Rhodes Island does not exist.

It is likely that Agor never existed from the beginning; the Agor he was aware of was merely a phantom implanted into his brain by some means used by the bishop.

Everything is an illusion; only madness is real.

In that horrific massacre, they lived in their own delusions of madness from beginning to end, and probably believed until their deaths that they were killing the enemy.

“The Great Tranquility and the Inquisition are almost exactly the same,” Skadi said. “So the purpose now is the same as the purpose then.”

“For the sacrifice.” Skadi gazed into the deep sea and sighed.

The doctor's eyes also became vacant.

"What sacrifice?" Completely bewildered, Levini could only stare wide-eyed at the Doctor and the woman beside him. "And who is this lady?"

“She…she’s the one who saved us.” The doctor walked to Levini’s side, knelt down and touched her slightly messy hair. “She’s an amazing person. She single-handedly rushed into the prison and rescued us.”

"Sister is amazing?! Isn't she the kind of character you only see in novels and paper drawings?" Levini's gaze turned to admiration.

Her admiration for the powerful figure who suddenly appeared before her made her temporarily forget the fear she had just experienced.

"It's just to stop the schemes of some people with ulterior motives." Skadi shook her head, trying to free herself from this noble title. "Don't portray me like a hero."

“But isn’t someone who can save other people’s lives a hero?” Levini asked, puzzled. “That’s what my dad and mom have always told me.”

“There are many definitions of a hero,” the Doctor said, standing up. “Saving people is just one of them, but for you and me, she is undoubtedly a hero.”

“Don’t corrupt the children,” Skadi sighed. “There’s no hero like me with blood on his hands… Don’t forget we’re going to kill a few more people tonight.”

“But if it’s a bad guy, then it’s okay, right?” Levini looked at Skadi. “I think the doctor is a good person, so the older sister who saved the doctor must also be a good person. Then the person the older sister is going to kill must be a bad guy.”

"you……"

Skadi looked at the girl in front of her and wanted to tell her that the distinction between good and bad people was not something that could be easily determined, but she felt that explaining the concept to a child in detail would be a bit complicated, so she ultimately decided to give up.

“So this is the Iberian coast?” Levini’s gaze pierced through the gap between the two and saw the sea behind them. “It’s so beautiful… I’ve never seen the sea so close before.”

Is it beautiful?

Listening to Levini's words and looking at the sea in her eyes, Skadi couldn't help but smile sadly.

Chapter 106, Part 105: Intermission

"Alright, that's the end of the story."

The doctor glanced at the digital clock on the table, separated his interlaced fingers, and then slowly stretched.

"Hey, hey, hey?" Amiya, completely absorbed in the deep-sea tales, stood up like a child whose toy had been snatched away, staring at the Doctor with astonishment. "But aren't we about to get to the main point? You, Levini, and that Agor woman named Skadi, now that you understand the truth and the darkness hidden behind Iberia and Agor, shouldn't we be..."

"Shouldn't it be... what?" The doctor smiled from under his hood.

"Shouldn't we...find the mastermind and then stop his conspiracy?" Amiya's tone became uncertain when asked by the Doctor.

"Since you've already guessed the ending, what's the point of me continuing?" The Doctor smiled. "After all, I'm sitting right in front of you, in this Rhodes Island office. That should be enough to prove many things, shouldn't it?"

“If I had to say, that’s certainly true.” Amiya frowned, her cute little cheeks puffing up from holding her breath. “But it’s meaningless to only look at the result and not the process. Besides, even if you survived, the stories of the others haven’t been told yet.”

"Do you want me to tell you the other people's stories right now? Don't worry, it won't be too long. If I omit some parts, I can probably finish it in just two sentences." The doctor laughed again, as if he were telling his daughter a bedtime story.

The premise is that this story can actually be considered a kind of bedtime story.

"Don't do that..." Amiya shook her head like a pendulum, "If all the stories were as short as the synopsis, wouldn't they be too boring to read?"

"Maybe so, but there's no way to continue this discussion today." The Doctor shook his head, turned the clock on the table around, and placed it in front of Amiya. "Look, it's already very late."

