Mystery: The Undead Don't Die from Linking the Fire

The Intis Empire, capital Trier.

The top floor of the Intis Security Bureau office building houses the office of the Bureau Chief.

Bernadette sat at her desk, dealing with a mountain of documents.

Since Russell's return, Bernadette has held several positions in the Intis government, one of which is Director of the General Directorate for External Security.

The reason why this angel herself was appointed as the director was not because she craved power. On the contrary, Bernadette actually quite disliked dealing with these troublesome matters. But Roselle had just been resurrected and had no trustworthy subordinates, so many things could only be entrusted to Bernadette, her only trustworthy daughter.

In order to complete the mission more efficiently, Bernadette will also select suitable members from the Dawn of Elements to serve in the government.

On one hand, the Elements Dawn was founded by Bernadette, and since their power is now entirely dependent on Roselle, their loyalty is not a concern. On the other hand, these members can use this opportunity to transform themselves from "members of a secret organization hated by everyone" to "honorable official law enforcement officers," making it a win-win situation.

For example, the current General Bureau of External Security has many members of the Dawn Element planted within it, mainly responsible for vetting internal personnel.

Although nominally, the General Directorate of External Security's responsibilities are limited to handling external incidents.

However, as the first organization to surrender to Russell, Russell reciprocated by granting the General Directorate of External Security immense power, allowing it to handle both domestic and foreign affairs; the term "foreign affairs" could be dropped from its scope.

On the contrary, the intelligence agency that was originally responsible for internal affairs has long been controlled by the high-ranking officials of the former Intis Republic and has never been trusted by Roselle. Now it is completely idle and has no real power.

Bernadette finished processing one document, then picked up another on the table. Her beautiful eyes scanned the document, quickly extracting keywords:

Foreign Minister, Secret Order, Orville, Dillan...

Bernadette frowned slightly, and an invisible message quickly entered the mind of someone downstairs from the office.

dong dong!

A short while later, there was a knock on the door. After Bernadette's voice came from inside, she pushed the door open and entered.

Two people entered the office. The one in the lead was a handsome young man in a general's uniform. He had a stern and serious face and neatly combed light blond hair. Behind him was a middle-aged man in a suit and tie with black hair, who looked nervous and dressed like an office worker.

Bernadette picked up the documents on the table and showed them to the young man in front of her, calmly saying:

"Donald, how much do you know about this document?"

Donald Bush, former Director of the External Security Bureau, current Deputy Director of the Security Bureau, and a 'War Bishop' of the Red Priest pathway Sequence 3. He is a demigod who was promoted during the Roselle Empire and is considered one of his father's former associates.

Because he was already a demigod when the First Intis Empire collapsed, he was not purged by the Second Republic and instead remained in a high position. Of course, being in a high position is relative.

As a "war bishop," the army was undoubtedly the best place for the enemy, so during the First Empire, he was one of the high-ranking officers in the army.

During the Second Republic, although he remained a general and a demigod, he was forced to transfer from the army, where he could better utilize his abilities, to the capital to serve as the director of the General Security Bureau. This was essentially a demotion in disguise.

On one hand, there was the favor of Roselle's past promotion; on the other hand, there was the cold treatment from the Second Republic. So when Roselle was resurrected and returned, Donald Bush immediately took the General Directorate of Foreign Security and switched allegiance to the Second Reich.

Donald Bush pointed to the middle-aged man beside him and explained meticulously:

"His name is Antoine. He used to be a member of the secret order. Recently, for some unknown reason, he has been hearing the 'Ovel...Dylan' utterances. According to his understanding, high-ranking government officials are looking for members of the secret order, which is suspected to be related to the utterances."

In the past? Bernadette didn't care who the other party had been. Most of the people in this organization were former officials of the Second Republic of Intis, and weren't they now serving her father's Second Empire?

"Tell me the specifics, the more detailed the better," Bernadette said calmly, putting down the documents.

"Yes, yes."

