Chapter 200: Rather Thin-Skinned

Chapter 200: Rather Thin-Skinned

…The Goddess really responded… When he saw the words formed from the powder, Klein’s first reaction had nothing to do with the actual content. Instead, he was shaken by the fact that something which seemed so absurd had truly happened.

Although he had long been mentally prepared and believed that the probability of success would not be low, he still sank into complicated emotions and failed to break free for several dozen seconds.

After a while, Klein slowly exhaled. He raised his right hand and tapped his chest four times clockwise.

“Praise the Goddess!”

He then ended the ritual and forced his attention back to the “divine revelation” itself.

“Possessed by an evil spirit. Exorcism required?

“Ince Zangwill is actually possessed by an evil spirit? From Sequence 9 to Sequence 5, he advanced along the Death pathway, and at the key stage of obtaining divinity, he switched to Sequence 4 Nightwatcher of the Evernight pathway—a pathway extremely skilled at handling spirit-type creatures. Wraiths and evil spirits should be afraid of him. How could he be possessed by the undead?

“Unless that evil spirit’s level is extremely high, or its essence is highly unusual.

“Unfortunately, I’ve only ever seen one true evil spirit, the ancient evil spirit sealed inside Alista Tudor’s underground ruin. I don’t know much about these monsters and can’t grasp many of the details. Mm, I can later write to Miss Sharron and ask her. I can also have Little Sun inquire about it. That Shepherd Elder Lovia grazes an evil spirit…

“No wonder Ince Zangwill wants to meet a demigod of the Numinous Episcopate. In the field of exorcising evil spirits, apart from the Church of Evernight and the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun, the Numinous Episcopate is probably next. Uh, I suppose the Church of the God of Combat has to be added before that. Neighboring pathways always have similarities.

“One more thing can be seen from this: Ince Zangwill does not want the royal faction and the Demoness Sect he is cooperating with to learn that he is possessed by an evil spirit. Otherwise, he would have no need to personally come to the Southern Continent! Those two powers both originate from before the Fifth Epoch and possess long legacies. It is impossible that they cannot find a single Sealed Artifact capable of exorcising or purifying evil spirits. Even if they truly could not, contacting the Numinous Episcopate through the Demoness Sect would certainly be more secretive and safer than Ince Zangwill making the trip himself…”

As his thoughts turned, Klein spread a sheet of letter paper on the desk and wrote with his pen:

“The intelligence you provided allowed me to connect the clues I had previously gathered, and thanks to the help of a great existence, they clearly point to one conclusion:

“Ince Zangwill is possessed by an evil spirit and is seeking help from the Numinous Episcopate.

“Starting from this fact alone, we can already make several useful judgments:

“Ince Zangwill will often display inconsistencies in language and behavior; he will occasionally deviate from his normal track, doing things we would never expect him to do and making mistakes we find difficult to understand; before this problem is resolved, his contact with the Numinous Episcopate will not cease. It may even become increasingly frequent…

“Following these judgments to investigate may allow us to catch Ince Zangwill’s tail, but I believe it still won’t be enough to lock onto him. The coincidences created by that Grade 0 Sealed Artifact are not something that can be crossed by normal means.”

As he wrote this, Klein could not help recalling the time he had directly encountered Ince Zangwill.

His investigation had not pointed directly at the man, but it had nearly exposed their conspiracy. Ince Zangwill had therefore taken action personally, calling down a meteor from the sky in an attempt to kill Sherlock Moriarty and erase the clues. In the end, Klein had received Mr. Azik’s help and escaped the desperate situation, forcing Ince Zangwill to step out from behind the scenes, walk onto the stage, and expose himself beneath the spotlight.

Under those circumstances, if Mr. Azik had recovered to his previous level, Ince Zangwill might already be dead… But recreating something similar and creating a scenario where he has no choice but to appear before us in person is still extremely difficult. One must remember that the previous incident involved not only Mr. Azik, the Death Consul, and me, who could use the gray fog to disrupt coincidences, but also Trissy Cheek and the ring she wore, one suspected of being a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact. Without that lady’s sudden escape, Ince Zangwill would never have been pushed to the point where he had to act personally… After considering the matter, Klein added more words:

“If we can determine the origin and main purpose of that evil spirit, perhaps the matter will take a turn…”

After finishing the section concerning Ince Zangwill, Klein’s heart moved, and he was about to mention another matter as well. But after outlining the first few letters, his fountain pen stopped. He raised his left hand and pinched both cheeks at the same time, looking rather hesitant, as though he felt embarrassed.

After muttering soundlessly to himself for a while, Klein finally continued writing smoothly:

“Even without the help of that Grade 0 Sealed Artifact, Ince Zangwill is still an enemy you and I cannot contend with directly. We must make more thorough preparations.

“If you can provide some Worms of Time, I can craft them into high-level charms capable of dealing with demigods. They are called Luck Stealers, and they can swap the fate of oneself and the target over a short period of time.”

