Under Klein's control, the wraith-like Seniar passed through the thick soil and rock to Sharon's side. He saw ahead of them a broken armrest buried in the ground, carved with asymmetrical patterns. It was similar to the wood fragments they had found earlier, yet different.
The armrest wasn't pure pitch-black; the grain held a dark red tint, as if forged from iron and blood.
Recalling the scenes from that nightmare, Klein confirmed that this was not the high-backed chair where the young man resembling Medici had sat.
This was the second one!
There were at least two high-backed chairs in this room where the malevolent spirit was sealed!
"Klein" and Sharon didn't speak. They circled in different directions, searching for other traces.
Before long, they found evidence of a third high-backed chair!
It was a chair leg, deep red with black patterns, completely different from the previous two types of wood fragments.
"Maybe it's a problem caused by the asymmetry of the Fourth Epoch..." Knowing Sharon's style, Klein spoke first, saying something he himself didn't quite believe.
"In the nightmare caused by the evil spirit's aura, at least the high-backed chairs were uniform in color!"
Sharon shook her head slightly.
"'Three' has a stronger sense of ritual."
She meant that when the Blood Emperor Alista Tudor harmed the innocent, he wouldn't do it to just one person. There might have once been a ritual in this room where the evil spirit was sealed.
Klein was stunned for a moment. A scene flashed through his mind.
In a spacious, dimly lit room, with a certain spot as the center, three high-backed chairs of different styles were arranged. In each chair sat a humanoid creature with its head lowered, completely devoid of life. Among them was the "Red Angel" Medici.
The image grew clearer, and Klein immediately thought of two other things:
The main ingredients for the Sequence 0 "Black Emperor" potion were the "Uniqueness" and two Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics (excluding the one the user already possessed).
The Blood Emperor Alista Tudor seemed to have forcibly jumped from Sequence 1 "Prince of Abolition" of the "Black Emperor" pathway to the non-adjacent Sequence 0 of the "Red Priest" pathway, becoming a half-mad True God!
As his thoughts raced, Klein quickly formed a guess:
A ritual to advance to Sequence 0, involving the seat of a True God, had once been held in this room!
Of course, judging by the complex rituals required for the "Black Emperor," this place was probably just for the potion part. The pathway representing "War" clearly required chaos and conflict across the entire continent to match.
And since the Blood Emperor Alista Tudor himself did not possess the corresponding Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics, his "Red Priest" potion required the characteristics of three Sequence 1 Angels or sealed artifacts to provide the Beyonder characteristics. That's why there were three high-backed chairs!
By the way, the malevolent spirit suspected to be the "Red Angel" Medici had said that the way to help it break the seal was to find direct descendants of the Sauron, Einhorn, and Medici families, take 10 ml of blood from each, and mix it with holy water... Sauron and Einhorn were Angel families that controlled the "Hunter," i.e., "Red Priest," pathway. They had persisted from the Fourth Epoch until now. One had declined, controlling only Intis's spy agencies and a faction of the military, while the other remained the royal family of Feysac... An idea flashed through Klein's mind, and he formed a new judgment about what had happened in this room and the true identity of the malevolent spirit:
Sitting in the other two high-backed chairs were the ancestors of the Sauron and Einhorn families, Sequence 1 Angels!
Combined with the "War Angel" Medici, who likely possessed the "Uniqueness" of this pathway, the main ingredients for the "Red Priest" potion were complete!
And that malevolent spirit was probably not simply the "Red Angel" Medici, but also a fusion of the residual spirits and hatred of the Sauron and Einhorn ancestors!
Three Sequence 1 Angels were "sacrificed" here! The curses before their deaths and the lingering influence of the ritual itself made this room incredibly terrifying, leading to its sealing? Thank goodness I reported it to the Church in advance and they handled it. If I had relied solely on myself, even if Miss Sharon and I had already advanced to Sequence 4, we might have died here and become food for that evil spirit... Klein felt a mix of fear and relief.
At the same time, he understood even better why the Card of Blasphemy representing the "Red Priest" had fallen into the hands of that malevolent spirit. When all the high-level existences of a pathway were buried in this underground ruin, the attraction between Beyonder characteristics would naturally guide the holder there without any deviation.
Furthermore, the Great Emperor once said, "What is separated shall be united, what is united shall be separated." When the Blood Emperor Alista Tudor fell, his True God characteristic, the Sequence 0 characteristic, should have split into four parts...
One part returned to the abstract and conceptual, becoming the "Uniqueness," while the remaining three became Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics. If not, once someone became a god, there would no longer be any Sequence 1 existences on that corresponding pathway!
Could one or two of these Sequence 1 characteristics also have been attracted and entered the sealed room? This must be one of the reasons why the Card of Blasphemy was also attracted here! The more Klein thought about it, the more he felt he had underestimated that malevolent spirit before.
As expected of an Angel who advanced from "Conspirer"... Klein, standing under the tree, had Seniar say:
"It might really have been a ritual."
"Anything related to the Blood Emperor Alista Tudor is definitely on a very high level."
Sharon listened quietly before adding:
"Sauron, Einhorn, Medici..."
Miss Sharon also suspected from the details demanded by the evil spirit that the three high-backed chairs in this room had once belonged to different Angels... After thinking for a moment, Klein took the initiative to reveal through Seniar:
"The Blood Emperor Alista Tudor was likely a True God of the 'Hunter' pathway. The Card of Blasphemy representing him is the 'Red Priest.'"
Sharon was silent for a few seconds, seeming to understand something, before saying:
"That card is gone."
She was referring to the "Red Priest" card the malevolent spirit had once shown.
"Perhaps the malevolent spirit had already broken free long ago, before the Nighthawks and the Mechanical Heart destroyed this place," Klein voiced his guess. "And it took away all the Beyonder characteristics here and that 'Red Priest' card."