novelonline The Truth of Act 5, Chapter 3734
The Truth of Act 5, Chapter 3734
Chapter 3734 The Truth of Act Five
"Mr. Snake granted my wish."
The Baron's gaze passed over the three men by the fire, looking from the mountaintop towards the stars and the moon; the night was about to end.
"However, he didn't give me any spells or magical objects, he just said that my wish would definitely come true. I know that no wish is free, so I asked Mr. Snake what price I needed to pay for it."
"Does it give you the opportunity to devour Valentine Halonen?"
Dr. Schneider asked, and the Baron shook his head;
"No, it told me then that the price was for me to know the truth. The snake told me the truth about my crippled legs, and that it was all because of the wish she made."
I was overjoyed at the time because I knew she truly loved me deeply. After leaving that dream, I was delighted to have been given eternal love, and the price I paid was so insignificant.
But as you all know, she left me and disappeared without a trace. I don't know why, and I can only pray every day that she will come back, but she has never shown up since she left.
So I dreamt of the temple a second time and met Mr. Snake. Mr. Snake told me that my first wish was still in effect; she left me because she loved me. So I made a second wish: I not only wanted her to love me, but I also wanted her to stay by my side forever.
Xia De glanced at the woman's soul, who remained silent, gazing only at the mountain scenery beyond the peaks:
"What will be the implementation method and cost this time?"
“Mr. Snake said she would return in ten years, and she would be in big trouble then. I need to make her come to me on her own initiative, and then I will strangle her with my own hands. That way, I can keep her soul with me forever. She has made so many enemies, and it is good enough that she will accompany me after death.”
"This"
The three men listening to the story by the fire couldn't understand it:
"Before this, you were pursuing eternal love, so why did it suddenly turn into strangling her?"
The baron said calmly;
"Ten years of waiting, ten years of unrequited love, the love in my heart is driving me crazy."
He covered his heart with his right hand; of course, a spirit has no heartbeat.
"I hate her because of this, I hate her for leaving me, for leaving after making a wish. I still love her, but I also truly hate her. So I think, in order to prevent her from leaving a second time, turning her into a spirit is a pretty good option."
After all, we love each other deeply, and life and death cannot sever our feelings.
He was completely unaware of how inappropriate his words were:
"You all know what happened next. When Mr. Watson appeared before me, I had a strange premonition that you could help me fulfill my wish. So I asked you to dig up the necklace that was our token of love, told you our story, and asked you to find Halonin, but she still refused to come to see me."
So I entered the dream a third time, begging Mr. Snake to give me a chance. Mr. Snake then brought me to her side that night, and what happened tonight is what it is now.
Although he spoke at length, his story was not complicated. The man who was loved also longed to be loved, and so, manipulated by the same serpent, he stepped step by step into the abyss.
As for Valentine Halonen, Shad already knew her story fully before tonight. A girl afraid of losing love made a wish to a snake, and was then similarly controlled by the snake, ultimately falling into the abyss.
The story begins with a gentleman and a girl falling in love at first sight in an orphanage, and ends with two souls under this starry sky. The serpent, in order to create this ending, revealed the information about "the lustful" in the temple, thus drawing Shad into the story.
Therefore, the story of Act V was indeed orchestrated by the snake.
If it weren't for that snake, the love story between the man and the woman might have had a happy ending. Even if their love ultimately ended in heartbreak, it would have simply left the man with a cherished memory and the woman with an unforgettable face, instead of appearing here as spirits after causing so many deaths.
But it's too late to say all this now. What has happened cannot be erased. Love is not a sin, and the desire for love is not an unforgivable crime. However, at this moment, Shad by the fire is unwilling to comment on this story.
The woman's soul was also freed from the restriction of speech by the priest Augustus, but she only looked at the baron in the wheelchair and ultimately did not say anything to him.
She was no longer the manic woman she was during her battle with Iluna tonight, but had reverted to the way she had been when she met Shad many times:
"When we last met, I said that if I lost, I hoped it would be to you in the end. Although you didn't do it, it seems that every one of those young girls had something to do with you."
In her spirit form, she still possessed the beautiful appearance of her middle age. She made no attempt to justify any of her actions; she simply asked Shad:
"If I hadn't met Mr. Snake, do you think my story with him might have had a happy ending?"
Shad, standing by the fire, remained silent. The priest then spoke:
"Probably. Although you were worried about losing her back then, your love was at least natural and real."
Dr. Schneider offered a different perspective:
"Your fear of losing it shows that you lack confidence in your love. Over the years, I've encountered many people with similar concerns, and usually, even if they eventually get married, the marriage breaks down after seven years."
Statistics show that the seventh year of marriage is the most common point at which love completely breaks down.
The woman looked at Xia De again. Xia De grabbed a handful of snow from beside him, exhaled a cold breath, and twirled his fingers, creating a crystal-clear ice flower in his hand:
"Pretty?"
