Chapter 60: Finale and Epilogue

Chapter 60: Finale and Epilogue

It was an utterly ordinary paper crane. As soon as it flew out, scarlet flames ignited across it, scattering a few flecks of ash.

Amon, who had been looking at the figure in midair, suddenly turned His head and looked toward the paper crane that bore a blazing flower. Then He raised His hand.

The eyes beneath that monocle had already lit with cold light.

All at once, the flames on the paper crane vanished. Klein’s ability to swap positions with his marionettes vanished. His ability to Manipulate Flames vanished. His Flaming Jump vanished. His Air Cannon vanished!

In that instant, he had six Beyonder powers stolen away from him, including four extremely important ones!

If Amon could perform theft a few more times, Klein might directly become an ordinary person.

This was angel-level “theft”!

Within the dimming firelight, the paper crane slowly drifted down.

…

Backlund, Dr. Allen’s house, inside a black stroller.

Will Auceptin Ceres, wrapped in silver silk, wiped His mouth, rubbed His eyes, and muttered,

“Life is truly too difficult…”

Before His voice had faded, He took out from who knew where an object shaped like the head of a cane, set with a transparent gemstone.

Pure, clear light immediately lit up, illuminating the calendar in the room with absolute clarity.

Today was Tuesday. (Note 1)

…

At 160 Böklund Street, inside Dwayne Dantès’s garden.

The paper crane, which had burned until it was incomplete and scorched in many places, suddenly froze in midair. One mercury-colored complex symbol after another leaped out from it, instantly connecting into a gigantic, illusory, scaleless snake.

Across the surface of this silver-white serpent, densely packed patterns and symbols formed one connected wheel after another, and around each wheel were different marks.

Its fresh-red, ice-cold eyes swept across the area. The great snake rose into the air above Böklund Street, curled its body, and bit its own tail.

Its shadow covered the entire street, like a mysterious, exaggerated wheel.

All of a sudden, inside the sitting room of 39 Böklund Street, Member of Parliament Macht, Madam Liana, and several manservants and maids withdrew their smiles. At the same time, they raised their hands, took off the monocles on their faces, and allowed them to transform one after another into beams of light in their palms.

Immediately afterward, some of them placed their decorative glasses back on, some pinched their eye sockets, and some leisurely looked out the window, returning to their previous states.

Hazel sat collapsed on the floor, watching this scene as she broke down, shaking her head while supporting herself with both hands and repeatedly retreating.

The Amon wearing Winner Enuni’s appearance lost the coldness in His eyes. The crystal-like monocle had been made slightly crooked, and He no longer gave off the feeling of looking down on Klein.

In addition, something inside His body was slowly being pulled out, forming above His head a clear, thick, yet transparent Worm of Time.

And within the “concealed” world, this Worm of Time rapidly transformed into a figure with black hair, black eyes, a broad forehead, and a thin face.

This was not the time of Böklund Street moving backward, because Klein, Leonard, and the others were not affected. It was Amon’s own state returning to that of several minutes earlier!

The Snake of Fate—Restart!

Although the fluctuation in fate that Will Auceptin had prophesied had a slight issue and had come somewhat later than the actual time, the influence He descended from afar was nevertheless so timely.

In order to exchange for this Snake of Fate’s action, Klein had not only fed Him five scoops of ice cream in different flavors, but had also promised to compensate Him with additional remuneration. Their preliminary discussion had resulted in Klein finding a way to create the items that could allow Will Auceptin to temporarily recover a certain degree of strength during His weakened period—at least two of them!

When Amon suffered this unexpected blow, Klein did not hesitate at all. He had already drawn the Death Knell revolver, cocked the hammer, lightly spun the cylinder, and aimed at the enemy.

Bang!

He calmly and decisively pulled Death Knell’s trigger, firing the Spirit-Control Bullet he had prepared long ago.

A silver-black stream of light shot out like lightning, accurately striking the illusory Amon wearing a pointed soft cap and classical black robe, striking that Worm of Time—which was thicker and clearer than any Worm of Time Klein had previously seen!

A faint light dispersed. The illusory Amon in midair trembled, stiffening there, unable to make any expression.

At that moment, Leonard, who had long since arrived directly above, followed the Old Man’s instructions. Standing on the Sea’s Word cane and floating in midair, he slightly stretched out his arms and relaxed his spirit body.

Within his green eyes, a slightly dim Worm of Time with twelve translucent segments was reflected in each eye.

The two Worms of Time followed each other head to tail, vertically forming identical circles.

The circles slowly turned, illuminating behind Leonard an ancient and mottled gigantic illusory figure.

This figure was like the face of a stone-carved wall clock. It was divided into twelve sections in total, each either gray-white or blue-black, interspersed with one another and distinctly separated, each possessing different symbols. Klein merely glanced at it and felt as if his life was rapidly flowing away.