"How come it's already twelve o'clock?" Amiya exclaimed in surprise as she saw the direction the clock hands were pointing.

"Right?" The Doctor stood up, walked to Amiya's side, and patted her head. "So go to sleep, little bunny. You're growing a lot right now, and staying up late isn't good for your development."

"But I still have work to do, I can't rest yet..." Amiya looked up at the Doctor with a helpless gaze, her face trembling with tears welling up in her eyes.

It looked just like a bullied little stray dog.

Unfortunately, she wasn't Pelosi, but Carter's.

"Then let's put the work off until tomorrow." The doctor shook his head. "Getting enough rest is the most important thing. If you lose your rest time for work, it's not worth it for your life."

"What kind of twisted logic is this... If Dr. Kal'tsit and Miss Kroos heard this, they would definitely scold you." Amiya said with a serious expression.

“Kal'tsit…maybe she really would.” The Doctor chuckled wryly. “But Kroos definitely wouldn’t, because she herself is the best example of that.”

"Oh—" The little rabbit was a little surprised.

"Don't make that face. Kroos is a genius," the Doctor said. "She even won one of Kazdel's Top Ten Youths."

"Really?" Amiya was skeptical, considering Kazdel's situation.

“Really.” But the Doctor nodded firmly, “Because Princess Theresa was with us at that time, and she was the one who awarded this prize to Kroos.”

“Ha…” Amiya’s eyes drooped instantly.

"So you'd better go to sleep, or you'll be the one getting scolded by Kal'tsit, not me, little bunny." The Doctor patted Amiya's head again, urging her to go to sleep.

"Ah, when will you tell me the rest of the story, Doctor?" Amiya looked up at the Doctor, her tone full of anticipation for the next time and reluctance and dissatisfaction with this abrupt interruption.

"Are you concerned about what happens next in the story?" The Doctor looked into Amiya's eyes, his tone more serious than usual.

"Huh? Ah, um." Startled by that suddenly serious look, Amiya nodded subconsciously.

“Then let’s do it tomorrow morning.” The doctor nodded thoughtfully. “If you’re really interested in how the story will unfold next, then come to my office first thing tomorrow morning, and I’ll tell you everything that’s left without reservation.”

"Really?" Amiya's excitement rose.

“Of course, I never lie.” The doctor smiled, putting a finger to his lips.

"Okay, it's a deal then, see you there!" Amiya nodded excitedly several times, like a child who had been allowed to go to the amusement park by their parents. "I'll be back very early tomorrow! Doctor, you have to keep your promise too!"

"I will, of course I will." The Doctor withdrew his hand from Amiya's head and put it back in his pocket.

Amiya, with a joyful expression, turned around and walked to the door.

"crunch-"

She gently opened the door, but instead of leaving immediately, she left half of her body in the room and cautiously looked at the doctor again to ask him a question.

"Um, Doctor...?"

"What's wrong?" The doctor stood in front of the table, gesturing for her to stop stammering.

"When you first started telling the story, it was in that place called As... "

“Asturias,” the doctor filled in the details she couldn’t remember.

“Well, back in that bar in Asturias, didn’t you tell the bartender you were waiting for someone?” Amia asked. “Later, when you went to Iberia, you said that because the person you were waiting for might come the next day, the priests promised to help you send that person to Iberia as soon as they arrived.”

“I did say that, so what?” the doctor asked.

"But weren't you arrested by the Iberian Church later? And you said it was all a hoax from the beginning, so I'm wondering, Doctor, did the person you were waiting for eventually come along? Or did those priests simply not keep their promise and leave that person waiting for you in Asturias?" Amiya was clearly concerned about a character in the story the Doctor had just told who never even appeared, afraid that the Doctor might have forgotten that detail.

However, the Doctor shook his head at Amiya's question.

"No, that person did come to Iberia."

"Hey?"

"Heh." At this point, the Doctor glanced at Amiya. "But if I tell you the outcome now, you probably won't be interested in listening to my story tomorrow, right?"

Chapter 107, Chapter 106: The Dreamlike Corridor

[Given a long enough lifespan, even the most ordinary human could become a god.]

