The Venerated Skeleton could be the person who hated undead the most in the world.
The golden mask he always wore was a testament to his time as the “Eternal Duke”.
His platinum boots, white metal gloves, and the heavy armor he donned again upon entering the Elegy Dukedom were all traces of his past as a paladin.
He was once a Holy Knight — fighting to annihilate all the undead in this world, doing his best and fighting all his life. Because of this, no one had ever doubted that Eternal Duke was actually undead.
That was why only the Eternal Duke would feel sad for himself.
Grand Duke Midas despised the undead so much, yet he himself became a mere skeleton… His sole purpose was to hope the painful curse passed down through his bloodline would end with him.
He didn’t want to pass down the accursed fate to the others.
That was exactly what he did.
Until… the Great Barrier shattered, the Gray Mists invaded, and the giants went extinct.
In the eyes of people in other countries, it was such a legendary deed — people praised this epic and heroic act of dying.
But only the Eternal Duke suffered and mourned for this.
He realized that everything the Eternal Family sacrificed meant nothing. The giants didn’t care about their own lives or deaths, nor about the family’s legacy or the continuation of the nation.
From the beginning, [Eternal Duke] was just a wishful play.
Instead, he should thank the giants for being willing to give them a face and play this unspoken game with their family.
If he was just the Eternal Duke, that would be okay — it meant they were finally free. He could finally get a peaceful eternal rest.
However, Midas had already altered himself into an undead.
He couldn’t even die.
—Ridiculously funny tombstone.
“Burial is forgetting, forgetting is betrayal; tombstones are the remembrance of death.”
“His goal is also simple.” Annan said leisurely, “Abandon the truth of [Skeleton] and regain flesh and blood. In other words, he wants to erase his old self as a ‘tombstone’. This is a plan with higher priority than obtaining the complete truth of Betrayal.”
Annan had probably guessed it.
The initial plan shouldn’t be like this.
If Annan had chosen the most “correct” way to end the nightmare in the gallery — shoot the turbid blood bullets with the [No Travel] curse into Angelo’s body, then Angel of Betrayal’s “Angelo” would be anchored at the Freezing Water Port.
This meant that, as Angelo’s pope, he had also joined the carnival of “betraying Angelo”. Then, the definition of “betrayed by everyone” was complete. Coupled with the Venerated Skeleton’s other half of divinity, the true Betrayal Deity could be born in a “nightmare” that no one could interfere with.
In this way, the Venerated Skeleton only needed to descend directly into Angelo’s body. With that, he would directly replace his own [Skeleton] truth with the complete [Betrayal] truth.
So at that time, “Angelo” was a baby girl, but she could make the deep and old voice of the Venerated Skeleton.
If Annan really pulled the trigger — then this scene would be staged in Freezing Water Port in advance.
There was really no one left to stop the Venerated Skeleton then.
Because the “Angelo” at that time had not even been born in the world, naturally she would not resist the Venerated Skeleton like the “Angelo” who thought she was Elle today.
Everything happening now was just a supplement to the ritual at that time.
The Venerated Skeleton was a peerless ritualist.
He naturally knew that the skeletons he left underground in Elegy Dukedom were a significant threat. If he was going to complete the unfinished ritual, he might as well eliminate all the risks at once.
“Think about it again, Elle… Why did Delicious Wind Goose know that the child was the Venerated Skeleton?”
Annan said calmly, “Since the beginning of the third cycle, he knew that the child was the Venerated Skeleton, but he didn’t know what the Venerated Skeleton would do. What does this mean?”
[This means he only became aware of this at the end of his previous cycle.]
Elle thought for a long time before responding from the bottom of Annan’s heart.
“Correct answer. To be more specific… He might have seen the Venerated Skeleton during the day in his first loop, but it was only in his second loop that he confirmed the existence and purpose of the Venerated Skeleton — so in his third loop, he could catch him first but still didn’t know what he would do.”
“Elle” murmured in a low voice and left the basement where the ritual was held.
She walked slowly outside and looked up at the moonless night.
There was no one on the street.
And she walked to Elle’s house alone.
“Then the answer is self-evident — only at the end does the young man, known as ‘the Venerated Skeleton’, appear. And when he does show up, he has evidence enough to prove he is the Venerated Skeleton… but before he could do anything, the world resets.”
“You can guess now what Midas did when he appeared in front of Delicious Wind Goose, who was the last survivor at the time, right?”
[He killed him.]
“That’s right.” “Elle” nodded.
As she journeyed on the road, time passed at an abnormal speed, which was the effect of the ritual.
After Annan explained this to Elle, he was in a trance and suddenly found that he had arrived outside the city… and the night became darker.
It was about 10 p.m.
Even though no one died, the night was getting darker.
That was the process of the sky gradually returning to a “dark night”.
Annan looked up at the sky and then continued to narrate in a low voice.
“He said there’s no concept of ‘outside the city’ in this world; he said that everyone in this city has never been outside its walls. Yet, Longjing Tea’s colleague has a Denizoya accent; Celecia’s teacher speaks in the Austere-Winter dialect; Amos says your mother is on a world tour, and he has to go on a business trip out of town. How can there possibly be no concept of ‘outside the city’?”
“So, why did we believe in Midas then?”
[Because he… didn’t resist at all when faced with Delicious Wind Goose’s beating… Oh right, he even directly told us his name!]
Elle replied immediately.
[So Uncle Delicious Wind Goose said that Midas must be a part of this nightmare, he is… what’s it called… a [non-player character]. Yeah… that’s what he said…]
“However, Delicious Wind Goose overlooked one thing.” Annan said calmly, “He is a [Purifier] who entered the nightmare at the same time as us.”
As he spoke, he took a step forward and reached the dense forest.
It should be 11 p.m.
“That’s right—”
From the very beginning, the Venerated Skeleton was putting up an act.
Dove who accidentally killed others in the jungle, Delicious Wind Goose who failed when he was most proud, Wandering Child who was extremely afraid of marriage… and everything they long for were all reflected in this nightmare.
This was a nightmare woven together by the memories of all those who entered.
That’s why there had been so many obviously illogical patchwork technologies inside, and the terrain had become so bizarre. As one of the two controllers of the nightmare, Elle had almost entirely influenced its composition… And the Venerated Skeleton, as the other half-controller, had turned this place into the “Eternal Kingdom”.
So…
“How did he lose his memory as the Venerated Skeleton?” Annan sneered in a low voice, “Mr. Bone is quite dishonorable. Even if he is beaten by a mortal, he still pretends to have no memory and no consciousness at all — in order to deceive others, does he not care about his reputation?”
The scene shifted.
“Elle” had already arrived at the wheat field before she finished speaking.
It must be close to midnight now.
“That’s right.” From the other side of the wheat field, the white-haired youth responded across time.
This proved that the time he experienced should be synchronized with Annan’s side.
With his hands in his pockets, he stepped on the wheat and walked across the wheat field.
There was no emotion in his slightly narrowed pupils.
“Sacrificing dignity in order to achieve a goal — I think that is the most cost-effective ‘sacrifice’.” Eternal Duke replied seriously.
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