Chapter 36: “Bizarro Sorcerer” VS “Parasite”

Chapter 36: “Bizarro Sorcerer” VS “Parasite”

When his gaze turned toward the garden, Klein’s mind had already naturally reflected the scene there:

In a dark corner hidden by clusters of flowers, grayish-white rats circled one place like they had been bewitched by demons. They squeaked wildly as they tried to squeeze past their own kind and enter the center.

In the core area lay a gray rat nearly the size of an adult Loen shorthair cat. Its eyes were obviously red, like coagulated blood.

Its tail whipped back and forth rapidly, as though it wanted to fling away the mania within its heart.

Once the normal-sized rats truly approached, it would extend its claws, pin them down, and bite them to death at its side. As a result, rat corpses had piled up around it one after another, yet even this could not stop the remaining rats from surging forward.

Seeing this, Klein abruptly had two thoughts.

First, “intuitive premonition” strengthened by the power of the gray fog truly was an excellent assistant for a Bizarro Sorcerer’s manipulation of Spirit Body Threads. In open areas, it was fine, because one could confirm at a glance which Spirit Body Threads represented the target. However, in a bustling city or in places with many buildings, a Bizarro Sorcerer without the ability to “see through” things could not distinguish from a distance which intertwined Spirit Body Threads belonged to whom. It would be difficult to precisely lock onto an enemy unless the other party’s current actions were distinctive enough and different from everyone else’s. Of course, a Bizarro Sorcerer could also ignore collateral damage and carry out indiscriminate control.

Second, the demigod of the Marauder pathway parasitizing that rat was indeed on the verge of losing control. Not only was its body several times larger than what the Magic Mirror Arrodes had previously shown, its condition was also extremely unstable, filled with an aura of tyranny and madness.

Good thing I came in time. If this were left for a few more weeks, perhaps a tragedy would occur… As this thought flashed through Klein’s mind, illusory black threads appeared before his eyes.

At this moment, the straight-line distance between him and that mutated rat was less than fifty meters. He could directly manipulate its Spirit Body Threads!

At that moment, the enormous, smooth-furred rat seemed to sense something. It abruptly stood and turned its head toward the kitchen.

A flash of light passed through its dark-red eyes, instantly causing the young man in a silk top hat and black formalwear to freeze in place.

It had “stolen” the primary thoughts he would have over the next two seconds, making his mind nearly blank. And unlike a Sequence 5 Dream Stealer, it did not need to make any corresponding movement!

Immediately after, the rat raised its right front paw, attempting to “steal” its enemy’s Beyonder powers.

At its level, for a single target, the number of Beyonder abilities it could “steal” had risen from one to three, and the duration of maintenance reached two hours. Of course, each act of “stealing” could only take one ability.

But just then, the giant rat’s thoughts strangely became sluggish. Its use of abilities seemed tightly bound by invisible threads, making it unusually slow.

Its Spirit Body Threads had been initially controlled!

The successful “stealing” of “Gehrman Sparrow’s” thoughts, causing him to stand frozen in place, was merely an illusion—an illusion created by a Bizarro Sorcerer!

Before formally manipulating its Spirit Body Threads, Klein had already swapped positions with Winner Enuni. A marionette did not possess self-awareness or thoughts of any kind, and so it could not be affected by a Beyonder power that “stole thoughts.”

How could something that did not exist be stolen?

And to numb this Marauder pathway demigod, Klein had used his qualitatively changed illusion abilities and had deliberately made the marionette Enuni, who had transformed into Gehrman Sparrow, perform the corresponding reaction.

At this very moment, Klein was outside Macht’s Elk Manor. The straight-line distance between him and that giant rat already exceeded five hundred meters, but this did not stop him from manipulating the other party’s Spirit Body Threads, because a Bizarro Sorcerer could bestow his own Beyonder powers upon marionettes, including the core method of controlling Spirit Body Threads and turning targets into marionettes!

In other words, if there were no other limits, a Bizarro Sorcerer could use marionettes to extend his control over Spirit Body Threads from the base range of one hundred fifty meters to infinity. After all, as long as he placed a marionette roughly every one kilometer, he could rely on the bestowal of Beyonder powers to extend his influence.

Of course, how could there be an ability in this world without limitations? On one hand, Klein’s current overall limit was fifty marionettes. He could not exceed that number. On the other hand, the only thing a Bizarro Sorcerer could not grant a marionette was the ability to think and self-awareness. Therefore, the limit for using marionettes to control marionettes was the limit of his own control over marionettes—one kilometer!

Once it exceeded that range, marionettes converted by other marionettes would be unable to make any movements.

