Chapter 82: Comparative Experiment

Chapter 82: Comparative Experiment

Ever since Klein became a demigod and could preliminarily control Sefirah Castle, preventing its aura from leaking into reality and attaching itself to him, he had not considered problems in this area again. After all, that would create abnormalities, causing him to be recognized at a glance by Beyonders of Fate-related pathways. It was quite unsafe. But now, after Will Auceptin’s reminder, he felt his thoughts suddenly open up.

Back when I was only attached to Sefirah Castle and had a certain right to use it, the Sefirah Castle aura and projection that came with me already made a saint of the Fate pathway unable to look directly at me, while corresponding Low- and Mid-Sequence Beyonders were as though they had seen a mythical creature. Now that I have preliminarily grasped Sefirah Castle, there is a high probability that I can make the “effect” even better… Can this influence an angel who is already a complete mythical creature? The level of Sefirah Castle is at least Sequence 0. Mm. According to my speculations, it may be slightly higher than Sequence 0… Does it possess a trait similar to the starry sky, where merely understanding it brings corruption? Klein’s thoughts grew active at once, as though bolts of lightning were flashing through his mind.

He quickly decided that, after returning to the Forsaken Land of the Gods, he would find monsters in the darkness and marionettes within the fog of history to conduct some experiments, thereby judging whether his idea was useful.

A faint smile immediately appeared on his face. He said to the one-year-old child inside the black baby carriage, “I roughly understand what you mean. Recently, I will have someone send you ice cream.”

Will Auceptin, wrapped in silver silk, slowly turned his head away and looked to the side.

“No, no need.

“I’ve eaten too much ice cream during this period. It has begun affecting my physical development a little…”

Klein raised an eyebrow.

“Authentic, top-tier ice cream produced in Trier, capital of Intis.”

“…Give it to me next week,” Will Auceptin answered after hesitating briefly.

After speaking, the chubby little boy over a year old rolled over and buried his face into the small pillow inside the baby carriage.

Because Miss Magician could maintain a historical projection only for a limited time, Klein said nothing more. Relying on his own special trait, he forcefully broke free of the dream, woke up, and rolled out of bed.

Immediately afterward, he extended his right hand and grabbed into the air again and again.

After four or five attempts, his arm sank, and he dragged out a woman dressed in a simple linen robe tied with a bark belt, barefoot, with long black hair draped down and ordinary features.

The leader of the Church of Evernight’s ascetics, Servant of Concealment Arianna!

At that same moment, in Hillston Borough, inside a house, Forsi, who was on an easy chair, seemed to be pulled by invisible threads. She abruptly sat upright, her body ramrod straight, veins bulging on her forehead.

She felt her spirituality become like a flood that had burst through a dam, surging toward the void ahead, impossible to stop. In the blink of an eye, it seemed about to run dry.

The next second, that trend eased considerably, but it was still frightening—far beyond what the current her could fully endure.

Inside the inn room, seeing Lady Arianna’s historical projection gain consciousness, Klein spoke directly and briefly.

“I plan to cooperate with others and deal with a certain Witch King of the Rose School of Thought.”

Arianna nodded gently, indicating that She knew, but She offered no advice.

Seeing that the ascetic leader gave no warning, Klein felt much more at ease regarding the plan to hunt the Witch King. He then changed the topic and said, “I will soon begin planning an operation against the Dark Demonic Wolf.”

Arianna’s mouth opened slightly.

“Be cautious.”

…Does that mean I should not underestimate the Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar? Klein was just about to ask a follow-up when his consciousness suddenly blurred. He saw the woman before him and the version of himself in Her eyes both rapidly turn illusory and vanish.

Pa!

Forsi collapsed back into the easy chair, the muscles of her face twitching faintly.

“This is more exhausting than staying up all night to rush a manuscript…” She grimaced for a while, then hurriedly attempted to meditate and fall asleep.

When people are extremely exhausted, they sometimes develop sleep difficulties instead.

…

In the Forsaken Land of the Gods, near the northern ruins of the ancient city of Nois, upon an empty, pitch-black wilderness.

Klein carried the lantern emitting dim yellow light and circled once, confirming the surrounding situation.

Then he found a rock and sat down, no longer blocking the gray fog’s aura from leaking into reality.

On that basis, Klein consciously strengthened Sefirah Castle’s projection upon himself.

After making his preparations, Klein quickly turned a monster hidden in the surrounding darkness into a marionette.

The marionette stepped out of the lightless region and, under the lantern’s illumination, approached Klein, casting its gaze upon him.

In the eyes of this marionette made from an ordinary monster, Klein, wearing a black trench coat and a silk half top hat, looked no different from before except that his eyes had become deeper and his aura more indescribable.

After making different types of monster marionettes try one after another, Klein confirmed that ordinary people—or rather, the vast majority of Beyonders—could not discover the Sefirah Castle aura attached to him.

