Darkness still enveloped the vast Field Villa. In the spacious weapons display room, Dorothy stood in the center of the room, and after carefully surveying the surroundings, she nodded. She decided to make this the location for her decisive battle with Luer.
'The space is big enough... there are a few too many doors for entry and exit, from various angles... hmm... it's okay... now I still need to find some things, first is a staff...'
Thinking, Dorothy began searching around for a staff, but after looking around, she couldn't find one, which caused her to frown slightly.
'None... If that's the case...'
Thinking, Dorothy's gaze fell upon a nearby stool. Then, she simply pasted a Raw Consumption Symbol onto herself, flipped the stool over, and forcibly broke off one of its legs.
'This will have to do.'
Holding the stool leg, Dorothy stood in the center of the spacious room. Then, she took out three gold coins from her purse and stuffed all of them into the wood cracks at the broken end of the stool leg.
Next, she propped herself up with the stool leg as if it were a staff, then concentrated and silently thought the divination phrase in her mind.
'The direction from which the threat hidden within this mansion will attack.'
After silently reciting the divination phrase, Dorothy let go of the staff, allowing it to fall. It pointed towards a direction in the northwest corner of the room. Dorothy looked over there and saw that it was completely dark, making it difficult to see anything clearly.
This is staff divination, or cane divination, a method of divination with an extremely simple ritual, generally used for finding paths or indicating direction. Here, Dorothy used it to divine where the crisis would come from.
After noting the direction, Dorothy picked up the staff and took out the gold coins stuffed into it. Looking at them under the faint moonlight, she found that two of them had lost their luster. This meant that two gold coins had lost the """Lamp""" stored within them, and Dorothy had just consumed two points of """enlightenment""" for this divination.
'Heh... it seems your anti-divination resources only amount to 1 Shadow and 1 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment). Quite pathetic.'
Looking at the scene before her, Dorothy thought that the reason for the extra consumption in this divination was because that Mentor carried anti-divination items with him. Therefore, Dorothy had prepared more resources for the divination.
From the results, her divination resources were offset by the Mentor's anti-divination by 1 """Lamp""" and 1 """enlightenment""". Another 1 """Lamp""" and 1 """enlightenment""" successfully took effect and completed the divination. Thus, two of Dorothy's gold coins turned black, and she used two points of """enlightenment"".
To counter divination, people without a system like Dorothy's generally carry anti-divination items with pre-stored Spirituality. The Spirituality in items is different from the Spirituality accumulated by a person. The automatic consumption of Spirituality in items does not cause detection, unless the item's Spirituality status is checked afterward.
This means that Luer has been divined by Dorothy but is currently unaware of it, unless he checks his anti-divination items right now. However, currently searching for the enemy, he doesn't have that extra thought.
'Now that I know which direction that guy is coming from, then next...'
Next, Dorothy took out a copper pocket watch from her pocket. After holding it in her hand, she opened it, revealing a seemingly damaged dial.
On the dial of the pocket watch in Dorothy's hand, there was no glass cover. The hour, minute, and second hands were all stationary and seemed very loose, as if not tightened. The watch cover was engraved with occult symbols, bearing the marks of """Lamp""" and """enlightenment"".
This was a divination tool Dorothy had prepared beforehand, obtained by slightly modifying an ordinary pocket watch. It could perform another type of divination.
Next, Dorothy placed the remaining gold coin on the watch cover, then placed her finger on the dial and silently recited the divination phrase with a focused expression.
'The time I will be attacked.'
After saying the divination phrase, Dorothy moved all the hands on the dial. The hands, which had been deliberately loosened, spun rapidly on the dial and stopped one by one shortly after, landing on the corresponding markings.
This is dial divination, one of the divination methods Dorothy had bought from Aldrich back then. It can perform time divination within a day.
By the time she used the staff for divination just now, Dorothy's 5 points of inherent """enlightenment""" had already been used up. Fortunately, Dorothy still had some """enlightenment""" accumulated as experience points, so she was able to complete the divination.
'Two thirty-one minutes and twenty-five seconds?'
After glancing at the markings, Dorothy noted them down. After putting the pocket watch away, she took out another pocket watch that was running normally and keeping accurate time, and looked at it.
'The current time is exactly two twenty-eight. That guy will find me soon, and his attack on me will commence in three minutes and twenty-five seconds.'
'Then... come on...'
Putting away the pocket watch and coins, Dorothy crouched beside a display cabinet, pretending to be hiding or avoiding something. Then she closed her eyes and began to wait quietly.
As time passed, the bright moon in the sky outside the window was obscured by drifting dark clouds. Losing the moonlight's illumination, the entire weapons display room plunged into pure blackness, almost pitch-dark.
In this darkness, everything fell silent, as if only a heart was actively beating.
And right within this darkness, a being quietly crawled into the weapons display room through an open window, without a sound.
Relying on the cover of darkness, Luer, who had transformed into a beast, entered the spacious room. After sniffing left and right a couple of times, he directed his gaze towards the center of the room.
Even without light, the darkness could present the outlines of things to Luer. There, he saw a figure hiding beneath a display cabinet.
Although he couldn't see the details clearly, his keen sense of smell told Luer that this was the intruder he had been tracking.
'Hey... finally... I found you... you self-righteous puppet master...'
Thinking in his mind, Luer began walking almost silently through the spacious room, looking for a place to strike, and also taking one last good look to mock his prey.
'Are you scared... afraid...? That's why you're hiding in a place like this, not daring to move... Heh, this is the behavior of someone who can't adapt to darkness. Although you were imposing when controlling puppets, your true self is just a pathetic worm. You don't even know I've arrived...'
Slowly, Luer found the perfect angle for a surprise attack. It was located behind the prey, with no obstacles in the path of the charge.
'Despicable intruder, the time has come to pay the price...'
The hunt began. Luer found the right angle, grasped the distance, and his whole body suddenly exerted force, rushing towards the prey in the darkness ahead at high speed. In an instant, Luer had already sprinted to a spot less than a meter behind the target.
And at this moment, Luer also saw that the figure before him had already turned around, facing the direction he was coming from, and opened his mouth to utter a sound he could not understand.
"—Fus·Ro—"