Chapter 27: A Miracle

Chapter 27: A Miracle

Over a thousand Amons each carried out a “Theft.”

With Their numbers, as long as Their luck was not terrible to the extreme, several would always succeed. Moreover, that mass of The Fool potion was currently ownerless. There was no difficulty at all in stealing it.

At the same time, the Amons undid a certain seal upon Themselves, allowing the Beyonder characteristics from the Apprentice and Marauder pathways to reveal their innate ability to converge.

This was extremely effective toward The Fool potion, maximizing the success rate of the Amons’ Theft.

Yet in the end, every Amon failed.

Because a new rule had appeared on the Trunsoest Brass Book:

“Theft is forbidden here!”

Previously, in order to deal with the reviving Lord of the Mysteries, the Amons had weakened every seal in this place, helping the Trunsoest Brass Book break free of the Fooling. This allowed it, to a limited extent, to formulate short-lived rules within its repeating cycle. And now, that had turned back upon Them.

Seizing the opportunity, the illusory brand between Klein’s brows became clearer and more distinct.

Around him, a thin grayish-white fog interwove, forming a faint “cocoon.”

He fully stimulated Sefirah Castle and, in coordination with his own Attendant of Mysteries Beyonder characteristic, created an extremely powerful convergent effect upon The Fool potion.

The mass of dark liquid, which possessed no fixed shape, was like a beast that had been starving for a long time and had finally seen food. It pounced onto Klein.

It stretched and changed continuously, like a semi-transparent human skin, completely wrapping Klein within.

Klein’s face protruded beneath that layer of liquid. His features were clear one moment and blurred the next, twisted one moment and blank the next.

In the Forsaken Land of the Gods, beneath the gigantic figure of light transformed from the ancient Sun God, another passage of words written in the oldest language swiftly took shape upon the illusory sea that contained all colors and all possibilities:

“Antigonus’s attempt to advance to The Fool ultimately failed for various reasons.”

The existence who had once ruled the entire planet did not use the name Klein Moretti because the other party now bore Antigonus’s identity and fate.

If the subject had been the former, Klein could have ignored it completely.

What did Klein Moretti’s advancement failure have to do with Antigonus becoming The Fool?

But once the subject became Antigonus, this sentence—which resembled prophecy, arrangement, and the preordaining of an outcome before assigning causes—could make the situation extremely severe.

If Klein did not give up Antigonus’s identity and fate, he would be constrained by this statement.

If he gave up Antigonus’s identity and fate, the Sequence 9 to Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics of the Seer pathway inside him would no longer truly “belong” to him. They had not been digested by him. Those were Beyonder characteristics once controlled by Antigonus, and at present they had nothing to do with Klein Moretti. He had merely forcefully swallowed them.

Under such circumstances, even without any other factors, those undigested Beyonder characteristics alone would very likely cause Klein to lose control on the spot. And in that state, drinking The Fool potion and completing the advancement ritual would unquestionably have no chance of success!

When the ancient Sun God wrote down these words, the Eternal Blazing Sun, the Lord of Storms, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom in the astral world each sensed something. They unleashed Their fiercest counterattacks, attempting to interfere with His actions.

However, even though the ancient Sun God had devoted the vast majority of His attention to restraining those three true gods, and even though He appeared to be struggling, He still swiftly completed that passage.

Yet the giant figure of light He had transformed into dimmed noticeably, as though it could no longer last for much longer.

Within the astral world, inside the floating ancient palace.

The battle between the Earth Mother and the God of Steam and Machinery against the Primordial Demoness and the Hidden Sage became fierce once more. However, the former two could still spare a certain amount of strength to exert influence upon Amon’s avatars, preventing Them from destroying Klein’s advancement ritual.

The Amons were forced to Flash everywhere. Even so, some still became plants, flowering and fruiting before returning to the earth. Others collapsed into words and were printed into illusory books.

Apart from these, a considerable portion of Them were still strengthening the seal and restricting the Trunsoest Brass Book, ensuring the rules it formulated either could not take effect, or could only operate for an instant.

Under the influence of these three sides, even with the number of Amons present, They seemed somewhat insufficient.

Even so, a small portion of Them still seized the chance. On Their crystal-ground monocles and similar ring-shaped marks, Klein’s figure was reflected.

