Chapter 195: The Might of the “Tyrant”

Chapter 195: The Might of the “Tyrant”

Hidden within the shadows, Klein’s heart tightened. A moment later, however, he calmed down, not panicking in the slightest.

That was because he was absolutely certain the figure reflected on the smooth surface of the golden disc was not him—or at the very least, not the real him.

If it truly were him, then Winner Enzo would also see the gray fog and that strange image that resembled some kind of mythical creature form. That would cause Klein himself to faint on the spot!

Since nothing has happened to me, that means the person in the “mirror” isn’t me… While opening his vision of Spirit Body Threads, Klein controlled Winner Enzo, having him carry the Sea’s Word cane and draw closer to the collapsed pale pillar and the broken ancient building. At the same time, he quietly released a portion of accumulated luck.

The dark-skinned marionette walked step by step to the golden disc. He tucked the cane under his arm, bent down, picked it up, and carefully examined it.

The disc was divided into inner and outer layers. Its core region was smooth like a mirror, marked with only a few patterns, while the rim was engraved with bird-like creature after bird-like creature. Overall, it possessed an ancient and ornate beauty.

The image reflected in it still did not change. Although it was clearly pointed at the marionette Enzo, what appeared was Klein: his aura eerie and cold, his face deathly pale, his eyes lifeless. Even Sea God Scepter, the triple crown, and the papal vestments attached to the Tyrant card were reflected without omission. If not for the absence of the gray-fog-related portions, Klein would almost have believed that the disc could look through the marionette and the Spirit Body Threads to directly affect him—or that, like what had happened to the Black Saint at the ruins of the battle of gods, it had unknowingly split off another version of himself.

What exactly does this mean…? Calm and unhurried, Klein grew out of the shadowed region and returned to his original appearance when he first entered Calderón. He then used the Clown’s Beyonder ability to map his current condition in his mind.

He held the white bone scepter embedded with blue-green gems, wore papal robes with a cape, and had a triple crown dotted with various “jewels” on his head. His face was hidden within the corresponding shadows, making it rather blurry, while his entire bearing seemed gloomy and rotten, as if he were a living corpse just dug out from a graveyard.

This… Klein was suddenly startled. He had not expected that a change had truly occurred in him. What the golden disc reflected really was himself, except without the portion where the gray fog merged with reality!

As long as it doesn’t involve the gray fog, it isn’t a major problem… He hurriedly consoled himself to stabilize his mental state.

Under ordinary circumstances, with Klein’s rich experience and excellent ability to self-regulate, there would have been no need to do so. But first, he knew that he was holding Sea God Scepter and was very prone to impatience, so he had to remain constantly alert. Second, he was well aware that this place had once been the divine kingdom of the Phoenix Ancestor, Gregrace, and that Her resurrection arrangements remained here. There would inevitably be all sorts of peculiarities, making him more tense than he would have been elsewhere.

After controlling Hell Admiral Ludwell to return and using Ludwell’s Beyonder powers to inspect himself, Klein reached a preliminary judgment:

“Living beings who enter Calderón naturally transform toward the state of the dead. This is similar to the Underworld, but fundamentally different. Here, living creatures won’t suddenly die and then slowly become mindless undead. Instead, they directly become spirits of the dead.”

I didn’t notice it earlier because both Enzo and Ludwell are already dead in essence and don’t need any further transformation… Magic Mirror Arrodes and Red Light Aiur Moria didn’t mention this because Travelers, spirit world creatures, and angels who left alive naturally returned to normal afterward? This transformation cannot affect the power of the gray fog merging with reality, and what the disc reflects is only the me that has become dead—not the complete me, or rather the me that has interacted with Calderón? Klein leaned more toward the latter judgment, though he could not be certain.

At that moment, a sound rang out nearby.

Clang!

Clang! Clang!

The sound was heavy yet crisp, as if someone were striking metal with force.

Klein did not react in a hurry. After listening carefully for two seconds, he had Winner Enzo set down the heavy golden disc and walk toward a broken tombstone not far away.

That half-broken tombstone corresponded to a building that extended underground. Written on it in the language of the dead were the words:

“…a fellow easily given to anger, who died after testing the hardness of his head against another person’s iron hammer.”

Winner Enzo circled around the broken tombstone and arrived at the entrance of the mausoleum-like building. He reached out with his left palm, turned the handle, and pulled the door open with force.

Amid the squeaking of rusted metal breaking, the heavy door slowly opened.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Arrows condensed from pale light shot out.

They brushed past Enzo’s cheek, the top of his head, his torso, and the inner side of his thigh before flying into the distance, striking the ground and vanishing. The Winner was completely unharmed.

…It has to be said, a marionette like this is simply a divine artifact for adventure and exploration… Klein sighed with heartfelt emotion, then had Enzo look into the building below.

It was a blacksmith’s workshop. Inside, a giant with bluish-black skin and a head like a smashed watermelon was holding a huge hammer and repeatedly striking an anvil—though there was nothing on top of it.

Because the giant with the split head had normal Spirit Body Threads and did not belong to someone else’s divided soul, Klein quietly let out a breath of relief.

Just as he was about to have Enzo observe further, his body suddenly went numb, and his thoughts instantly slowed.

