Mystery: The Ultimate Tarot

Chapter 403 The Potion to Completely Digest the "Puppet"

Inside the Backlund Grand Theatre, a grand puppet show, directed and performed by Raphael, is underway.

As Raphael was performing the coronation ceremony of the "Thudor-Trensost Empire," he noticed a change in the audience. William I had appeared, watching the performance on stage with rapt attention.

Raphael dared not be careless and performed earnestly.

This “protector” and “founder” of the Kingdom of Rune was one of the witnesses to this coronation ceremony! At the very least, He couldn’t be made to feel out of place.

As the coronation ceremony concluded, the audience erupted in enthusiastic applause once again.

Many people exclaimed that the plot of this puppet show was very exciting.

As Audrey clapped along in the audience, she remarked: "Real history is indeed far more fascinating than drama."

Soon, the seventh act begins, as there are two emperors in the empire, and some conflict between them is inevitable.

This scene mainly depicts the power struggle between the two emperors and their efforts to find external support to consolidate their positions.

Thudor enlisted the help of the mysterious wizard Abraham, a very beautiful wizard, and two hermits named Antigonus and Amun, among others.

Trensault, on the other hand, married a queen who lived in a towering castle and gained the support of the six wizards who had previously won the victory.

Emlyn, sitting in the back row of the audience, saw the queen living in the towering castle and thought to himself, "The puppet made by the 'demon' is exquisite. This queen's image is somewhat like the 'Blood Moon Queen'—although it doesn't quite resemble the image in the portrait, it gives people the feeling of the 'Blood Moon Queen'."

At this point, he was completely unaware that this was the "demon" recounting history from the Quaternary period, and he was still watching it as a real puppet show.

The eighth act of the puppet show begins, and the struggle between the two emperors finally comes to light, dividing the country in two.

Just as the country was in turmoil, in the north of the empire, Solomon's "descendants" rallied the nation, and the Solomon Empire was restored.

Meanwhile, in the southern continent, the ruler of Byron crowned himself a "legitimate" emperor.

The battles of the Four Emperors era have begun.

Faced with an increasingly complex situation, rivals Tudor and Trensost secretly joined forces, while Solomon and the emperor of the Byron Empire also quietly formed an alliance.

Act IX is another great battle, in which the elite forces of the Tudor and Trensust empires join forces to destroy the Solomon Empire, while also blocking the Byron Empire's reinforcements to the Solomon Empire.

Having just divided their spoils after their victory, Tudor and Trensost began fighting again.

The battle was fierce and spectacular, featuring another duel between wizards that drew rounds of applause from the audience.

At that moment, a pair of bare feet suddenly appeared at the back of the audience seats, and within half a second, the legs, torso, and head appeared one after another.

That was Lady Ariana, the abbess of the Night Monastery.

He too was drawn to the puppet show, and after exchanging a glance with William I, the two angels watched the drama unfold on stage in silence.

They had all participated in this fierce battle, and the drama on stage inevitably evoked some memories for them.

On stage, as the plot unfolds, the mysterious wizard Abraham is sealed away, and the battle becomes increasingly disadvantageous for Tudor.

So Tudor began to pray to the evil god for power, hoping to receive the god's help.

In the process, he went mad, his ideas became increasingly insane. Since victory was hopeless, he actually wanted to drag the whole world down with him.

The beautiful sorceress, who had always been a strong supporter of him and was also the queen, knew that things couldn't go on like this, so she ended Tudor's life with her own hands.

This scene is emotionally intense, vividly portraying the beautiful witch's desire to save her life and her love for Tudor.

The fierce battle ended once again in an unexpected way, with Trenshorst emerging victorious.

As the curtain fell, the two angels at the back of the audience also clapped.

When Raphael saw that the two angels had not interrupted the performance, he knew that the seal that the Lord of Evil Desire had placed on the Super Star Ruler had provided him with sufficient protection.

