As the firelight flickered, Derrick and the others instinctively looked towards the dark red long table, their attention first caught by the figure closest to them.
The figure wore a simple linen robe and had long silver hair. Its facial features were indistinguishable, but it felt strangely familiar to Colin, Lovia, and Derrick.
An instant later, it was as if a bolt of lightning struck their minds, abruptly illuminating their fuzzy memories:
"Angel of Fate, Ouroboros!"
Just as the pupils of the City of Silver members dilated, the figure turned its head and looked at them.
A pair of indifferent eyes immediately filled their vision, and circles of transcendental mystery stood out prominently.
In a trance, Derrick saw another figure appear in front of him. He was a handsome, sunny, energetic man clad in a pure white robe, with short golden hair.
As he appeared, the surroundings became exceptionally bright, and a warm feeling, like sunlight, instantly filled every place.
Derrick felt as if he were seeing the legendary daylight, momentarily forgetting where he was or what he wanted to do.
The man stepped forward, and his illusory, blurry figure overlapped with Derrick's.
Then, Derrick sat down at the dark red long table and occupied one of the high-backed chairs.
He had become that handsome, sunny man and was participating in a secret gathering.
At the same time, Colin, the silver-haired chief of the City of Silver whose face bore many old scars, encountered a similarly blurry and illusory figure.
The figure was seven or eight meters tall, clad in a full set of silver armor with a light resembling dawn or dusk where his eyes should be.
He raised the longsword in his hand and pressed it like a scepter against Colin Iliad's forehead.
Colin, the "Demon Hunter", struggled for a moment, was enveloped in an orange-red glow, and quickly calmed down.
He merged with the figure of the giant opposite him, then strode over to the dark red long table and sat down in the second seat on the right.
The "Shepherd" Lovia encountered a man clad in a black robe. He had long, dark, curly hair past his shoulders and eyes that seemed shrouded in shadow. His specific appearance was unclear and difficult to discern, but the silver threads, complex patterns, and ornate accessories on his clothes were directly imprinted into Lovia's mind.
Lovia trembled and couldn't help but lower her head, allowing the layers of phantom black wings unfolding behind him to envelop her.
She transformed into that man and walked to the head of the dark red long table.
Two intricately patterned high-backed chairs were arranged there, and Lovia chose the one on the left.
The remaining members of the City of Silver expedition team also encountered similar situations, only the figures they faced were different.
After "they" had taken their seats on either side of the dark red long table, the void deepened slightly around the empty high-backed chair at the head of the table, outlining a female figure seemingly shrouded in mist.
Immediately after, a voice that seemed to travel through the ages echoed in the ears of the "gathering participants":
"...We are redeeming ourselves, and maintaining the balance of this world..." "...Division and divergence are undoubtedly the most fundamental order..." "...This is also His idea..." "...There's no denying that we all have dark thoughts and desires, but this is perfectly normal..." "...Death and bloodshed are inevitable, and we take the name of the 'Salvation Rose'..."
Above the Gray Fog, Klein listened with extreme focus, eagerly hoping the voice would reveal more.
Yet, both the images and the sounds began to loop at this point, as if what had been frozen was only a brief period of a few tens of seconds.
Was this the scene of the founding of the "Salvation Rose"? The "Red Angel" wraith had previously said it was an extremely secret organization founded by a group of contaminated angels, but now, it didn't seem so... The one who said that back then probably wasn't Medici, but one of Sauron or Einhorn. They actually didn't know that much about the "Salvation Rose"... Klein muttered a few curses internally, shifting his gaze back to the people of the City of Silver, who were repeating the motions of approaching, sitting, listening, and moving away like puppets.
—As the torches around the hall lit up one after another, Klein had already noticed the anomaly with the help of his "Truth Vision".
He saw the murals on the walls come to life, rapidly expanding and overlapping with the hall, warming the long table, chairs, and floor tiles that had been cold for thousands of years. The figures who had once held secret meetings here crossed the barrier of time and "revived" in their fixed positions, and some of the words spoken back then had transmitted from ancient times to the present.
Among those figures, Klein recognized quite a few.
The first one he saw was also the Angel of Fate, Ouroboros.
This King of Angels, who still belonged to the Salvation Rose, was the most spirited of all the phantom figures.
Combined with the looping scene, Klein initially suspected that the "Tail-Eater" Ouroboros was the one who painted the murals and left the traces.
"There are murals left by Him in the previous temple ruins, and murals left by Him somewhere in the God War ruins... In the 'Giant King's Court', these similar murals, this similar power... I wouldn't believe it if I didn't suspect Him. Just how much does this King of Angels like murals, painting wherever he goes?" Klein couldn't help but internally mock Ouroboros.
The second figure he noticed was sitting beside the Angel of Fate, Ouroboros. He wore black armor that looked splattered with fresh blood, had bright red hair like burning flames, and was young and handsome.
Klein paid attention to this figure because he had seen him in a dream before.
Moreover, "it" was the one with the most arrogant sitting posture among all the figures. Not only did it lean back against the chair's backrest, but it also rested its feet on the dark red long table, completely unconcerned that those around it were high-ranking individuals of the same status.
"Red Angel," Medici!
So these were the Kings of Angels participating in the secret gathering? Who else was there... Klein shifted his thoughts, deciding to first rescue the City of Silver members from the ceaseless cycle of fate.
He had plenty of experience in this regard.
"Hmm, the medium of the cycle is the hall itself. However, there's no need to try to destroy it. As long as the cycle of fate can be briefly broken, the dusk outside will seep in and dispel the anomaly... They belong to the divine kingdom itself; in terms of rank, they are not lower than the power left behind by Ouroboros..." Klein observed for a few seconds and quickly formed a judgment.
He tossed a divination coin and then immediately extended his spirituality towards the deep red star representing "The Sun".
Derrick Berg's spirit body immediately broke through the cycle of fate, creating an invisible gap.