Chapter 201: Chaos

Chapter 201: Chaos

As for the fact that he was inside a true dream, Klein pretended not to notice. While ending the maintenance of his self-projection on the Death Consul’s side, he also tried to summon another “himself” from the gaps of history, hoping to deceive the guardian of this Tudor ruin so that his main body could quietly break free from the dream, sneak toward the secret mausoleum, and complete the destruction.

At present, he could maintain only three images from the gaps of history at the same time. Death Consul Azik Eggers counted as one. His Concealed self counted as another. Whether the ascetic leader Arianna counted was impossible to determine. To be safe, before Klein summoned again, he could only disperse one first.

Regarding Arianna’s condition, aside from suspecting that the real person had descended, Klein had another guess: when this abbess of the Evernight Cloister, who was at the Amanda Mountains, sensed that her past image had been summoned, she had deliberately entered a Concealed state and vanished from the real world, allowing the projection to gain consciousness. This was entirely feasible, especially since an authority in the domain of Concealment very likely had a certain grasp over one’s own images in the gaps of history.

And when it came to an Angel of Concealment, Klein could not confirm her true condition through the feedback received from maintaining a historical projection as a Scholar of Yore. Therefore, he chose not to alter anything, avoiding possible accidents.

Just as Klein was about to summon his past self, the true dream around him vanished without a sound, and everything returned to normal.

He was on the cliff wall near the entrance. Below him stood the dark, towering, majestic mausoleum.

An utterly ordinary-looking old man hovered in midair. Under the faint light cast by underground moss and the stone-pillar lamps embedded in the cliff walls, he calmly looked at Klein and sighed in ancient Feysac:

“You were actually not fooled by the dream I wove.”

The old man’s hair was already completely white, but it was thick enough. There were not many wrinkles on his face, and nothing about his appearance was particularly distinctive.

Sequence 3 Dreamweaver of the Spectator pathway? No, at least an angel… Klein’s mind tightened. He gave no answer. Instead, he immediately took out the silver-white adventurer’s harmonica, placed it at his lips, and blew once.

No sound emerged, but beside Klein, Reinette Tinekerr, wearing a somber, complicated dress, walked out.

One of the blond-haired, red-eyed heads she carried immediately spat out a rectangular diamond-like charm, while another head recited in ancient Hermes:

“Yesterday!”

Yesterday Once More!

Miss Messenger intended to borrow power from her past self.

Compared with the Sequence 1 Snake of Fate, the power she borrowed could last much longer.

Yet the charm showed no change.

Hovering in midair, the old man in a grayish-white robe gave a soft laugh and kindly reminded them, “Do not use ancient Hermes before me.”

…Hermes… Is this Hermes, who survived from the Second Epoch and created ancient Hermes? An angel of the Spectator pathway… the origin of the Psychology Alchemists… Klein was first startled, but soon sensed something off:

Hermes’s will to participate in the battle and stop him was not particularly high.

No. Perhaps He is deliberately showing that to numb us… Beyonders of the Spectator pathway are the best at manipulating minds… The thought had only just flashed through Klein’s head when the other two heads of Reinette Tinekerr respectively recited in Jotun and Elvish:

“Yesterday!”

The rectangular diamond-like charm was instantly set aflame by transparent fire and melted into the void.

Reinette Tinekerr’s body began swelling rapidly. The four heads in her hands flew up at the same time and landed on her neck.

The four heads turned illusory one after another, overlapping into one.

A moment later, Reinette Tinekerr became a rag doll as enormous as a castle. She wore a black Gothic dress covered with countless mysterious symbols and entwined with evil vines. Her eyes were as red as blood.

Her gaze swept over Hermes, who had come from ancient times. Her tightly shut mouth opened, yet no sound emerged.

With a flash of faint light, that angel of the Spectator pathway directly turned into a white, plump rabbit.

Ancient Evil. Transformation Curse!

The rabbit showed no panic at all. Its body began expanding, swelling until it was half the size of a mountain peak—large enough to crush Klein to death with one step.

For an angel of the Spectator pathway, if I believe myself powerful enough, then I am powerful enough. I will not be bound by my external form!

As the rabbit turned into a monster, subtle changes occurred inside the ruin. Reality and illusion intertwined, leaving Reinette Tinekerr somewhat unable to distinguish dream from reality.

Klein, however, could tell them apart. He also noticed that not only Miss Messenger was in her mythical creature form; the rabbit’s body was also covered in grayish-white scales, where various patterns interwove into three-dimensional symbols that seemed capable of connecting with the mind.

Angels really are terrifying. They start by using their complete mythical creature forms… As he sighed inwardly, Klein did not even dare look too closely or peer at the knowledge. First, time did not permit it. Second, his status was still not high enough. Seeing a complete mythical creature form would inevitably affect him and inflict certain negative conditions—something that had to be avoided on a dangerous battlefield.

While Miss Messenger battled the dragon-formed rabbit, Klein used the fierce wind to drop toward the secret mausoleum. At the same time, he silently recited a certain honorific name in Jotun and reached out to grab into the air.