He had experienced this sensation before. Back in Tingen City, when he had been affected by the Sealed Artifact 2-049, he had felt something similar!

At that time, Klein had not understood the essence behind it. After becoming a Marionettist, he finally knew that it meant his Spirit Body Threads had been controlled by that Sealed Artifact.

In other words, at this moment, someone had grasped his Spirit Body Threads.

And unlike in the past, not only were the joints of his body “rusted,” as though filled with glue, he also felt a powerful numbness, like being struck by lightning, making every movement even more difficult.

Not good… a Spirit World Plunderer… I was on guard… It used a divided soul… to draw away my attention… secretly approached… but I didn’t expect… that aside from a divided soul… it also had… a collaborator… that giant… blacksmith… making me… lower my guard… And because… I have marionettes… I somewhat… neglected… my own… safety… All sorts of thoughts surged uncontrollably in Klein’s mind, interfering with his normal attempts to save himself.

At that moment, the giant blacksmith with the split head lifted his massive hammer and charged at the marionette Enzo in a single stride, intending to smash him into meat paste. At Klein’s neck, it seemed as if an icy wind blew, raising every hair on his body.

In the area that had previously been extraordinarily quiet, one bizarre creature after another poured out from the pale stone pillars, the broken houses, and the tombstone mausoleums in a vast tide.

Some had only upper bodies. Some were so transparent they were almost invisible. Some were stretched and soft like noodles. Some had split chests and abdomens, their organs bloody and exposed. Some had greenish, ghostly faces. Some had eyes growing across every part of their bodies. Some were like jellyfish living in the air itself.

Countless gazes turned toward Klein from different directions at the same time, devoid of emotion and filled with indifference.

Just then, Klein’s mouth opened with difficulty, and in a dry, slow voice, he squeezed out a single word:

“Sing…”

Before his voice had even faded, a mouth had already split open on the glove covering his left palm, revealing rows of ghastly white teeth.

“Praise You!

“The Lord who created all things;

“The Sovereign behind the curtain of shadows;

“The fallen nature of all living beings!”

Amid that shrill sound like fingernails scraping across a blackboard, the Sea’s Word cane—having just tripped Winner Enzo and allowed him to successfully dodge the heavy hammer blow—excitedly spat out bubbles.

“Impact! Impact! Impact!”

Klein’s head abruptly ached, and his thoughts instantly recovered, no longer sluggish for a brief moment.

However, his body remained “rusted,” filled with a numbing sensation.

Immediately afterward, relying on spirituality while unable to move, he controlled the marionette Ludwell, who had returned to his side earlier, to swing a left punch at him.

Bang!

Klein staggered a step backward and instantly broke free of the numb, sluggish state.

Then his head, crowned with the triple crown, heated up. Without hesitation, he unfurled the cape behind his papal vestments and raised Sea God Scepter.

One blue-green gemstone after another lit up. From midair, resplendent silver-white lightning bolts suddenly descended.

These lightning bolts flaunted branching tendrils, shrouding several hundred meters of Calderón’s outer region in a “forest of thunder.” The aura of destruction and the sensation of ruin felt almost tangible.

In that expanse of silver-white, the bizarre creatures that had rushed out from every direction shattered, evaporated, and completely vanished.

The raging silver-white storm had only just subsided when Sea God Scepter in the hands of “Tyrant” Klein once again emitted dazzling brilliance.

Violent electric snakes twisted, coiled, and descended again like enormous waves, one layer after another.

After releasing Lightning Storm twice in succession, Klein became far more exhausted, and his calm returned as well.

His heart suddenly skipped as he remembered something:

Lightning Storm was an area attack. It did not distinguish between friend and foe. Apart from himself, who held Sea God Scepter, and his companions right beside him, everything else would suffer devastating strikes.

In other words, Hell Admiral Ludwell should still be fine, but his marionette Enzo had very likely been “cleared away.”

Klein instinctively looked over and saw Winner Enzo curled up, perfectly intact, beside the broken tombstone. Behind him lay a metal hammer still flowing with thin arcs of lightning. Not far from the hammer were two charred toes that did not look human.

The mausoleum corresponding to that tombstone had mostly collapsed, while the iron-black anvil that had fallen to the ground likewise had silver-white lightning sizzling across it.

…He still didn’t die? As expected of a Winner. The luck he had accumulated must have passively been consumed by more than half… Klein relaxed inwardly and used his eyes, still opened to Spirit Body Thread vision, to examine the surroundings.

He was searching for the Spirit World Plunderer.

He believed the distance from which a Spirit World Plunderer could manipulate Spirit Body Threads could not compare to the range covered by Lightning Storm.

The buildings nearby, already collapsed and decayed, had now been nearly razed to the ground. Most of the remaining stone blocks and white bones were scorched black. Even the heavy golden disc had shattered into four or five pieces.

Suddenly, a figure emerged from a pile of rubble more than a hundred meters to Klein’s side.

It was a semi-transparent white robe without head, hands, or feet, as if being held up by an invisible person.

At that moment, its surface was ragged and torn, covered in rents and blackened marks, appearing rather miserable.

That should be the Spirit World Plunderer… That rash, impulsive double Lightning Storm just now seems to counter it quite well… At the sight, inexplicable thoughts flashed through Klein’s mind.