Chapter 45: Grade 0

Chapter 45: Grade 0

Inside the concealed region, the Saint of Secrets Botis narrowed his eyes slightly. He had already recognized Leymano’s Travels.

That removed the last trace of doubt he had regarding the intelligence provided by the Dark Saint Kesma.

He knew this notebook. He knew it was a mystical item the Abraham family valued greatly, one of the strongest items below the High Sequences, with negative effects so slight they could practically be ignored.

“Heh. When I was still at the Mid-Sequence level, how badly I wanted this notebook. In the end, those Abrahams guarded against me and did not care at all about my needs… Have they finally learned their lesson? This woman shouldn’t be a blood descendant of the Abraham family. Otherwise, she would not be searching everywhere by herself for a cursed item from an ancient wraith…” Botis muttered inwardly a few times. His expression gradually turned solemn, yet carried a few hints of cruel fanaticism.

After observing the surroundings for a while longer, he carefully reached his hand into the inner pocket of his black robe.

That pocket seemed to contain a vast space. The Saint of Secrets Botis actually dragged out from within it a three-tiered jewelry box.

This jewelry box was not small. Holding it in one hand was rather difficult. Its body was silver-black, covered in many intricate hollowed decorations, and inlaid with rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds, making it look extremely luxurious.

When he held this “jewelry box,” Botis’s expression actually revealed a touch of panic and fear, as though he were facing the Abyss directly, or listening to the ravings of an evil god.

…

The gathering proceeded as usual. Forsi put away Leymano’s Travels and focused her mind on listening to the different participants speak, seemingly hoping to obtain certain answers.

During this process, she occasionally raised questions and offered gold pounds, spiritual materials, and other things as payment, but none of them received effective answers.

Gradually, this Beyonder gathering neared its end, and the convener began arranging for the different participants to leave through different exits.

Before long, only Forsi and a few other Beyonders remained inside the connected rooms.

After receiving the convener’s signal, Forsi stood. Suppressing the urge to stretch, she stepped toward the side door.

Just then, she discovered that her body had stiffened at once. Her head could barely turn, but it felt like a wind-up toy.

From the corner of her eye, she saw the gray-white walls instantly turn silver-black, covered in grains as if forged from metal. The remaining gathering participants and the convener lost the human luster of their skin. Their eyes went dull, their movements mechanical, like large dolls.

Inside the concealed region, the Saint of Secrets Botis had at some unknown time opened the top layer of the “jewelry box.” Inside was a room scene that was not especially delicate, yet absolutely faithful to reality.

Within the room, chairs and long tables were placed messily. Several palm-sized dolls either sat or stood, as though simulating the real situation.

Among those dolls, the standing one wore a hooded robe. Her jawline curved beautifully, and her lips were rosy and slightly full. It was none other than Forsi.

She, the remaining Beyonders, the convener, and the entire room had all silently turned into toys and been stored inside the top layer of the “jewelry box”!

As for the connected rooms in the outside world, only the gray-white walls remained. Everything else was gone.

The corner of the Saint of Secrets Botis’s mouth slowly curved upward. With a forceful motion of his right hand, he closed the lid of the “jewelry box.”

In only a single breath, he had mysteriously and effortlessly taken control of the target.

This silver-black, three-layered “jewelry box” was the Grade 0 sealed artifact he had stolen from the Abraham family.

Because it had never been obtained by the orthodox Churches, or studied in depth by them, it had no corresponding serial number.

As far as Botis knew, this “jewelry box” came from an Abraham family angel of the Fourth Epoch. That angel loved roaming the starry sky and traveling to different parts of the vast cosmos. Yet one time, after returning to the family to rest, He silently died inside His own palace, His face full of terror, His expression distorted, as if He had seen something unimaginably horrifying.

A true mythical creature—an existence that could have been called a subsidiary god during the Second Epoch—had fallen in such an eerie way without causing the slightest disturbance.

The Beyonder characteristic He left behind fused with His corpse and formed this “jewelry box,” which differed greatly from other sealed artifacts of the same kind. At the time, Mr. Door, Bethel Abraham, did not try to shatter it and restore it to a pure Beyonder characteristic. Instead, He gave it a rather strange name:

The Box of the Great Old Ones.

The first layer of the Box of the Great Old Ones could toyify a target location and swap positions with the space inside itself. It was through this that the Saint of Secrets Botis had so easily and bizarrely accomplished his objective.

The second layer of the Box of the Great Old Ones recorded different locations. Once they were released, the holder and every living being within the area of effect could directly arrive at the corresponding region, roaming the starry sky and exploring the cosmos just like that Abraham family angel once had.

As for what lay in the third layer of the Box of the Great Old Ones, the Saint of Secrets Botis knew, but did not dare think about it—just as he normally did not dare touch this Grade 0 sealed artifact.

