Chapter 186: Confidence May Be a Flaw

Chapter 186: Confidence May Be a Flaw

Above the gray fog, inside the palace supported by stone pillars.

The Sun Derrick quickly reported what he had experienced to Mr. Fool.

The Dark Angel Sasrir… The names and titles of these Kings of Angels seem to have been buried by the river of history, almost no longer known to anyone. If Little Sun and the others had not discovered them in the Forsaken Land of the Gods, if I had not directly encountered the ancient evil spirit suspected to be the Red Angel himself, I would not know even a single King of Angels. At most, I would have heard of the Amon family, but not reached deeper to the Blasphemer… Where is this Dark Angel now? Is He still alive? Is He still one of the uppermost members of Rose Redemption? Klein sighed with emotion.

Afraid that Little Sun would start asking all kinds of questions about the matter and leave him unable to answer, Klein instantly stopped thinking. Leaning leisurely against the back of his chair, he said, “Your predicament has already been resolved. Your companions are about to find you.”

As he spoke, he gave Little Sun no chance to chatter and directly cut off the connection.

As for how Little Sun should explain his anomaly if someone discovered it, Klein did not consider it worth reminding him to invent an excuse.

Was there anything abnormal about strangely reappearing after strangely disappearing, accompanied by all kinds of strange circumstances?

At that moment, Derrick was very grateful that Mr. Fool had not asked him anything further. He feared that after separating from that different Afternoon Town, his body would be exposed to deadly darkness or watched by hidden monsters. Therefore, he urgently hoped to grasp his current physical situation as quickly as possible so that he could make the most effective response. Of course, if Mr. Fool had truly asked questions, he would still have described the situation seriously and patiently.

His consciousness returned to his body, and Derrick’s senses of his surroundings swiftly recovered.

He opened his eyes and saw before him a candle almost burned to its base. Its wick supported a small flame swaying in the wind.

Immediately afterward, he discovered that the Chief had appeared at his side at some unknown point. The towering Heinm and Joshua, who wore the red glove, stood two steps behind with guarded expressions.

How long have they been watching me like this… Although Derrick had already prepared his excuse above the gray fog, he still felt a little guilty and nervous.

Colin’s face, marked by deep nasolabial folds, showed no expression. Looking at Derrick Berg, he asked in his usual voice, “What did you encounter just now?”

Derrick did not answer at once. Doing so would make it look as though he had prepared his statement in advance. Following the small technique taught to him by The Hanged Man, he deliberately paused for a few seconds before describing intermittently, as if recalling while speaking.

“After entering this basement, I saw the altar—at least, I suspected it was an altar. I tried to identify the remaining words and symbols on it and recognized three names. One of them was the Angel of Fate, Ouroboros… At that moment, the lantern light went out all at once. When I turned back to look, Heinm and Joshua had vanished too. I created a light source and went out of the basement to check, and discovered that outside was also—also Afternoon Town, except many houses still had candles lit inside, like—like humans still lived there.

“I did not dare leave this house. I returned to the basement and tried repeating what I had done before. Uh, Chief, in that Afternoon Town, the words on the altar were complete. There were three languages in total: Jotun, Dragonish, and another I did not recognize. But the first two both expressed the same meaning: the titles and names of three angels, and ‘Rose Redemption’…

“Later, I discovered I had returned here.”

Everything he said was true, and even complete. He had only concealed the details of how he had returned.

Derrick did not expect this to fool the Chief. He had already planned that if the other party pressed him further, he would be vague and attribute the reason to an abnormality he did not understand or know clearly.

That will definitely make the Chief suspicious, but Mr. Hanged Man and Miss Justice of the Spectator pathway both said that he will not ask too many questions in similar matters. If I show abnormality, it will instead make him value me more and treat me as a chess piece to balance Elder Lovia… The outside world truly is complicated. Only recently have I truly begun to understand their way of thinking… Derrick could not help sighing inwardly a few times.

In the harsh environment of the City of Silver, where lacking even one portion of strength increased danger, similar incidents had rarely occurred in the past. Even when they did, they were basically concentrated within the Council of Six. The first thing other Beyonders learned through patrols and adventures was cooperation.

Colin nodded softly and walked to the altar. He repeated all the attempts Derrick had described, but he did not vanish into thin air. He still stood where he was.

“It seems that the residual power has already completed its mission,” the Demon Hunter muttered softly to himself.

So I don’t even need to make up a reason… Derrick thought with some shame.

After thinking for a moment, Colin turned his head slightly toward Derrick.

“What were the titles of Medici and Sasrir?”

“The Red Angel and the Dark Angel,” Derrick answered without concealing it.

Colin seemed to be thinking as he gave a faint nod.

“In the few texts we have, the Red Angel is mentioned, but no specific name is given. As for the Dark Angel Sasrir, He has vanished completely into the long span of history.”

Derrick was just about to take the opportunity to ask who the remaining Kings of Angels were, when he suddenly saw the candlelight near the basement entrance dim, as though shadows were surging in from outside.

