Chapter 55: A Trap a Thousand Years in the Making

Chapter 55: A Trap a Thousand Years in the Making

Amon!

The Blasphemer, Amon!

Leonard was not at all unfamiliar with the person before him. Not only had he faced Amon’s avatars directly, he had also heard of His many deeds and vile personality from the Tarot Club and from the old man, Pallez Zoroast.

At that moment, Leonard’s thoughts nearly froze completely. His mind went blank, with only a few scattered notions still able to turn.

Just then, Amon’s lips moved. He uttered ravings that belonged entirely to the level of divinity.

Instantly, voice after voice echoed inside Leonard’s mind, as though they came from countless Amons:

“Surprised? Unexpected?”

“After realizing I could not obtain Sefirah Castle in a short period of time, I shifted my focus to Backlund…”

“If not to deceive all of you, why would I play such a simple cat-and-mouse game with him?”

“I imagine there should be a connection between you…”

“He must have told you I was still tracking him, still sabotaging his movements, still setting traps at his destinations…”

“That was merely an avatar close to Sequence 1…”

“Ah, right, Pallez, I forgot to tell you. For a long period in the late Fourth Epoch, the ancestor of the Jacob family was actually me in disguise. I secretly devoured Him long ago, then watched His descendants panic in terror while I found a way to add another secret treasure in the place where Tudor became the Blood Emperor…”

“I did not deal with those people because I had a premonition that this treasure would be very useful. I have an avatar that has been sleeping there for more than a thousand years, patiently waiting for someone to open the treasure. As for my other avatars, I did not synchronize this information with Them. Perhaps, at certain times, that would inadvertently complete the misdirection…”

“Mm. This kind of synchronization is my ‘invention.’ Pallez, you have fallen behind the times…”

“In order to truly confirm your whereabouts, I watched that group break the traps and take away the items. I watched your avatar steal the characteristic and sealed artifact from them. I watched Him cautiously devour and digest it. And now, patience has finally been rewarded…”

“I guess you are definitely thinking about how to stall for time and wait for divine descent…”

Those voices overlapped and piled upon one another, tearing Leonard’s thoughts apart and stabbing into his soul. His head swelled and contracted in a tangible manner. Tufts of short black fur sprouted from his face. Flesh wriggled and bulged between his ribs and around his waist, as though new limbs were about to form.

Just a few ravings had already brought Leonard close to losing control. The pain was unbearable, and he had no ability to resist at all.

This was the son of the Creator.

This was a King of Angels.

At the same time, 7 Pinster Street began to change. At some unknown point, pitch-black stone pillars had risen one after another, supporting a towering, magnificent cathedral.

Every pillar, every arch, and every part of the vault inside that cathedral was inlaid with the white bones of different races. They were densely packed and chaotically squeezed together, using empty eyes to stare at Leonard, who seemed rather insignificant at the center of the hall, as though they were conducting a trial.

Amon stood before the hundred-meter-tall cross deep inside the cathedral. Smiling, He looked at Leonard, whose back was bent and expression twisted.

“This Cathedral of Corpses isn’t bad, right?

“I stole it not long ago.

“With this, if They want to discover something abnormal here and descend in divine form, there will be at least a thirty-second delay. That is enough.”

As He spoke, Amon lifted a hand and pinched the monocle ground from crystal. His face was filled with amusement.

Suddenly, Leonard heard the sound of a bell.

It was illusory and ethereal, as though it came from infinitely far away.

The ravings tearing and polluting Leonard’s spirit body abruptly stopped, and everything around him became quiet.

In Leonard’s eyes, rays of light erupted from within his body, condensing before him into a clean, pure figure that resembled an angel, yet had no wings.

This figure was likewise a hundred meters tall. Its surface constantly flickered and leaped with faint radiance, as though revealing the flow of time.

Leonard’s body was then pushed by an invisible force, flying backward toward the Cathedral of Corpses’ door.

On that door, transparent, twisted faces protruded one after another, sealing inside and outside, isolating the spirit world and astral world.

Dong!

Another bell tolled. The transparent faces filled with agony suddenly froze.

Leonard’s figure was no longer obstructed. In that brief opening, he lost all sense of substance and passed through the Cathedral of Corpses’ door.

Everything before his eyes instantly returned to normal. There was still a trace of brightness high in the sky, and the gas lamps beside the road were already releasing light, illuminating 7 Pinster Street, which had sunk into darkness.

Yet from the outside, the building appeared silent, peaceful, dark, and empty, as if no one existed within.

Old man… Only then did Leonard begin to recover his thoughts. His heart clenched, and he was about to step forward and return inside.

But the door of 7 Pinster Street stood there, heavy and immovable. For a brief moment, he was unable to open it.

Because of this obstruction, Leonard finally regained a measure of reason. While anxiously retreating, he quickly thought about what he could do to save the old man.

