Chapter 1049: Chapter 387: One Third of the Three Paintings

It seems a bit strange.

…Why was there no specific time given when the ceremony started?

This was Aiwass’s last thought before his consciousness was stripped away.

But he soon regained consciousness.

However, when Aiwass opened his eyes again, he immediately felt an extremely bizarre sense of dissonance.

Everything around him seemed too bright and colorful…

…Is it because its “quality” is too high, that it somehow looks a bit unreal?

At this moment, he is at a grand banquet, wearing a brown suit and holding a glass of red wine that’s only one-third full.

They are standing on a deep red carpet resembling raspberry jam, and beneath the carpet is a pristine white three-tiered circular platform resembling a cream cake. The surrounding walls are draped with dark curtains, and chandeliers hang above.

The men and women around are chatting and laughing, the noisy sound echoing in the center of the dance floor, occasionally interspersed with a cheerful or loud laugh, and in a corner, a band is playing a bluesy, melancholic tune, completely contrary to the current festive atmosphere.

As Aiwass walks forward with his wine glass, the crowded dance floor slowly parts to both sides, like the parting of the Red Sea. They don’t talk to Aiwass, nor do they even look at him; their bodies just automatically move aside.

–Suddenly, Aiwass realizes what’s not quite right.

Everyone has a smile on their face, yet not a single person “stops smiling”!

Aiwass suddenly looks up, staring at the pure white wall directly in front of him.

It is a huge deer head statue.

It looks like the Candle Master, however, it is not a red deer but a pure white one, blending with the wall. It’s so white it looks like the cream and icing on a cake, and its head is adorned with many branched antlers, each shaped like a candlestick, with many candles lit upon them.

Another bizarre aspect is that this “white Candle Master” also has a very clear smile on its face, identical to all the guests.

A deer, yet smiling…

Aiwass realizes something and steps back two steps.

The crowd still parts–not because people are actively making way for him, but because no one wants to come within two or three meters of Aiwass.

Aiwass observes the smiles on the faces around him, gesturing on his own face with his hand.

Slowly… he also revealed a similar smile.

When his smile reaches a certain degree, the people around him surged towards him in an instant. They no longer avoided Aiwass, but danced with him in the dance floor.

A blonde girl with a smiling face also came over from the side and stood motionless in front of Aiwass. At this distance, the paint traces on her face became more apparent–

Aiwass began to understand the mechanism of this ceremony.

This indeed is the inside of a painting.

Also, thanks to knowing what abilities Yanis had when using the Celestial Marshal Shard and losing control… he could immediately respond.

Aiwass extends a hand in a gesture of invitation, and the girl places her hand on Aiwass’s.

Aiwass had never learned this dance. But it wasn’t difficult, and the rhythm was slow; after watching a little, he roughly got the hang of it.

As the two began to slowly dance, Aiwass paid attention to everything around him.

The front of the dance hall featured a bizarre half-body statue of the Candle Master… and on the other side were two spiral staircases, one leading up and one leading down. Both places were pitch-black, and the music seemed to loop endlessly, as if the dance could go on indefinitely, until eternity.

Suddenly, Aiwass finally heard the child-like voice of the Wings of Life Fire:

“You have awakened, but you do not know who you are, nor why you are here. You have even forgotten which era this is.

“You are determined to find the truth and escape from here.”

A brief introduction to the plot, basically not saying much.

But one thing is for sure–those deliberately hidden pieces of information might actually be important clues!

And the mission given next confirmed this point.

[Essential Mission–]

[Complete a painting (Points: None)]

[Escape from the world of the painting (Points: None)]

[Extra Task—-]

[“Laughing Friends”: Complete “Tower of Feast”]

[“No More Laughing Friends”: Complete “Tower of Feast” in an alternative way]

[“Endless Banquet”: Complete “Tower of Feast” in another way]

[“Tower of Feast” total score is 3000, distribution depends on contribution after completion]

[“Mole Day”: Complete “White Horse King”]

[“Snow Queen”: Complete “White Horse King” in an alternative way]

[“Animal World”: Complete “White Horse King” in another way]

[“White Horse King” total score is 4500, distribution depends on contribution after completion]

[“Ring of Ouroboros”: Complete “With Me”]

[“A Thousand Years Later”: Complete “With Me” in another way]

[“Goodbye”: Complete “With Me” in another way]

[“With Me” total score is 6000, distribution depends on contribution after completion]

…This was Aiwass’s first encounter with tasks of such a style.

