Chapter 86: Attendant of Mysteries

Chapter 86: Attendant of Mysteries

As the Attendant of Mysteries potion entered his body, Klein immediately felt as though he were swelling.

In the blink of an eye, he lost all sense of his physical body and of his Worms of Spirit. He watched helplessly as they turned illusory, scattered, and merged into the spirit world—a place that could not be described in normal language or understood through ordinary logic—as though they were about to disintegrate into abstract, complicated masses of information.

At that moment, only Klein’s consciousness was barely preserved, and only his sense of self remained.

“He” floated there within the spirit world, surrounded by countless strange figures. Having lost his perception of his body and Beyonder characteristics, he was further battered by all manner of thoughts, information, knowledge, symbols, and marks, hovering on the brink of completely losing himself and becoming one with the spirit world.

If this had continued, Klein would undoubtedly have become utterly lost. But at that moment, a certain region of the spirit world established a connection with his consciousness.

That region corresponded to a town where people lived ordinary lives. They possessed their own names, their own stories, and their own fates. Interweaving and entangling with one another, they brought about complete spirit world information—in other words, an abstract concept.

In the end, that town was destroyed by a terrifying natural disaster and buried in the dust of history.

Klein’s body, scattered like mist and almost fused into the spirit world, followed the guidance of fate and combined with the spirit world projections of different Utopia marionettes, once again gaining substance.

…

Bayam, underground beneath the Waves Cathedral, in a room that was no longer sealed.

Alger stretched out both hands and pressed them against the door before him.

The door’s surface was deep blue, protruding with one mysterious and bizarre relief after another.

It was already half-open. Inside lay a deep darkness devoid of even the faintest light, leading to who knew what world.

That darkness seemed to possess a life of its own. At this moment, it was quietly flowing outward like water, eroding the surrounding area.

Bang!

Alger exerted force through his feet, causing the ground to split open and spew out crimson, nearly white magma.

This was the “calamity” he had created, his aim to obstruct the advance of that darkness.

However, after the surging magma entered the darkness, it was snuffed out without the slightest sound.

The darkness retreated a little because of it, paused for one second, then continued corroding outward.

Rumble!

Alger continuously created hurricanes, torrential rain, and lightning disasters, driving the darkness back again and again.

Meanwhile, his hands firmly held the Azure Door down, preventing it from opening any further.

If he were facing only this Grade 1 Sealed Artifact, Alger would have no problem at all. He would even have spare strength to attempt sealing it. But at this very moment, there were two other equally dangerous items around him.

This forced him to sing loudly, using a melody of death to affect the surroundings and disrupt the operation of the other Sealed Artifacts, while building layer after layer of walls made of deep-blue seawater around himself.

Those walls were slowly being dyed grayish-white, as though turning to stone.

The trend was impossible to stop. It kept spreading toward Alger’s body.

At most, I can hold on for another thirty seconds. The Lord of Storms still hasn’t responded… Thoughts flashed rapidly through Alger’s mind. Suppressing all reluctance and unwillingness, he swiftly made his decision.

Without the slightest hesitation, he caused a crystal-clear, hexagonal snowflake to appear in his palm.

This was the mark left behind after his first participation in the Tarot Club. It could replace the recitation of the honorific name and draw Mr. Fool’s gaze toward this place.

…

Blue Mountain Island, inside the primeval forest.

At the Door of Flesh, layer upon layer of light spheres collapsed inward and gathered together, seeking a qualitative change. They seemed to form a figure constructed from countless overlapping doors. With blood-colored tides for a robe, this figure’s form constantly twisted and changed, reflecting different planets and different regions.

At that moment, a dazzling ray of sunlight tore through the night and descended from the astral world, melting everything it encountered along the way.

Outside that sunlight, impenetrable darkness surged in, attempting to swallow Mr. Door, Bethel Abraham, who was seeking to advance to Sequence 0.

The ground where the altar stood shook violently and split open into a massive chasm, intending to make the Door of Flesh and Bethel Abraham fall together toward the depths of the earth, where they would face the Chaos Sea that seemed to contain all colors and all possibilities.

Immediately afterward, a dim, hazy radiance seeped out of the void and covered the forest, attempting to reduce the trees, soil, and altar back into the most basic particle structure.

And in the only opening left by that radiance, a pair of brass-colored eyes appeared.

They stared at the Door of Flesh and at Bethel Abraham, trying to reflect their forms into their pupils.

Mr. Door gave a low growl, making the blood-colored robe draped over Him flare upward.

This robe connected with the evil tides surging behind the Door of Flesh and spread crimson moonlight in every direction.

The instant that moonlight touched the impenetrable darkness, the darkness gathered on its own. Limbs and a head extended from it, turning it into a shadowy female human.

It gained its own life and consciousness, no longer obeying the one who had used it.