Sitting blankly on the steps of the endless corridor, the Doctor leaned against the wall that was gradually sinking into chaos, and all sorts of sentences kept popping into his mind.

Some sentences are meaningless, while he cannot answer the question of what they mean.

So in the end, it still doesn't mean anything.

"what……"

A dry, sluggish gas seeped from his weak throat, like that of an old man in the twilight of his life.

He had thought that he could simply walk around the corridor backwards to get out of the situation, but it had trapped him there for who knows how many hours.

At first, the doctor was able to calculate the time that passed by silently counting in his mind as he traveled. However, as this mechanical repetition increased, his internal timer finally snapped when he counted to the eighty-seventh five-minute interval.

But it wasn't just his heart that was crumbling.

And the entire corridor.

"I can't even tell anymore... what kind of writing is this?"

The numbers that he had originally carved on the corridor wall began to gradually mutate as he climbed the spiral staircase, eventually becoming a chaotic mess.

For example, on the staircase he was on, the walls on both sides were covered with messy marks that looked like ancient murals.

But those are just traces, not murals.

If one tries to interpret those meaningless carvings as murals, it will probably only drive the interpreter completely insane.

Slumped against the wall, the professor tried to read a few numbers engraved on the wall.

The numbers are hidden beneath messy and chaotic lines, much like the emerging performance art exhibited in Victoria Square.

But these are not works of art, and this is not Victoria.

"Am I going to die here this time?" The doctor closed his eyes with a bitter smile, feeling his strength draining away, and couldn't help but feel pessimistic. "But dying of starvation is a painful and absurd way to die, no matter how you look at it."

He is no longer the same person who was fearless and unstoppable just a few dozen hours ago.

The combined pressure of dehydration and hunger was like a sledgehammer to his body; the slightest movement would crush him. And he realized one thing.

—In this corridor where the principles are completely unclear, rushing around will only bring you closer to death.

But what can he do?

He had no choice but to either go forward or backward through the corridor.

Even if you don't rush headlong into things, won't a steady, unhurried pace ultimately lead to the same result?

"Hey."

Guided by his nerves, the doctor's fingers twitched, and he picked up the pickaxe he had tossed aside.

"Since I'm going to die here anyway, I might as well give it my all one last time before I die." He picked up his pickaxe with his right hand and stood up, supporting himself against the wall with his left, like a wounded soldier on the battlefield.

However, the dehydration and hypoglycemia caused by not eating would not allow him to do such crazy things.

"Well!"

Just as he was about to stand up, a sudden, intense wave of dizziness slammed him back to the ground.

This time, it will be much harder for him to stand up again.

"So it really was a self-fulfilling prophecy." He took two deep breaths of the stale air to calm his uneasy heartbeat. "I might really be doomed this time."

“But this place is completely unreasonable…” His fingers lightly brushed over the chaotic and dense array of numbers on the wall, “This life couldn’t even be exchanged for a single clue.”

If he could, he actually hoped that every death he suffered on Rhodes Island would provide some assistance for his next one. Losing a finger or two or a toe wouldn't matter.

After all, in a place where one wrong step means death, intelligence is priceless.

"But this wretched place... phew."

The doctor leaned his head against the wall.

The hard, cold stone bricks offered absolutely no comfort, but for him now, they might be just right.

A feeling of dizziness began to invade his brain, like the tides, one wave after another.

The tide of the Chunjiang River connects to the sea, and the moon and the sea coexist.

Rippling waves stretch for thousands of miles; where on the spring river is there no moon shining brightly?

"Cough cough."

The doctor coughed twice.

He desperately wants to relieve the fatigue from dehydration and hunger by sleeping, but he's also afraid that he'll fall into a deep sleep and never wake up again, only to see a ghost shark when he opens his eyes again.

This internal conflict was one of the last straws that broke his spirit.

“Bo… Jin… I…”

As a result, he started hallucinating again.

Ah, it's a familiar voice.

He thought so.

The sounds that echoed in his mind like the buzzing of mosquitoes and flies did not feel unfamiliar to him.