Chapter 262: Lady Despair

Chapter 262: Lady Despair

Mr. A? Mr. A of the Aurora Order? Klein, who had been planning to slowly move toward the door along the wall and the shadows, silently shrank back again.

Ince Zangwill should be cooperating with a certain faction of the royal family… A faction capable of excavating and hiding such an enormous underground ruin near Backlund must be one of the leading powers of the Loen Kingdom…

The involvement of Ince Zangwill and 0-08 directly rules out the Church of the Goddess. The Lord of Storms’ people may be a little reckless and a little chauvinistic, but they probably would not cooperate with the Demoness Sect either. At least so far, no Beyonder suspected to belong to the Sailor pathway has appeared… For the same reason, the Church of Steam and Machinery is not very suspect either…

The Aurora Order has also gotten involved? What exactly do they want to do?

Klein pressed his back against the corner of the wall, slowed his breathing, and listened to the conversation in the center of the hall while thinking.

After a brief silence, a hoarse, deep voice sounded.

“Done.”

That answer was so concise that Klein could not tell at all what they were plotting.

The gentle, pleasant voice from earlier laughed softly.

“You do not seem to trust us very much.”

“Yes,” Mr. A answered without the slightest politeness.

“Hehe. Then I will frankly describe our goal, and why we are seeking your cooperation,” the clear, gentle female voice said without anger. “We have done certain things and left behind traces. Before the Evernight, Storms, and Steam Churches and the military discover them, we must carry out the appropriate cleanup. For that, we need your help. Hmm, it seems you have not truly understood my meaning. Then I will give an example. Suppose—suppose I committed murder and other serious crimes inside a house. What would be the best method to eliminate the evidence and clues?”

“There is no need. Letting others witness such actions is precisely our goal,” Mr. A said indifferently.

…As expected of the Aurora Order… They are all madmen… Klein initially confirmed that the male speaker was indeed the Mr. A who had killed the Intis ambassador.

“…Suppose it was me, not you,” the clear, gentle female voice said, with an almost imperceptible catch of breath.

After one second, Mr. A answered, “Burn that house down and bury all the clues inside.”

The clear, gentle female voice now carried amusement.

“That is precisely our idea. I will be responsible for ‘setting the fire,’ while you will use this opportunity to expand the trend and create a passage or vessel, allowing that Lord of yours to descend into the world.

“And the only price you will pay is bearing all the infamy and drawing the military’s and the three Churches’ hatred to the greatest extent. But I believe you will not mind.”

“As long as we can welcome the Lord’s return, even if every force despises us, we will feel no fear,” Mr. A said, his tone no longer so detached and distant.

Setting the fire? The Aurora Order will take the chance to complete the True Creator’s descent ritual? This is the third time, right… Why have I run into it again… This damn thing is karmic fate… Klein could not help cursing inwardly in Chinese.

At that moment, he was both exceptionally curious about and deeply wary of what a faction of the royal family, the Demoness Sect, and Ince Zangwill were cooperating to plan. It was already so terrifying that they needed to use the True Creator’s descent as a shield and scapegoat!

Perhaps they have left hidden measures. At the end, they might destroy the Aurora Order’s ritual and pit every faction other than themselves… Klein thought, tense yet calm.

“It seems you have no further questions,” the clear, gentle female voice laughed softly. “This place is extremely concealed and has the corresponding arrangements. You may safely hold the ritual without worrying that it will be interrupted before success. As for the outside portion, we have long since prepared everything. Very, very long ago, we were only waiting for me to ignite the first ‘flame.’ If you have doubts, you may check again.”

Just as Mr. A was about to speak, Klein heard a clang. It was the sound of the main door being opened.

“Who let you in? Did I not order that no one may approach this place?” the clear, gentle female voice said, suppressing anger.

“Lady Despair, there is an emergency! Someone infiltrated underground! The higher-ups sent me inside to arrange the follow-up and close the relevant passageways.” A male voice with an obvious Backlund accent replied extremely quickly.

The so-called Lady Despair fell silent for several seconds, as though communicating with some unknown existence to confirm the situation.

Finally, her voice and tone unchanged, she said, “Go in. Do not come out again, and do not let anyone else come out. Wait for further notice.”

“Yes, Lady Despair!” The man ran thudding toward the stone door on this side, while a clang sounded in the background.

From Klein’s hiding place, he could see the stone door leading to the rear region rather clearly. After waiting seven or eight seconds, a figure of ordinary height and ordinary build appeared there.

Huff… The man breathed out, stretched out both hands, bared his teeth, and pushed open the heavy stone door with a fierce expression.

At that instant, Klein completely took in his appearance and characteristics without the slightest omission. This was an auxiliary Beyonder ability of the Faceless!

The man had reddish-brown skin and obvious Southern Continent blood. His features were ordinary, making him difficult to remember.

Because he was baring his teeth, part of his teeth was revealed. The third tooth on the upper left flashed with golden light. It was a false tooth.

This… Klein, who possessed the spiritual intuition of a Seer, frowned. He felt strangely familiar with him.

Very quickly, using a technique, he recalled the source of that familiarity.

