Chapter 10: Progress

Chapter 10: Progress

The City of Silver, at the top of the round tower.

Derrick Berg waited for quite a while, but he never received a response from Mr. Fool.

This made him suddenly somewhat flustered. He did not understand what this meant, nor did he know how to handle it.

Is Mr. Fool in some state that makes Him unable to respond to prayers? Mm. He hinted earlier that next week’s gathering might be canceled. This should be one of the signs… Remembering what had happened before, Derrick barely soothed the anxiety and tension in his heart.

It was no wonder that he reacted so strongly. The textbooks of the City of Silver recorded a similar situation:

The Creator, who had been normally responding to His believers, suddenly stopped responding one day and abandoned this land!

After several seconds of silence, Derrick stood up and returned to the room where the Chief waited. He said to Colin Iliad, “We still need to wait a few days.”

“Wait?” The Demon Hunter Colin repeated the key word, his brow furrowing slightly.

In his view, this was an unusual matter and seemed to symbolize an unfavorable development.

Derrick restrained the instinctive reaction to scratch the back of his head and nodded somewhat difficultly.

“Yes.”

The gray-haired Colin Iliad stared at him for several seconds, then slowly nodded.

“All right. You may return for now.”

…

Backlund, East Borough, inside a two-bedroom rented apartment.

Wrapped in thick clothing, Forsi paced back and forth around the warm stove, her face filled with confusion.

Finally, she turned her head and looked toward Xio sitting in the chair.

“Why hasn’t Mr. World replied to me yet?”

“Perhaps something has delayed him,” Xio said, giving the reason she had long since considered. “Or perhaps Mr. Fool currently finds it inconvenient to pass along your prayer. He hinted before that the gathering might pause for a week.”

Forsi nodded thoughtfully.

“Mr. Fool hinted that next week’s gathering might pause only in the middle of the week. Could that be related to George III’s matter?”

Thinking of Mr. World’s long-running investigation, Xio gave a soft “Mm.”

“Very likely.”

…

In the Forsaken Land of the Gods, inside the dead city-state.

Amon, wearing a black robe like a classical mage, brought Klein into a church that was still relatively intact.

The stone pillars here leaned to one side, several of them broken. Dark-red weeds grew from the cracks near the top, winding around bird reliefs one after another.

Carrying the leather lantern, Klein looked around and confirmed that the residents of this city-state had not truly died out. A small number of survivors remained. Through some unknown method, they had transformed into monsters hidden deep within the darkness. Avoiding the dim yellow light, they surrounded the church from places beyond sight, intending to attack Klein and Amon, two humans who appeared normal.

The reason Klein could confirm that those monsters had once been residents of this city-state was because their Spirit Body Threads showed a certain degree of mutation—some grayish-white, some twisted, some partly stuck together. They were entirely different from monsters elsewhere and closer to the feeling given by the corpses inside the stone coffins.

What kind of despair and collapse could have made the remaining humans here choose such a path… Perhaps the deepest despair is seeing no hope day after day, while the surroundings only grow worse and worse… Klein sighed inwardly, using it to adjust his own state of mind.

He was currently experiencing hope appearing again and again, only to harvest despair again and again.

Amon, wearing the monocle, walked at the edge of the firelight all the way to the deepest part of the church.

After Klein followed closer, he saw a door covered in pale white radiance standing there.

“This city-state is actually divided into light and dark portions. Using certain abilities of the Apprentice pathway, they hid part of the area away. One must enter through specific Doors.” Amon raised a hand and pointed ahead.

The abilities of a Mysticologist? Klein nodded in realization, indicating that he roughly understood what was going on.

Amon then said, “Behind this door is the dark side of this city-state. I can use it to connect with a similar region farther away and arrive there directly, shortening our journey.”

As expected of the embodiment of loopholes… Klein watched Amon extend His left hand and press it against the door made of pale white light.

That light began to ripple. The ripples spread rapidly outward, growing more and more intense.

At that moment, a deformed monster hiding deep in the darkness and peering into the church abruptly trembled, becoming Klein’s marionette.

Twenty or thirty seconds earlier, Klein had already completed his initial control over it and deepened his influence, but he had waited until now to fully transform it.

Immediately afterward, Klein and that marionette reached out at the same time. Taking advantage of Amon’s opportunity to alter the direction that Door pointed to, each pulled out an item.

In Klein’s hand was the Crimson Moon Crown, shaped like a full moon and inlaid with crimson gems. In the marionette’s palm was the brass-colored, anciently styled Master Key!

At the same time, they opened their mouths, made a bang, and used air bullets to push the Crimson Moon Crown and the Master Key toward Amon, toward that pale white door of light.

When combined, those two items allowed one to hear Mr. Door’s cries for help. In other words, they allowed Mr. Door’s power to limitedly seep into the real world.