The next second, those monocles and ring-shaped marks all released pure light.

This was not Theft, but return.

The Amons chose at that moment to return something They had once stolen from Klein.

It was Klein’s intention to commit suicide!

When Klein had been captured by Amon in the Forsaken Land of the Gods, he had tried several times to kill himself but failed. Those corresponding thoughts had been stolen by the other party.

At this critical moment of advancement, once he developed the thought of suicide, the consequences were easy to imagine!

At that instant, Klein, tightly wrapped by The Fool potion, had thoughts that had already turned chaotic and scattered. He felt his body surface become extremely cold, and the viscous liquid invade him inch by inch.

Then the thought of suicide appeared within him. The idea of giving up appeared.

This was a change Klein had never anticipated. He had long since forgotten that Amon had once stolen his suicidal thoughts, and he had never expected the other party not only to have kept them instead of casually discarding them, but to have preserved them with such care.

Had it been earlier, had it been some other moment, such thoughts—though intense—could still have been resisted to a certain degree by Klein through self-control. He could have forcibly suppressed them and waited for them to dissipate on their own, just as he would when facing other bad thoughts.

But now, he was in the middle of an advancement ritual. He was being influenced by the potion. His spirit had lost stability. He had no way to effectively restrain the suicidal thoughts.

The Amons always had all kinds of strange, eccentric, yet highly effective methods.

Fortunately, the current Klein was not only Klein; he was also Antigonus.

What did Klein Moretti wanting to kill himself have to do with Antigonus?

Relying on the cognition brought by that layer of identity, Klein did not immediately give up and end his own life. He drew over Antigonus’s mental imprint from within his body and entangled it with the suicidal thoughts, barely suppressing them.

Under this balance, Klein’s spirit and body were further eroded by The Fool potion.

His thoughts, as when he had advanced to Attendant of Mysteries, completely dispersed.

The difference was that this time, he did not fuse into the spirit world. Instead, he continuously extended outward, like gas, encompassing the entire planet, the entire spirit world, and part of the astral world.

At this moment, Klein felt as though he existed within the bodies of different believers, within every human, within all kinds of animals, within all things that possessed life.

All things had divinity.

At the same time, he also scattered into the fog of history, into the flowing of time, into the quiet, shimmering river of light with countless tributaries.

He was one, and also many.

This experience on the level of divinity further wore down Klein’s thoughts, as though only the cold indifference that looked down upon all things remained.

And even that indifference was gradually crumbling.

Before long, Klein would completely lose himself. He would be dominated by The Fool potion and the various mental imprints within it, becoming a monster in the truest sense.

This overlapped with Antigonus’s fate of losing control and going mad, causing the latter to accelerate.

At that moment, he sensed a hint of disharmony, unnaturalness, and abnormality.

Within the fog of history, a small number of light fragments were twisted and unable to assemble. It seemed as though an essential contradiction existed between them.

They gradually separated, seeking to record different contents in the form of separate branches, allowing the distortion to receive a preliminary restoration.

Klein’s spirit, dissolved into all things, was “ejected” slightly by this disharmony and unnaturalness, recovering a trace of self-recognition.

With that self-recognition as its core, he quickly gathered his scattered spirit and began to guide the process of The Fool potion fusing with his body.

But at that very moment, under the ancient Sun God’s “prophecy,” Antigonus’s fate of losing control and going mad arrived ahead of time. Klein’s body collapsed once again, becoming unable to withstand The Fool potion.

Without hesitation, and with no time to hesitate, Klein immediately undid part of the Theft effect, returning Antigonus’s identity, fate, and self-recognition to their original owner. Antigonus, seated upon the giant stone chair, slowly opened His eyes with a bewildered expression and gradually regained clarity.

He did not lose control immediately, because the main reason for His madness and loss of control had been that the Lord of the Mysteries’ will had revived to a rather great extent. Now, The Fool Uniqueness and the majority of the Beyonder characteristics that carried that portion of will were no longer inside Him.

Therefore, Antigonus could use His own will to resist the tendency toward madness and strive to reverse His fate of losing control.

The ancient Sun God’s “prophecy” was thus fulfilled: Antigonus truly had failed to advance to Sequence 0, The Fool.

As for Klein, now that he had lost Antigonus’s identity, the Sequence 9 to Sequence 1 Seer pathway Beyonder characteristics within him all became the kind that had not been properly digested. In an instant, he stood at the edge of losing control.

