Chapter 103: Best Wishes

Chapter 103: Best Wishes

Only when Klein was about to “walk” to the end of the stone staircase did the two Silver Knight guards outside the main gate of the Giant King’s Court show the slightest reaction.

They turned their heads. The orange-red lights behind their visors flickered twice, as if confirming the identity of the one approaching—and, for a fleeting instant, as if they were confused.

On Klein’s half-normal, half-horrifying face, the corner of the mouth on the right lifted in exaggerated fashion while the transparent worms on the left writhed slowly, forming a smile that was at once terrifying and utterly careless.

Pa!

His right foot crossed the final step, and he arrived on the platform before the main gate of the Giant King’s Court.

Suddenly, a silver-white crack split open on Klein’s forehead. From within his body, countless sharp silver rays burst forth.

In an instant, his entire person fell apart, cut into chunk after chunk of flesh.

Those pieces floated upward, then swiftly thinned and faded, becoming scraps of paper.

Klein’s figure, wearing a silk top hat and black trench coat, appeared in several different locations in succession. Yet each was shredded by streaks of silver sword light, either degenerating into an illusion or transforming into a paper figurine.

At that moment, outside the main gate of the Giant King’s Court where the two guards had vanished, a figure abruptly appeared.

It was an enormous rag doll wearing a dark, elaborate dress, with sinister vines wrapped around it.

Reinette Tinekerr!

When Klein had climbed the stone staircase, the one he had summoned was this messenger lady. However, “She” had appeared in Wraith form and had not allowed Colin Iliad, Lovia, or Derrick to see “Her.”

At this very instant, the two Silver Knights, who had hidden themselves by borrowing light and concealed their malice, were instinctively pursuing Klein. Before a being with angelic status who had been watching secretly for quite some time, they had already exposed their positions.

Inside Reinette Tinekerr’s crimson eyes, an apparently empty region was immediately reflected.

A faint light flashed there. Suddenly, a white, long-furred rabbit leapt out of thin air. It hopped about aimlessly, its gaze unusually vacant.

Immediately afterward, the messenger lady took a step forward and abruptly vanished.

In another region, the remaining knight in silver armor was revealed. His movements were stiff, his behavior sluggish.

He had been possessed by a Wraith!

Using himself as bait, Klein stopped “blinking.” He placed a hand to his chest and bowed with a great sense of ceremony.

“Found you. Best wishes.”

He then straightened, raised his right hand, and snapped his fingers.

Bang!

The white rabbit violently exploded, scattering flesh and blood across the ground.

Then Klein walked step by step toward the Silver Knight guard who was struggling with all his might but to no effect.

As the two figures crossed paths, Reinette Tinekerr’s historical projection returned to the fog, while the Silver Knight followed closely behind Klein, exceedingly “obedient” as he returned with him to the edge of the stone staircase.

He had already become Klein’s marionette.

“We may enter now.” Klein smiled at Colin Iliad and the others below the stone staircase.

Derrick’s eyes faintly lit up. Admiration welled within him.

Mr. World is truly formidable. He dealt with two Silver Knight guards by himself so quickly!

Colin Iliad turned his head to look at Lovia, reading a grave feeling in her gaze.

The Chief of the City of Silver showed no change of expression. Holding two straight swords that emitted the glow of dawn, he steadily climbed the stone staircase and came to Klein’s side. In a low voice, he asked,

“Mutant?”

Klein pressed a Spirit Worm that formed his left eye back into place and merely smiled, offering no answer.

When Derrick and Lovia had also climbed the steps, the party of four demigods and one marionette turned and arrived before the main gate of the Giant King’s Court.

During this process, Klein collected the Silver Knight Beyonder characteristic that had separated from the white rabbit.

This would be Reinette Tinekerr’s payment.

According to the agreement between the man and the angel, the spoils Klein obtained through summoned historical projections would also be split with this messenger lady.

This time, Reinette Tinekerr took the Beyonder characteristic, while Klein obtained a Silver Knight marionette.

After raising his head to examine the main gate, Klein made the Silver Knight guard, far taller than himself, take a few steps forward and insert the greatsword in his hand into a crack in the ground.

Then the Silver Knight lowered his body, stretched out both hands, and pressed them against the gate dozens of meters tall.

Amid a heavy creaking sound, the massive doors, studded with many golden nails, slowly opened.

At that moment, the “sun” high above jumped, and the entire Giant King’s Court became frozen within orange-red twilight.

The enormous main gate opened faster and faster. The scene beyond it gradually appeared before Klein and the others.

Behind the door, a grayish-white staircase shrouded in orange-red light rose upward, layer after countless layer, all the way to the highest and grandest residence of the Giant King. Along the way, nothing else obstructed it. Palaces and towers stood densely on both sides.

