Chapter 181: Klein’s Preparations

Chapter 181: Klein’s Preparations

Preparations… Of course there are none…

Klein piled on a smile and pointed at marionette Enzo.

“That glove still needs to be sealed.”

As he spoke, Enzo—whose skin was reddened and peeling—used his left hand, the one wearing both the Blood Flower and Green Flower rings, to remove the human-skin glove covering his right palm.

This was Creeping Hunger.

Normally, when Klein was not using it, he preferred tossing Creeping Hunger above the gray fog. After all, after its mutation, the original seal no longer worked. It had to eat one living person every day, or it would treat the wearer as food. But considering that Mr. Azik had already replied and might arrive to meet him at any time, Klein had ultimately decided that, barring special circumstances, Creeping Hunger would remain in the real world.

After all, he had already imagined the scene of Mr. Azik’s arrival. He did not want conversations like the following to happen:

“Didn’t you say that glove from before needed to be sealed again?”

“Yes. Please wait. I need to go to the washroom.”

Or:

“Are you prepared?”

“…No. Please wait. I need to go to the washroom.”

Just imagining similar scenes and lines made Klein feel embarrassed and strange. Even without considering the possibility that Mr. Azik might discover the secret of the gray fog, this would cause his image in the other man’s heart to slide in an unpredictable direction.

Therefore, after obtaining a new marionette and completing his attempt to “look at himself,” Klein had brought Creeping Hunger back to the real world and made up its previous meal.

The difference from before was that its wearer had changed from him to marionette Enzo.

Aside from that, in order to curb Creeping Hunger’s daily impulse to eat people, Klein carried several ordinary mushrooms with him and had his marionette maintain a distance of less than five meters from him at all times.

Hearing his words and seeing the marionette’s actions, Azik nodded and reached out to accept the human-skin glove.

Klein took the opportunity to draw several mushrooms from his pocket and toss them toward the nearby trash can.

Pa!

He snapped his fingers, making those mushrooms burn on their own and send up crimson flames without affecting anything around them.

This was a Magician’s ability to manipulate flames.

After finishing this, Klein saw Mr. Azik’s gaze inevitably turn over. He gave two dry laughs and said, “Because of that previous accident, Creeping Hunger is a little afraid of mushrooms. I am using that weakness to restrain its usual impulses.”

In truth, this was not very meaningful in practical use. Carrying mushrooms to suppress Creeping Hunger would only cause the sealed artifact—once the mushrooms disappeared and it had endured its hunger—to immediately retaliate. Unless another form of easily obtained “food” was right before it, it would only become an enemy’s helper.

“Mushrooms…” Azik held the glove whose surface had begun to stain blood-red and murmured in a low voice. Then the surroundings abruptly deepened. Even the sunlight outside the window was rejected from entering.

Pale, dark-green, complicated symbols, signs, and patterns appeared in midair one after another, as if written by invisible wraiths, shadows, spirits, and other entities.

They interwove and combined in midair, evolving into a mysterious, illusory, double bronze door, as though it connected to another world—a deep, silent, terrifying world.

This illusory door grew smaller and smaller. In the end, it landed upon Creeping Hunger, causing the blood-red color on its surface to quickly fade, leaving paleness as the main tone.

A few seconds later, the human-skin glove returned to normal. It was still only a thin layer, yet even without the suppression of mushrooms, it showed not the slightest mania or impulse.

“The same as before.” Azik handed Creeping Hunger to Klein.

This is what it feels like to have a bigshot backing you up!

Klein sighed deeply inwardly, sincerely thanked him, and put Creeping Hunger onto his left palm.

After thinking for a moment, he proactively mentioned, “Mr. Azik, when I previously carried the copper whistle you gave me through the Berserk Sea, I kept having the same dream.

“The dream’s main body was a dark, cold mausoleum inverted into the earth. Inside were countless coffins, and within those coffins lay dead people. Dense white feathers grew from their backs.

“Those feathers were stained with pale-yellow grease. In the depths of the mausoleum, there was a mass of black fog shrouding everything.

