South Tivian, Bishop’s Square.
The New Year’s Eve celebration continues, and the evening festivities persist despite the cold wind. After a brief intermission, Adèle, the "Ruby of Tivian" and star dancer, takes the stage once again, eliciting another wave of cheers from the audience and pushing the atmosphere to new heights.
Returning to the stage, Adèle has shed her previous bright red attire and now wears a pure white dance dress. She presents a performance entirely different from her earlier one. According to the enthusiastic introduction by the host, this dance is titled "Ode to Life", and as the name suggests, it is a dance that celebrates life.
"Haha... Look, Isabella, Adèle’s dance this time is quite fascinating. Even though there are no words or dialogue, I can understand the story she’s conveying just through her movements. From stillness to motion, from sprouting to full bloom, I think this dance is telling the story of a sapling growing into a towering tree through wind and rain... What do you think?"
On the balcony, Duke Barrett watches Adèle’s dance with a smile, offering his interpretation. Beside him, Princess Isabella nods gently and responds.
"I agree with you, Uncle Barrett. I’ve heard many critics say that Adèle’s dances are renowned for their unique storytelling. Many of her dances contain hidden narratives, and every movement not only expresses the beauty of dance but also conveys the language of a story. When she dances, it’s like watching a play without any spoken lines.”
"Adèle can precisely convey meaning through body language alone, yet her performances are more visually captivating than typical mime or silent theater. She is the only one in the dance world who can achieve this perfect balance, making her a true treasure of our kingdom."
Isabella speaks in a soft tone, offering her praise. After hearing her comments, Duke Barrett smiles and continues.
"Indeed, it seems your appreciation for the arts is quite refined. Dance that tells a story is Adèle’s signature, the very thing that even the most critical reviewers can’t help but admire. Other dancers who try to imitate her style often focus too much on the visual spectacle, making the story hard to follow, or they overemphasize the narrative at the expense of the dance’s beauty, turning it into mere mime. Only Adèle can strike that perfect balance.”
"This time, her dance is titled ’Ode to Life’. Dancing such a vibrant, life-affirming piece on New Year’s Eve must be her way of offering a blessing for the new year. It seems she’s put a lot of thought into this performance. Watching this dance has lifted my spirits. Haha..."Duke Barrett offers his critique with a smile, and Isabella nods in agreement. Barrett’s words ring true—Adèle’s dance has indeed brought a sense of joy to all the spectators. Even the most downtrodden workers, after watching the dance, feel a glimmer of hope for the new year. Those hidden in the crowd, driven to the edge by thoughts of revenge and suicide, find their dormant desire for life reawakened by the dance. Their longing for life overcomes their urge for revenge, and they abandon their suicidal missions.
Using the desire for survival to dissuade the suicide bombers was a strategy Adèle and Dorothy had discussed. Although Adèle has the ability to sense the most pressing desires of those around her, this ability doesn’t allow her to easily identify the bombers in the crowd.
The first reason is the sheer number of people present—there are too many desires for her to analyze in a short time. The second reason is that her active detection could be blocked by Shadow-path Beyonder artifacts.
Yes, Adèle’s active desire detection can be blocked by Shadow artifacts. Her desire detection comes in two forms: active and passive. The active form involves consciously sensing the current desires of a living being, understanding what they want to do. For example, back in the Coal Ash District Police Station, Adèle used active desire detection to sense the police chief’s urgent desire to contact his superiors.
Active desire detection is a form of mystical detection, similar to spiritual perception or Lantern detection. It involves actively projecting one’s detection abilities onto others, and any such ability can generally be blocked by Shadow artifacts.
Passive desire detection, however, is different. This ability allows Adèle to sense the desires others project onto her, whether they are desires of lust or murder. Dangerous or intense desires trigger her alertness and attention. This is why the Wolf Blood Society had to use a flesh puppet to assassinate Adèle—to avoid her passive detection of murderous intent.
