Chapter 12: Destroy

Chapter 12: Destroy

The moment they sensed a stranger intruding, the animals—some wearing top hats and trench coats, others dressed in exquisite, elaborate gowns—were simultaneously thrown into agitation, their gazes filled with the desire to attack as they looked toward Klein.

At that instant, Klein, wearing the Pride mask, had the feeling that the entire city had become his enemy.

He was not unfamiliar with Eden’s situation. Through Miss Justice, he had once observed a council meeting here, and he knew that the animals walking upright on the streets and dressed as humans represented different aspects of beastly desire. They were things closer to consciousness, concepts, and abstraction, rather than physical entities.

In other words, they had no Spirit Body Threads, and they would not suffer injury in the physical sense. If that were not the case, Klein could have neatly strung up all these animals and suspended them in midair, letting them sway in the wind.

The next second, led by a bear whose formal attire was almost bursting apart, the animals of Eden either bared their fangs or growled low, swarming toward Klein from every direction.

Once hugged, bitten, or otherwise touched by them, one would be contaminated by the corresponding “beastly desire” and could only resist by relying on one’s own will or the various Beyonder abilities of a few pathways, such as Audience.

Facing this situation, Klein, wearing a half top hat, lightly tapped the Staff of the Stars into the air. Without the slightest panic, he raised his left hand, spread his fingers, and suddenly closed them.

Eden, made up of somewhat Gothic buildings, was instantly covered in a layer of shadow, as though a gigantic curtain had fallen over it.

Realm of Mysteries—a prototype of a divine kingdom!

Klein used this to seal off Eden, preventing any powerful figures inside from escaping.

Immediately afterward, he planted his cane against the ground and began walking forward step by step, like a gentleman taking a post-dinner stroll.

The animals wearing human clothes and imitating humans charged to his side, only to naturally alter direction and embrace one another in pairs.

A fork-tongued python swallowed a canine creature filled with mating desire. A strange person with the face of a mottled spider bound a giant red-eyed rat in silk webbing. A violent, frenzied werewolf tore at a lazy-looking cat. A brown bear walking upright in a suit embraced a smooth, glossy-furred fox…

These animals, representing different aspects of beastly desire, “fused” with one another and “canceled” one another out in pairs.

Klein, who controlled the authority of Grafting, slowly passed through the road among them, as though inspecting “humanity” and “beastly desire.”

In this way, he walked step by step to the massive church more than eighty meters tall and stopped.

Then he raised his head and looked for two seconds at the skulls embedded in the black pillars.

Without any change in expression, Klein raised his left hand, pressed his top hat, and walked up the stairs into the church.

He immediately saw a magnificent and empty hall. He saw a huge cross, and a grayish-white dragon statue coiled around it.

In front of the cross stood a small long table, with five seats on each side.

At this moment, at the head of the long table sat a man in a black wheelchair. His complexion was unnaturally pale, his light-yellow eyebrows were long, his hair was combed neatly back, and faint wrinkles marked his forehead.

This was the leader of the Psychology Alchemists, Pauli Delrau.

At the same time, he was also the famous hermit Eric Drake and the King of the Black Throne, Barros Hopkins.

Of course, whether the one here now was his main body or merely one of his identities, no one knew.

Seeing Gehrman Sparrow, in a silk top hat and black trench coat, slowly approaching with immense pressure, Pauli Delrau gripped the arms of his wheelchair tightly.

The moment the other party had entered Eden, he had tried to leave this city of the mind without hesitation, but he had failed.

The Pride mask worn on the intruder’s face, whose eyes had shifted upward to the forehead, seemed to mock him.

Whew… Pauli Delrau swiftly Placated his own emotions. Clear, illusory light immediately lit within his eyes.

The light condensed before him into pair after pair of holy, dreamlike wings. Beneath layer after layer of wings was a pure figure of light kneeling on one knee in devout prayer.

This was an angel.

At the same time, to Pauli Delrau’s left appeared an ordinary-looking elder with completely white hair, while to his right, a priest in a simple white robe, his pale-golden beard covering half his face, stood.

The ancient angel Hermes! The Visionary Adam!

Klein did not stop his slow advance. He merely murmured in a low voice:

“I wish all false things would disappear.”

As soon as his words fell, he raised his left hand and snapped his fingers.

The angel of light, Hermes, and The Visionary Adam instantly shattered and vanished, leaving only Pauli Delrau, seated in his black wheelchair, alone.

What Pauli Delrau had just used was the Beyonder power of a Dreamweaver. He had woven several nearly real images. Once the enemy believed them to be real, they would become real. The damage they caused would not manifest materially in the physical sense, but it would cause the target to die without realizing it.

Pauli Delrau had no idea how many targets he had already “frightened to death” in nightmares.

Unfortunately, the one he had encountered was Klein—a King of Angels who could remain lucid inside dreams and possessed True Vision. By using the Wishing power of a Miracle Invoker, Klein easily dispelled the “illusions.”

