The Cycle of Fate

Chapter 111: Nightmare

"Aurore attacked me."

Those words echoed in Lumian's ears, like a dam breaking and a flood of memories rushing into his mind, washing away all the buried blood-red cracks deep within him.

Pale, painful, piercing. Lumian once again saw a series of images: Guillaume Bénet, the parish priest, trapped in the wilderness, surrounded by countless robed undead; Madame Pualis soaring through the air, wings spread wide; Aurore's reflection in Madame Pualis's eyes, her blonde hair shining.

He also saw the third floor of the castle, its walls filled with pale, translucent faces; he saw Louis Lund giving birth; saw Sybil Bery being reborn in the body of a maid; saw the parish priest, Guillaume Bénet, locked in battle with Beost and other believers of fate.

All these scenes came from his own perspective, floating in the air like a fist-sized bubble.

"White paper..."

Lumian's face twisted with pain, his body arching back as the veins on his skin bulged out, bluish-purple, and densely packed. At the same time, he recalled Suzy the psychiatrist's words: "Always remember, don't let your emotions get out of control. If you feel something like this, take deep breaths to calm yourself and ease the tension."

Gasping for air, as if the space around him had become a vacuum, Lumian struggled to control the storm in his mind.

Madame Pualis, watching his agony, said sympathetically, "You've forgotten many things, haven't you? No, you've buried them deep in your heart, too afraid to face them. I was in pain too, suffering deeply. It wasn't until I became a 'Banshee' that I met a woman who truly touched my soul. She was so charming, kind, quiet yet lively. I couldn't believe she would attack me as a follower of an evil god, standing in my way."

"By that time, she was already a 'Hunter of Fate,' even more bound by fate than Guillaume Bénet."

Lumian pressed his hands to his head as if it was about to explode from within.

Through deep breaths, he recalled how Aurore never seemed to take the strange happenings in the village seriously, how she warned him not to look at things he shouldn't, how she always sat on the roof at night, gazing at the stars. He remembered the transparent lizard-like creature that crawled from her mouth in his dream, and how Naara Eliza and those who spread astrological heresies had been close to Aurore.

Accompanying these thoughts, he also remembered how he had sought revenge against Pons Bénet for Raymond Ava's death, only to be captured and tortured, though ultimately released. He recalled Aurore's serious, worried expression as they cut up the blue books and pieced together a letter for help, and how she explained occult knowledge to him.

In his dreams, her eyes had moved, coming alive, as she pushed him away from the altar.

Gasping, Lumian felt as if he were still trapped in that nightmare, unable to wake.

Madame Pualis sighed softly. "I should have noticed the changes in her earlier. Even though we didn't visit each other often, I had long observed that she liked to gaze at the stars at night and often spoke of 'home.' In the occult world, the stars are dangerous things, especially for the supernatural. Later, I wanted her to believe in the Great Mother, but it was already too late."

Lumian's lips moved, and with great difficulty, he asked, "When did she start acting strange?"

He remembered clearly that Aurore had always had the habit of stargazing and talking about her homeland. Nothing had happened in those early years. However, Lumian admitted that, over the past year, Aurore had indeed been looking at the stars more often. But he couldn't pinpoint when exactly it had changed.