Annan realized something, “This is where the bones are buried…”
Suppose Annan’s guess was right.
The Otherworldly Level nightmare might not be naturally occurring. However, the Venerated Skeleton couldn’t create a nightmare in which He was trapped.
Relating to the last moment when the Venerated Skeleton disintegrated and the last bone was submerged into the earth of Elegy Dukedom, this was probably a “bone burial” ritual.
Just when He was about to seize Elle’s body and transform into the real Betrayal Deity, Bone Burying Grandma took action… She turned the Venerated Skeleton’s corpse into this nightmare to seal the Venerated Skeleton.
As what the Venerated Skeleton said:
—Burial is for forgetting.
And to forget is to betray.
To escape this endless, repeating nightmare, the easiest way was to keep betraying your teammates – ensuring you’re the last one standing in every cycle.
Then, in the next cycle, gather everyone’s strength and wisdom to solve the puzzle before betraying and eliminating the rest of the team.
Until the mystery was completely solved, regardless of whether anyone had died in this life, just choose to leave — and the nightmare would be ended.
Whether he wanted to escape or not, his surviving teammates with no memory would urge him to leave. They were unaware of how many times they had been killed by him in past cycles… that in itself was a profound betrayal.
It was about dreams, life and death, companions, sacrifice, and fated betrayal.
Someone who could pull this off certainly wouldn’t be the Venerated Skeleton. In this nightmare, he was just an NPC and didn’t have the power to retain memories.
In other words, this large-scale ritual that unfolded at the expense of “the death of the Venerated Skeleton” would allow another person to gain part of the [Betrayal] Truth.
Even if the Bone Burying Grandma’s seal failed and the Venerated Skeleton escaped from it, another person had taken away a large amount of [Betrayal] Truth from Him.
Then, the true and complete Betrayal Deity would fail to emerge. This ascendancy ritual had a higher chance of failure, or it might just result in a deity less powerful than the Venerated Skeleton.
The ritual of Bone Burying Grandma had a clear intent.
Even though the Venerated Skeleton gave up His ‘skeletal’ part of the clergy and returned it to the earth, it didn’t mean that the part it vacated could fully embrace the true essence of betrayal.
Perhaps, this was probably because Bone Burying Grandma didn’t dare nor want to entrust the Venerated Skeleton with the full clergy of betrayal. After all, the purity of a deity’s clergy was crucial, as it related to its “proximity” to the other deity’s realm.
Silver Sire and Red Knight went out of their way to maintain the purity of their realms.
The essence of the “transaction, trade” realm that Silver Sire held was “unequal exchange”; because if it was completely equal, then it was merely an “exchange”. Based on this clergy, he could extend his control over multiple realms such as currency, cargo transportation, transportation, speculation, etc.
Red Knight was “the War Deity” — “violent actions with intent among multiple participants.” Based on the purity of this realm, Her subordinate deities range from “weapons” to “tactics”, from “knights” to “conspiracy”, and even “guard” and “plunder”.
Like the Mysterious Lady, the Deity of Secrets and Ritual; while there were many types of secrets and rituals, when combined, the term “secret” tended to be interpreted as “occult knowledge”.
However, Mysterious Lady was also a unique case. When she ascended, she did not pick two pages out of the Book of Truth. However, two adjacent pages were automatically selected for her.
Most deities used to adopt multiple clergies to broaden their influence across varied realms, like the Old Grandmother and Bone Burying Grandma. However, some deities aimed to refine their realm and sought more adjacent spheres of influence.
Once the Venerated Skeleton obtained the pure [betrayal] clergy, his ability in this realm would increase dramatically.
Without relying on the Book of Truth at all, through repeated optimization rituals, He would attain the deity level. It also granted him the option to refine his clergy further…
In terms of talent, the Venerated Skeleton was indeed an extraordinary genius.
