033 The Strange Number

The stone door slowly creaked open, revealing a sudden expanse before everyone’s eyes.

It was a garden built within an underground cavern, littered with ancient, crumbling walls.

The cavern was extraordinarily vast, resembling a small forest. Multiple exits punctuated the cavern’s ceiling, allowing beams of light to pour through the openings above, forming shafts of radiant light amidst the dense foliage below.

This was the sealed domain of the Abyss Lord’s remnant—the "Garden of Suffering."

The baron informed the group that the seal was here but hidden by the Secret Order of Suffering. To reveal the seal, they first needed to adjust the magical arrays scattered throughout the garden.

The eight people split into three groups to adjust the arrays: Catherine, Roland, Narl, and Anna formed one group; Wallace and the three novices another; Hol and Reynard the last pair. After completing the adjustments, they would reconvene at the garden’s center.

With the plan settled, the eight began to move apart.

Roland knew that to survive, they had to unite, at least ensuring mutual trust between himself and Catherine.

It was time to speak with her.

Roland silently touched her mind with telepathy, and immediately a powerful mental force invaded his consciousness.

Catherine’s voice echoed in his mind: “Have you discovered anything?”

Roland replied, “Mentor, let me ask first—if that thing has already escaped, are you confident you can handle it?”

Catherine responded, “The Abyss Lord has never truly descended; otherwise, the world’s laws would have already shifted. What the predecessors faced were merely his projections or avatars—though those avatars are now at their weakest. Even if the Abyss Lord himself were to descend...”

Before she could finish, Roland interrupted, “Senior! Now’s not the time for boasting! Even if that avatar is so feeble, you four might still not be a match for it, right?”

Roland’s repeated use of “senior” irritated Catherine greatly, but she suppressed her anger and said, “Whether we can defeat him is none of your concern. Just tell us who he is.”

After a pause, she added, “We still have about a 50% chance of success.”

Roland sighed inwardly; he knew well that Catherine’s claim of a 50% chance was meant to comfort him. The real odds were surely lower.

Nonetheless, he sensed that Catherine and Baron Hol were ready to face death. That was enough.

Since his teammates were so determined, he saw no reason to withhold the truth.

“We have an extra person among us,” Roland said. “That person is the Abyss Lord’s avatar.”

Catherine replied, “I guessed as much... You didn’t just notice that, did you?”

Roland sneered, “Fine, bring out the device you normally use to monitor me. Check the team members and count how many there are.”

Frowning, Catherine produced a crystal orb and inspected each member, reciting their names aloud.

After counting, she said, “There are eight people in total. What’s the matter?”

Roland closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and said, “Senior, you miscounted. There are nine of us.”

“Impossible!” Catherine was stunned. She looked at the orb and counted again, “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and me—eight in total. Between one and eight are exactly eight numbers. My perception is correct; there are eight of us, not nine.”

Roland said, “Catherine, I’m the seer. You have to trust the seer.”

Her expression shifted oddly. She remembered her earlier conversation with the baron.

To her, the baron was a muscle-bound fool. To Roland, she and the baron were no different.

Catherine asked with a strange tone, “Is my perception truly flawed? Or is there some underlying logic from the lower world in your words?”

Roland answered, “Yes. Are you sure you want to hear it?”

Catherine hesitated, then spat out one word: “Speak.”

Roland said, “Alright, brace yourself.”

What followed caused Catherine’s sanity to waver.

He said, “There are indeed eight of us, but now eight represents nine numbers. Before entering the ruins, numbers one through eight were eight digits, but after entering, an extra number has appeared between one and eight! Therefore, although there are eight of us, it’s actually nine people!”

Catherine was thrown into confusion. “Roland, either you’re mad, or I am.”

Roland’s words were like claiming there was an integer between three and four. Ordinary people would never accept such a notion.

Everyone knows the interior angles of a triangle sum to 180 degrees, but in non-Euclidean geometry, the sum exceeds 180 degrees.

In the surface world, there is no integer between three and four. But in the lower world, such an integer does exist.

The remnant of the Abyss Lord is that integer inserted between three and four.

For beings of the surface world, they cannot perceive any number between three and four. Hence, gods remain indescribable to Catherine and her companions.

No matter how many times they count, they will always consider the extra entity as either three or four. Thus, even though there are nine people, they insist there are only eight.

Roland said, “Before arguing over who’s mad, count our numbers again.”

Having spent some time with Roland, Catherine knew his cognition was never flawed.

If she ever felt he spoke strangely, it meant she simply lacked the intellect to understand.

Blushing, she put away the crystal orb in frustration and said, “Count? Count what? Stop the nonsense. I don’t understand what you’re saying. All I know is how to kill! Just tell me who he is, and I’ll kill him. Then we return to the academy!”

Roland nodded. “Alright, then I’ll tell you now—Instructor Reynard is the demon.”

Catherine was shocked but believed him. What she couldn’t grasp was why Reynard would be the demon.

“Roland, that’s impossible. I’ve known Reynard for many years. How could he be a demon?”

Roland continued, “Fine, I’ll tell you why he’s the demon. Every time you count the team members, you do it like this:

—Roland, the two novices, Wallace: four support members.

—Catherine, Anna, Narl, Baron Hol: four main fighters.

You never count Reynard as part of the team! Yet you believe he’s on our side! Your perception is flawed! Reynard is the problem!”

Previously, in the Ayare Manuscript’s “Seer’s Choice,” two prophecies were given.

In Prophecy A, if Roland remained silent and did not expose the werewolf, the entire team would be annihilated.

In Prophecy B, if Roland stood up and identified the werewolf, survival was one in nine.

Roland had now chosen B.

He openly named the demon and provided clear logic, but his teammates refused to accept it.

Catherine said, “Roland... we have always counted Reynard as part of the team.”

To prove her point, she produced the crystal orb and counted each member before Roland.

She said, “Look, these are the two novices—two people.

This is Wallace, and that’s you—four people.

Next are me, Anna, Narl, and the baron—eight people.

See? I just counted Reynard, and he’s among the eight. We have always been eight, not nine.”

Roland nodded deeply. “Go take some medicine, senior.”

Catherine was speechless.

At that moment, Roland finally understood why people, despite witnessing numerous indescribable phenomena, could never articulate them.

Because even if someone uses clear logic to describe the indescribable, others simply cannot comprehend it.

Those who have never glimpsed the lower world will never find the number between three and four.

Those with trichromatic vision will never see the vivid world perceived by those with tetrachromatic vision.

Roland himself possessed such a tetrachromatic vision system.

In his eyes, others were blind.

But in their eyes, he was a madman.

Roland ceased to argue about the Abyss Demon with Catherine.

He said, “Senior, I can’t say more. Let’s end this topic here. If you believe me, then believe me. If not... I have done all I can.”

Catherine was very intelligent; she understood in an instant why Roland couldn’t say more.

Because only those from the lower world could grasp these logics.

So, was Roland truly the werewolf?

Catherine closed her eyes, pondered deeply, then shook her head.

Roland could indeed see things from the lower world, but that didn’t make him an evil god. Even if he were, he wasn’t the evil god of this ruin.

Time, place, identity—all were wrong. Even the Ayare Manuscript had been given to him by her!

At times like this, others might doubt him, but she could not.

Opening her eyes, she said, “Roland, I don’t understand what you said today, but I believe you.”