Chapter 187: Exchanging Intelligence

Chapter 187: Exchanging Intelligence

“The True Creator”?

The ravings that filled this sea came from the True Creator? Hearing the answer given by the Queen of Mysteries, Klein felt both astonished and rather relieved.

What relieved him was that, just as the Queen of Mysteries had said, if she had not boarded the ship, then even with a Sealed Artifact that reduced hearing in every sense, Heath Doyle would still have found it very difficult to avoid mutation.

For low- and mid-Sequence Beyonders of other pathways, as long as they did not directly hear the True Creator’s ravings, the most they would suffer would be depression or mania, along with the occasional nightmare. They would not receive any obvious harm. But for a Rose Bishop, the Sequence 0 of his pathway was the True Creator. Wandering constantly inside that evil god’s ravings, even if Heath himself were deaf, he would inevitably develop problems sooner or later.

Once Heath Doyle went mad or lost control, given the special nature of this sea, it would indeed be very difficult for the others aboard the ship to escape disaster. Still, Klein believed that as long as he could survive the initial assault and gain a chance to pray to The Fool, then go above the gray fog and respond with the Sea God Scepter, he would still be able to resolve the problem.

What astonished him was that the owner of the ravings completely contradicted his previous speculation. He had originally believed this sea to be the battlefield where the ancient gods of the Second Epoch fought the Creator worshiped by the City of Silver. He had suspected that subordinate gods—the corresponding angels—had also taken part. Who could have known that the entire starting point seemed to be wrong? After all, the True Creator should have first appeared around the time of the Cataclysm in the Third Epoch!

I can’t rule out the possibility that the ravings were left here later… Klein did not make a blind judgment. He watched the Queen of Mysteries pass him, her hand brushing over the sculptures on the railing as she slowly descended.

The lady’s back was tall and graceful, her proportions excellent, her figure neither too full nor too thin. Her chestnut hair fell simply over her shoulders.

For some inexplicable reason, Klein found that back view familiar. After recalling events related to the Queen of Mysteries, he finally remembered the source of that familiarity.

When he had visited the Roselle Memorial Exhibition to search for the Card of Blasphemy, he had seen a similar back view. At the time, the person’s attire had been rather strange. She had clearly been wearing a girlish yellow cake dress, yet on her head was a rather old-fashioned black soft cap.

“That should have been the Queen of Mysteries. She had gone to the Roselle Memorial Exhibition in advance as well… What she was looking at back then were the basic education textbooks the Emperor had improved for his children, the chess and building blocks he invented… She was certain that what I took was the Black Emperor card…

“The Emperor’s eldest daughter, Bernadette, founded Element Dawn to oppose the Moses Ascetic Order. And judging from the diaries, this lady greatly admired the motto ‘Do what thou wilt, but harm none.’ From those two points, it can be inferred that she is very likely a demigod of the Mystery Pryer pathway…

“Sequence 4 of the Mystery Pryer pathway is Mysticologist… Queen of Mysteries… Of course, the Queen of Mysteries has been famous across the seas for decades, perhaps a century. She is certainly more than Sequence 4 now. Mm. After Cattleya left the Queen of Mysteries, she joined the Moses Ascetic Order…

“This queen cares a great deal about whether Roselle’s diary can be interpreted…”

Bits and pieces of information interwove, and Klein suddenly formed a guess.

Perhaps the Queen of Mysteries was Emperor Roselle’s eldest daughter, Bernadette Gustav!

That might explain why her clothing style had the flavor of Earth yet was also so strange. She had been deeply influenced by the Emperor’s tastes in that regard, while being unable to entirely escape the trends of the current era. As a result, she had combined them into a unique and peculiar personal style… As for whether it looked good, that was another matter. A beautiful person could look good even wearing a sack; that was fashion… Klein lampooned inwardly. Outwardly, he remained silent, reserved, and unhurried as he followed the Queen of Mysteries down the ornate staircase.

The Queen of Mysteries did not turn back. As she walked, she said, “This dream world is not very large. It has only two parts. One is the projection of the Giant King’s Court on the mountain opposite, and the other is the black monastery on this side.”

“The Giant King’s Court?” Klein’s mind instantly flashed to that magnificent complex of buildings standing within frozen dusk.

That was actually the projection of the Giant King’s Court!

And Little Sun and the others were currently at the entrance to the real Giant King’s Court: Afternoon Town!

In her gentle yet emotionless voice, the Queen of Mysteries said, “That is my guess, because it greatly resembles Feysac’s Twilight Giant Hall.

“And in the Fourth Epoch, there were always rumors saying that the God of Combat was an ancient giant who survived from before the Cataclysm.”

The God of Combat pathway is the Giant pathway… Klein inwardly agreed with the Queen of Mysteries’ guess.

At that moment, he remembered that among the mythological information Little Sun had provided, the description of the Giant King’s Court included the phrase “forever in dusk.” That matched the characteristic of the wonder atop the opposite mountain.

