Chapter 3373: Chapter 3374: Darkness Beneath the Dawn

When Angel was very young, he once heard Jon mention that truly beautiful art, at the moment of its completion, always leaves people with a lingering feeling and the sound that echoes around the beam.

And at this moment, upon hearing the abrupt end of "Black Sheep Confession Song," within the artistic realm, seeing the priest and the Cathedral of the Sky buried in a sea of flames, Angel also felt that sense of "lingering sound."

Even though Angel did not witness the whole process, he only arrived before the final Chapter, but just listening to this last part, the feeling of aftertaste was still very strong.

"Luigi’s level of performance has improved again..." Angel murmured softly.

Back in the Ghost House at Shock, Luigi’s performance hadn’t reached this level; but now, even for Angel, who has listened to "Black Sheep Confession Song" many times, he can empathize with it.

This is not an enhancement of skill but rather a sublimation of emotion.

Angel once saw a review about singing on the holographic tablet: "No technique, all emotion"; however, Luigi’s performance this time is not only "all emotion" but also "a harmonious perfection of technique."

Even with Angel’s level of appreciation, he believes that this performance is far better than the previous "Air of Intent," "Flight of the Night Sparrow Rhapsody," "Three Chapters of Sbro"...

It’s just unknown what seat Uriel would give for this performance?

Angel cast his gaze upon Uriel.

However, when he saw Uriel’s expression at that moment, Angel suddenly froze.

Because Uriel’s expression was too strange.

His eyes were blurred, and tears continuously slipped down, yet his expression was extremely indifferent.

Tears flowed with an emotionless and cold demeanor, as if there was a chasm between them, existing in two different worlds.

At first, Angel was quite puzzled, but he quickly realized.

It was Uriel’s... Dreaming State that had disappeared.

It should be that Uriel was moved by some hidden meaning in the song, empathized with it, hence couldn’t help but shed tears; only, when he was crying, he was still in the "Dreaming State," and now the song has ended, the "Dreaming State" has disappeared, Uriel at this point has returned to the normal NPC category.

The tears of the Dreaming State remained on the face of the ordinary NPC.

This led to the current bizarre inconsistency.

However, although Uriel’s Dreaming State has been lifted, judging from his tears, it can be speculated that he should be very satisfied with the "Black Sheep Confession Song."

It’s just unknown, what seat Uriel would give Luigi because of this music?

Will it be startling, entering the top three seats?

Thinking of this, Angel’s gaze was tightly fixed on Uriel, waiting for his determination...

...

Meanwhile, in the distant time and space distance.

Dusman Empire, Dawn City.

Under the cover of nightfall, Dawn City lost the daytime vitality, replaced by a dead silence.

Only the cries of night crows and the whispers of tears from unknown places.

In a corner of Dawn City, on the second floor of a dilapidated attic, a man lying in a pile of dirty clothes suddenly woke from sleep.

He opened his eyes, staring at the pitch-black ceiling, lost in thought.

"I, I seem to have heard a song, and saw flames, a cathedral, and countless corpses... as well as a demon performing a lament in the flames?" The disheveled man with stubble suddenly shook his head: "No, not a demon, seems like a person."

The man murmured quietly, sitting up from the bed.

Looking around, he finally confirmed that he had just... had a dream.

That dream was very beautiful but also very cruel.

Yet cruel enough to make him willing to immerse himself in it.

"Uriel, oh Uriel..." The man self-deprecatingly whispered: "Are you already someone searching for value in dreams?"

With a bitter smile, Uriel got off the chaotic bed, wearing only sleep pants, then naked, pushed open the bedroom door, and arrived at the balcony edge.

He intended to wake himself up a bit.

Currently, the Dusman Empire was in midsummer, but even so, a night wind blew, prompting him to shiver involuntarily.

And because of this shiver, the chaos in his mind slightly cleared.

