After recognizing what the mark was, the Green Angels immediately erupted into frantic discussion.
"The Sun King is dead! He can't possibly still have living slaves!"
"But that's undeniably the Sun King's personal crest!"
"And beneath this city lies the buried army of the Sun King!"
"That guy who called himself the Fool was suspicious from the start! We had prepared someone else entirely!"
"And after that, the one called Mozo disappeared too!"
As they spoke, every Green Angel clutched at their heads in growing horror.
"W-Wait... don't tell me..."
"Are we the sacrifices?!"
Audrey also noticed that, as their conversation continued, the strange sense of holiness surrounding them gradually faded.
By now, although they no longer looked completely insane, that fleeting sacred aura had vanished entirely.
What remained was only the original feeling of madness and revulsion.
Did something go wrong with their Sequence?
Even with Audrey's limited knowledge of mysticism, she knew that when a Beyonder's Sequence became unstable, they could descend into madness or die on the spot.
Meanwhile, the Green Angels continued spiraling deeper into panic, crouching on the ground while muttering to themselves.
"We belong to neighboring pathways."
Their voices were still relatively calm.
"We exist in large numbers."
Fear began creeping in.
"We have no faction backing us. Everyone wants us dead."
Their expressions twisted with terror.
"If we die, nobody will avenge us!"
They were nearly crying now.
"There couldn't possibly be better sacrifices than us! We... we were the real offerings all along!"
At this point, the Green Angels had already constructed an entire conspiracy in their minds.
An ancient king, plotting for countless years in order to return from death.
And unfortunately for them, they had cast themselves as the main characters.
The sacrificial kind.
They even began suspecting that from the very day they joined the Faceless Court, they had already become part of this enormous ritual.
Otherwise, why had everything gone so smoothly for them?
Why had they successfully joined the Faceless Court, risen all the way to Sequence 2 Green Angel, and then suddenly become consumed by greed and betrayal?
It all made sense now.
Back when he discovered the Sealed Artifact capable of resisting the Contract of Ten, his spiritual intuition had warned him that it was a road of no return.
At the time, he thought the warning referred to the consequences of betrayal.
But now he understood.
The warning had been about becoming a sacrifice.
Which meant...
Even that Sealed Artifact had probably been arranged by the elves.
Or perhaps by the ancient king himself.
Everything had been planned.
Everything had been orchestrated so that he would eventually become a lone Sequence 2 Green Angel trapped within this cursed Special District.
The more they thought about it, the more hopeless they became.
Of course, this wasn't entirely their fault.
The Contract of Ten had already stripped away most of their Sequence characteristics, leaving them half-insane to begin with.
And then they happened to encounter Audrey, this absurd "coincidence."
Imagine robbing a bank after years of preparation.
You finally escape with millions in cash, ready to enjoy your new life.
Then suddenly, you notice every single bill has your home address and the details of your crime written on it.
Wouldn't you panic?
Wouldn't you immediately assume the police had already surrounded the building?
The Green Angels were essentially in the same situation.
Except their mental state was already severely damaged.
A dead king could not possibly still possess living slaves.
Unless...
the king had never truly died.
Or at least, had not died completely.
After the initial terror and despair passed, all of the Green Angels suddenly revealed savage expressions.
"If you won't let us live, then even if we lose everything..."
"We'll make sure you suffer too!"
A Sequence 2, even a mad one, would never willingly become a sacrificial lamb.
---
Meanwhile, Mozo had finally met up with Miss Knight and the reinforcements from the authorities.
Coincidentally, aside from Miss Knight herself, the team also included the captain who had interrogated Mozo previously.
There was another man present as well, a trench coat-wearing figure who seemed to hold status equal to the captain's.
The other Beyonders all stood several steps behind, but the trench coat man remained calmly beside the captain while everyone else acted as though it were perfectly natural.
Which likely meant they were equals.
And equal status generally meant equal Sequence or combat strength.
The moment Mozo realized this, he nearly grinned.
That meant, counting Miss Knight, there were probably three Sequence 5s here.
Three peak-tier powerhouses.
This was stable. Completely stable!
Unless the enemy somehow had a Demigod hiding somewhere, there was no way this operation could fail.
The captain slowly lit a cigar before glancing at Mozo.
"We've basically mobilized half our resources for this operation, kid. If you're screwing with us, I swear I'll..."
Mid-sentence, he glanced at Miss Knight beside him.
His expression twitched slightly before he coughed awkwardly.
"I'll formally report to Parliament that you wasted imperial resources."
Mozo nodded confidently.
"Don't worry. A Beyonder capable of setting up this kind of ritual and operation has to be at least Sequence 5."
At that moment, the trench coat man, who had been silently acting cool until now, suddenly asked,
"Why Sequence 5 specifically? Couldn't it be a Demigod?"
Mozo waved dismissively.
"Impossible."
"The ritual is complicated and evil, sure, but the participants are just a bunch of low-level rogue Beyonders with no resources or backing."
"The divination artifact created from sacrifices like that wouldn't interest a Demigod in the slightest."
Then he added with absolute certainty,
"If it really is a Demigod, then the guy's brain must be completely broken."
After all, what kind of major figure managed to become a Demigod while also being mentally insane?
And even if the target really was crazy, how could someone insane create such a careful and complicated ritual?
The others nodded in agreement.
The quality of the sacrifices determined the upper limit of the final product.
A pile of low-level Beyonders simply wasn't enough to attract truly high-level figures.
If a major powerhouse actually coveted something like this, their brain would have to be seriously damaged.
And besides...
Even if the target really was some insane high-level monster, the Earl was still inside the city.
A Sequence 3 supported by multiple mid-level Beyonders and numerous Sealed Artifacts?
There was no way they couldn't suppress a single enemy.