Mystery: Good Witch

Chapter 861 The tenth mausoleum?
what?
Angel's thoughts paused briefly, and then turned into two different voices, explaining Bernadette's words in his mind.

Did she mean that the memorial hall in Intistril where the remains of Roselle Gustav were buried was a fake? Or that one of the nine mausoleums used for the Black Emperor's ascension ceremony did not meet this "condition" and was a fake?

According to Bernadette, "one of the mausoleums is fake." She should have meant the latter, but this means that Roselle did not have all the mausoleums required to complete the ceremony at that time, and one of the fake mausoleums interfered with his ascension ceremony, causing him to fail in the end, and then he was assassinated by the restored nobles and the Orthodox Church?

Seeing that she was a little confused, Bernadette slightly put away her aggressive attitude and asked:

"Combining your previous experience with the Blasphemous Card in your hands, I think you should be familiar with the Black Emperor's ascension ceremony."

"Nine mausoleums."

Angel answered briefly, indicating that she was indeed aware of the matter. At the same time, she also confirmed that the "fake mausoleum" that Bernadette mentioned was related to them.

"Then I will skip the parts that everyone understands," Bernadette nodded with satisfaction and continued, "After reuniting with Sister Anne, we used the information I had collected over the past hundred years to find all eight mausoleums destroyed by the Church of the Eternal Sun and the Church of Steam. Some of them were located in hidden places such as mountaintops and canyons in Intis, and some were built on uninhabited islands overseas... But without exception, all of them had their powers wiped out and lost their proper functions."

Its function is to serve as an anchor for the Black Emperor’s resurrection. According to Mr. Fool, as long as one mausoleum survives, Emperor Roselle may return from it and restore the strength and status of Sequence 0… Angel added in his heart, waiting for Bernadette to continue.

"However, in an isolated mausoleum, Sister Anne discovered some problems... Like the other seven, it was secretly built by a large number of workers. It was secretive and magnificent, engraved with his creations and represented the order he established, but..."

At this point, Bernadette glanced at Anne, who took over the conversation and said in a somewhat childish but majestic tone:

"However, as a 'balancer' who has touched the power of order, I can subtly sense that the chaotic and distorted order in that mausoleum is somewhat different from that in other mausoleums. It is not an aura of dominance, but a kind of... disguise.

"The Beyonders of Lieyang and Steam did not discover this. They carefully erased any traces that could locate the mausoleum, leaving it completely abandoned and unusable by the Black Emperor. But for a fake mausoleum, all this is meaningless. The rituals of the Black Emperor have nothing to do with it. The distorted order is just an illusion to create an atmosphere, and the creations engraved on the surface of the huge stones are just pure praise..."

"You mean to say that Emperor Roselle did not build nine mausoleums for the promotion ceremony, but built one, or even several fake ones, to make others think that he was preparing to be promoted to the 'Black Emperor', but in fact he had other plans?"

Angel asked back in confusion. She could understand Bernadette and Anne's shock when they discovered this fact, but she couldn't imagine what it meant.

"On the contrary, I think this is proof that he has fully planned to ascend to the 'Black Emperor'," Bernadette replied immediately, speaking very quickly as if she was being chased by something. "Building eight mausoleums in public and hiding a key one in secret is a normal strategy, but he should have gone a step further..."

"Openly build seven real mausoleums and one fake mausoleum, then secretly build the eighth real mausoleum to attract everyone's attention. Finally, build a real secret mausoleum that no one knows about as the final trump card."

This... With Russell Gustav's personality, he might indeed do this. It is said that his personality changed in his later years, becoming suspicious and radical, which might breed his inner distrust of everyone. Perhaps he only wanted to build nine mausoleums before, and hide one of them secretly as a trump card, but when looking back on the past, he found that this secret was not safe and there was still a possibility of being discovered, so he gave up one of the public mausoleums and temporarily added a mausoleum whose location only he knew, and even built by himself... Various thoughts kept flashing through Angel's mind, and he always felt that this predecessor who traveled through time left too many unsolved mysteries.

"So, have you found the two hidden tombs?"

After a moment, she let out a long sigh and continued to ask.

"Unfortunately, no, not even the less hidden one that was used to attract other people's attention."

Bernadette answered slowly, her expression wavering in a rare way.

Anne at the side sighed softly and reached out to hold down her arm on the table. The latter pressed the back of Anne's hand with his other hand, as if he gained some strength from it. He turned to look at Angel and said:
“We are looking for you for this matter. The clues to the mausoleum may be in Roselle’s diary. One of the purposes of my return to Intis this time is to get his last diary and hand it over to Mr. Fool in exchange for the contents related to the mausoleum… I plan to let Cattleya do this, but I hope you can provide her with some help ‘there’.

