Geraldine shifted slightly and found the ropes tied around her were extremely firm. There was basically no chance of breaking free.
She looked at Caelum.
"What is going on?"
As she spoke, her gaze fell on the corpse in front of her.
Caelum picked up the saw again and continued working on Soros’s body.
He was not trying to dismember Soros.
He was taking certain things from him.
Blood, bone marrow, and brain matter.
While working, he answered Geraldine.
"He was the one who attacked you earlier. I killed him. It is that simple."
"But you do not look like you came to save me."
If Caelum had truly come to save her, he would not have tied her to a chair.
Geraldine asked again, "Are you going to cut me apart too?"
"No."
Caelum sawed through Soros’s bone and drew out a little marrow. Specks of blood splashed across his white shirt.
"I am not some deranged serial killer."
Geraldine had no words.
That sentence had no persuasive force at all.
Thinking back to the black tide she had seen before losing consciousness, Geraldine could not suppress her curiosity.
She continued, "You and this dead man are not ordinary people, are you?"
If that black tide had come from the dead man, then Caelum, who had killed him, could not possibly be only an ordinary detective.
Faced with something beyond common sense and known understanding, Geraldine did not feel fear.
Instead, she became unusually excited.
Because she was a detective.
And she was a detective with an extraordinary obsession toward the truth.
Compared with those boring cases, this matter was clearly far more interesting.
Caelum took many strange materials from a bag nearby.
Withered maple leaves, a church candle, the eyes of a goldfish, the heart of a stag, and other things.
Then he added Soros’s blood, bone marrow, and brain matter.
All of it mixed into a pale red, sticky potion.
Finally, Caelum dripped in a drop of his own blood.
The moment his blood fell in, the potion was complete.
This potion was called Memory Thief.
It could read all the secrets in a person’s mind.
Without question, the one who had provided the formula was On.
Geraldine must have some very close connection to an ancient god, even if she herself did not know it.
What was the purpose behind Soros and Javier attacking her?
These were things Caelum needed to figure out.
He did not answer Geraldine’s question.
Instead, he dragged over a chair and sat down in front of her, then raised his head and drank the potion in his hand.
At once, a vast amount of memory poured into Caelum’s mind.
Along with the fierce pain in his head, he began rapidly browsing through Soros’s memories after arriving in this game world.
Memories before that seemed to be blocked by the hostile system’s mechanism.
Caelum could not break through that barrier.
Even so, this was already enough.
Scene after scene flashed quickly through his mind.
Caelum accurately caught the information he wanted, and soon understood the hidden truth inside.
The relic of an ancient god.
The Crossbone Order.
The method to revive an ancient god.
The meaning of Geraldine’s existence.
Everything.
Caelum understood it all.
The memory theft ended.
Caelum suddenly opened his eyes.
His head hurt as if it were about to split apart. Sweat covered his forehead, his face was pale, and he breathed heavily, looking extremely unwell.
Sanity falling
Sanity: 60
Sweat slid down his jaw and dropped to the floor.
A smile appeared on Caelum’s pale face.
He took a deep drag from the cigarette, then slowly exhaled.
"So that is how it is."
The madness surging in the depths of his eyes was gradually pressed down.
Even with the Soul Soothing Tree cigarette calming his reason, his Sanity had still inevitably fallen somewhat.
Fortunately, it remained within the safe range.
But if it continued falling, that would be hard to say.
The value of 50 was very likely to be a dividing line.
It seemed he had to use potions as little as possible in the future.
Especially potions with severe side effects like this one.
Geraldine felt her scalp tighten under Caelum’s gaze.
For some reason, just now, for one instant, a chill had risen from the bottom of her heart.
"Are you all right?"
"I am fine."
Caelum stood and pulled the chair away.
Without warning, he drew a dagger from his waist and stabbed it into Geraldine’s chest.
"Ah!"
Geraldine cried out in pain.
She looked at Caelum, still unable to understand what this man had been doing from beginning to end.
At last, she could not help cursing.
"Are you insane?"
Time slowly passed.
Caelum said nothing as he watched Geraldine lose consciousness again.
He naturally had a reason for doing this.
He was not going mad.
After stealing Soros’s memories, he learned about Soros and Javier’s secret potion paths.
He also learned that they had joined an order called Crossbone.
This order possessed a relic of an ancient god and had been plotting all along to revive a certain ancient god.
Geraldine was the key candidate for that revival.
This revival did not mean awakening.
The ancient god had always existed and had never perished.
But if They were to appear again, then the information of Their existence itself had to be rooted in the consciousness of many humans.
Perhaps Geraldine possessed some irreplaceable quality.
That ancient god had chosen Geraldine to carry out this process.
Because of that, before the ancient god fully revived, They absolutely would not allow Geraldine to die.
If the candidate could be replaced so easily, why would the Crossbone Order need Soros and Javier to make this trip?
It was because Caelum understood this that he dared to act against Geraldine.
He wanted to make a deal with this ancient god.
Either give him what he wanted, or he would kill Geraldine now.
A very fair transaction.
"Some great existence, I know you are watching this place. Make your choice. I believe this is a very fair deal."
He pulled the dagger from Geraldine’s chest.
Blood immediately gushed out and flowed down the chair.
If this ancient god refused the deal, his next strike would carry One Hit Kill.
At that moment, there was a knock at the door.
Sheriff Marbury arrived outside Caelum’s house with a group of police officers, his expression extremely grave, and knocked on the door.
Caelum ignored it.
The knocking came again.
Sheriff Marbury continued knocking, faster now.
Last night, Duke Hesmar, the second seat of the Upper Council of the United Kingdom of Stars, had sent people to push open Sheriff Marbury’s door in the middle of the night and pull him from his bed.
The reason was that Duke Hesmar’s second daughter had disappeared.
Whether she was alive or dead was unknown.
Upon hearing this, Marbury instantly lost all sleep and began investigating through the night.
The Upper Council was the highest authority of the United Kingdom of Stars.
As the second seat, Duke Hesmar’s status and power were second only to the king and the first seat of the Upper Council.
In any case, he was not someone Marbury could offend.
Within his jurisdiction, the child of the mighty second seat had disappeared.
If Marbury could not bring Geraldine back, his days as sheriff were probably over.