Chapter 198: Making Use of the Special

Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Eight
Making Use of the Special

The silver charm abruptly turned icy cold, like a crystal pressed together from layer upon layer of snow.

Klein shivered. His mind cleared in an instant, while fear and panic seemed temporarily frozen.

He hurriedly poured his spirituality into the charm and used his fingers to push the thin silver sheet out of his pocket, letting it fall by his feet.

Dark-red flames appeared in midair. A series of faint, continuous explosions echoed densely.

A quiet, profound sensation spread outward at once, enveloping nearly half the bedroom. It enveloped Madam Sharon and the Sleepless Kernli, and also Klein himself.

The Slumber Charm itself was an item that made no distinction between friend and foe. When used normally, it had to be thrown—thrown at the enemy.

That way, the user would at most be affected by the aftershock and would not be unable to resist the temptation of sleep.

But now, Klein’s arms were wrapped by countless invisible threads. He had no way to throw the charm. He could only exchange his own slumber for Madam Sharon’s.

Yet he had considered and prepared for similar circumstances long ago, because this involved his own special nature—something that distinguished him from the majority of low- and mid-Sequence Beyonders.

In that instant, Klein’s eyelids drooped. He entered an abnormal sleep, entered a dream, while Madam Sharon and the dazed Kernli both showed corresponding sluggishness and stillness.

Under this abnormal pattern, Klein swiftly recovered himself inside the dream and rationally realized that he was asleep.

Whenever forced dream invasion and similar hypnotic effects were involved, he could maintain clarity!

It had been the same when he encountered Dunn’s Nightmare ability, and it had been the same when Daly spirit channeled him.

Crack!

Klein forcibly shattered the dream and woke. He sensed that the countless threads binding his arms, legs, and body had loosened slightly. No longer taut. Beside the full-length mirror, Madam Sharon’s expression was confused, as if she was about to shake off the Slumber Charm’s effect but had not truly awakened. Kernli had collapsed to the floor, the Spirit Medium’s Mirror overturned nearby, while his revolver had bounced to the side of the door.

An opportunity!

Klein seized the loosened state of the fine threads. He pulled out his left palm and snapped his fingers with a pap, igniting a pale-blue spiritual flame, then burned it toward the countless threads ahead.

At the same time, his right hand lifted the revolver and pulled the trigger twice in succession.

Bang! Bang!

Two silver Demon-hunting Bullets drilled out from the barrel, shooting toward Madam Sharon.

Klein did not check the result. His knees bent, his waist and back exerted strength, and he rolled toward Kernli, using that movement to snap the threads still wrapped around him.

His main purpose in firing just now had been to notify the Captain outside, to tell Dunn Smith that an accident had occurred inside and that combat had begun. Please come quickly to provide support. Of course, if the shots directly hit Madam Sharon, that would be the best result, the most perfect development.

But Klein did not believe a Beyonder who might be Sequence 7, or even Sequence 6, would be that easy to deal with.

With a whoosh, strands of pale-blue flame burned in midair. They were the threads that had been ignited. Within that dreamlike scene, the two silver Demon-hunting Bullets accurately struck Madam Sharon’s body.

Crack. Crack.

Madam Sharon’s half-hidden body inside the translucent nightgown shattered like the crimson moon reflected in a lake. The full-length mirror beside her cracked along with it. Most of it broke into fragments smaller than a thumbnail, while a few pieces still clung to the frame, each like a palm—strange, malformed palms.

A substitute? A Beyonder ability from the Demoness Sequence?

Klein swept the scene from the corner of his eye and had already rolled to Kernli’s side. Because the threads had been torn apart by his actions, the pale-blue flames burning in midair did not spread toward him.

At that moment, Madam Sharon had vanished. As for Kernli, who was in “slumber,” he stretched out both hands and seized his own throat, squeezing until saliva leaked from his mouth and his tongue protruded, yet still refusing to let go.

In Klein’s spirit vision, however, there was nothing strange nearby.

He abruptly thought of one line in the information regarding Sealed Artifact 3-0217:

The most dangerous situation is seeing oneself.

“Could Kernli have seen Sealed Artifact 3-0217 reflect himself through the full-length mirror just now?”

The thought flashed through Klein’s mind. Without time to consider further, he took out another silver charm.

It was triangular.

It was a Requiem Charm.

“Crimson!”

Klein uttered the ancient Hermes word while infusing the charm with spirituality, then threw it out.

At the same time, his left hand pressed down and touched the Spirit Medium’s Mirror.

He had confirmed from the corner of his eye earlier that this Sealed Artifact was facing downward, and would not reflect him.

The triangular silver charm burned with ice-blue flames. Gentle, peaceful blackness covered Kernli and rippled over Klein himself.

All tension and unease vanished at once. Kernli’s movement of strangling himself slowed sharply. Klein no longer felt as though he stood on a battlefield, but rather as though he were standing before the oriel window at home, gazing down upon the street in the stillness of deep night, his body and mind both gaining tranquility.

This was precisely the change Klein had hoped for.