Antoine wiped away a bead of cold sweat and explained somewhat nervously:

"I am the 'Faceless Man' of Sequence 6 of the Diviner's Path, a sequence in which many members of the Secret Order are located. Therefore, most of them join intelligence agencies of various countries at the request of the Secret Order, making full use of their extraordinary abilities."

"I don't know if all extraordinary individuals on the Diviner path are like this, but at least within the Secret Order, all members hear the 'Honakis... Fregra...' murmurs during their ascension. These murmurs don't only appear during a particular ascension, but are accompanied by each ascension. Moreover, the higher the sequence, the stronger the influence of the murmurs. Many members have lost control because of this."

"Of course, if one's spirituality is completely depleted, one may occasionally hear similar ramblings. But since advancing to Sequence 6, I have remained in this sequence for a long time and have never overworked myself to the point of depleting my spirituality. My mental state has remained stable, and I have not taken any potions to attempt advancement."

"But a few days ago, I suddenly heard some babbling. The content of the babbling was different from before, but it only contained two words: Orville and Dillan. I exchanged information with other members of the Secret Order, and it seems that not everyone hears similar babbling."

Bernadette interrupted him and asked:

"Do members of the secret order communicate very frequently?"

Antoine hurriedly explained:

"Members of the Secret Order are forbidden from contacting each other privately, and this frequent communication is a recent development. This is because the high-ranking members of the Secret Order suddenly disappeared some time ago, and then..."

He paused for a moment before continuing:

"Later, rumors circulated that the leader who founded the Secret Order had perished, and we completely lost contact with the Secret Order. In order to reconnect with the organization, we began to make contact in secret, using the extraordinary abilities of the 'Faceless Men' to identify each other, and established several secret gatherings, agreeing to exchange information regularly every week."

In fact, if the Secret Order hadn't been in such chaos and its leader hadn't seemingly perished, even if Roselle had made a powerful comeback, Antoine wouldn't have so easily revealed his identity to the higher-ups of the Security Bureau.

Bernadette pressed on, asking:

How many people were at your gathering? How many others are in a similar situation to you?

Antoine answered honestly:

"There are thirteen people in total. The others should not be able to hear the delirium, but it cannot be ruled out that this is just their disguise."

As a member of the secret order, Antoine knew very well just how cautious these six were. As 'Faceless Men' of the Diviner's Path, they could perfectly control every muscle in their faces, making them extremely adept at hiding their emotions and leaving no trace in front of outsiders.

Bernadette didn't stop, and continued to ask:

What do Orville and Dylan represent?

"I have no idea."

Antoine shook his head and explained:

"I'm just a member on the outermost edge of the secret society, and I've lost contact with the organization, so I know very little. However, I've heard from higher-ups within the society that our mysterious and terrifying leader once hid an ancient castle called Diran."

The mere thought of that being sent shivers down Antoine's spine, even though He was presumably dead. The terrifying legends and tangible destruction He left behind were enough to haunt a man's nightmares for a lifetime…

It's no exaggeration to say that if that person were standing in front of him, they could turn the entire building, the entire street, and the entire city into puppets in an instant, and then control them to 'commit suicide'.

The process was so fast that even the angels couldn't react in time and were unable to save everyone.

Bernadette looked at Donald and pressed for an answer:

"What does this have to do with the Foreign Minister?"

Donald considered for a moment, then spoke:

"The Foreign Minister has been in private contact with high-ranking members of the Secret Order. They are looking for Secret Order members who can hear delirium, seemingly hoping to find 'Orville' and 'Dylan' through this."

Bernadette thought for a moment, then suddenly asked:

What do you think these two words mean?

Donald shook his head:

"I don't know, it could be a treasure, or it could be a trap."

Bernadette seemed thoughtful. Those extraordinary individuals on the path of the diviner would hear clear murmurs during their advancement; it consisted of two words:

'Honakis', 'Fregra'.

The former is a place name, referring to the Hornach Mountains.

The latter is a person's name, referring to the ancient god Fregra, the "Destroyer Wolf," from the Second Age.

The truth behind these delirious ramblings is that the ancestor of the Antigonus family, who sleeps atop the Hornachis Mountains, hopes to lure extraordinary individuals on the path of soothing to the Hornachis Mountains.

