's shoulder began to pinch him, as if reminding him. Luca only now noticed and remembered the small photo album in his pocket.
"Give it to me."
Rivenhart, hearing this, lent it to Luca. Luca then took out the album in front of everyone and placed the picture in a different frame.
"When did you get it?"
Eirene asked, and Luca just looked back.
"While searching in basement 2."
"And yet you didn't tell me."
"It wasn't useful then, so I thought it wasn't the right time, but now it is."
Luca placed the picture in front of everyone; from a blurry image, it became clearer… it was their wedding photo, and they could see the true forms of the mistress and her husband.
The butler, however, remained unchanged; to be honest, the more the mistress smiled, the more composed her husband looked.
"There's more here, but it's not just pictures or anything, it's a whole book!"
Arknight said, then tossed the book over to Eirene. Eirene looked at it, and thanks to her ability, she read quite quickly. The person who read the book left notes, so it didn't take her much time at all.
"This book is about how to summon demons, and it also has instructions on how to upgrade without entering the game… what a scam!"
Eirene closed the book and tossed it back to Arknight so she could put it back in its place.
"In other words, it's a legend about an angel in which a poor character summons a god and obtains wealth by sacrificing their own feelings, and it mentions a summoning formula. From what I've seen, this is likely a copied version of the formula from this story."
"This sounds strange, but you shouldn't trust just the formulas in books anymore; most of them are on separate pieces of paper."
Rivenhart said to Eirene as he put away the book. They had probably found something interesting; now all that remained were the symbols outside the room that needed deciphering before they left, and figuring out how to make the flower bloom as required, but not really bloom, just fake bloom.
"Should we discuss how to fake the flower blooming before we go out? I bet she'll show up when we get outside."
Sol stood up and stretched a little before returning to Rivenhart and taking a book about roses from the shelf.
"What should we do?"
Sol asked, and everyone fell silent except for Arknight.
"Just think, normally, it's simple. Leave that to me."
Arknight chuckled while Eirene stood there, pacing back and forth, sighing.
"Perhaps there's nothing left for us to find out?"
"Probably so. Anyway, we've gathered some interesting information; at least we've deciphered the child's drawing."
Luca replied to Eirene that, for now, they could understand the inscription as a special spell unique to this demon. It wasn't a priority issue yet; after all, they had found information that deciphered part of the truth.
They now had to get out, but the question was, where was the exit? That was Luca's concern, not the others'. Eirene looked at Arknight as if to say, "Now is the time for Arknight to act."
"It's your turn now."
"You only know how to boss me around, don't you?"
Arknight simply looked around and went outside. They followed her until they stopped at the place where they had fallen earlier. Normally, they would have found their way out since they had fallen down a slope, but Luca realized he wasn't with them.
In this ordinary place, he was with strange people who seemed fearless…
[God X]
[You have activated the skill 'The Spite']
[Current status… Loading…]
[Power boost countdown: 5 seconds]
They saw Arknight grab Eirene, Eirene grab Luca, and Luca grab the other two, and in just a moment, Arknight seemed to glow as she leaped up the slope above them and ran as fast as she could, making sure her footing was firm, otherwise they would all fall immediately.
Although there were many of them, luckily, the path was short,and Arknight was already strong, so by the time they all emerged from the secret tunnel, the effects of the skill had worn off, and Arknight was gasping for breath as the pain and exhaustion began to set in.
The mistress had now appeared.
"Has the flower bloomed yet?"
She stared intently at Eirene, who had promised her that a flower would bloom. Eirene smiled and looked back at her mistress.
"Aren't you the rose yourself? You've already bloomed, why look for another one?"
The mistress remained unmoved, as if such a loophole couldn't be exploited; it was unacceptable to her. She reached out and grabbed Eirene by the neck.
"I'll give you one more chance… where is the rose?"
Eirene could only manage a wry smile.
"It was me."
Then the mistress transformed Eirene into a blooming green rose, but the way Eirene became a flower was incredibly horrifying.
Layer after layer of her skin and flesh peeled off, and the mistress tore it away layer by layer until Eirene was nothing but a skeleton. The flower used her as fiber to grow petals, then the flower itself… Now she was in the mistress's calloused hands, and she had finally gone with Eirene in the palm of her hand.
Luca was worried, wondering if his benefactor Eirene had died so easily.
"Calm down, she'll be alright."
Arknight remained calm, even though she had just been out of breath.
"That's her plan, just calm down."
As soon as she finished speaking, they nodded in agreement. If it really was Eirene's plan, they should trust her. Besides, it seemed she had made a deal with Arknight; after all, they were closer than usual. In short, they would probably find a way to resolve this situation themselves.
Arknight just watched the mistress's back with the green flower, then smiled and whispered something to herself.
"Wait a little longer, we'll see each other again soon, Eirene."