“In the dream, you and I were exploring this mausoleum. We unknowingly disturbed something, causing the black fog to produce breathing-like sounds and extend illusory black tubes.

“Each time the dream reaches that point, I wake up. This seems somewhat similar to the byproduct of the Numinous Episcopate’s artificial Death plan that appeared before.”

Klein folded the contents he had divined through the copper whistle into the form of a dream and described them in considerable detail to remind Mr. Azik not to be careless. In any case, dream divination was, in a certain sense, equivalent to dreaming, and Azik knew that he was a Beyonder of the Seer pathway. Having such an experience would not be strange.

—The only difference between revelations obtained through ordinary dreams and through dream divination was whether they were passive or active.

Azik quietly listened to Klein’s description without interrupting him. At the end, he nodded and said, “This should be connected to something Death left behind in the Berserk Sea.

“It seems the Numinous Episcopate’s artificial Death plan has also achieved some substantial progress.”

As expected of the Death Consul of the Fourth Epoch. He does not underestimate my dream at all…

Klein raised his right hand and rubbed his face, turning into Gehrman Sparrow’s appearance.

He then said, “Only one preparation remains: to confirm that Admiral of Hell Ludwell is not in a dangerous place and that there are no Numinous Episcopate demigods around him.”

As for whether the murloc cufflink was still on the other party’s ship, Klein did not mention it. He confirmed this every few days and believed that Admiral of Hell Ludwell had either not discovered that mystical item yet, or had discovered it but deliberately refrained from moving it, waiting for the mad adventurer Gehrman Sparrow to take the initiative and “visit,” stepping into the trap.

Azik calmly replied, “That can be confirmed once we are nearby.”

“Alright.” Klein immediately made marionette Enzo go to the coat rack and draw out the gold-inlaid cane.

Seeing that there were no other matters, Azik extended his right hand and grabbed Klein’s shoulder.

Klein likewise extended his right hand and grabbed marionette Enzo’s shoulder.

The colors of the surrounding scene changed again: reds turned redder, blacks blacker, blues bluer. They overlapped while remaining distinct, not blending.

One man, one person, and one marionette immediately began shuttling through the spirit world. The black gold-inlaid cane flew ahead, indicating in which position and direction Klein’s lost murloc cufflink was.

Before long, the cane stopped and hovered in midair. Azik also halted the traversal but did not leave the spirit world.

He seemed to be gazing at something, and he also seemed to be listening to something. After two or three seconds, he said, “There are no major problems.”

After saying this, he brought Klein, while Klein brought his marionette, out of the spirit world.

At the same time, Klein remembered his previous experience searching for clues to Azik’s memories together with him. Back then, the target had been the ancient book in Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy’s hands.

At that time, Azik had also said, “The problem is not big.” In the end, Unaging Demoness Katarina had been waiting on the other side…

No major problems… Fine. If you say there are no major problems, then I will treat it as no major problems…

As Klein ridiculed inwardly, he sized up their surroundings.

This was an environment he could be said to know well: a huge ship, dark with a hint of shadowy green; a pale main sail painted with a black tulip; and undead creatures—living corpses, skeletons, wraiths, shadows—who either manipulated the sails, patrolled back and forth, or drilled at the cannons. All of them proved that this was Admiral of Hell’s flagship, the Black Tulip.

What differed from when Klein had last seen it was that there were now quite a few living Beyonders aboard the Black Tulip.

At the cabin entrance stood the captain, Admiral of Hell Ludwell, wearing a frilled shirt, a gorgeous coat, a white skull tricorn, a thin rapier at his waist, and a silver-white mask over his face. He was looking this way.

Suddenly, the dark, square ring on Ludwell’s right hand trembled lightly, and light flashed across it.

The pale flames in the haughty pirate admiral’s eyes visibly shook, then shrank to the smallest point.

Immediately afterward, Ludwell bent his waist. Beneath the stunned, surprised, or lifeless gazes of the crew, he faced Azik Eggers, prostrated himself on the deck, and kissed the planks.