At that moment, he entered a state of extreme serenity. The whole world seemed to contain only him, with nothing else existing at all.

Borrowing that feeling, an intuition-like thought flashed suddenly through his mind:

Madam Sharon is going to attack my right waist!

This was the Clown’s precognitive ability in combat. Without hesitation, Klein grabbed the Spirit Medium’s Mirror and rolled to the left.

He had only just moved when a dagger burning with pitch-black flames silently stabbed toward where he had been moments before—toward his right waist.

Madam Sharon’s figure outlined itself once more.

In the midst of the roll, Klein suddenly raised the Spirit Medium’s Mirror and aimed it at Madam Sharon.

His reason for getting close to Kernli, aside from rescuing his teammate, had mainly been to pick up this Sealed Artifact.

Otherwise, he did not believe he could hold out under Madam Sharon’s attacks until the Captain came to his aid and obtain a good ending. The Sunflame Charm could indeed be used against Beyonders, but it was not as effective as bullying undead creatures, and the other party would not stupidly stand still and let him use the charm.

If there truly had been no other way, Klein could only have risked using Azik’s copper whistle.

Explanations could wait until after he had survived.

However, the situation developed better than Klein had expected. Madam Sharon had chosen assassination and had not interrupted his attempt to use the Requiem Charm and press down on the Spirit Medium’s Mirror.

Thus, Klein instantly designed a simple plan: do not avoid the aftershock of Requiem, use it to heighten the Clown’s precognitive ability, then seize the opportunity to evade the attack and use the Spirit Medium’s Mirror to reflect the enemy.

Wearing a translucent nightgown, Madam Sharon missed with her strike and was about to chase the agile rolling opponent when she suddenly saw a mirror—a mirror with three small cracks.

Ripples spread across the mirror’s surface, and a woman’s figure appeared within it. Her hair was black and dense, hanging straight down and concealing her face.

Klein’s left hand trembled. The Spirit Medium’s Mirror slid forward over the carpet by several dozen centimeters, face-up.

A pale hand reached out from the mirror. The woman wearing a white bedsheet-like dress swiftly crawled out and lunged toward Madam Sharon.

Madam Sharon’s expression turned slightly gloomy. A layer of shadow dyed her pure brown eyes.

Seven black flames began to coil around her.

With a whoosh, one black flame flew out and struck the white-dressed woman whose long hair concealed her face.

Woo!

That woman burned. She released a painful groan and soon vanished.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Black flames shot toward Klein one after another like bullets chasing in a chain.

Klein’s pupils contracted. He hurriedly rolled, not daring to pause for even a moment.

Yet his rolling gradually became sluggish, because near-invisible threads were once again wrapping around him, slowing his speed and affecting his movements.

This was simply the nemesis of the Clown’s combat ability.

One black flame brushed past Klein’s cheek and landed on Madam Sharon’s large bed. Yet it did not burn, as though it could affect only living beings—or spiritual things.

Before Klein had time to feel glad that he had dodged the earlier strike, another premonition suddenly flashed through his mind.

Thus, he fiercely pulled his spine, changing from a forward roll to a side roll.

A transparent ice-crystal spear abruptly appeared, stabbing into the carpet, into the next position Klein had originally planned to enter.

White frost spread outward, reaching Klein, whose movement was being hampered by the threads.

He shuddered violently. His body stiffened. Although he could still move, he became considerably slower.

Seeing new black flames coil again around Madam Sharon, and seeing a transparent frost spear condense in her hand, Klein hesitated no longer. He reached into his pocket and gripped Azik’s copper whistle.

Ho. Ho. Ho.

Just then, Kernli shook off the influence of Requiem and Slumber. He climbed up and gazed hollowly toward Madam Sharon.

A layer of shadow seemed to cover his face, silent and eerie.

Thud, thud, thud. “Kernli” pounced toward Madam Sharon, who was closest to him.

Madam Sharon narrowed her eyes slightly and made the black flames surrounding her shoot out one by one, striking “Kernli.”

Pfft, pfft, pfft. Those black flames vanished like snowflakes, failing to produce any effect.

Klein first froze. Then he raised his right hand and fired at Madam Sharon’s current position.

Bang!

Madam Sharon dodged in advance and threw the frost spear. However, it only struck “Kernli,” piercing his clothing, failing to pierce the skin, failing to create any freezing.

Bang! Klein fired again. Madam Sharon flashed to the side of the shattered full-length mirror and picked up a palm-sized fragment.

She continued moving agilely, dodging bullets, while using that irregular fragment to reflect “Kernli,” who was once again lunging at her, making his figure enter the mirror.

Immediately afterward, Madam Sharon dodged while wiping her black-flame-covered palm over the mirror’s surface.

At that moment, Klein had emptied his bullets. He could only swing out the cylinder, letting casings and revolver fall together onto the carpet.

He had just rolled over and picked up Kernli’s revolver when he suddenly heard his teammate’s scream.

“Kernli” stopped. He bent over and began vomiting—vomiting bile, vomiting a fresh red heart, vomiting lungs and a stomach that burned with black flames.