Chapter 39: Fate Stealer

Chapter 39: Fate Stealer

What sort of thing would a Snake of Fate find interesting and suitable?

Klein slowly sat up and propped a cushion behind his back.

After pondering for a while, he decided not to think about that matter for now. There was still at least more than a month before Will Auceptin was born, and he could still throw the problem to the Hermit Cattleya—or to the Queen of Mysteries, Bernadette, who stood behind her—and let them worry over it.

Of course, Klein did not rule out the possibility that Will Auceptin might suddenly get a whim and decide to be born prematurely.

Little by little, he shifted his attention back to the matter of creating a Worm of Time charm. According to the Snake of Fate, Will Auceptin, he already possessed almost all the necessary conditions. All he lacked was the corresponding symbolic sign.

Pray to the Fool and borrow the power of the mysterious space above the gray fog… I wonder whether the symbol corresponding to the Marauder pathway would work… Even if it does, I don’t know it. Unless I can pull a Marauder into the space above the gray fog and make the pattern behind the corresponding high-backed chair appear…

As Klein worked through the details, an idea suddenly occurred to him.

In that case, perhaps I can try the symbolic sign behind the Fool’s chair!

That special composite symbol formed from half the Pupil-less Eye, which represented secrecy, and half the Twisted Lines, which symbolized change.

“I don’t know whether it will be useful… Divination cannot be used by process of elimination, but I can predict whether the attempt will go smoothly. And even if it fails, it should not be a major problem. After all, I’m praying to myself. Even if the material is consumed in the experiment, it will only enter the space above the gray fog and won’t truly be lost…”

At that thought, Klein suddenly grew excited. Unable to help himself, he threw off the covers and got out of bed, preparing to conduct the “experiment” tonight.

The Worm of Time was material left behind by a Marauder demigod at Amon’s level. Although it was already dead, its essence and level remained. Even if a charm made from it could not reach the level of an angel due to various limitations, it would not be far off. It would belong to the pinnacle of saint-level power. If Klein succeeded, it would be the equivalent of gaining another trump card, one that might give him an extra life at a critical moment. How could that not make him excited? How could he not look forward to it?

I can only leverage a tiny portion of the mysterious space above the gray fog. The level of the Worm of Time charm will probably drop a little further, but no matter what, it should definitely be stronger than the Ninth Law that Admiral Amyrius gave me… If I use the Wailer’s Breath to make a high-level charm in the domain of devils, it should be about the same as the Ninth Law. Unfortunately, I don’t dare pray to the Dark Side of the Universe…

Wearing his pajamas and barefoot on the thick, soft carpet, Klein took four steps counterclockwise, recited the incantation in a low voice, and entered the space above the gray fog.

After taking his seat at the head of the long bronze table as the Fool, he manifested a dark-red, round-bodied fountain pen and a sheet of yellow-brown parchment, then wrote the corresponding divination statement:

“The charm-making I am about to begin will proceed smoothly.”

Removing the pendulum from inside his cuff, Klein held it in his left hand and entered meditation.

After repeating the divination statement seven times, he opened his eyes and looked ahead. The citrine pendant was rotating clockwise, slowly and with normal amplitude.

This means it will be smooth… But the problem is whether it will smoothly verify that the symbol works, or smoothly verify that it does not?

The veteran diviner Klein attempted to interpret the revelation, but he could not arrive at a definite answer.

With no other option, he could only decide to experiment. Otherwise, there was no way to eliminate the error.

Immediately afterward, Klein wrote another divination statement:

“The assassination of Mr. X this Friday will be dangerous.”

This time, the citrine pendant again rotated clockwise, but at greater speed and with a larger swing.

There is no small amount of danger, but it hasn’t reached the level where a demigod is involved, much less a King of Angels… If this truly involved an existence at that level, He would definitely have some awareness of my divination and make an effort to interfere with it… It seems the Angel of Fate, Ouroboros, will soon be drawn out of Backlund…

This means the danger itself is more concentrated on Mr. X and his subordinates. It falls within the range I can handle… As long as I don’t make a mistake, the chances are high…

Having made his judgment, Klein set down the paper and pen and returned to the real world.

As a mysticism expert who frequently crafted charms, he lacked none of the common materials. He immediately took out candles and lit them on the desk. Then, using the glow of dusk, he arranged a simple altar and used an engraving knife to carve the composite symbol representing the Fool onto the front of a thin silver sheet.

Since Klein himself did not know what spirit number the Fool corresponded to or what magical mark was associated with Him, he had no choice but to make the front and back identical. According to the books on charms he had read, this still met the rules of mysticism, but the corresponding power would be reduced, and the chance of failure would rise. After all, the existence one prayed to might conclude from this that the supplicant was insufficiently devout or respectful.

Of course, to Klein, that posed no problem whatsoever. He would not look down on himself.

