North Tivian, Cathedral District.
At noon, in a high-end hotel room near the Cathedral District, Dorothy, Vania, and Nephthys are gathered together. The three of them sit around a small table in the room where Nephthys has been staying.
"What? You’re saying the students from the Scholarly Society are going to be used as sacrifices for a ritual?"
Sitting at the table, Nephthys exclaims in shock after hearing Dorothy’s words. Beside her, Vania also opens her mouth in surprise.
"Miss Dorothy, isn’t Thorn Velvet already dead? Why haven’t my classmates been freed? Why are they still being used as live sacrifices?"
Nephthys mutters in disbelief, while Dorothy places her hand on the table and responds with a serious expression.
"Thorn Velvet was just a minor leader in the Eight-Spired Nest, not a high-ranking figure. His death doesn’t mean the Eight-Spired Nest’s plans have been halted. Beneath the Scholarly Society, forces have already taken over his role, and they are even more powerful than Thorn Velvet. According to intelligence, their latest operation requires a large number of live sacrifices from the Scholarly Society students."
"How could this be..."
Hearing Dorothy’s words, Nephthys feels a wave of despair. She had thought that after killing Thorn Velvet at the Irrigation River Bridge, everything would soon come to an end. But now, things have taken a turn she never expected.
"Miss Dorothy, should we inform the Serenity Bureau immediately? They have a duty to intervene in cases of evil rituals like this," Vania suggests with concern. However, Dorothy shakes her head in response."I already notified the Serenity Bureau through a special channel yesterday, but so far, there’s been no movement from their side. To be honest, I don’t expect them to take any action this time."
Dorothy speaks bluntly. She had already passed the relevant information to the Serenity Bureau through Beverly, but there has been no response. Dorothy suspects that the so-called "influence" mentioned by Claudius might be at play here.
During her earlier eavesdropping, Dorothy heard that the Eight-Spired Nest could use some kind of "influence" to reduce threats from the royal government and even the Serenity Bureau.
As for what this "influence" is, Dorothy isn’t entirely sure. She speculates that it might be similar to how the Crimson Eucharist corrupted some members of the Serenity Bureau as moles. Alternatively, the Eight-Spired Nest might have replaced key figures with their own people, a method more in line with their style. Of course, it could also be something else entirely.
Alternatively, the Serenity Bureau might be skeptical of the intelligence provided by Dorothy. After the incident at North Pine Forest, they have reason to suspect that Dorothy is using them as tools. Being used as a tool by someone else is something no one would appreciate, so the Serenity Bureau has every reason to act more cautiously regarding Dorothy’s information.
"The Serenity Bureau... isn’t responding?"
Hearing Dorothy’s words, Vania frowns, her face showing clear concern. Dorothy takes the opportunity to ask.
"Perhaps... could the church step in for this matter? Sister Vania, do you know of any channels to report such things to the church?"
"Well... the church generally doesn’t get involved in mystical incidents unless it involves heresy or the widespread propagation of a cult."
Vania responds, and Dorothy looks surprised.
"What? The church doesn’t actively handle mystical incidents?"
"That’s right. In countries like Pritt, which have official Beyonder agencies, the church always plays a secondary role. In various mystical incidents, the Serenity Bureau, as the official government agency, holds the primary authority for investigation and handling. The church generally acts as a support force, only stepping in when invited by the Serenity Bureau. Unless it’s a case of widespread cult activity or heresy, the church won’t take the initiative to act.”
"In countries without official Beyonder agencies or the capability to establish them, the church takes on the role of the Serenity Bureau, acting as the primary investigator and handler of mystical incidents. In such countries, the church often holds more power."
Vania explains, and Dorothy more or less understands the situation. It’s a matter of legal jurisdiction. Pritt is an independent sovereign state, and the church, as a religious armed force stationed within its borders, naturally faces certain restrictions to define the boundaries of its authority.
Within Pritt, the Serenity Bureau is the dominant official Beyonder force, while the church can only act as support in matters unrelated to heresy or cults. Moreover, according to Vania, this is the case in all countries with official Beyonder agencies. Only small countries without the capability to establish such agencies fully delegate the handling of mystical incidents to the church, which essentially means ceding part of their sovereignty to the church.
As Dorothy and Vania discuss this, Nephthys, who doesn’t fully understand what they’re talking about, looks somewhat lost. Only after they finish does she interject with a worried tone.
"Um, Miss Dorothy, could you ask more members of the Rose Cross Order to help resolve this incident?"
