Chapter 67: High Elf

Chapter 67: High Elf

Layer upon layer of illusory prayers poured into his ears. Klein felt as though he now possessed a body, and deep within his head, waves of stabbing pain struck one after another, so intense that he almost wanted to smash his skull against the wall and use pain to stop pain.

The images of prayer that came from different people caused an uncontrollable and terrifying dizziness to rise within him. It was as though he were walking at the edge of an abyss, about to fall at any moment.

If not for the Black Emperor card and Azik’s copper whistle reinforcing his spirit body, and if not for his usual familiarity with the sensation of being prayed to, then any non-demigod Sequence Beyonder in his place would already have lost control outright, collapsing in agony, mutating into a monster or disintegrating into flesh and blood.

All the Beyonder characteristics here have used that serpent fang to fuse into a Sealed Artifact, and its danger level and negative effects far exceed Grade 2… Klein did not advance blindly. Instead, he retreated a few steps, leaving the area where the prayers were most concentrated and easing the pain and vertigo that threatened to tear his spirit body apart.

Standing beside Kalvetua’s sludge-like remains, he stared at the white scepter inserted into the half-toppled pillar and began considering how to take it away.

At the same time, in his heart, he naturally gave this Sealed Artifact a name:

Sea God Scepter!

Judging from my reaction just now, I should barely be able to get close, pull it free, and support myself for a few seconds, but there is no way I can carry and use it for long… Still, that is fine. The moment I obtain it, I can end the summoning and return above the gray fog. There, I can effectively block those thousands upon thousands of prayers and whatever negative effects I do not yet understand, allowing me to study it safely… Klein soon had a plan.

There was no need to toss a coin again. In his Wraith state, he could instinctively communicate with the spirit world and obtain revelations.

His spiritual intuition told him that the danger was not great.

Having made his decision, Klein began cleaning up the aftermath while conveniently checking what could be found in the ancient elven ruins.

First, he walked to a corner, picked up the translucent Biological Poison Bottle, screwed the cap back on, and tucked it into his body. Then, as he turned back, he discovered that beneath Kalvetua’s rotten-mud-like remains, an iron cigarette case was half hidden and half exposed.

This… I thought Kalvetua swallowed it into his stomach and that it had already been corroded into dregs… Klein clicked his tongue in surprise and quickly walked over.

Because the electric currents scattered through the seawater had left him somewhat numb, he lifted his right hand slightly and made the iron cigarette case slowly float upward on its own, landing in his palm.

Sweeping his gaze over it, Klein saw that its surface was covered in signs of corrosion, but it was still barely usable. As for the other objects that had been sucked away by the seawater vortex back then, not the slightest trace remained.

Was it the aura of the gray fog that made Kalvetua uncomfortable, causing him to spit it out on the spot? Or did the cigarette case undergo a certain mutation, making it corrode more slowly and allowing it to last until Kalvetua died? Puzzled, Klein casually placed the cigarette case into his body, planning to study it after leaving.

In a situation like this, every second mattered. He could not afford the slightest delay, because Klein had no idea when the Church of Storms and the kingdom’s military might find this place.

Making a wide circle around the half-toppled pillar, he entered the back portion of the almost entirely collapsed hall.

There should originally have been many murals here, but as the walls were destroyed, they had shattered and vanished. Klein flew all the way to the end before seeing a delicate, magnificent throne buried beneath stones and pillars, only roughly a third of it exposed.

To the left of the throne was half of a remaining mural. Its content was a confrontation between two figures.

The one looking down on his enemy from above was a man standing upon ocean waves, crowned by storm clouds and draped in tempests. His features were relatively soft, leaning toward the Eastern charm that Klein remembered from his previous life. In his hand, he held a long spear formed purely from lightning. Behind him stretched an ocean that seemed to drown everything.

Below that man stood a figure dressed in a simple white robe. His face was blurred, making his age impossible to determine. One could only barely identify him as male.

Behind the head of this classically robed figure was a halo, quietly radiating brilliance like the sun.

Beneath his feet was an illusory circle divided into twelve segments, each containing symbols representing different times.

Behind him hid a curtain-like shadow. Within that shadow, an eye seemed to be silently peering outward.

Relying on his solid foundation in mysticism and the rich knowledge gathered from many sources, Klein swiftly interpreted the mural:

Waves, storms, dark clouds, lightning… This should be the ancient god Elven King Soniathrym… As expected, just like the legends, elven facial lines are quite soft… This ancient Lord of Storms does not give off an irritable feeling. Unexpectedly good-looking, heh. Since this is a mural in an elven ruin, glorifying their own deity is normal…

A sun-like halo, a twelve-segment circle symbolizing time… This—this is clearly Amon and Adam’s father, the “Creator” known to the outside world as the ancient Sun God and revered in the City of Silver as the omniscient and omnipotent God, is it not? Behind Him is a curtain of shadow, and behind that curtain hides an eye… Right. One image of the True Creator is “the eye behind the shadow curtain”! (Note 1)

So this really is the “Creator” who reclaimed the authorities of the ancient gods and was followed by eight Kings of Angels?

