**Chapter 478**
**The Stranger and the Advisor**
When The Stranger finally escaped the Silver and Tin Hall, he instinctively glanced back.
The entire palace had erupted into flames, with rolling infernos twisting the surrounding air into visible heatwaves that, mixed with the stench of sulfur, rushed over him. Billowing black smoke nearly blotted out the sky, blending with the dark clouds above.
It was like a dark passage descending from the heavens to the Silver and Tin Hall, bringing doomsday and destruction.
Finally, it began to rain.
Sulfur and flames on the ground, dark clouds and storms in the sky.
Fortunately, the people had already begun evacuating, preventing a chaotic stampede.
The scene of doomsday was upon them.
The Stranger couldn’t help but feel a prickle of unease.
He couldn’t tell if his mentor, “Bruzvik,” had escaped, nor was he sure if the latter could control the Flame Demon.
What was even more important was—
—Where were his teammates! They had vanished again!
Where were Bruzvik, his mentor from his own world line, now accompanying him into the Ascension Ritual as his “Advisor”, and his junior, Aurora, codenamed “Grape”?
The Stranger felt a wave of confusion.
He had been diligently investigating his identity and preparing to play his role. He had planned to rest for the night and search for his companions the next day, but only a few hours had passed, and the situation had spiralled out of control into the unknown.
“What in the world was that, Master Nobel!”
A slightly trembling voice came from below The Stranger.
The young man was also bewildered and terrified by the monstrous creature. “After the Queen died, everything became so bizarre… Is this the Crown Lord’s punishment for us!”
“—Don’t stop, run!”
Feeling the knight carrying him slow down and repeatedly glance back at the Silver and Tin Hall, The Stranger shouted, urging the knight carrying him to flee. “That’s a Flame Demon! Flame Demons can split themselves infinitely by devouring souls…
“More importantly, Flame Demons explode violently when fought! Glass Island is about to be destroyed; we must leave!”
The Stranger was now very pessimistic about the outcome of this Ascension Ritual.
The ritual’s necessary mission required him to safely escort Princess Isabelle Du Lac to the Eternal Holy Kingdom.
And now, he couldn’t even find where the princess was.
He couldn’t find his teammates, couldn’t find the princess, and had no idea how to get to the Holy Kingdom—he had never been to Avalon, let alone the Holy Kingdom, and didn’t know the way.
Besides Avalon’s capital being called Glass Island, he didn’t even know the names of other cities, nor the specific location of Glass Island within Avalon, nor the relative position of the Holy Kingdom.
He was utterly lost.
So, The Stranger decided to at least survive—
If Princess Isabel failed to reach the Holy Kingdom within four days, the Ascension Ritual would be a failure. But there was no penalty for failure itself, only for death—so surviving safely until the end would be considered completing the objective.
If possible, he’d also like to find “Grape.” They could find a place to try and survive together.
Just then, The Stranger suddenly heard a joyful shout that made him shiver.
“Master Nobel! You escaped?!”
Approaching him was a handsome bishop in red robes.
The Stranger wasn’t sure if he knew the man, so he sadly patted the knight beneath him, signaling him to put him down.
Whether this was the priest called “Fox” or not, traveling with a bishop was a good thing. At least, if he got injured, the bishop could save his life.
“…Yes, I escaped,” The Stranger replied with all his might, putting on a somber expression. “But the other knights and ministers… it seems they…”
“What happened in the Royal Palace?” the bishop frowned deeply. “Did the Star Antimony people directly attack the Royal Family?”
… It was your own people who assassinated the Queen!
The Stranger felt a pang of grievance and confusion.
He genuinely didn’t understand why the Star Antimony people would dare to do such a thing to Avalon.
—In the real world, Star Antimony was currently embroiled in a war initiated by the Avalonians.
Avalon’s Gryphon Legions had become a nightmare for many Star Antimony civilians—when the gryphons flew low, their sharp sonic booms, rolling thunder, and howling gusts of wind heralded the destruction of a building or an entire area by lightning storms.
They had no means to counter them. The colossal machines could only fire symbolically, never successfully shooting down a single gryphon. Their speed was simply too great to lock onto.
In addition, the rebellious mages of the Daffodil Territory had also caused immense damage.
The ground forces had to expend their lives and fight with all their might to barely halt the advance of the mage formations.
