Maria did not know whether Annan was experiencing a nightmare on the outside.
So, even though Annan’s emotions were complex at the time,
He just paced around the room, searching for components related to the ritual.
From the very beginning of the first cycle, Annan had determined that this scene would become Bella’s nightmare. As such, he arranged a mechanism that would only trigger when "Annan entered."
For the current Annan, Bella’s nightmare was something he had to purify no matter what, in order to reclaim "the secret of those years."
This was because the conditions to enter the "third game" were too harsh.
As a result, even if Annan had called someone to purify this nightmare, they could not reach the correct conclusion or reclaim the most crucial information. Therefore, Annan had to personally enter this nightmare...
After surveying the setup around him, Annan suddenly realized the key to this ritual.
Generally speaking, a ritual could not use a "person" as a component of the ritual.
It was not because it was inferior... but rather, a living person had far too many concepts associated with them.
He could be a good person or an evil one; he might have deceived someone or just attended a funeral. Typically, if one meets the requirements of a certain ritual, they surely meet the requirements of another.
Without precise guidance and constraints, the ritual could easily be directed towards another outcome. If it veers in that direction, it might not meet the needs of another ritual, leading directly to failure.
In other words, a "ritual" is like a search system. But it lacks intelligent search capabilities. It does not even sort by relevance automatically.
However, it does support fuzzy searches (uses upper and lower substitutions)... this causes it to push anything that contains the keyword.
Moreover, unless one uses advanced search to manually limit multiple fields, the outcome that pops out from the ritual might baffle the Ritualist.
— Even lesser than zero degrees.
The rules of the ritual are this kind of "advanced search." For example, in the "Gemini" nightmare, the "Purifier Detection Device" arranged based on the feature that the purifier does not possess personal memories was formed with this kind of thinking.
However, Annan had already reached the next domain.
That is, by searching for irrelevant things, he let it inadvertently reveal what he originally wanted.
Inside this room, a circle was outlined with ropes, signifying the concepts of "repetition" and "cycle."
During this season and time, when the sunlight from outside the house streamed inside, the moment Annan turned his head, it perfectly lit up half of his face while the other half fell into darkness.
This precisely introduced the concepts of "stepping into darkness" and "self-division." However, at this time, Annan would not complete the ritual, so even if the Rotten Husband came here, he would not be discovered.
But at the moment of the first cycle Annan’s death, that moment gained the meaning of "saying farewell to the future."
It was like a Prophet who had made predictions, and only after the death of the Prophet and the fulfillment of the predictions would the moment of making the predictions have sanctity.
— This is a mystical technique of modifying the past from the future.
When the future Annan returned to this place, it formed a "closed loop of fate." The ropes around were used to reinforce this concept.
And since "fate is the ruts of the heavenly chariot," Annan could send information to his future self.
And in such a situation, it was naturally not possible to have a dialogue.
In the first cycle, Annan deduced that Bella’s nightmare would definitely involve "memories of love and fear," and calculated that Annan would first see that memory before entering the nightmare, even guessing how Annan would question him.
It was precisely for this reason that he could have a "conversation" with Annan across the void.
Compared to the rituals in the "Gemini" nightmare, ingeniously crafted and even capable of being copied for use, the ritual that Annan had set up seemed too casual and "dangerous."
It was akin to walking on a tightrope.
That was undoubtedly a very dangerous stacking — under multiple artificial "coincidences," it just so happened to form the concepts he needed. If any detail were changed, it would cause a serious misalignment.
Yet, in Annan’s incredibly precise predictions, not even a slight misalignment occurred.
This was just like many of his wildly imaginative plans. Full of unconventional, impractical dangers but always somehow successful.
Soon, Annan realized that there was nothing particularly special to take in this room.
Except for a piece of paper on the table—it recorded the materials needed for the ritual to summon the Rotten, the incantation words, and details to pay attention to during the ritual. And after obtaining it, even without looking, one could automatically gain the function of a "prompter."
This wasn’t linguistic proficiency brought by the nightmare itself.
But a "prompt" based on the ritual effect.
Realizing this, Annan fully understood.
...At that time, seeing Husky so fluently use the ritual should have made me realize it.
Annan smacked his lips.
—This is obviously something specifically prepared for the Purifiers!
As a Ritualist himself, even possibly a Ritualist strong enough at that time to acquire the "Crown of the Supreme," Annan wouldn’t need such a thing as a prompter.
So, why would he prepare such a paper here?
This was because Annan understood very well the mechanics of nightmares.
Nightmares don’t set up mechanisms that "Purifiers absolutely cannot solve."
For instance, not every Purifier knows "the ritual to summon the Rotten." Therefore, to prevent the plot in the nightmare from being unable to occur normally, the nightmare would typically start the timeline right after "summoning the Rotten."
After all, the core plot of this nightmare was the wager between Dmitry and the Rotten.
The preparation time before this was actually meaningless.
But if Annan placed a paper on the table that said, "The moment you touch this paper, you will learn the mysterious knowledge to summon the Rotten," and let Dmitry take off his bracelet ...
Then time would be pushed forward to before "Annan touched this paper" and "Dmitry put on the bracelet."
Annan had already asked Maria about it.
That bracelet was a gift Bella had once given to Dmitry.
It was neither a cursed object nor made of cursed materials. It was just a simple bracelet, containing spices and could soothe the nerves somewhat.
—And after this "wager" ended, Dmitry no longer had the bracelet on his hand.
It could be out of anger, disappointment, or simply an accident... in any case, during this wager, Dmitry damaged the bracelet.
This too, was a strategy typical of Annan.
By damaging the bracelet, making it a closed-loop, a "crucial clue" for decryption, the nightmare would be continuously pushed forward to a timeline "before the appearance of the bracelet."
Since it did not have to be after "summoning the Rotten," and Dmitry had the need to appear earlier, by leaving behind the ritual requirements to summon the Rotten, it would ensure that when Annan entered the nightmare, he would happen to be in this room.
Everything was within Annan’s calculations.
And after Annan touched the paper.
His main mission also appeared before him.
But after Annan already knew the nature of this nightmare, seeing his main mission... his feelings became complicated:
[Main Mission: Speak Not the Truth]
[Do not let others understand the full plan]
[Enter the third round in your bet against the Rotten]
[Annan Winter must not die]
"Speak not the truth, huh?"
Annan chuckled softly.