Mystery: Good Witch

Chapter 1169 Hope to See You Again (Two in One)

This question caused the mausoleum to fall into a brief silence, which made Russell feel a little embarrassed. His face, which was shrouded in shadow, changed slightly, and he took the initiative to speak:
"I was just joking. If you are indeed a female witch, then when you become immortal, the thing that the Witch Cult and the 'Original Witch' are worried about should happen..."

"No," Angel shook his head and said, "My situation is a bit strange. In fact, it is difficult for me to say whether I am a 'male witch' or a 'female witch'."

Huh? Russell's expression clearly showed this interjection.

Klein also looked over silently. Although he had already known about this when the two of them "recognized each other", he couldn't help but feel suspicious when he heard Russell's concerns about the "female witch".

Seeing that he had the situation under control, Angel asked Russell while organizing his words in his mind:
"When you 'traveled' into this body, he should have just died, right?"

The latter nodded:
"The original Roselle died after falling off his horse during a hunt. When I was resurrected from him, I couldn't feel the area below my neck for a few seconds. It was probably the power of Sefirah Castle repairing my cervical vertebrae... Fortunately, there were no witnesses at the time, otherwise I would have been sent to the Inquisition of the Eternal Sun Church that day."

"That is the power of the miracle worker that was advanced. It is a temporary 'gift'. If you choose the path of the fortune teller, you will have to return the 'miracle', but it seems that you will have to keep owing it."

Klein chuckled and interjected.

Russell nodded as if he suddenly understood something, as if a doubt in his mind had been resolved.

Seeing this, Angel continued:

"It was the same for me. When I was resurrected in a basement, my original body had just died from failing to become a 'witch'. My body had become a female, but it had expelled some of the contaminated characteristics, and my spirit had long since dissipated. This prevented me from choosing the path of potions I was in, so I could only start from 'assassin', but it also allowed me to avoid being held responsible for his murder of many people."

"You have become a woman... So, the original one was a male 'instigator'? You are a woman in your mind and soul, but a 'male witch' in your body?"

Russell concluded.

This made Angel's heart beat rapidly a few times. She tried her best not to show any abnormality and did not look at Klein. Instead, she nodded naturally and continued:

"Therefore, my situation is somewhat different from that of an ordinary witch. The 'person in the mirror' is also a female, not a male person in the mirror that is created when a male witch is promoted. However, whether it is the promotion from Sequence 3 or Sequence 2, the 'great terror' you mentioned has not occurred."

"This is considered a 'bug'." Klein glanced at Angel and said with a smile.

Fortunately, he and Roselle didn’t notice the key issue, they didn’t notice my gender before I “traveled”… That’s right, in their opinion, the body I entered was female, so the soul should naturally be of the same gender, after all, it was the same for both of them… Even if I had to admit that I was once a male, a male in body and mind, I couldn’t do that in front of this emperor!
Angel secretly breathed a sigh of relief and laughed along.

Seeing the two of them smiling at each other, the atmosphere became ambiguous. Russell inexplicably had the illusion that he should be under the car. He twisted his body uneasily and changed to a lighter topic:
"During the years that I was gone, have there been any other 'travelers' besides you?"

"As far as I know, there shouldn't be any. Apart from your various 'writings' and inventions, there are no other products in line with our era on the market. Of course, it is also possible that those time travelers hid themselves well, or they starved to death on the streets because you forced them into a corner."

Klein replied that he was sure that there were only three spirits released by Sefirah Castle, including Roselle, and the identity of the last one was almost confirmed. But as the senior time traveler said, Sefirah Castle was not the only one that could bring people here from the old times. At least the City of Disaster had sent his Angel.

"Haha, I didn't copy everything. I left a lot of paths for those who came after me, such as 'Coke', science fiction, and the application of electricity."

The emperor, who already had one foot halfway into Sequence 0, spoke in a brisk tone, as if he was discussing a topic of interest with a close friend.

"That's because we had just entered the steam age more than a hundred years ago, and there was no industrial foundation for large-scale production of cheap glass bottles and carbonated beverages. But I still want to thank you for leaving me a way to make money."

Angel couldn't help but say.

