Rhodes Island does not exist.

"Wait a moment." The Doctor glanced at the bishop's corpse, now a familiar, then looked at Skadi. "What evidence is there that he was performing a summoning ritual before Kal'tsit severed his arm?"

“He didn’t perform any rituals or summon anything.” Kal’tsit shook her head, directly denying the Doctor’s question. “After I arrived here, I waited at the church entrance for them to appear. During this time, Levini was safe. Then, when I saw the bishop appear, I took action immediately. That’s all.”

Her simple and straightforward approach is very much like the kind of thing she would do.

Or rather, it felt like only she could make such a decisive move.

“Wait a minute.” Skadi noticed a blind spot in Kal'tsit’s words. “You said you attacked as soon as you saw the bishop appear, does that mean he was alone?”

“Yes.” Kal’tsit nodded. “He was alone. I only took action after confirming this, and then you arrived. So you understand the rest.”

"strangeness."

The doctor looked at Skadi and said, "If what you say is true, then shouldn't the ferocious beasts that come with the tides never have appeared in the first place? After all, the summoning ritual was never even performed."

“And another thing,” the doctor continued, “After you rescued her from prison, you said their goal was to sacrifice Levini to summon something, but Levini is still alive and they didn’t successfully use her to summon anything, so the summoning itself shouldn’t be possible.”

“That only proves one thing.” Kal’tsit said, looking at Skadi who had fallen silent, “Levinie was not the material for the summoning, and the one in charge of the summoning was not him at all.”

“No… his men, although they escaped from the Cathedral of Afterglow with the bishop, they weren’t with him,” Skadi murmured.

"If it's neither him nor his subordinate, then who could it be?" the doctor wondered. "Since it's a ritual, there must be someone responsible for maintaining and activating it, right?"

“No, that’s not it.” Skadi shook her head, looking at the turbulent sea, a dark cloud rising in her eyes. “No one needs to maintain it, no one needs to start it, because it has all been done long ago.”

"Is it ready? When?"

“Long before you arrived here, long before all of this happened,” Skadi’s calm voice stirred slightly again, “Do you remember those infected?”

“I remember,” the doctor nodded. “You said they would be permanently exiled here, and then commit suicide by drowning.”

“I’m telling you now, the one in charge of managing the infected people back then was the bishop.” Skadi’s speech quickened. “He did it on purpose. He planned it from the beginning to send all these infected people to the sea.”

“That wasn’t an unconscious suicide whispered in the deep sea, but a premeditated act of sacrifice…and that gray-haired woman…wait, no, no.”

A sudden surge of emotion rose within the voice.

Skadi covered her head.

Her blood-red eyes became clear and bright, emitting a mesmerizing glow.

At that moment, it was as if a thousand whispers rose up at once, spreading outwards from the core of her mind. Even the Doctor could hear those indescribable whispers from the distant underwater realm.

The air around us was restless.

"Why didn't I notice it back then?" she suddenly began to question herself repeatedly. "I was clearly watching over this sea area the whole time. I was clearly watching those infected people and that woman the whole time, watching them walk into the sea, and watching her smile... Oh, right, I even told you that the woman had her own mission here, didn't I?"

"Because she had achieved her goal and completed her mission, there was no point in her staying here anymore, so she went back...she went back!"

“The removal of the white matter from the brain was to ensure that the sacrifice would not escape, the singing of the lament was to lay the foundation for the sacrificial ritual, and she herself, the cardinal, and this family... were the final sacrifice.”

“And me? I am the one who guides this ceremony.” She knelt on the ground, her face paler than her natural skin, which made her eyes appear even redder and brighter.

"what."

She looked up at the sky and thought, "It turns out I just always thought I was normal."

"In the end, wasn't I already insane from the very beginning? Wasn't I already insane after that great stillness ended?"

"The free will and resistance to madness that I thought I possessed were nothing but illusions conjured up in my mind by madness, and now I'm truly awakening, just to witness reality?!"

Her hands fell limply to her sides, and only her voice remained, accusing everything around her.

“I will rescue you and take you away, simply because you are also part of the ritual, so I must bring you to the beach at this time.”

"Because they need bystanders to witness this great moment."

"Because it needs bystanders to witness this great moment."

"Because He needs bystanders to witness this great moment."