Giant statues in iron-colored armor, each holding a halberd, were arrayed before different buildings, guarding the road to the deity’s dwelling.

“Begin your performance.” Klein turned his head and, with an exaggerated smile, spoke to Colin Iliad and Lovia.

Colin, the former Demon Hunter, nodded slightly without objection. Behind Lovia, an illusory figure several meters tall appeared. It wore full silver armor, and its eyes burned a dark red like fire.

Papapapa!

The giant statues on either side of the divine kingdom’s staircase burst one after another with silver-white sharp radiance. From within them came the sound of shattering.

Those blooming “silver-white flowers” spread upward continuously, as though welcoming honored guests.

Before long, the three Silver Knights—Colin Iliad, the spirit shepherded by Lovia, and the marionette controlled by Klein—had initially cleared away the giant statues guarding the divine kingdom’s staircase. Only the portion near the Giant King’s residence remained untouched out of caution.

At that moment, two figures flew out from the area of the Giant King’s palace and slid down toward the place where the three Silver Knights were.

One had a face covered in shadow, shoulder-length black hair that curled slightly, and pair after pair of illusory black wings growing from his back. The other was a pure shadow, twisting left and right from time to time.

They were Enuni and the shadow that had originally belonged to Klein, both affected by the Dark Angel’s power and altered by some unknown mutation.

…

On the battlefield blanketed by thick fog, patches of grayish-white dragon scales suddenly surfaced on Audrey’s body. This was the effect of seeing something she should not have seen.

Even with fog blocking her sight, a high-ranking being at the level of an angel could still contaminate or harm any creature that beheld “Them.”

As a demigod of the Spectator pathway, Audrey immediately withdrew her gaze, soothed her own mind, and controlled the signs of losing control.

As thoughts flashed through her mind, she retreated several steps and used Psychological Invisibility to hide within the dense fog. She did not rush to infiltrate the Intis and Feysac allied positions.

She was waiting for an opportunity—an opportunity she believed would inevitably come.

Time passed second by second, slowly enough that Audrey almost felt it had stopped. After an unknown length of time, she finally saw the fog around the allied positions turn dark and heavy, as if the sun had fallen below the horizon and night had begun to rule the world.

Silently, the soldiers and officers of Intis and Feysac all closed their eyes and fell asleep. This included many Beyonders.

Audrey, hidden not far away, also fell asleep. But as a Dreamwalker who had given herself a prior “suggestion,” she remained perfectly lucid.

Then, seizing the chance whose duration she could not predict, she used Dream Traversal to enter the allied positions. Moving among soldier after soldier, she secretly planted one Psychic Plague seed after another.

This “plague” would make those infected panic, lose composure, suffer emotional collapse, and become difficult to calm by normal means.

Woo!

A horn blast pierced the boundary between reality and dreams, shattering the gray world and waking the soldiers and officers.

Audrey did not hesitate. In the instant before the dream fully collapsed, she “traversed” to the other side of the camp, far away from the crowd in whom she had planted the Psychic Plague seeds.

The next second, the dream world completely crumbled. She was forced back into reality, appearing at the edge of the allied positions.

Pa!

A streak of silver-white sharpness lit up at Audrey’s side, tearing apart that patch of dense fog.

Audrey did not panic. Being discovered and attacked was something she had anticipated.

After entering the allied positions, she had known that her Psychological Invisibility might be seen through via other clues—for example, malice that had not been fully concealed.

Therefore, outside her Psychological Invisibility, she had used similar techniques and the chaos brought by the Hand of Fear to create an additional false self beside her, misleading any possible ambusher.

In other words, beneath her Psychological Invisibility hid yet another layer of illusion.

And reality proved that Audrey’s grasp of the enemy’s psychology had been correct. Her false self had indeed been struck by a sudden attack.

Taking advantage of that chance, she retreated into the depths of the fog.

Then, a grayish-white dragon whose head still retained a human form appeared. On its enormous scales were engraved one mysterious, three-dimensional symbol after another. They corroded inward and extended outward, seeming to weave together into something indescribable, something not of reality. Just seeing it could send a person’s mind into chaos, twist their thoughts, and drive them mad.

At the same time, in the spot where Audrey had originally stood, a figure in a Feysac general’s uniform appeared. His face, neck, and hands were all covered in silver plates, giving off a cold, icy impression.

…

Enuni and Klein’s shadow landed on a stair shrouded in orange-red light, while the three Silver Knights each withdrew, returning to Derrick and Klein’s side.

Klein raised a hand and covered the left side of his face. Looking at the “shadow” and Enuni, he laughed loudly.

“You two don’t seem able to leave that area.”

He then took a few steps forward, spread his hands, and clicked his tongue.

“What a pity. That means you can’t hit me.”

Bang!

The “shadow” opened its mouth and fired an air cannon.