Chapter 108: The Sky Changes

Chapter 108: The Sky Changes

On the surface, Klein was urging everyone forward, but in truth, he threw the Staff of Life down the grand staircase toward Lovia, letting her heal both herself and Colin Iliad.

As a former Rose Bishop, Lovia was the least afraid of the Staff of Life’s negative effects. No matter what kind of mutation her body produced, as long as it did not involve the spirit, she could recover.

At the same time, Derrick quickly ran to the collapsed battlefield halfway up the staircase and retrieved the Chief’s severed arm.

As long as the severed limb had not been lost, the Staff of Life could restore the injury as good as new.

With an exaggerated smile, Klein nodded to Colin Iliad, then leaped into the fog of history, sprinted to before the First Epoch, and hid within a certain fragment of light.

Then, with a thought, he returned to Sefirah Castle and sat in the seat belonging to The Fool. Using the continuously contracting and expanding crimson star corresponding to The Sun, he began examining the interior of the Giant King’s residence.

Yet under True Vision, the inside was a stretch of deep darkness, faintly undulating. He could not see through it.

As expected of God’s left hand, the vice-ruler of the heavenly kingdom, a King of Angels suspected to be related to the Chaos Sea… Klein sighed inwardly, his brows creasing slightly.

He now suspected that even if Little Sun entered the palace and prayed from within, it would still be very difficult for him to see the specific situation through that deep darkness—unless he had already become an angel and truly controlled Sefirah Castle.

In addition, Klein’s spiritual intuition told him that the place where the Dark Angel slept still hid many unknown influences. He absolutely could not be careless.

He quickly gathered his thoughts and observed the surroundings, searching for possible high-level existences such as Adam or Amon who might be concealed nearby. He found nothing abnormal.

Exhaling, Klein busied himself with pulverizing the Miracle Invoker Beyonder characteristic that had separated from the “curtain.” The portions from Sequence 9 to Sequence 3 re-condensed, making the Sequence 2 part pure.

Then he returned to the historical fragment. Once again influenced by the virtual personality, he became more clown-like.

In the next second, he left the grayish-white fog and reappeared before the open doors of the Giant King’s residence.

The Silver Knight marionette that had plunged its greatsword into the crack in the ground and created the invisible barrier immediately stood up.

By then, Colin Iliad’s severed arm had already been reattached, and Lovia’s injuries had been healed. It was only that several golden ears of wheat had grown from the back of her head at some unknown point and were swaying there.

Together with Derrick, the two of them arrived at the entrance and returned the Staff of Life to Klein.

Klein took it and casually shook his hand, ending the maintenance of this historical projection and letting it vanish into thin air.

Immediately afterward, he reached forward with his right hand, intending to summon the historical projection of Miss Messenger in her intact state.

Just then, Colin Iliad suddenly asked, “You intend to summon that angel?”

“It might not necessarily be that one. I have too many choices.” Klein stated the truth in a somewhat flamboyant tone.

Colin had already undone his giant form and returned to his original height of more than two meters. After all, maintaining an incomplete Mythical Creature form remained a considerable burden for him.

At that moment, wearing condensed silver armor and holding two straight swords of dawn that had returned to normal size, he said steadily, “That polluted monster from earlier displayed traits that could make living creatures fall into degeneration. The place where the Dark Angel sleeps should have similar influences.”

The Chief means that the angel projection Mr. World summons might rebel after entering the Giant King’s residence? And a fallen angel, even if it’s only a projection, would make us pay a terrible price… Derrick easily understood what the Chief had left unsaid.

On the other side, the flesh at Lovia’s head wriggled, swallowing the ears of wheat and fusing them into herself.

“That makes sense.” Klein nodded with a smile and gently snapped his fingers.

Then he dragged an ordinary crow out from the fog of history, letting it fly through the open doors into the deep-dark interior.

When the crow’s figure was swallowed by the black environment, Klein’s brows shifted. He tilted his head and smiled at the Chief of the City of Silver.

“I lost contact.”

Colin Iliad replied, unsurprised, “That is a King of Angels.”

The corners of Klein’s mouth rose beyond his control. This was a fairly large problem for him. It meant he could not summon a historical projection to enter in place of his true body.

The fact that his shadow had been severed earlier had already illustrated this point.

“Very well.” Klein shook his hand a few times as if loosening his wrist, then took a black cane embedded with various gemstones out of the air.

“0-62,” the Staff of the Stars!

He could only test whether the projected Sealed Artifact in his hand, as well as his marionette, would degenerate and rebel.

After each of them completed their preparations, Colin Iliad, Lovia, and Derrick all turned their gazes toward the deep darkness beyond the open doors.

Klein used the Staff of the Stars in his hand to point there and said with an obvious smile,

“This will be a dangerous journey. Every one of us may die. That includes all of you, and it also includes me.”

After saying this, he pressed down on the top hat on his head and, following behind the Silver Knight marionette, passed through the open doors and stepped into the profound darkness.