Coupled with the Holy Kingdom’s biased intervention, decapitation tactics were also ineffective. They couldn’t even counterattack Avalon’s homeland.
The result was that Star Antimony, unprepared for war, was dragged into a quagmire.
“It’s all Minister Dross’s fault!!”
The Stranger vehemently criticized Minister Dross, who dared to assassinate the Queen—his disgust was undoubtedly from the bottom of his heart.
—It seemed that Avalon’s attack on Star Antimony was also due to the trouble caused by this pig surnamed Dross!
…However, The Stranger was now vaguely realizing the differences between this world line, deduced by the Lord of Scales and Feathers, and his own.
Currently, there were three main discrepancies:
First, after Meg’s death, the new Grand Arbitrator “Lixia” did not appear—Lixia was suspected by Star Antimony’s intelligence department of being a silver dragon in human form, possibly the offspring of Meg and a certain dragon in her youth.
More importantly, Eivass in this world did not become famous and the Minister of Affairs, nor did Miss Alistair, who was rumored to be the “Baroness Beyad” from the Empire, appear.
Furthermore, Queen Sophia did not die in the winter of 1898 but lived until the autumn of 1899. The more assertive Queen Isabel never ascended the throne.
These three differences had led the world down a path towards an unknown and completely different possibility—
Star Antimony had actually declared war on Avalon! And it seemed there was a real chance…
At this moment, the Holy Kingdom had not had time to dispatch guards, and Isabel did not have Eivass’s help. The Silver and Tin Hall was destroyed, and the rear was in chaos…
Based on The Stranger’s understanding of Star Antimony, a surprise attack by the front-line troops was likely to follow.
After listening to The Stranger’s detailed, emotionally charged critique, narration, and deduction, the nameless bishop frowned deeply. “Is that so… Are you sure Her Highness the Princess is alright?”
“I saw Madam Shafiya fleeing with the Princess, at least.”
The Stranger replied frankly. “I don’t know what happened afterward.”
He didn’t mention how he saw it—in fact, he did see it.
But simply stating that Isabel had fled didn’t seem to explain the whole story.
“But where could the Princess go…”
The bishop fell into thought.
“I have an idea, but I’m not sure it’s correct,” the bishop suddenly said. “She might have gone to Moriarty Manor.”
Hearing this, The Stranger’s heart stirred.
—How did you know Princess Isabel had a connection with Eivass?
“Are you Fox?”
He probed.
“What?”
The bishop looked confused by the nonsensical question. He simply shook his head and explained, “My name is not Fox. I am Samuel Mathers, and that young Bishop Moriarty is my student.
“He has a slight acquaintance with Princess Isabel. If the Princess were to go anywhere, I can only imagine it would be there.”
…They indeed had “a slight acquaintance.”
The Stranger thought to himself.
He hadn’t heard of Samuel Mathers.
But he knew that in another history, this “Queen Isabel” and “Miss Alistair” had fiercely vied for a man, and their methods were quite vicious—Baroness Beyad was driven out of Avalon and never returned.
“You’ll come with me.”
Bishop Mathers grabbed Nobel and then looked at the young knight. “You too, come with me—we need to gather our limited strength. First, we must get Her Highness to a safe place.
“Whether the Silver and Tin Hall is destroyed or Glass Island falls, as long as the Princess is alive, there is still hope… With this much fire, I estimate Prince John is already dead. If the Princess dies now, the Du Lac bloodline will be completely cut off.
“What is your name, young man?”
Bishop Mathers asked the young man, “I haven’t seen you in the Round Table Hall… You’re not an Arbitrator, are you?”
What?
The Stranger was greatly surprised.
He thought the man was a Fourth Tier Arbitrator, but he wasn’t at all?
No wonder he seemed so timid, and couldn’t run fast even carrying a lightly armored him. And he wasn’t in the center of the Silver and Tin Hall, suffering the same fate as the knights, but like himself on the edge of the Royal Palace… which allowed him to escape the first wave of impact…
“…That’s right.”
The young man nodded sadly. “My name is Allen Carter. I was invited by my father to attend the engagement banquet… but my father…”
He clenched his fist tightly. “After the incident, I hid nearby. I wanted to escape but couldn’t find an opportunity…”
Hearing this, The Stranger understood—his father had clearly been one of the knights killed.