Leaning against the balcony railing, he lit up a cigarette, looking at the sleeping Dawn City below, silently puffing out smoke.

Dawn City was vast, but most of the houses were low, so even though Uriel was only standing on the second-floor balcony, he could see very far, very far architectural outlines.

Almost all buildings at this time had entered a sweet dreamland, except for the iconic building at the center of Dawn City—the Glory Church, which still blazed bright lights.

Therefore, Uriel’s gaze was involuntarily drawn to the Glory Temple.

"With the Goddess of Night as the backdrop, it is truly sacred and beautiful." Uriel sighed lightly, his decadent eyes filled with an unresolved complexity: "But who can know that within such a sacred temple, deep inside is..."

Uriel spat out a smoke ring.

The smoke slowly dissipated in the night before him.

As the smoke dissipated, Uriel suddenly noticed a building about ten meters away, where a faint gaslight glowed.

Through the opened window and the faint light, he saw a woman hugging her knees, crying.

The earlier elusive crying sound in the air was precisely coming from her direction.

As a neighbor, Uriel naturally knew this crying woman, he even knows why she was crying.

Because her newlywed husband is a rotten gambler.

Just looking at their stripped-bare new home, he knew that; her husband had almost sold everything that could be sold, if her gambler husband planned to continue selling, then the only thing left to sell might be herself.

Her crying wasn’t only resentment towards her husband’s failure but also mourning her bleak prospects.

"Being able to cry means her husband is not at home. So late at night not being home, the only place he could be is the casino... tonight’s wins and losses might just dictate her future." Uriel shook his head, unwilling to watch further.

They were all poor souls, even he himself was no different. Other than compassion, he had no other recourse...

His gaze shifted from the neighbor’s lamplight back to the Glory Church, still radiantly bright in the night.

At some point, a thin fog descended, covering the church.

From afar, this mist looked like... smoke exhaled.

Reflecting on this, a shadow flickered in Uriel’s eyes.

Tobacco and gambling, anyone living here knows, they are the sources plunging into darkness, the root of all evil.

Even the Church of Radiance propagates this.

But anyone with a hint of social standing will be aware that tobacco and gambling are actually the two hidden pillar industries of Dawn City, and their major backer is... the Church of Radiance.

In Dawn City, oh, not only here, the whole Dusman Empire, the Church of Radiance carries this glorified image, but who would know, behind such light there’s a hideous mess.

"Religion, church, are their backs all so filthy?" Uriel muttered softly for a moment, then stilled: "Why did I say ’all’?"

As Uriel questioned himself in confusion, two scenes suddenly flashed through his mind.

On one side was the church representing the blue sky, also serving as the backing of the nobility.

On the other side were the impoverished people and the devoted priests who listened to their suffering.

The two scenes continually transformed in Uriel’s mind... those memories trapped in the sea of ghost dreams surged into his mind with the intense music.

He remembered.

In the dream, he saw another religion rampaging.

In the dream, he smelled the scent of blood shrouded by flames.

In the dream, he heard the mournful song performed by the priests with their lives...

Although that was another religion, the various things it showed were no different from the Church of Radiance in the Dusman Empire.

Even "pure priests" and "followers of death" could be found corresponding in the Church of Radiance... In fact, Uriel himself knew such a person.

And that person was his partner.

Except his partner did not take the priest’s script but walked the same path of the oppressed and dead follower.

"Why am I dreaming about these... Is it you?"

"Is this music you are playing for me?"

"Are you asking me to let go, or to burn my last madness like the priest?"

Uriel closed his eyes and stayed silent on the balcony for a long time.

Until the tobacco burned to his fingertips, the slight scorching brought his mind back; he pondered for a moment, gently flicked the ash from his hand, and turned back inside.

It was still midnight, and normally, he should have gone to bed. But at this moment, he did not feel like sleeping; he walked unconsciously to the piano by the bed.

Since arriving here, he had not opened the piano.

The stand was dusty.

