Chapter 60: A Successful “Mass”

Chapter 60: A Successful “Mass”

Regarding prayer to Mr. Fool, Bader agreed with both hands and feet raised. He had no intention of hurrying Bourne at all.

Every morning after waking and every night before sleeping, he prayed for more than a minute, thanking Mr. Fool for bringing pure sunlight, delicious food, and a life no longer filled with oppressive despair.

“All right. I’ll prepare today’s ingredients first.” Bader smiled and nodded to Bourne.

Several minutes later, he carried many bags of ingredients into the kitchen as easily as though he were carrying a few curtains.

By then, Bourne had already found a chair and sat down, devoutly praying to Mr. Fool:

“Great Ruler who dominates the spirit world, The Fool that does not belong to this era, I long to receive Your protection and long for You to fulfill my wish to escape deformity…”

Such words sounded almost simultaneously within the church on Phillips Street, in several places across Bayam, in New City of Silver, and in New Moon City located within the forest. They echoed in low voices.

Xin, Rus, and the others with extreme inferiority vaguely guessed that Mr. Fool intended to satisfy such wishes. When praying, their bodies trembled faintly, difficult to control.

They longed too much to become like normal people.

They likewise yearned for lively, bustling Bayam. They yearned for its secret-recipe grilled fish, candy factories, and delicacies from different places. They yearned for a life of drinking and chatting, of singing and dancing.

Above the gray fog, inside the ancient palace, The Fool Klein, seated at the head of the bronze long table, watched as pure specks of radiance of different colors lit up one after another, forming a slowly rotating, vast galaxy before his eyes.

The prayers completely overlapped, echoing through Sefirah Castle and stirring waves of ripples.

Klein closed his eyes and sensed for several seconds. With some emotion, he raised his right hand, bent his middle finger, and lightly tapped the edge of the mottled long table.

Amid the tok sound, invisible power rapidly spread like ripples across a water surface. It surged into every prayer light and sprinkled down upon the people of Moon City.

Xin suddenly felt something. She abruptly raised her hand and touched the center of her face.

The next second, she touched a real, solid nose.

Almost by instinct, Xin rubbed that spot repeatedly from top to bottom and bottom to top. Only then did she dare believe that she had grown a nose and was no longer deformed.

She instantly closed her eyes, bent down, pressed her forehead to the ground, and praised Mr. Fool uncontrollably.

Around her, similar praises grew more numerous, louder, and more orderly.

Rus’s eyes, which had been squeezed together, separated. Bourne’s eyes, one higher and one lower, became symmetrical. Every deformed resident of Moon City and every person whose appearance had been made ugly by hereditary causes broke through their original limits at that moment and moved toward the direction of normal humans.

At that moment, no matter whether they were in New Moon City, New City of Silver, or Bayam, they all heard the peal of a church bell:

Dong!

The ethereal, melodious chime echoed within the hearts of the Moon City residents and rang by the ears of every listener. It seemed capable of washing their souls and bringing them the truest, most heartfelt emotion toward life.

The tears Xin, Rus, and the others had been forcibly holding back finally streamed down. They felt their bodies and minds become peaceful, no longer touched by the slightest dust.

Subconsciously, they raised their heads and cast their gazes toward the place where the bell had sounded, only to discover that it came from outside New Moon City, from a place separated by an unknown distance.

A divine miracle… That thought abruptly appeared in the hearts of the people of Moon City.

In New City of Silver, connected to them by a road, Waite Chirmont and the others also turned their gazes toward the distance, toward the direction of Bayam.

The bell had come from that place.

“Praise Mr. Fool!” they murmured at the same time, pressing their right palms to their left chests.

Inside Bayam, Bourne and Bader, tears streaming down their faces, adjusted their positions to face Phillips Street, toward the church that belonged to Mr. Fool, and devoutly and gratefully listened to the sacred bell chimes from heaven.

Above the gray fog, The Fool Klein was rather astonished and bewildered.

The sudden ringing of the bell had not been part of the process he had planned at all.

He immediately turned his gaze toward The Fool’s Church at 16 Phillips Street.

Almost simultaneously, with the help of the prayer lights, he saw the tall bell tower attached to the church. At the top of the tower stood a young man wearing a pointed soft cap and a classical black robe.

The young man held a black bell hammer and was striking the great bell again and again.

Seeming to sense the gaze from an infinitely high place, the young man stopped, slightly raised his head, and adjusted the crystal monocle over his right eye.

At the same time, the corners of his already smiling mouth stretched wider and wider.

“…” Klein nearly cursed out loud.

At this exact moment, even his gaze could not conceal its dullness. He did not quite understand why the Angel of Time, Amon, had suddenly appeared and was so seriously ringing the great bell of his church.

Klein had, in fact, been psychologically prepared for the possible arrival of Amon and Zaratul, because the populations of the City of Silver and Moon City were simply too large to quietly integrate into outside society.

