Though many thoughts flashed through his mind, Ebner kept his composure, not showing any sign of hesitation. After a brief pause, he made his request:
"What I want as compensation is actually quite simple—I would like you to demonstrate all the abilities from Sequence 9 to Sequence 3 of the 'Hunter' pathway…"
"The rest can wait until after you've gotten out of your predicament, but the 'Reaper's' 'Fatal Strike' needs to be prepaid."
In fact, what Ebner was most eager to know was whether Giuseppe Castiya truly walked out of this very ruin as he had suspected…
After all, this was the foundation of his previous series of deductions.
But Ebner couldn't show any concern for this, or the evil spirit would immediately sense it and take control of the negotiation.
At that point, he might end up learning nothing.
"Just as I thought, you're from the 'Reader' pathway. That attitude and demeanor really remind me of a certain someone!" The evil spirit scrutinized him a few times before sneering and saying, "But why should I prepay you?"
"Two reasons…" Ebner, unhurried, raised two fingers with a smile, saying,
"First, as I mentioned earlier, I can acquire the blood of Sauron's and Einhorn's direct descendants at any time. I'm much closer than anyone else to helping you lift the seal.
"As for the second reason…"
Ebner paused here, glancing at the evil spirit's indifferent expression before continuing, "I don't know if you have other backup plans for escaping… but if you do, it wouldn't be hard for me to sabotage them…"
"Therefore, prepaying a little compensation is entirely reasonable!"
Klein, listening to this, couldn't help but mutter to himself: This feels like a protection fee being collected... But then he thought to himself, Well done, 'Mr. Tower'!
The evil spirit stared at Ebner for a while, then let out a "Hmph" and said:
"You certainly have a talent for provocation!"Fine, I agree!"
Before his words even finished, a flame-shaped arrow suddenly appeared out of nowhere and shot towards Ebner without warning. The arrow wasn't particularly powerful; it seemed to be controlled by the evil spirit through the baron it had possessed, but it was infused with some other force.
As the flame arrow shot towards him, Ebner, with his "Pure White Eye" still activated, immediately felt a fatal weakness form within himself—the very spot the arrow was aiming for!
This was the evil spirit demonstrating its 'Fatal Strike,' as well as testing Ebner.
However, Ebner had been prepared for this. He lightly rubbed the cursed Tudor Crest pinned in his sleeve, and the space around him subtly shifted. The concepts of 'hit' and 'distance' twisted…
The flame arrow, despite maintaining its speed, still shot straight at the "weakness" that the evil spirit had aimed for—but to his surprise, it couldn't reach the target at all. It seemed to freeze right in front of Ebner.
"'Earl of the Fallen'?" The evil spirit exclaimed, sounding slightly uncertain.
Taking into account the mirror, pendant, silver thread, and now this… This person's high-level items are just too many, aren't they?Even a God's Chosen wouldn't have this much… Has there been some big change in the outside world during my years of imprisonment? But none of the memories from the Pound family mention anything about this...
The evil spirit, feeling a little troubled, withdrew the flame arrow with the "Fatal Strike" power. Since his "test" had yielded no useful information, there was no need to keep it around… After all, he had already agreed to the demonstration.
All of this was within Ebner's expectations. When the flame arrow disappeared, he retracted the "rules" he had created and seemingly absent-mindedly exposed the crest in his sleeve to the evil spirit.
He didn't want to ask directly, as that might give the evil spirit an opportunity to take back control of the conversation. Instead, he used the cooperation of the "Mind Dragon" to subtly "guide" the situation. Even though the evil spirit had once been an "Angel," it was currently in a poor mental state and couldn't sense the subtle influence, especially since this didn't involve anything "Extraordinary" and wouldn't harm it.
As Ebner had anticipated, the evil spirit, upon seeing the crest, was immediately surprised and said, "So that crest ended up in your hands… It didn't backfire on you… Are you a member of the Sauron family?"
"Wait, no… this has the power of the 'Death Regent' on it… I see, it was an angel who helped you perform the 'seal'…"
At this point, the evil spirit couldn't help but mutter to itself, What is this kid's background? Not only does he have a bloodline angel blessing, but now an angel of death is helping him with sealing items…
Is this the level of a God's Chosen nowadays?
"Death Regent?" Klein, thrilled by hearing another high-sequence name, felt this time as an observer, he wasn't losing out.
"I found it in the remains of a Castiya family member… Do you recognize it?" Ebner asked, pretending to be surprised, as if asking casually.
"I remember that kid was called Giuseppe Castiya. He was the only one, besides you, who went into the underground palace and made it out alive. But what left the deepest impression on me was his abnormal luck…"
"By the way, last Thursday night, there was an aura passing through the sewers that was oddly similar to his strange luck… Too bad I couldn't venture too far from the ruin to investigate."
The evil spirit briefly mentioned a few things and then stopped talking further.
But that was enough for Ebner. Now that it was confirmed that the previous traveler came out of the ruins, once the combined evil spirit is taken by Ince and the ruins are destroyed by the authorities, Ebner could definitely enter to "retrace" the past.
But… abnormal luck? Was the "failure" of the last traveler related to luck? Could the incidents at my banquet and ball be influenced by his remains?
Also, I remember last Thursday was when Duke Negan was assassinated… Could someone nearby be involved with that and have fled through the sewers that night?
He thought for a moment but decided not to delve deeper into that subject. Instead, he asked the evil spirit, "I've never met a member of the Medici family. Do you have any leads?"
Though he never planned to help the evil spirit lift the seal, he felt it was necessary to keep up appearances.
"They're quite reclusive. They are polluted angels, and they've founded an extremely secretive organization." The evil spirit sneered, "It's called the 'Rose Redemption.'"
Are you making fun of yourself? Or have you gone so mad that you even "provoke" yourself?
But the Rose Redemption could be said to be the most powerful secret organization in the mystical world. Even the lowest-ranked members are angelic kings. To think you'd claim to be the "founder" of it, Ebner couldn't help but click his tongue internally.
The name seemed so familiar… Right! In the recently discovered ruins of the "True Creator" temple in Silver City, there was a mural with similar writings in the corner. They suspected it was the name of the city-state or the builders of the temple… Now it seems, this marks an extremely secretive organization founded by polluted angels… Do they worship the "True Creator"? What does this have to do with the Aurora Society?
On the other side, Klein pondered for a moment, then suddenly interjected:
"Is this related to the 'True Creator'?"
The evil spirit turned to him, scrutinizing him a few times, then smiled:
"Just as I thought, my judgment wasn't wrong. You have quite a few secrets."
"Actually, the 'Rose Redemption' is closely tied to the birth of the 'True Creator.' Some people you could never imagine were once members of the 'Rose Redemption'…"
The Evernight Goddess, the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, the Lord of Storms, the Eternal Sun… As the evil spirit spoke, Ebner silently counted in his mind.
Not sure what the kid fiddling with that dangerous pendant was thinking, the evil spirit continued:
"As long as you can find the group that worships the 'True Creator,' and trace your way through, you'll eventually encounter the 'Rose Redemption' and find the Medici family."
"Of course, you could also try your luck in Binsi Town."
"Binsi Town? Where is it?"
In response to Klein's question, the evil spirit refused to reveal anything further, instead asking something quite unexpected:
"Does anyone here know of Rhine Karendia?"