With each word she spoke, Skadi's tone dropped several octaves until it was almost indistinguishable from her own voice.

"In the end, all the things I thought I had done correctly were just a pre-planned move on the chessboard."

In that voice, which was originally as plain as paper, there was now only an incomparably profound despair.

Chapter 128, Chapter 127: Deep Sea Tales - The Token of Sixty-One Girls

The purple night sky shifted.

Overlapping clouds churned aimlessly above Iberia, their shimmering light creating a breathtaking spectacle, like neon lights encased in an eggshell—magical and wondrous.

The sea was churning.

Within the bubbles brought by the tide, countless ferocious beasts lurk beneath, all vying to catch the first, grandest, and most turbulent wave.

Lightning flashed.

The wind blew wildly.

The sea surface churned up with tiny, turbulent waves, creating a symphony of sounds amidst the roar of the tides and clouds.

The darkest hour has arrived.

All the offerings for the sacrifice have been made.

From the moment the first infected Agor was cast into the deep sea, this grand ceremony began to ring its own bells, or rather, its own bells.

The bishop who transformed into a member of the kin was the final pause of the ceremony.

In other words, from the very beginning, the Doctor and Levini had absolutely no connection with the sacrifice.

"Ah...it seems I've come at the wrong time."

Kal'tsit retracted the mon3tr behind her back, glanced at Skadi kneeling on the ground with lifeless eyes, and shook her head.

"It seems like something similar has happened before, hasn't it?" She looked at the doctor and said casually, "I arranged to meet you at a certain place, but you encountered an emergency, and by the time I arrived, the incident was almost over."

"But this time the situation is probably different." The doctor shook his head with a wry smile, his right hand still protecting Levini beside him.

"Doctor, what should we do now? I'm a little scared."

Seeing the changes gradually taking place around her, Levini made the reaction that one would expect from someone her age, or rather, a normal person.

“We probably can’t handle this problem on our own.” The Doctor stared at the surging waves in the distance, his expression turning serious. “We’ll have to get the Punishing Army or the Papal Knights to help.”

“It’s alright, no need to call them.” Kal’tsit waved her hand. “Look at the colors of the sky and the shape of the clouds. I think even if they’re sleeping at home right now, they can probably understand what the situation is like. So there’s no need to call them. We’ll see them naturally in a little while. However… our identities might be a little hard to explain.”

“But at this point, we probably won’t care about such details anymore, after all—” the doctor said with a sigh, but suddenly felt his clothes being tugged.

"Doctor, doctor."

Without a doubt, it's Levi.

So he looked down at the little girl beside him, "What?"

"Here you go."

Levi bent her neck slightly, took off the pendant that had been hanging on her chest but was covered by her clothes, and placed it in the doctor's hand.

The warmth of the girl emanated from my palm.

The doctor carefully caught it and then examined the pendant's appearance.

His first impression of the pendant was, frankly, unremarkable.

After all, it was just the kind of ornament that you could see everywhere in the countryside or small towns, hanging on women's bodies. It wasn't worth much money, nor did it have much aesthetic appeal. It was just a simple little trinket made of metal or stone.

But appearance cannot determine its value, not even one percent.

The doctor knew in his heart that it might be an item left to Levini by her mother, and the reason she carried it with her was probably because she missed her deceased mother.

Therefore, she must have thought long and hard before choosing to entrust this pendant to me.

“This is a keepsake from my mother, so I’ve always worn it to remember her—you must think so, right?”

However, the question that Levini suddenly asked made the doctor swallow back the words he was about to say.

"Don't feel too guilty." Levini smiled and winked at the Doctor. "It's just a small item from the luggage of a passerby that I stole before. I don't even know its owner's name."

"Then why are you still wearing it around your neck?" The doctor chuckled.

“I feel uncomfortable if I don’t wear something, it feels empty.” Levini’s smile turned into a big laugh. “Actually, I have quite a few of these pendants at home, of course, they were all stolen. I just happened to choose this necklace when I went out yesterday, so I’m still wearing it now.”

"You really have the nerve to give me stolen goods at a time like this?" The doctor ruffled Levini's hair with his right hand, turning it into a bird's nest.

"There's no other way!" Levini chuckled twice. "After all, this is all I can give you right now, so consider it a token."