The Fool potion wrapping his body like a cloak immediately completed its infiltration. The will of the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings awakened once more!

“Give up…”

“Entrust everything to me…”

“This time, I will not accommodate any other sefirot…”

“I will not help the living beings you wish to protect, but I will not harm them either…”

“This is not because I keep promises, but because they are too weak and unworthy of my attention…”

“This place will become forbidden ground for the Outer Deities…”

“…”

The unfamiliar yet familiar ravings echoed within Klein’s heart, giving him the urge to give up.

At the same time, the suicidal thoughts previously suppressed by Antigonus’s mental imprint resurfaced after losing that balance.

The result of advancement failure was about to appear.

At that moment, the Evernight Goddess, who had originally been unable to swing the twilight greatsword again, suddenly gave up control over Amon’s true body.

As Amon’s true body leapt out, and His avatars waited for the moment Klein’s ritual failed, the Goddess once again dragged that exaggerated longsword covered in orange-red light.

This time, Her target was Klein!

A thought flashed through Klein’s mind. He took the initiative to be controlled by the suicidal impulse and made no attempt to resist.

With a soft pfft, he was struck by the symbolic sword of twilight, shattering into a mass of decaying “rotten flesh” from which Beyonder characteristics seeped out.

Klein died.

Before the Amons could take various measures against him, before the ritual failed completely and he entirely lost control, he was killed by the Evernight Goddess.

The next second, the Evernight Goddess placed the golden bird-shaped ornament upon Her head. Her body turned illusory and expanded, shrouding the entire ancient palace. Amon’s true body and avatars, the Earth Mother, the Primordial Demoness, the God of Steam and Machinery, the Hidden Sage, and Antigonus were all erased in an instant like sketches wiped away by an eraser.

Concealment!

The ancient Sun God seemed to understand what the Evernight Goddess intended to do. Yet having already made two “prophecies,” He had no way to write a third passage. Meanwhile, the three true gods—the Lord of Storms and the other two—continued the eruptions from before, firmly holding Him back.

The next second, a miracle occurred.

Klein returned from the fog of history.

The Fool Uniqueness and the three sets of Sequence 9 to Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics that had just belonged to him rapidly returned to his body.

Fearing interference, the Lamp Genie hurriedly used the Trunsoest Brass Book to add a rule:

“This place is suitable for the return of Beyonder characteristics.”

All at once, Klein returned to the state he had been in when he “drank” The Fool potion.

But unlike before, back then the pillar of his main body had been Antigonus’s Sequence 9 to Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics, which had not been digested. Now, the first to return to him were unquestionably the portions that had once belonged to him and had already been fully digested.

In this way, he had a true pillar—a pillar capable of accommodating The Fool Uniqueness and the remaining characteristics.

—The current Klein was equivalent to the Klein who had first arrived at the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range: someone who had digested the Attendant of Mysteries potion and could attempt to advance to Sequence 0, The Fool.

Relying on resurrection after death, Klein completely reversed his own state!

This was inspiration he had obtained from Roselle’s resurrection. Of course, the entire process differed from the Black Emperor’s resurrection.

In Klein’s original arrangement, the one to kill him had been the Lamp Genie. He had not expected the Evernight Goddess, without communicating with him beforehand, to have such perfect tacit understanding.

In an instant, his body split apart and turned illusory, becoming faint gray fog and dark liquid.

The gray fog and black liquid merged. On their surface appeared dense, flesh-bud-like worms, which then wove themselves into a semi-transparent dark cloak.

Beneath the cloak, no body existed—only darkness.

This process was extremely brief, lasting less than two seconds. And the Evernight Goddess’s act of concealing so many gods at once was clearly not something She could maintain for long.

An instant later, a rapidly moving “door” of light appeared on the surface of the concealed world.

That “door” opened with a boom, and Amon’s true body, wearing a pointed soft hat and classical black robe, leapt out.

At the same time, He saw a blank-faced illusory mask appear beneath the semi-transparent dark cloak.

As that mask instantly outlined Klein’s appearance, fused with the traits of Gehrman Sparrow, the Amons’ thoughts abruptly became chaotic, as though Their intelligence had been forcibly lowered.

The Fool was born.