Chapter 211: The Third Act

Chapter 211: The Third Act

“Fate!”

Amid that difficult, obscure voice, the positions of “Hell Admiral” Ludwell and “Nightwatcher” Ince Zangwill dimmed at the same time, as though two clouds had happened to pass over them.

The Luck Stealer charm!

One of the Luck Stealer charms Klein had crafted using the Worms of Time provided by Pallez Zoroast!

In order to keep his scheme from being seen through by 0-08, Klein had hidden himself behind the scenes from the very beginning. Not only had he lent Creeping Hunger to Leonard Mitchell, he had also given a Luck Stealer charm to his marionette.

And so, the one who “tragically” suffered possession by the evil spirit changed from Ince Zangwill to Ludwell.

The figure of Sauron Einhorn Medici, clad in bloodstained black armor, instantly plunged into the top of Hell Admiral’s head. Fine blood vessels immediately crawled across both of Ludwell’s eyes.

Inside the hotel room, Klein calmly controlled his marionette. The impact brought by the evil spirit caused him no hesitation or delay. Ludwell reached out, tore through his clothes, took out the Requiem mask, and covered his face with it.

At the same time, Daly Simone, having heard the Red Angel evil spirit’s words, witnessed Its actual condition, and sensed that powerful pressure, seemed to understand something. Not only did she not close the Gate of the Underworld, she gritted her teeth and used all her strength to widen the gap a little further.

One blood-red arm without skin after another, one slick tentacle lined with teeth after another, and one bluish-black vine tipped with an infant’s face after another all stretched out from behind the Gate of the Underworld at the same time, grabbing toward Ludwell.

This spared Hell Admiral, who had originally planned to complete this step himself, from those complicated operations. Taking advantage of the fact that the Underworld within his body had not yet been destroyed by Sauron Einhorn Medici, and that the chunks of flesh on him had only begun to rot without falling off, he abruptly turned and charged toward the mysterious, illusory bronze door.

He was immediately seized by the arms, tentacles, vines, and spirits reaching out from behind the door. With an active leap into their grasp that complemented that scalp-numbing tug, he crossed the widened slit at once and entered the Underworld.

Seeing this, Daly immediately withdrew her palms and stopped maintaining the bronze door covered in mysterious symbols.

Clang!

The indescribable illusory door slammed shut. “Hell Admiral” Ludwell, together with Sauron Einhorn Medici and the Underworld creature inside him, was cut off from the real world.

This was a key step in Klein’s plan:

Separate the Red Angel evil spirit from Ince Zangwill!

Although Klein believed the Red Angel evil spirit was an unstable factor for Ince Zangwill, he still did not wish to face, while taking revenge on a demigod, an evil spirit formed after the deaths of one King of Angels and two Sequence 1 angels. No one could predict what a Conspirer might do under such circumstances.

Therefore, starting from the miraculous ability of the Luck Stealer charm and the characteristics of the pathway to which his marionette Ludwell belonged, Klein had designed this specific plan. Daly’s participation made the whole process smoother and more natural, leaving no easily interrupted interval, successfully sending the Red Angel evil spirit into the Underworld.

In this way, even if the other party could occupy Hell Admiral’s body and rely on Spirit World Traversal to return to the real world, that would be a very long time later. Leaving the Underworld required finding an exit, and since the Evernight Goddess had partially taken control of Artificial Death, She possessed a certain degree of authority within the Underworld. She certainly would not let the Red Angel evil spirit come out so smoothly.

Sacrificing one marionette, one high-level charm, and two mystical items in exchange for having the Red Angel evil spirit leave the battlefield was, to Klein, painful but absolutely worthwhile.

As for the misfortune on Ince Zangwill, it was a sustained state rather than a short-term fate, and it came from a God’s Curse. The Luck Stealer charm could at most replace a very small portion of it and could not blank it out. It would soon recover. Ludwell, meanwhile, had the luck given by Winner Enzo, so during that brief period, his actions would not be affected.

Leonard could not have foreseen such a change, but he had been a Red Glove for nearly a year and had experience with many supernatural cases. At this moment, he did not hesitate or waste time in confusion. His gaze immediately turned toward Ince Zangwill, who was still somewhat dazed.

When the figure in the black clergyman’s robe, one eye dim and lifeless, entered his sight, Leonard’s expression twisted abruptly, as though he had been forced to face the shadow in his heart.

It was the shadow of giving everything and still being unable to make a difference. It was the shadow of waking to see that the captain and Klein were already dead.

Leonard raised his left palm and pressed the human-skin glove to his temple while gripping the Luck Stealer charm tightly in his right hand. In a low voice, he uttered,

“Fate!”

As the ancient supernatural language echoed, a transparent book had already gathered in front of the glove on Leonard’s left palm, accompanied by the ethereal chant, “I came, I saw, I record.”

Brilliant, dazzling silver-white lightning leapt out one bolt after another, one linked to the next, swallowing Leonard in an instant.

Lightning Storm!

It was as though Leonard were holding a revolver to his own temple and pulling the trigger.

He was committing suicide, but at the same time, he was using the Luck Stealer charm to transfer that fate to Ince Zangwill!

This was the best use he could think of for both the Luck Stealer charm and Creeping Hunger. It was filled with courage.