Historically, there were only three transcenders who had successfully ascended to deityhood without relying on the Book of Truth. The Venerated Skeleton, the Rotten Man, the Man in the Mirror — apart from Rotten Man, the remaining two were peerless geniuses, the likes of which no one had emerged in hundreds of years.
The more brilliant these geniuses were, the greater the harm they posed to the world when they harbored malicious intentions and fell from grace.
It was reasonable for Bone Burying Grandma to seal the Venerated Skeleton.
Not to mention that the Venerated Skeleton had destroyed the statue of Bone Burying Grandma.
No matter how good-tempered She was, She couldn’t turn a blind eye to that.
Just as the Old Grandmother controlled the element of “frost”, any land of snow was her divine realm. On the other hand, the Bone Burying Grandma controlled the two strongest realms in the world… one of them was the [earth].
If Annan guessed correctly, Bone Burying Grandma might be the “earth” at the beginning of creation.
With the [earth] clergy at her disposal, she could appear anywhere and shake the earth anywhere. The place they were in before was underground, a secret room wrapped in the earth. Naturally, that too was part of the Bone Burying Grandma’s realm.
Achieving this feat was still a bit unbelievable.
Annan murmured, “In short, the core elements of this nightmare are Elle and the Venerated Skeleton.”
His right hand’s fingers tapped rhythmically on the armrest like waves, while his left hand rested on his forehead, eyes slightly closed in deep thought.
In a brief moment earlier, the Venerated Skeleton had renounced his identity as a deity — at least in that instant when he discarded his divine form but failed to possess Elle, he was not considered a deity.
Bone Burying Grandma’s large-scale Otherworldly Level nightmare was probably intended to seal Elle together with the Venerated Skeleton.
But if it were just Elle alone, she might not be able to seal the Venerated Skeleton. Through each reincarnation after another, she would eventually collapse completely.
The existence of other people was Elle’s “safety lock”.
The purpose of their existence was to help Elle bear this “memory”.
“…But they are my people. Tsk.“
“They were the ones who followed my orders and went to find her. It was also because of me that Elle was not sealed in the Freezing Water Port.” Annan gritted his teeth, smacked his lips, and thought deeply, “This is on me… This is my responsibility. Tsk…“
“Even if it means eternal reincarnation, I have to get them back.”
Is there any other way…
How can we notify them? How can we break this nightmare with the cycle of reincarnation?
What’s the essence of Elle being at the heart of the nightmare? Does she have memories? No, she probably doesn’t. The others were dragged directly into the nightmare by the Grandma just to relieve Elle’s pressure in bearing the memory.
Since Elle has no strong desire to live, she will not end up as the last survivor. But if she becomes the last survivor, that would be the best outcome. According to the nightmare design of the Bone Burying Grandma, the person who breaks the nightmare as the leader, in the end, would at least grasp half of the ‘Betrayal’ truth. If it were Elle…
…the last survivor?
Elle?
“…Wait a moment.” Annan stopped tapping his fingers.
He thought of something and suddenly opened his eyes widely.
He immediately jumped down from the chair and walked to the mirror where Salvatore had been communicating with him.
He held the mirror with both hands and stared at his left eye.
It had an emerald green gemstone luster and was the left eye of an angel.
That was the left eye given to him by Elle.
The moment Annan saw that eye, a thought he once had echoed in his mind.
It was what he said after hearing Elle’s covenant:
[You are much better than the Venerated Skeleton. It would be nice if you were the Betrayal Deity.]
Annan sighed at that time.
[She will be the ‘betrayed’, watching the betrayer’s actions; and I will be the ‘betrayer’, listening to the cry of the betrayed.]
So said the Venerated Skeleton at the time.
“If only you were the Betrayal Deity…” Annan repeated.
He realized something and slowly touched his left eye.
Using his index finger, he touched his eyeball.
There was no pain at all.
It felt like jade.
“This time, it’s…” Annan murmured.
“… me watching?”
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