Mystery: The Last Shepherd

Chapter 332 Ouroboros
The day after meeting Sharon, Luze received no further contact from her. It seemed that finding the previous members and rebuilding the exploration team would take some effort.

It happened to be Monday, and Luze spent the morning inspecting the "pasture," preaching to the lambs and treating the sick. As his connection with these people grew stronger, his mental state gradually improved, and he hadn't been hallucinating for some time.

After settling the lambs, Luze returned to his lodgings. He locked the door just before three o'clock and had M create a virtual persona for him. As the clock struck one, endless crimson light surged from the void, enveloping him.

When Lu Ze opened his eyes again, he found himself inside that ancient, eternal palace. A thick gray fog flowed beneath his feet, and several blurry figures gathered around a long bronze table.

Good afternoon, Mr. Fool~

He saw Miss Justice rise as always and greet each member of the gray fog in a light tone.

How happy must one's life be to have such a naive and optimistic mindset?
Lu Ze couldn't help but think to himself.

Just then, he suddenly noticed something unusual—the [Sun] beside him, upon arriving in the gray fog, suddenly jolted and then froze.

He seemed to have suffered a great shock.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Upside-Down Sun, what happened?"

Not only Luze, but Audrey of Justice also sensed something was wrong. She was about to greet the men, but her "mind-reading" ability allowed her to easily discern that the tall young man was uneasy.

"You don't seem to be doing well! Did something happen while exploring that temple of the true, fallen creator?"

She immediately guessed what it was.

[The Sun] Derrick's body shuddered, snapping him out of his state of terror. [Justice]'s words gave him hope, and he began nervously to recount his experiences:

"I'm stuck in a cycle."

Their exploration team repeatedly explored the temple, each time ending with the chief killing the little boy Jack. However, immediately afterwards, everyone returned to the beginning of the event, the camp outside the city, to the moment before the exploration began.

The exploration team members were completely unaware that they were repeating the same cycle, simply continuing the loop of exploration, killing, and returning to the starting point. If Mr. Fool hadn't pulled Derrick the Sun above the gray fog, helping him recall his previous experiences, they probably would have continued like this indefinitely.

"Thank you, Mr. Fool."

[The Sun] Derrick felt increasingly terrified as he thought about it, and couldn't help but bow his head to the towering figure above him.

Actually, I didn't know unless you told me.
Klein muttered to himself, nodding slightly in response.

Seeing Mr. Fool's calm demeanor, Derrick the Sun finally felt more at ease and gained confidence in resolving the situation. He turned to the crowd and asked earnestly:
"So, do you know why this is happening? And how should we deal with it?"

According to the Tarot Club's procedures, it should now be Mr. Fool's reading time, but due to the special circumstances, everyone has tacitly agreed to start the discussion directly.

Cycle, exploration.
After hearing [The Sun's] description, [Justice] Audrey's eyes lit up, feeling both excited and afraid. She desperately wanted to help, but due to her limited experience in the extraordinary world, she had no clue where to begin.

"I can write a letter to my teacher for you and ask him about it."

[The Magician] Fors's situation was similar, but she had now officially become a member of the Abraham family—a student of Dorian Gray—and had an outsider. After a moment's hesitation, she added tentatively, "However, this might take some time."

Fors's teacher lived in Prydz Harbor, quite a distance from Backlund. Klein had seen similar scenes in literary works from his previous life and could offer some suggestions. However, if he could make such a suggestion, his fellow transmigrator, Luze, could certainly do the same, so he didn't control the [World] puppet to speak but instead decided to observe first.

Alger, the Hanged Man, hesitated for a moment, about to speak, when he suddenly heard the calm voice of Temperance:

"I know how to solve it."

As soon as Lu Ze finished speaking, everyone's eyes immediately turned to him.

"Mr. Temperance, do you have a solution?"

"The Sun," Derrick asked excitedly.

"Ah."

Lu Ze nodded slightly.

He wasn't just talking nonsense; he was genuinely confident.

When he became a "Secret Prayer," the True Creator bestowed upon him an excessive amount of knowledge. This included not only the True Creator's name, sacrifices, and rituals, but also the name of another special being.

That name is Urolius.

A lingering spirit, a servant of the true Creator, eyes gazing upon destiny—this is part of the description of Ouroboros's name, clearly illustrating his relationship with the true Creator. It is entirely reasonable for such a subordinate of an evil god to appear in a temple.

Of course, this reason alone cannot prove anything. However, the knowledge of potions also includes several rituals for invoking power from Ouroboros, one of which has a powerful effect: it can rewind events within a certain time frame to their earliest state.

This is very similar to what [Sun] and the others experienced at the temple!
"To bring the murals inside the temple to life."

Lu Ze said.

"Ok."

Although he didn't know what Mr. Fool was up to, Derrick the Sun still dared not be negligent. After obtaining permission from Mr. Fool, he displayed the murals he had seen in the temple one by one before everyone:

The true creator bears the burden of a collapsing world, saves humanity, and fights against six evil gods.
The silver angels led the pilgrims toward the black mountains.
"Wait a moment."

As the Tarot Club members were awestruck by the ancient murals, Luze suddenly spoke up. His gaze lingered on the silver-white angel, looking at the circulating river at its feet.

In the corner of that mural, the words "Redemption Rose" were written.

“This silver being is very likely a servant of the true creator, the Tail-Eater, Ouroles,” Luze said to the crowd, pointing to the mural. “Did you notice the winding river at His feet that eventually connects head to tail? That is the manifestation of His power.”

"Ouroboros?"

No one had ever heard of this name before, except for Klein, who had a guess and associated it with the "monster" pathway sequence 1, "Mercury Serpent," or "Serpent of Fate," mentioned in Roselle's diary.

Will Unsett, who was in a strange state, seemed to be a mercury serpent.
(End of this chapter)