Chernosly!
This seedling follower of Chaos who had left such a staggering impression on him—he was still in the Grand Tribunal? And locked up in the lowest level of the Howling Iron Prison?
He used to be a First-Class Inquisitor! What charge could possibly land soone of that stature in a place reserved exclusively for death-row inmates?
Cheng Shi's brow furrowed. He couldn't help recalling what Chernosly had told him back then. The man had been quite explicit—he'd suffered unjust treatnt and was being suppressed from within. From the looks of it, the Grand Tribunal's crackdown on him had gone... far too far.
He was about to be executed?
'Damn—don't tell
I'm the one who ends up setting him free.'
Cheng Shi's eyes narrowed. A sudden hesitation gripped him. This inescapable sense of destiny was frightening. He seed to see again the circle drawn by Ti—a single gap left in its circumference—and when he filled that gap in the near future...
He raised his hand and looked at the ring on his finger, the Ti of Eternal Imprisonnt.
...ti would close its loop once more.
'I save Chernosly. Possibly I even bring him the first wisp of Chaos's will. Then he leaves the Grand Tribunal, goes underground, ets a group of like-minded exiles, becos a seedling follower of Chaos. Later, in Eternal Bloom Town, he encounters my past self, pushes
to the forefront, and I beco... Ultraman—the Envoy personally acknowledged by Chaos.'
'Seamless. Perfect.'
'So just how many gods are pulling the strings in this ga?'
'What roles are Fate and Ti playing in all of this?'
'Does a chess piece have any choice beyond moving forward?'
Cheng Shi's brow creased deeply as he stopped in his tracks. As he fell silent before the four, these teammates—still awaiting rescue—held their breath and dared not make a sound, terrified of disturbing the boss's train of thought.
He deliberated for a long ti, and ultimately decided to go down and take a look.
This wasn't capitulation to the "puppet master behind the curtain," nor was he abandoning other options. He simply felt that so things required deeper understanding.
Without seeing the full picture, one had no right to comnt.
The sa applied to Order, as the tall, thin teammate had described it.
Cheng Shi knew Order had a problem—that a so-called Iron Law had stolen its identity. But whether this Iron Law had backstabbed its benefactor using Order's own divine gift, or whether so other entity had replaced it entirely—he currently had zero information.
Combined with the truth about Order that the Investigator claid to be pursuing, perhaps this teammate genuinely held bombshell intelligence concerning the gods.
That rare intelligence alone was worth taking a risk.
Besides, Big Cat was right there. Even if danger arose, soone could tank it.
So Cheng Shi steeled himself and leaped straight into what appeared to be a trap the gods had dug for him in advance.
He extended his Decay hand without expression, wrenching apart the chains binding the Investigator, then freed the other three in turn. Under their panicked gazes, he collected every last bit of their ager "ransom."
Once that was done, Cheng Shi asked with a grave expression:
"Is any one of you a follower of mory?"
"..." The four exchanged bewildered glances, unsure what the boss was getting at—though he sounded distinctly hostile toward mory.
They sized each other up. A Combat Expert, an Investigator, a Sore Eye, and a Bell Ringer. Truth, Order, Decay, and Death—but not a single follower of mory among them.
"No one?
Good. Then another question—does anyone have a mory item on them?
If so, I'd appreciate you handing it over honestly. Otherwise, if I find out you've been holding sothing back—sorry, but I'll have no choice but to string you back up."
The cold-faced threat shook all four to the core. Three of them shook their heads frantically, insisting they truly had nothing related to mory. Only the Investigator went pale, and said cautiously:
"I... I have a Dream Peeping Candle. It's for investigating the truth..."
"..."
'Why did it have to be you?'
'Who sent you to my side?'
Cheng Shi fixed him with a chilly stare, his face grim: "Just the Dream Peeping Candle? Nothing else that could rewrite history?"
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing!
Boss, you have to believe . I'm an Investigator—I despise people who tamper with history. Altering the past always destroys what few historical clues exist, making our investigations impossible.