Does this mural depict the Elven King Soniathrym opposing the Creator?

Klein withdrew his gaze and began searching for other valuable objects.

Following his spiritual intuition, he arrived beside the throne. Reaching beneath the collapsed stones and pillars, he pulled out one item.

It was a golden wine cup that had been crushed flat.

Its surface was engraved with intricate and exquisite patterns. Its stem had bent, and at the bottom, a line of Elvish words was written:

“Calamity, Cohinem.”

The original owner of these ruins was a High Elf named Cohinem? His—or rather, Her—title was Calamity? Mm… This matches the Book of Calamity that Leticia and the others discovered. Both ruins should belong to this High Elf Cohinem, and there must be a rather wondrous connection between them… What a pity. This golden wine cup is only an ordinary cup. It merely carries a little spirituality because it is engraved with a High Elf’s true name… If Cohinem had not fallen, even just a true name would have given this cup unusual abilities. Unfortunately… Klein preliminarily judged that Cohinem was thoroughly dead, because Sea God Kalvetua was Her successor.

However, Klein could not be certain of this. After all, even after hundreds or thousands of years, the Book of Calamity still possessed the quality of driving Leticia, a Beyonder of no low Sequence, into madness and loss of control.

“And that does not seem like something Sea God Kalvetua could accomplish… Could it be that High Elf Cohinem possessed a secret art capable of separating Her own Beyonder characteristics? Kalvetua inherited only part of them, while the majority became the source of the Book of Calamity’s qualities?

“Cohinem is dead but not gone?

“Of course, when Kalvetua swallowed Cohinem’s Beyonder characteristic, he was still an unintelligent beast. No one knows what happened at that time. Perhaps some of the characteristics were lost and condensed into a Sealed Artifact, which then fell into the hands of the Church of Storms after Kalvetua was defeated…

“Mm. At next week’s Tarot Gathering, I can ask Little Sun through The World. He should know who Cohinem actually was. In truth, perhaps I do not even need to ask. Today he offered two more pages of ancient mythology, and next time there may be detailed descriptions of the High Elves…”

As his thoughts shifted, Klein tucked the wine cup into his body as well. After all, it was made of gold. Even if High Elf Cohinem had not died and maintained some connection with the cup, the gray fog could shield and isolate it.

After inspecting the area once and seeing no further gains, Klein quickly flew back outside, picked up his black hardwood cane, and slightly cleaned up the traces left by the earlier battle.

Then he pulled out a paper figurine and casually shook it, flinging it away. It rapidly became soaked in seawater, rotted, and dissolved into powder.

The earlier traces can be interfered with. After this, I will have neither time nor opportunity to affect things… Fortunately, I am now in the Black Emperor appearance… Kalvetua’s remaining flesh no longer has value, and the bones are too heavy. They might affect my taking the Sea God Scepter… With meditation, Klein stabilized his state and swiftly flew toward the white-bone short scepter inserted into the half-toppled pillar.

The illusory, overlapping prayers once again burrowed into his ears. Devout, weeping, fanatical, and numb worshipers vaguely filled his field of vision. Pain and vertigo grew increasingly intense.

Relying on abundant experience, the reinforcement of the Black Emperor card, and Azik’s copper whistle, Klein endured with difficulty until he finally arrived beside the Sea God Scepter.

He extended his right hand and grasped the middle of the white-bone scepter.

The instant the two made contact, the scenes before Klein’s eyes became clear, and the buzzing, rumbling illusory voices beside his ears abruptly turned real.

He saw the bald rebel Kalat fall from his wheelchair, struggling to crawl toward Kalvetua’s statue, which had cracked apart on its own. Kalat repeatedly recited the honorific name, his eyes filled with despair.

He saw Edmonton, whose arm was tattooed with a blue-green sea serpent, prostrate himself before another statue of Kalvetua that was strangely bleeding. Again and again, he knocked his head against the ground until it was torn and bloody.

He saw, inside the slums, believer after believer hiding in their homes, tears flowing down their faces as they prayed numbly.

…

The black full-body armor over Klein’s surface could no longer support itself and rapidly collapsed.

At the same time, his solid “muscles” swelled. His hand exerted force. Amid the layered, echoing prayers and the many clear images, he abruptly pulled free the white-bone short scepter symbolizing Sea God’s authority!

Crash!

The seawater throughout the ruins surged fiercely. Some of it shook without end, while some collapsed into vortices.

Wearing the pitch-black crown, Klein calmly gripped the Sea God Scepter. His figure instantly vanished and returned directly above the gray fog.

When the familiar majestic palace entered his eyes, the prayers beside his ears and the hallucination-like scenes before his eyes had already vanished.

Klein sat in the high-backed chair that belonged to The Fool, lifted his right palm, and examined the Sea God Scepter, which was embedded with blue-green “gemstones” and stained with traces of deep black and dawn.

Around this Sealed Artifact floated countless points of light. Every point seemed to correspond to a praying believer. They made the milky-white body of the scepter flow with brilliance, at once dreamlike and sacred.

At that moment, Klein felt that this scepter was Sea God Himself!

Note 1: See Volume One, Chapter 93.