Chapter 200: A True Charlatan

Chapter 200: A True Charlatan

As she passed through the illusory door, Trissy quietly concealed her figure again and jumped straight down from the cliff wall near the entrance, falling toward the pitch-black abyss whose bottom could not be seen.

The secret mausoleum originating from Blood Emperor Tudor was hidden down there.

As she fell, Trissy’s body was as light as a feather, losing the vast majority of its weight, but her speed was not slow at all.

The few remaining guards in this place failed to notice that she had already infiltrated.

Just as Trissy was about to approach the target, a voice suddenly sounded beside her ear:

“Concealment is prohibited here.”

Trissy’s figure instantly appeared, unable to resist it in the slightest. And above the majestic mausoleum at the bottom of the dark abyss, a man had appeared at some unknown point.

The man had a somewhat long, square face, wore a white wig, and had two curved mustaches that turned upward beside his mouth. His brows were extremely thick, and his eyes comparatively large.

He wore formal dress, a cloak, and shoes with exceptionally long tips. His appearance was out of step with the times. He was none other than Prince Grove, the demigod supporting George III.

This Sequence 3 Chaos Hunter wore, above his head, a crown woven from thorns. Pure radiance continuously gathered into the crown, interweaving into an ocean.

Sealed Artifact 0-36.

…

Downstream of the Tasok River, the moment Klein led his marionettes Qonas and Enyuni through the illusory door, an image abruptly surfaced in his mind:

A dark church with a pointed spire stood ahead, its wide-open doors revealing men in suspenders, gentlemen in formal suits and hats, young ladies with frilled cuffs, and girls whose skirts were decorated with lace flowers…

All of them hung suspended in midair, motionless.

“Caw!” “Caw!” “Caw!”

Black crows circled the church spire, crying in a manner that made one’s heart pound.

Without a single additional guess, Klein felt as though he had fallen into a crack in a frozen lake. His whole body turned cold, and every hair stood on end.

Countless thoughts in his heart surged wildly, all calling out the same name:

Zaratul!

In an instant, Klein instinctively made a decision. He intended to swap positions with a marionette outside and directly escape this church before him.

Clearly, he had encountered a “miracle.” After passing through that illusory door, he had failed to enter George III’s secret mausoleum, instead arriving in some inexplicable place.

The next second, he discovered that the Spirit Body Threads connecting him to his marionettes outside had snapped and were swiftly floating upward, drifting toward the interior of the black church.

If not for an intuitive premonition exceeding his own level, which had allowed him to detect the danger in advance, he would already have been unable to react. He would surely have been hung up and become one of those marionettes.

With no time to think further, Klein rapidly manipulated his Spirit Body Threads, retracting all of them and connecting them back to himself, forming circle after circle.

This allowed him to temporarily break free from the crisis, and it also caused him to lose his marionettes Qonas and Enyuni in only a single second.

The necks of those two marionettes abruptly tightened, and they were lifted straight up by invisible hands, hung inside the pointed church.

Together with the original corpses, they swayed in the wind, speaking in different voices yet saying the same words:

“Welcome back…”

…

In Memorial Day Square, the imagined King George III continued giving his speech:

“…I will once again lower the property requirements for suffrage. I will transfer more rights to the House of Commons…”

Although the people did not quite understand why the speech had developed in this direction, they felt it sounded rather good.

“These are all bills already passed by the House of Lords. There is no need to tell the public during a speech… It is as if the king is emphasizing that he will inevitably proceed according to this plan in the future…” Audrey felt a wave of confusion, yet she could find no explanation that could convince her.

In Ruin No. 1, outside Backlund, within the majestic dark secret mausoleum.

The true George III had already put on a black crown and consumed the potion.

His body was transforming toward a shadow of order, expanding and extending in a marvelous state. The nine mausoleums were like islands in an ocean of nothingness, forming part of the entire set of rules. Meanwhile, the people simultaneously reciting “Emperor George III” during the ritual were countless, densely packed lighthouses. Together, they anchored the ruler of Loen, East Balam, and the Rorsted Archipelago, preventing Him from completely breaking away from reality and becoming part of the shadow of order.

During this process, George III’s thoughts uncontrollably scattered, as though they had been torn apart.

