Chapter 47: Another Possibility

Chapter 47: Another Possibility

Letting the spirit body receive the protection of a “dream,” delaying the corrosion of the dangerous night… This is just like in the ruins of the battle of gods, where one must sleep when night falls…

Also, the power of the Forsaken Land of the Gods should not be under the Goddess’s control. If one vanishes into the darkness there, one definitely will not enter the foggy town… Then where would it point? Or perhaps one remains in place, yet can no longer make contact with companions or the real world, until eventually starving to death or dying of old age… After reading the Magic Mirror Arrodes’s answer, Klein gained some understanding and roughly grasped the key points.

However, he felt that this might not necessarily be useful, because The Sun sought pure darkness in order to bury himself in ice that normally would not melt and drink the Priest of Light potion. Once he entered a dream, he would be completely unable to manipulate his own body and complete that crucial step. In that case, even if he could persist in the lightless darkness for a very long time, it would have no meaning at all.

Mm. After Little Sun asks the City of Silver’s Chief and combines it with his answer, I’ll consider a specific plan… Of course, before that, I should first get the corresponding method from Leonard and understand how to create darkness containing a temporary dream world… Klein nodded very slightly, acknowledging the answer the Magic Mirror had given him.

As for the first method—actively accepting pollution and transforming into a monster of the darkness—he did not consider it at all. In the extraordinary world, that was equivalent to suicide and would be almost impossible to save.

Remembering that he still had one question unused, Klein considered briefly before saying,

“Where can I obtain the potion formula for Sequence 3, Scholar of Yore, of the Seer pathway?”

On the surface of the full-length mirror, watery light rippled once more, reflecting a deep, dark hall with no natural source of light.

This scene was extremely familiar to Klein. He instantly recalled what it represented:

This was the place where the monstrous Zaratul had been hiding!

However, this time, deep inside the hall, there was no longer that blurry and enormous worm-like thing.

Just as Klein’s pupils dilated slightly, one silver word after another appeared below the scene:

“Great Master, Zaratul has disappeared!

“I can no longer see Him!”

Disappeared… For a moment, Klein nearly forgot to breathe.

Although he had long known that Zaratul had returned—after all, this was the chain reaction caused by his opening the door to the foggy town—he had not expected that this great figure had already quietly left the hall where He had once lived, His whereabouts unknown!

Even the Magic Mirror Arrodes could not discover His trail… What is He planning now? The more Klein thought about it, the more his back chilled.

Now that he had become a Sequence 4 demigod, there was one thing Klein could currently confirm:

His control over the mysterious space above the gray fog was still insufficient. For the moment, he could only restrain the special trait that seeped into the real world and attached itself to him, making it difficult for Beyonders of corresponding pathways to see. He still could not suppress the law of convergence of Beyonder characteristics. And the gray fog had proven again and again that it had an invisible attraction toward Beyonders and Sealed Artifacts of the Seer, Apprentice, and Marauder pathways, with the strongest effect on the Seer pathway!

Added to that, I myself am also a Sequence 4 Bizarro Sorcerer with no weak attraction. It isn’t impossible that Zaratul will suddenly come to Backlund one day… Klein kept his expression unchanged and said to the full-length mirror, whose scene was already changing:

“I understand.”

The next image displayed by the Magic Mirror Arrodes was similarly familiar to Klein. It showed the Antigonus family’s “treasure” at the peak of the Hornacis mountain range.

Below this scene, another line of silver words rapidly emerged:

“Great Master, there is another possibility. But I cannot see what it is. I only know that compared to the first two, it is relatively easier.”

This time, there is no Antigonus family notebook? That makes sense. It guides its holder toward the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range to search for the Antigonus family’s treasure. It belongs to the same type as the previous option and can be merged with it… What is the possibility even the Magic Mirror Arrodes cannot see? Combining it with my knowledge of the forces belonging to the Seer pathway, does this refer to praying to the Goddess? The Goddess is the Mother of Concealment, so if She wants Arrodes to see the answer, it can see it; if She does not want it to see, it will see nothing… Klein’s thoughts scattered, and he quickly made a connection.

Of course, he did not think that by directly praying, he could obtain the Scholar of Yore potion formula. That would be far too absurd, like a child playing a game.

Based on his experience as a Nighthawk, he suspected that he might have to accumulate enough contributions before he could obtain the Scholar of Yore potion formula from the Evernight Goddess through a ritual.

Accumulate merits… What a familiar phrase… Klein sighed soundlessly, already forming some ideas in his heart.

Clearly, there was a hint regarding how to accumulate merits: handling the problem of the Numinous Episcopate’s artificial Death faction properly!

However, Klein suspected that the Goddess’s Seer pathway potion formulas might only reach Scholar of Yore and lack the subsequent angel-rank formulas. After all, the angel from the Antigonus family had not directly perished back then, but had fled into the concealed palace, losing control and becoming a monster in a half-sealed state. In addition, The Fool card was also there and had never been taken out.

At this moment, Klein had originally planned to ask about Amon’s avatars. But he suddenly remembered that, in the rat demigod’s memories, the one that had warned “him” about a Marauder pathway angel and Amon was precisely a mirror!