And since the Antigonus family member was destroyed by Mr. Fool, such ramblings have naturally disappeared.

Those who follow the path of the diviner will no longer be troubled by delirium.

However, some members of the secret order suddenly heard babbling. Although the content of the babbling has changed, its essence is still to lure extraordinary individuals who follow the path of divination to the location mentioned in the babbling in order to find the so-called "treasure".

The only question is, from whom did this rambling come?

First of all, it can be confirmed that babbling must belong to the angels of the diviner's path, because only angels can do something like that.

The problem is, since the ancestors of the Antigonus family and Zarathustra have all perished, who could this "dreaming" have come from?

"Zarathustra isn't quite dead yet?" Bernadette murmured to herself.

Her father once said that if you eliminate all the impossible, then whatever remains, however unbelievable, is the truth.

The deaths of Zarathustra and the ancestors of the Antigonus family were both orchestrated by that very person, so theoretically, there shouldn't have been any mistakes. However, there are always exceptions. For instance, Zarathustra, like that ancestor of the Antigonus family, also possessed the extraordinary trait of a 'Miracleist'.

The ancestors of the Antigonus family were affected by the eternal slumber of the goddess of night, and even with extra "Miracleist" extraordinary traits, they could not make arrangements in advance. But Zarathustra is different. As an angel who has lived from the Fourth Age to the present, His vigilance is even greater than that of the Antigonus family's ancestor. He can completely use his extra "Miracleist" extraordinary traits to set up a plan.

Furthermore, according to information held by Bernadette, Zarathustra has been attempting to separate excess extraordinary traits for resurrection purposes—

This is a skill that the other party learned from her father.

Even if the Black Emperor's Sequence 0 has perished and its extraordinary characteristics and uniqueness have been divided up by others, it can still be resurrected and forcibly stripped of the extraordinary characteristics and uniqueness that have been taken over by others, and become the true god of Sequence 0 again.

This is an extraordinary ability unique to the Black Emperor pathway, but Zarathustra saw an opportunity in it—since the Black Emperor can be resurrected, and so can the Miracle Worker, then the angels of the Diviner pathway might not be unable to be resurrected in a similar way to the Black Emperor.

For example, he separated a portion of his extraordinary qualities and hid them in a specific way somewhere. In this way, even if Zarathustra's original body had perished, he could be resurrected using this portion of his extraordinary qualities.

The murmurs heard by the members of the secret order were likely one of the ways He left Himself to awaken Him and guide them to a designated place to resurrect Him.

Antoine was certainly not the only one who heard similar murmurs; other members of the Secret Order must have also heard them, and heard even more. Antoine only heard the words "Ovel" and "Dylan," but a demigod might have been able to clearly understand what the location represented—such as the extraordinary properties of Sequence 2.

In this way, even if the higher-ups of the secret society know it's a trap, they will still willingly step into it.

After all, that's a special characteristic of Sequence 2, the key to their ascension to angels.

However, the demigods who follow this path are notoriously cautious and will not easily take risks. Therefore, it is necessary to use others to test the danger level of the trap, such as mid-sequence extraordinary beings like Antoine.

He could hear the delirium, which qualified him to enter the trap.

However, his strength is limited, and the demigods can use their absolute power to ensure control over him.

Although Sequence 6 is not strong enough, if it is further developed into Sequence 5, it can serve as the main force for exploring traps.

Even so, this was merely an internal matter within the secret society.

The Foreign Minister's intervention was clearly motivated by the fact that the Steam Church was the only person in Intis who could check Rosell's power, but now that the Steam Church had obviously compromised, the Intis government's top brass could see no hope of victory.

Therefore, they can only hope to introduce external forces to continue the counterattack, and a Sequence 2 angel is naturally their key target for winning over.

Whether it's a member of the secret order gaining extraordinary abilities and being promoted to angel, or Zarathustra's resurrection, both could secure the support of an angel for them. In this way, they might be able to preserve their power in this fragile balance.

"A naive idea."

Bernadette muttered to herself, "Zarathustra can't save them; he'll only hasten their demise."