The day after meeting with Sharron, Silas received no word from her.
It seemed that tracking down the previous team members and reassembling an exploration group would take some effort.
That day happened to be Monday.
Silas spent the morning inspecting the "pasture," delivering sermons to his flock and treating the sick.
As his connection with these people grew stronger, his mental state was gradually improving.
He hadn't fallen into hallucinations for quite some time now.
After settling the flock, Silas returned to his residence.
As three o'clock approached, he locked the door and had M create a virtual persona for him in advance.
When the clock struck the hour, endless crimson surged from the void and enveloped him.
When Silas opened his eyes again, he had already appeared inside that eternal, ancient palace.
Gray mist flowed beneath his feet, and several blurred figures gathered around the bronze table.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Fool~"
He saw Miss Justice rise as always, greeting each member above the gray fog with a cheerful tone.
Just how happy a life must someone lead to maintain such an innocent and optimistic attitude? Silas couldn't help but wonder.
Just then, he suddenly noticed something unusual. The Sun beside him shuddered violently the moment he arrived in the gray fog, then froze.
He seemed to have suffered an enormous fright.
"Good afternoon, Hanged Man, Mr. Sun. What happened?"
It wasn't just Silas.
Justice, Audrey, also sensed something was wrong.
She had been about to greet the gentlemen, but her Mind Reader ability let her easily see that the tall young man was in a state of unease.
"You don't look quite right! Did something go wrong when you explored that temple... the Fallen Creator's temple?"
She immediately guessed what might have happened.
The Sun, Derrick's body trembled, snapping him out of his terrified state.
Justice's words gave him hope, and he began nervously recounting his experience:
"I've been caught in a loop."
Their exploration team had repeatedly explored the temple many times, with each iteration ending when the Chief killed the little boy Jack.
However, immediately afterward, everyone would return to the beginning of the event, back to the camp outside the city, to the moment before the exploration began.
The exploration team members were completely unaware they were repeating themselves, simply continuing the cycle of exploring, killing, and returning to the start.
If Mr. Fool hadn't pulled The Sun into the gray fog and helped Derrick Berg recall each previous experience, they would likely have continued indefinitely.
"Thank you, Mr. Fool."
The more The Sun Derrick thought about it, the more chilled he felt.
He couldn't help but bow his head toward the towering figure at the head of the table.
Actually, if you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have known, Klein muttered internally, giving a slight nod in response.
Seeing Mr. Fool so calm, The Sun Derrick finally relaxed considerably and gained confidence in resolving the situation.
He turned to everyone and asked earnestly:
"So, do any of you know why this is happening? How should we deal with it?"
According to the Tarot Club's usual flow, this should have been Mr. Fool's reading time, but because of the special circumstances, everyone tacitly agreed to begin the discussion directly.
A loop, exploration...
After hearing The Sun's description, Justice Audrey's eyes lit up, feeling both excited and frightened.
She desperately wanted to help, but because her experience in the Beyonder world was too shallow, she had no ideas.
"I can help you write to my teacher and ask him about it."
The Magician, Fors's situation was similar to hers, but she had now officially become a student of Dorian Gray, a member of the Abraham family, giving her an external resource.
After hesitating, she added without much confidence, "However, it might take some time..."
Fors's teacher lived in Port Pritz, some distance from Backlund.
Klein had seen many similar scenarios in literary works from his previous life and could offer some ideas.
But if he could think of them, his fellow transmigrator Silas naturally could as well, so he didn't control The World puppet to speak, instead deciding to observe first.
The Hanged Man, Alger pondered for a moment and was about to speak when he suddenly heard Temperance's calm voice:
"I know how to resolve this."
As Silas's words landed, everyone's eyes immediately focused on him.
"Mr. Temperance, you have a solution?"
The Sun Derrick asked excitedly.
"Yes."
Silas nodded slightly.
He wasn't speaking rashly but truly had confidence.
When he became a Secrets Suppliant, the True Creator had granted him an excessive amount of knowledge.
This included not only the True Creator's honorific name, sacrifices, and rituals, but also the name of another special existence.
That name was Ouroboros.
The lingering heroic spirit, the True Creator's dependent, the eye that gazes upon fate.
This was part of Ouroboros's honorific description, which very clearly indicated His relationship with the True Creator.
It made perfect sense for such a subordinate of an evil god to appear in the temple.
Of course, this reason alone couldn't prove anything.
But the potion knowledge also included several rituals for petitioning Ouroboros for power.
One of these rituals had a powerful effect that could rewind events within a certain space-time back to their beginning.
This was extremely similar to what The Sun and his team experienced in the temple!
"Manifest the murals inside the temple."
Silas said.
"All right."
Although he didn't know what Silas intended to do, The Sun Derrick still didn't dare delay.
After receiving Mr. Fool's permission, he displayed the murals he'd seen in the temple one by one before everyone:
The True Creator bearing the collapsing world on His back, saving the people, and struggling against six evil gods.
A silver angel leading a pilgrimage procession toward black mountains...
"Wait."
Just as the Tarot Club members were being shocked by these ancient murals, Silas suddenly spoke.
He fixed his gaze on the silvery-white angel, looking at the looping river beneath its feet.
In the corner of that mural, the words "Redemption Rose" were also written.
"This silver being is very likely the True Creator's dependent, the Tail Devourer, Ouroboros."
Silas pointed at the mural and told everyone, adding a brief explanation. "Notice the winding, circling river at His feet that ultimately connects head to tail? That's a manifestation of His abilities."
"Ouroboros?"
No one had ever heard this name before.
Only Klein had some speculation, associating it with the "Monster" pathway Sequence 1 mentioned in Roselle's diary: "Snake of Mercury," or "Snake of Fate."
And that Will Auceptin, who was in a peculiar state, seemed to be a Snake of Mercury...