He had no idea what was going to happen. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have brought his son to this dangerous blood-red banquet.
“Allen Carter… I’ve heard of you, Allen.”
Bishop Mathers patted his shoulder. “Come with us.”
Meanwhile, “Sherlock” slowly opened his eyes. A flash of deep blue fire flickered within his pupils.
He was currently in Eivass’s arms, waking up from the vibrations of their rapid movement.
Through a gap in Eivass’s shoulder, he saw the towering flames in the distance and immediately knew what had happened.
Karl had exploded.
That incompetent Dross… How much time had he wasted…
“Advisor” thought coldly in his mind.
Wounds and torture were not the least bit of torment to him; to a seeker of the Twilight Path, pain was merely an illusion. What truly angered him was being confined and unable to escape. He also had to play his role as Sherlock and act opposite Minister Dross, which made him lose the initiative and waste a great deal of time.
If he hadn’t been rescued by Eivass, he would have been burned alive on the spot by the Flame Demon that emerged after Karl’s death.
…He hoped that “the other himself” could handle the calamity left by Karl.
The reason the two of them always traveled together was that the Advisor had a way to deal with unstoppably rampaging Flame Demons.
However, he didn’t have time to deal with that matter now.
Currently, the Advisor’s necessary mission was also to “help Princess Isabel safely reach the Holy Kingdom.”
But the Advisor had no intention of cooperating with others.
—Because his understanding was deeper than others… he knew the stylistic tendencies of the Pillar Gods.
This was an Ascension Ritual created by the Lord of Scales and Feathers.
The theme of the Lord of Scales and Feathers was adaptation and survival; therefore, as long as one survived, there was a chance to complete the ascension.
In other words, who completed the necessary mission was not decisive—unlike other rituals, the necessary mission of the Lord of Scales and Feathers could even be left incomplete!
“The ritual will be settled immediately when someone completes the necessary mission, or when the ritual time ends; the three people with the lowest points will be eliminated.”
These were the rules explained by Akropolis.
…He hoped those two fools would react and not just hear with one ear and let it out the other. They had better realize this Ascension Ritual was different from the past… Otherwise, he would add five hundred lines of essays and three hundred lines of repentance for them when they returned.
The Advisor thought.
The Advisor’s goal this time was to help his two students pass the Ascension Ritual. Even if he escorted the princess to the Holy Kingdom with the two children, someone might end up with fewer points than those who didn’t escort the princess, due to not completing enough missions.
Conversely… the advantage of choosing to escort the princess was the ability to “decide when to end the Ascension Ritual at any time.” However, because they didn’t know the current points of others, it was still risky. And even if the princess was escorted away quickly, they would not have enough points due to insufficient mission completion, thus failing to obtain excellent Path Traits.
So, the Advisor decided to take another route.
—Secretly kill Isabel.
Once Isabel died, everyone would be destined to fail the necessary mission and would have to wait until the ritual time ended for a forced settlement… And those who didn’t know of Isabel’s death would inevitably try to search for her.
With this matter to occupy their time and distract their attention, others would have much less time to complete missions and earn points than the three of them.
If, on top of this, they could eliminate at least three people… it would ensure no one was eliminated and the three of them occupied the top positions. Killing still had its advantages, at least it wouldn’t result in point deductions for unknowingly helping others complete missions.
“You’re awake, Sherlock?”
Eivass’s voice sounded.
The Advisor paused, then asked in a weak voice, “Where am I… Moriarty?”
“On the way to my place.”
Eivass replied helplessly. “Madam Shafiya’s teleportation range was a bit short… she dropped us in the middle.”
“Because you didn’t prepare enough time for me! He was about to explode suddenly, I couldn’t lock on precisely…”
Shafiya said angrily from behind Eivass. “It’s not far anyway, just a few steps. Hurry back and see if Princess Isabelle is safe… I’m a bit worried that the Black-clothed Person might attack the Princess. After all, he never appeared when we were fighting earlier.”
—Isabel was with Eivass?
The Advisor’s heart stirred.
“You rest, Sherlock. Don’t think too hard.”
Eivass said in a low voice. “I’ll treat you when we get back.”
The Advisor nodded slightly and silently closed his eyes.