In the flash of a thought, Klein narrowed his eyes slightly. Looking at the full-length mirror, he nodded.

“All right. That will be all for today. Return now. If anything else comes up, I will summon you.”

“Yes, Master! Goodbye, Master~ Your loyal and humble servant Arrodes awaits at all times to return to Your side!” On the mirror surface, streams of light and shadow gathered, sometimes forming words, sometimes evolving into a simple line-drawn person waving.

After everything returned to calm, Klein turned around, picked up the paper on which he had drawn the symbol earlier, and snapped his fingers, making scarlet flames leap up from it.

As ashes slowly drifted down, he opened his left hand. In his palm lay two transparent worms shining with three-dimensional, mysterious symbols.

The two worms twisted lightly, possessing vitality of their own. The entire bedroom was instantly filled with a sense of madness and bizarre transformation, causing the surrounding light and shadows to brighten and darken without the slightest pattern. They were precisely the Worms of Spirit Klein had separated.

Suddenly, Klein stretched out his right palm and slammed it down toward the two transparent worms.

A moment later, his hand stopped, just barely touching the Worms of Spirit.

His palm lifted and fell, fell and stopped, stopped and lifted. After repeating this several times, Klein suddenly exerted force expressionlessly.

Amid an invisible and illusory cracking sound, a sharp pain erupted in his head.

It gave him the sensation that his soul had been torn apart. It was more painful than being shot or cut by a blade.

Klein used his Clown ability to control the twitching of his facial muscles. Only after several seconds did he raise his right hand and rub his temple. Inwardly, he muttered:

“As expected, each Worm of Spirit’s death damages the spirit body. My current limit should be six. Mm, I won’t keep trying for now. I’ll first see how long recovery takes.

“Fortunately, this belongs to the category of pain that can still be endured. Otherwise, in an intense battle, if a marionette were destroyed before I had time to retrieve the Worm of Spirit, things would become dangerous…

“Mm, unlike Amon’s Worm of Time avatars, a Bizarro Sorcerer’s Worms of Spirit do not necessarily die when a marionette is destroyed. In most circumstances, a Bizarro Sorcerer can retrieve them in time, because the distance between the main body and the marionette is not that exaggerated…”

After confirming the situation and waiting until the Beyonder characteristics contained inside the Worms of Spirit returned to his main body, Klein searched out the materials again and set up a ritual, praying to The Fool.

Through a round of back-and-forth operations above and below the gray fog, Klein used the residual bodies of the two Worms of Spirit, two thin silver pieces, and portions of previously copied complex three-dimensional symbols—the ones from the item given to the Snake of Mercury, Will Auceptin—to create two silver-black bullets.

The surfaces of these two bullets were engraved with indescribably strange patterns. The lines extended inward, seeming to intersect at a single point in their center. As a whole, they gleamed with a deep yet not dim light. Merely looking at them made one’s thoughts slow down.

Klein tossed a gold coin. By combining divination with spiritual intuition, he swiftly grasped the abilities of the two bullets in his hand:

Once struck by them, the target would immediately enter a state of paralysis!

Depending on the strength of each target’s spirit body, this state would last for different lengths of time. Even a Sequence 3 Saint would suffer one or two seconds of stiffness!

“This exceeds the scope of my own abilities. Of course, the prerequisite is that they hit. Mm, this originates from the enhancement of the gray fog’s power… These two bullets should be at the same level as the Luck Stealer charm. Although my Worms of Spirit are still inferior to Amon’s and Pallez’s Worms of Time, the amount of power from the mysterious space above the gray fog I could mobilize before was also clearly weaker than it is now… I’ll call them, uh, Spirit-Control Bullets…” Klein took the Death Knell revolver from his underarm holster, flicked the cylinder out, and loaded the two silver-black Spirit-Control Bullets inside.

Next, beside the altar, he spread out a sheet of letter paper and began writing:

“…Your next task is to search for higher-level charms or extraordinary bullets. May God be with you.

“The so-and-so who made three requests of you.”

This letter was addressed to Patrick Bryan of the Numinous Episcopate’s artificial Death faction.

Not using subordinates when I have them would be the same as wasting them, wouldn’t it? Klein muttered while folding the letter. Using the altar he had just set up, he summoned Patrick Bryan’s messenger.

On the surface of his desk, small black flames strangely emerged and quickly condensed together, forming a semi-transparent bird with dim feathers.

This spirit world creature glanced at Klein, slowly lowered its head, and picked up the letter.

Watching it vanish, Klein nodded slightly and muttered inwardly:

“Patrick’s contracted partner isn’t low-level either…”

He quickly restrained his thoughts, drew out another sheet of letter paper, and wrote smoothly:

“…I have already obtained Concealment’s permission. You may try gathering demigod-level items of the Marauder pathway. In addition, I have found a method to see through theft and replacement of fate. You need not be too anxious.

“…Do you know how to create darkness that contains a temporary dream world?

“…If you have time, you can go to Tingen once and help me use 3-0782 to make Solar Flame Bullets. That Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem contains a drop of Eternal Blazing Sun’s divine blood… Only by fully strengthening ourselves can we have greater confidence in dealing with Amon’s avatars…”