Chapter 264: A Fool’s Thousand Considerations

Chapter 264: A Fool’s Thousand Considerations

The first thing that entered Klein’s eyes was the altar surrounded by layers of brilliance, and the tall, thin figure standing within it.

That figure had removed his hood, revealing a beautiful and eerie face like a woman’s. Four places—his left chest, shoulder, abdomen, and thigh—were covered with writhing, viscous, disgusting flesh.

Around him, within the layers of light, illusory and transparent figures filled the air, brimming with numbness, despair, pain, repression, and other sensations.

Outside the altar, the four figures who had been praying earlier had already collapsed. Their skin was shriveled, tightly wrapped around bone, like corpses weathered for years.

Above the entire hall, ray after ray of light penetrated the void, swiftly following the stone pillars, floor, and air covered in symbolic signs and magical markings, pouring into the altar.

The moment Klein emerged from his hiding place, Mr. A opened his eyes and looked toward where he stood.

His pupils were stained with blood, with ultimate madness hidden beneath indifference.

If it had been another Beyonder, they would likely have instinctively looked away at this moment, not daring to meet his gaze. But Klein had faced the Eternal Blazing Sun directly and had encountered Amon the Blasphemer. He did not feel afraid of this. Calmly, he pulled the trigger, sending a silver demon-hunting bullet carved with numerous patterns flying toward the altar.

Seeing this, Mr. A subconsciously wanted to raise his hand, but in the end he stopped, indifferently watching the silver bullet drill into the layers of light surrounding the altar.

Soundlessly, the patterned demon-hunting bullet melted within the overlapping brilliance. It vanished, swallowed by the uncountable resentful grudges and negative emotions.

In the end, it completely decomposed, not leaving the slightest trace.

Klein’s eyes shrank. Bang, bang. He fired repeatedly, sending all remaining bullets in the revolver out. Pale-gold purifying bullets and brass exorcism bullets blooming with golden light followed one after another into the layers of light around the altar.

However, they likewise decomposed and vanished, failing to create the slightest ripple.

Mr. A laughed hoarsely.

“It is useless, little crawler. The ritual has already officially begun. With your strength, you cannot break or interrupt it. Even a Sequence 5 Beyonder could not do so!

“But you are also fortunate. You will live to witness my Lord’s descent and merge into His body.”

After speaking, Mr. A no longer paid attention to Klein and closed his eyes again, as though the other party truly were only a tiny insect.

This Shepherd half raised both hands, assuming a posture of opening his embrace, and shouted loudly in ancient Hermes:

“The Lord who created all;

“The sovereign behind the curtain of shadows;

“The degenerate nature of all living things.

“Your devout believer beseeches Your descent;

“I am willing to offer my body, allowing it to serve as a vessel and bear Your great will!”

Amid the prayer, light suddenly descended from an unknown place above Mr. A’s head, enveloping him completely.

Around him, the unwilling grudges that had transformed into human figures and the accumulated negative emotions curled inward like a tide, surging into Mr. A’s body.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Klein snapped his fingers repeatedly and manipulated the flames, doing everything he could to attack the altar. But those flames still irreversibly decomposed, extinguished, and melted within the layers of light around it, without the slightest effect.

What should I do? My other mystical items are all above the gray fog. If I want to retrieve them, I have to hold a ritual first, which would waste at least one or two minutes. And my unprotected physical body would be extremely vulnerable… What should I do? Klein rationally stopped trying and stood where he was, thoughts racing.

Furthermore, whether it’s the Sun Brooch, the Biological Poison Bottle, the All-Black Eye, or the Black Emperor card that only raises one’s level, none of them seem capable of breaking through the altar’s barrier!

Can I only wait for Miss Justice’s side to call reinforcements in time? Or watch helplessly as the True Creator descends? Klein’s mind was taut, thoughts flashing as he rapidly considered what countermeasures he still had.

One by one, he filtered through the items on his person. Cold sweat had unknowingly seeped from his palm.

Suddenly, he thought of something!

With no time to consider the consequences, he reached into his pocket and grabbed an item full of metallic texture.

Thud, thud, thud!

Klein took several steps forward, swung his arm with force, and hurled the item clenched in his palm toward the altar.

A brass-colored glimmer flashed as the item entered the layers of light.

It was a key of ancient design.

It was the Master Key.

Within the layers of light, the brass-colored Master Key began to decompose, began to melt.

And when its outer shell disappeared, the curse hidden within it directly revealed itself, connecting to the unknown “Mr. Door.”

…

Queen Borough, inside Earl Hall’s luxurious villa.

Audrey stood beside the floor-to-ceiling window, anxiously gazing into the distance.

She saw the fog on the horizon gradually thicken. Pale yellow became stained with iron black, and it slowly dyed everything toward where she was.

“This is somewhat wrong.” The large golden retriever Susie squatted beside her, likewise looking out at the once-common smog.

Mm. I hope we can stop it in time… Audrey did not know what that fog represented. She could only silently pray in her heart to the Goddess and to Mr. Fool, asking Them not to allow the Primordial Demoness to descend.

