Chapter 107: Too Weak

Chapter 107: Too Weak

As he spoke, Klein raised his right hand.

At some unknown point, a clump of pitch-black, filthy flesh had appeared in his palm. Within it was wrapped an indescribable madness.

“The answer is the corruption of The Hanged Man,” Klein said to the shadow with a smile.

What he possessed, and what the shadow did not, was the corruption left behind by the True Creator—an influence that even the power of Sefirah Castle could not temporarily erase.

And there was one point Klein could be certain of: before he met the Dark Angel Sasrir, the True Creator would not allow him to lose control or die too easily.

Thus, he had deliberately allowed the corrupted portion of himself to be infected by the Psychic Plague, disguising himself as someone on the verge of losing control. At the same time, by manipulating Spirit Body Threads without distinguishing friend from foe, he had concealed the fact that his real target was the Spectator Saint. When the latter launched a further attack, Klein successfully made him fall into a sluggish state, creating an opening for the Silver Knight marionette.

Just as Klein had expected, the corrupted portion of his body had contained the Psychic Plague seed, preventing the negative effect from erupting.

During this process, the shadow, worried about the influence of the Psychic Plague, had moved away from Klein in advance. That kept it from noticing in time the abnormality in the Spectator Saint’s Spirit Body Threads.

How cautious and careful he himself was—how could Klein not know?

Of course, after he met the Dark Angel Sasrir, what changes would occur to that corruption, whether the Psychic Plague contained within would leak out and cause certain effects—Klein could not predict any of that. For now, he could only focus on solving the problem before him.

Upon hearing his words, crimson streams of fire abruptly surged from the pure shadow’s body, covering him in an instant.

At the edge of the Domain of No Darkness, in the area close to the Giant King’s residence, a cluster of flames shot rapidly upward, and the shadow emerged.

Without the slightest hesitation, he chose to flee—fleeing toward the palace where the Dark Angel slept. He paid no attention whatsoever to Enuni or the Sun Saint!

Seeing this while using his virtual personality, Klein was briefly stunned. Then the corner of his mouth and the Spirit Worms curled upward again as he shook his head and laughed.

“So I’m this cowardly?”

He suspected that the shadow that had been cut away had taken with it the majority of his caution and carefulness, leaving behind more impulse and recklessness in himself.

Pa!

A silver-white flash lit up, cleaving into a crimson stream of fire that had fallen from nowhere outside the Domain of No Darkness. It tore apart the black shadow that had just appeared inside.

Klein had not actually delayed because of his self-mockery. He had long since controlled his Silver Knight marionette, predicting—based on the distribution of flames and his own habits—which places the shadow would next jump to. Then he had condensed silver-white rapiers in advance. The moment a stream of flame descended, he slashed from afar.

The Domain of No Darkness did not have a physical barrier. Anyone could directly leave it or affect the world outside it.

However, the shadow that had been torn apart eventually turned into thin scraps of paper and rapidly vanished.

Several more burning crimson streams fell. Borrowing them, the pitch-black shadow leaped repeatedly, drawing closer to the open doors of the Giant King’s residence. Yet the silver-white flashes that lit up one after another merely shredded his Paper Figurine Substitutes.

Starting from Sequence 5, the Warrior pathway possessed the ability to see through illusions. Without techniques such as Psychological Invisibility to assist them, Paper Figurine Substitutes were obviously more useful than creating illusions. Only when two Seers fought each other would one commonly see layers upon layers of phantasms shattering.

In merely two or three seconds, one crimson pillar of fire after another rose outside the Giant King’s residence. It was like a display of fireworks set off to welcome an honored guest.

In the next instant, the shadow would jump into one of those fire pillars and hide inside the place where the Dark Angel slept.

But just then, a figure rapidly took shape before those crimson pillars of fire.

He wore a long black trench coat and a half top hat. The right side of his face was normal, while the left side was formed from transparent, twisted worms embracing one another. It was Klein’s true body.

The corner of Klein’s mouth rose again. With the right hand he had raised long before, he snapped his fingers.

Pa!

All the crimson pillars of fire went out. The pitch-black shadow was forced to emerge halfway, returning to the staircase covered in dawnlight.

Flame Control!

The reason Klein had been able to arrive outside the Giant King’s palace in advance and stop the shadow from reaching it first was that, after the shadow decisively fled, he could no longer interfere with Klein’s summoning of images from the fog of history. Klein had easily taken out Creeping Hunger and switched to the Traveler soul.

“Being too cautious isn’t necessarily a good thing.” Klein spoke to the shadow with a beaming smile while bending his knees and lowering his back.

As he bent down, his figure abruptly became the knight covered in silver armor.

The knight plunged the greatsword in his hand into a crack in the ground, producing an invisible barrier that sealed the entrance to the place where the Dark Angel slept.

At that moment, Klein had exchanged positions with his Silver Knight marionette, taking a stance toward his own shadow that seemed to say: if you can break this barrier from the Guardian, I’ll let you enter the Giant King’s palace.

Of course, his true body would interfere with the shadow’s summoning of historical projections and its manipulation of Spirit Body Threads.

As the situation on this side reversed, the battle between the three demigods of the City of Silver and Enuni together with the Sun Saint also changed.

After Colin Iliad once more entangled Enuni, who had lost his black armor, Derrick repeated the previous strategy.