In other words, the City of Silver and Moon City were bound to become known to the major Churches and secret organizations. Under those circumstances, whether they preached openly or privately would not influence the development of events. Therefore, Klein had tacitly approved the City of Silver’s broad attempt to spread faith in The Fool, preparing more anchors for his advancement to Sequence 1.

On this premise, he had made preparations for Zaratul, Amon, and other hidden enemies to come to Bayam, and he even hoped that they would do exactly that.

Here, inside Sefirah Castle, Klein possessed the status and level of a King of Angels and could fully make use of his home-field advantage. The City of Silver also possessed Grade 0 Sealed Artifacts, making it completely possible to resist Amon and capture Zaratul.

Compared to suddenly encountering prepared enemies elsewhere with his main body, or being discovered after creating the marionette city, this was without a doubt a better choice.

However, Amon’s current behavior left Klein rather confused. He did not understand what goal this God of Deceit was trying to achieve.

…

Inside The Fool’s Church at 16 Phillips Street.

Derrick Berg, the archbishop on rotation here and an elder of the City of Silver’s six-member council, was likewise staring at the stained glass above in astonishment.

Rays of sunlight shone in from there, allowing Derrick to interpret scenes within them.

The black bell hammer fell. The great bell’s swaying gradually stopped.

I did not arrange for anyone to ring the bell… Derrick’s brows immediately furrowed.

As a member of the City of Silver and a demigod of the Sun domain, he had an acute intuition toward abnormalities and knew that something must have gone wrong.

Yet this strange bell-ringing incident brought no accident whatsoever. Apart from the incident itself, everything else seemed perfectly normal.

While using the Beyonder powers of a Unshadowed to examine the surrounding environment, Derrick rapidly thought about whether ringing a bell possessed any mystical symbolism.

After eliminating one possibility after another, he suddenly remembered The Fool’s holy scripture compiled by the City of Silver.

There was content related to ringing a bell!

It was used to describe the relationship between the Angel of Time Amon and Mr. Fool, determining His actual position.

Derrick had, in truth, opposed that passage, because he knew that the Blasphemer Amon was not Mr. Fool’s blessed one. The relationship between the two sides was not even harmonious. They were enemies.

However, the lies he had previously told made the other members of the City of Silver’s six-member council believe that the Angel of Time Amon had been sent by Mr. Fool to sprinkle the first rays of light upon the people of the Forsaken Land of the Gods. It was precisely because Amon had parasitized Derrick that the later changes had occurred, until hope descended.

Derrick wanted to explain, but also felt too embarrassed to explain, because it would draw out far too many lies, making him lose his image before the other elders of the six-member council and the citizens of the City of Silver—just as Miss Justice had once said, a social death.

In the end, he chose to delay the matter, thinking that the holy scripture would first be shown to Mr. Fool. If there were anything inappropriate about its descriptions, He would definitely issue an oracle and provide modification instructions.

Who would have known that Mr. Fool said nothing, tacitly approving the scripture’s contents?

Could Amon really have come to ring the bell? Derrick was briefly dazed, feeling that this was too unimaginable.

He hurriedly lowered his head and began praying, reporting the matter to Mr. Fool.

…

Above the gray fog, inside Sefirah Castle.

Before Klein could clear out Amon, the other party abruptly turned transparent, transformed into light, and vanished from the bell tower.

“What does this fellow want to do? If His father were the Emperor instead of the ancient sun god, I could reasonably suspect He was ‘sending me a bell’…” As Klein checked whether Amon lay hidden inside the bodies of the people of the City of Silver and Moon City, he analyzed Amon’s purpose without the slightest clue.

Just as he was about to seek clues through divination, The Sun Derrick finished praying.

“…Scripture? Scripture?” The corners of Klein’s mouth moved slightly. He summoned from the junk pile the holy scripture the City of Silver had sacrificed to him.

Previously, he had only flipped through several pages before feeling so embarrassed he could not bear to continue reading. He had assumed a posture of I do not know, I do not pay attention, therefore it does not exist.

Of course, he had not been careless in the slightest regarding this matter. He had remained cautious enough and confirmed through divination within Sefirah Castle that the scripture would not bring him any harm.

Only with that premise had he tacitly approved the City of Silver using this version of the scripture.

Slowly inhaling, Klein extended his right hand and began turning the scripture page by page.

The muscles on his face gradually began to twitch, and the corners of his mouth uncontrollably drooped slightly.

The faster Klein flipped, the faster he flipped, until finally, he reached the last page.

Pa!

Klein fiercely closed The Fool’s holy scripture and threw it back into the junk pile.

“After this miracle for Moon City, mm, the potion is almost digested. It is time for the marionette city to step onto the stage of history…” Klein examined his own state expressionlessly and nodded almost imperceptibly.

Ever since he had initially gained control over Sefirah Castle, he could also receive feedback from reality here.