Chapter 97: Finally

Chapter 97: Finally

“Mysteries…”

Klein’s heart gave a violent jolt at the word. By instinct, he tried to return to Sefirah Castle and remove himself from the scene.

Yet no matter how his thoughts turned, his spirit body remained locked within his flesh. Nothing changed.

Hiss… Klein felt a chill scrape across his teeth. His gaze instinctively shifted to Reinette Tinekerr beside him, and he saw that Miss Messenger had already drifted over, as if facing a truly dreadful enemy. Around them, the darkness had frozen like a lake caught in a brutal frost. Even the lightning high above no longer flashed.

“Mysteries…” Only then did Klein recover the slightest sense of safety, enough to think back on the title he had just heard.

It was not unfamiliar to him. The last one who had addressed him that way had been the Ancient Sun God from more than two thousand years ago—the Creator worshiped by the City of Silver. Before His death, He had sensed Klein’s divination across an impassable span of time and space and called out that very word.

No way… The True Creator is the Ancient Sun God? No. “He” is only a Sequence 0 true god. “He” can’t possibly have reached the level of the Creator I’ve been theorizing about. Besides, judging by Amon’s attitude, the Ancient Sun God should truly have fallen… Was the True Creator the pitch-black infant that crawled out from the Ancient Sun God’s stomach, inheriting a portion of His characteristics and memories—a fallen aspect of that Creator? Klein forced his chaotic thoughts to settle, steadied his mind, and tried to find a solution to his current predicament as quickly as possible.

At that moment, from within the cloak formed by the “curtain,” the dark vortex spoke again.

“Go to the Giant King’s Court. Meet Sasrir.”

The words echoed directly inside Klein’s mind. Then they contracted into illusory words, wrapped themselves in a layer of black, sticky membrane, and transformed into a strange “seed.”

The “seed” dropped into Klein’s body and spirit, then melted into them.

Before Klein could respond, the dark vortex dispersed. The cloak formed from the “curtain” lost its support and collapsed back to the ground.

A sliver of the True Creator’s descending will has corroded part of my spirit body and part of my flesh, making it so I “have no choice” but to go to the Giant King’s Court and open the palace where the Dark Angel Sasrir sleeps… This is something multiple deities are watching. After observing for so long, the True Creator finally found an opportunity to drive me into doing it… Klein swept his gaze around, “summoned” his past self, and picked up the “curtain.”

Then, without the slightest hesitation, he said to Miss Messenger, “We leave immediately!”

A wisp of the True Creator’s will had already descended. Could Amon be far behind?

At the same time, Klein also intended to seize the chance to enter above the gray fog and use Sefirah Castle’s power to cleanse the corruption within him.

“Okay.” Reinette Tinekerr nodded. The many Beyonder characteristics left within the deep crater’s ruins flew over of their own accord and were contained by “Her.”

According to the agreement she and Klein had made beforehand, aside from the high-level items of the Seer pathway, half of the remaining spoils would belong to “Her,” with “Her” having priority in selection. After all, Klein had also taken payment when dealing with the King of Shamans, Karaman.

As for the other half of the spoils, Klein planned to sacrifice them to the Evernight Goddess as thanks. Whether the deity needed them or not was one matter; the proper procedure still had to be observed, and his gratitude still had to be expressed.

After sweeping the battlefield clean, Reinette Tinekerr entered the iron cigar case inside Klein’s pocket and “possessed” the surface of the earlier gold coin.

Klein didn’t immediately seal it. Holding the Staff of the Stars, he constructed a scene in his mind.

It was one of the images he had memorized while surveying the terrain earlier.

As gem-like light flickered, he and his figure vanished from the deep crater’s ruins and transferred far into the distance.

A few seconds later, the air at that spot rippled, and a tiny creature invisible to the naked eye crawled out.

It rapidly swelled, turning into Amon in a pointed soft hat and a classical black robe.

Amon adjusted the monocle over “His” right eye, the corner of “His” mouth curving up as “He” chuckled.

“Finally, someone is going to open that door.”

…

After teleporting twice in succession, Klein took out the iron cigar case containing Miss Messenger and used the Staff of the Stars to place several layers of seals on it—seals that would be undone the moment he himself touched them.

Immediately afterward, he entered the fog of history and sprinted to the time before the First Epoch. Relying on an unanswered prayer, and by means of Sefirah Castle’s summons, he instantly arrived above the gray fog.

Amid the echoes of roars and ravings, he felt the corroded parts of his spirit body gather together and curl into a lump. Through layer upon layer of dissolution, they actually managed to remain stable instead of evaporating entirely.

“So this is the power and status of a true god? Hmm… and a true god who holds authority over the domain of ‘degeneration’…” Seated in The Fool’s chair, Klein frowned slightly as he examined his own condition.

The corrosion produced by the True Creator was not especially strong in and of itself. If it had been separated from the protection of Klein’s spirit body, it would not have lasted long above the gray fog. That was also the main reason Klein had previously made the judgment that he dared to enter Sefirah Castle directly.

However, unless Klein intended to die again, he could not bypass his own spirit body to cleanse the corroded parts.

