Mystery: The Ultimate Tarot

Chapter 404 Promotion to "Silent Disciple"

An unspeakable silence fell over the surroundings.

Raphael couldn't describe where he was. There was nothing there except a clear pool of water, which was the "source of the curse." The surrounding area was an illusory darkness, where there was nothing, yet it also seemed like there was infinite space.

Despite the seemingly endless madness and evil thoughts swirling in Raphael's mind, he stood quietly in the phantom of the "Source of the Curse," unwilling to move an inch.

Being an Extraordinary is really tiring. You have to constantly digest potions and advance in rank, and you also have to constantly fight against those old guys from the "Origin".

Why strive to be extraordinary? Why not just be an ordinary person?

That won't work either; ordinary people live too stiflingly.

The next second, the pessimistic Raphael suddenly thought: This world is still beautiful. Since fighting against potions is so tiring, and fighting against those old monsters in the Extraordinary Realm is so tiring, then we can completely crush the madness and distortion of the Extraordinary Realm!

While you're at it, crush those old guys!

But soon, Raphael's arrogance and optimism faded, replaced by anger: Damn God, why must there be the extraordinary? Why must I suffer like this?

Raphael didn't know how long he had been in a state of emotional turmoil, until one after another appeared in the surrounding void—

Stars.

He first heard a prayer: "Father of Demons, Lord of Others: Source of the Curse—"

After the first voice rang out, more voices surged in like a tide, surrounding Raphael.

"Praise be to the Lord of evil desires," which led us away from the land forsaken by God.

"Praise be to the Lord of evil desires," who has given us a new home.

,

""

The sounds became increasingly mixed afterward.

"Look, there are small animals in the trees over there."

"The locals say it's a squirrel."

"Is it edible?"

"able."

At the same time, other voices rang in Raphael's ears: "We need to capture a few more locals and ask them for more information about the area."

"We've only been here a short time, is it really appropriate to arrest so many locals?"

"Didn't we report this to the Divine Envoy before? The Divine Envoy said that apart from the church, there are no other extraordinary forces on this island."

"I understand. In other words, as long as you don't arrest the bishops and priests in the church, it's fine."

"That's right."

Dozens, hundreds, thousands of voices seemed to ring out in Raphael's ears at the same time. He could almost hear the thoughts of the members in the cult that believed in the "Lord of Evil Desire".

Raphael's head was throbbing from the noise. He clutched his head and gradually revealed a pained expression.

Under the "nourishment" of these voices, his emotions returned, his feelings returned, and all his sensations returned.

Call ~

Raphael returned to the real world and found himself kneeling on the ground in agony.

The promotion went smoothly, even more so than expected.

He quickly realized that he had made a wish to Klein earlier, so it was perfectly normal that it came true.

Raphael struggled to his feet and looked up at the sky.

The scene of the "Dark Hut" did not appear. Of course, it's possible that it did appear but has now disappeared. Raphael felt that the ascension process seemed to have taken a very long time, and perhaps many things had already happened.

Without time to think, Raphael immediately entered the spirit world and left.

At this moment, Raphael seemed to have fully regained his composure. He thought to himself: Just as I guessed, I've been promoted to "Disciple of the Silent."

At that time, a certain anchor was indeed needed; otherwise, there would be no need to form a religious order, and the auxiliary materials would not be statues with the power of faith.

Most extraordinary individuals can organize their own anchors after advancing to Sequence 3; they only need sufficient support from anchors during the general advancement to Sequence 2.

However, the "Silent Disciple" is clearly different; they need the help of an anchor when advancing to Sequence 3.

Raphael guessed this from the promotion ceremony and supporting materials, which is why he made a special trip to the cult he had founded before the promotion and asked them to pray during the promotion.

Just as he was thinking this, Raphael sensed that deep within the spirit world, many gazes were focused on him.

Raphael immediately left the spirit world, because those gazes were drawn to the chaotic spirituality caused by Raphael's recent advancement.

Back in the real world, Raphael finds himself still at sea, with a small island not far away.