"Of course it's beautiful."
Can it exist for a long time?
"It will melt eventually."
Shad made the ice rose float into the other person's hand:
"If you firmly believe in your love, and believe in yourself and him, perhaps this rose can last a long time. The current situation reminds me of another true story, in which there was also a person in a wheelchair, but that person was an old lady."
He told the people present the story of Mr. Otto and Mrs. Otto, a couple who eloped when they were young but were separated for a long time due to an accident. One was frozen in the snow mountain, but returned many years later through his obsession, while the other waited silently at home, believing that the other would definitely come back until the end of her life.
"Just yesterday, according to what I've been doing, old Mrs. Otto also passed away. They held hands and said goodbye to me, and that's how I received the antidote to the love curse. A single tear of true love, used to dissolve the immortal flower of love, thus watering it and breaking the love curse."
Your story and their story both take place on this island, and both involve long separations. In the end, two souls stand before me, yet their stories are drastically different.
The wind howled through the mountains, swirling snowflakes, while the starry sky twinkled above the snow-capped peaks. Valentine Halonin gazed at the rose in his hand, remaining silent for a long time.
Until the baron in the wheelchair spoke:
"When the serpent promised me eternal love, it didn't give me a spell. I think your spell must have been two-way. Now that spell has been broken by Mr. Watson, and after everything we've been through, I really want to know, without the spell, do you still love me now?"
"And what about you? Without the love spell I cast, do you still love me now?"
The woman asked, but remained focused on the ice rose in her hand.
The Baron removed his gaze from her face:
"That's not important."
"Yes, that's not important anymore."
The woman plucked a petal from the ice rose, placed it on her forehead, and then returned it to Shad.
"I've imprinted everything about Mr. Snake on this petal; I think this is what you need."
After Shad accepted the petal, she said to him again:
“Mr. Snake told me that you were helping a powerful being to take my body and soul. Now my body has been destroyed and turned into a ring, and the ring has collapsed. So take my soul. If this can help you fight against Mr. Snake, it will be my atonement for the sins I committed before.”
Priest Augustus looked at Shad, wanting to say something but not speaking, but the doctor spoke up, saying what Priest Augustus wanted to say:
“Even if that soul is our enemy, I still do not approve of trading souls.”
The baron in the wheelchair wanted to speak, but remembering the crimes she had committed, he said nothing and simply looked at the starry sky beyond the cliff.
Thus, two choices appeared before Shad: the mask given by "desire" was on his body, and by placing it on the woman's soul, the commission would be completed, and the reward would be a shield inlaid with the arc of "breeding";
However, if one chooses to abandon the quest, then Valentine Halonen's soul will continue its journey.
When he considered her his enemy, Shad hadn't considered the possibility of hesitation. His current hesitation stemmed from considering the opinions of Priest Augustus and the doctor, or rather, from the fact that no normal person would feel it was right to trade a person's soul to an evil being.
Bennet of Vistalin made a pact with desire, so even though he escaped to other times, he was ultimately possessed by desire; while Valentine Halonen...
Shad closed his eyes, but opened them again after only two seconds:
“You have indeed committed a crime, even if it was all committed under the guidance of Mr. Snake, the harm you have caused to those innocent deaths and to this world is still your own doing.”
"Yes, I understand."
But Shad added:
"But that's no reason to trade your soul to evil. I have no right to trade other people's souls. What will become of your sinful soul is something you'll have to face as you continue down this path."
You may not be qualified to climb the Wall of the Unbelievers, but other things will await you.
Beyond those waters lies the end, but in this wondrous world, what exactly lies at the end is something that living outsiders will never truly understand.
As he spoke, he took out the mask given by desire, sighed, and then broke it in two.
The priest and the doctor both nodded slightly. Valentine Halonin looked at the mask and laughed self-deprecatingly.
"What I once told you was not a lie—even though I possess such powerful charisma, it is far less than the charisma you exude naturally."
She held the rose in her left hand and looked down at her right hand:
"I witnessed Mr. Snake's true form and saw that pure and powerful apocalyptic destiny, so a part of my soul was also twisted into destiny. I absorbed so much spiritual power that my soul was tempered to be incredibly strong, so I had the level of nine rings as soon as I became a ring sorcerer."
I think I know what price I should pay. Since you are unwilling to exchange my soul for power from evil, then I will give you that power.
Her right hand pierced into her own spirit body. Amidst the cracking sounds of her soul shattering and its uncontrollable screams, her spirit body rapidly dimmed. Then, with that trembling arm, she forcibly dug a black ring out of her soul.
The Ring of Resurrection was forcibly bestowed upon her by the snake, which is why it was thrown away by Ellie in her human form just now; The Fool resonated with her and should have left with her, but at this moment she abandoned most of the power of her soul and half of its essence, separating the ring from herself in the great pain of self-destruction of her soul.