With the aid of divination and other abilities, Klein soon clarified all the effects of this corrosion.

It would not mutate. It would not send information back to the True Creator. It would not interfere with anything Klein did. It would merely continue applying guidance on the level of mysticism, making Klein “have no choice” but to go to the Giant King’s Court and open the palace where the Dark Angel Sasrir slept.

“It’s both on the level of the mind and on the level of fate… Once I become a Miracle Invoker, obtain an angelic status, and gain deeper control over Sefirah Castle, I should be able to remove this ‘pollution’… But to become a Miracle Invoker and obtain an angelic status, I must go to the Giant King’s Court, open that palace’s door, and help the City of Silver find a path out of the Forsaken Land of the Gods…” As Klein pondered, a wry smile tugged at his lips.

Fortunately, this was already something he had been preparing to do. It did not add any extra burden to his shoulders.

Next, Klein summoned the Unshadowed Crucifix from the fog of history and attempted to push it with Sefirah Castle’s power to purify his fleshly body. Unfortunately, the corroded parts of his body had also clumped together and could not be removed completely.

This finally allowed him to understand, in the truest sense, how terrifying a Sequence 0 existence was.

“Unless I’m at the end of my rope, I can’t casually pray to evil gods like the True Creator anymore…” Klein shook his head, returned to the real world, and sacrificed the “curtain” above the gray fog.

“It does indeed contain a Servant of Mysteries Beyonder characteristic and a Miracle Invoker Beyonder characteristic… It even has Ancient Scholar and Bizarro Sorcerer characteristics… Its status is rather high. The Sefirah Castle power I can mobilize at present can’t directly pulverize it. However, because this place seems to belong to the highest level of the Seer pathway, it can effectively suppress it. Over time, it can dissolve and separate it bit by bit…

“The first to separate should be the Servant of Mysteries characteristic. What remains can then be directly used to concoct the potion. Hmm, it no longer has living characteristics; the ones awakened earlier have already disappeared…” Holding that semi-transparent black velvet “curtain,” Klein examined it over and over for quite a while.

Then he mobilized Sefirah Castle and conjured an iron pot, within which invisible power boiled.

After staring for a few seconds, Klein tossed the “curtain” into the “iron pot,” then turned layer after layer of seals into a lid and pressed it down.

In roughly three or four days, that Servant of Mysteries Beyonder characteristic would melt and decompose out of it. The remainder, once thrown into the supplementary ingredients, would become the Miracle Invoker potion, containing portions from Sequence 9 to Sequence 2.

Klein looked around, raised his right hand, and pulled a sheet of paper over from the pile of miscellaneous items.

This was one of his other preparations.

He had spent a great deal of time beforehand, paying the price of failure again and again, to successfully summon “0-08” once. With that quill, he had written down the Dark Demonic Wolf’s proper and reasonable reactions, preventing the other party from acting unpredictably in the initial phase and causing the plan to fail.

With this short script’s assistance, it became entirely reasonable for the Dark Demonic Wolf to be drawn in by Klein’s strange behavior and not immediately extinguish the prayer light.

Similarly, under circumstances where it did not know how many enemies there were or what abilities the other side possessed, it was also very reasonable that the Dark Demonic Wolf did not hastily flee, but instead separated out a complete “kingdom” to cut off any potential aid.

With a flick of his wrist, Klein burned the paper. Then he busied himself sacrificing the sealed iron cigar case into Sefirah Castle and responded to Miss Magician’s prayer, passing along The World’s words.

Fors the Magician did not dare delay. She immediately rose, used her Recorded Beyonder ability, reached forward, and dragged Gehrman Sparrow out from history.

Klein thereby “teleported” into an empty room in a nearby inn, arranged a ritual, brought the iron cigar case back to the real world, and released Reinette Tinekerr.

After thanking Miss Messenger and watching “Her” take half of the Beyonder characteristics, Klein modified the ritual and began sacrificing to the Evernight Goddess.

At the end of the ritual, he prayed with heartfelt expectation, “I pray for a hint—a hint on how to cleanse the corrupting power within me.”

As Klein saw it, at present, only a being on the Evernight Goddess’s level might be able to deal with the corrosion bestowed by the True Creator.

If the Goddess agreed, Klein planned to descend, allowing his substantial spirit body to return to Backlund and receive purification.

As for how to remove the corroded parts of his physical body, he had yet to think of a solution.

As Klein’s words fell, a mass of darkness enveloped the altar.

When the darkness vanished, all the Beyonder characteristics were gone.

Other than that, no hint was left behind.

…Looks like I can only rely on myself… Klein was not discouraged. Raising his right hand, he tapped four times clockwise over his chest, drawing the crimson moon.

“Praise the Lady!”

His gratitude was completely sincere. After all, he had already received considerable help.

Once the follow-up matters were handled, Klein’s historical projection vanished, and his true body returned to the Forsaken Land of the Gods.

Holding the lantern he had taken from the past, he looked at the silent wasteland illuminated by the dim yellow light. His body and mind felt much more at ease, and he couldn’t help but sigh.

“Finally…”