77 Changes
Lumian had briefly informed Ryan and the others about the black thorn symbol on Guillaume Bénet’s chest, “Inevitability” in the hidden entity’s honorific, gray amber, tulips, cloves, and deer musk for the corresponding domain. He claimed the source was the padre, and it had nothing to do with him.
Hearing this, Leah, Ryan, and Valentine immediately grew alert with guesses.
“The sacrificial site?” Ryan muttered.
As he spoke, all looked to the basement.
!!
With dim light trickling down the stairs, they could barely see inside.
The space under the cathedral was bigger than Lumian’s whole first floor. The floor was grayish-white stone slabs, and it looked pitch black due to the lack of light. In the middle stood a stone platform half a man’s height.
The top of the stone platform caved in slightly, as if hiding something, but nobody could see clearly.
As Lumian pondered, he whispered, “This might be where the padre and company pray to the evil entity for boons.”
“They actually built the evil god’s altar under the cathedral!” Valentine was furious. Lumian suspected he would combust any second and turn to holy light to purify everything here.
“Calm down,” Ryan patted Valentine’s shoulder. “Get ready to light the fire.”
He then gestured for Leah to scout.
Leah kept her sweet smile and sniffed.
“That hidden entity with ‘Inevitability’ as an honorific name really likes fragrance…”
Sighing, she entered the basement, lips moving as if chanting.
The four silver bells chimed again, sometimes intense, sometimes soothing.
One step, two steps, three steps… Leah turned and said to Ryan and the others, “Nothing unusual around the entrance.”
Ryan, Lumian, and Valentine entered the basement through the old brown wooden door and came to where Leah had stopped.
Leah kept moving forward.
After a few steps, the silver bell on her veil and boots shook violently.
Ding ding dang dang!
The sound spread everywhere.
Specks of dawn-like light immediately appeared around Ryan and condensed, forming silver full-body armor over him.
Simultaneously, a pure broadsword of light appeared in Ryan’s hand.
Valentine spread his arms, letting golden illusory flames burn around him.
One flame suddenly lengthened and widened, and Leah walked out of it.
She returned to Lumian and the others from near the altar.
How magical… Lumian marveled at Leah’s act again. Compared to the Sun pathway’s abilities and Ryan’s combat state he could understand and imagine, Leah’s various acts were even more bizarre and more magical. For example, her ability to transfer his wound from his thigh to his calf edge yesterday blew his mind.
Faced with the sudden ‘alarm,’ Lumian responded the only way he could.
He drew the iron-black axe and hid behind Ryan, whose body had grown much larger.
In this, he sized up his surroundings but found no abnormal changes.
He had his Spirit Vision on, after all.
Of course, Lumian had found something. With the golden flames’ help, he saw piles of human bones at the basement edge. Some were even covered in light sheepskin.
Sacrificial offerings from before? The padre and company have conducted cultist rituals here for at least half a year, but Aurore and I didn’t notice at all… Lumian’s thoughts raced as he again felt Cordu, where he’d lived nearly five years, was unfamiliar. At some point, this place had become abnormal. Perhaps, it had been abnormal from the beginning.
Ryan warily eyed the altar direction and asked, “Is everything alright?”
Leah shook her head. “I don’t feel any issues, just signs of danger.”
“Strange…” Lumian’s voice trailed off as he turned to Leah.
He saw that the beautiful woman’s face had turned translucent, and twisted maggots seemed to crawl below. She was even scarier and eviler than legendary evil spirits, making his scalp tingle and heart race wildly.
This exceeded Lumian’s imagination. He suspected he’d have nightmares for a long time.
“Y-your face!” he warned Leah, unable to contain his fear.
Leah subconsciously touched her face with her right hand, and her expression changed.
As for whether her expression changed, Lumian couldn’t tell from the transparent and distorted maggots.
Leah hurriedly looked at her hand back. The skin there had also turned translucent, and the flesh below seemed to have turned into strange maggots.
“You’re losing control!” Valentine also noticed Leah’s condition.
Leah muttered confused, “But my mental state is alright.”
Ryan tilted his head and reminded, “Make sure you’re not hallucinating.”
Almost simultaneously, Lumian realized the tall warrior was rapidly shrinking. The silver armor over him and broadsword of light disintegrated.
In a blink, Ryan turned into a short man only about 1.5 meters tall. His brown coat and light yellow strides were either too big or too long.