Passive desire detection primarily involves sensing the desires others project onto her, rather than actively projecting her own abilities onto others. As such, it cannot be detected or blocked by Shadow artifacts. Most Shadow artifacts only shield the wearer from external mystical effects and cannot block information naturally emanating from the wearer, such as their scent or the desires they project onto others.
The suicide bombers were indigenous people manipulated by the Eight-Spired Nest. To ensure their safety, it’s only natural that these bombers would carry Shadow-concealing artifacts. Therefore, if Adèle were to use active desire detection to locate them, she might expend a great deal of effort only to come up empty-handed. On Dorothy’s advice, Adèle chose not to use this method but instead opted to guide the bombers’ desire for survival.
All living beings have a desire for survival, even those driven to the brink by thoughts of revenge. The closer one is to death, the stronger this desire becomes. However, in the bombers, this desire is suppressed by an even stronger belief in revenge.
But this suppression is fragile. With a gentle nudge from Adèle, this delicate balance can be disrupted, and the desire for survival can easily overcome the urge for revenge, causing the bombers to abandon their mission.
Adèle’s guidance is so subtle that normal people would hardly notice it, but for those walking the psychological tightrope of being suicide bombers, it’s enough to tip the scales.
On stage, Adèle continues her graceful dance. As she moves, her eyes occasionally glance at the audience, and a faint look of concern crosses her face. Only when a voice echoes in her mind does she finally relax.
"Great Aka, please convey to Adèle that the three suicide bombers in the audience have abandoned their missions and left on their own. The audience is now safe, and we can proceed to the next step."
Hearing Dorothy’s voice in her mind, Adèle’s worries finally ease, and she can’t help but think to herself.
“I never expected that the Rose Cross Order’s deity, Aka, could also facilitate communication between believers through prayer... What a fascinating ability. I’ve never heard of anything like this in other secret societies. This must be one of Aka’s passive prayer-handling abilities…”
Adèle ponders this. Earlier, while dancing with Dorothy, the latter had asked her to temporarily lower her mental defenses to facilitate communication. Adèle had complied, and now Dorothy can freely use the information channel to contact her.
“It seems the madmen in the audience have calmed down and stopped their madness. Now, it’s time to find the ones who drove them to this state. Those spider-obsessed lunatics actually dared to carry out such a crazy plan here.”
Adèle continues to think to herself. Earlier, Dorothy had already determined that the masterminds behind this operation were the Eight-Spired Nest. By luring these indigenous people to Tivian for this mission, they clearly had ulterior motives.
In Dorothy’s view, the Eight-Spired Nest has no reason to carry out a purely terroristic attack against civilians. Therefore, they must have lured the Sado and the indigenous people here to cover up their true objective. To uncover what they’re really up to, Dorothy and Adèle must first locate all the Eight-Spired Nest members present at the scene.
However, finding the Eight-Spired Nest members among such a large crowd won’t be easy. As Shadow-path Beyonders, they naturally possess the ability to block mystical detection, can easily disguise themselves, and can change their appearance at will. Unlike the suicide bombers, their emotions are stable, making them much harder to identify.
Despite this, Dorothy and Adèle have devised a plan to locate them, and it still relies on Adèle’s abilities.
On stage, Adèle finishes her dance, but instead of leaving immediately, she remains on stage. After a few calming movements, the music starts again, and Adèle begins her third dance of the evening.
Unlike the lively and vibrant music of her previous performances, this third piece carries a faint sense of melancholy. From the very first notes, the music evokes a subtle sadness, and the melody that follows is imbued with an indescribable sorrow.
Matching the music, Adèle’s dance movements are filled with sorrow. She appears like a wounded swan, struggling valiantly against her pain but ultimately powerless.
In this dance, Adèle resembles a white swan shot down from the sky by a hunter—beautiful yet tragic. She struggles desperately to return to the sky but faces insurmountable obstacles. The hunter who shot her seems to be searching everywhere for her, and Adèle, in her fear, is forced to hide.
Beauty, helplessness, panic, pain... These are the words that describe Adèle’s performance in this dance. Her portrayal of a tragic beauty struggling against suffering moves the hearts of countless audience members, evoking a deep sense of pity.