In addition, the essence of a Bizarro Sorcerer bestowing Beyonder powers upon a marionette was to separate a Worm related to the mythical creature form and send it through Spirit Body Threads into the marionette’s body. If several had not been given to the same marionette in advance, then when that marionette transformed a new marionette, it would be unable to split off the corresponding Worm and grant the new marionette the original body’s Beyonder powers.

At present, Klein could separate at most fifty. Exceeding that number would make his spirit body unable to bear the burden and cause symptoms of mental splitting. Without effective treatment, he would be unable to recover. And even with excellent treatment, recovery was not guaranteed, while the tendency toward losing control would become more severe.

Therefore, according to Klein’s experiments, his current limit for manipulating Spirit Body Threads was one thousand plus one hundred fifty meters. For a new marionette to be fully controlled as well, it had to remain within one thousand meters. At the same time, if a marionette died, the characteristic of the Worm inside it would return to the main body after a certain time according to the law of convergence of Beyonder characteristics. If that process was interrupted, it might be lost.

While the Marauder pathway demigod’s movements became sluggish and stiff, around Winner Enuni—who looked like Gehrman Sparrow—the rats previously converted into marionettes rushed out of the kitchen one after another. Aiming at the garden, they opened their mouths, preparing to sweep the target area with air cannon shells.

Suddenly, the dark-red light inside the giant rat’s eyes brightened.

In an instant, “Gehrman Sparrow” appeared in the dark corner of the garden, among the dead rats that had been bitten to death, while the Marauder pathway demigod arrived inside the kitchen, standing on the long table crowded with many objects.

It had “stolen” Gehrman Sparrow’s position!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The air cannons of the rat marionettes were fired before they could be interrupted, all striking the region where “Gehrman Sparrow” stood. Soil flew up, flowers scattered, and flesh and blood splashed everywhere. The male and female servants inside the manor’s main building trembled violently in fright, completely unable to understand what was happening. They could only hide in panic.

The entire garden was thoroughly plowed by the air cannons, and the soil layer had been shaved down to an exaggerated degree. If Klein had not concentrated the firing area there, the manor’s main building would definitely not have been spared.

After the splashing dust settled, one rat after another had been reduced beyond recognition. Yet “Gehrman Sparrow” still stood there, without the slightest injury.

At that moment, Winner Enuni had released all the good luck he had accumulated!

However, because of this, Klein’s manipulation of the giant rat’s Spirit Body Threads was interrupted. And there were only so many Spirit Body Threads; the rat marionettes had been completely unable to help beforehand, or they would have caused confusion and canceled one another out.

Hazel’s teacher, that Marauder pathway demigod, seized the opportunity to regain freedom of movement. Then it turned its body, raised its right forepaw toward Gehrman Sparrow, and instantly stole the other party’s Beyonder ability to manipulate Spirit Body Threads.

As a Sequence 4 demigod, it could fairly precisely “steal” the ability it wanted from a target. Normally, it was one out of three; the more it understood about the target, the higher the success rate. This time, its luck was quite good.

Of course, if the target’s level was comparatively low, and it possessed a deep grasp of the target’s circumstances, it could steal whatever it wanted.

The right front paw had only just lowered when this Marauder pathway demigod raised its left front paw. The rat marionettes’ limbs all softened in response, and they collapsed to the ground, unable to turn their bodies.

This was a large-scale “theft.” What it stole was the rats’ own ability to walk!

Immediately afterward, countless strange symbols appeared inside the giant rat’s dark-red eyes.

It rapidly unraveled the “mystery” and found Klein’s main body’s location.

With a flash of red light and a lift of both claws, this Marauder pathway demigod suddenly arrived before Klein.

This time, what it had “stolen” was the distance between the two sides!

Just then, the thin-faced, sharply defined young man in the giant rat’s eyes vanished, and in his place appeared a gray rat.

On the surrounding trees, worm after worm crawled out, opening their “mouths” at the same time.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Air cannons shot out one after another, covering both the giant rat and the ordinary rats.

While Klein was controlling the marionettes inside Elk Manor, he had not forgotten to convert new marionettes around himself. That was a Bizarro Sorcerer’s basic cultivation. Then, by relying on the seamless swap between his main body and his marionettes, he set up a simple trap!

Soil and dust were hurled high into the air, and the giant rat parasitized by the Marauder pathway demigod was completely “submerged.”

When everything settled, the thick scent of blood spread from the area where a large crater had appeared. Chunks of flesh and blood in all shapes and sizes were scattered everywhere.

Dead? Through the eyes of the surrounding marionettes, Klein saw the state of the “bombardment” site.

Yet he quickly frowned, because there was no sign of a Beyonder characteristic emerging.

As thoughts flashed rapidly, Klein took out a gold coin and flicked it upward with a clang.

While the gold coin fell, image after image surfaced in his mind. These were revelations obtained by his astral body.

Compared to before, as a demigod, Klein could now obtain far more information through this simplified divination method!