Chapter 153: 1368

Chapter 153: 1368

“…” Luca Brewster lowered his head and looked at himself, then hurriedly raised his right hand and grabbed toward the side.

His grayish-green eyes turned deep black.

The gold that had fused together with the staircase immediately flew out, melding in midair into a thin suit of armor that wrapped itself around Luca Brewster.

Luca moved his arms, testing the effect while explaining, “Stiano’s Golden Armor. Its defensive standard is equivalent to that of a Sequence 5 Guardian.”

“Stiano?” Klein asked casually.

Luca replied in the tone of someone introducing a historical figure, “One of the earliest founders of the Moses Ascetic Order.

“I heard Emperor Roselle once improved this Golden Armor spell. I wonder what the final result looked like.”

…I can roughly imagine it… Maybe that “golden armor” had twelve different forms… Klein muttered inwardly a couple of times, then guided the conversation back to the main topic.

“Have Feynapotter and the Church of Earth Mother officially joined the war?”

Audrey, who had opened her eyes when Luca began introducing Stiano’s Golden Armor, restrained the urge to turn her head. Without the slightest change in her gaze, she looked at the demigod glittering in gold.

Luca sighed.

“Whatever they may have been thinking before, after tonight, they will certainly formally enter the war.

“Of course, for the time being, they probably won’t set their sights on Loen. Most likely, they’ll attack Lenburg, Masin, or Segar first, so their front lines won’t be stretched too far, so they won’t make too many enemies at once, and so their forces won’t become too scattered. Besides, the Church of Earth Mother may not be willing to contribute too much strength…”

After that sigh, the saint of the Church of Knowledge said sincerely to Audrey, who wore the silvery-white mask, “I wonder what fee I should pay for the treatment.”

Audrey glanced at Mr. World beside her.

“He has already paid it.”

Luca Brewster immediately turned his gaze toward Dwayne Dantès.

Klein thought for a moment and said, “I’ll ask a few questions.”

“Please.” At that moment, Luca did not look like a demigod at all. Instead, he seemed more like a professor waiting to answer a student’s questions.

Of course, if he could take off that golden armor and change into a three-piece suit, he would look even more the part.

Without hesitation, Klein asked directly, “What do you know about corruption originating from underground?”

In his view, anything a saint from the Church of Knowledge—renowned for erudition—could know was something he should be high enough in level to bear the influence of. And if this topic was not suitable for Miss Justice to hear, he trusted that Luca would point it out. After all, this man was no mere bookworm.

Because their discussion of underground corruption stemmed from the exploration of the collective subconscious sea within Groselle’s Travels, Audrey had a certain understanding of it. She did not feel lost at all now, and instead waited with complete focus for the demigod opposite them to answer.

Luca’s brows knitted slightly.

“I do not know much either. It seems that understanding itself brings corruption.

“Uh, I once saw a line in an ancient text: the higher one’s Sequence, the more dangerous it is to approach the underground.”

So that is why the Dragon of Imagination, Ankewelt, left behind such a profound shadow and a certain fear? Audrey instantly thought of the thing sealed behind that bronze door in the City of Miracles, Liveseyd.

She then turned her gaze toward Mr. World beside her, but could not detect even the slightest change in his expression.

However, Klein made his marionette nod gently, telling Miss Justice that he had made the same association.

That gave Audrey the feeling of having returned to the past, when she had still been a low-Sequence Beyonder of the Spectator pathway and had been completely unable to read any useful information from Mr. World’s expressions or movements.

The higher the Sequence, the greater the threat from underground things? That feels a bit illogical… Seeing that Luca could provide no further information, Klein thought for a moment and said, “Second question. What prophecy do you have regarding this war?”

At the mention of prophecy, Luca Brewster immediately became spirited.

“This is only the beginning. It is far from reaching its peak.

“Also, an even greater destruction will arise from the war, yet stand outside the war itself. As for what exactly it is, I do not know.”

The war has only just begun… Audrey’s mood uncontrollably grew heavy.

Arising from the war, yet standing outside the war itself? Is it the apotheosis ritual of the Amon brothers, the advancement to Black Emperor, or Roselle’s return? Klein nodded slightly with his own guesses in mind and asked the third question.

“Have you heard of the prophecy of the apocalypse? What is your interpretation of it?”

Luca Brewster’s expression instantly turned grave.

“No. That is not a prophecy.

“Anyone who possesses the ability to prophesy is absolutely certain that the apocalypse is coming.

“In the holy texts bestowed by God, it is mentioned that the apocalypse will come in the Fifth Epoch, in the year 1368.

“Of course, God also said there will be saviors.”

The prophecy of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom? 1368… only a little more than ten years left… Is the approaching apocalypse one reason the Goddess would rather break Her alliance with the God of War and grasp the Uniqueness of the Death pathway? Klein’s expression unknowingly grew serious, though none of it showed on his marionette’s face.