Countless silver-white bolts of lightning rampaged outward, shattering the surrounding darkness. Leonard Mitchell abruptly awoke and discovered that he was still standing where he had been. His left palm had not yet been raised, and his right hand had only just gripped the Luck Stealer charm.

Everything he had done just now had been nothing but a dream!

At that moment, in Ince Zangwill’s deep blue, nearly black eye, a lightless darkness slowly rippled, as though saying: When did you come under the illusion that you were not dreaming?

In truth, from the moment Sauron Einhorn Medici had been extracted from his body, Ince had already begun creating a large-scale dream, attempting to draw all his enemies in. Unfortunately, the man with the rapier at his waist had not been affected in the slightest, easily breaking free and destroying the whole dream along with him, preventing it from producing any effect.

Because the crisis reflected by his spiritual intuition was so obvious, and because the clash between the two Kings of Angels behind him might spread at any time, Ince Zangwill did not hesitate. He once again created a large-scale slumber while pulling Daly Simone and Leonard Mitchell into a dream.

Immediately afterward, he took up the Quill of Alzuhod and rapidly wrote on the clothing over his arm:

“Ince Zangwill is in excellent condition today. He can effectively control his mythical creature form. Therefore, he decides not to hold anything back and will do everything in his power to escape this place!”

As the classical quill pen finished its final stroke, Ince Zangwill’s body began to change.

His eyes instantly turned pitch black, as though stained with ink, and fine patterns slowly spread around them, forming strange and distorted mysterious symbols.

At his waist and along his ribs, his clothing bulged, flesh squirmed, and four skinless arms wrapped in blood vessels suddenly grew out.

Those arms were swiftly covered in white feathers, and an aura of deathly stillness rippled outward.

At the same time, Ince Zangwill’s teeth lengthened one by one, becoming sharp, with countless blurred and tiny faces embedded across their surfaces.

In the blink of an eye, this Nightwatcher had already sprawled onto the ground, becoming a bizarre monster with eight “legs” and white feathers.

The entire square somehow descended into night. The insects in the soil and the bacteria on the stone tiles died one after another, entering eternal slumber.

This was the combined power of Night and Death!

Just as Daly Simone and Leonard Mitchell were about to rapidly lose their lives in sleep, a thunderous boom exploded in midair.

Silver-white lightning bolts descended one after another, transforming into a forest of thunder that enveloped the incomplete mythical creature Ince Zangwill had become.

After sending away the Red Angel evil spirit, Klein had not lingered. Like a marionette with a preset order, he mechanically took four steps counterclockwise and entered above the gray fog. Once again, he donned the triple crown, put on the papal vestments, and picked up Sea God Scepter.

This was the third act of the drama. After 0-08 had been exhausted by Adam, and after the Red Angel evil spirit had been separated by the Luck Stealer charm, Ince Zangwill would now face the wrath of the Sea God as a Sequence 4 Saint!

Klein knew he did not have the strength to face a demigod head-on. Therefore, his plan had always been to strip Ince Zangwill of his helpers first, then descend a divine punishment from above the gray fog—just as he had done when fighting the Black Emperor pathway demigod Qonas Kilgor at sea.

Even if the demigod was too powerful and he could not complete the kill, he would at least drag things out until an archbishop or high-ranking deacon of the Church of Evernight arrived with a Sealed Artifact.

There were two points in this plan that Klein could not control.

First, it was difficult to judge how much effect 0-08 could still exert at the end. The contingency he had prepared for this was to have Winner Enzo set up a bestowment ritual, ready at any time to send Groselle’s Travels into the real world and to the edge of the battlefield, to see whether it could tempt that pen into leaving Ince Zangwill. After all, Klein suspected that it was a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact of the Spectator pathway, and it should be very interested in the special book left behind by the Dragon of Imagination.

Second, Klein had no point of reference for just how powerful Adam, the Son of the Creator, truly was. He believed it was entirely possible that this King of Angels could single-handedly subdue 0-08, imprison the Red Angel evil spirit, and kill Ince Zangwill.

Against such a development, Klein had no way of interfering. He could only pray for the Goddess’s blessing, hope for fate’s favor, and wait patiently for the result.

Rumble!

The forest of thunder descended, carrying a dense aura of destruction.

At that moment, pure darkness surged out from the gaps between the lightning bolts, devouring all the silver-white light.

Immediately afterward, Ince Zangwill’s eight “legs” moved swiftly, carrying him out of the area he had just occupied.

He could not find the attacker, nor could he lock onto the enemy using Lightning Storm. He could only endure his anger and charge toward the buildings at the edge of the square at a speed that left afterimages behind.

Yet amid the booming thunder, terrifying lightning descended one bolt after another, firmly blocking Ince Zangwill within the square.

Daly and Leonard had already awakened from the dream, but the light of the lightning affected their vision. They could only tell that Ince Zangwill seemed to have turned into a monster; they could not see the details clearly.

A mythical creature form… With their solid foundations in mysticism, the two quickly understood and hurriedly closed their eyes, retreating toward places where they could take cover.

Seeing that he could not break free from the lightning strikes for the time being, Ince Zangwill immediately withdrew one “leg,” held 0-08—the quill pen—and wrote across his own body while running:

“An unknown existence has been attracted by the battle. It feels great sympathy for Ince Zangwill’s plight and decides to help him, taking him away through the spirit world!”