Chapter 3: Re-exploration

Chapter 3: Re-exploration

Sharron was silent for two seconds.

“I will ask for you,” she said.

So that means you’ll think it over too? Fair enough. The negative effect of the Scales of Luck really does make one hesitate. Still, the Biological Poison Bottle pairs very well with a Wraith. If I weren’t short on money—and if carrying it around didn’t worsen my constitution and make me prone to illness—I would be reluctant to sell it. It is extraordinarily useful in an ambush… Klein vaguely grasped what Miss Sharron meant and tucked the silver necklace with the ancient coin back inside his collar.

After weighing his words, he asked, “Having every lifeless thing in the surroundings attack the target—is that a High-Sequence ability of the Prisoner pathway?”

“Puppet,” Sharron answered with a single concise word.

A Sequence 4 Puppet’s ability? The user turns into a “lifeless” puppet, so they can manipulate all lifeless objects within a certain range? If they advance further, could they directly affect an enemy’s mystical items? Klein understood somewhat and nodded. Then he changed the subject.

“Do you know a demigod like that?”

He immediately described in detail the appearance of the old man who had ambushed him outside Bayam.

“Jakes,” Sharron said calmly, providing a name.

Actually, I was hoping you could introduce his situation in a little more detail… Klein knew Miss Sharron’s style and could only smile helplessly.

“Then do you know Zatwin?”

That was the mentor of the leader of the Celestial Sect on Olavi Island.

“The demigod pursuing us,” Sharron answered, expressionless and frank, like a doll.

So he’s the one who first made me feel that chairs, tables, and curtains all wanted to kill me… What a coincidence… No, this isn’t arranged. It only shows that even a secret organization with over a thousand years of history like the Rose School of Thought does not have many demigods… Probably about the same as the Aurora Order. Around five Saints, and two or three angels plus Grade 0 Sealed Artifacts… Of course, that is because they have long been suppressed by the seven Churches, and even their headquarters have become colonies. At their peak, they definitely had more than that… After thinking for a moment, Klein asked again, “Then do you know any Rose School of Thought member whose arm alone could make an entire mountain tremble?”

He had intended to describe that arm’s characteristics in detail, only to discover that he had not dared look directly at it at all.

Sharron quietly listened to the end. Her eyes, which seemed almost lifeless, suddenly turned slightly. In a cold, clear voice, she asked, “What exactly did you encounter?”

A Saint, an angel, Sea King, an Aurora Order demigod, and a monster produced as a byproduct of the Numinous Episcopate’s artificial Death plan… Klein mocked himself silently and gave a bitter smile.

“I provoked the Mother Tree of Desire and encountered an ambush from the Rose School of Thought. Fortunately, it happened in Bayam. The Church of Storms and the kingdom’s military both acted, and I also threw out an item contaminated with the True Creator’s aura, along with something connected to the Numinous Episcopate. In short, the scene became very chaotic, and I escaped while taking advantage of it.”

He answered frankly, only omitting the existence of Miss Messenger and Mr. Azik. As for the True Creator, he believed Miss Sharron had long ago been able to tell that he was not actually affected by the ravings. That could be explained as timely psychological intervention and mental treatment.

“The Mother Tree of Desire…” Sharron murmured the name. Rare emotional ripples gradually appeared in her blue eyes.

Klein did not have a Spectator’s interpretive abilities and could not fully identify Miss Sharron’s emotions. He could only vaguely sense that she seemed somewhat afraid and somewhat hateful.

Sharron quickly restrained that abnormal reaction and once again became an exquisitely crafted “doll.”

Looking at Sherlock Moriarty across from her, she said, “You are very lucky, and very mysterious.”

Klein smiled without speaking, neither lying nor explaining.

Sharron did not ask. Instead, she said, “The one you encountered may have been Suah. He is an Abomination born 922 years ago. He calls himself a child of the Chained God, and He is also the current leader of the Rose School of Thought.”

Surely not. To deal with me, the Rose School of Thought actually dispatched their leader and a demigod… I’m only a little Sequence 5! If not for Orange Light Hilarion’s reminder, I would likely already have been captured by the Rose School of Thought… Klein felt another burst of lingering fear and casually asked, “Is Abomination the name of Sequence 2 or Sequence 1 of the Prisoner pathway?”

“Probably,” Sharron answered without certainty.

At that moment, before Klein could respond, she took the initiative and said, “Williams Street has been destroyed.”

Klein had already considered how he should react when Miss Sharron brought up this topic. He immediately frowned.

“By whom? When?”

“The Nighthawks and the Machinery Hivemind. More than two months ago.” Sharron had clearly gathered the corresponding information.

Klein nodded solemnly and pondered for a while.

“Perhaps we both overlooked something. That evil spirit may not necessarily have needed us to save it. It also controlled Viscount Pound!

“Could that gentleman have had a problem, drawing the attention of the Nighthawks and the Machinery Hivemind?”

Klein felt no guilt at all as he voiced a guess that was partly true and partly false.

Sharron nodded slightly.

“Viscount Pound died suddenly after an orgy.”

So he was dealt with? Alista Tudor’s last trace of bloodline ended here? Klein thought for a moment.

