Cuttlefish That Loves Diving
I cannot believe we're only 100 chapters into the novel. This is insane. Random theory that's unlikely but eh: When Lumian + the trio went to the church and Lumian thought he was unaffected by COI's power, he was actually the most affected and it created his evil self as a possible future or past. So the padre and co could learn about the looping only this time.
I'm so curious but I refuse to spend money to read this book. So as it stands my prediction is that the warlock is the old man Lumian cared for, death worshippers and dying not being the end and all. So by leveraging the ability of the COI, which parallels the LoTM, he initiated a pseudo possession of Lumian, with him reawakening as Lumian bolstered his connection with the dream realm. However at the moment of resurrection the fool interfered and used the accumulated energy of the ritual to create a loop. As such the Warlock would look like Lumian due to the ritual's progress yet isn't him as the final move was blocked off.