Suddenly, she discovered that the branches outside the window had begun to sway, and the glass trembled lightly.

“The wind has come…” Audrey inexplicably felt joy.

Cherwood Borough, Cathedral of the Holy Wind.

Visible to the naked eye, a terrifying storm abruptly appeared outside it. Then it billowed eastward into an unimaginable hurricane.

Woo!

The settled fog was blown away. The dense yellow and iron black swiftly faded.

Woo!

Withered branches fell one after another to the ground. Dust and soil were thrown into the air, following the fog into the distance.

Woo!

Many pedestrians’ hats flew off their heads, and their bodies swayed so violently they had to support themselves against trees or walls.

The sailors in the Dock District seemed to have returned to a port city, witnessing the assault of a typhoon.

The smoke in the East Borough and Factory District thinned, and the mild discomfort of healthy civilians was relieved.

Rumble! Rumble!

Lightning leaped, and thunder exploded.

They soon subsided, and a downpour of rain began washing the earth.

“This time, the Church of Storms reacted quite quickly… There is also the reason that we acted ahead of schedule and preparations were not sufficiently complete… Hehe. Those middle-class citizens, those wealthy people—if they do not possess corresponding protection, inside such a ‘great smog,’ they are no different from commoners. They are all lambs waiting to be slaughtered…” Lady Despair sat inside a rental carriage, leisurely listening to the rain strike the glass windows.

Even though it had been destroyed in time, according to her calculations, the “smog” just now could directly cause over twenty thousand deaths. Afterward, there would also be plague spreading.

With this, my potion is more or less digested. But that is only an incidental gain… The traces of massive population disappearances will be erased, pointing toward the Aurora Order, toward the True Creator. No one will guess what the royal family truly wants to do… I should leave now and take Trissy with me… Lady Despair thought in a good mood.

Her whereabouts were concealed, and she had made preparations beforehand, so in the short term she had no concern at all about being blocked by Backlund’s demigods.

By the time they found traces, she would have long since left this city!

Just as Lady Despair was preparing to leave the carriage, her vision blurred, and she saw a figure.

The figure sat opposite her. It was a young woman, draped in a classical robe with a hood. Her eyes and hair were both black, and her features were beautiful but vacant.

…

After throwing out the Master Key, Klein gripped Azik’s copper whistle and then held his breath, waiting for the result.

If his conception failed to take effect and the altar’s barrier still was not broken, then he would use Azik’s copper whistle and see whether he could obtain the messenger’s help.

If that still failed, he would go above the gray fog, bring out the Black Emperor card and the other items, try every possible method, and struggle until the final second!

At this moment, it was still afternoon. There was no crimson moon, much less a clear full moon. Therefore, Klein lacked sufficient confidence in the curse hidden within the Master Key. He could only hope that the altar barrier’s decomposing effect would threaten its existence, causing it to instinctively react. For example, reverse-communicating with Mr. Door and transmitting His cry for help.

After only one or two seconds, Klein saw the Master Key decompose into the smallest particles of light and a patch of illusory, twisted crimson.

That wisp of crimson, while rapidly fading, struggled with all its might and suddenly exploded!

In an instant, Klein lost his hearing and saw the countless figures formed from resentment and unwillingness inside the layers of light all tilt their heads upward, letting out screams.

They changed rapidly, becoming stained with blackish green. Some grew a second head, a third eye, or a fifth leg…

They gathered into a torrent, pouring into Mr. A’s body.

Mr. A suddenly opened his eyes. Beneath the indifferent blood color was disbelief and astonishment.

Immediately afterward, the layers of light around the entire altar distorted and collapsed.

Rumble!

A massive explosion spread outward from the center of the altar, lifting a terrifying wave of wind.

Crack! The four thick stone pillars closest to it broke instantly. Klein, standing farther away, only had time to make a rolling motion before he was sent flying by the shockwave.

Bang!

He smashed into the wall and flattened at once, turning into a thin sheet of paper.

That paper was quickly torn apart by the following waves of wind and scattered everywhere.

Klein himself appeared in the corner, using the wall to resist the wind generated by the explosion.

The destructive effect produced by the Master Key had surpassed his imagination!

The forcibly dissolved curse truly did react instinctively, transmitting Mr. Door’s shouting over. And the voice of this exiled being, who was at least angel-level, contaminated the resentful grudges and numb despair required by the ritual. As a result, the altar lost balance and headed down the path of self-destruction!

Once the wind calmed slightly, Klein rushed out and confirmed the result.

The illusory figures and oppressive sensations transmitted from midair had already disappeared. The entire altar had only a few remnants remaining.

Mr. A knelt forward beside a collapsed stone pillar. He had lost one arm, half his face, and many internal organs. His remaining eye was filled with hatred carved into bone.

However, those wounds were quickly covered by wriggling flesh.

After glancing once, Klein did not hesitate in the slightest. He turned and ran.

For him, destroying the True Creator’s descent counted as achieving the ultimate goal. If he did not leave now, was a Sequence 6 supposed to stay behind and have New Year’s dinner with Shepherd Mr. A?