Moreover, he has just completed a deal with the Church of the Goddess of the Night for the Nine Netherworld Daoist Manual—this deal was completed during the pilgrimage. "Star" Leonard conveyed the instructions of the "Goddess of the Night" and agreed to the conditions offered by "Demon" Raphael, thus successfully completing the deal.

So the relationship between the two sides is still relatively harmonious. Raphael estimates that as long as he doesn't deliberately smear the "Goddess of Night," the angels of the Church of the Goddess of Night won't interfere.

On stage, after a minute or two of preparation, the curtain was drawn back again, and the tenth and final act began.

After his victory, Trensust faced a similar predicament to Solomon: the power of the six wizards was simply too great, and he, the emperor, was more like a puppet.

So Trensust secretly sought ways to make himself stronger, and eventually he made contact with an evil god.

William I and Ariana in the audience exchanged a glance. Neither of them knew much about this matter, yet this "puppet" had brought it to life.

At this moment, they each had some thoughts in their minds, wondering if the "Lord of Evil Desires" was conveying some important message through this puppet show.

While the two angels were lost in thought, the puppet show was drawing to a close. Trensust had become even more powerful, but he seemed to have lost his mind and was issuing strange orders, such as instructing his subordinates to search for a lamp throughout the country.

Upon seeing this, William I's expression darkened, for he had received a similar order years ago.

But even now he still doesn't know what kind of lamp it was.

Thinking of this, the "Hand of Order" narrowed its eyes, believing that this was the important message the "Lord of Evil Desires" wanted to convey: that lamp was the key!

That's not wrong, but this was something Raphael was putting on for Klein and Bernadette.

Tonight's special audience members, besides the two angels and Amon's important clones, include Klein, who has been watching the show with "real vision," and Bernadette, who is secretly watching the puppet show using secret techniques.

Bernadette had already returned from the island with Roselle's final tomb and had advanced to Sequence 2, so she hid in the shadows, unnoticed by anyone.

Regardless of the audience's opinions, the final scene was unfolding on stage: the six powerful wizards sensed something was wrong with Trensault and joined forces to kill him.

The puppet show came to an end, and the audience applauded enthusiastically, as the entire puppet show had completed a clever closed loop.

Initially, it was Emperor Solomon who wanted to defeat six powerful wizards, but he failed and was killed by the wizards.

Later, the two emperors Tudor and Trensus rose to power. After fierce battles, Trensusus re-established a unified empire, and history repeated itself.

The emperor again wanted to punish the six wizards, and the result was the same: the emperor was killed by the wizards.

So at this point, the plot of this puppet show seems to have formed a perfect historical loop.

It's like everyone knows about some political flaws and the negative consequences they cause, but these flaws still keep happening.

It's like the saying that "history always repeats itself."

Regardless, this ending is quite intriguing.

Audrey and Fors, however, were more interested in knowing what happened next.

The puppet show hasn't explained how the current power structure of the four major nations came to be. Also, how the seventh deity became a god remains a huge mystery.

But the drama has finally come to an end, and it is indeed a good ending.

Moreover, continuing the performance would definitely lead to trouble. After all, the audience at the Backlund Theatre were either wealthy or nobles. If the performance continued, they would all eventually realize that this was history from the Fourth Age.

At the very back of the stands, William I and Ariana also clapped.

William I, in particular, hesitated for a moment but still did not ask the "puppet" what the "lamp" was.

The reason is simple: at present, the support of the church and God is very important.

In order to better control the world, the gods no longer allow the appearance of rulers at the level of true gods. If He were to ask about the lamp, He would easily arouse the suspicion of the gods.

Therefore, there are some things it's better not to know.

Soon the curtain was drawn back, and the puppets came out one by one to take their bows, which was met with enthusiastic applause once again.

Amid applause, Amun's clone left first, followed by William I and Ariana.

Many audience members hoped that the puppeteers and the voice actors would come out to take a bow and receive applause, but they did not see them.

After the curtain fell, the puppets left the stage and returned to the dressing room at the back.