And Mr. Door was the controller of all Doors, one of the existences least willing to see Amon become Error and seize control of Sefirah Castle.

Klein did not expect Mr. Door, who was in a sealed state, to truly harm Amon. He merely hoped to use Him to interfere with that Angel of Time, creating enough of a gap for Klein to make other preparations.

Of course, if Mr. Door could cause that Door to mutate, expanding or distorting the loophole Amon had created and affecting this King of Angels of the Marauder pathway in reverse by teleporting Him far away, Klein would sincerely thank Mr. Door for a full week.

After previous attempts, Klein had realized where his greatest disadvantage currently lay. It was not that he was one Sequence lower and fundamentally separated by level, but that he had lost the initiative and could not properly prepare. Every time he began preparing, Amon interrupted or sabotaged him.

For an experienced Magician, an unprepared performance was often synonymous with failure.

If Klein could prepare in advance, calmly summoning historical projections of Mr. Azik, Reinette Tinekerr, and the Snake of Fate Will Auceptin, then facing Amon’s avatar at Sequence 2 level, even if he could not resolve Him, he would certainly create an excellent chance of escape.

At that moment, the Crimson Moon Crown, radiating tranquil light, and the anciently styled Master Key whistled as they arrived before that door of light.

The pale white radiance composing the illusory Door suddenly twisted, swallowing the two items, becoming tinged with a little crimson, then collapsing into a vortex.

That vortex seemed bottomless, like an enormous eye.

Amon, who had been about to turn around, was watched by that eye and became slightly sluggish, as though He had heard the call of an old friend.

However, such a brief pause vanished instantly, as if it had never appeared at all.

As Amon’s gaze shifted toward Klein, Klein abruptly lost six Beyonder powers all at once.

They included: controlling Spirit Body Threads, summoning images from the historical void, Paper Figurine Substitute, manipulating flames, underwater breathing, and bone softening.

Of course, the marionette losing these six Beyonder powers did not affect Klein’s later operations.

That nearly imperceptible pause just now had allowed Klein to swap positions with his marionette in time!

He had already arrived deep in the darkness outside the church, and the deformed monsters around him shuddered in unison, becoming his marionettes.

For targets not even at Sequence 5 level, it took Klein only two or three seconds to transform them into marionettes, and he had already begun similar operations while summoning the Crimson Moon Crown.

While Klein unscrupulously enjoyed the darkness, attempting either to transform into a Concealed state or successfully commit suicide, he and his marionettes simultaneously reached toward the fog woven from history.

This time, he divided the marionettes into three groups, respectively summoning Reinette Tinekerr, Mr. Azik, and the Snake of Fate Will Auceptin, lest what had happened last time occur again, where he finally succeeded only for Amon to steal it. With this arrangement, perhaps one or two could remain for himself.

Of course, the prerequisite was that Amon could not steal multiple images from the historical void at once.

This point still awaited confirmation from Klein.

Klein’s main body withdrew his hand, having pulled out nothing.

The marionettes summoning the Snake of Fate all failed. But among the “Scholars of Yore” summoning the Death Consul and Reinette Tinekerr, two had arms that tensed slightly.

Joy rose in Klein’s heart. He suddenly felt that this attempt might not be impossible to convert into a true escape.

At that moment, from the crystal monocle Amon wore, blazing, surging, terrifying light burst forth.

The entire city-state, along with the surrounding river valley, hills, and wilderness, was filled with pure, scorching sunlight. Daylight descended here once again after bidding farewell to this place for thousands of years.

Amon had returned the daylight He had stolen from the Ruins of the Battle of Gods!

Under such daylight, Klein not only felt as though his body was about to melt; beside his ears echoed familiar, frenzied ravings. They were like needles of steel stabbing into every Worm of Spirit.

His mind was immediately filled with immense pain, and the summoning by his marionettes that had been about to succeed failed as a result.

The daylight from the Ruins of the Battle of Gods contained the True Creator’s ravings!

The deformed monsters that had originally hidden deep in the darkness—the small number of survivors from this city-state—seemed to briefly regain their rationality. They stared blankly at the daylight, unable to stop themselves from narrowing their eyes.

Then they madly rushed toward the source of daylight, one after another dissolving into ash.

Far away, inside the City of Silver’s Afternoon Town camp, the guards atop the barricade successively discovered that light different from lightning had appeared at the northeastern horizon. It resembled the scene from legends, where the sun was about to rise.

This scene lasted only several seconds before it broke apart. Darkness returned to the horizon.

No sooner had Klein recovered from the ravings than he saw Amon, wearing a pointed soft hat, standing before him.

This Angel of Time stroked His monocle and said with a smile, “You did well.”