Chen Ke walked alone through the tunnel, where the stone path twisted and turned upwards. Under the dim blue candlelight, the tunnel was filled with the corpses of priests, as if the entire Black Ring Sect had been massacred.
In such a narrow space, it was impossible to wield a longsword with both hands, and the fatal wounds on these priests did not appear to be caused by swords or knives.
Although the corpses in the chapel were not exactly intact, compared to the ones in the hallway, they were at least recognizably human-shaped. Now, as Chen Ke advanced, the corpses of the priests at his feet became increasingly ghastly to behold.
Beyond the severed limbs and arms, the corpses up ahead had essentially turned into mince, and the smooth stone floor had become slippery with blood and entrails. Further on, even the sconces on the walls had been scraped off by something.
It seemed as if some enormous creature had writhed through this tunnel, crushing everything in its path.
Chen Ke gripped his sword in hand, shield before his chest, sensing a great battle ahead.
Had this been before, he certainly would have been sickened by this gruesome spectacle and wouldn’t have dared enter the tunnel.
Now, he felt nothing at these sights; was it because he was heartless? Emotions slowly eroding away, the cruel scene before him became nothing more than a pile of useful and useless information in Chen Ke’s eyes.
Chen Ke did not know whether this was an effect of the countdown to his life’s end or a quality of his professionalism as an Assassin that allowed him to remain so composed. He disliked this feeling.
Fear is the most primal of human emotions, and Chen Ke was gradually losing it.
At the end of the tunnel, a wooden door appeared.
Chen Ke activated his Spiritual Vision for a quick scan, detected nothing unusual, then slipped his sword into the sheath at his waist and pushed the door open.
The hefty wooden door creaked and groaned; mid-push, it suddenly collapsed into decay and crashed to the floor with a clang.
"What the..." Chen Ke muttered to himself.
Before him lay a large hall, vaguely familiar. To the left, against the wall, was an upward staircase, while to the right, an open-air stone corridor.
A cold wind blew in from one side of the corridor, and it was clearly daytime outside, presumably between seven and eight in the morning.
This timeline wasn’t right; Chen Ke didn’t believe he had spent over three hours walking through that tunnel. He turned to look back at the tunnel, which was now spotless, devoid of any priest corpses.
No... had he entered the third time-space during his walk through the tunnel?
Chen Ke was left perplexed. The Great Void was divided into multiple fragments by key events in a loop, and it was impossible to enter the next fragmented time-space without completing the loop in order.
Could it be that he had unconsciously fulfilled the conditions of the loop in the previous time-space?
After some deep thought, Chen Ke realized the answer. It could very well be that sword... Faralis’s Unyielding Fury.
Perhaps what he was meant to do in the previous loop was to help Faralis find her sword?
If Chen Ke hadn’t gone through the events of the first time-space, he wouldn’t have been able to exchange Faralis’s soul for her sword.
Logically, in the previous loop, Chen Ke was supposed to explore and seek out Faralis’s sword that existed in that time-space.
Simply put, Chen Ke had skipped stages of the cycle.
If I’m not mistaken, this is the third time loop, and it also means that Chen Ke had thrown away that iron canister. After all, one couldn’t leave without completing the loop.
He came to the open-air corridor and looked down at the town below. The scene was significantly different from before, with townspeople walking in twos and threes, and the castle was also very quiet.
The buildings destroyed in the siege were being slowly repaired, with craftsmen hanging on ropes from the rooftops and walls to work.
"Um... it looks like the war is over... Fan Hede won, and a certain amount of time has surely passed in this time loop since that siege," Chen Ke muttered to himself quietly.
That being said, did Faralis go through with the assassination of the Pope Mazville that night? Chen Ke did not know.
"Knight... Knight?! What are you doing here?" Just as Chen Ke was gazing absentmindedly at the street below, a priest walked down from upstairs.
Chen Ke turned around and saw a priest in a green robe wearing a mask. He felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity with this man. Suddenly remembering something, could this be Nylonde...?
"Black... Long live the Black Ring Sect... Priest!" Chen Ke said awkwardly.
Medieval society was very particular about class. Mithril Knights, as protectors of the palace, shouldn’t be seen in the cathedral.
"Knight... Why are you here? Wouldn’t the palace affairs keep you busy enough?" The priest said with a hint of dissatisfaction in his tone.
"I have a secret letter from the King to Pope Mazville," Chen Ke replied gravely.
"A letter...?" The priest frowned, seeming puzzled.
At that moment, a group of people wrapped in headscarves and dressed in white robes walked in from behind, through the tunnel. Chen Ke’s conversation with the priest was forced to a halt; he stepped aside to let the group pass slowly by.
Chen Ke noticed that they were all women, who went up the stairs. The priest had to go upstairs to make way for the group.
Seizing this opportunity, Chen Ke began walking deeper into the hall with a clanking stride, leaving the priest behind.
"Hey, hey! Knight! Knight!" The priest’s voice called from behind, but Chen Ke didn’t look back and even started to jog.
"Damn your mother’s legs, go choke on a candle..." Chen Ke cursed under his breath as he ran, while other priests hurriedly moved aside, fearing to be hit by the clanking armors.
As he jogged along, Chen Ke found another stairway leading up, painstakingly tiptoed up, and discovered he had come to a familiar place.
The bridge that should have been broken was now intact, its white structure stretching far into the distance. The lower-ranking priests in white robes were walking along, heading somewhere, and on the other side were the open double doors of the grand cathedral.
Chen Ke stepped onto the bridge, trying to walk towards the far end, but the tip of his foot touched an invisible wall, just like the door encountered earlier in the cathedral. Watching the priests walking toward the distance, some of them curiously looked at Chen Ke.
It seemed this was the end of the loop for this area. Chen Ke turned back and approached the entrance of the grand cathedral.
Inside, many priests were seated on the long benches, silently praying. He tried to find Parker and Brother Discouraged but couldn’t spot them anywhere.
Chen Ke stood at the entrance, unsure of what to do next. Just then, a white glimmer at his feet caught his eye.
"Hmm... What’s this..." Chen Ke looked down and saw a line of beautiful script imprinted on the ground, faintly flashing with white light.