Seeing this, Pauli Delrau’s eyelid twitched. He did not hesitate any further. Bracing both hands against the wheelchair, he stood directly.

During this process, his body expanded rapidly, transforming into a giant dragon covered in enormous grayish-white scales.

Dragonization!

An incomplete mythical creature form!

Compared to the incomplete mythical creature form displayed by a Sequence 4 Manipulator, Pauli Delrau’s form was far larger, and a certain change had occurred to his head. It was closer to that of a lizard than a human. His pale-golden vertical pupils and the face scales interwoven into mysterious patterns were indifferent and twisted.

As this incomplete mythical creature form appeared, all kinds of thoughts, spirits, desires, and wills in the magnificent, empty hall raged like a storm, half-illusory and half-real, assaulting Klein’s island of mind.

This was a combination of Mind Deprivation and Psychic Plague. It could cause every creature influenced and corroded by it to suffer contamination and go mad on the spot.

For angels, such an attack was the most sinister. Their mental states all had certain problems, and at any moment, a tilt in the balance might cause them to lose control outright!

Wearing the grayish-white Pride mask and the half top hat, Klein did not stop his steps forward. He made no attempt to avoid the storm of spiritual plague, continuing firmly, indifferently, and without wavering toward Pauli Delrau.

The next second, one transparent worm after another emerged from the back of his hand. His clothes swelled, as though countless indescribable monsters were burrowing beneath them.

All of a sudden, Klein lost control, transforming into a gigantic vortex composed of transparent worms locked together.

From the vortex extended slippery tentacles marked with strange patterns, spreading in all directions. At its center, a door of light faintly stained blue-black could be vaguely seen.

The moment Pauli Delrau saw this scene, even though he had already transformed into an incomplete mythical creature, his thoughts were inevitably stopped short. He stiffened in place.

The massive grayish-white dragon seemed to become a marionette. His head filled with paste, and every joint rusted shut.

He had looked directly upon a great existence He should never have looked upon!

Above the gray fog, Klein, seated in The Fool’s position, immediately dispersed that out-of-control historical projection.

The moment he entered Eden and drew the Staff of the Stars, he had exchanged places with a historical void projection summoned by the Worms of Spirit inside Sefirah Castle, directly returning to the ancient palace that belonged to him.

Although he knew clearly that The Visionary Adam had gone to the Forsaken Land of the Gods and was attempting to fuse with the True Creator, making it impossible for His true body to descend for the time being—and at most, He could send some other identity that could do nothing to Klein, an angel of angels among Kings of Angels—he still felt prudence was paramount, lest he fall into a trap laid by Adam or Amon.

Then he once again summoned from the fog of history the version of himself before losing control: the self wearing the Pride mask and carrying the Staff of the Stars. He projected it back into the church in Eden.

Looking at Pauli Delrau, who had lost the vast majority of his reason and could no longer control his own body, Klein did not directly manipulate his Spirit Body Threads and turn this mind dragon into his marionette. He maintained his previous stride and rhythm, slowly approaching.

In Pauli Delrau’s eyes, Gehrman Sparrow was like death itself: not particularly fast, moving with its own rhythm, yet utterly impossible to escape.

At that moment, the grayish-white dragon statue on the huge cross behind him moved.

Almost without any difference in timing, Klein raised his left hand and pulled sharply downward.

The shadowy curtain enveloping Eden instantly contracted, wrapping the huge cross, the grayish-white dragon statue, and Pauli Delrau within it.

The next second, Klein lifted that “curtain.”

The incomplete mythical creature Pauli Delrau had transformed into merged with the huge cross, becoming like a gnarled giant tree.

The grayish-white dragon statue connected to the whole of Eden, causing the city outside the church to become an exceptionally illusory sea, one that seemed to contain all colors.

This was not the Chaos Sea, but a borrowing of it—one whose target Klein had “tampered” with and reorganized.

At this moment, Gehrman Sparrow, who had been slowly walking forward the whole time, arrived beside the “gnarled giant tree.” He raised his right hand, and under Pauli Delrau’s still vacant yet faintly terrified gaze, swung the Staff of the Stars.

The cane inlaid with various gemstones struck the target heavily, splitting him directly into two.

Amid a series of cracking sounds, the body formed by Pauli Delrau and the huge cross dropped piece by piece onto the floor.

This leader of the Psychology Alchemists died before he could even leave behind final words.

While waiting for Pauli Delrau’s Beyonder characteristic to separate out, Klein looked around and gave an inward chuckle.

“As expected, Hermes’s real purpose was to use the force behind Miss Justice to destroy Eden, thereby freeing Himself from Adam.

“The words of Ankewelt, the mind dragon, made Him resolve Himself…

“Still, He should have left me a few Sealed Artifacts. There was no need to roll them all away, was there? Could it be that this rabbit ought to wear the Greed mask rather than the Wrath mask?

“Perhaps in the future there will still be a Psychology Alchemists, but behind the scenes it will no longer be the Twilight Hermit Order—it will be Hermes Himself.”