Escaping the Mystery Hotel

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 97

Current Location: Floor 1, Room 104 – Cursed Room ‘Preparatory Selective, Hotel High School’

Sage’s Advice: X

- Han Kain

“O Holy Sun…”

Tears of joy streamed down Aurelia’s face as she gazed at the flames.

The Holy Sun.

Could it be the Inheritance of this room?

It makes sense that a religious group would have a sacred relic that appears to save them in times of destruction, like in a legend.

I finally understood why something inexplicable happened when we left Aurelia in a near-death state during the first attempt.

When the Saintess was stabbed by my sword and faced a crisis, the relic must have recognized it as the imminent collapse of the cult, allowing the Lord to intervene.

At first, the flames faintly flickered like a match, but suddenly flared up as if drawing light from every direction.

In an instant, the expanded flames became overwhelming, a force impossible to comprehend.

Everyone present froze like statues.

I see the sun. I see the sun. I see the sun. I see the sun.

The sun drew near me.

My hand reached out naturally and grasped the sun.

[My son, the time hast come.]

I looked at the Holy Sun in my hand.

I saw the light that touched the distant sky.

A moment ago, I was in the middle of an underground city, unable to see the sky.

Yet somehow, I saw the light that encompassed the entire world from the heavens.

[My son, why doth thou gaze upward? The light is already in thy hand. Thou need not strain thy neck to look at the heavens.]

Dazed, I lowered my gaze to the ground.

The moment the small sun appeared, both Aurelia and my comrades were frozen in place like rocks.

Are they all frozen?

No, I realized it wasn’t that everyone was frozen—it was that I had become impossibly fast.

“What in the world have you done to me…?”

[Be not afraid. Look within thyself.]

It was as if I was in a third-person perspective, I felt myself ascend toward the heavens—

I felt the Lord merging with me from within.

Descent: 2 → 1

Aurelia crawled toward me, weeping.

“Father… Father! You were there all along! You haven’t abandoned me!”

The despair on her beautiful face disappeared, replaced by profound reverence and triumph.

[My faithful daughter, Aurelia.]

“Father!”

[Only one step remains for thou to take.]

- Shk!

In an instant, my outstretched finger pierced Aurelia’s throat.

the Lord is trying to resolve this room!

***

Everything is slow.

Every change in this entire world felt unbearably slow.

Is this how a god perceives the world?

It feels as though all things have stopped moving.

Of course, I know the world hasn’t actually slowed down.

I’ve simply become too fast. From the moment the Lord took control of my body and pierced Aurelia’s throat, only about five seconds had passed in real-time.

Yet, even at this moment, as my consciousness floated, I watched the droplets of blood spray through the air in slow motion.

The voice of the Lord, who controlled my body, echoed in my mind.

[Be not afraid. The resolution of this room is at hand. By killing Aurelia and eliminating the remnants of the cult, this room shall be resolved. Thou shall claim the Inheritance, ‘The Holy Sun’. This one offers his congratulations in advance.]

Was the resolution of this room the execution of Aurelia and the destruction of the cult?

[It is quite straightforward, is it not? The original scenario of Room 104 is not particularly complicated. If thou had chosen the straightforward route, thou could hath simply overpowered Aurelia and the cult with brute force. If thou were clever, there were ways to involve external forces.]

But doesn’t the relic appear when Aurelia is in danger? That’s why the first attempt failed, isn’t it?

[The relic always appears in this underground city.]

The underground city was Aurelia’s “stronghold”.

Aurelia could never be truly defeated in this place.

The moment she was near death, the cult’s sacred relic appeared to resolve any crisis.

The correct solution would’ve been to somehow lure Aurelia out of the cult’s territory and finish her there.

At the same time, these realizations were pointless!

For reasons I didn’t yet understand, the Lord’s goal was clearly to resolve the room.

What meaning did “how” matter in the face of that?

What are you thinking? Why are you trying to resolve this room?

[My son, mind thy tone. I hath promised boundless glory to thee.]

It seemed the Lord had no intention of explaining further.

Calmly, I considered my options.

The overwhelming acceleration of my consciousness, a result of Descent, was also affecting me.

Not even the first drop of blood from Aurelia’s wound had reached the ground.

I still had time.

What exactly is the Lord’s true objective?

Does he want to seize control over my body?

But is that possible?

Once the room is resolved, the Convict is supposed to disappear.

How could the Lord plan to take my body?

I don’t know.

Based on my limited knowledge, resolving the room would mean the Convict’s end.

But now wasn’t the time to ponder the Lord’s plans.

It was time to act.

A book appeared before me.

the Lord’s brow furrowed.

***

As I activated the Power of Incarnation, my consciousness rose.

From a higher place, I could see myself, free from the Lord’s control.