He immediately entered the state of a "vengeful spirit" and drifted toward the island.

Upon arriving on the island, Raphael sat cross-legged on the beach and began to gather his spiritual energy.

Because he had practiced the "True Scripture of the Demonic Source," Raphael was able to quickly gather his spiritual energy.

The waves gently lapped against the beach, and the warm sea breeze caressed Raphael, bringing him a sense of peace.

Although it was winter in Backlund, Raphael was on a tropical island where winter was nonexistent.

Once his spiritual energy had mostly subsided, Raphael breathed a sigh of relief and got up to continue his journey back to Backlund. Suddenly, he saw a middle-aged man in his forties standing on the beach not far away.

Raphael's eyes narrowed, and he immediately assumed a defensive stance.

He was very surprised: Who is this person? How come I didn't notice him approaching at all?

The middle-aged man, dressed in Rune-style clothing, had an evil glint in his eyes. When he saw Raphael looking at him, he said coldly, "Have you finished suppressing your spirituality?"

Raphael asked, "Who are you?"

"You don't even recognize me?"

Why should I get to know you?

"And what about me?" At that moment, another voice appeared in Raphael's ear: "Do you know me?"

As Raphael entered his "vengeful spirit" state, he looked toward the source of the voice, and before he knew it, another person had appeared behind him.

This was also a middle-aged man with a gentle face and obvious features of people from the Southern Continent.

Raphael froze: "I know you—"

This was the "puppet" he had killed when he went to the Southern Continent.

Raphael frowned: "You...you're not dead?"

"No, no!" the "demon personality" suddenly said. "Dude, cheer up, that's obviously an illusion!"

""

"Hallucination?" Raphael scratched his head. "I haven't had a hallucination in a long time."

The "demon personality" shouted, "Look at your two legs! What happened to them?"

Raphael looked down and saw his legs limp on the ground like mud. He felt as if he were standing, but his buttocks were sitting on the sand.

Raphael was also somewhat surprised: "Holy crap, what's going on?"

He quickly used the power of the "vengeful spirit" to rebuild his legs, and finally recovered.

But soon, Raphael found that his arms seemed to have turned into inelastic leather straps and dangled to the ground.

"What else could be happening?" The "Demon Personality" remained calm. "Big Brother, our bodies, spirits, and minds are on the verge of collapse!"

"Why—" Raphael was only halfway through his sentence when he realized what was going on: this was the hidden danger of the "dual-path" potion.

Or to put it bluntly, this was the "original" conspiracy from the very beginning.

Previously, the two types of potions were mostly only one level apart, maintaining a fragile balance. But now, the two types of potions are two levels apart—

This has happened before, but the current situation is quite special. The "Prisoner" pathway has already advanced to Sequence 3, while the "Criminal" pathway has only advanced to Sequence 5.

There is a dividing line between demigods and mortals between Sequence 4 and Sequence 5. The potions from the two paths were already somewhat unbalanced. After advancing to Sequence 3, this imbalance intensified rapidly, resulting in a situation that had never occurred before.

The "demon personality" suggested, "Let's contact the beginning immediately; he must have a solution."

Raphael rebuilt his arms, then touched his cheek, which had sunken like mud again, and said, "You still dare to use the method he gave you?"

He glanced at the beach, where two more figures had appeared. These were people Raphael had killed before. As for the middle-aged man from Rune who had appeared at the beginning, Raphael realized that he must be the "Talker" who had been killed a few days ago.

Because the "Talker" never showed his face, Raphael didn't recognize him at first.

At this moment, the "puppet" that Raphael had killed was looking at him with a cold smile, while the "talker" was adding insult to injury: "Haha, in your hometown's words, this is retribution. After killing so many people, you are finally going to get your comeuppance."

Erin, who had been killed long ago, coldly said, "With your meager abilities, you dare to dream of changing this world? Challenging the highest powers in this world?"

The "Talker" chimed in: "Oh? They even had such thoughts? Don't dream about it. They'll just end up on this deserted island, completely out of control, dying a lonely and miserable death."

Raphael tried to ignore them.

