Chapter 199: Three Arrows Loosed

Chapter 199: Three Arrows Loosed

There was no time to consider such details. Klein, whose existence had been Concealed, immediately had the Winner Enyuni swap positions with the new marionette he had specially made from a pirate.

Immediately afterward, he activated Creeping Hunger and Teleported to the vicinity of the secret mausoleum in Ahowa County, bringing the marionettes Enyuni and Qonas with him.

Since he could maintain only three images from the historical void at the same time, Klein could not possibly abandon his marionettes and come here directly, then replace them by summoning projections. That would occupy a crucial slot. As for the marionette left behind in Memorial Day Square, it would not collapse on the spot within half an hour. It would merely appear to be in a daze—and when listening to a speech, that state would not be particularly conspicuous. If Klein failed to return after that, a Red Gloves team from the Evernight Church would come to handle it.

At the same time, outside the secret mausoleum in East Chester County, Bernadette, wearing a girlish yellow cake dress and an old-fashioned black soft hat, appeared amid clusters of pea vines growing out of nowhere.

Her chestnut hair fell naturally, her brows were long and straight, and her eyes seemed to condense an entire expanse of deep blue sea.

Glancing at the cliff wall before her, the Queen of Mysteries extended her right hand and swiftly traced a symbol in the air.

As her fingertip moved, drops of jewel-like bright-red blood seeped out and solidified in midair.

Before long, a complicated symbol made of layered Doors appeared. It trembled faintly, as though resonating with somewhere unknown.

In the blink of an eye, the blood-red symbol expanded and stretched into an illusory, translucent door. Through it, one could vaguely see an enormous mausoleum built from black stone.

Bernadette immediately stepped forward, passing through the illusory door into a dim and profound region.

The light there came from stone-pillar lamps that spiraled along both sides of the road and from peculiar underground moss growing upon the cliff walls. Together, they illuminated the secret mausoleum at the bottom, partly hidden within pale mist.

The symbol provided by Mr. Door truly worked!

At that moment, as a certain ritual deep underground was performed, points of rather deep light gathered in the dim air, condensing into a human figure.

The figure had a somewhat square face, black hair, blue eyes, a high nose bridge, a thick beard, and a very solemn expression.

His appearance and image were not unfamiliar to many citizens of Loen, because his portrait was printed on the front of the ten-pound note. Of course, those who had never once obtained a ten-pound note in their lives could still see his statue or portrait at places like Memorial Day Square.

He was the founder and protector of Loen, its first king: William Augustus I.

It was Him!

Borrowing the ritual, He had directly descended here from Backlund.

Bernadette’s expression showed no change. With a turn of her palm, an item appeared in her hand.

It was golden, like a shrunken kettle, yet a lampwick protruded from its spout.

As Bernadette rubbed the surface of the item, which was covered with mysterious, complicated symbols, the lampwick ignited without a sound.

The light it emitted rose like thick flowing water, spraying upward and forming a blurred, distorted, pale-gold human figure.

“Eternal Genie of the Lamp, my second wish is to obtain the strength of a Knowledge Emperor for one day.” Seizing the chance before William Augustus I had fully descended, Bernadette spoke solemnly in Jotun.

The item in her hand was called the Wishing Lamp. It might have originated from the First Epoch, and although it had never fallen into the hands of the seven Churches, it possessed a corresponding Grade 0 sealed artifact number:

0-05!

This item could fulfill any ten wishes of its holder, but it would either fulfill them in a distorted form or attach unpredictable and extremely terrifying consequences.

None of its previous owners had met a good end, including Roselle Gustav.

The Emperor had warned his daughter that she could try to use wording and preparation to avoid the harm brought by the first two wishes, but she absolutely must not make a third wish. Absolutely not!

…

Ahowa County, near the secret mausoleum, Klein arrived there in a Concealed state without alerting anyone.

Although time was already extremely tight, he did not recklessly approach the mausoleum and draw the symbol to open the door. Instead, he reached his right hand forward and grabbed at the air.

After five consecutive attempts, the muscles in Klein’s arm abruptly tightened, as though he were pulling something extremely heavy.

As his right hand drew back, a figure rapidly outlined itself.

The figure had bronze skin, a medium build, black hair, brown eyes, soft features, and a tiny black mole beneath his right ear. It was none other than Azik Eggers.

Yet unlike the Mr. Azik Klein knew, this figure’s gaze was indifferent. He wore a deep-black robe embroidered with golden thread and a bird-shaped crown cast from gold, as if he were looking down upon all living beings.

This was the former Death Consul, a Sequence 2 angel!

Klein did not examine him further. Once again, he reached out and grabbed at the void.