Klein set down the pen and did not read it again. He quickly folded the letter, solemnly placed it into an envelope, and then took out his adventurer’s harmonica and a gold coin. After summoning Miss Messenger, he had her take away his reply to Leonard Mitchell. However, this time it was not being delivered to 7 Pinster Street, but directly to Leonard’s current residence—because not much time had passed since Leonard’s letter had arrived, Klein believed he should not yet have moved beyond Reinette Tinekerr’s range of perception.

After finishing all this, Klein let out a breath of relief and shook his head ever so slightly.

“Making requests of others really is difficult—especially for someone with thin skin.”

He swiftly withdrew his attention and once more began altering the appearances of his two marionettes, Winner Enzo and Hell Admiral Ludwell, because they had been seen by the Angel of Fate, Ouroboros, during the exploration of Calderón.

During this process, a thought suddenly came to Klein. He planned to “send” them above the gray fog and use the Spirit World Plunderer’s True Soul Body for disguise!

A Spirit World Plunderer could transform its divided souls into the appearance of True Soul Bodies and could also disguise them as other spirit world creatures. The Beyonder material it had left behind would undoubtedly possess similar abilities. It would simply be difficult to use, have poorer results, and carry severe negative effects.

However, none of that was a problem for Klein, who possessed the mysterious space above the gray fog. In any case, he did not plan to apply that Beyonder material in actual combat. He only needed to modify his marionettes in ordinary times; the operation did not have to be too smooth, and the results did not have to be too good. Besides, he could adjust it slowly. As for the negative effects mixed with divine elements, they were even less worth mentioning. In the junk pile, which item was not obedient and well-behaved?

After a spell of busyness, Klein sat in the high-back chair belonging to The Fool. Holding the palm-sized True Soul Body of the Spirit World Plunderer, he did not lower his head to examine it closely, but instead slowly extended his spirituality into it.

What he saw before him did not change much. It was still made up of illusory, fine, black Spirit Body Threads. However, when he tried to manipulate them, he discovered that he could not only bring the Spirit Body Threads of his marionettes under control, but could also make his own Spirit Body Threads swim over and pierce into the marionettes’ bodies.

When this kind of two-way connection was established between the two sides, Klein suddenly felt as though the marionettes and he had become one whole. All of his Beyonder abilities could be applied to them through the Spirit Body Threads, including the Faceless “technique” of altering appearance and physique!

Amid the slow, difficult manipulation, Klein felt dizziness. He felt his emotions become chaotic, and signs of losing control appeared.

This was the inevitable effect of direct contact between spirituality and divinity.

He hurriedly split part of his attention to mobilize a small amount of power from the mysterious space above the gray fog, calming his condition and restoring it to normal.

After a period of torment, Klein completed the attempt. Winner Enzo now looked even more like an indigenous man from the Southern Continent, the sort who had plainly come from a plantation. Hell Admiral Ludwell, meanwhile, had taken on a mixed-blood appearance. His terrifying face was no longer skin stretched over bone; it even carried a touch of plumpness. As for the silver-white mask with the effect of calming souls, it could not temporarily be removed. Klein had no choice but to have Ludwell strap it to his chest, pressing it against his skin. That had some effect, but it was not as good as wearing it directly over the face. It could only barely maintain the situation.

“What a pity. There’s no way to change this mask into some other kind of accessory. Otherwise, things would be much easier.” As Klein hastily threw the Spirit World Plunderer’s True Soul Body back into the junk pile, he rubbed his forehead and let his thoughts drift. “Right, I still have a Soothsayer Beyonder characteristic here. It can be made into a mystical item to replace that mask… No. I’ve always intended to return it to the Church. Once Leonard replies, I’ll send it to him.”

After the discomfort gradually eased, Klein took out his gold-cased pocket watch, pressed it open, and checked the time.

Then he summoned a paper figurine, stirred a little of the mysterious space’s power above the gray fog, and cast both into a specially marked point of light.

That was the point of light belonging to the Fool’s current sole believer, Danitz!

In Klein’s view, Star Admiral Cattleya had the Moses Ascetic Order behind her; Vice Admiral Iceberg Edwina belonged to the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom; and Anderson Hood did not know all that much about Gehrman Sparrow while being very good at recognizing the situation and avoiding pointless bravado. Therefore, when facing an “investigation” by the Aurora Order, none of them were likely to be in great danger. Only Danitz, who was in West Balam, could not return to the Golden Dream in the short term, was not especially strong, and occasionally wore the glove that made him act before thinking, truly worried Klein.

Based on these facts, Mr. Fool had no choice but to work a little harder and give Danitz a daily, scheduled embrace from a Paper Angel, interfering with divinations and prophecies targeting him.

…

Leonard had not expected Klein Moretti’s reply to arrive so quickly. With a measure of disbelief, he opened the envelope and read its contents.

“Thanks to the help of a great existence… Does that refer to that Fool?

“As expected, Klein’s investigation into Ince Zangwill has already reached a certain depth. I had only just mentioned the matter of the Numinous Episcopate, and he has already obtained the truth…

“Possessed by an evil spirit? How could he be possessed by an evil spirit?

“How can this be used?

“Worms of Time… This…” Leonard swiftly skimmed to the end of the letter, and his expression abruptly became somewhat complicated.

In his mind, Pallez Zoroast remained silent and said nothing.