Chapter 3: Urgency

Chapter 3: Urgency

After stabilizing the fragile balance between his anchors, the Celestial Worthy’s will, and his own consciousness, Klein leaned back against the chair and examined the abilities brought by the Attendant of Mysteries Beyonder characteristic.

Among them, the most important were three abilities. Klein had already grasped all of them with the help of Sefirah Castle and the Curtain, though he had not known their exact names before.

The first was “Regeneration.” If the material that made up an item had once possessed a spirit body, an Attendant of Mysteries could use Regeneration to awaken the corresponding Spirit Body Threads, turning that item into his marionette. Any living being that had established a deep connection with the item would then naturally be transformed into a marionette as well.

To put it simply, an Attendant of Mysteries could not create Spirit Body Threads in things that had never possessed them. But he could cause certain objects’ once-existing but long-vanished Spirit Body Threads to regenerate. Representative examples of the former were steel products, gold coins, and gold pounds; representative examples of the latter were mainly foods such as beef and fish. Once a human ate food that had become a marionette, that person would also transform into a marionette, as though they had suffered a powerful contamination.

The second ability was “Reorganization,” also known as “Tampering.” It could recombine many physical entities or abstract concepts to achieve inconceivable effects, as if altering definitions, logic, references, or rules.

The third was “Realm of Mysteries.” This was the ability used to create a prototype of a divine kingdom, and it could bring about a certain degree of concealment.

Reorganization reflects authority in the domain of change, while Realm of Mysteries leans toward the domain of concealment. The two elements of The Fool symbol are now both complete… Still, neither “Reorganization” nor “Tampering” sounds particularly good, and their meanings aren’t clear enough. The “Grafting” name I came up with is better—simple and intuitive… Klein muttered inwardly for a few moments, then cast his gaze around him.

He had now gained deeper control over Sefirah Castle. He could directly borrow abilities of the Seer pathway approaching the level of Sequence 0, and he could also use most Beyonder powers below Sequence 0 of the Marauder and Apprentice pathways. In that respect, he was similar to the Dark Angel Sasrir of the past.

Of course, the Dark Angel Sasrir could only indirectly use the power of the Chaos Sea through the first Blasphemy Slate. Klein, on the other hand, was the owner of Sefirah Castle. He simply had not yet fully mastered this sefirah. Therefore, in terms of status, he was higher than the Dark Angel Sasrir.

As for strength, theoretically speaking, he was also somewhat stronger. But power depended on too many factors. Klein, who had only stepped onto the Beyonder path a few years ago, did not dare guarantee that he would definitely defeat the Deputy of Heaven, the Left Hand of God, from back then.

In short, he could now be considered an angel of angels among Kings of Angels, extremely close to the level of a true god.

“After further mastering Sefirah Castle, the difference between being here and being in the outside world has practically vanished. I won’t be an Angel King outside and a true god once I return to Sefirah Castle… The greatest advantage here is that it provides a defensive barrier even true gods cannot break through. As for whether Outer Deities can, I still can’t judge…” Klein slowly exhaled and shifted his attention to the current situation.

What worried him most now were two things.

First was the Primordial Moon—that is, the Mother Goddess of Depravity. Although She had failed to completely descend into the real world through Mr. Door’s return, She had still managed to intrude with a portion of Her power and maintain it for several seconds under the attacks of Evernight, Steam, and three other true gods. Whether this would bring some degree of influence to the surrounding environment, the relevant pathways, or certain objects remained to be observed.

Second, the Angel of Time, Amon, had stolen Mr. Door’s ritual and become Sequence 0 Error of the Marauder pathway. He would be Klein’s most direct and most dangerous enemy.

“I don’t know whether Amon took advantage of the opportunity to also accommodate Mr. Door’s Uniqueness and a Sequence 1 Key of Stars Beyonder characteristic. If He has already completed that step, then He is now the strongest true god in the real world. Hmm, I wonder how He compares to the Evernight Goddess. No one knows to what degree the Goddess has accommodated the Death pathway’s Uniqueness and the God of Combat pathway’s Uniqueness.

“Under normal circumstances, Amon shouldn’t have had time to accommodate the Apprentice pathway’s Uniqueness. Although Mr. Door’s return was equivalent to the ritual itself, Amon’s most important task at that time was replacing Mr. Door and causing His three Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics and the Marauder pathway’s Uniqueness to converge and undergo a qualitative change. He had neither the time nor the ability to accommodate the Apprentice pathway’s Uniqueness. Besides, such an operation would have an extremely high probability of awakening the Celestial Worthy. Amon wouldn’t take that kind of risk…

“In other words, Amon’s next focus will be accommodating the Apprentice pathway’s Uniqueness and becoming a true god of two pathways. Otherwise, under the gaze of the other true gods, it will be extremely difficult for Him to deal with an Angel King like me.

“And even if He truly took the risk and succeeded, and has already accommodated the Apprentice pathway’s Uniqueness, He will still need to slowly adapt to and stabilize His state. He won’t be able to deal with me in the short term.