"It seems that Coke makes you a lot of money," Russell nodded, "Coca-Cola or Pepsi?"

He didn't wait for Angel's answer, but only waited for a bottle of iced "Black Bear Coke" that Angel took out from the mirror space.

A hand shrouded in black shadow with only a vague outline took the glass bottle and unscrewed the metal cap with bare hands. Roselle carefully brought it to his mouth, took a sip of the brown bubbling liquid, and squinted his eyes as if recalling a memory.

There was no hiccup... Angel muttered to himself, and then returned to the previous topic:
"In your time, or even earlier, have you discovered any suspected time travelers?"

Russell sighed contentedly, holding the glass bottle, and answered in a low, hoarse voice:
"I suspected the Elf King and his people, but I finally confirmed that they were not. Of course, after knowing that this is Earth, the elves who left the 'Western Continent' may have inherited some Eastern habits... In addition, I suspect that the ancient sun god is also a time traveler."

"You are right to be suspicious."

Klein nodded.

“Is He really from the same hometown?” Roselle’s tone was a little surprised, but not much, as if a certain guess in his heart was confirmed. “I said that those religious creations and the surnames of those ancient families were too deliberate, as if they wanted to leave a strong mark in history and declare their existence to the later generations... It’s a pity that He is too far away from this era, otherwise the four of us could have a good gathering... Alas, I don’t know how much humanity He will have when He falls, and whether he will still remember his hometown.”

You do resonate with Him in thought... and the Ancient Sun God is quite human, he has become the "true creator"... Angel answered in her mind but did not say it out loud, because she was not sure whether the evil god composed of negative humanity and crazy and extreme emotions could be regarded as a complete Ancient Sun God.

As for the other suspected time traveler, the "Goddess of Night" Amanesis, Angel and Klein tacitly did not bring it up.

As a follower of the goddess, of course you have to have this awareness.

And Angel suspected that this god might have devoted some energy to paying attention to what was happening on the island, so as to avoid the worst situation when Roselle really became a puppet of the "Fallen Mother Goddess".

Thinking of this, she felt a little sympathetic towards the situation that Roselle was facing at the moment and the barely balanced forces in his body, and said:
"Maybe there will be a chance for us to get together, but before that you have to solve your own problems first."

"If you hadn't come here, I might have almost solved the problem. Nast Solomon's behavior of breaking in here with pollution has significantly aggravated the problem..."

Russell smiled self-deprecatingly and took another sip of Coke.

"Nast? What did he do? Where is he now?"

Angel asked curiously.

This was her original purpose for breaking into this mausoleum, to find the "King of the Five Seas" who had believed in foreign gods and had been polluted.

"He carries a more active contamination in his body, and it seems that he wants to merge into my body, but he seems to have forgotten that I am the real 'Emperor' here."

Russell chuckled, sneering at the foolish behavior of the descendant of an old acquaintance.

"But in the battle and the 'sealing' process just now, I saw a little hope. Only the Old Ones can fight against the Old Ones, and perhaps the Sefirot can also... Of course, becoming an Old One or controlling the Sefirot is definitely more dangerous than becoming a god, especially the 'Sefirot Castle' that seals most of the other Sefirot. Think about it, if that being wants to be resurrected and is worried that other Old Ones will appear first and stop it, what will He do?"

As he spoke, he looked at Klein.

The latter was silent for a moment, then asked as if to confirm:

"Seal the other essences, so that any true god who wants to become an 'Old One' can only watch Him resurrect. In order to achieve this before the end of the world, he must actively promote this process?"

After combining the information from the Seven Lights of the Spirit World, Arrodes, and Angel, he already had a guess in his mind.

Russell sighed and said seriously:
“This is an open conspiracy. Perhaps everything you have experienced is part of His plan, and the other beings who helped you may not care whether it is you or Him who becomes the old one.

"My only suggestion is to talk to the genie in the Wishing Lamp before you try to become one."

Because of the hatred between Tianzun and the God of Lamp, He did not want the other party to be resurrected more than any other god... Klein nodded slightly to show his understanding.

