Blood-Heart Disease

In a quiet room inside the convent, Celia jolted awake from her bed, a sharp gasp escaping her lips. Her chest still throbbed with a dull, lingering pain, as if someone had just plunged a dagger deep into her heart.

Under the dual weight of the shadow of death and Solana's erratic state, her mind grew increasingly unstable.

She had died again... What on earth was happening?!

Who had killed her?!

Right, the convent... She had died right there in the convent...

Which meant the killer was highly likely someone from within... This place wasn't safe either.

“No... I can't stay here any longer.”

“I have to... I must leave as soon as possible!”

Clutching her head, Celia stumbled out of bed and made her way toward the door.

But just as her palm touched the wooden door, her body suddenly froze.

No, she couldn't leave yet.

The assailant had struck while Ignis was away. If she fled now, she would likely be targeted immediately!

But was she really safe if she stayed?

She felt more and more that everything she had experienced lately was incredibly bizarre, as if her entire life were being orchestrated by an unseen hand.

The Hermit pathway Beyonder, the Blood Order before that, and the lantern man at the very beginning...

She was being hunted and assassinated repeatedly, without a single moment to catch her breath!

Why on earth was this happening?!

How did they manage to locate her with such pinpoint accuracy every single time, always striking when her guard was completely down?

It was simply absurd.

Could they be watching her every single second? Yet she had never sensed any unusual presence around her!

Just how were they doing it?!

Just then, a splitting headache struck her again. The torrent of emotions from her clone rushed toward her like a devastating flash flood.

Before she could even react, her knees buckled, and she collapsed onto the cold floor, curling into a tight ball.

Thirteen successive tolls of the bell rang out, echoing in her ears and making her head feel heavier and heavier.

Ultimately, she lost consciousness.

...

Meanwhile, her clone, Solana, was trapped deep within a dark abyss.

A chaotic sea of emotions churned, relentlessly battering her mind and pushing her willpower to the absolute brink of collapse!

Magic stones... Magic stones...

The mere thought of those objects caused a dark desire to fester in her heart, slowly eating away at her sanity.

She desperately wanted to consume more... She wanted to taste even more despair...

But a voice deep inside her argued back.

She desperately covered her mouth, fighting to suppress the devouring urges.

She had no idea how much time had passed before the surging desire finally receded like an ebbing tide, leaving her gasping for air in the darkness.

Only then did she notice strange wisps of black smoke seeping out of her body.

Black smoke?

Shouldn't she have gone through a rewind? Shouldn't she still be a Rank One Beyonder of the Demon pathway?

...Could she be about to advance?

How could that be? At this point in time, she shouldn't have done anything yet!

Could it be because of those stones?

But what role did they play...

Before she could ponder further, a sharp, needle-like pain pierced her mind once more!

Suddenly, she saw the darkness before her eyes begin to splinter. The warm glow of an oil lamp slowly pried open the chaos.

The world gradually came into focus.

Before her was still that oak table pushed against the wall, the same stone-and-dirt walls, and the same out-of-place knight's greatsword hanging on them...

The oil lamp wasn't very bright, but in this cramped room, it felt exceptionally warm and peaceful.

“You're awake.”

A black-robed woman wearing a mask walked over.

So she had returned to this moment...

Solana stared at the woman. From the very first time they met, a faint, strange sense of familiarity had bloomed in her heart. In her current mental state, this feeling grew incredibly intense.

It was as if they really had met somewhere before...

“What's your name? Whose child are you?” The woman crouched down, asking the exact same question as before.

“I... I don't know...”

Only this time, Celia did not give her name.

“Eh? Amnesia?” Resting her chin on her hand, the black-robed woman adopted a thoughtful expression and began to mutter to herself. “Then I suppose we'll have to visit the church. I wonder if the priests there can cure this condition.”

Then, she pinched her temples with a sigh and said,

“But if I do that, I'll probably get kicked out by the bishop again. Sigh, what a headache...”

“Because of what happened to my brother, I can't even show my face over there anymore...”

The black-robed woman scratched her cheek awkwardly. But she quickly shook herself out of it, putting on a bright, cheerful smile as she said,

“Oh, right! Are you hungry? Do you want some food first? We can figure out the amnesia thing later!”

Whether it was because of the woman's words or not, Solana felt a rare trace of warmth. Still, she waved her hand, pushing herself up unsteadily, preparing to leave.

But as her gaze swept across the table, she suddenly caught sight of the vial of black potion.

“Oh... that's...”

“An anti-aberration potion...” Solana murmured.

“Eh? You actually know what it is? Does someone in your family have this disease too?” Surprise leaked into the black-robed woman's voice.

Solana continued to stare at the potion on the table, lost in thought.

She seemed to realize something...

The secret healing method, the chest bleeding, the death of the young man she had witnessed in the previous loop...

Many things seemed to be gradually falling into place.

“Hey, hello? Are you alright?” the woman asked, waving a hand in front of Solana.

At that moment, Solana suddenly noticed a callus at the base of the woman's right palm. It was the kind of callus that only developed from years of sword practice.

She had seen this potion at the black market underground exchange, and she had even seen this woman there!

So she had gone to the underground exchange to buy them?!

And the underground exchange was run by the Blood Order.

She then recalled what the bishop had once mentioned—the blood-heart disease outbreak in the Northern Territory. And the main headquarters of the Blood Order just so happened to be in the Northern Territory!

In other words, the Blood Order was behind all of this?!

Was this also one of their abilities? Could they put something into certain drinks or potions to cause people to continuously bleed from their chests until they died?

But then, how could she explain her own chest bleeding, and Sister Theresa's?

Right, she remembered now. When she entered the cellar earlier, she had been pricked by thorns. Thorns were originally an ability of the Blood Order.

The thorns had obtained her blood, so they could use her blood to inflict this condition on her.

In that cellar, Sister Theresa and that black-robed man must have also been grazed by thorns during a battle, leaving behind their blood!

This was all a conspiracy by the Blood Order. The cloaked man from before had also been coerced by them, which was evident from his eventual death.

The Blood Order had intentionally had the cloaked man leak information about the Abyssal Order to lure Sister Theresa into a battle with that Rank Two Abyssal black-robed man, aiming for both sides to suffer so they could reap the benefits!

No, perhaps the Blood Order had been trying to retaliate against the Abyssal Order from the very beginning, because she had once disguised herself as one of their members to eliminate Vincent.

But what about Sister Theresa? What was the purpose of that mass death incident?