Chapter 80: Myth from Another Angle

Chapter 80: Myth from Another Angle

The moment Klein saw that painting clearly through the Wraith Senor’s vision, his heartbeat abruptly accelerated. The pounding was so intense that even he could hear it.

As a Seer skilled in interpreting revelations and symbols, he felt all the blood in his body rushing madly toward his head, making his mind swell and spin, as though obstructing further thought.

Yet even so, an illusory voice belonging to himself echoed in his mind, filled with terror.

That— that dismembered and devoured figure should represent the ancient Sun God, should represent the Creator worshiped by the City of Silver, the Lord who created everything, the omniscient and omnipotent God!

And the three sinister figures surrounding Him… I, I have seen them before!

Inside Backlund’s underground ruins, in the place where that terrifying evil spirit was sealed!

They existed in the form of statues. They did not look as evil as they do in this painting. They respectively represented—represented:

The Eternal Blazing Sun, the Lord of Storms, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom!

All at once, Klein remembered a term he had once obtained, a term received from directly facing the Eternal Blazing Sun:

Pure White Angel!

This… It cannot be… Could the Eternal Blazing Sun once have been an angel beside the ancient Sun God? Little Sun once mentioned that in Afternoon Town, he had heard a clergyman of the Creator muttering certain things in a tone of confession and prophecy. Among them was this sentence: “The Kings frequently gather in the palace that belongs to dusk to conspire”… The Eternal Blazing Sun was originally called the Pure White Angel, was also a King of Angels, and also betrayed that Creator?

And He, together with the Lord of Storms, the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, and that pitch-black infant representing some unknown existence, seized the greatest benefits, dividing and devouring the corpse of the City of Silver’s Creator… The scriptures of the major Churches all record that those three most ancient deities were formed from the spirit of the Primordial Creator… From a certain angle, does this seem like a veiled hint at their dark history?

If my guess is true, then the Lord of Storms and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom should also have been Kings of Angels beside the City of Silver’s Creator, the ancient Sun God. Perhaps They should be called the Wind Angel and the Wisdom Angel…

In that case, the eight Kings of Angels are complete: the Dark Angel, the Pure White Angel, the Wind Angel, the Wisdom Angel, the Angel of Imagination, the Angel of Time, the Angel of Fate, and the Red Angel… Judging from what little Sun heard and the later situations of these Kings of Angels, it seems that, apart from Amon and Adam, the two sons of God, all the other Kings of Angels betrayed that Creator… That ancient Sun God really was rather miserable… However, this painting may not necessarily be true. It could be slander. It remains doubtful…

I wonder which existence that pitch-black infant sitting inside the ancient Sun God’s abdomen represents… The True Creator feels very suspicious…

In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through Klein’s mind. The deeper he thought, the stronger the urge became to turn around and leave, pretending he had never seen that painting.

At that moment, the uncontrollable fear inside him even made him hallucinate that the Eternal Blazing Sun, the Lord of Storms, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom were casting their gazes down from the astral world, watching him.

Who left this painting behind? Who could know so many secrets, and who clearly stands on the ancient Sun God’s side? Other angels and saints who constantly followed the Creator worshiped by the City of Silver and remained faithful to Him?

Cold sweat seeped out along Klein’s back, and his body even trembled faintly.

Although Alger’s observational abilities were inferior to Miss Justice’s, he was still an experienced Beyonder. In this environment that required constant vigilance and alertness, it was not difficult for him to notice that something had gone wrong with Gehrman Sparrow. He seemed slightly abnormal.

“What is it?” he asked in a low voice.

Klein suddenly felt somewhat jolted awake. While having the Wraith Senor move his gaze away, he pointed at the circular area where no stone coffin had been placed and said, “You will understand if you take a look.”

A painting that made even Gehrman tremble—would I lose control directly if I looked at it? He did not stop me but suggested I look, so the problem should not be too great. But it cannot be ruled out that he has already lost his mind and is only pretending to be normal…

Several thoughts flashed through Alger’s mind in an instant. In the end, he carried the lantern and stepped forward steadily, walking toward the central area.

After seven or eight steps, he saw the dark-toned painting clearly.

In only three or four seconds, both his hands, one holding the short blade and the other the lantern, trembled beyond control, as if he had contracted some disease of the brain.

At the Tarot Club, through the World, Gehrman Sparrow, he had once seen human statues of the six orthodox gods. Naturally, he could identify the three figures chewing an arm, tearing at the heart, and sucking out brain matter as the Lord of Storms, the Eternal Blazing Sun, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom!

Although he had once, under Qilangos’s coercion, done something disloyal to the Church; although he had joined the Tarot Club and was drifting farther and farther from the Abyss of Storms, believing in Mr. Fool while seeking greater strength and greater power; although he had repeatedly sold Church intelligence and acted passively in certain matters, he had always felt that he could still be counted as a believer of the Lord of Storms—merely not especially devout and insufficiently zealous.

