Circle of Inevitability

Lumian, Franca, and Jenna's eyes widened as they caught sight of the strange golden lamp, making a bold conjecture.

Could it be 0-05, the Magic Wishing Lamp?

Yes, the pumpkin carriage is one of Major Arcana Ma'am Hermit's trademark symbols. She has close ties to Element Dawn's leader—Emperor Roselle's eldest daughter—and the current owner of 0-05, Bernadette. It isn't outside the realm of possibility that she might have borrowed the Magic Wishing Lamp…

As these thoughts raced through their minds, they heard Anthony's respectful greeting, "Good evening, Madam Magician, Madam Judgment."

Snapping out of their momentary trance, Lumian and the others quickly followed suit with their own greetings.

"And this is Ma'am Hermit," Magician added briefly.

Once the introductions were complete, the woman in the beige dress with a gold-embroidered high collar retrieved a bottle of dark-red wine from the void and said to Franca, "Hand over that cufflink. Once you do, you can all head home and get some rest."

Confronting the School of Truth's Overseer was clearly a battle at the demigod level. It wasn't something Lumian and company could get involved in.

Franca had no intention of forcing the issue. She handed the glass-like cufflink to Madam Magician.

"This is a mystical item that restores stamina and spirituality after drinking it. But remember, you can only have it once a day. Don't go turning into a drunkard."

Just one more sip and you'll become a drunkard? Franca and the others instantly understood the deeper meaning behind Madam Magician's final warning.

Seeing only a single sip of dark-red wine in the bottle, Franca turned to pass the old glass bottle to Lumian.

He had expended the most spirituality, after all.

Madam Magician rubbed the Mirror Cufflink between her fingers, a smile playing on her lips.

"Don't worry. You won't be able to finish it. It's called Bottomless Wine."

I see… Franca still wanted to give it a shot. She unscrewed the thin metal cap and downed the light dark-red wine.

As the slightly astringent and sweet alcohol slid down her throat, she felt refreshed, as if she'd just had a good night's sleep and hadn't been in a fierce battle with Moran Avigny.

At the same time, she noticed dark-red liquid seeping from the bottom of the old glass bottle, forming a thin layer of wine.

It really is bottomless… Franca sighed, handing the old glass bottle to Lumian.

But just as she reached out, a sudden sense of unease struck her.

Acting on instinct, she changed course, intending to let Jenna drink first.

Yet upon further reflection, she realized something was even more off!

Because she still had to pass it to Lumian afterward!

Never mind, never mind. No point getting caught up in trivial matters… Franca muttered in her native tongue.

Instead, she circled her finger around the bottle and managed to form a thin layer of frost.

As the frost naturally fell away, Franca passed the Bottomless Wine to Jenna.

Jenna drank the dark-red wine, mimicked Franca's actions, and then handed it to Lumian.

Franca breathed a sigh of relief.

Lumian paid no mind to the Demonesses' odd behavior. He was more concerned about the strange actions of Ma'am Hermit and Madam Magician.

Ma'am Hermit's eyes, obscured by lenses, grew dark but remained unfocused, as if staring into a vast expanse. Countless brilliant specks of light appeared around her, as if she had shrunk the universe and brought it down to the ground.

Performing divination or prophecy before tackling important matters? Lumian took the old glass bottle and drank the dark-red wine.

His spirituality rapidly recovered, as if he'd experienced six in the morning.

Of course, the portion of accumulated spirituality he had used didn't "return."

Phew, Lumian's anxiety over his spirituality deficiency had been alleviated.

After Anthony drank the Bottomless Wine and returned the mystical item to Madam Magician, the Mirror Cufflink's dark glow, mixed with starlight, flew out and landed on the Major Arcana card holder's eye.

Madam Magician sent Mirror Cufflink flying toward Franca while extending her hands, grasping the void, and pulling it apart on either side.

Without a sound, the void ripped open like a transparent membrane, revealing passageways formed by spiderwebs of emptiness and darkness.

This was a standard mirror world.

Magician had opened an illusory door to the mirror world without using a mirror!

Is this the advanced power of the Apprentice pathway? Lumian and company inwardly marveled. Madam Magician glanced at Ma'am Hermit beside her.

The Hermit, wearing a purple robe, held a vibrant, unreal ball of yarn in her right hand. She wound its thread around the peculiar golden lamp.