Unlike all other promotion rituals before, all the tasks didn’t specify explicit goals, but none encouraged mutual killing like “unnecessary slaughter”.

From Aiwass’s experience, the task style of Lord of Scalefeather was the clearest. He always explicitly gives directives “where to go”, “what to kill”, “how many to kill”, resembling more of what Aiwass considered a “task”.

Meanwhile, Silver-Crowned Dragon and Serpent Father tend to issue exceptionally challenging but rewarding tasks to encourage promotors to take risks; Gemini Mirror enjoys the spectacle, His tasks are always provocative; Great Sage’s tasks are the most outrageous, inherently implying and misleading, and deciphering the tasks themselves is part of the challenge.

For now, Candle Master seems to be the most merciful and also the most enigmatic.

Despite the task itself being a bit cryptic, the “how should I proceed” rules are exceptionally clear, which is profoundly Divine Arts–complex and thresholded in language, yet concrete and straightforward in action.

Though there aren’t any side tasks involving killing for points, the stands of promotors towards each other are conflicting after all.

Clearly, they are in a world within paintings.

There are three paintings here, and how to switch between them Aiwass still doesn’t quite understand.

Needless to say, these side tasks clearly conflict with each other–that is, each painting has three potential variations, and it will eventually be completed as one specific “possibility”.

And all promotors who chose this possibility will obtain scores based on their contributions.

As for the promotors who opted for other possibilities, obviously they cannot gain points from this possibility–since they didn’t contribute at all, not deducting points for hindering is already Candle Master’s mercy.

In order to complete the direction they desire, promotors who chose the same painting then have conflicts. They tend to destroy their opponents to make the painting finalize in their chosen direction, allowing them to monopolize more points.

But such conflicts are not absolute–they can change their intended path of completion at any time. Moreover, if someone dies ahead of time, since souls cannot be destroyed thus actions are less restricted, tasks can be accomplished faster.

The weak are not absolutely without chances of winning… these slain souls could even band together, leveraging their numbers advantage to turn the painting the killer is completing towards another direction. If the painting successfully turns away, the other party cannot complete their task.

If too many unite, they actually become weaker–their score when divided among them will not rank high, meaning they are undoubtedly doomed to lose. But since they are bound to lose, why not surrender and accept defeat comfortably?

If they wish to complete the ritual, they essentially seek victory… and the last two surviving must at least complete one painting to be considered victorious.

If both their main tasks fail, diverted successfully by others, they would not be deemed the winners. Instead, the ultimate victor might be the one who rises again through “Divine Resurrection”–the only one, and the dead man with the most points.

“If you want to achieve victory…”

Aiwass pondered: “There are actually only two strategies.

“Either ensure the completion of the main task–completing the painting and escaping from the world within the painting–and surviving till only three are left, then continue to survive from the ‘one out of three’; or earn the highest points post-mortem.

“Merely surviving is useless, one must at least complete one painting, otherwise, it is better to die. But if a death results in their inability to finish a painting due to mutual hindrances, then they just can’t earn any points, everyone’s score will be 0. This ritual might even end with no one getting promoted… and those who died really died.”

That is to say, intense conflicts are bound to occur among the promotors.

Yet this type of conflict can transform into cooperation and strategic piracy at any moment, even death doesn’t bring an end…

…Is the difficulty from fourth promotion to fifth this high?

After clarifying the situation in his mind, Aiwass had a clear goal:

First, determine how to complete the painting… secondly, find a way to locate other promotors, optimally finding Aleister.