Chapter 59: Fourth Movement

Chapter 59: Fourth Movement

Wearing a monocle and bearing the appearance of Winner Enuni, Amon did not seem like an infiltrator or an attacker, but rather like a visitor. With considerable desire to perform, He spoke of the preparations He had made in advance, and of the origins of the “Magic Mirror” Arrodes.

Before He had finished speaking, however, He suddenly stopped. Opposite Him, Dwayne Dantès had abruptly turned into a filthy gray rat.

That rat raised its right forepaw and pressed it against its eye socket.

At the same time, in the garden of 160 Böklund Street, Gehrman Sparrow—thin-faced, sharply contoured, black-haired, and brown-eyed—appeared in the middle of a cluster of roses.

Just now, while Amon had been speaking of that highly attractive topic, He had secretly split off a Worm of Time, attempting to invade Klein’s main body and carry out parasitism. However, Klein had remained on high alert the entire time. Through changes in Spirit Body Threads, he had noticed what was happening and, at the crucial moment, switched positions with a marionette he had hastily created!

Soundlessly, the Amon wearing the appearance of the mixed-blood youth once again appeared before Klein.

Behind Him, a transparent insect with twelve segments fell from the third floor and returned into His body.

At that instant, earthworms in the garden soil, insects hidden within trees and plants, and rats in shadowed corners all crawled out one after another. Some surrounded the place where Gehrman Sparrow and Amon confronted one another, while others moved away from the area.

A large reason Klein had patiently listened to Amon speak earlier was because he had been seizing the time to create marionettes!

For a Bizarro Sorcerer, having marionettes was what made him complete!

Amon still did not hurry to act. He pinched the monocle held in His deeply set eye socket, glanced left and right, and smiled.

“Your actions often expose your problems. To a mentor in the domain of fraud, everything you did just now is already enough for me to grasp your weakness.

“In a situation this tense and dangerous, you only transformed rats, insects, birds, and earthworms into your marionettes, without considering the butlers, maids, and manservants inside the house. What does that mean? It means you possess excellent moral standards, and you still regard yourself as human. You are unwilling to harm them.

“Having grasped this point, even if this avatar of mine is lower in level than you, I can still toy with you until you collapse. I can make you unable to die even if you want to.

“Ah, right. You may stop secretly trying to manipulate my Spirit Body Threads, because what you are manipulating are Spirit Body Threads I stole. They belong to your butler, your maids, your coachman. If you keep going, I fear you will feel very, very guilty.”

He can even steal Spirit Body Threads? No. It is more like some kind of transfer… Klein’s expression became slightly grave, and he stopped manipulating Amon’s Spirit Body Threads.

The reason he had been so patient all along and had allowed the other party to talk nonsense was also because he had secretly entertained the thought of turning Amon’s avatar into his marionette.

For a Bizarro Sorcerer, this type of battle—delaying each other while secretly exerting influence—should have been the kind he was best at and liked most. Unfortunately, the one he was facing was Amon, the Blasphemer who currently stood at the very peak of the Marauder pathway. Even though this was only an avatar, Klein felt somewhat helpless.

Klein actually suspected that what Amon had just said might be a deception, but he had no way to distinguish the truth, and he did not dare gamble.

At a time like this, a Spectator’s cooperation was needed!

“You said so much. It shouldn’t have been purely to find a way to parasitize me, right? You should understand that before heavily injuring me, it is very difficult for you to parasitize a Bizarro Sorcerer who can see Spirit Body Threads.” Klein, in the appearance of Gehrman Sparrow, looked at Amon and suddenly spoke calmly.

Amon immediately chuckled.

“You finally noticed.”

“You are stealing my fate?” Klein once again swapped positions with a marionette, making his main body flash repeatedly to different corners of the garden.

“No.” Amon shook His head, both hands in His trouser pockets as He leisurely smiled. “That ‘Magic Mirror’ Arrodes is actually willing to obey your instructions and deliberately flatter you. That means you are definitely not as simple as I imagined. I am not a Beyonder of the Tyrant pathway. Of course I will not rashly steal your fate just like that. Heh. I suddenly had a premonition that directly replacing you would lead to something I do not wish to see.”

“How do you know Arrodes is flattering me? Flora Jacob’s fate should not have contained any such thing.” Klein, still in the appearance of Gehrman Sparrow, abruptly appeared atop a tree.

His various marionettes continued changing positions.

Amon drew out one hand and rubbed His chin.

“Did I not just say so? I spent some time distinguishing and searching for the source. Mm, I went to the Church of Steam and had a chat with Arrodes. It was not very honest. It preferred to endure my torture rather than reveal your true origins. Unfortunately, that happened inside the Church of Steam. Otherwise, if I had directly parasitized it, I would know everything.”

He can even parasitize a living Sealed Artifact? If Arrodes strictly follows its rules, then its past answers indicate that it does not actually know my real situation very clearly. It merely has certain guesses… Klein’s pupils dilated slightly. He was just about to speak when he heard Amon laugh.