Colin Iliad, Lovia, and Derrick said nothing. Silent but resolute, they walked forward.

…

Outside Backlund, on the battlefield.

Audrey, dragonified and with her face altered by Lie, was locked in fierce combat with the demigod wearing a Feysac general’s uniform, silver mask, and silver gloves.

His nearly indestructible defense, the broadsword condensed from dawnlight, the ability to borrow light to hide himself, and the silver-white rapier that could teleport all left an extremely deep impression on her.

If not for the fact that she had known in advance that the higher-ups of Feysac and Intis were largely Silver Knights, Demon Hunters, Iron-blooded Knights, War Bishops, Unshadowed Ones, Justice Mentors, Alchemists, and Mystics—and had gathered intelligence during the Tarot Club, doing a certain amount of preparation—Audrey, who lacked sufficient experience in solo combat, would already have lost.

Relying on that accumulated knowledge, after enduring the initial assault, Audrey recovered her rhythm. Through Combat Hypnosis, Mind Deprivation, Psychic Breath, Psychic Storm, and other abilities that leaned toward control and mental influence, she slowly turned the battle around and escaped her predicament.

Of course, the most important factor was that the divine influence brought by her dragonification interfered with the Silver Knight’s mind and thoughts, while also granting Audrey a body that could withstand injuries and strength sufficient to resist attacks. Otherwise, she could only have barely maintained her position and would already have been wounded.

As a Sequence 3 Saint of the Warrior pathway, that Feysac admiral possessed a resolute will and a special resistance to illusions. He could effectively oppose mind-related abilities and reduce the negative effects he suffered. Therefore, he still held the upper hand. Using Borrowed Light Concealment and silver-white rapiers, he suppressed Audrey while trying to create a chance to defeat her.

Audrey remained very calm, because while fighting, she had already virtualized a personality and divided her attention to scatter quite a few Psychic Plague seeds into the surrounding environment.

Before long, that Feysac admiral would suffer a silent infection.

At that moment, from the allied position, crimson lances of flame were hurled over, blotting out the sky in dense numbers.

The Silver Knight made no attempt to dodge. He stepped forward, swung his greatsword of dawn, and dragged Audrey in place.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The burning lances of flame descended one after another, enveloping both demigods.

Audrey’s face twisted beyond her control. One scorched mark after another appeared on the grayish-white scales of her dragonified body. As for the Silver Knight, the armor over his body still glowed silver-white, having suffered little effect.

Compared with the Giants, who specialized in defense, the Dragons’ ability to withstand attacks was clearly weaker.

Only then did Audrey truly feel that she was participating in a war, not fighting a solo duel.

Just as another wave of flame javelins was about to arrive, a commotion seemed to break out within the allied position, with a certain degree of collapse appearing.

At that instant, the thick fog covering the entire battlefield suddenly vanished, as though it had never existed.

Audrey and the Feysac admiral stopped fighting at the same time. Both felt themselves become abnormally weak; even lifting an arm became difficult.

She saw that behind the allied position, at the edge of the boundless plain, a sheet of orange-red light came rushing over at terrifying speed. In an instant, it occupied half the sky and blotted out the sun.

The region around Backlund plunged into twilight.

Dense darkness then appeared on the other side of the sky and soon collided with the orange-red dusk.

In an instant, every soldier and officer on the battlefield collapsed to the ground and fell into deep sleep.

…

Inside Backlund, outside Saint Hierland Cathedral.

Wearing red gloves, Leonard raised his head and looked at the sky that was half dusk and half night.

A soundless sigh escaped his throat. Then he turned his gaze toward the entrance of Saint Hierland Cathedral.

Ikanser Bernard, his brown hair in a mess, stood there with the other members of the Machinery Hivemind, staring at the sky in faint bewilderment.

Only a few months earlier, they had worked closely with Leonard’s Red Gloves team, clearing out evil forces within Backlund and searching for a secret organization that believed in The Fool and used tarot cards as code names.

…

In the Rorsted Archipelago, in the City of Generosity, Bayam, atop the bell tower of the Cathedral of Waves.

Danitz watched the resistance army enter the city and take control of many places. At last, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Turning his head to Alger beside him, he said,

“See? In most places in this city, they’re very welcome.”

Alger’s gaze followed one dark-skinned local after another as they moved. He did not answer Danitz.

Danitz was in a very relaxed mood. Chuckling, he added, “I never expected that when we met again, it would be under circumstances like these.”

Alger lifted his head and was just about to speak when something stirred in his heart. He turned his gaze toward the northwestern sky.

Where his eyes fell, the color of the sky abruptly dimmed. Layers upon layers of dark clouds piled up, and countless silver-white electric serpents leaped out.

Many deep-blue waves rose high, swept up by the wind, racing all the way toward the clouds and connecting the sea with the sky.

At the line where sea and sky met, rays of light lit up one after another.

They were not brilliant, not clear, and had no color at all. They seemed to be formed from an immeasurable mass of illusory things.