"What is this place?" Audrey asked without much of a change in expression, as though she was asking about the location of the ball tonight.
Pauli Derlau, who claimed to be the president of the Psychological Alchemy Society, also cast his gaze out the window and smiled.
"This is the city in everyone's heart.
"It's where there are people."
Audrey nodded thoughtfully.
"In other words, one can enter this place from any corner of human society?"
Derlau stroked his wheelchair and said, "Yes."
"Yes."
"Everything here has a corresponding psychological symbol. They're called Bestial Desires."
Bestial Desires … Audrey silently repeated this word. While maintaining her dignified sitting posture, she cast her gaze further.
Among the "pedestrians," apart from werewolves, there were also bears walking upright, cats with lazy expressions, strange people with faces like brightly colored spiders, giant rats with red eyes, pythons that spat out their tongues, and canine creatures that looked at every passerby with eyes filled with desire to mate …
Among the "pedestrians", there were werewolves, bears that walked upright, cats that looked lazy, strange people that had a colorful spider face, giant rats with red eyes, pythons that spat out their forked tongues, and some canine creatures that looked at every passerby with eyes filled with desire for mating...
They wore hats, windbreakers, or intricately complicated dark dresses. They tried to imitate humans in every detail, but they couldn't make themselves look like humans.
This cathedral was more than eighty meters tall, propped up by black pillars. Each pillar was embedded with a certain number of skulls. Some of them came from humans, while others came from different creatures. However, all of them had their empty eyes aimed downwards, as though they were watching every living being that entered the cathedral.
The church was more than eighty meters tall, supported by giant black pillars. Each pillar was embedded with a certain number of skulls. Some of them belonged to humans, while others belonged to different creatures. However, all of them had their empty eyes aimed downwards, as if they were watching every living being that entered the church.
Like most of the buildings here, the details of this church could be said to be exquisite, but they were made up of elements that leaned towards nightmares, horror, terror, and mystery.
Walking out of the carriage and passing through the main door, Audrey saw a vast but empty hall.
In the depths of the hall stood a huge cross. Wrapped around the cross was a grayish-white dragon statue.
Unlike ordinary cathedrals, there were no rows of seats for believers to pray, nor was there a place to place candlesticks. There was only a small long table in front of the dragon statue. There were five seats on both sides of the long table, and the top and bottom seats were empty.
Paulie Derlau maneuvered his wheelchair to the end of the long table and pointed to his left.
"Please have a seat."
Audrey followed behind him unhurriedly. She looked around, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
She was neither too close nor too far away from the president of the Psychological Alchemy. It was just enough to show that she was on guard, and she didn't look guilty.
Pauli Derlau raised his hands and placed them on the surface of the long table.
"Miss Audrey, I have something to ask you."
"Please speak." Audrey turned her head slightly and responded to his gaze with her green eyes.
Derlau nodded slightly.
"I want to know how you advanced to Sequence 4 Manipulator. Where did you obtain your potion formula and Beyonder characteristic?"
Audrey replied calmly,
"From a trade.
"A client wishes to obtain the help of a Spectator pathway demigod. He paid the Manipulator potion formula and Beyonder characteristic in advance."
Del Lao immediately laughed.
"There's actually such a thing? The generous conditions were like a father finding an excuse to give his daughter a gift.
"Can you tell me what kind of help you provided?"
"Besieging another demigod. In this matter, mental control is rather crucial, "Audrey explained simply.
Her attitude was very calm, as if she was talking about the homework assigned by her tutor.
Derlau's long and fluffy eyebrows twitched.
"Success?"
"The outcome is obvious." Audrey gave a relatively tactful answer.
Derlau sized her up a few times, as though he realized that the noble girl on his left was a Manipulator who could kill other demigods.
Audrey read his thoughts and added, "I'm just one of the participants."
"I'm just one of the participants."
Derlau nodded.
"Do you know where the client's Manipulator potion formula and Beyonder characteristic came from?"
"He didn't directly answer the question," Audrey replied with a sentence she had long prepared.
"Him? Can you tell me who he is? "Derlau asked after some hesitation.
Audrey had been guarding against the other party's Virtual Persona from infiltrating her mind island, but from the beginning until now, she hadn't discovered anything amiss.
This made her suspect that the other party didn't need to infiltrate. Just by observing the movements of the surrounding sea of collective subconscious, he could see through her truest thoughts.
She didn't hide anything and calmly replied, "This involves my agreement with him.
"This involves the promise I made with him. I believe that keeping promises is a moral standard that the entire world recognizes. And in the world of Mysticism, this involves a lot of things."