I swear the Dream Peeping Candle is all I have. Not a single other mory item!"
Cheng Shi gave him a sidelong glance, nodded, then pulled out a blank sheet of A4 paper.
"This is a Clown Contract of Deceit. Sign your nas on it. If, before this trial ends, any of you use mory powers without my consent, the consequences...
Heh. You don't want to find out."
The four stared at the absurd blank sheet of paper, their minds going blank for a mont.
'A blank piece of paper can be a contract?'
'This has to be a bluff, right?'
'But wait—he said it's a Deceit contract?'
'Hmm, in that case it might actually be real.'
'The Fun God, after all. You know how it is—totally capable of producing sothing this ridiculous.'
With varying expressions, all four dipped their fingers in blood and signed. The Investigator, whose arms were completely shattered, couldn't apply any force, so Cheng Shi reluctantly tossed him a healing potion to fix his hands first.
The Investigator thanked him nervously, then firmly wrote down his na.
"Li Zhen."
Zhen—as in "truth."
Cheng Shi glanced at the na, silently pocketed the contract, and headed for the lower levels without the slightest hesitation. Li Zhen watched him go, blinked, looked at the other teammates, and hurried after him.
The others seed inclined to follow—sticking close to the boss was far safer than staying put—but before they could take a step, Cheng Shi flatly refused.
"Don't follow. I'm not a babysitter. Fend for yourselves until the trial's over.
Though I will give you one friendly warning—don't try going upstairs either. Unless you want to get swatted by a bear."
While the other three stood there scratching their heads trying to figure out why there'd be a bear in here, Cheng Shi had already vanished with the Investigator.
The tree-servant followed close behind. Three figures in single file descended the dim stairway toward the lower floors, all silent.
Calling it a stairway was generous—it was more like a tunnel.
Unlike the stairs in an ordinary building where you could see the floor above and below, the connections between dungeon levels resembled staggered corridors, their walls blocking all sightlines. The three could only see as far as the next turn—only after rounding each thick wall did the next stretch of downward path reveal itself.
The loss of peripheral vision was oppressive. The cramped, narrow space, combined with the wall-mounted lamps growing dimr by the step, made the atmosphere of the descent increasingly eerie.
Hollow footsteps echoed through the empty stairwell like the unsettling beat of a drum.
Cheng Shi, of course, was not afraid—because he walked in the middle of the formation. The Investigator led the way, the Dusk Hunter brought up the rear, and the strongest combatant was safely protected between them.
As the seemingly endless tunnel stretched on beneath his feet, Cheng Shi gradually began to frown. He even wondered whether he'd already walked into an Order trap—gone astray without realizing it.
'No. Can't keep going blindly. Let the tree-servant scout ahead first!'
Just as Cheng Shi was about to push Yu Mu forward, Li Zhen halted abruptly, his expression taut: "We're here."
"?"
Cheng Shi instinctively took a step back, shoved Yu Mu in front of him, and swept a cautious gaze over the solid walls flanking the stairway. "Investigator," he said darkly, "you seem to be hiding quite a few secrets from ."
Li Zhen went pale: "Boss, I'm not hiding anything.
The reason I didn't tell you the dungeon's location in advance is that I only just figured it out myself!
I learned from a Tribunal Inquisitor that the final level of the Howling Iron Prison isn't at the bottom of the dungeon stairs—it's inside one of the walls beside a step.
I don't know which one exactly, but I can feel Order's power seeping through this wall. So I think... it should be right here.
Right in front of us!"
As he spoke, he drew out an arrowhead. Its tip emanated a faint but pure aura of Order. Under that resonance, the wall beside them silently rippled into translucent waves of light, dissolving to reveal an enormous underground stone cell.
At the center of that cell, three prisoners in fully intact clothing hung suspended in midair, bound tight by chains forged from Order's holy radiance.
One of them was Cheng Shi's old acquaintance—the Grand Tribunal's First-Class Inquisitor, the seedling follower of Chaos.
Chernosly.
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