The Cycle of Fate

Chapter 127: Ancient Times

After Lumière's fireball missed Charlotte, he saw countless branches and vines surge from all directions, invading the Golden Rooster Inn. They quickly covered the walls, floors, windows, and ceiling, intertwining in brown and green, creating an impenetrable barrier.

As these changes occurred, his surroundings momentarily became illusory before returning to solidity.

He found himself gazing at a massive brown-green tree with roots deeply embedded in the earth, its crown slowly growing towards the sky.

Lumière's pupils dilated as he realized that he had been unknowingly relocated, much like the times he found himself in the "Otherworld" without noticing.

He was no longer inside the Golden Rooster Inn. His feet now stood atop knotted tree roots sprawling across the ground, and he looked up at a towering tree that seemed to come straight out of myth, with a sky as picturesque as a painting with blue skies and white clouds.

The giant tree was covered in slimy, disgusting growths, and each branch appeared to support a building, a road, or various objects.

The Golden Rooster Inn was among them, situated near the top of the brown-green tree trunk, wrapped tightly by branches and vines, with only a few windows visible.

Through those glass windows, Lumière could see the eloping couple cursing at each other in a frenzy, and the information broker, Anthony Reed, cowering in terror beneath a wooden table.

On other branches, the things wrapped in leaves and vines appeared strangely blurred and misty, as if viewed through fog, like scenes recorded by magnetic fields. There was an ancient building with triangular pediments, pitched roofs, and lead-framed windows; a woman leaning against a gaslight post, being embraced from behind; a priest standing before a line of naked men; a man clutching his buttocks as he jumped out of a window; a graceful silhouette being carried on a tray to a dining table; a wild party with clothes strewn everywhere; a beautiful, evil woman who suddenly turned her head, sprouting two black horns; and a bishop receiving a penitent's confession in front of a holy emblem, his lower body bare.

In each scene, the architectural style, clothing, and hairstyles varied greatly—some appeared ancient, while others seemed as though they had happened just yesterday.

While Lumière cauterized his wounds to stop the bleeding, he summoned several semi-illusory crimson fire crows behind him and quickly surveyed his surroundings but failed to find Franca.

Franca had not been transported to this place, a strange realm between reality and illusion!

On the chaotic streets, among the roots, branches, and vines, the street vendors and passersby were engaged in bizarre behavior. Some were gorging themselves on their own food until they vomited but continued eating regardless. Others were pinning down members of the opposite sex right there in the street. Some pulled out short knives, their eyes red with rage, attacking competitors they'd argued with or lost a spot to. Others, in the midst of this chaos, walked up to shop windows and, with gentlemanly gestures, tried to invite their reflection for a dance.

Beyond these few streets, pedestrians and carriages passed by normally, oblivious to the strangeness—vendors were still shouting, shops were open, and people moved about, seemingly enraptured by the lively scene, unwilling to leave.

What they hadn't noticed was that anyone who entered that area never came out.

On the fourth floor of the mustard-yellow building that housed the parliamentary offices on Market Avenue, Yuge Artois stared at the distant streets, lost in thought.

The red-haired Cassandra glanced at the door, slightly curious, and asked, "What exactly is the 'Bliss Society's' Susanna planning?" Yuge Artois chuckled and said, "They talked about a lot of things, but I didn't quite understand due to my lack of knowledge. What I did catch is that they plan to have that underground divine tree extend its roots deep into the fourth epoch of Trier and grow upwards into something called the Astral World."