I took in the scene.

the Lord, who controlled my body, was holding the “Holy Sun” in one hand and had pierced Aurelia’s throat with the other.

“…”

I saw threads.

The Power of Incarnation—when my comrades first saw a part of it, they said it looked like puppetry, didn’t they?

I saw the threads that connected consciousness and body, the lines linking the soul and the flesh.

The one controlling my body was a fiery thread, burning bright.

A thread shot out from the relic, the “Holy Sun,” and connected to my body.

What should I do?

I instinctively knew.

The Grimoire seemed to whisper what I should do.

A black thread extended from the Grimoire.

As soon as the pitch-black thread connected with my body again, I gave my body a command.

“Don’t move!”

With that command, my body froze like a statue.

At the same time, the fiery thread controlled by the Lord twitched!

The black thread and the fiery thread clashed as if wrestling for control.

My entire body trembled, and blood began to seep from my seven orifices.

The conflict between the Grimoire’s power and the Lord’s control was placing an unbearable strain on my body.

In the next moment, the Lord withdrew.

Unlike me, who didn’t fear death and could resurrect outside of the room, the Lord didn’t want my body to die.

So, even though I had only borrowed the power of the Grimoire, I—merely a human mage—had managed to make a god retreat.

…In situations where everything is confusing, it’s important to understand the enemy’s intent.

Simply disrupting their plans can often be enough!

The fact that the Lord didn’t want my body to die gave me a clear direction.

I must kill my own body.

For three seconds, my contradictory command and the Lord’s froze my body.

In that brief moment, Aurelia, whose throat had been pierced, wore a confused expression and began running frantically somewhere.

What must she be thinking, after having been betrayed by her god and losing followers?

I had no idea. And now wasn’t the time to worry about others.

Despite the hole in her throat, she wasn’t dead and was even able to run, suggesting that traces of her transcendent power still remained.

In that short time, the hole in her throat was already beginning to close.

- Whoosh!

The sun moved.

I felt the wrath of the sun that illuminated everything.

The sun, present nowhere else, now targeted the mage whose soul had separated from his body.

[Thou art only making this difficult for thyself!]

Things won’t go as you wish.

[Be not arrogant. Do not mistake the dark knowledge thou hath acquired for thine own talent!]

A vague sense of understanding crept over me, like a faint mist.

Is it because the Lord and I shared the same body?

Or perhaps the mental fusion from the Descent caused our consciousness to mix awkwardly?

Hidden secrets that the Lord had kept were slowly seeping into me.

I began to grasp the nature of the “board” the Lord had set up.

And at the same time, I realized what I needed to do next.

Another thread extended from the Grimoire.

This one flew toward a bird hiding in the corner of the underground city, terrified by the superhuman battle.

The bird had been hiding with Lee Eunsol and Kim Sanghyun.

- Piyooo!

***

As soon as I entered Perro’s body, I immediately began pecking at Noona’s hair with all my might.

“Aaah~! What is this—“

“Go to Ahri immediately! I need to tell everyone something!”

I had practiced speaking through Perro’s body before, but I hadn’t expected to use it so soon!

Noona, momentarily stunned by the parrot speaking so fluently, quickly followed my instructions and brought Perro to the center.

The situation at the center was utter chaos.

From my comrades’ perspective, they believed they had taken down Aurelia, but suddenly, a mysterious flaming object appeared in the air.

At the same time, Kain used Descent, radiating golden light as if to kill Aurelia, but then suddenly stopped.

During that moment, Aurelia managed to escape.

Even just up to this point, the situation was chaotic.

On top of that, “Descent Kain”, who had caused all this confusion, stood there, unmoving like a mannequin, without explaining anything.

The sheer, overwhelming presence I exuded from Descent, which seemed to subdue all mortals, only amplified the confusion, leaving my comrades in a state of shock.

As soon as I arrived, I gave an order, “Piyoooo! Attention!”

Everyone’s eyes turned toward Perro.

“Kill Kain immediately!!!”

My command didn’t calm the chaos; it made it worse. Ahri, with a confused expression, hesitated for a moment and asked.

“Are you possessing Perro? Then, your original body… it’s using Descent, right? What is the Lord—“

“Yes! There’s no time to explain, just hurry! I can’t keep that body frozen for long!”

The faces of my comrades hardened.

The situation they had all feared—a confrontation with “Descent Kain”—had now become a reality.

In the extreme tension, I felt a different pressure than my comrades.

Even though I had faintly understood the Lord’s plan, I still didn’t know how to break it.

If we had made some kind of mistake to get here, we could just escape and avoid repeating it.

However…

Since entering this room, we hadn’t made any mistakes.

If there was a mistake, it might have been re-entering this room in the first place. An unspeakable sense of crisis gripped my mind.

***

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