Then, Russell looked at Angel again, and his tone slowed down a lot:
"As for you, I can't give you too much advice. After all, we are not 'roommates'. But my knowledge and intuition tell me that what the 'God of Death' of the Fourth Epoch wanted to do was right, but the order was wrong, so he eventually became a half-crazy, but with some of the power of the old days, a strange existence that almost defeated the Alliance of Gods of the Northern Continent."

What Salinger did... using the status of the "God of Death" to accommodate the uniqueness of the "Red Priest" and integrate the power of the "City of Disaster" and the "River of Eternal Darkness"? Angel suddenly thought of the rules of jumping between the five paths mentioned by Amon's clone, and nodded.

Seeing that both of them accepted his suggestion, Russell let out a long sigh and said with a smile: "When you become old friends, don't forget to help your brother."

Then, he was silent for a moment, and his tone slowed down:
"If we really can't solve the pollution of the 'Fallen Mother Goddess', then destroy this mausoleum and let my mirror person inherit everything. Although she may be a little extreme in her thinking, she also cherishes everything I cherish... If she can't get rid of the pollution, then destroy the mausoleum as well, and support a new 'Black Emperor' so that we can never be resurrected..."

This heavy topic made Angel unable to say anything like "Let Annie go to the adjacent road" and he could only nod silently.

Klein also agreed with a serious expression. As the Fool, he had been planning to kill the "Black Emperor" George III since he was at Sequence 3, and he was already familiar with this kind of thing.

Instead, Roselle smiled again and said lightly:

"Don't be so sad. You can try to rescue me a few more times when the time comes."

"I will."

Klein answered solemnly that he had undoubtedly received the greatest favor from Roselle. Both the diaries and the blasphemous cards provided a lot of help in the early stages of The Fool, allowing the Tarot Club to operate normally and giving him the right direction to work towards.

"Among my children, Bonois must have become an angel now. If Charles hadn't had his adventure, he would have died now. I hope you can take care of Bernadette. As a father, she is the one I am most worried about..."

Russell kept talking, and when he saw Klein was about to speak again, he quickly pointed at Angel and added:

"No, no, I'm mainly referring to her, not you. I always feel that it would be awkward if you said 'look after Bernadette', you know?"

Klein, who was well versed in the Internet era's clichés, said "hmm". He found it difficult to adapt to Emperor Roselle's eccentric, sometimes serious and sometimes relaxed conversation style.

There is a "Trier" style. No, it should be said that the people of Trier inherited this style of the emperor... He muttered a few words in his mind and was about to say something else when Roselle asked again:
"Finally, I still have to ask you your names. I mean your real names. As for mine, you should have seen it in the diary. It's Huang Tao."

"Angel, Angel Grey."

Angel said frankly.

"Hiss, you really are a foreigner..." Russell said with emotion, "I won't ask where you are from. When we are here, everyone is the same."

As he spoke, he looked at Klein again.

"Zhou Mingrui." Klein replied immediately.

“I remember everything.” Roselle’s shadow leaned back, pressed against the back of the chair, and continued, “It can be seen that your relationship is closer than I thought. This is good. It can make you feel a real sense of belonging in this world. I didn’t have this feeling until Bernadette was born. Before that, I treated this world as a game, and I was the undisputed protagonist. I had a lot of fun and felt it was very exciting…”

Leonard thought the same thing when he was in Tingen... Angel could hardly keep his serious expression and almost laughed.

Russell sighed and admitted frankly:
"Unfortunately, I finally realized that life is not a game, and I am not the protagonist...

"Oh, I almost forgot to remind you to be careful of the 'Mother' card in the Blasphemy deck. Combined with the 'Original Moon', that is, the authority represented by the power of the 'Fallen Mother Goddess'. I suspect that this is the purpose for Her to prompt me to create this deck of cards."

I almost forgot... Is he still under the influence of the "Fallen Mother Goddess"? Klein thought with some worry, nodded and said:
"I'll pay attention."

"That's good... I don't have anything else to help you with. I wish you happiness." Roselle said with a sigh, "I hope we can meet again."