Then, the Major Arcana card holder tossed the vivid and illusory ball of yarn through the illusory door Magician had opened, into the mirror world's dark and ethereal tunnels.

The ball of yarn rolled into one of the passageways and quickly vanished into the depths, leaving only the thread connected to the golden lamp to mark its path.

Magician immediately led The Hermit and Judgment into the mirror world, chasing the ball of yarn.

After their figures disappeared from the mirror world, the forcibly torn void rapidly closed.

Franca muttered again, "I think I've heard the story about a yarn ball before, but I can't recall its name…"

Lumian turned his attention back to Moran Avigny's corpse.

"You want to bring him back for your godson to eat?" Franca said with contempt. "Let's not even discuss whether Ludwig should be eating humans in the first place. A Mirror Person's flesh will gradually turn back into mirror fragments. Do you really want Ludwig to be eating glass shards?"

Lumian shook his head.

"I'm considering whether I should take Moran Avigny's makeup mirror."

…

After tracking the vibrant yarn for a while, the three Major Arcana card holders reached a country villa matching the mirror's coordinates and spotted the target mirror on a desk.

It was also a makeup mirror.

They didn't pause. They followed the ball of yarn and walked through the spirit world.

In a mere two to three seconds, they returned to reality and saw the vivid and illusory ball of yarn come to a halt in a dark cathedral lacking a deity's statue.

Beneath the cathedral's dome, humans hung in the air, gently swaying in the wind.

Some were old, some were young, and some were gentlemen wearing half top hats. Some were beautiful ladies in vintage dresses, some were tall and muscular like giants, and some were covered in wet, sticky scales resembling fish…

What they all had in common was their firmly closed eyes, suspended by invisible ropes, looking like hanged corpses.

In the cathedral's depths, a man in his thirties with average facial features and dark hair sat in a wooden black armchair. His aura and soul felt both familiar and unfamiliar to Magician.

It was familiar because she recognized Loki, the head of April Fool's, who had been compelled to exhaust his resurrection times. It was unfamiliar because the other party had been stained with an odd sensation.

At that instant, a blurry female figure stood next to Loki, resembling a sketch. Her eyes were pitch-black, like a lake in the dim night.

He looked at Magician, The Hermit, and Judgment, a smile playing on his lips.

"It's all thanks to you that I found some hope of returning."

Before Loki could finish his sentence, the suspended corpses' eyes snapped open simultaneously.

Those eyes were pitch-black.

…

In the quarry cave with a fixed entrance to the mirror world.

"Taking away Moran Avigny's makeup mirror?" Jenna echoed Lumian's words before a realization struck her. "Do you want to see if any other Mirror People will try to contact Moran Avigny before news of his mysterious disappearance spreads?"

"Patience is a virtue," Lumian replied with a smile.

For a Hunter, this was an essential quality.

He stooped down and retrieved the makeup mirror from Moran Avigny's corpse's pocket.

At that moment, the makeup mirror snapped open.

It opened on its own!

Dark light surged from the palm-sized glass mirror, instantly filling the dimly lit quarry cave.

In the next instant, Lumian, Franca, and the others saw a figure quickly take shape beside the fixed entrance to the mirror world on the protruding rock.

It was a stunning woman with black hair and brown eyes. She wore a bright red dress with layers of embroidery and lace, revealing a large expanse of snow-white skin on her chest despite the cold winter. A friendly smile graced her face.

Perle?

The renowned courtesan in Trier, Perle, the theater actress from the Loen Kingdom?

Lumian was shocked and at a loss. He hadn't expected to encounter this flamboyant courtesan in such a setting.

Franca, Jenna, and Anthony also found the situation surreal and hard to believe.

Almost simultaneously, Lumian recalled two key facts related to Perle.

The first time he had observed Moran Avigny, Perle had been on a date with her new lover in the hotel's annex restaurant.

All courtesans were standard, textbook brokers—political brokers!

Combining these two points, a guess formed in Lumian's mind.

Could Perle also be a member of the School of Truth?

Could she be the Overseer that Jebus directly reported to, the bestowed of an evil god at the demigod level?

If that's the case, where did Madam Magician and the others end up? Who were they tracking?

Flee! We must flee immediately!

At that moment, Perle looked at Lumian and the others, a smile forming on her lips as she uttered the Words of Order.

"Your crimes remain unpunished!"

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