At this point, Audrey took the initiative to say, "This involves my agreement with him.
I'm willing to accept it if you can't truly trust me because of the concealment of this question.
"I can only be an ordinary member and use my contributions to exchange for psychological research information."
Derlau smiled when he heard that.
"Everyone has their own secrets. This is very normal. What I need to evaluate is whether your secret will affect the safety of the entire Psychological Alchemy."
He took a deep look at Audrey and said,
"Then can you tell me how you know such a client?"
"I remember that I once reported to you that before I joined Psychological Alchemy, I had already come into contact with some people in the mysticism circle and got to know a few Beyonders." Audrey spoke words that couldn't be any truer.
As for the logical order of the answers just now, that was another matter.
Furthermore, Hvin Rambis's "disappearance" stemmed from the investigation of Fors and Xio. This was a fact that both parties had never communicated with each other, but they had absolutely acknowledged.
Derlau retracted his hands from the table and placed them on his chest.
"One more question. When was the last time you saw Hvin Rambis?"
Audrey frowned slightly.
"I remember you once asked."
After Hvin Rambis's death, she didn't immediately sever ties with Psychological Alchemy. She continued to maintain a certain level of contact with the upper echelons through Hilbert, Stephen, Escalante, and company. When the war approached Baekeland, she realized that she couldn't contact the members of her psychological seminar team for various reasons.
"I need to confirm it in person," Derlau said calmly.
Audrey nodded slightly.
"The last time I saw Hvin Rambis was in Viscount Glaint's mansion. Back then, I followed his instructions and hypnotized two Beyonder friends I knew. I asked them why they were investigating Viscount Stratford and who the mastermind was.
"At that time, Hvin Rambis was nearby to ensure that nothing went wrong with the hypnosis. After obtaining the answer, he quickly left.
"After that day, I never saw him again."
During the process of answering, Audrey was still guarding against the invasion of her mind island, but it was calm there. Nothing happened.
Not only did this not make Audrey feel relaxed, but it also made her even more vigilant. She didn't even dare to think about anything related to Mr. Fool and The World, German Sparrow.
She was only certain of one thing: As long as she was in danger of being exposed, Mr. Fool would definitely provide her with protection.
"It's the same answer as before." Derlau nodded slowly.
He then looked into Audrey's green eyes and said frankly, "I'm unable to use mysticism methods to trace the source of the Beyonder characteristic in your body.
"I'm unable to use mysticism methods to trace the source of the Beyonder characteristic in your body. This means that the provider has an unimaginable existence backing him."
Audrey nodded slightly, indicating that she thought so too.
"I can't force you not to cooperate or trade with other Beyonders. That's impractical. I only hope that you can promise not to reveal anything related to Psychological Alchemy to anyone. At the very least, when you want to entrust certain missions, you have to package them well and hide the secrets," Derlau retracted his gaze and said calmly.
Audrey replied without hesitation, "I promise not to cooperate or trade with other Beyonders.
I promise not to tell anything related to Psychological Alchemy to living beings who don't have the corresponding authority. "
She took the initiative to magnify the concept of human to living beings to make up for the loophole in her promise.
And just as she said that, she felt thoughts appear in her mind island one after another.
These thoughts intertwined together, turning into an illusory net that seeped into Audrey's mind island, turning into her subconscious.
As this "net of restrictions" came from Audrey's own spirituality, even if she became an angel, she would be powerless to remove it. She would lose the will to communicate with non-members of Psychological Alchemy or members of Psychological Alchemy who didn't have the authority to do so.
And she didn't realize this.
He didn't invade my mind island. Just my own words made the promise materialize … While Audrey was alarmed, she didn't show it on the surface.
Of course, she didn't completely restrain herself, because being surprised by such means was an instinctive reaction of a Manipulator.
Based on this, she suspected that either there was a problem with the city in her mind, or that Derlau, the president of Psychological Alchemy, wasn't just at the level of a saint.
Seeing Audrey make a promise, Derlau pointed at the long table in satisfaction.
"From now on, you are a councilor of the Psychological Alchemy Council.
"You can choose a persona mask as your code name."
As he spoke, seven grayish-white, rather illusory, and abnormally cold masks appeared on the long table. Five of them were placed in their respective positions, as though they already had owners.
"The remaining two personas are Wrath and Pride," Derlau introduced. "They come from the Holy Bible of the Third Epoch."
Audrey thought for a second and reached out to the mask that didn't contain any wrath.
"I choose Pride."
Derlau glanced at her and chuckled.
"This was also Hvin Rambis's choice back then."
PS: Seeking monthly recommendation votes on Monday ~
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