“Zaratul of the Secret Order actually contacted me directly, hoping to provide assistance…

“He said that from matters such as the Capim case, the attack on the Maiden of Ailment, the silencing of the mad captain, and the disappearance of Qonas Kilgor, He had glimpsed some of Gehrman Sparrow’s intentions. His divination results led Him to cooperate with me, to help me guard one mausoleum and wait for Gehrman Sparrow to walk before Him of his own accord because of his own goals and the Law of Beyonder Characteristics Convergence…

“He also said that when dealing with a qualified demigod of the Seer pathway, the most important thing is patience and composure…

“He truly is a charlatan…

“He also brought the Abomination Suah…

“I used my powers to sign a contract with Them…

“Together with several helpers I invited from the Twilight Hermit Order, as well as Grove and the others wielding Grade 0 sealed artifacts, even with the majority of the military and royal demigods fighting at the front lines or protecting Backlund, I no longer need to worry that the ritual will be sabotaged—unless a true god descends into reality…

“And that is impossible. Therefore, although I originally intended only to use this opportunity to fish out my opponents, I ultimately decided to advance directly…

“Heh. Grove still does not know about these hidden trump cards, nor is he qualified to know…

“In a little while—less than two minutes—I will become an eternal deity, the Black Emperor who rules reality…”

…

“Caw!” “Caw!” “Caw!”

In the dim world where crow cries echoed, the corpses hanging inside the black pointed church all dropped down at the same time and crossed the front doors.

Their gazes all locked onto Klein outside.

Almost simultaneously, a figure slowly but firmly outlined itself in midair.

Klein had no time to look at what it was. While maintaining the special state of his Spirit Body Threads, he quickly snapped his fingers.

Snap!

A crimson flame surged out from inside his wallet and instantly covered him.

The flame quickly went out, but Klein remained in place. He had failed to jump away.

He showed no hint of frustration and immediately activated Creeping Hunger, attempting Teleportation.

Klein turned transparent for a moment, then reappeared. He had not moved a single step.

His starting point and destination seemed to have been eerily linked together.

By then, the figure in midair had already taken shape. He wore rather luxurious clothing, had slightly curled chestnut hair, blue eyes, a high nose bridge, and thin lips. It was Roselle Gustav during the Emperor’s era.

Looking down from above, He glanced at Klein. Countless illusory symbols appeared within His eyes.

Klein’s mind abruptly swelled as a vast amount of knowledge—whose usefulness was unknown—was poured into it.

In that instant, he felt as though his head were about to explode. All other thoughts were completely occupied, leaving him unable even to move a finger.

By instinct, Klein allowed that knowledge to split apart and rush into several hundred Worms of Spirit.

This let him regain command of his body. His right hand swiftly grabbed at the space ahead.

His arm abruptly became heavy. Then he pulled back violently, dragging out a silver-white tail without scales as the marionettes passed through the church doors and launched their attack, and as two more figures began outlining themselves in midair.

As Klein released his right hand, a giant serpent appeared within the dim kingdom.

Its eyes were bright red and cold. Its entire body was covered with countless wheels formed from patterns and symbols, each one slightly different in its details.

Snake of Fate!

In truth, this was not something Klein had summoned from the historical void. Rather, it was power that Will Auceptin had directly descended by using a Yesterday Once More charm through the burned paper crane.

Klein had used Flame Jump just now precisely to take the opportunity to ask the Snake of Fate for help.

And the reason he had made that grabbing motion was to disguise the action, lest hostile angels reverse-trace the Snake of Fate’s location and endanger Dr. Aaron’s family.

This situation was different from when they had dealt with Amon’s avatar. Klein had no certainty of destroying the clue, so he had discussed with Will in advance how to handle similar circumstances.

Fortunately, the intent Will Auceptin conveyed showed that the essence of the “summoning” had not been discovered.

At that moment, the enormous silver serpent coiled and bit its own tail, becoming a mysterious, exaggerated wheel.

In midair, on the left and right sides of Roselle’s projection, two more figures had appeared. One was William Augustus I, whose main body was currently in fierce battle with the Queen of Mysteries Bernadette—a Sequence 1 Hand of Order. The other was composed of pure light, with pairs of radiant wings growing from its back and a clear angelic status!

All at once, the two newly appeared angel projections rapidly vanished. The marionettes that had inflicted multiple attacks and controls on Klein retreated into the church and hung themselves up again.

Qonas and Enyuni walked out one after another. Along with Klein, they moved backward through the illusory door, leaving the crow-crying world and appearing downstream of the Tasok River.

The Snake of Fate had used Reboot!

The figure of the scaleless giant serpent vanished with it. Without hesitation, Klein activated Teleportation. He passed through countless spirit world creatures and arrived outside another secret mausoleum. There, he used the remaining blood to draw the symbol and open the illusory door.

This time, he entered the interior and saw the solemn, dark mausoleum. He then summoned the Sea God Scepter and released terrifying Lightning Storms again and again, smashing the target apart.

Then Klein turned and left, departing the scene.

Everything went so smoothly that it was like a beautiful dream.

Yes—a dream.

The instant Klein entered the ruin where the secret mausoleum was located, he, who could always stay lucid in dreams, discovered that he had already entered a true dream woven by someone else.