Chapter 65: Priest

Chapter 65: Priest

The enormous black-and-white eye was half transparent, drifting silently behind layer upon layer of rich, vivid, overlapping colors. It showed neither hostility nor friendliness.

In that instant, Klein remembered a passage from the notebook Travels in the Spirit World. One of the Abraham family’s ancestors had written:

“Try not to meet the gaze of any spirit-world creature for more than three seconds. That is a provocative act, unless they have already expressed a desire to communicate. Nor should you make yourself appear terrified or nervous, as that will increase certain predators’ desire to attack.”

As the corresponding words flowed through his mind, Klein withdrew his gaze and continued “chasing” the hardwood cane flying ahead of him at a pace neither fast nor slow.

His figure, clad in black full-body armor, crowned in pitch-black majesty, and draped in a cloak of the same color, entered that round eye, then quickly passed through and moved far away without causing the slightest change.

In essence, the spirit world is an extremely dangerous place. If one is careless, one might encounter a terrifying existence at the level of a demigod… Klein continued shuttling forward, discovering that this place truly was chaotic. The seven clear lights that could be used to mark position were indeed always high above, covering the “sky,” yet from time to time, he could also see Them beneath his feet, to his left and right, and before and behind him.

If not for the black cane providing a fixed location, Klein would not have been able to distinguish direction at all.

Suddenly, through the thin, almost illusory fog, he saw what would, by normal human concepts, be the lower left: a floating castle.

The entire castle was black. Its spires rose high, covered in vines, giving it an intensely gothic style.

At the very top of the castle stood a half-transparent woman. She was almost as tall as the castle itself and wore a complicated, gorgeous, yet dim and gloomy black dress. She had no head. At her neck was a neat, clean cut, while her drooping hands held four heads with golden hair, red eyes, and strikingly beautiful faces. If one examined them carefully, one would discover that all four heads looked exactly alike.

As Klein, dressed in the manner of the Black Emperor, passed by, the four heads held by the woman blinked together.

Klein did not respond. He ignored them entirely and flew onward.

The woman slowly turned her body, letting the heads in her hands watch him go.

What kind of monsters are these… The thought had only just flashed through Klein’s mind when he saw the black cane rapidly “fall” downward.

He hurriedly chased after it, once again tasting the sensation of free fall.

Seven or eight seconds later, a half-hidden, collapsed building appeared “ahead” of him.

Outside that building floated a spirit-world creature like a gigantic jellyfish. It stretched out one transparent tentacle after another, all covered in mucus, taking the surrounding area into its “territory.”

At the end of every tentacle grew a white skull whose eye sockets were dark and deep. As the tentacles swayed lightly and slowly, those skulls shook without pause.

The black cane passed through this bizarre spirit-world creature and hovered before the nearly illusory collapsed building.

Found it? Klein first felt delight, then immediately grew calm and grave as he looked toward the gigantic “jellyfish” waving skull-headed tentacles.

He was ready for battle, but did not attack at once. Instead, he tried to radiate outward the heavy, profound majesty brought by the high status of the Black Emperor card, meeting those dark, deep eye sockets with an indifferent gaze.

After three frozen seconds, Klein spoke in a low voice, uttering a word in ancient Hermes:

“Leave!”

The tentacles tipped with skulls twitched twice. Then the gigantic “jellyfish” slowly floated up and vanished into the depths of the spirit world.

The Black Emperor card…