Next, he extended his right hand and dragged out the version of himself from half a day earlier. He controlled this rather dull image from the gaps of history and made it cast its gaze over.

This time, “Klein” saw his body shrouded in a layer of grayish-white fog, with specks of light flickering within, though no concrete shape appeared.

He immediately ended his maintenance of that historical projection, then tried dragging out Marionettist Rosago and other Beyonders of the Seer pathway, repeating the experiment he had just conducted.

“Mm. After strengthening the projection, Beyonders of the Seer pathway can directly detect a certain abnormality. However, at least below the angel level, they can only confirm that I am connected to Sefirah Castle. They cannot intuitively see that strange door of light—that is, Sefirah Castle’s projection…” Klein was not especially surprised by this result.

He took a deep breath and, after preparing to “rescue” himself, lifted his hand and pulled, dragging out Enuni the Winner from not long after he had become Klein’s marionette.

Enuni slowly lifted his head. Bit by bit, Klein’s figure appeared in his eyes, as did the faint grayish-white fog spreading outward.

Deep within the fog, distorted worms, some transparent and some half-transparent, embraced one another to form countless balls of light. The balls of light stacked layer upon layer, composing a door of light faintly stained with blue-black.

Compared to before, the door of light was much clearer and possessed far greater substance. At the same time, its shape had also changed, stretching upward to become much taller.

This made it resemble a thin, tall, brilliant human figure, while the surrounding grayish-white fog became that figure’s hooded robe.

The radiance of the different light spheres flickered constantly, making Klein feel as though he were being gazed upon by eye after eye belonging to that deep, mysterious, lofty, terrifying figure.

With a boom, Klein’s head involuntarily tilted backward. Streams of blood mixed with transparent worms sprayed from his pores.

Those Worms of Spirit fell to the ground, rolling and struggling madly. Some swiftly disintegrated, while others eventually calmed, crawled back to Klein’s body, and drilled into his pores.

“Hiss… This is much better than last time, when I directly fainted and lost my memory…” Klein rubbed his temple and sighed soundlessly.

The Winner Enuni before him had already vanished directly, because Klein had been struck by the impact and could no longer maintain the historical projection.

This was also one of the reasons Klein had not suffered too severe an injury this time.

Without the Winner Enuni, he could not see that changed strange door of light, and therefore did not need to endure a continuous impact.

After recovering for two seconds, Klein entered the fog of history, took four steps counterclockwise in reverse, and arrived above the gray fog.

Watching strands of illusory, dark light rise from within his body and dissolve away, Klein finally breathed out in relief. With a self-deprecating smile, he said, “I nearly corrupted myself and eroded myself…

“Later, I’ll use Rosago and other Seer-pathway Beyonders to perform another experiment: without directly suffering the impact, will they be reverse-corrupted by Sefirah Castle’s projection as observation time increases?”

…

Southern Continent, East Balam, the city of Valtke under attack.

Beneath the crimson moon, Loen soldiers hiding behind simple fortifications seized the time to take turns resting and recovering their strength.

Their faces were blackened, covered in traces of smoke. Occasionally, someone would wake, take out dried tobacco, wrap it casually, use one of their last matches to light it, bring it to his mouth, and inhale deeply. What their eyes revealed was mostly numbness and bewilderment.

Several soldiers guarding that defensive line smelled the tobacco and subconsciously sniffed. One turned to look back.

“Do you still have tobacco?” asked a soldier carrying a repeating rifle, lowering his voice to question his comrade.

His comrade shook his head.

“Finished long ago.”

“Who knows when the next batch will arrive… I’m going mad without tobacco!” The soldier who had spoken first pointed with his chin beyond the fortifications. “See that? So many corpses, so many hands, so many feet. Earlier, they all belonged to living people.”

Before the sun set, the resistance army had launched a fierce assault. They had madly charged every defensive line of Valtke City. Their disregard for life had frightened the defending Loen soldiers and the servant troops, nearly allowing them to secure victory. But in the end, they still failed to break through the key line, leaving behind huge numbers of corpses before retreating like the tide.

His comrade fell silent for a moment.

“Maybe tomorrow, or the day after, we’ll become like that too.”

At that point, he raised his head toward the crimson moon and murmured like someone dreaming, “I wonder how Backlund is doing. I haven’t received a letter from home in a long time… I don’t know whether they have enough food, or whether they can find doctors when they fall ill…”

The soldier who had wanted to smoke was just about to curse the damned war and the damned enemy when his eyes suddenly went rigid. Trembling, he lifted his right hand and pointed ahead.

“Alive. Alive. They’re alive…”

One soldier after another looked over and saw, beneath the crimson moon, the broken corpses left behind by the resistance army rising one by one, swaying as they tried to approach the defensive line.

In the distance stood a mysterious person wearing a hood and a black robe embroidered with crimson patterns. Behind the resistance army, that figure spread his arms slightly.

The spirituality across the entire battlefield was rapidly breeding.