Only a little over a decade before the apocalypse… Audrey, meanwhile, repeated the demigod’s words in a somewhat dazed state.

To be honest, she found it very much like a fake claim—something those counterfeit mysticism experts and religious frauds used to swindle the public for money.

Although a foreseeable large-scale war had already broken out, Audrey had never imagined that the world was already so close—so very close—to its end.

This was the understanding of almost every ordinary person and Beyonder.

“Why 1368?” Klein could not help asking.

Luca Brewster shook his head.

“I do not know either. That is simply what God’s prophecy says.”

Thinking that he was only Sequence 4 and would not have much ability to resist even if the apocalypse did arrive, Klein rationally ended the topic. He said to Luca, this saint of the Church of Knowledge, “That will be all.”

What he truly wanted to ask was most likely beyond the other party’s knowledge as well—such as what corruption from the starry sky was, whether Roselle could return, and what state he was in.

Luca Brewster nodded.

“If you need help in the future, you can come to me. Specifically, you may do so through Edwina.”

He remembered that Dwayne Dantès’s arms sale to Mesanyes had been arranged through Edwina Edwards.

Edwina… Vice Admiral Iceberg? Audrey was startled for a second, then immediately understood, and glanced rather curiously at Mr. World beside her.

She remembered once reading a newspaper serialization about Gehrman Sparrow and three female pirate admirals.

“All right.” Klein never worried about having too many helpers.

After nodding in farewell to Justice Audrey, Luca Brewster’s figure swiftly turned transparent, as though merging with the spirit world.

Then, just like that, he vanished.

Looking at the spot where Luca Brewster had stood, and then at the hall now stripped of gold, Klein gave a soundless “Uh” inwardly and fell silent for two seconds.

He then made his marionette turn toward Justice Audrey and say, “I originally thought this would be more troublesome.”

“It was because that saint managed to save himself in time, and because he was willing to trust me and let me plant a psychological cue,” Audrey replied with a soft smile, working hard to appear both sincere and modest.

Dwayne Dantès nodded.

“This will count toward the contribution you are accumulating. Return as soon as possible. This place is very dangerous.”

Having seen a demigod nearly lose control, Audrey did not doubt Mr. World’s statement that this place was dangerous at all. She immediately used Creeping Hunger and Teleported through the spirit world back to the Northern Continent.

By the time she had sacrificed the human-skin glove back to Mr. Fool and dealt with the remaining matters, Earl Hall and his eldest son, Hibbert, had only just returned home.

Audrey was preparing to go out and meet her father, to speak with him for a while, when she heard her mother, Countess Caitlyn, ask from the hall, “Has something else happened? You came back much later than scheduled today.”

Earl Hall sighed.

“Feynapotter has invaded Lenburg.”

…

“Extra! Extra! Feynapotter has shamelessly invaded Lenburg!”

Leonard, wearing red gloves, had just stepped down from a carriage and was preparing to enter Saint Samuel Cathedral when he saw a newsboy waving newspapers and running swiftly through the street and square.

He stopped the newsboy, took out a one-penny coin, and bought a newspaper. As he flipped through it, he lowered his voice and said, “Perhaps it won’t be long before the south also becomes a battlefield.”

“Indeed,” Pallez Zoroast’s slightly aged voice echoed inside Leonard’s mind.

“But why am I still being kept in Backlund…” Leonard “murmured” in considerable puzzlement.

After advancing to Spirit Warlock, he had become the captain of a Red Gloves team. Its members had been transferred from other teams and included people he knew well, such as Cindy and Bob.

After the war broke out, Leonard had assumed that his team would be recalled to the Holy Cathedral like Soest’s team had been and sent to fight in the Amanda Mountains. To his surprise, they had instead been designated as a mobile force for the Backlund diocese.

And because the metropolis was currently enforcing wartime policies such as a nighttime curfew, public order was quite good. No Beyonders had come out to cause destruction, and even the murder-loving Devils had not created chaos. Leonard had actually found himself rather idle—so much so that he was more relaxed than during peacetime.

At that moment, Pallez Zoroast chuckled.

“I have a guess.”

“What guess?” Leonard hurriedly asked in a low voice.

“I don’t feel like telling you right now,” Pallez replied leisurely.

“…” Leonard said nothing. He straightened his collar, entered Saint Samuel Cathedral, exchanged a few words with the archbishop, and spent five minutes praying.

Then he went underground and pushed open the door to the temporary office of his Red Gloves team.

“Good morning, Captain.” Bob, Cindy, and the other Red Gloves rose to salute him.

Hearing the way they addressed him, Leonard, who had thought he had already gotten used to it, felt dazed once again.

In the blink of an eye, Monday afternoon arrived. Leonard arranged each of his team members’ duties, found a resting room, and waited for the Tarot Gathering to begin.