Uriel sat silently for a while and then sat on the bench, lifting the piano lid.

After so long, the lost desire to play rekindled. He wanted to recreate that performance from the dream.

Whether or not this was a reminder from "him," Uriel wanted to remember it and keep it in his heart.

The music of the piano began.

The flowing notes, as if they had grown wings, echoed in the darkness.

From gentle to intense, from naive to cruel, from cold to raging flames...

When Uriel finished playing the last note, his face was already covered in sweat, and his hair was wet and stuck to his forehead.

Too long without playing, his physical strength was not what it used to be.

Yet, the exhaustion made the performance feel even more exhilarating.

Uriel panted heavily, his body was very tired, but a smile spread across his face.

The effort did not affect his mental joy.

"It’s been a long time since I wanted to perform a piece like this..." Uriel murmured to himself, his eyes filled with nostalgia and openness: "The head should like this piece, right?"

"I don’t even know who played this piece in the dream."

Whenever Uriel tried to think about the person performing the piece, he felt an indescribable force blocking his memory.

The only thing he remembered was that the other seemed to play the piece with a harp, and had performed more than once in front of him.

"Such a frequent and active performance is a bit like the Imperial Orchestra’s seating test." Uriel muttered to himself.

"Speaking of which, if it’s this piece, the seat should at least be in the..."

"Top three, right?"

...

"Top three?" Luigi’s eyes flashed with surprise: "Is it really the top three?"

After performing the "Black Sheep Confession Song," Luigi kept his eyes on Uriel.

He could see Uriel silently shedding tears, seemingly affected by the fiery elegy within the "Black Sheep Confession Song."

But no matter how much Uriel cried, the result never appeared.

This was somewhat different from the situation when Luigi came for the seating before. Previously, every time the performance ended, the Fairyland prompt would immediately pop up. This time, almost ten minutes had passed, and Uriel remained motionless, like he had turned into a wooden figure.

Just as Luigi anxiously awaited the result, a familiar voice suddenly reached his ear.

"If nothing goes wrong, this seating test should be in the top three."

The only one who could directly converse with him in the instance, without a doubt, was Angel.

Luigi was not surprised by Angel "watching" his seating. What surprised him more was the seating position Angel mentioned.

This was why he had asked the question aloud earlier.

He was not asking the stunned Uriel in front but Angel quietly observing the attic outside the Miniature Garden.

Angel’s mention of the "top three" seating was not baseless.

Because he saw the chaotic information coming out of Uriel.

As the Challenger, Luigi could only passively accept the Fairyland prompts and could not see the various Fairyland information surrounding Uriel.

But Angel could.

As the Controller of Fairyland Authority, in his eyes, numerous Fairyland prompts were constantly emerging from Uriel’s head.

It was slightly strange that these Fairyland prompts, like the letter Uriel took out before, kept changing in content.

Perhaps, only when the "letter" was truly handed to Luigi would the Fairyland prompt become fixed.

However, even though the Fairyland prompt was continuously changing, based on the existing information, Luigi’s seating should already be fixed in the top three.

The reason for saying this is that all the changing Fairyland prompts have the same first sentence: "Special Dreamland ’Uriel’s Choice’ Main Quest 3, Challenge Successful."

In the past, every time Luigi’s seating challenge occurred, the first sentence would inevitably be: "Special Dreamland ’Uriel’s Choice’ Main Quest 3, Challenge Failed."

And to succeed, he must reach the top three seats.

Now, since the first sentence of the Fairyland prompt has changed to successful, it indicates that Uriel has placed his seating in the top three.

Just which of the top three seats is still "changing."

But whichever seat, in Angel’s view, already counts as a successful challenge.

Originally, Angel did not intend to inform Luigi of the result beforehand, but for some reason, after this performance, Luigi’s expression was strange, his face pale, eyes dazed, and even lips trembling... Angel thought for a moment and decided to give Luigi a little spoiler.

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