After a few steps, he stopped. With a grave expression, he lowered his head and swiftly recited in Jotun:

“The Fool that doesn’t belong to this era…”

Leonard already understood that the one inside was Amon’s main body. And to deal with Amon’s main body, one could only pray for help from a deity!

…

Holding a lantern and walking through darkness, Klein immediately entered the fog of history, took four steps counterclockwise in reverse, and arrived above the gray fog.

After clearly hearing the contents of Leonard’s prayer, Klein—who had originally felt only a little puzzled and somewhat casual—instantly woke up fully. It was like crawling out of bed in winter after just waking, only to be drenched with a basin of icy water.

“Amon’s main body went to Backlund… Amon’s main body found Leonard and Pallez… Amon stole His brother’s Cathedral of Corpses to delay divine descent… So when He proposed the game of who would find the Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar first, He never truly intended to decide a winner. He also didn’t care what the wager was. His objective was only to draw my attention, to make me believe He was still tracking me, still doing everything possible to seize Sefirah Castle… The Jacob family treasure—that trap Amon buried for one or two thousand years—has finally come into use…” Thought after thought flashed through Klein’s mind. He immediately raised his right hand and summoned an item from the pile of miscellaneous objects.

0-61, the Box of the Great Old Ones!

It was both a Grade 0 sealed artifact and an item of the Apprentice pathway. It could better mobilize the power of Sefirah Castle and allow for more tricks!

Facing Amon’s main body, perhaps this could bring Pallez a trace of hope.

At the same time, Klein confirmed through the prayer light that Leonard had not been parasitized by Amon. He immediately gave an instruction in Mr. Fool’s tone:

“Leave the scene. Go to a church of Evernight.

“Pray to Evernight as well.”

Below the level of a true god, a battle at the apex of the Sequences was absolutely not something a Beyonder of Leonard’s level could interfere in. Even though Klein had preliminarily grasped Sefirah Castle and held 0-61, he did not have much confidence. He could only hope to stall until a deity descended.

Outside 7 Pinster Street, Mr. Fool’s words echoed beside Leonard’s ears.

He froze for a moment, lifted his head to look at the tightly shut door, then pulled his gaze away. He abruptly turned around and used the knuckle at the base of his right fist to strike a certain tooth in his mouth.

Streams of illusory soil immediately surged out, spraying over Leonard’s head and wrapping him from top to bottom.

In an instant, Leonard seemed to transform into a clay doll. He continuously sank downward, merging with the earth.

This was a rare natural spirit he had obtained from the Hermits of Fate. It did not contain a Beyonder characteristic; its power mainly originated from the spirit world.

It allowed Leonard to move swiftly through the soil, far faster than the steam subway.

While Leonard was leaving the battlefield, Klein had already picked up the jewel-inlaid Box of the Great Old Ones, stirred the power of Sefirah Castle, and cast his gaze toward the enormous black cathedral inlaid with white bones, the one overlapping 7 Pinster Street.

The cathedral blocked True Vision, preventing him from seeing the situation inside. He could only judge from the shifting light and shadows on the stained-glass windows that the battle had not ended.

“Use 0-61’s first layer to swap the Cathedral of Corpses and its internal space? No. Wouldn’t that be equivalent to letting Amon enter Sefirah Castle? The first layer of the Box of the Great Old Ones alone definitely cannot imprison Him…

“Open the second layer and relocate all of 7 Pinster Street elsewhere? No, that will not work either. Once it leaves Backlund, there will be no timely divine descent, and Pallez Zoroast will be in even greater danger…

“The third layer? If I open that, Sefirah Castle might change owners on the spot…

“…”

Thoughts flashed like lightning. Klein quickly formed an idea: shrink the target area, and break the surface through a single point!

He would swap the Cathedral of Corpses’ door with the first-layer space of the Box of the Great Old Ones driven by Sefirah Castle, directly nullifying the seal isolating the spirit world and astral world.

That way, the deities would notice, and divine descent would arrive ahead of time!

At the head of the mottled long table, Klein sat upon the high-backed chair and opened the first layer of the Box of the Great Old Ones toward the crimson star representing Leonard.

The surging, boundless power inside Sefirah Castle abruptly grew calm and hidden, silently penetrating that crimson star.

In the real world, at 7 Pinster Street, the Cathedral of Corpses’ door, which overlapped with an ordinary building, suddenly lost its luster. Then it turned into a stretch of shallow shoal with sand and pebbles.

Inside and outside were abruptly connected. The situation within was clearly reflected in Klein’s eyes.

Before the hundred-meter-tall cross, Amon, wearing a classical black robe, pointed soft hat, and monocle, stood side-on to the “opened” door and slowly turned His body.

In His hand, He held a crystal pillar formed from the convergence of light and shadow. Within it, many twelve-ringed Worms of Time swiftly swam and wandered, while everything around them seemed to have frozen.

Amon lifted His head, looked toward the sky, and the corners of His mouth rose slightly.