He’s also mutating? Only Valentine and I are fine… Lumian’s pupils dilated as he subconsciously looked at Valentine.
“Ryan, you’ve shrunk!” Valentine, already a pure light figure, warned his companion anxiously.
Lumian, nearly blinded, hurriedly asked Leah, “Any changes for me?”
Leah said with countless transparent maggots that seemed to want to crawl out but couldn’t leave the flesh, “You’re very normal. But under such circumstances, normality might be the greatest abnormality.”
I’m normal? Could the black thorn symbol have protected me, causing the danger here to think I’m one of them? Lumian suddenly guessed.
At this, Ryan had finished checking his body. He said warily, “I’m not shrinking, but I’ve returned to my former self. I’ve even lost my superpowers.”
“Former self?” Lumian blurted.
...
He vaguely thought of something.
Ryan nodded. “Yes, I’m naturally short. As a man, this is a huge misfortune. So I chose Warrior when selecting my potion. It could effectively change my height.
“I don’t know if I’m lucky or not. The past five to six years had many Beyonder monsters and abnormalities related to the Warrior pathway appear, allowing me to be less worried about the materials needed to advance.”
Hearing Ryan’s words, Lumian roughly understood the anomaly’s source.
“You’ve returned to the past! As far as I know, the authority of that hidden existence is related to the past…”
With that, he mimicked the mysterious lady and deliberately paused a few seconds before adding another word.
“It also involves the present and— and— and the future.”
Though now speaking Intis, he still had to be cautious.
Leah reacted quickly and blurted, “Valentine and I have entered the future. Is this the state of one of our futures?”
“And I’m the present?” Lumian asked, confirming Leah’s guess.
He then thought of the three-faced monster he had encountered in the dream ruins.
...
The monster had only one head, but it bore three faces: one aged, one in its prime, one youthful.
Lumian suspected this was another gift from the owner of the black thorn symbol. Moreover, it was of a higher order, but the recipient couldn’t withstand it or had met with an accident, turning into a three-faced monster.
Leah nodded gently.
“Likely, but this change in state doesn’t affect my mind. I don’t feel like I’m about to lose control at all.”
“Nor do I feel like I’m immolating,” Valentine added.
Ryan pondered a moment and said, “Similarly, I didn’t lose my memories.
“Perhaps there’s only a little power left here that can’t affect the mind, heart, and memories, but if we maintain this state for too long, I’m unsure if there will be any serious aftereffects.”
“I’m fine. At most, I’ll consume the potion again and advance again. As for you, there should be many possibilities in the future, but now, perhaps the future has been determined, one will lose control, and the other will transform into holy light. This is an inevitability I understand.”
“How frightening,” Leah exclaimed with a smile. “Luckily, we can restart the cycle while also attempting to seek the present here.”
Seeing that there were no terrifying monsters attacking, Lumian suggested, “Shall we go out first and see if we can recover naturally?
“Besides, we might encounter a power that represents the present along the way.”
Ryan didn’t object. “We can give it a shot.”
He was now an ordinary person, and it would be dangerous for him to go any further.
“I’m afraid that another change in state will cause me to lose control,” Leah said cautiously.
It would definitely be good to encounter the ‘present,’ but it would be troublesome to encounter the ‘past.’ They didn’t know what would happen if ‘future’ was additionally stacked on them.
Lumian took the initiative to say, “Let me scout the way. I still have a chance to change my state.”
He mainly wanted to see if his luck was good enough to encounter the ‘present’ or if the black thorn symbol on his chest protected him.
“Be careful,” Ryan warned, and Leah nodded.
Valentine’s gaze on Lumian grew less cold.
He couldn’t help but think, This lad has a very sacrificial spirit. Furthermore, he’s a devout believer of the lord. Once the cycle is lifted, let’s see if there’s a way to remove the hidden corruption on his body and let him join our team.
Seeing that Lumian was about to take a step forward, Valentine, who had regained his composure, suggested, “Let me see if I can rid myself of this state first.”
No one objected. Lumian was the same. This was because he was in the present. He didn’t need to remove any negative state or undergo purification.
In the next second, he realized he had miscalculated.
Valentine didn’t directly use Holy Water Creation to purify Leah and Ryan. Instead, he used Sun Halo.
A dark golden light flashed, and an invisible force spread in all directions.