Without exception, the dazzling sunlight transformed into a young man clad in flaming armor. The shaking ground grew eyes and shut its mouth. Chilling facial features protruded from the barrier formed by the hazy radiance. Around the brass-colored eyes, one eyelash after another drilled out and turned into wings.

These obstructions and interferences all fell into chaos at the same time, giving Mr. Door a chance to catch His breath.

Seizing that opportunity, He entered the final step of becoming a god.

At that moment, the Door of Flesh suddenly collapsed on its own, spreading across Mr. Door’s body and making Him seem as though He had become someone else.

…

Klein’s body seemed to split into countless people. They each had their own preferences, their own personalities, their own convictions, and their own fates, and they lived in a town called Utopia.

These people quickly passed through short lives. Amid lightning falling like a torrential rain, they awakened and recognized what their most essential identity truly was.

They were Zhou Mingrui, and also Klein Moretti; they were Sherlock Moriarty, Gehrman Sparrow, Dwayne Dantès, and Merlin Hermes.

A thing can possess many names, but its essence does not change.

One by one, those “people” raised their heads. Within the illusory city in the spirit world, they looked toward the infinite heights.

They saw the fine, illusory Spirit Body Threads. They saw a symbol composed partly of a Pupil-less Eye and partly of a Twisted Line.

With that symbol as the core, Klein’s figure was outlined, his eyes tightly closed.

Worms of Spirit, bits of Beyonder characteristics, and pieces of self-recognition rose from the region of the spirit world corresponding to Utopia and flew toward Klein’s slightly illusory body, gradually giving it substance.

At this point, Klein’s spirit body and flesh-and-blood body no longer possessed a clear boundary. It was both whole and dispersed, existing in an extremely delicate state.

In other words, his spirit body could be equivalent to his flesh-and-blood body, and his flesh-and-blood body could also merge into his spirit body. As long as Klein wished, he could shift between these two states at any time. Of course, he could also separate his flesh-and-blood body from his spirit body, each possessing its own peculiar traits. This required only a thought.

Two seconds later, the reconstruction was complete. Floating deep within the spirit world, Klein opened his eyes. His pupils were pure black, without the slightest glimmer of light.

He had advanced to Sequence 1 and become an Attendant of Mysteries.

Silently, a grayish-white fog appeared behind him. Above the fog was an ancient palace, and inside that palace stood a door stained faintly blue-black, formed from countless spheres of light.

This door of light appeared with unusual clarity in the spirit world. It separated out a rather indistinct phantom and sent it toward Klein’s body.

As that phantom transformed into a complex symbol and imprinted itself on Klein’s forehead, the entire spirit world and the real world outside it both shook gently, as if struck by an earthquake from a place impossibly far away.

At that moment, Klein’s surroundings became deep and dark. One illusory star after another appeared, revolving around that strange door of light as though trying to gather toward it.

Among these illusory stars, the two largest overlapped with one another, corresponding to a certain region of the real world.

The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth largest stars were located elsewhere, in different places.

Through these illusory stars, Klein saw Mr. Door and Amon on a certain island; Antigonus in the ruined palace of the concealed world; Zaratul hiding in an unknown location; Pallez Zoroast within Leonard; the Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar…

Through the abnormality produced by his further control over Sefirah Castle, Klein found the angels and Kings of Angels corresponding to the three Mystery pathways.

Of course, this “vision” could only last a few short seconds. Once Amon, Zaratul, and the others reacted and concealed themselves using the correct methods, Klein would no longer be able to lock onto their true bodies.

Without hesitation, Klein raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.

The Staff of the Stars, which had originally been inside Sefirah Castle, appeared in his palm. At the same time, he split off a portion of Worms of Spirit, allowing them to enter Sefirah Castle to guard against abnormalities and respond to believers.

—After becoming an Attendant of Mysteries, Klein’s control over Sefirah Castle had deepened further. He could retrieve objects from within it anytime, anywhere.

The next second, the various gemstones on the Staff of the Stars lit up. Klein’s figure vanished from the spirit world, instantly “roaming” to a swamp and appearing before Zaratul.

Hooded, black-robed, and with a face full of white beard, Zaratul showed no panic. While using the Attendant of Mysteries’ Beyonder powers to form all kinds of connections, He stretched out His left hand and grabbed at the void before Him.

…

Gradually, Alger’s body took on a hint of grayish-white, on the verge of petrifying.

Could it be that because I failed the mission to monitor Verdu, Mr. Fool no longer favors me? His brows furrowed slightly. He wanted to give up, but he still remained underground.

At that moment, a grayish-white fog appeared before his eyes, and all the Sealed Artifacts quieted down.

…

After Mr. Door, Bethel Abraham, was covered by the Door of Flesh, a familiar voice echoed in His ears:

“You intend to bring disaster back to reality?”

Bethel Abraham’s movements immediately slowed to a certain degree.

“Give up. I have a way to handle this. I will let you sleep. I will grant you the peace you long for,” the familiar voice sounded once more.