“You are truly not anxious at all. What exactly are you waiting for?

“Do you not know that Sequence 2 of my pathway is called Trojan Horse of Destiny? Although I am only an ordinary avatar right now, some abilities can still be applied in a preliminary manner. For example, I can tamper with your fate a little and cause certain errors to appear within a set period of time. Just like now—no matter how you call for help, no one will notice.

“Heh. In other words, even if you activate that Crest of Evernight in your hand, you will only be able to borrow the influence of Concealment, and you will be unable to transmit your plea for help, regardless of whatever agreement you have made. Also, even if you shout ‘Help!’ or create an explosion, the passing pedestrians and the servants inside the houses will not hear.

“That is why I said so much just now. For an ordinary avatar, this kind of operation requires sufficient time.

“All right. It is your turn to answer the question I asked earlier.”

Klein did not answer directly. He kept switching positions with his marionettes, but always maintained one marionette directly facing Amon in order to “converse” with Him.

At this moment, he had that marionette ask,

“Since you have already completed your manipulation in the domain of fate, why have you still not acted?

“You also seem to be waiting…”

Before Gehrman Sparrow, who had been stretched into a thin sheet like a paper figurine, could finish speaking, an intense rush of wind came from the distance.

Wearing a black windbreaker, Leonard was pulled by a cane embedded with silver-white metal, flying at high speed toward Böklund Street!

Klein, who had flashed to Amon’s side, immediately spoke:

“This is what I was waiting for!”

As he spoke, he had already activated the Crest of Evernight tightly clutched in his hand.

At the same time, he snapped his left fingers, igniting the tallest tree in the garden. Scarlet flames surged upward into the air with a whoosh.

It was so vivid that it was like a giant torch, an abnormality that should have been visible at a glance across the whole block. Yet whether it was the maid wiping the first-floor windows or the pedestrians strolling beneath the Intis plane trees, none noticed it at all. Even Leonard Mitchell in midair ignored this scene, continuing to rapidly approach the predetermined target—39 Böklund Street.

At that moment, Pallez Zoroast’s slightly aged voice sounded inside this Red Glove’s mind:

“Change direction. Go to No. 160.”

…Although Leonard was confused, as someone experienced in Beyonder incidents, he did not ask why. He immediately tugged on the Sea’s Word cane and changed direction.

Inside the garden of 160 Böklund Street, Amon raised His head and pressed His right hand toward the crystal monocle as He chuckled.

“This is also what I was waiting for.”

He did not look at Gehrman Sparrow. The smile on His face gradually grew more obvious, as if He could hardly suppress His delight.

“To think you can detect the abnormality in this region’s fate…

“It is Him. Pallez!”

As He spoke, the Blasphemer changed the pressing motion and adjusted His monocle.

At that moment, the entire street was covered in a strange darkness, as though it had been isolated from reality and turned into a secret.

In the sitting room of 39 Böklund Street, Hazel looked out the window and murmured in slight confusion,

“Is it going to rain?”

This was not an important matter. She quickly withdrew her gaze and reached for the three-tier tray that held afternoon tea.

Then she saw her father, Member of Parliament Macht, strangely open his right hand.

Point after point of light condensed from nowhere, transforming in his palm into a monocle seemingly carved from crystal.

Member of Parliament Macht then placed that monocle over his right eye.

This… Hazel had clearly sensed that something was wrong. In slight panic, she looked toward the others in the room.

Her mother, Madam Liana, removed the decorative glasses from the bridge of her nose and put on a monocle she had taken out from who knew where. The manservants and maids standing beside her also took out monocles of identical style and placed them over their right eyes at the same time.

Clang!

Hazel instinctively stood, retreating again and again, knocking her chair to the ground.

That sound startled everyone in the room. Member of Parliament Macht, Madam Liana, and the manservants and maids all turned their heads and looked at Hazel in unison.

The corners of their lips slowly revealed smiles.

“Ah!”

Hazel collapsed all at once and released a piercing scream.

The scream traveled out of the house, pierced through the garden, and attracted the attention of pedestrians on the street. Meanwhile, Amon had already lowered His right hand from adjusting His monocle. Looking at the figure in midair, He laughed.

“Pallez, it is already the year 1350 of the Fifth Epoch. The technique of relying on avatars gathering together in order to raise one’s level has long since gone out of date.”

Behind and to one side of Him, Klein stopped wasting words. While reaching into his clothes as though drawing a gun, he made Creeping Hunger turn transparent and condense into a transparent book before him.

Amon merely raised a hand lightly, and that human-skin glove vanished.

However, what vanished together with the human-skin glove was Gehrman Sparrow’s figure.

Snap!

What fell into Amon’s palm was not a glove, but a rat—a rat that had died after its marionette state was canceled.

On Amon’s other side, Klein, without a top hat and wearing only a shirt and waistcoat, flashed into existence. He threw the object he had just taken out, tossing it toward the target.

It was a paper crane.