After the preliminary engraving was complete, Klein found a small metal bottle and, using spirituality to guide the vessel, drew out the mercury within and filled the carved traces on the thin silver sheet.

For now, he only completed the front side. Then he summoned himself and answered himself, bringing the little bug with twelve transparent rings back to the room and placing it upon the silver sheet.

Having done all this, Klein adjusted the altar, stepped back two paces, and began in ancient Hermes:

“The Fool that doesn’t belong to this era…”

Following the proper procedure, he completed the corresponding steps. Then he took four steps counterclockwise and entered above the gray fog, accommodated the Black Emperor card, and used his own spirituality to leverage a small amount of power from the mysterious space above the gray fog, responding to the prayer.

At the same time that the surging power poured into the halo, Klein returned to the real world without hesitation. He saw the altar become deep and shadowed, as though hiding countless secrets. The thin silver sheet had already floated up and entered a half-fused state with the corpse of the Worm of Time.

Klein took two steps forward, flipped the thin silver sheet over, and filled the symbolic pattern on its back with mercury.

One line after another lit up, blooming with grayish radiance.

Klein quickly withdrew his hand and watched the glow grow increasingly dense, enveloping the silver sheet and the Worm of Time corpse within it.

Suddenly, the deep shadow of the altar twisted, and the entire space seemed to fall into abnormality.

That change vanished in a flash. A charm covered in strange markings slowly dropped onto the surface of the desk. Its whole body was half-translucent and deep black, like a small card made of special crystal, and also like the eye of some existence gazing upon this world.

Success! It really works!

Delight rose in Klein’s heart. He hurriedly stepped forward and picked up the charm, feeling an icy coldness against his fingers, as though he were touching a snowflake.

No matter what the final effect of the charm was, the fact that it had taken shape meant success!

Klein had obtained another high-level demigod charm.

He busied himself again, bringing the finished product above the gray fog and using dream divination to roughly understand its function.

This black-crystal-card-like charm had a single but extremely powerful effect: to steal another person’s fate.

More precisely, it grafted fate. It grafted the target’s fate for the coming period onto himself.

The simplest scenario is this: when an enemy is about to kill me, I use this charm and can steal his fate of successfully surviving, then graft my fate of impending death onto him. The result would be that although he clearly succeeded, he is the one who dies…

It is in line with the usual characteristics of the Marauder pathway, but even stranger and more terrifying… This really went from stealing money all the way to stealing fate…

If the Worm of Time were alive, and if I could completely mobilize the power of the mysterious space above the gray fog, then this charm might even point toward the domain of time…

As Klein’s thoughts wandered, he felt a surge of lingering fear.

If not for the isolation and “disinfection” provided by the gray fog, and without the help of a sliver of power from that mysterious space, he would have had no way whatsoever to deal with any Worm of Time.

Whew. Now it’s mine… It can’t be called Worm of Time anymore. I’ll call it Fate Stealer…

Klein busied himself once more, bringing the Fate Stealer charm back to the real world.

After handling the remnants of the ritual, he solemnly placed the high-level charm inside the iron cigarette case, beside Azik’s copper whistle and the Senor gold coin, then sealed and isolated it with a wall of spirituality.

In an excellent mood, Klein found that he no longer felt sleepy for the moment. With a swish, he pulled open a narrow gap in the curtains, letting the crimson moonlight outside shine in and illuminate the room with serenity and quiet.

While admiring the view, he suddenly saw a figure slip out from Councilman Macht’s residence and approach this direction along the shadows.

It was Hazel Macht. Once again, she reached the sewer entrance, moved aside the manhole cover, climbed down, and did not forget to restore it behind her.

Why does she keep running into the sewers? She probably isn’t using this route to go to other areas and play superhero in the mysterious world. After all, each time is less than an hour. Unless she has especially strong intelligence support, it would be hard to accomplish much, and she would easily be caught by an official organization…

Combining this with the scene Magic Mirror Arrodes showed me, she looks more like she is searching for something… Mm, if she keeps exploring deeper into the sewers like that, she will easily encounter danger…

Standing behind the gap in the curtains, Klein quietly observed the various things happening beneath the calm night.

He did not try to warn Hazel, nor did he directly use a Wraith possession to teach her the danger of the extraordinary world. First, his judgment that Hazel knew too little of the mysterious world and therefore held a powerful sense of superiority was largely subjective and could not yet be confirmed. Second, he did not know why she possessed Beyonder powers and a mystical item. Giving her a well-intentioned reminder as repayment for her previous good deed would very easily draw unnecessary attention—or even trouble.

After enjoying the peace of the night for a while, Klein returned to bed and slept until morning.

Before Richardson entered, he transformed into Gehrman Sparrow and prayed to the Fool:

“…I can accept this mission. But regardless of success or failure, I require one stone from your bracelet and the right to use that magic book for a period of time.

“If the mission succeeds, all spoils of battle belong to me. You may only take the target’s head.

“If necessary, you will also have to provide assistance.”