Chapter 79: We Meet Again

Chapter 79: We Meet Again

Klein abruptly turned around and looked at that figure who was both familiar and unfamiliar.

He had imagined all kinds of situations in which Utopia might be attacked, but he had never expected this kind of scene to appear.

If Amon had “parasitized” the Gehrman Sparrow marionette, then with Klein’s current status and the Spirit Worms above Sefirah Castle monitoring everything around the clock, he would certainly have discovered the problem immediately. And if Zaratul had reconnected the Spirit Body Threads, that could only have deceived him for a short period, and it would have required the assistance of an angel like a Knowledge Emperor or Servant of Concealment. It could never have achieved the effect of such a sudden ambush. Only the humanity granted by a Spectator could slowly ferment while showing not the slightest abnormality on the outside.

To guard against such a situation, the only method would have been to regularly sever the Spirit Body Threads and let the marionette enter a state of death. In that way, no matter whether it had originally possessed humanity or not, it would eventually cease to exist.

Unfortunately, Klein had never heard of such a method before. He had merely guarded against virtual personas invading the marionettes.

Perhaps this was the authority of a Visionary: to grant every fictional, insufficiently real life a unique humanity.

When that face with hard lines and a cold appearance entered Klein’s eyes, he felt a force push him.

He immediately toppled backward, falling from the layered ruins of the old city toward the lower reaches of the fog, toward the outside of the historical mist.

During that process, he tried to control himself but found it impossible, because the wooden cross stake nailed into his heart had sealed all kinds of Beyonder abilities.

As his thoughts turned, Klein looked at Gehrman Sparrow and raised his hand, snapping his fingers.

Pa!

The Spirit Worms inside Sefirah Castle received his will. They abandoned this marionette’s Spirit Body Threads and picked up the Staff of the Stars, preparing to deliver Klein a fatal blow—to kill himself.

Once his main body died completely, Klein could revive above the gray fog and escape the predicament.

After learning that Adam was the manipulator behind the scenes, he no longer held any illusions of luck.

Just then, beneath Klein’s feet appeared a stone plaza floating in the void.

One pitch-black stone pillar after another rose up, holding aloft a grand and sacred cathedral that enclosed Klein within.

The Cathedral of Corpses—Adam’s Cathedral of Corpses, the divine kingdom of the Visionary!

Rumble!

Countless silver-white bolts of lightning descended from Sefirah Castle, pierced through the fog of history, and struck the cathedral. Yet they could not shake it in the slightest.

At the same time, inside the ancient palace, the figure seated in The Fool’s position suddenly toppled to the side and collapsed into a vortex formed from transparent wriggling worms.

The vortex extended one slimy, bizarre tentacle after another, madly slapping the surroundings, overturning the junk pile and destroying the mottled long table.

Klein’s avatars had lost connection with the main body, yet the main body had not truly died. Therefore, they lost control and went mad, just like Zaratul before.

Inside the old city from before the First Epoch, Gehrman Sparrow, wearing a half-height silk top hat and a black trench coat, raised his head to gaze toward Sefirah Castle. His expression became rather complicated.

His essence was a corpse. After the Spirit Body Threads were abandoned, he naturally could no longer maintain his own existence.

What Adam had granted was only humanity, not a fantasized life, because the latter would have been discovered.

Gehrman Sparrow slowly fell. His gaze turned toward the rooms within the old city.

He died among those ruins.

…

Klein’s feet touched the ground, and he stood in the middle…