"In addition, based on his paranoid and eccentric behaviors in his later years, I have determined several possible directions... "First, it is the pollution under Trier. He often went to Trier underground alone and stayed there for a long time... I suspect that he tried to contact the 'Man in the Mirror' and get their help to build a mausoleum underground, or even in the 'Mirror World'; the second is the 'Ghost Empire'. After opening up a safe waterway to the south and colonizing the southern continent, he sent Savini Solomon to find the huge ghost ship left by the Ternsost Empire. I suspect that he planned to build the mausoleum on the ship..."

The mausoleum in the mirror world and the mausoleum built on the mysterious ghost ship, the imagination of this princess of Intis is not inferior to her old father... Angel muttered, and understood why the other party thought these things were related to her.

The "mirror world" in the concept of mysticism is a collection of "doors", with countless passages connecting different mirror surfaces inside, rather than a real "world". However, due to the pollution of some force underground in Trier, a special mirror world with an area almost as large as the real Trier and divided into different levels appeared. There are even many "mirror people" who cannot leave freely, which fully meets all the requirements for building a mausoleum.

More importantly, it is difficult for them to leave and difficult for outsiders to enter, so they naturally have the conditions to "keep secrets".

To explore there, a witch who does not belong to the "Witch Sect" but understands the "Mirror World" is needed. Angel, who has worked with Anne and Bernadette many times and has a certain degree of trust in each other, is the best candidate.

As for the second possibility, the legendary "Ghost Empire" that disappeared in the vast ocean during the Fourth Epoch and carried the last rays of light and treasures of the Trunsost Empire, Angel could actually have a connection with it...

Nast, the "King of the Five Seas", once invited her to sail on the Queen Anne's Revenge to search for the lost ghost ship, and repeatedly hinted that he had some clues.

This is indeed possible. Nast Solomon is the son of Savini Solomon, the former "Earl of White Maple" of Intis, who was sent by Roselle to look for traces of the "Ghost Empire". If there is anyone who might have a clue, it can only be Nast, who inherited Savini's legacy and title.

After thinking for a moment, Angel said:
"If it's the first possibility, I will try to return to Trier and look for the connection between the 'Mirror World' and the mausoleum. This will involve certain risks, because the relationship between the witches and the 'Mirror Man' is not very harmonious, so I will wait until the investigation of the Backlund Great Smog is over and everything is ready before completing this matter."

"No matter what the result is, I will give you corresponding rewards."

Bernadette promised solemnly.

Then, Anne also spoke:
"As for the other possibility, the 'Ghost Empire'... I plan to accept the invitation of 'King of the Five Seas' Nast to look for this ghost ship that is drifting in the sea and is hard to find. I hope you can join this journey."

"Could this be a trap set by Nast? He mentioned this matter frequently at the previous Pirate Conference and seemed very active. I always feel that he has some plans..."

Angel frowned hesitantly and did not agree to it immediately.

"It's normal for him to have some plans. If he is willing to hand over all the benefits of the 'Ghost Empire' to others, I would suspect that he is planning something..." Bernadette interrupted, "The last ghost ship of Trunsost is likely to contain one of the Beyonder characteristics left behind after the death of the 'Night Emperor', the Sequence 1 'Hand of Order', and an uncertain number of 'Judges' and 'Black Emperors' through Sequence 2 characteristics. That is Nast's goal, his only hope of becoming an angel, or even reaching Sequence 1."

If it was for the Beyonder characteristics, then it would be understandable... According to Arrodes, it was extremely difficult to find the Beyonder materials needed for potion formulas after Sequence 3, and it was more common to directly use characteristics to advance. Bernadette's words also contained an important piece of information:

The "Judge", which is the arbitrator path, can jump back and forth with the lawyer path represented by the "Black Emperor"!
This means that no matter whether the Sequence 2 Beyonder characteristic of the Judge or the Black Emperor is found in the ghost ship, Nestor is prepared to use it to advance.

This "King of the Five Seas" who has lived for nearly two hundred years may have been unable to hold back and wanted to ascend to heaven overnight through the wealth of the "Ghost Empire" and become an angel. He could even go one step further and avoid the "Lawyer" path whose characteristics have disappeared due to the unknown life and death of the "Black Emperor" Roselle, and jump to the "Arbitrator" path to advance to Sequence 1 with the characteristics of the "Hand of Order"!

“Oh, Nast has a nice idea, but I won’t allow him to do that. His upper limit will be the Sequence 2 under Roselle’s feet.”

As if she had seen Angel's suspicion, Anne sneered and "sentenced" in a majestic tone that Nestor's intention would fail, with infinite confidence revealed in her golden eyes.

(End of this chapter)