The "demon personality" sighed, realizing that this was indeed not a good solution: "Then what should we do? — No, that guy's words are just too awful. Don't stop me, I'm going to beat him up."

Raphael raised his hand: "Hey, hey, hey, don't take an illusion seriously, just pretend you didn't hear that."

Then another figure appeared—Derwent, the former deputy director of MI9, who asked with a lewd grin, "How's Hugh?"

"Holy shit!" Raphael stepped forward and slapped the other person across the face.

Of course, he didn't hit anything; instead, he lost his own arm.

The "demon personality" quickly advised, "Calm down, calm down. Didn't you just say you'd pretend you didn't hear me?"

Raphael took a deep breath: "Alright, alright, we'll talk about that later. Let's deal with our own problems first, and then we'll deal with the others."

At this moment, a man and a woman appeared before Raphael. The man was in his thirties, with a slightly high hairline and deep gray eyes. The woman had emerald green eyes, and wore blue eyeshadow and blush, giving her an eerie beauty.

Raphael was taken aback: "Dunne Smith and Daly Simone? Why are you two in my hallucination—"

"No, I didn't kill you!"

The hallucination of Dunn's image smiled and said, "No one says that the people in your hallucinations are all killed by you."

""

Daisy laughed, "Look, this guy is even more foolish than us. We may have had regrets while we were alive, but we're together forever in the underworld. But what about him? He was so badly deceived, and he doesn't even know who he is?"

Raphael frowned: "You don't even know who you are?"

Dunn looked at Raphael with his deep eyes: "Yes, don't you feel out of place in this world? Even if you are a transmigrator, you are very different among transmigrators."

Raphael took a deep breath, feeling that the two hallucinatory figures were trying to tell him some crucial information.

"Hey buddy, wake up! You can't let us down now!" the "demon personality" said anxiously. "Look at what we've become! If this keeps up, we'll turn into a puddle of snot!"

Raphael suddenly came to his senses and found that his whole body had turned into jelly and was rapidly dissolving.

He quickly re-entered the "vengeful spirit" state, "scooped up" the arm he had just flung out from the front, and reshaped himself once again.

As soon as it took shape, a man with long, slightly wavy chestnut hair, blue eyes, a high nose, thin lips, and a very handsome mustache suddenly appeared in front of Raphael.

Russell Gustave!

The other person smiled and said, "Did you eat the Jelly Fruit?"

The "talker" standing nearby said, "No, this is retribution for killing too many people."

Raphael waved his hand irritably, as if swatting away flies: "Ugh, you guys are so annoying!"

He didn't want to listen to these hallucinatory conversations, but their words kept getting into Raphael's ears.

Raphael sat back down on the beach, trying hard not to listen to the hallucinations.

Dark Hut!

Like a ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds, Raphael finally realized, amidst the delusional insults and arguments, that he could still utilize the power of the "Dark Hut".

So he quickly entered the "Dark Abode," and as soon as he sat on the high-backed chair belonging to the "Lord of Evil Desires," a surging power immediately surrounded him.

At the same time, he realized that his control over "Dark Lodge" had deepened.

But there was no time to worry about the "Dark Lodge's" reaction. Raphael took a deep breath and used the surging power around him to reshape his mud-like body.

His condition has finally stabilized.

But his spirituality reminded him that this stability was only temporary.

Raphael glanced at "The Beginning," who was floating not far away, but ultimately didn't ask for help. Instead, he said to "Demon Personality," "While things are stable now, let's quickly advance to demonhood."

Once the level of the other path also reaches sainthood, the balance between the two paths can be re-established.

"This is the world of shadows," Roselle exclaimed as he appeared beside the high-backed chair.

He looked around and exclaimed, "This place is truly amazing!"

Raphael's eyes narrowed: "The hallucinations have come along too—"

At this moment, one after another illusory figures appeared, and Raphael was greatly annoyed by their noise.

At this moment, "The Beginning" in the distance said, "You are uneasy, so they followed us in."

Raphael gave a cold laugh and returned to the real world.

We must quickly prepare the "devil's" potion!