CH 122

Chapter 122: The Dream of the Holy Nun (XII)

“We still need to think about this task,” Su He said as he took a sip of bright-colored wine. “There’s still two days left before the night of the new moon. Although this task might not be completed on a night of the new moon, the key point should be in this night. We must find a breakthrough on this night, otherwise we’ll have to delay here for at least a month. You don’t want to face several consecutive ‘monthly exams’ as soon as you finish this task.”

Dr. Lu looked at the food: “No, absolutely not!”

“First of all, the task requirement is to end the Dream of the Holy Nun, but there’s no reward. The tasks in the main world are often like this. They won’t inform you of the reward in advance like a copy task will. Sometimes the completion method is very vague and you need to explore it yourself,” Su He said.

Qi Leren nodded his head. The same was true when he did the Witchcraft Sacrifice. He wasn’t told the rewards in advance, and he didn’t receive a reminder when he hit each one. However, the objectives of the Witchcraft Sacrifice had been much clearer than this task, probably because it had been a main world cycle task which was carried out every three years, so the rules are clear.

“To end the Dream of the Holy Nun means to break this field. In theory, the owner of the field dies and the field should end, but here it has not… The fields created with the Holy See’s faith are different from ordinary fields. I don’t know this much about this. I need Mr. Ning Zhou to solve our doubts,” Su He said lightly.

“…The formation of the Holy See’s fields require an item, and the power of faith condenses on that memento to form a half-field.” Ning Zhou’s cold voice explained the secret of the Vatican. Qi Leren looked at him carefully. Is the memento pendant still hanging around Ning Zhou’s neck? He couldn’t see because of his clothes, but he thought Ning Zhou should be wearing it.

“The memento for this field is the brooch,” Ning Zhou said.

Qi Leren took out Maria’s brooch and presented it in his hand. The small and delicate brooch was slightly warm, as if it was alive. It was with it that they had been able to walk into this dead closed field as if they had the key, but if they used it too much, it would collapse.

“After forming, the half-field grows gradually. The process may be fast or slow, depending on the affinity’s strength. It can be condensed into a field in a moment. After the formation of the field, it will condense into another memento, representing… Destruction.”

Su He raised his eyebrows with interest: “Do you need this memento to end the field?”

Ning Zhou nodded: “This field is dead and it will not evolve any more, nor can it be controlled by the field master. It’s already a small independent world. To end it, you need to destroy it with a memento of Destruction.”

Two mementos of faith, one for life, the other for death, beginning and end… Was this the secret of the Vatican? Unfortunately, Ning Zhou’s half-field has just begun, and it has already been destroyed. Qi Leren couldn’t help but be somewhat disappointed.

“It seems that we need to find the memento of Destruction,” Su He said and looked at the former site of the Holy See shrouded by the power of the Devil. “Well… I feel like it should be there.”

“It really is there,” Ning Zhou said.

“Huh?” “Hey?” Dr. Lu and Qi Leren looked at him in surprise. “How do you know?”

Ning Zhou looked at the broken building on the top of the mountain in the distance and said in a very low voice: “…She told me that used the sword there to kill the Devil.”

“…You knew the Holy Nun?!” Dr. Lu asked, gawking.

"She was my mother, Maria,” Ning Zhou said.

“A player?” Dr. Lu asked nervously.

Ning Zhou shook his head. He wouldn’t use the word NPC to refer to people from this world. In his eyes, these people who called themselves “players” were outsiders.

Dr. Lu looked at Qi Leren with a face of curious sympathy.

The atmosphere had become very tense. Dr. Lu’s mouth opened and closed, closed and opened, like a fish stranded on the beach. Su He seemed to have anticipated it, and said easily, “This kind of situation is quite common here… Let’s go on with the mission. Now it seems that to end the Dream of the Holy Nun, we need to get the sword that Lady Maria used to kill the Devil, but to get the sword, we must first open the enchantment of the Devil around the Vatican. According to the existing clues, the disaster of the new moon is very likely to be related to the Devil. We need to crack the disaster of the new moon first… One leading into another, a typical task chain. ”

The problem was back to the disaster of the new moon. Now, the clues about the disaster of the new moon were still incomplete, and they could only boldly guess that it had something to do with demons - according to Qi Leren’s understanding of the Nightmare Game.

“Well, I’ll stay awake on the night of the new moon in two days. With the [Demon Etiquette] skill card I got in the Castle task, if there is a demon at that time, I can make it think I’m an ally and maybe I can get some unexpected clues,” Qi Leren said, though he was actually a little scared. After all, in the Nightmare Game he had died to the demons’ attacks on the night of the new moon.

“I remember that that skill needs a demon crystal,” Su He recalled very clearly.

“This… I have one.” Qi Leren took out a piece of a demon crystal. After the Slaughter Secret Society undercover mission, the remaining demon crystals hadn’t been confiscated, and the Court generously left them to him.

Su He picked up the demon crystal and observed it. He suddenly laughed. His smile was as warm as spring water in the warm sunshine: “This is a succubus crystal.”

Qi Leren who was seen through at a glance: “…”

Su He returned the demon crystal and paused when he retracted his hand: “Look down.”

Qi Leren bowed his head without knowing why. Su He parted his hair with one hand, and picked out a blue and white petal from his hair with the other hand, which must have gotten stuck when he was sleeping in the tree stump. The petal was pinched between Su He’s slender fingers, delicate and soft, and looked broken when touched.

“This flower is really beautiful,” Su He laughed, looking into Qi Leren’s eyes.

“Ah… Well, it’s pretty good,” Qi Leren just said.

Ning Zhou’s eagle had played around enough and finally flew back on its wings. It righteously stood on the handle of the basket, cocked its head and looked at the group. When it saw the petal in Su He’s hand, it suddenly flapped its wings and squawked twice. It pecked away the petal, took it, and flew to Ning Zhou’s shoulder where it threw it into his hair.

Qi Leren looked at the petal in Ning Zhou’s hair and his expressionless handsome face that was obviously confused. He couldn’t help laughing and, infected by his laughter, Dr. Lu also laughed. Finally, Su He looked at them laughingly, and his beautiful eyes were gentle.

In this warm afternoon sunshine, joy and happiness infected everyone. For a short time, they could forget the pressure of the nightmare and spend their time happily under the flowers and sunlight. Unfortunately, relaxed and happy times are always short. After lunch and rest, the four people continued to search for clues about the night of the new moon and did not return to the Lord’s castle until nightfall.

After dinner the group of people returned to the library, looking for clues suspected to be related to the night of the new moon. Some of the witnesses’ notes had already been read, and the contents were similar. No one could write down what they had met, because they had disappeared forever before they put pen to paper…

While everyone was searching hard, Su He, who was sitting at the table, suddenly asked a creepy question thoughtfully: “Have you noticed? Today, we walked all day in the Holy City and we didn’t meet any young people under the age of twenty. None of them.”

Su He adjusted his sitting posture, supported the side of his face with the back of his hand, and asked, “So what does the little girl we saw suggest?”