"Welcome to your arrival… future 'me'!"
Hearing this sentence, Ebner felt his breathing stop for a few seconds. Although he had already speculated through various clues that Rhine Carendia hadn't completely died, he was still not prepared to meet the other party just like this.
What should he do? Turn around and leave, abandoning the exploration of this castle? Or continue forward and completely figure out Rhine's current condition?
If he retreated, would he even be able to leave?
Just as Ebner's thoughts were rapidly turning, the voice from the room sounded again:
"Welcome to your arrival… future 'me'!"
It was exactly the same as before, whether in tone or wording.
"…."
Ebner suddenly felt speechless and complained inwardly:
So after worrying for so long, you just left a recording here to scare me?
At this moment, "Sloth" Closfia, who was following behind him, saw that he had stopped walking and asked strangely, "Why did you stop? Did you discover something wrong?"
Hearing this, Ebner's heart stirred. He glanced at "Sloth" and "Greed" before asking instead of answering, "Did you hear any voice?"
"No!" Closfia and Ksenia answered one after another, their tones very certain.
So… the voice in the room across from us can only be heard by me?
Ebner nodded thoughtfully. Then he signaled for "Sloth" and "Greed" to stay in the corridor as support while he pushed open the half-closed door directly ahead and walked inside.
However, the moment his foot stepped onto the floor of the room, the door closed by itself at an extremely fast speed. Even Ebner, who had already been on guard, didn't react in time.
At the same time, a tall, illusory and transparent figure entered Ebner's sight.
The figure had gentle and handsome facial features and somewhat resembled Mr. Azik, though he wasn't as dark. His hair was dark gold like Jane's. It was none other than the "Undead Sovereign," Vicente Miranda.
Ebner had seen his sleeping coffin twice through a "door" in the Nation of Night and had even pulled out his historical projection before, so he naturally recognized him.
However, the "Vicente" before him seemed to be merely a dead spirit with a "mimicry" ability…
So this is the magical version of the 'recorder' he left behind?
While Ebner was thinking nonsense, the expression of the phantom "Vicente Miranda" suddenly became lively. It was no longer mechanically repeating that sentence "Welcome to your arrival… future 'me'."
Its eyes looked directly at Ebner and it smiled as it said:
"As you can see, this is a dead spirit that has 'recorded' my image and voice, so don't talk to me. That would make you look very stupid, because although this dead spirit has a rather unique ability, in essence it's just a 'combined recording and playback device.'"
Do you think I'm that stupid?
Wait, you are me and I am you… so why would you imagine yourself to be that stupid?
Ebner muttered inwardly a few times while listening to the other party continue:
"Don't ask me why I'm delivering this message in the form of a recording, or why the door closed so quickly.
"That's because when I came here, Rhine used exactly the same method and scared the hell out of me. Naturally I had to let the later 'me' enjoy the same treatment!
"So in short, you should blame Rhine for this."
Hearing this, Ebner couldn't help but cover his forehead with his hand and became certain that whether it was Vicente, Rhine, or the earlier Oliver, the "age" they were at when they transmigrated probably wasn't very great.
After all, he knew himself very well. He absolutely wouldn't do something this childish after entering the workforce, which meant that the later "Danitz," who had most likely come here afterward, hadn't left any arrangements.
"Getting serious for a moment," the phantom continued. "Since I'm not from a pathway related to 'knowledge' or 'omniscience,' the memories I can obtain from previous 'imprints' are limited. Many of them are just fragments.
"I have some impressions of this 'Observer Castle,' but not many. I even had to gather intelligence myself just to learn how to enter it.
"Heh. Stealing Rhine's name wasn't enough—you even directly took the name of his castle and used it. How shameless!"
As if you didn't directly take the title 'Undead Sovereign' yourself! And you still have the nerve to call someone else shameless?
Ebner resisted the urge to continue complaining. After all, the other party was himself—he wasn't so bored as to start scolding himself for entertainment.
"So can you imagine how shocked I was when I discovered that Orneia was actually here?
"According to the memory fragments I saw, although Rhine intended to maintain a good relationship with Orneia, their relationship was actually quite bad. Especially after the 'Night Emperor' killed Litiya, their relationship dropped to freezing point.
"Who would have thought that in the end Orneia would still be saved by Rhine? Truly sigh-worthy.
"However, Orneia's condition back then was extremely terrible. If I hadn't fed her a mouthful of water from the River of Eternal Darkness, she would most likely have lost herself amid madness and corruption and mutated into a terrifying monster."
Hearing this, Ebner nodded. It matched his previous deductions exactly. The only strange thing was that Vicente's tone sounded somewhat odd.
"Ahem… looks like I went off topic.
"Back to the point. The reason I left this message here, besides continuing the fine traditions of the previous 'me,' is to remind you of something.
"That is: all the good stuff in this castle has already been taken away by me. The later 'me' doesn't need to waste time searching anymore!"
Vicente, are you sure you're an angel of the Corpse Collector pathway and not the Hunter pathway? Or are you planning to jump to Conqueror and practicing the acting in advance?
Although those two pathways could indeed be interchanged, provoking yourself wouldn't have any effect, right?
Just as that thought crossed Ebner's mind, he saw the dead spirit simulating Vicente's image reveal a mischievous grin and shrug its shoulders.
"Alright, that was still a joke…"
Ebner gave two dry laughs. If the one speaking hadn't been "himself," he would definitely have taken revenge.
"What I actually want to remind you about is the thing inside the ritual chamber on the top floor. Please be extremely careful. The corruption from that thing is far more terrifying than the one on Orneia.
"It's not that the power of the 'Mother Goddess of Depravity' isn't strong. Rather, most of the contamination on Orneia had already been cut away by the 'Ring of Orneia.' What remains now are only slight remnants.
"But the thing in the ritual chamber on the top floor has been completely 'marinated' in it!
"When I rashly entered earlier, I almost died on the spot. I only managed to run away thanks to Gregrace's headdress.
"As for what exactly that thing is, I'm not entirely sure either—but I do have some guesses.
"Well, I wonder whether you know about the 'me's' before the 'God of Luck,' the ones who didn't have imprints or soul stones.
"One of those incarnations was called the 'Father of Succubi, Lord of Desire, Source of Corruption'…
"The thing on the top floor is very likely his body.
"It was 'summoned' into reality by Rhine…"
(End of Chapter)