Most of the audience found the scene somewhat eerie, but didn't speculate wildly. Only Audrey and other extraordinary individuals knew that there might only be one person behind the puppet show. And the puppets weren't being controlled to leave the stage; they were leaving "on their own."

This was a wonderful puppet show, but unfortunately it was his swan song, because Raphael had completely digested the "Puppet" potion, and he would never perform puppet shows again unless he was in the mood.

Backland West.

Raphael returned to his living room, poured himself a glass of wine, and celebrated the successful performance of the day.

It would be a lie to say he wasn't nervous performing a puppet show under the noses of several angels, but fortunately he had carefully choreographed it beforehand, ensuring that nothing would make the angels uncomfortable.

Everything is ready; I'm ready for the promotion.

However, Raphael did not act immediately, but instead prepared to rest and recharge his energy before proceeding.

Tomorrow is the New Year, and Raphael is preparing for his promotion tomorrow night, not for any other reason than for good luck.

After a good night's rest, Raphael went to Gas Island the next day to check on how the people of Sen'er City were being settled.

One-third of the people of Sener City have already arrived at their new home, tents have been set up, and the boundaries of the city walls are already being planned.

Raphael generously gave them over 100,000 pounds in paper money, instructing them to focus on building the city, but also not to forget about training, as the "Lord of Lust" might need them to fight at any time.

Before leaving, he took a statue of the "Lord of Evil Desires" from here and asked the people of Sen'er City to pray for it at night.

Back in Backlund, Raphael went to check on the assassin company and found it to be operating normally.

At the same time, Raphael also told Sophia that his faith was actually in "Lord of Evil Desires," and asked all the employees to pray to "Lord of Evil Desires" that night, and to keep their faith in "Lord of Evil Desires" a secret.

Around 3 p.m., Raphael returned to the villa and began preparing the potion.

Raphael went to those places today mainly to inspect his anchor points. After reaching Sequence 3, a troublesome thing is that he needs certain anchors.

Therefore, Raphael was not opposed to forming the Order, because it would be useful in Sequence 3.

Having arranged everything, Raphael sat quietly by the window, waiting.

Soon, night fell.

But because it's New Year's Eve, it's even more lively outside after nightfall.

Around eight o'clock, people were setting off fireworks outside.

I watched as the dazzling fireworks exploded in mid-air, dispelling the surrounding fog and illuminating a large area.

Raphael couldn't help but sigh: This year has been really tough, so many things have happened.

Fortunately, the war is over, and he is ready to advance to Sequence 3.

However, he himself didn't know whether his promotion was a good thing.

After a moment of blankness, Raphael got up, took the potion, and entered the spirit world.

Advancing to Sequence 3 usually involves quite a stir, and might even cause the "Dark Lodge" to appear. Naturally, he would want to find an uninhabited island to advance.

Emerging from the spirit world, guided by his spirituality, he found his goal: a small, deserted island.

Raphael took out the potion and began to examine his condition. After confirming that he was in good condition, he did a simple divination to confirm that the ritual he had completed during the pilgrimage was sufficient.

After taking a deep breath, he glanced at the potion in the bottle. The potion's appearance was decorated with many unintelligible symbols and patterns, black eyes, a bloody mouth, and a pale liquid that swirled and floated.

The auxiliary materials for mixing potions require large items like this, which cannot be mixed using a beaker.

Raphael bought a large pot, put all the ingredients together, and that huge pot of stuff turned into a small bottle of potion.

The statue and sheepskin were still in the pot, but they had lost all their color and looked as if they would turn into crumbs at the slightest touch.

With that thought in mind, Raphael concentrated, opened the bottle, and drank the "Silent Disciple" potion without hesitation.

Raphael even had time to smack his lips after drinking the icy potion, but in the next instant, his will became blurred, and the phantom of the "Source of the Curse" reappeared before him.

Raphael approached the pool of clear water in a daze, and without thinking, jumped in.