At times, he used Solar Flare for area damage, trading the Chief’s injuries for victory in the battle. At other times, he condensed pure, blazing white Spears of No Darkness for precise attacks. He did not use the latter frequently, because Enuni could easily evade them, and they might even strike Colin Iliad by mistake.

After three rounds of Solar Flare, Enuni finally could not hold on. He spread one of the final two pairs of illusory black wings, turning it into a pitch-black sea that devoured all light. In passing, he submerged Colin Iliad, covering the Chief of the City of Silver in a layer of viscous black liquid that noticeably hindered his movements.

Seizing that opportunity, Enuni broke free of the entanglement, avoided the subsequent Spear of No Darkness, and transformed into a shadow, swiftly moving toward the Giant King’s residence in an attempt to coordinate with the shadow and break the barrier.

Just then, silver-white sharpness burst out from within his body, tearing him into clumps of dark-red flesh!

This sudden, precise attack came from Lovia.

This elder of the six-member council had actually given up evading the Sun Saint’s attack. The instant Enuni left the battlefield, she decisively switched the soul she shepherded to the Silver Knight evil spirit, dyeing the black armor on her body silver-white.

Sizzle!

The pure, blazing-white Spear of No Darkness struck this lady, causing her to be fully swallowed by a miniature, scorching sun.

Enuni’s clumps of flesh had yet to lose their vitality. They rapidly gathered together, attempting to reconstruct his body.

But at that moment, Colin Iliad, whose movements had been restricted by the viscous black liquid, erupted with patches of light. They transformed into a storm, tearing apart the obstruction and revealing the silver-white armor once more.

Immediately afterward, this giantified Silver Knight took a step forward and swung the straight sword of dawn in his hand, allowing the previous Storm of Light to continue sweeping forward and envelop the clumps of dark-red flesh.

A pair of illusory black wings appeared and then dissipated, calming the Storm of Light. Yet Derrick’s Solar Flare followed immediately after, igniting every lump of flesh with sacred fire and melting everything with pure radiance.

Seeing this, the Sun Saint knew that the main body could no longer escape destruction. He could not spare the effort to deliver another attack against Lovia. Turning around, he prepared to withdraw from his own Domain of No Darkness.

Suddenly, he heard a voice filled with malice and a sense of filth.

“Slow!”

Lovia forcibly broke free from the remnants of the Spear of No Darkness and teleported to a spot not far from the Sun Saint. Then she switched the soul she shepherded to a demon and used Foul Words.

At this point, the black armor on her body had completely shattered. There were many rips in her black robe with purple patterns, exposing melted flesh that was slowly wriggling beneath. Her aura had become rather weak.

A Slow effect that did not reach demigod level could not affect the Sun Saint for long, but for Colin Iliad, it was already enough. He condensed a silver-white rapier and made it teleport directly in front of the enemy.

The silver-white rapier randomly underwent a mutation, piercing straight through the Sun Saint’s sacred armor and erupting inside his body.

Silver light bloomed. The Sun Saint was cut into countless tiny pieces.

Pat, pat, pat. These bits of flesh fell to the ground, then vanished in an instant, seeming to return to history.

After the battle here ended, the three demigods of the City of Silver immediately closed in on the Giant King’s residence, trapping the shadow in the middle.

The shadow leaped, trying to hide within the fog of history. Yet the moment he saw that grayish-white fog, he was pressed back down by a palm formed from transparent worms.

Neither he nor Klein had sprinted to before the First Epoch beforehand, because both knew the other would certainly obstruct them there—or wait for them there.

With nowhere to hide, the shadow immediately fell into the encirclement of the City of Silver’s three demigods. His various abilities were canceled out by Klein. Even Flaming Jump was affected by Flame Control, making it difficult for him to escape his predicament.

More than ten seconds passed. After one paper figurine after another shattered, the shadow finally had no substitutes left. Derrick’s Spear of No Darkness pierced into his abdomen.

A blazing-white miniature sun exploded. The pitch-black shadow rapidly thinned, then melted away completely.

A stab of pain shot through Klein’s head. The spirit that had been on the verge of losing control suddenly relaxed by a considerable degree.

By instinct, he looked beside his feet. Under the dawnlight, a faint black shadow stretched out from him.

“Too weak…” Klein bent slightly and could not help mocking himself. After all, without Ancient Scholar abilities, without marionettes, and unable to manipulate Spirit Body Threads, a Seer at demigod level was truly very weak in comparison.

His spirit had recovered its wholeness, but he had not yet removed the virtual personality, nor did he plan to immediately summon Miss Justice’s historical projection to do so. That was because Enuni, polluted by the Dark Angel, had displayed traits from the Sun, Spectator, Storm, and Secrets Suppliant pathways. If Klein were to enter the Giant King’s residence, he had to guard against influences on the mind. The virtual personality was an excellent defense.

At that moment, the transparent worms on the left side of Klein’s face and body quickly settled, returning to flesh and skin. Yet because of the slight madness contained within the virtual personality, the surface still retained a semi-transparent state, allowing one to see the Spirit Worms hidden beneath.

As Derrick, Lovia, and the others turned their gazes over, Klein straightened his back, reached out, and drew out the Staff of Life. Pointing it toward the open doors of the Giant King’s residence, he smiled and said,

“We should hurry. The Dark Angel is waiting for us inside.”