The Hanged Man had once asked members of the Tarot Club to search for a man with reddish-brown skin, missing the third tooth on the left, and possessing a thick Backlund accent.

That man was called Baron, and he was connected to multiple slave escapes and disappearance cases in the colonial islands.

And right now, the man before Klein matched the Baron described by the Hanged Man almost perfectly!

“Slaves disappearing from the colonial islands…

“Many tribes of the Southern Continent vanishing into thin air…

“Baron appearing here…

“Capim, who held a large share of the underground slave trade, was protected by four Beyonders suspected to be from the Arbiter pathway. The strongest was Sequence 6, or even Sequence 5…

“Capim insisted that his kidnapping targets were relatively pure, innocent girls…

“The Corn Laws were passed, and textile machines improved, creating mass unemployment…

“Quite a few textile factory women obtained new jobs and quietly left the East Borough, leaving behind no clues…”

One scattered point after another instantly connected into a line inside Klein’s mind, pointing directly into the depths underground!

What are they doing that requires such a massive population, and so many pure girls? A ritual? An absolutely terrifying ritual that must be carried out in secret and requires a very long time? Klein’s pupils abruptly contracted.

Creak… Bang! The stone door closed, and Baron vanished from his sight.

The hall remained silent for several seconds. Mr. A’s hoarse voice sounded again.

“I smell the scent of an accident. Begin. Before it arrives.”

Lady Despair answered softly, “That is precisely my thought.

“But I need you to send me to the East Borough.”

East Borough? Klein once again had a bad premonition.

“No problem,” Mr. A answered without emotional fluctuation.

Before the hooded figure, a transparent and blurry book rapidly appeared, accompanied by distant, ethereal chanting:

“I came, I saw, I recorded.”

The book quickly flipped, stopping on one of its pages. Then it blossomed with pale-blue, illusory light.

That light enveloped Lady Despair, who wore a pure-white robe, making her figure first blur, then become invisible.

In an instant, Lady Despair saw countless transparent shadows of indescribable shape. She discovered that, at the highest place, there were clear rays of light containing seemingly endless knowledge.

Her body was dragged forward by a strange force, swiftly shuttling through. It did not take long before she left where she had been and arrived in a secluded, deserted, filthy, and disgusting alley corner.

She pulled down her veil to cover her face, then lifted her head to look into the air. She saw that the afternoon sun was once again obscured by clouds and fog, becoming pale and dim.

The pale-yellow fog was not especially thick. It drifted and sank through every place in Backlund, carrying a faintly choking smell, cold and damp.

Unfortunately, we did not wait until the smog was at its worst and most still… The accident with Trissy, 0-08’s sudden and brief loss of control, Azik’s appearance, and the Black Emperor’s previous disruption have made things larger and increasingly conspicuous. The operation can only be moved up to today… Lady Despair looked around, walked out of the alley, and entered the street.

Her steps were very slow, as though she were wandering through a sea of fog.

Wherever she passed, the fog imperceptibly thickened, staining itself with hints of iron-black. The visible distance quietly shrank.

After she left that street, a tramp dressed in an old jacket, his face sallow, suddenly coughed. He coughed violently, coughing until he collapsed to the ground.

Two poor people very close to the tramp retreated in terror. Then, clutching their throats, they made hoarse, choking sounds, as though struck by severe lung disease or bronchitis, already unable to breathe.

The smog woven from iron-black and pale yellow descended upon the East Borough, descended upon the Dock District, descended upon the Factory District where smoke was currently billowing, and continuously spread toward all of Backlund.

The many sights in the distance were “drowned.” Even the towering clock towers were reduced to pale silhouettes. Workers and poor people began to feel discomfort one after another. Around the route that lady had taken, tramps struggling against cold and exhaustion fell ill one after another, human lives as fragile as bubbles while laundering clothes.

Lady Despair’s expression was calm and gentle, as though she were completing a work of art.

She walked among the passersby without showing any abnormality. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly as she laughed in a low voice.

“The history of the Loen Kingdom will remember this day:

“The Great Smog of Backlund.”

…

The dim, deep valley had been entirely covered by the illusory black water surface, but 0-08’s writing had not stopped.

It wildly arranged absurd, ridiculous, horrifying, and terrifying stories on any surface that could be written upon:

“…The falling of his trousers did not affect Ince Zangwill’s performance, because he wore a robe. Perhaps he had long anticipated that a similar accident might occur…

“The Law Mage stunned Azik Eggers in place, temporarily depriving him of two powerful Beyonder abilities. He was a true helper. But the overlapping door between the spirit world and the underworld was drawn by Azik’s characteristics and shaken by the force of their battle, undergoing an unpredictable change.

“At this moment, an unknown existence was attracted and happened to pass through here. With this, He extended His hand into the real world. Oh no! He has grabbed Ince Zangwill!”

In midair, behind Ince Zangwill, who wore a black clergy robe, two blood-yellow arms covered in writhing rotten flesh suddenly stretched out!

They seized Ince Zangwill’s shoulders and dragged him into the void, into the spirit world.