This time, he seemed to have dragged out nothing at all, but in truth, he had summoned himself from a dozen or so seconds ago—himself in a Concealed state.

Then Klein tossed a small metal vial to his own projection and had his main body enter the historical void inside the gray fog.

Inside that past “him,” consciousness suddenly came alive and became exceptionally animated.

This Concealed Klein brought the projection of Death Consul Azik to the place where the secret mausoleum’s entrance could not be seen. He took out the metal vial from before and used spirituality to guide out the gem-bright blood within, swiftly tracing in midair the symbol Mr. Door had provided.

The symbol quickly took shape, resonated with a certain point in the mausoleum, and expanded into an illusory door.

The Concealed Klein and Death Consul Azik passed through the door one after another, entering the corresponding secret mausoleum.

At that moment, the guards inside had already discovered the intruders and activated the prepared ritual in advance. But all they could see was the high and mighty Death Consul.

Somewhere in Backlund, the former Duke of Southville, Dlink Augustus, was about to descend into that secret mausoleum through the passage opened by the ritual when a man beside him suddenly frowned and said, “This is Azik Eggers. No, He is very stiff, like a historical projection summoned by a Scholar of Yore from the Secret Order.

“Your Highness, let me go instead. You stay here to guard against the Scholar of Yore hiding in the shadows. Though they are not angels, they are troublesome enough.”

Dlink Augustus was a slightly arrogant old man with quite a few silver strands in his black hair and no beard on his face. Hearing this, he laughed.

“Isn’t that Scholar of Yore right beside Him? Though he is in a Concealed state, I have already discovered him through the imbalance of the surrounding area.

“He is misleading us. He wants us to believe he deliberately had the summoned historical image attack here while his main body went elsewhere. In reality, he is hiding beside Azik’s projection, waiting for the Death Consul to attract attention, waiting for us to place our main strength elsewhere, then relying on his Concealed state to approach the mausoleum and destroy it.

“Moreover, no matter why, since he has summoned an angel projection, even if you carried a Grade 0 sealed artifact, you would not be able to deal with the target in a short time. If the mausoleum were affected because of that, all our efforts and persistence would be wasted.

“If that Scholar of Yore is using a triple-layered misdirection and truly has gone to another mausoleum, he cannot possibly summon another angel from the historical void. You will be able to eliminate him quite simply.”

While he spoke the first part, Dlink Augustus had already entered the passage opened by the ritual. The remaining contents were spoken sentence by sentence by the phantom He left behind.

Inside the secret mausoleum in Ahowa County, the indifferent and cold-faced Azik Eggers swept His gaze around. His body abruptly swelled, transforming into a giant serpent that covered the sky above the mausoleum.

This serpent was both illusory and real, seemingly composed of things human beings could not understand. Huge dark greenish-black scales covered His body, and white feathers grew from the gaps. Each feather and each scale bore strange symbols of different shapes. The mere sight of Him would make flesh rot and transform living beings into corpses.

This was the Feathered Serpent God of Southern Continent myth. Pale flames burned in His eye sockets, and behind Him spread an exaggerated pair of thick wings.

Amid the whoosh of wind, the feathered serpent coiled in midair leaned His upper body forward and opened His mouth, spitting out pale flames large enough to cover the entire mausoleum.

…Mr. Azik’s historical projection is definitely weaker than the original, yet it still has this level of power… As expected of Death’s own child, the Consul of the Balam Empire… Though Klein, in his Concealed state, had done summoning experiments at sea, he had not expected Azik’s projection, once it entered combat, to be this imposing.

At that moment, points of deep light flew out from inside the mausoleum, stopping the tide-like surge of pale flames from advancing any farther.

They then constructed a figure. It was none other than Dlink Augustus at Sequence 2, the rank of Balancer.

The instant he saw Him, Klein in his Concealed state suddenly became stiff and mechanical, able only to act by instinct—because Klein’s main body had returned from the historical void and was now outside the secret mausoleum.

Then Klein directly Teleported to another secret mausoleum downstream of the Tasok River. He took out another metal vial and, still in a Concealed state, used spirituality to guide the blood inside into the air, where it traced the symbol.

Within seconds, the symbol resonated, turning into a door. Klein took his marionettes Qonas and Enyuni and stepped inside.

Of course, in the river and forest outside, he still had newly transformed marionettes hidden away.

…

Near Ruin No. 1 in the outskirts of Backlund, a figure removed her invisibility and appeared.

Her black hair was glossy, her face slightly round, her features clear and pretty with a hint of sweetness, and her bearing exceptional. It was none other than the witch Trissy.

After drawing close to Ruin No. 1, Trissy likewise took out a metal vial and used the blood inside to draw the symbol Mr. Door had provided.

An illusory door quickly took shape.