Chapter 11: A Man of Action

Chapter 11: A Man of Action

After opening the Door of the Mind Body, Klein still prudently extracted all memories related to The Fool, gathered them together, and “grafted” them above the gray fog.

Then he saw Audrey, her golden hair falling smoothly and a pale-white silk scarf wrapped around her eyes, ascending step by step from the sea of collective subconscious along the manifested ancient stone stairs, entering the island of his mind.

After a slight hesitation, Klein stopped letting that portion of his consciousness remain high above in the spiritual sky. He gave up the corresponding control, allowing it to return and fuse.

—If he did not do this, then during the psychological treatment that followed, he would maintain absolute rationality. He would not be moved by various memories, nor would he have any chance of strengthening his humanity.

That would mean Audrey’s treatment was doomed to fail from the very beginning.

Relying on spiritual intuition to arrive at the island of the mind, which resembled a dream world more than reality, Audrey stopped and gently spread her arms.

She immediately recalled the love her parents had shown her, the excitement she had felt when first becoming a Beyonder, and the joy of truly helping others. She used these memories to alter her own emotions, causing the corresponding ripples to spread outward.

This was her method for awakening Gehrman Sparrow’s memories related to humanity. It was an extraordinary application of empathy.

Scene after scene, each precious or filled with deep emotion, flashed through Audrey’s consciousness one after another. Beneath her feet, on the surface of the island that represented Klein’s mind, small lights like fireflies penetrated the “earth” and floated upward.

Within each point of light was a different scene:

“A child taking short steps and receiving an ice cream.”

“A student hiding behind a textbook, secretly reading novels and comics.”

“A young boy sitting at the computer desk at home, absorbed in a game. Suddenly, he hears the sound of a key entering the lock and turning gently. He springs up, forcefully shuts down the computer, and rushes back to his room. Afterward, delighted that his behavior has not been discovered, his steps grow almost light enough to float. One moment he goes to the living room to ask his mother for pocket money; the next, he wanders to his father’s side and casually asks a question about schoolwork.”

“A young man and his companions pushing a bashful friend down the corridor, pushing him right in front of the person he secretly loves, then turning back and laughing loudly.”

“A still somewhat childish young man secretly looking downstairs, watching a figure walk away, yet unable to say anything no matter what.”

“An employee whose belly has already begun to protrude slightly returning home for vacation. He impatiently waves his hands, telling his parents not to keep adding food to his bowl and not to introduce him to blind dates. Yet after calming down, he stares blankly at the frost-white strands in their hair.”

“A man with a scholarly air, after moving house with his older brother and younger sister, looking at the dirt and dust on their faces and laughing together.”

“…”

Klein sat beside the small round table on the terrace, holding his removed top hat in one hand while the other hovered in midair, as though he wanted to bring it to his face.

Two clear drops of water slowly slid down the sides of his nose bridge and fell into the void.

Klein closed his eyes. His expression was gentle, yet sorrowful.

Within the island of his mind, Audrey seemed to transform into a vortex of emotion, drawing in memories of the same kind.

Just as the entire sky above the island filled with firefly-like points of light, a faint grayish-white fog began to spread.

Within the fog, a door of light faintly stained blue-black appeared and disappeared, formed from one illusory, radiant sphere after another.

The main body of each sphere was made of worms—some transparent, some segmented, and some starlight-like. They embraced and entangled with one another, resembling creatures from myth and legend.

At a glance, the door of light merely seemed strange. But if one looked closely, one would discover that the surrounding environment had turned deep and dark, as if a hooded black robe had been draped over it.

Taken as a whole, it was like a mysterious person hiding unknown strangeness beneath a robe.

The next second, one slippery and illusory tentacle after another sprang out from beneath this “mysterious person’s” deep-black robe.

At that moment, although Audrey’s consciousness could neither see nor hear, her spiritual intuition gave her an intense premonition of danger, as though a sea made of corruption was about to drown her.

No, this was not an illusion! She believed that if this continued, she would be infected with a severe mental illness, perhaps even going mad on the spot and showing signs of losing control!

Audrey was about to do everything she could to Placate herself and weaken the corruption ahead when the firefly-like points of light floating over the island gathered rapidly. They illuminated the grayish-white fog, dimmed the deep black surrounding the strange door of light, and forced the tentacles covered in mysterious, bizarre patterns to shrink back.

This was precisely why Klein had waited until his mental state was initially stable, until he could barely suppress the awakening will of the Celestial Worthy, before accepting psychological treatment.

Audrey sensed the danger weakening. She hurriedly performed a psychological analysis on herself, then immediately began to “Placate” that mass of corruption, carrying out true Hypnosis.

Again and again and again. Audrey did not know how much time she spent before finally achieving the preliminary effect she had expected.

She then withdrew from Gehrman Sparrow’s island of mind and returned to her own body.

—This treatment was extremely difficult, so she had not used a virtual persona. She had directly used her own Mind Body.

Sensing that the treatment had ended, Klein raised his hand and wiped his face, allowing the memories of The Fool that had been “grafted” above the gray fog to return to his main body.

After several seconds, Audrey removed the pale-white silk scarf wrapped around her eyes and nose and undid the self-hypnosis.

She looked at Mr. World opposite her, half murmuring to herself and half sighing.

“So this is the mental problem brought about by divinity?”

It truly was terrifying…

Klein nodded gently.