"Well... it’s probably too late for that. The other members are all occupied with their own tasks, and it would take too long for them to get here now," Dorothy replies. She doesn’t mention that nearly the entire Rose Cross Order is already sitting in this room.
Hearing Dorothy’s words, Nephthys feels another wave of despair. However, before she can start lamenting, Dorothy smiles and adds.
"But actually, we don’t need anyone else. If the Serenity Bureau and the church aren’t stepping in, the three of us here can handle it on our own."
"Handle it... Miss Dorothy, are you planning to..."
Hearing Dorothy’s words, Vania feels a sense of unease. Dorothy turns to her with a smile and says.
"Yes... let’s fight side by side once more, Sister Vania, in the name of Aka."
Hearing Dorothy’s words, Vania initially wants to protest, but when she hears "in the name of Aka" and remembers that this is about saving innocent students, she sighs and can’t bring herself to argue.
"Alright... may Aka watch over us..."
…
Tivian North Suburbs, Royal Crown University, King’s Campus.
In the afternoon, inside the gathering point of the Scholarly Society of Mystical Knowledge, a dozen students are gathered together, listening intently to Avery’s words. Standing before the students, wearing a mask, Avery has now taken over Thorn Velvet’s position and is surrounded by the students’ admiring gazes.
"As I said, a tremendous opportunity lies before you. In two days, I will lead you to witness sights never before seen and grant each of you the chance to achieve the extraordinary!"
Avery speaks passionately to the students, and waves of applause and occasional cheers erupt from the crowd. In a shadowy corner not far away, Claudius silently watches the scene. On a nearby wall, a small gecko is also observing him.
After glancing at the "class" in front of him, Claudius turns and walks deeper into the gathering point, with the gecko following him for a while before stopping.
Ahead of the gecko is a long corridor. On all four sides—top, bottom, left, and right—the corridor is covered in a familiar, dense layer of white spider silk. At the front of the corridor, four guards stand watch, and a hanging lamp emitting an orange-yellow light dangles from the ceiling.
Seeing this setup, the gecko has no choice but to stop in its tracks, watching as Claudius passes through the corridor and enters the deeper parts of the ruins.
…
“Well, well... spider silk, Illuminating Beacons, and a bunch of guards... they’ve really ramped up the security measures. These guys are really going all out this time…”
Sitting in her spot in the King’s Campus library, Dorothy watches the images transmitted by her marionette and thinks to herself. She had expected the Eight-Spired Nest to upgrade their security measures for the ruins, but the extent of the upgrades is quite severe.
First, the current spider silk corridor is not the same as the previous one, meaning it has been newly set up. This suggests that Nephthys might not be able to pass through safely anymore. Second, they’ve added Illuminating Beacons, which will trigger an alarm if any unregistered spiritual traces are detected. If Dorothy’s marionettes are exposed to the light, the Concealment Ring’s Shadow reserves will be continuously drained. On top of that, there are the permanent guards, making it impossible for anyone to sneak in unnoticed.
“It seems that, to ensure the ritual in two days goes smoothly, these guys are really going all out.”
Dorothy thinks to herself. Given the current level of security, her small marionettes, even with the protection of the Concealment Ring, absolutely cannot infiltrate the area. Not to mention how much Shadow she currently has to withstand the light from the Illuminating Beacons, the spider silk triggers an alarm upon physical contact, rendering the Concealment Ring useless.
“It seems we can already predict... just how tight the security will be on the day of the ritual... It feels completely impossible to infiltrate secretly. Are we going to have to make a frontal assault? That’s way too risky…”
Looking at the heavily fortified path to the ritual site, Dorothy can’t help but think this way. There’s only one path to the second level of the ruins where the ritual will take place, making it easy for the Eight-Spired Nest to defend. No matter how you look at it, Dorothy and her companions are completely outmatched by the Eight-Spired Nest’s forces, so a frontal assault is out of the question. They’ll have to rely on clever tricks and deception, which is Dorothy’s specialty.
“So, how should we approach this clever plan?”
Dorothy sits in her seat, deep in thought. After a while, an idea begins to form in her mind.
"Perhaps... we can try it this way..."
Muttering to herself, Dorothy stands up from her seat and leaves the library.
…
Outside King’s Campus, by the Clearstream River, in a grove of trees.
In the afternoon, Dorothy makes her way through the woods outside the campus. Ahead of her, two marionettes clear a path through the dense underbrush, while Dorothy follows behind.