“We leave here first.” Demon Hunter Colin had also noticed. He spoke cautiously.

Holding the Axe of Hurricane, Derrick immediately moved closer to Heinm and Joshua, intending to form a combat formation with them.

Yet as soon as he stepped forward, he saw Heinm retreat two meters to the side while Joshua raised his left palm, the one wearing the crimson glove. Their faces were filled with unconcealed wariness, and their gazes were assessing.

Derrick understood that their reaction was perfectly normal. All exploration-related courses taught the same thing: observe more and make less contact with companions who had just escaped bizarre situations!

And I still cannot explain clearly how I escaped that strange Afternoon Town… Derrick opened his mouth, wanting to explain, but then silently closed it.

Ashamed and wronged, he pressed his lips tightly together, held the Axe of Hurricane, turned around, and followed diagonally behind the Chief, step by step leaving the basement.

The four quickly arrived at the entrance and prepared to leave, only to discover in astonishment that the Afternoon Town outside, with its gray buildings layered one upon another, seemed to have darkened a little.

Almost instantly, at different windows in different houses, candle flames appeared one after another. Their dim yellow light either stood apart or linked together, quiet and silent.

…

Klein did not remain above the gray fog for long. He swiftly returned to the washroom and put away the corresponding items.

“I hope nothing unexpected happens again on Little Sun’s side. Otherwise, going in and out of the washroom this often is really not ideal. Those who know the truth understand that he’s hiding secrets. Those who don’t might think Gehrman Sparrow has prostate problems. That would completely ruin the persona!

“Although I have already completely digested the Faceless potion, Rosago the Marionettist also advanced one Sequence at a time. The Beyonder characteristic he left behind must contain one portion of the Faceless potion as well… I, who used this characteristic as the main ingredient, effectively drank an extra bottle of Faceless, a bottle of Magician, a bottle of Clown, a bottle of Seer, perhaps even more than that…

“Sigh. The various rules I summarized before still have to be followed as much as possible in order to digest these extra components.” Klein created clean water, washed his face, then left the washroom.

He had just been thinking that it should be close to dinnertime and was about to take out his gold-cased pocket watch and snap it open when his vision suddenly darkened. It became almost impossible to see his own fingers.

Night again… The interval is really irregular… If we ran into a monster and the two sides were locked in intense battle, then the sky suddenly went dark, what would happen? Monsters are living creatures too. They should also need to sleep, or else there’s a high chance they’ll disappear into the night… Heh. So both sides fight halfway, then lie down at the same time, sleep for a while, wake up, and continue… Isn’t that really the sort of story where everything below the neck is indescribable? Having successfully advanced, Klein was in a relatively relaxed mood. He lampooned a couple of times and quickly walked toward the bed.

Just as he lay down, a question suddenly occurred to him.

“The night here is very dangerous. If living creatures do not sleep, they will vanish and be lost forever.

“In the Forsaken Land of the Gods, including the City of Silver, the darkness is also very dangerous. If humans do not use light to drive away the darkness, they may vanish and be lost forever after more than five seconds.

“They’re very similar… Could there be some connection?”

Klein shook his head. With the help of meditation, he entered the dream.

The moment he became lucid inside the dream, he discovered that his location had changed again!

The last time he had left the dream, he had been on the giant stone where Admiral of Stars Cattleya sat with her knees hugged to her chest. Now, he was at the entrance to a stairway.

Dusk light shone in through colored glass high above, making the black, relief-covered staircase that spiraled downward look extraordinarily gorgeous.

Klein instinctively looked to the side. As expected, he saw the Queen of Mysteries standing by the stairway leading to the upper level.

The chestnut-haired lady was no longer wearing the skirt with the slit in front. Her upper body was dressed in a white blouse with lace and ribbon flowers, paired with a simple dark-blue coat. Her lower body was still beige trousers and black leather boots. However, Klein believed that the Queen of Mysteries likely owned an entire row, wardrobe, or even room of similar trousers and leather boots.

“What is it?” Klein asked first.

The Queen of Mysteries rubbed the railing with her right hand and slowly descended.

“Confidence is sometimes a flaw.

“You trust that copper whistle and that paper crane too much. Perhaps one day, danger will come to you because of them.”

Klein felt somewhat uneasy at her words, but he did not show it.

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Confidence is sometimes a flaw,” the Queen of Mysteries repeated. “Cattleya trusted too much in the Sealed Artifact she gave Heath Doyle. If I had not followed the ship, Nina would have died, Frank Lee would have died, and she would have died as well. Only you might have survived.”

“The Sealed Artifact actually cannot isolate the ravings filling this sea? So Heath Doyle would mutate?” Klein keenly interpreted the meaning hidden in the Queen of Mysteries’ words.

The Queen of Mysteries nodded.

“Under normal circumstances, it can. But do you know whose ravings fill this sea?”

Without waiting for Klein to answer, she supplied the answer herself:

“The True Creator.”