Indeed, who wouldn’t feel pity for such a beautiful yet tragic figure? Who wouldn’t want to help her escape her suffering and soar freely in the sky once more?
This is how any normal person would feel, but some abnormal individuals might harbor different thoughts.
On the rooftop of a tall building near the square, a man dressed in a guard uniform stands at the edge, his hands gripping the railing. Beneath his hat, his eyes are fixed intently on the pure, tragic figure dancing on the distant stage. Deep within his gaze, a flicker of madness glimmers, and he unconsciously licks his lips.
Yes, madness—a hidden, twisted madness. This man looks at Adèle and feels pity, but it’s a distorted, perverse kind of pity.
He longs to imprison this tragic beauty in his secret chamber, to inflict various wounds on her pure body, to use all the torture devices he’s collected on her, just to hear her screams of agony.
However, these are just fleeting thoughts. In his daily life, he often feels similar emotions when he sees beautiful things. These minor impulses aren’t enough to make him act recklessly. For now, he simply gazes at Adèle from afar, indulging in his cruel fantasies.
What he doesn’t realize is that these fantasies, this hidden cruelty within him, are all being sensed by the dancer on stage. Unbeknownst to him, his location has been exposed.
Adèle’s dance is also a subtle activation of her abilities. As she dances, she is quietly stimulating a certain desire in the audience—this time, the desire for cruelty.
Unlike the universal and strong desire for survival, the desire for cruelty is deeply buried in most people’s hearts. Compared to normal desires like hunger, lust, or the will to live, the desire for cruelty is an abnormal urge that rarely surfaces. Only those with twisted minds, like the members of the Eight-Spired Nest, have this desire brought to the surface.
The Eight-Spired Nest collects spirituality through fear and torture, and prolonged use of such methods inevitably warps the mind. Those who delve too deeply into the Fear and Torture Method inevitably become sadists, their hidden desires for cruelty growing far stronger than those of normal people and becoming much easier to manipulate.
Just as Chalice-path Beyonders who practice the Blood Feast Method struggle to suppress their hunger, Shadow-path Beyonders who practice the Fear and Torture Method have a much stronger desire for cruelty than normal people. For ordinary individuals, Adèle’s subtle guidance of this desire would go unnoticed, but for Eight-Spired Nest members, it successfully stirs their sadistic urges toward her.
As long as these specific sadistic desires are directed at Adèle, she can sense their source through her passive desire detection. This is how Adèle locates the Eight-Spired Nest members. Since merging with Darlene’s residual spirit, her ability’s range and sensitivity have increased significantly, covering almost the entire Bishop’s Square.
“Found them... Huh... What an unexpected location. Next, I should report this to Detective.”
Adèle thinks to herself, then begins to silently pray.
“Great Aka, please convey this information to the detective…”
…
Below the stage, Dorothy, who is watching the dance, suddenly pauses. Adèle’s prayer echoes in her mind, and she feels a surge of excitement.
“Finally…”
Dorothy listens intently to Adèle’s prayer, but her expression soon turns serious.
In her prayer, Adèle mentions sensing two particularly strong sources of sadistic desire. The first is from the rooftop of a gray brick building to the left of the square, where a guard is stationed. The second, however, is far more unexpected—it comes from the right side of the square, on the royal viewing balcony!
According to Adèle, among the bodyguards behind Duke Barrett and Princess Isabella, one is actually a member of the Eight-Spired Nest.
“The Eight-Spired Nest has replaced one of the royal bodyguards! Their true goal is assassination! These bastards plan to use the chaos caused by the indigenous people’s explosion to assassinate the royal family, then pin the blame on the indigenous people!”
In an instant, Dorothy fully understands the Eight-Spired Nest’s plan. She gazes solemnly at the locations of the two Eight-Spired Nest members—one is in a perfect sniping position overlooking the royal balcony, while the other is standing right behind the assassination targets.
If they strike, who could stop them!?