Finally, after pushing through the thick bushes, Dorothy arrives at a moss-covered boulder, about seven or eight meters tall. She signals the two marionettes to step aside and approaches a flat section of the boulder. After focusing her mind, she notices a series of random scratches on the stone surface. As she stares at them, the scratches twist and transform into Pritt letters.
"To the Hall of Ascension"
Dorothy reaches out and touches the words. Suddenly, the surrounding rocks emit a low rumble, and with a slight tremor, a stone door opens in the boulder, revealing a dark passageway.
Facing the darkness, Dorothy picks up a prepared gas lamp and steps inside. After glancing around, she sees two familiar statues of hermits, one holding a book and the other a celestial globe.
That’s right. This is the exit Dorothy used to leave the underground ruins. Hidden in the dense woods by the river outside the campus, this secret door has remained untouched for a thousand years, with Dorothy being the first to open it.
"So it can be opened from the outside... This means I can use this passage to reach the deepest level of the ruins and then make my way up to the second level where the ritual will take place."
Looking at the descending staircase before her, Dorothy mutters to herself. By mastering this secret passage, accessible only to those with Revelation spirituality, she can bypass the main entrance at the gathering point and instead launch a surprise attack from below, targeting the ritual site.
"However, before that, I’ll need to deal with the ruins and toxic gas on the sixth level..."
Muttering to herself, Dorothy takes out her magic box and summons more marionettes. She hands her gas lamp to one of them, instructing it to lead the way down.
Then, Dorothy remotely controls four marionettes from the surface, sending them down to the deep underground chamber where she advanced to the Black Earth rank. From there, they follow a corridor to the hidden door Dorothy first opened, and using the spiritual thread connecting her to the marionettes, she reverses the mechanism to open the door, officially re-entering the sixth level.
The moment the hidden door opens, a thick cloud of purple-red toxic gas rushes toward Dorothy’s marionettes. Fortunately, the dead are immune to such things. As living corpses powered by Chalice spirituality, they charge into the gas and continue forward.
Soon, Dorothy’s marionettes reach the section of the corridor that collapsed due to the Unrelenting Force shout. After inspecting the area, Dorothy realizes that while there are few large boulders, the rubble consists mainly of small and medium-sized stones, which can be cleared!
"Well, well... it seems we can pull off a covert operation this time..."
Standing at the exit, sensing the situation underground, Dorothy smiles and mutters to herself.
…
Over the next period, Dorothy fully transforms into the foreman of a marionette construction crew, remotely directing her underground marionettes in clearing the debris.
To ensure nothing goes wrong and to demonstrate professionalism, Dorothy specifically borrows several books from the King’s Campus library on mine operations, tunnel excavation, and mine disaster rescue. After spending an hour reading through the books, Dorothy becomes a theoretical expert in underground tunnel excavation and civil engineering. She then heads to the city to equip her marionette miners with full gear—hard hats, wheelbarrows, shovels, and support materials—before sending them down to work.
Under Dorothy’s direction, the marionette construction crew works methodically. They continuously remove and shovel away small and medium-sized rubble, carving a path forward through the debris. Along the way, they set up support structures overhead to stabilize the area and prevent further collapses.
As for the larger boulders, Dorothy leaves them untouched. She fears that attempting to move them might destabilize the structure and cause another collapse. Additionally, the noise from breaking apart large boulders might alert those in the ritual site above. Fortunately, there aren’t many large boulders, so they can be bypassed without issue.
The marionette construction crew’s work mainly involves moving small and medium-sized rubble, shoveling away fine sand, and setting up support structures. The noise generated is minimal, and with the second level of the ruins being thirty to forty meters above the sixth level, separated by multiple layers, Dorothy isn’t worried about the noise reaching the surface.
In addition, Dorothy has the marionettes collect a sample of the toxic gas and sends it to Beverly for analysis, hoping to find effective countermeasures. However, to her surprise, Beverly can’t identify the gas either, as she’s an engineer, not a biochemist, and the field isn’t her expertise. So, Beverly takes the gas sample to her contacts, claiming to know an expert in the field.
However, Dorothy ends up spending another 100 pounds on consultation fees, leaving her with only 10 pounds. The sudden realization of her financial state shocks her.
“Damn it, this operation has to succeed! If I don’t make some money back soon, I won’t even be able to pay my rent!”
After leaving Beverly’s house, Dorothy looks at the 10 pounds in her hand and screams internally.