From the True Creator just now to the Giant King’s Court now, the Queen has revealed two extremely valuable pieces of intelligence… Is she showing goodwill to me—no, to the one behind me? Heh, the only one behind me is myself… Klein replied calmly, “The true Giant King’s Court is in the Forsaken Land of the Gods.”

He deliberately said it in a rather casual tone, intending to demonstrate his own value, as well as the status of the one standing behind him.

The Queen of Mysteries stopped. Her right palm rested against the railing covered in elaborate sculptures. She half-turned and looked at Gehrman Sparrow, speaking neither quickly nor slowly.

“Rumors say that the path to the Forsaken Land of the Gods is hidden on the mountain opposite, inside the projection of the Giant King’s Court.”

So Little Sun and the others have begun exploring Afternoon Town? But didn’t little Jack say that they appeared by the sea? Is there a switch inside the Giant King’s Court and another inside its projection, both needing to be opened in advance before the two seas can connect?

This place is filled with the ravings of the True Creator, hides the secret of the Forsaken Land of the Gods, and contains residual powers of the Darkness, Sun, Storm, Earth, and Spectator pathways. This seems like it can correspond to the Cataclysm!

After the Cataclysm, the Forsaken Land of the Gods was cut off from the outside world. The Goddess, the Eternal Blazing Sun, the Lord of Storms, and the Earth Mother saved the world. The True Creator appeared… Only the Spectator pathway’s imagined manifestation does not fit… Klein made speculations based on the information he currently had.

The Queen of Mysteries continued descending, shifting topics.

“The black monastery on this side does not look large, but every building and every floor represents a different place in this sea. Behind each door may be hidden the dream of a living creature.”

So that’s how it is… Klein glanced at the stairway railing and discovered that the sculptures on it were mainly human heads. At a rough glance, they looked ornate; upon closer inspection, they were terrifying. He casually asked, “Whose dream does this stairway belong to?”

“An undead from the Numinous Episcopate. He came here to search for traces left behind by the former Death. That is one of the necessary elements for an artificial Death. But he lost control within the ravings and now eternally wanders an underwater ruin, transforming every adventurer who dares enter into a living corpse belonging to him,” the Queen of Mysteries explained calmly.

A divine war that erupted here involved Death too? No wonder Admiral of Hell enters this sea to adventure from time to time… Klein suddenly understood.

He was not shocked by the matter of an artificial Death, because he had already heard the Undying Witch Katarina Pelle mention it before. Moreover, the Numinous Episcopate still seemed rather far from success.

At that moment, the Queen of Mysteries had just finished descending the staircase and turned back to look at him.

Immediately afterward, the lady turned into a corridor and entered this level of the building.

Klein looked around and discovered that there were no further stairs down. This seemed to be the ground floor.

The Queen of Mysteries stopped before a black wooden door covered in strange patterns. Reaching out to grasp the handle, she said, “I have always suspected that the dream inside is the key that supports this place’s existence. The residual power of Darkness merely provided the possibility for such development.”

As she spoke, she turned the handle and opened the door.

The black door slowly retreated inward. What lay inside was not the room Klein had imagined, but an expanse of sea.

The sea was illuminated by dazzling sunlight, and within the water seemed to be large swaths of rich golden color.

As the door opened, Klein felt a breath of unimaginable intensity leak out slightly. The entire building began shaking noticeably. Dust above and stone bricks from the walls fell one after another.

Faintly, Klein had a premonition that the dream was about to shatter.

At that moment, the Queen of Mysteries pulled back her right hand and tightly closed the black wooden door once more. Everything returned to normal.

“Even I do not dare enter here,” said this major figure of the mysterious world.

“There are still certain dreams left behind by certain gods here,” Klein said calmly, adopting the posture of someone with a backer who had long since grasped part of the situation.

The Queen of Mysteries turned around, her blue eyes sweeping over Gehrman Sparrow’s face.

“This sea, this black monastery, hides many secrets. What I understand may not even amount to one percent.”

She stopped speaking and quietly looked at Gehrman Sparrow, as though waiting for something.

The pressure is immense… Klein thought for a moment, then probed, “Do you know the incantation to activate the Black Emperor card?”

The Queen of Mysteries fell silent for several seconds, then shook her head.

Klein looked into her eyes and said, “Bernadette.”

The entire corridor became so quiet that even breathing seemed absent. The Queen of Mysteries’ lips moved once, then closed again.

Her blue eyes briefly lost focus, but they soon regained their depth.

The Queen of Mysteries slowly turned around and walked toward the black stairway entrance. Her voice remained unchanged as she said, “The dream is about to end.”

Klein watched her back ascend the black staircase step by step, until blinding brilliance swallowed every image.

…

Afternoon Town.

Seeing candle flames light up one after another in the houses outside, the dead city-state abruptly seemed to gain life. Derrick and the others felt as though they had fallen into a nightmare, and their nerves instantly tightened.

Demon Hunter Colin examined the scene for several seconds, then said gravely, “We are in the real world.

“The power of the altar has leaked out.”