Chapter 210: God’s Curse

Chapter 210: God’s Curse

As Klein’s spirituality touched it, the point of light abruptly expanded before his eyes into a scene.

Danitz, wrapped in a shadow cloak, was lowering his head in prayer at the edge of the square, reciting The Fool’s honorific name in ancient Hermes.

Using this location, Klein expanded the scene outward and searched for Ince Zangwill.

Everything he saw through the gray fog was clearly different from what he had seen a moment ago. At the center of the square, an enormous cathedral—black as its base and inlaid with bones—had appeared at some unknown time. Light and shadows flickered within from time to time, but no sound emerged.

Seizing the opportunity, Klein responded to Danitz’s prayer:

“Get away from here. Find a concealed place and hide.”

As he spoke in a low, slow voice, Klein, wearing the triple crown and deep blue vestments, raised his left hand, making the blue-green gemstones at the tip of the bone scepter glow.

A sharp, piercing sound immediately echoed through Resurrection Square in the real world. A sudden violent wind howled and swept over the area, forcing people who were leisurely resting or merely passing by to hurriedly leave and seek shelter from the gale. Even Anderson, whose expression had been stiff, returned to his usual careless state, clutching his stomach with one hand and quickly rushing out of the danger zone.

In just a few seconds, Resurrection Square became extremely empty. Even those passersby who were not fast and had not intended to run experienced a sensation close to flying under the push of the gale.

The empty area fell briefly silent. Then, from a window of the cathedral of bones, a point of fire lit up. It grew larger and larger, brighter and brighter.

Silently, the stained-glass window shattered. White-hot light tinged with blue shot out like a meteor.

The firelight collapsed at once, gathering into Ince Zangwill in his black clerical robe, one eye deep blue and the other bloodshot.

The moment this Nightwatcher appeared, his mouth opened uncontrollably, and he let out a derisive “heh” toward the classical quill pen in his hand.

“If not for you, you fool, refusing to listen to my suggestion, how could things have ended up like this?

“I have no idea what you were so afraid of. If you had allowed me to pray to the Lord earlier, secretly return to Rose Redemption, join hands with the great serpent, make preparations, and set a trap, today would have been us hunting Adam—not the reverse!”

The slightly dim and damaged quill pen immediately flew up and wrote on an empty patch of Ince Zangwill’s clothing:

“Out of shame and anger, Sauron Einhorn Medici placed all blame for this incident upon the Quill of Alzuhod. In truth, however, it was He who stopped Himself from praying to the True Creator. Whether Sauron or Einhorn, neither wished to believe in that evil god.

“Today’s encounter has made this evil spirit’s split personality even more severe! This is entirely reasonable. It is the diagnosis made by the most professional and top-ranking psychiatrist!”

“Ince Zangwill’s” brow immediately twitched. By instinct, he raised his left hand and pressed it against his head.

His deep blue eye, nearly black, quickly regained its luster. His classically sculpted face grew extremely grave.

At this moment, after breaking through the cathedral of bones, what lay before him was not the square, but layer upon layer of ancient stone steps. They led to the summit of a towering mountain, where a gigantic cross stood, surrounded by countless circling angels.

Just then, an exaggerated bolt of silver-white lightning pierced through the deep sky and descended straight toward Ince Zangwill.

Cracks immediately appeared across the entire sealed and bizarre space. The square’s fountain and flowers entered that deep-blue eye, almost black.

Ince Zangwill’s figure abruptly disappeared. In his place remained only a transparent, blurry spirit. It was struck by the lightning and annihilated in an instant.

This Nightwatcher had no time to consider what other dangers might still be hidden outside. Seizing the chance, he transformed into firelight, pierced through the crack, and rushed out.

To him, no matter what ambush waited ahead, it could not be more terrifying or more difficult to handle than the Son of the Creator, the King of Angels Adam!

The instant Klein saw firelight rise above the square, saw Ince Zangwill break free of the illusory world’s restraints and return to reality with dark-blond hair and a pale hand, his head lifted slightly, and he subconsciously straightened in his seat.

Countless images flashed through his mind: his own heart pierced through; the shining leather boots he had seen before his last death; Dunn Smith smiling as he winked with his left eye; the Blackthorn Security Company reduced to ruins.

Klein’s mouth split open quickly, the corners curling upward into a comical smile.

Then he spoke in ancient Hermes, his voice low and heavy:

“Misfortune!”

In his right palm, the silver-gray charm abruptly ignited with a gloomy black light.

This was a charm from the domain of misfortune, crafted by Klein through direct prayer to the Evernight Goddess using the blood of the Mercury Snake, Will Auceptin, and precious metals.

This was the gift he had prepared for Ince Zangwill.

This was the arrow of revenge.

This was the curse of a god!

Klein shot to his feet, his shoulder pulling back as his right arm snapped forward, flinging the gloomy black light—merged with a small amount of power pried from above the gray fog—into the scene expanded from the prayer, hurling it at Ince Zangwill.

…

The moment Ince Zangwill returned to Resurrection Square, he saw a pitch-black light appear from nowhere, covering the entire sky and making the environment around him extremely dim.