Snap. After closing the lid of the Box of the Great Old Ones, Botis reached out with his right hand and retrieved the mirror embedded in the transparent vortex in midair.

Once a region had been concealed, a Secrets Sorcerer who wished to leave it either had to pass through the corresponding Door, or directly undo the concealment.

Botis chose the latter method. It was the most convenient and the fastest.

Shadows stirred, and the vanished region returned to the real world. The room finally became complete again.

Without lingering, without even glancing around, Botis let his body rapidly turn transparent.

Holding the silver-black Box of the Great Old Ones inlaid with many “gems,” he shuttled through the spirit world, where colors were rich and overlapping and bizarre creatures existed everywhere, heading toward a predetermined location. In only a few seconds, he walked out of the void, attempting to pass through the “abyss” that split the sea and enter the Ruins of the Battle of Gods.

Just then, Botis slowed his steps and stopped in midair.

His eyes narrowed. In an instant, his pupils became deep and dark, dotted with countless brilliant points.

It was as though a starry sky had been reflected in his eyes.

The “sand grains” formed by those stars swiftly revolved, making the bottomless fissure that cut the sea sharply turn illusory. Everything Botis saw abruptly shrank, condensing into a flickering orange-yellow flame.

That flame “grew” at the tip of a match and was about to go out.

Everything the Saint of Secrets Botis had experienced after undoing the Spatial Concealment was actually an illusion. He still remained in the same place!

And the source of this illusion was that lit match.

The match was held in a pale hand. Its owner was a woman wearing a black robe with purple patterns and a hood, seated upon a giant pumpkin carriage that had half-passed through the wall.

The carriage was drawn by a group of gray mice.

This was Admiral of Stars Cattleya, but her appearance, image, and aura had already changed.

This was granted by the magic of “Cinderella”!

The core Beyonder power of Sequence 4 Mysticologist of the Mystery Pryer pathway was called Mystical Re-enactment, fully embodying the phrase “knowledge is power.”

Simply put, a Mysticologist could draw power from the different pieces of mysticism knowledge they had mastered, creating all kinds of magic and witchcraft. The fewer people knew the corresponding mysticism knowledge, and the less widely it was circulated, the more powerful the spell would be.

The inverse also held true. Once a certain piece of knowledge or a legend became widely known and no longer mysterious, the magic or witchcraft created by drawing power from it would become nearly ineffective.

Cattleya did not know why the Queen could create all kinds of fantastical magic from private fairy tales Emperor Roselle had told her, but that did not stop her from learning and applying them. After all, she had heard those fairy tales from the Queen of Mysteries.

The magic she had used to temporarily transform and disguise herself was called Cinderella. The one that plunged the Saint of Secrets Botis into an illusion was The Little Match Girl. She used this to stop him from Teleporting away and create an opening for the battle to come.

Just as Botis broke free from the illusion, “Cinderella” seated on the pumpkin carriage stepped onto the floor and spread her arms, letting an enormous cross appear behind her.

Cattleya seemed to be carrying that illusory object upon her back.

Inside the empty room, points of candlelight lit up, illuminating a long table upon which flesh and blood had been placed.

Around the long table were three extremely blurry figures, each holding flesh and blood and eating without pause.

As if they had sensed something, those three figures turned their heads at the same time and looked toward Botis, making this Saint of Secrets’ heart abruptly accelerate. He felt a chill rise from the depths of his soul.

He then heard illusory sounds of gnawing, chewing, and digesting, and sensed undisguised malice and hunger.

Botis’s eyelids twitched. He hurriedly lowered his head and turned his gaze toward the Box of the Great Old Ones in his hands.

At some unknown point, that silver-black, mysterious box had opened by itself!

The magic Cattleya had just used was called Banquet of Betrayal. It originated from the mysticism knowledge she had learned in the Tarot Club concerning “the death of the ancient Sun God.” Its effect was to briefly awaken, or grant intelligence to, items held by the target, causing them to “betray”!

Without a doubt, when facing a sealed artifact that was already filled with malice toward its holder, the effect would be extremely good.

But if she had not received Mr. Fool’s protection every time she monitored the gathering, Cattleya would not have dared to use this magic at all.

If she were sensed by the three protagonists of Banquet of Betrayal, she would definitely die without knowing why. She would die without the slightest ability to resist, and in an extraordinarily horrifying way.

Therefore, Mysticologists were an absolutely high-risk group. Their power came from walking along the edge of the Abyss, from things that should not be known, should not be seen, and should not be heard.

By comparison, the Queen of Mysteries Bernadette, who could create magic from the private fairy tales her father had told her, was much safer than others at the Mysticologist stage.