“What is the current situation on Williams Street?”

“They are constructing some high-rise buildings,” Sharron said without emotion. “At first, someone was secretly monitoring the area. Afterward, the number decreased. By the beginning of last month, there were none.”

Klein was silent for several seconds.

“Have you gone down to explore?”

Sharron’s gaze swept across his face.

“No.”

She still remembers our unwritten agreement: what we discovered together, we explore together? What a lady of noble character. Compared to the indulgence faction, the Rose School of Thought’s temperance faction is simply infinitely better! Klein probed, “Shall we go now?”

“All right.” Sharron expressed her position simply.

Klein immediately instructed the driver ahead to change course for Williams Street, at the border of the West Borough and Queen Borough.

Along the way, he casually spoke about some of what he had seen at sea and certain experiences that did not involve secrets. Although Sharron barely responded, she listened with great focus and seemed quite interested.

This reminded Klein of when he had first met this bodyguard lady. She had sat on an illusory high-backed chair inside the oriel window, supporting her cheek with her right hand while attentively listening to his conversation with Ian. She truly had the potential of a Spectator.

The carriage passed through one quiet street after another in the drizzling rain and finally arrived near Williams Street.

Klein and Sharron did not approach before noticing that the place had become a large construction site.

After circling to the back of the area corresponding to the underground ruins and standing beneath a tree with dense branches and leaves, Klein said to Sharron, who had not carried an umbrella yet had not been wet by rain in the slightest, “We will go down from here.”

Rain fell through Sharron’s pale golden hair and body, pattering onto the ground.

“All right.” Sharron did not ask what method Sherlock Moriarty would use to descend.

Klein reached into his pocket and easily removed the wall of spirituality, opening the iron cigarette case.

Beside him, a figure suddenly appeared. It was Blood Admiral Senor, wearing his dark-red coat and old tricorne hat.

“He will go down in my place,” Klein said with a smile.

Immediately afterward, he calmly manipulated his puppet.

Blood Admiral Senor at once placed a hand over his chest and bowed to Sharron.

“Good evening. It is an honor to work with you.”

Sharron glanced at Klein and Senor but said nothing. Her body rapidly sank, entering the soil.

Uh. Miss Sharron seems to seriously dislike Senor… Klein outlined a smile and had Blood Admiral’s body swiftly enter its Wraith state, following her downward.

As for himself, he leaned lightly against the tree, half-closing his eyes, carefully controlling his puppet. There was no one around. Rain fell sparsely, and the streetlamps were dim.

Vaguely, Klein found a hint of the feeling of a Marionettist.

His field of vision and Senor’s vision overlapped at that moment. He saw dark-brown soil, wriggling insects, and various debris wedged in gaps between stones.

Penetrating layer after layer of obstacles, “he” and Sharron arrived at the area where the underground ruins had once existed. The dome had collapsed, stone pillars had broken, soil had filled the space, and rubble was scattered all around. Nothing looked as it originally had.

Such a scene made Klein believe that the humanoid statues of the six gods must have been completely destroyed.

What comforted him was that “he” and Sharron were in a location quite close to the room that had sealed the evil spirit. In other words, during the exploration that followed, he did not need to worry that the puppet’s range would exceed the one-hundred-meter control limit.

Amid the smell of soil and decay, Klein’s marionette and Sharron quickly entered that previously extremely dangerous room. However, amid the bricks and dirt, only the piles of white bones covered by rotting clothes remained with traces of being crushed. The dark golden and deep-blue lights that had once existed were all gone.

“The Beyonder characteristics were taken by the Nighthawks or the Machinery Hivemind…” Senor’s facial skin twitched, perfectly reflecting Klein’s current mood.

Sharron turned inside the deep, dark, solid environment and gently shook her head.

“They did not send anyone in. There are no traces of living beings having existed here.”

That’s true. If a living person had entered this room within half a year, a Wraith should be able to sense it… Besides, those god statues obviously couldn’t be seen by the Nighthawks and the Machinery Hivemind… Then where did these Beyonder characteristics go? Klein’s brows gradually knitted together, and Senor displayed the same reaction.

Could that evil spirit not have been completely destroyed? Did it escape from this place long ago? As Klein thought through the possibilities, he suddenly felt a chill.

Suppressing his emotions, he made Senor follow Sharron through the room filled with dirt and rubble, arriving at the place where that bloody door had once stood. Now, only a few fragments proved that the target had ever existed.

After advancing several meters, the two truly entered the room where the evil spirit had been sealed.

This place had likewise been destroyed and buried. Through Senor’s body and eyes, Klein wandered around and examined the area for clues.

“There should have been a black high-backed chair here,” Sharron said, stopping as she pointed at a piece of shattered wood wedged between two rocks.

Klein immediately remembered the scene he had once seen in a dream: the young man suspected to be Medici had sat on a high-backed chair, head lowered, appearing dead.

Sharron did not pause. Amid the pressure of the soil, she moved to the side, searching for other traces. Suddenly, she spoke again.

“There should have been one here as well.”

Another one? A second black high-backed chair? “Klein” drifted over in astonishment.