“Yes. Every angel has it. The only difference is whether it is serious, or extremely serious.”

“Saints also have it. Middle- and low-Sequence Beyonders below demigod level also have it.” Audrey, combining this with Gehrman Sparrow’s earlier explanation, added a sentence on her own.

“For middle- and low-Sequence Beyonders, the mental imprints left behind in the characteristics by previous owners are the relatively greater danger.” Klein picked up the gold-rimmed cup and took a sip. “This is the cruel law of the mysticism world, because our extraordinary abilities all come from external things—from Beyonder characteristics.”

Audrey first nodded, then gently shook her head. While pondering, she said, “I think perhaps it isn’t so pessimistic. It’s like how the source of every human life also comes from external things: air, bread, meat, water, and so on.

“As we absorb them, we also absorb the bad things attached to them. Various problems accumulate, and we become ill. But that does not mean we should completely resist them or treat them as foreign objects in the absolute sense. Once absorbed, part of them will always belong to us.

“I may not be expressing it very well, but I think you should understand what I mean.”

Klein listened in a daze for a while, then answered thoughtfully, “Beyonders obtaining Beyonder characteristics is like humans enjoying food?

“And then, with a peaceful state of mind, not rejecting them too strongly—both resisting and cooperating, both suppressing and fusing?”

“Something like that.” Audrey had only just finished speaking when she smiled self-mockingly. “However, this seems to carry an unfortunate implication too. Humans will eventually die, and Beyonders…”

She did not finish the sentence, unwilling to agitate the patient across from her.

Instead, she said, “Come two more times within this week. That should more or less allow you to maintain mental stability under normal conditions. Mm, normal conditions.

“Also, at other times, you can go to places you miss, or places you long for, and walk around.”

Klein nodded, then asked directly, “What do you think of Wrath’s proposal?”

The smile on Audrey’s face slowly disappeared, and her expression gradually turned serious.

“What is your advice?”

Klein set down his teacup and said calmly, “Strictly speaking, the dangers you bring can be divided into two categories.

“One category is that, actively or passively, you become involved in certain matters and draw powerful enemies to your side, thereby implicating family, relatives, friends, and the innocent.

“The other category is that your very existence causes certain forces to choose the people you care about most as targets, using them to threaten you.

“As for the latter, unless you are already dead, you can never completely avoid it. Of course, in the vast majority of cases, such situations evolve from the first category.

“If you give up all of your present identities in the mysticism world and henceforth exist only as a believer of Mr. Fool and as Miss Audrey Hall, no longer proactively participating in anything involving the extraordinary or unstable factors, you can avoid the overwhelming majority of the first type of danger and make the second type rare.

“Under such a premise, the Evernight Goddess’s favor toward the Hall family and Mr. Fool’s protection over you will be sufficient to handle those rare dangers and ensure your family’s safety.

“So there is no need to split off an identity at all.”

Audrey fell silent for a long while. She bit her lower lip almost imperceptibly, then asked, “What if I do want to split off an identity?”

“As long as you let that identity also believe in Mr. Fool, it won’t be much different from what I just said. The only difference is that from then on, you will have to stay away from your family and friends and live and act under another identity.” Klein’s voice sank slightly, carrying a trace of gravity. “Also, can you really trust Hermes to help you split off an identity?”

This question disrupted Audrey’s inner emotions. Her eyes moved slightly.

“But splitting off an identity should be the Beyonder ability of a Sequence 3 Dreamweaver.”

She certainly could not accomplish it by herself.

The corners of Klein’s mouth lifted slightly, and he suddenly asked, “You can rely on that Pride mask to directly enter Eden?”

Because Audrey could not proactively mention matters related to the Psychology Alchemists, he stated the key point very directly.

Audrey gave a light nod. Then, with surprise, doubt, and a faint sense that she had guessed something, she said, “I can’t pay an equivalent price. And…”

Before she could finish, Klein said with a cold expression, “On one hand, Adam betrayed Mr. Fool and nearly killed me. On the other hand, the apocalypse is approaching. Mr. Fool has prophesied certain circumstances. When the time comes, He may fall asleep again, and as His Blessed, I will not be spared either. The payment you need to give is this: once such a change occurs, follow Mr. Fool’s remaining instructions, do certain dangerous things, and do your best to awaken Him.”

Without giving Miss Justice the chance to digest those words, Klein extended his right hand and grabbed several times into the void before him, pulling out a grayish-white, cold, illusory personality mask.

Relying on his status and Audrey’s trust in him, he forcefully summoned the historical projection of the Pride mask from the fog of history.

“It is connected to my mind and consciousness. Others cannot use it.” Seeing this, Audrey instinctively pointed out the problem.

“Give me a strand of hair,” Klein said calmly.

Audrey did not overthink it. She plucked out a strand of golden hair and handed it to Gehrman Sparrow.

Klein took the strand of hair and wound it around the eyeholes of the personality mask.

Then, holding his silk top hat in one hand and the grayish-white mask in the other, he slowly stood.

During this process, he mobilized Sefirah Castle and “deceived” the rules.

Snap!

The Pride mask was worn on Klein’s face without the slightest obstruction. Before his eyes, animals that walked upright and dressed like humans immediately appeared one after another.

He had entered Eden directly.

Gazing at the black church inlaid with skulls at the center of the city, Klein slightly curved the corners of his mouth, drew the Staff of the Stars, and placed the silk top hat upon his head.