Chapter 112 : The Countdown

Tifna?

Why was she here?

Had she been discovered while she was digging the tunnel?

How unfortunate. She had used her God’s perspective several times, but Tifna had never appeared in her range. Had they just perfectly missed each other?

But she was also a little relieved. At least it wasn’t someone else. She had just learned the truth of this place. At least she could still talk to Tifna. If it were any other guard, they would have just taken her away.

She must have known she was in the next room. She couldn’t beat Tifna now. What should she do?

Leaning against the doorframe, she cautiously peeked out. Tifna was standing on the table she had seen earlier, staring at the amulet in her hand. Or rather, half an amulet.

Milly finally remembered why it looked so familiar.

The other half of the amulet, she had seen it in her hand, shattered into several pieces. She had never thought there would be another half.

Now that Tifna had found it, it meant that her blood relative had been brought here. As a descendant of the paladin, with his bloodline, he had been subjected to those inhuman experiments, and finally turned into the grotesque form she had seen.

The girl’s face was deathly pale in the dim light, her eyes filled with a terrifying emotion.

“This is… my brother’s…”

Her voice was a whisper, as if squeezed from her lips.

Her trembling fingers took out the other half of the amulet, glued together, from her pocket. When the two halves were joined, a tear rolled down her cheek and fell onto the amulet.

Beside her, a few lines of translucent text floated.

[Silver Falcon Knight Tifna]
[Last of the Paladin’s Direct Bloodline, Next Heir to Dawn (Abnormal)]
[Status: Faith Collapsed]

Not many words, but they sent a shock through Milly. She had heard Tifna say that her family was very prestigious in Starlight City. When had she become the last of her direct bloodline?

And, Broken… no, Dawn, it should have been Tifna’s. Because of an accident, it was now hers. Unless something happened to her, it wouldn’t change owners.

Looking at the girl who had collapsed again, Milly was silent. Tifna had just come to terms with her brother’s death, and now this.

Perhaps her brother hadn’t gone to fight Stacy on his own. He might have been threatened by that old fool.

The thing on the altar had died a month ago. Her brother must have left even earlier. At that time, it was probably still alive.

So, the old fool would have wanted to keep it alive, needing a purer paladin bloodline. At that time, the only direct descendants were Tifna and her brother.

So he found the Sword Saint. Maybe he threatened him with Tifna. One of them had to be fed to the flesh on the altar.

That’s why he had left without a word, to fight Stacy. If he died, Tifna would be the last of her bloodline. The old fool wouldn’t dare to touch her.

With that, everything became clear.

The Sword Saint hadn’t gone to challenge Stacy. He had gone to die. And he had taken a few Platinum Knights with him.

And one more thing. At the Adventurer’s Guild, she had seen Idis talking to the receptionist for a long time. She must have known about the Sword Saint then.

Someone must have been sent to find his body. No wonder Stacy had disappeared for a while. Had she gone to kill them?

And the people who had been with the Sword Saint, there must have been someone in charge of recovering the body. But they had run into Stacy. So, they were killed as well.

The recovery plan failed. The flesh died. This place was temporarily sealed. But the story wasn’t over. Someone was sent to find the Sword Saint’s body. If they found it, they could revive the flesh. But that body had become her. They couldn’t find it. The plan was abandoned.

No wonder that old fool had been tormenting her. Not just for Stacy’s things, but also because of her, an accident that had ruined the entire god-making project.

She really wanted to see his face when he found out his plan had failed.

But now, Milly approached Tifna. Tifna was missing some key information. She had to tell her the truth.

“Milly…”

The girl’s eyes were empty.

“Tifna, listen to me.”

For the next few minutes, Milly explained her theory. When she finished, the girl collapsed.

“It had to be one of us…” Tifna’s voice was broken. “That night, he left without a word. To protect me, he chose to challenge the Fell God…”

“You fool, brother. Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you have to face it alone?”

Milly could only sigh. Any words of comfort would be hollow. She had to be left alone.

She had one last place to check.

The door. Let’s see what was hidden in the deepest part.

The innermost room was even stranger than she had expected. A dozen broken pillars surrounded an extinguished sphere. The runes on the pillars had been mostly destroyed. When Milly’s eyes fell on the remaining symbols, her blood ran cold.

Wait, was she seeing things?

She rubbed her eyes. The symbols were still there.

They didn’t belong to any language she knew. They were more like from her own world. Or maybe it was a coincidence. After all, it was just a fragment.

But she wasn’t very familiar with that language from her world either. She wasn’t a student of it. She hoped it was a hallucination.

A sense of unease. She thought of all the strange things she had seen in this world. If so, then all the strange things would have a reasonable explanation.

She would use her appraisal skill. Maybe it could decipher it.

She stared at the remaining symbols. No text appeared. When she looked at the extinguished sphere, a sharp pain in her eyes. Had she overused them?

She didn’t know. She rubbed her eyes, her consciousness blurring. She grabbed a pillar to steady herself. When she opened her eyes, a line of red numbers appeared before her.

【85:23:59:59】

“A countdown?”

As if to confirm her theory, the numbers began to change.

【85:23:59:51】