Chapter 169: Mutated Paper Figurine

Chapter 169: Mutated Paper Figurine

This time, Klein did not directly bring Azik’s copper whistle above the gray fog. Instead, as when he had first divined the “mutated Sun Sacred Emblem,” he planned to complete the process through a manifested projection of the item. Although this would lower the accuracy to a certain extent, and might even result in the divination failing to provide any effective revelation, with the layer of gray fog between them, the object itself could be protected to the greatest degree.

He still remembered that when he had once divined the source of that black ear originating from a Listener, the sealed artifact had been struck by the True Creator’s backlash and had directly collapsed, disintegrated, and recombined into a charm.

Therefore, while suspecting that the divination result might point toward Death’s corpse or some other relic—toward the divine power left behind by a long-fallen Sequence 0 that had changed the Berserk Sea’s environment—Klein decided to leave Azik’s copper whistle in the real world and divine only through its projection, avoiding the possibility that this important object might be damaged. After all, Death and the True Creator existed on the same level!

As for why Klein had dared to directly use Groselle’s Travels to divine its source, that was because the ancient god known as the Dragon of Imagination had fallen long ago. The corresponding characteristics had most likely already been inherited by others and passed from hand to hand unknown numbers of times. Moreover, the travelogue itself was extremely sturdy; even a full-power strike from the Sea God Scepter could not damage it in the slightest. By the same logic, Mr. Door might only be at the King of Angels level, and He was in a banished, isolated state, barely able to pass ravings through, almost incapable of causing substantial destruction.

If I suffer harm or corruption, I can still use the mysterious space above the gray fog to recover quickly and leave no hidden danger. But if Azik’s copper whistle is broken, then it is truly broken. I would no longer be able to contact Mr. Azik, no longer be able to use it to attract undead creatures, or even carry it with me…

Calm and practiced, Klein grasped the projection of the copper whistle along with the paper bearing the divination statement. He leaned back against the chair, half-closed his eyes, and in a meditative state, murmured:

“The reason for this copper whistle’s abnormality today.”

After repeating it seven times in succession, Klein sank into sleep and entered a dream.

After an unknown length of time, he saw a dark and cold mausoleum. He saw deep-colored stairs extending endlessly downward. He saw coffins placed all around.

All those coffins were open. Inside them lay corpse after corpse, and from their backs had grown white feathers stained with pale-yellow grease.

Even inside the dream, Klein felt the scene was abnormally familiar, as if he had seen it before.

Just then, he seemed to smell the stench of rot and hear the slow breathing of something. He only felt the darkness inside the mausoleum grow thicker and denser, giving off a feeling of extreme deathly stillness.

All of a sudden, ravings of various pitches rang out at once. The dead people lying in the coffins, white feathers sprouting from their backs, all floated up and turned their half-rotten, half-pale faces toward the outside of the dream!

Thump!

Klein’s heart lost control. It was as though an invisible hand had seized it and was forcibly dragging it out of his chest.

During this process, his dream instantly disintegrated into fragments and returned to nothingness.

The final image Klein saw was this: not only did the corpses have white feathers growing from their backs, but similar feathers had sprouted elsewhere on their bodies as well. In addition, nearly illusory, fine black tubes pierced into their bodies at one end and extended at the other toward the deepest part of the mausoleum…