Dong!

A bell chime seemed to pass through history and echoed far through the “empty” concealed world.

Everything Klein saw became slow, including the illusory Amon above Winner Enuni’s head.

An indescribable invisible torrent then surged out, sweeping up that illusory Amon and rushing toward the gigantic, illusory stone-carved wall clock.

The Amon avatar—actually the Worm of Time—wearing a monocle suddenly stretched a hand downward, aiming His palm at Gehrman Sparrow.

In an instant, Klein saw the skin on the back of his hand rapidly dry up, wrinkle bit by bit, and grow faint age spots.

The speed at which the illusory Amon was being absorbed slowed somewhat, but He still failed to interrupt the process. In the end, He shrank back into the form of a segmented worm and flew toward Leonard’s back, entering the ancient, illusory stone-carved wall clock.

Dong!

Another bell rang. On the gray-white and blue-black interlaced clock face, a mottled hand appeared.

This hand jumped downward several sections in succession, making the ringing of the bell echo more and more urgently.

Inside 39 and 160 Böklund Street, several dazzling streams of light flew out. As though drawn and absorbed, they merged one after another into the ancient, illusory stone-carved wall clock.

The law of convergence of Beyonder characteristics!

The law of convergence of Beyonder characteristics, using the connections between avatars and the attraction of a higher-level essence!

Dong!

In different places throughout Backlund, quite a few streams of light flew over.

By the time all of this calmed down, Klein naturally saw inside his mind his current appearance:

There was more white than black in his hair. Wrinkles were obvious on his forehead, at the corners of his eyes, and around his mouth. The skin of his cheeks sagged faintly, hiding a few age spots. With one look, he was an elderly gentleman who might decline and perish at any moment.

At that moment, the dong-dong-dong ringing of the bell sounded once more.

On that ancient, illusory stone-carved wall clock, the mottled gray-white hand began rotating backward!

One section, two sections, three sections. Klein saw his skin rapidly regain its luster, while the marks faded and vanished one after another.

In only a few seconds, he recovered his original appearance. It was as though his life had never flowed away.

Angel-level power really is close to divine… I was only affected by the aftermath, yet I nearly aged to death… I wonder if I would still have been able to resurrect like that… Klein examined his own state, then hurriedly raised his head and said to Leonard Mitchell in midair,

“How should those parasitized by Amon be saved?”

At this time, the ancient, illusory clock behind Leonard quickly faded, turning into fragments of light that entered his body.

Leonard tilted his head slightly, as though listening to something. After a while, he said,

“The Beyonder characteristics portion of the Worms of Time inside their bodies has already been drawn out completely. Of the remaining portions, some were extracted and some remain, but they will not cause too great an effect. Uh, the Old Man says ‘not too great,’ but perhaps that only means not too great relative to an angel. In short, they can pray to the gods they each believe in and see whether they can receive thorough purification. However, they will be unable to clearly explain what happened, so the gods may not necessarily respond. If you are worried about lingering effects, you can consider guiding them to pray to, uh, that one. All extracted things will belong to you.”

Perhaps because he had personally “experienced” a battle at the angelic level and had seen the phantom of the Snake of Fate, Leonard’s excitement and trembling were briefly impossible to calm.

The people of this street are basically believers of the Goddess. How could I have them pray to The Fool? I do not want to be dragged into that foggy town again… Mm, the Goddess knows very well about this matter. If they pray to the Goddess, there is a high probability they will receive some response. Then—then I can ask Her Highness Arianna to return the Worms of Time they spit out to me… Uh, I can give Her a portion… As Klein’s thoughts turned rapidly, he secretly breathed out in relief.

He casually asked another question:

“After thorough purification, will there still be lingering effects?”

Although he had experience with Little Sun, that youth from the City of Silver was not an ordinary person.

Leonard listened again for a while before saying,

“A little. Because it was deep-level parasitism, even if ordinary people are ‘cured,’ certain aspects will still retain a degree of influence. For example, they may like monocles.”

“…All right. You should go back first. Leave the rest to me.” Klein nodded, feeling especially fortunate that the factions involved in this battle were not the kind whose destructive power was particularly obvious. Otherwise, forget Böklund Street—even whether the North Borough could remain intact would be uncertain.

…

Pritz Harbor.

A young man with black hair, black eyes, a thin face, and a monocle rode a bicycle, swaying leisurely all the way back to his doorstep.

With an obvious smile, he opened the mailbox and took out the newspapers and letters inside.

After entering the house, the young man pinched the monocle over his right eye while opening the envelopes as he walked, reading their contents along the way—until he found an unsigned letter:

“If every one of us in Backlund loses contact, it means Pallez Zoroast is most likely hidden near Böklund Street in the North Borough.

“Do not ask why we took the risk. Life always requires a little excitement, amusement, and anticipation.”