First attempt: failure. Second attempt: failure. Third attempt: still failure!

On the island of Klein’s mind, one plump white rabbit after another appeared, forcing him to raise his consciousness and fight back, leaving him no strength to think of more things. Then, as his right hand stretched forward instinctively, it finally touched a certain image in the gaps of history.

As he pulled his arm back, the image rapidly took shape.

It was a woman wearing a dark robe and a broad hood. She had a beautiful face and somewhat vacant black eyes.

This was the Angel of Concealment from the Church of Evernight whom Klein had once encountered.

Later, in the foggy town, he had learned that she was the Mother of the Sky from the Nation of the Evernight, the daughter of the ancient god Flegrea, and he suspected that she had become a vessel for the Goddess’s descent.

Since the historical image of the ascetic leader Arianna could be summoned on the first attempt, Klein would certainly try to summon this one.

The honorific name he had been reciting all along was that of the Evernight Goddess!

A Scholar of Yore’s use of images in the gaps of history had one difficult limitation: it could not summon anything involving a Uniqueness. However, in the case of a vessel for divine descent such as this, it depended on how much divine power the corresponding historical image carried and whether it involved a Uniqueness. Similarly, if one wished to summon Amon, the main body would not work, but an avatar could.

For safety, Klein had summoned the one who had once smiled at him during Backlund’s Great Smog. The result was that he succeeded after only four attempts.

Of course, Klein believed that if not for the Goddess’s tacit approval, perhaps even a certain amount of assistance, his present self could try one hundred times, one thousand times, even ten thousand times, and still not succeed.

That beautiful lady did not look at the Scholar of Yore who had summoned her. She turned her head directly and looked toward the secret mausoleum below.

The entire underground ruin suddenly shook violently. The deep-black, majestic mausoleum began to sway, ripples appearing across it as though it were about to be moved into a Concealed world.

Just then, two arms reached in directly from the outside. One pressed toward the giant rag doll Reinette Tinekerr, while the other spread its fingers and clawed toward Klein.

Both arms were more than ten meters long. Their surfaces were pitch-black and flowed with sticky liquid. Strange protrusions grew on them—some skulls, some three-dimensional eyes, some tongues covered in barbs.

Abomination Suah!

The few remaining guards in the underground ruin went mad at once. Some drew swords and hacked at their companions, while others raised guns, aimed at themselves, and pulled the trigger.

Klein’s skin began to crack. His consciousness was invaded by a certain frenzied feeling, leaving him unable to make an effective response.

The Angel of Concealment he had summoned acted by instinct. She withdrew her gaze and raised her head to look at the two arms that seemed to come from the depths of a nightmare.

Immense terror caused Abomination Suah’s arms to tremble lightly. Not only did they fail to seize Klein, they were also cursed by Reinette Tinekerr at the opportunity, sprouting short green fur.

Immediately afterward, they began to fade and struggle with all their strength, attempting to break free from the Concealed state.

And at that moment, three more figures appeared in midair within the underground ruin. They were Emperor Roselle, Loen’s founding king William Augustus I, and an abstract angel composed of pure light.

The historical images summoned by Zaratul had followed them here!

With so many angels descending here at the same time, the impact of their auras alone caused the entire space to quake, let alone the fact that they were all engaged in furious battle.

For a moment, the deep-black mausoleum shook even more violently. Faint cracks even began appearing across its surface.

Klein was not surprised at all, because this was his final fallback plan:

When the enemy was too powerful, too well prepared, and he had no way to create an opportunity to destroy the mausoleum, he would lure everyone together and create chaos.

His inspiration had come from the encounter outside Bayam City.

At that time, Abomination Suah and the byproduct of Artificial Death had acted remotely, while Sea King Cohinem—no, Sea King Cotman—Miss Messenger Reinette Tinekerr, and a Rose School of Thought demigod had participated. The result had been the collapse of an innocent mountain peak.

At this very moment, Klein wanted the secret mausoleum inside this ruin to become like that mountain.

He refused to believe that when angels fought fiercely, they could still control themselves so perfectly that the surrounding environment would remain undamaged.

And the lineup this time far surpassed that earlier one!

Still not enough… Then let it become even more chaotic… While controlling his Spirit Body Threads to prevent them from floating upward, Klein dodged and sensed the mysterious space above the gray fog. With his initial grasp over it, he made it tremble lightly.

In midair, grayish-white fog emerged, and a majestic palace appeared indistinctly.

Sefirah Castle!

In an instant, within Backlund, the sky high above Saint Wind Cathedral grew dark and deep, as though a storm were brewing.

A bird with dark circles around its eyes that had been gazing downstream of the Tasok River turned its gaze in another direction.

…

In Ruin No. 1 outside Backlund, the witch Trissy had been stripped of several abilities and suffered severe injuries. She might die at any moment.

With a bang, she crashed backward into the cliff wall, almost embedded in it. Blood covered her entire body.

At that moment, she took out an item—a rectangular diamond-shaped charm.

Yesterday Once More!