“I have to seize the time and become The Fool. Only then can I rely on Sefirah Castle and my own status to contend with Amon.

“I don’t have much time left…” Klein silently mocked himself. Then he leaned forward and began lightly tapping the edge of the mottled long table.

He was analyzing whether it was possible to become The Fool within a short time.

Digesting the Attendant of Mysteries potion was relatively simple. Once Klein could rely on his anchors and his own consciousness to suppress the recovering will of the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings, ensuring that he would not lose control, go mad, or become another person, he could use Sefirah Castle to create an avatar the way Amon did. Then, he would have that avatar mobilize the power of Sefirah Castle and steal away the yet-undigested Attendant of Mysteries Beyonder characteristic that had come from Zaratul.

Once he reached this step, Klein would immediately turn the avatar into a marionette to prevent it from undergoing a mutation.

In this way, Klein himself would be reduced back into an Attendant of Mysteries whose potion had been fully digested, while also possessing an Attendant of Mysteries marionette—one of the main ingredients for the potion.

An Attendant of Mysteries whose potion had been completely digested was qualified to drink The Fool potion and become a Sequence 0 true god.

This operation was not too complicated; it was merely prone to problems. Moreover, an ordinary double Sequence 1 Angel King of the Seer pathway would be unable to complete it unless He had a Sequence 2 Trojan Horse of Destiny friend from the Marauder pathway who was willing to sacrifice Himself and provide help. Of course, a Sequence 1 Worm of Time friend would also do.

Therefore, to Klein, the most troublesome things were instead two other matters: first, how to deal with the half-Fool of the Antigonus family; second, how to complete the ritual of “fooling time, history, or fate.”

“With my current level and strength, dealing with the Antigonus family’s ancestor is not impossible. Of course, the prerequisite is that I first familiarize myself with the corresponding Beyonder powers and the changes in Sefirah Castle… Sigh, I still have no clue about The Fool’s ritual.” Klein raised his hand and pinched the sides of his forehead, then turned his gaze toward the grayish-white fog below Sefirah Castle.

Of the three—time, history, and fate—the one he was relatively most familiar with was undoubtedly history.

The current him could already use Sefirah Castle to directly influence the fog of history and strengthen or weaken the corresponding abilities of the Seer pathway.

This was the manifestation of authority.

“Fooling history… fooling history…” Klein once again lightly tapped the edge of the mottled long table. Countless ideas flashed through his mind, only to be denied one after another.

All the methods he could realize did not meet the requirement of “fooling history” in his view, because history would objectively record what happened. Whatever existed was necessarily reasonable. As for methods that could meet the requirement—such as returning to the past, drinking the potion, and becoming The Fool from history—they were fundamentally impossible to realize. At least, Klein currently did not possess, and had never seen, any ability to reverse time.

As his gaze continued moving deeper into the fog of history, Klein suddenly had an idea with a certain degree of feasibility.

The true history at present was this: the members of the Tarot Club believed that the one they followed was The Fool who did not belong to this era—a revived ancient god, or an existence surpassing ancient gods. In reality, Mr. Fool had originally been nothing more than an ordinary person hanging above the gray fog, who had relied on various resources to package and elevate himself step by step.

Klein’s idea came from inspiration he had received from Amon.

He could use Sefirah Castle to create an avatar, and then have that avatar rely on Sefirah Castle to steal away the main body’s fate, consciousness, anchors, and the Sequence 1 Attendant of Mysteries Beyonder characteristic belonging to Zaratul.

Then the Beyonder characteristic within the main body would be composed purely of the Curtain, and the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings would gradually awaken.

In this way, the understanding of the Tarot Club members would become correct: Mr. Fool was indeed a great existence in the process of revival.

That would contradict the true history, yet it would also be an actual fact. It would count as fulfilling the ritual’s requirement.

Of course, the premise was that the avatar’s theft had to happen inside Sefirah Castle or in some other concealed location. Otherwise, it would be recorded by history and fail to achieve the effect of fooling it.

As for how to deal with the awakened Celestial Worthy, and how the avatar would kill the main body and turn Him into a potion, Klein temporarily had no method.

“The result of attempting this would be no different from suicide. Heh, before the Celestial Worthy kills me, the avatar’s Attendant of Mysteries Beyonder characteristic would definitely be digested. After all, it successfully revived the Lord of the Mysteries…” Klein shook his head and cast aside that idea, which cared only for the beginning and not at all for the ending.

Since he could not come up with a solution by himself, he decided to seek advice from existences who might know what to do.

He had two targets: first, the Snake of Fate, Will Auceptin; second, the Evernight Goddess.

The former might have certain ideas about “fooling fate.” The latter probably knew what ritual the ancestor of the Antigonus family had used to accommodate The Fool Uniqueness.

After stabilizing his mental state, Klein left Sefirah Castle and directly Teleported to Backlund.