The change vanished in a flash. Everything around him returned to normal at once, without the slightest outward abnormality. Yet as a Nightwatcher capable of granting others a certain degree of ill fortune, Ince Zangwill keenly “smelled” the scent of danger. Without the slightest hesitation, he reached his left palm forward, intending to use the combination of the evil spirit inside him and his Gatekeeper abilities to enter the spirit world and escape by traveling through it.

However, the scarlet flowers around him, the pure white fountain pool, and the deep-black patterns of the paving stones did not have a single color intensify, much less overlap with one another.

Ince Zangwill’s Spirit World Traversal ability had failed!

As his gaze froze, he instantly understood the reason: the evil spirit inside him had begun arguing with itself and had not lent him power.

“See? If you’d listened to me earlier, none of this would have happened!”

“Pah. Asking me to believe in the True Creator? You might as well ask me to die!”

“What use would listening to you have been? Back then, weren’t you made into potion by Alista Tudor just like us?”

“So none of you are nervous at all? Didn’t you notice the obvious divine aura in that curse just now? The essence of that power is very high as well. In our current state, there’s no way we can avoid it. Haha, keep arguing. Go on. I’ll be waiting to die with you.”

…

Listening to this, the veins on Ince Zangwill’s forehead throbbed. He was furious that the Sauron Einhorn Medici evil spirit could fall into internal strife at such a critical moment, without the slightest awareness that they were standing in a place of danger.

As a former archbishop, as a Beyonder who had once wielded a holy artifact of the Church of Evernight, Ince Zangwill did not let anger affect his judgment. His intuition told him that the gloomy black light just now was connected to the Evernight Goddess’s authority over misfortune. He also judged that Sauron Einhorn Medici’s sudden split state had clearly been influenced by that domain. Otherwise, the writing of the Quill of Alzuhod alone would not have been enough to make the Red Angel evil spirit immediately start arguing with itself and ignore the situation.

He immediately turned and sprinted at high speed toward one of Resurrection Square’s exits. At the same time, he attempted to communicate with other spirits, wanting to borrow their abilities to escape as quickly as possible. Yet there was not a single spirit here!

At that moment, a figure stood from a hidden spot at the edge of the empty square.

He was a mixed-blood Loenese and Balamese man, with a fleshy face, loose clothing, and a thin rapier at his waist.

This was Hell Admiral Ludwell!

This was a marionette that normally had no thoughts of its own!

After throwing out the God’s Curse charm, Klein had already followed his plan and returned to the real world, making use of his two marionettes.

While he had Winner Enzo find a nearby corner, take out the prepared materials, and set up a ritual to request a bestowment, he manipulated Hell Admiral Ludwell out of hiding to directly confront Ince Zangwill.

This Hell Admiral, who no longer resembled his original self, raised his right hand. His upper arm, forearm, and fingers rapidly turned illusory, swelling and stretching toward the target.

This was the ability he had obtained through the Underworld creature inside his body: extracting another person’s spirit body from a distance!

Ludwell’s palm swiftly became pale. Above Ince Zangwill’s head, a figure uncontrollably began floating upward.

However, Ince Zangwill had once been a Gatekeeper as well. Mysterious, illusory bronze doors instantly formed in his eyes, pulling the spirit body that was about to emerge back down.

Given his level and strength, this should have been easy to accomplish. Yet for some unknown reason, he made several mistakes in succession and nearly let Hell Admiral succeed. For a brief time, the two sides could only remain locked in a tug-of-war.

At that moment, two figures rapidly sketched themselves into existence beside Ludwell. One had black hair and green eyes and wore a transparent glove. It was Leonard Mitchell. The other wore blue eyeshadow and matching blush. It was Daly Simone.

They had arrived so perfectly. The enemy’s misfortune often meant that one’s own side was sufficiently lucky!

The first thing Daly saw was that figure she would never forget. The flames of hatred immediately rose in her eyes.

She did not attack blindly. After observing briefly, she came behind Ludwell and opened both arms.

A bronze door covered in countless strange patterns instantly descended, creaking open a narrow crack.

This was the door to the Underworld—a door filled with irresistible temptation for all undead creatures!

A terrifying suction impossible to describe surged out. The figure above Ince Zangwill’s head was completely pulled away from him.

It was a semi-transparent man wearing bloodstained black armor. He was young and handsome, with red hair. Across his face were patches of horrifying rot exposing bone, and between his brows grew a mark resembling a battle flag.

The young man did not seem too surprised that he had been extracted from Ince Zangwill. Instead, he gave a “yo.”

“Bad luck today, huh? You two, we’ve already died together once. Is there really a need to do it again? Especially while being controlled by a weakling as helpless as a chick.”

On the left half of his cheek, a bloody crack protruded and opened and closed as it spoke:

“Fine. Let’s clear away the trash around us first…”

Before the sentence was finished, the man in bloodstained black armor had reached into himself and drawn out an illusory longsword marked with dark-red rust.

A terrifying pressure abruptly descended. This evil spirit easily broke free from Ludwell and Daly Simone’s extraction and suddenly dropped, trying to return to Ince Zangwill’s body.

Just then, a low, hoarse voice like sandpaper rang out. Hell Admiral Ludwell solemnly recited in ancient Hermes:

“Fate!”