At that moment, however, he sincerely believed from the bottom of his heart that he had committed a grave crime of blasphemy, to the point that he nearly wanted to gouge out his own eyes in terror.

The fact that I did not directly kill myself means I truly have become a false believer…

Alger did not dare look for long. He turned around, looked toward Gehrman Sparrow, and asked in a voice still shaking, “Were those three all Kings of Angels?”

“I cannot give you a definite answer. I can only tell you that the Eternal Blazing Sun has a close connection to the Pure White Angel,” Klein replied vaguely.

As expected… Alger immediately felt that the possibility of the Lord of Storms, the Eternal Blazing Sun, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom once having been Kings of Angels was extremely high.

As for Gehrman Sparrow’s inability to confirm the matter, Alger did not find it strange or surprising. After all, the other party was only a Blessed, not Mr. Fool Himself.

Alger was just about to speak when he abruptly heard a sharp, screeching sound.

It was as if someone inside a stone coffin were scratching the lid with fingernails!

No—not as if. That was exactly what it was!

Screeech! Scrape! Scrraaape!

From both sides, a total of three stone coffins emitted sharp, piercing friction. Then their heavy gray-white lids were either pushed open or exploded outright. Three twisted figures stood up.

One of them wore an ancient white robe that had almost turned gray. Its face was rotten and pitted, while on its neck, forehead, and the backs of its hands grew one deep, dark eye after another.

On the same side as it, another figure had enormous palms and thick fingers that looked as if they were carved from wood. Its surface was covered in yellow-green pus, while mist of the same color spread outward, corroding the stone coffin beside it.

On the other side, the third figure wore a tattered brown jacket and a tricorn hat topped with a white skull. In many places, its skin had rotted away completely, exposing bare bone.

From beneath its clothing, from inside its trousers, one slippery, thick, fish-scaled tentacle after another emerged. It naturally radiated an aura of majesty, savagery, tyranny, and terror. This even gave Klein the feeling of facing a high-Sequence existence of the Storm pathway, though the figure’s own state did not seem to truly reach that level.

The three dead who had crawled out of their stone coffins simultaneously cast their gazes toward Gehrman Sparrow and Alger’s position. Around one of them, silver-white brightness flared, and electric currents crackled. One reflected the figures of the two men in countless eyes. The last spread yellow-green mist outward and created brown vines one after another.

At the same time, thudding footsteps hurried and heavy approached. It seemed a six-winged gargoyle was rushing here.

Seeing this, Klein showed no panic. His left hand, holding Leymano’s Travels, reached into his pocket, pierced through the wall of spirituality, and used only two fingers to pinch out Azik’s copper whistle.

Immediately afterward, he flicked his wrist and tossed the copper whistle toward the other side of the hall. Just as expected, the three terrifying mutated dead reacted like well-trained hounds. All of them turned at once and charged toward it.

When Alger saw that scene, his gaze first froze, then he made a decision. Throwing down the lantern, he strode forward, charging toward the entrance.

His experience told him that Gehrman Sparrow could deal with those three terrifying dead at once. What he needed to do was stop the six-winged gargoyle and prevent it from interfering with the mad adventurer’s battle.

Bang!

Just as Alger arrived beside the door, he saw the paired, towering stone doors shatter into pieces. A six-winged gargoyle holding a seven- or eight-meter stone halberd directly smashed its way inside.

He immediately inhaled. Fury burned in his eyes. His muscles swelled, and with the help of the howling wind, he charged forward and swung the short blade wrapped in silver-white lightning.

Bang!

Avoiding the heavy stone halberd that came smashing down, he struck the six-winged gargoyle’s lower abdomen with both fist and short blade at once.

In that instant, electric light flashed and stone fragments flew. Alger was sent flying backward, while the six-winged gargoyle’s forward momentum was forcibly interrupted.

Pfft! Alger crashed heavily to the ground. Because he had created an “air cushion” in time, he did not suffer any relatively serious injuries.

By then, the three dead had already gathered together and begun fighting over Azik’s copper whistle.

Klein looked at them and calmly opened Leymano’s Travels, making the upward-facing page stop on a scorched-yellow sheet covered with complex patterns and symbols.

This was the demigod-level ability he had recorded not long ago:

Lightning Storm!

Then, with the hand gripping the Death Knell revolver, Klein extended a finger and effortlessly slid it over that page of the notebook.

At the same time, he looked at the three mutated dead fighting over Azik’s copper whistle and greeted them in a low voice.

“Bye-bye.”

Amid sizzling sounds, one silver-white bolt of lightning after another leapt into existence, weaving together and transforming into a storm that enveloped the region where Azik’s copper whistle lay, enveloping those three mutated dead.

The entire burial hall was instantly illuminated as if by daylight, nearly forcing Alger’s eyes shut. The violent, terrifying aura made him tremble instinctively.

With the wind’s help, the storm forming in his eyes, Alger sprang up and charged once more toward the six-winged gargoyle that was trying to attack Gehrman Sparrow.