Knowing that they had stayed in this mausoleum for too long, the two men stopped trying to keep the emperor, who looked a little tired, so as not to affect his resistance to the pollution in his body. Klein's paper figurine lit up with bright yellow flames from its feet and quickly burned to ashes. Angel's figure also gradually faded, like a shadow in a mirror.

She took one last look at the emperor on the platform, bowed slightly as a farewell, and then disappeared into the shadows.

The empty mausoleum built of pitch-black stones fell into silence. Only in the iron-black chair on the high platform, Roselle's shadow was looming.

----

At the edge of the island, Angel left the mirror world and came to the captain's room of the "Dawn", where he met Anne and Bernadette Gustave who were waiting there.

The latter has used the action of preventing his father from being completely contaminated by the "Great Mother" and becoming a puppet of the evil god to satisfy the promotion ceremony of the "Sage". He took this opportunity to take the potion and became a real angel.

Of course, in this process, like all Sequence 3s who attempted to be promoted to angels, she encountered the influence of the mental imprint within the Beyonder characteristics. When she transformed into an invisible information flow and formed her own complete mythical creature form, the "Hidden Sage" also tried to influence her and tried to pollute this new angel of the "Mystery Peeper" path.

Fortunately, the "disaster" that was prevented this time was of an extremely high level, the ritual was extremely effective, and Mr. Fool provided her with some help, so she was able to barely use the prayers of her subordinates such as "Admiral of the Stars" and "Dawn of the Elements" as an anchor to stabilize her own state. She did not become a complete information creature during the promotion process, but reorganized her body and truly became a "sage."

According to the agreement she made last time when she was hypnotized and forgot the relevant memories, Angel once again told the other party the knowledge between "Outer Gods" and "Old Days" that was vaguely called "Starry Sky", so that she could have a clear grasp of the problems facing the world and the truth of "Doomsday".

It also let her know what kind of existence her father was facing and how much effort he made to prevent the invasion of the outer gods.

"It turns out that what he has been facing is an existence more terrifying than the true God of Sequence 0. It turns out that he became radical and crazy in his later years because of the contamination of the 'Fallen Mother Goddess'... It turns out that he is still the same person..."

After listening to Angel's selective narration of the conversation in the mausoleum, Bernadette sat at the round table in the captain's room, and her blue eyes, which had not yet restrained their scattered spirituality, became moist again.

Cry, cry, it will help you maintain your "humanity"... Angel muttered and gently held the other's hand.

Anne also sat aside and fell into silence. After a moment, she suddenly asked:
"Where's Nast? Didn't he break into the mausoleum? I didn't see him again on the island or in the mausoleum."

"He tried to bring the new pollution into the mausoleum to activate the part of Roselle's body, but he has been sanctioned by this 'Emperor'."

Angel explained.

----

In the mausoleum, on the chair on the high platform, there were only vague shadows wandering around.

Suddenly, the human features on the shadow's face faded, and several blood-red cracks opened up, crookedly forming two eyes and a mouth, with a real blood-red light shining inside.

Roselle turned his head to look at a corner of the mausoleum. The shadow that originally existed there gradually dissipated, revealing a figure inside.

It turned out to be Nast Solomon, the "King of the Five Seas" who had previously broken into Roselle's mausoleum!

The latter's expression was still somewhat confused, as if he had just left some kind of seal and was still unclear about what had happened before. He looked around and soon locked onto Emperor Roselle on the platform. His expression was half panic and half excitement. He bowed and performed the noble salute of Intis, and said loudly:
"Thank you for your audience, Your Majesty. I am honored. But there are some uninvited enemies on your island. I hope you can..."

"They have already left," Roselle's cold and serious voice came out from the bloody crack that represented his mouth, "Nast Solomon, I remember you, what is your purpose in coming here?"

His words were like an invisible hand that pressed Nast's waist even lower. The latter didn't dare to breathe. He just felt that he was facing a real god, and hurriedly replied:
"I have brought an offer from the Great Mother, a deal that will free you from your current state.

"It will be secured by the great 'Mist of Uncertainty'."

The shadow of Roselle on the high chair fell into silence, and his already blurred outline wavered.

After a moment, his blood-red lips opened again:

"Tell me what the deal is."

PS: I will finish both chapters at night.

(End of this chapter)