"As a token of something, a token for when we meet again?" The doctor's eyes softened.

“Yes, if we could meet again.” Levini met his gaze.

"Cough cough."

Kal'tsit coughed twice, breaking the tension between the two.

“Now we have another problem.” After drawing their attention, Kal'tsit pointed to Skadi, who had been kneeling on the ground since the beginning. “What do you plan to do with her? Don’t tell me you want to leave her in the Deep Sea; that will only cause us more trouble.”

"You mean to kill her to prevent future troubles?" the doctor asked, frowning.

“I didn’t say that, and I don’t think you could bring yourself to do it either. In the end, I’ll definitely be the one to do it.” Kal’tsit rolled her eyes at the Doctor. “Besides, I think it’s precisely because it’s you that you can come up with a better and more effective solution than killing, right?”

"I can't deny what you said," the Doctor said, slightly embarrassed, but acknowledging Skadi's compliment. "However—"

"Dong dong dong dong dong dong..."

Suddenly, a series of rapid footsteps approached from the northwest and reached the ears of the doctor and his companions.

“It’s probably the Punishing Army or the Papal Knights,” Kal’tsit said after listening. “They’re coming. My prediction was spot on.”

“It seems like something similar happened during the Great Tranquility before.” After saying that, she looked in the direction from which the sound came. “But back then, there were Deepsea Hunters who could help them.”

"You seem to know quite a bit about Agor's history." The Doctor wasn't surprised that Kal'tsit knew about it so well upon her arrival.

Because in his eyes, Kal'tsit was that kind of person.

“It’s a pity there are no more Deepsea Hunters now.” Kal’tsit’s gaze fell on Skadi again, then she shook her head. “Did the last Deepsea Hunter drown in the deep sea, or is this their eternal fate?”

"No, he hasn't drowned yet."

The doctor shook his head, opened the black leather case at his feet, and found a dazzling array of various medicines.

"I will bring her back to her senses."

-

Thank you segment.

Thank you for the monthly pass, Xiaolu.

Chapter 129, Chapter 128: Deep Sea Tales - Chapter 62: The Story of You

Break the medicine tube, extract the Originium, evaporate the liquid, and synthesize new life.

Inside the black briefcase, a new drug inspired by previous experiences dealing with hybrids is gradually taking shape.

"They'll be here soon."

Kal'tsit stood beside the huge rock, gazing at the still empty view of the seawall, and spoke.

“And the same goes for tides,” the doctor said without looking up.

“But to be honest,” Kal’tsit said, leaning her shoulder slightly against the protruding rock face, with the mon3tr behind her stirring restlessly, “I still don’t understand why he insisted on bringing Levini here.”

“We need witnesses,” the doctor replied. “Didn’t Skadi just say that?”

“No, I don’t think it’s that simple.” Kal’tsit shook her head. “In this whole chain of sacrifice events, there must be a link that cannot be completed without her.”

“It can’t be completed without me…” Levini observed the conversation between the two adults and began to think as well.

She no longer feels fear.

“Well, let me tell you something else I saw.” Kal’tsit changed the subject. “When I came to Iberia, I noticed that the people here seemed to lack spirit and emotion.”

"You mean peace, right?" the doctor replied while concentrating on preparing the new drug. "That's how the residents here are. The only thing that can awaken their passion for life is probably the execution by the court."

“No, not peace.” Kal’tsit shook her head. “True peace is a leisurely attitude towards life, and what is manifested in this attitude is a kind of freedom, a freedom to freely control passion and tranquility, rather than this lifeless, zombie-like state.”

"I roughly understand what you're trying to say; that's certainly the feeling it gives." The doctor stopped his work, thought for a moment, and realized that was indeed the case.

“In other words, this peace and tranquility is actually an anomaly.” Kal’tsit shook her head. “At least the Iberia of the past would never have given people such an atmosphere.”

"So what do you mean?" The doctor gently pressed the syringe into the injection module and looked up at her.

“The city’s administrators have been suppressing the city’s residents,” Kal’tsit said. “I don’t know the reason for doing so, but the purpose must be to continuously lower the residents’ threshold for desire, so that they are more easily satisfied, or rather… more easily stimulated.”

"I've got it!" At that moment, Levin suddenly raised her hand and shouted at Kal'tsit and the Doctor, "It's my trial!"