Chapter 33: Narrow Road

Chapter 33: Narrow Road

Hearing Amon say, “You’ve gone mad,” Klein tilted his head back slightly and laughed.

“I merely did as all of you arranged and gave up, that’s all. Only, I gave up a little more thoroughly than you imagined.”

As he spoke, upon his forehead, which was covered by that cold and eerie mask, an illusory brand protruded.

It was a strange door of light faintly tinged blue-black.

And Klein’s body was similarly shrouded in something of the same nature.

Beneath the semi-transparent dark cloak covering his body, more and more slippery, evil tentacles shot out, densely packed, extending farther and farther until they began to occupy the nearby sky.

His eyes grew increasingly dark. With a slight flicker in them, Klein looked at Amon and smiled.

“To me, rather than let you become the Lord of the Mysteries, I would rather allow the one from the past to revive.”

After his mental state stabilized, and after he understood the key to Amon’s surprise assault, Klein took advantage of that mentality of “giving up” and preliminarily released his suppression over the Lord of the Mysteries’ will inside him, allowing Him to revive further.

It was precisely because of this that, at the critical moment, he had been able to seize more control over Sefirah Castle, borrow the power of Error, and evade the spatial collapse created by Amon.

Without waiting for Amon to respond, Klein smiled, the corners of his mouth rising clearly.

“After being contaminated by Sefirah Castle and showing signs of madness, you were able to recover immediately and turn Sefirah Castle against me, creating the effect of Blind Stupidity. After releasing your suppression of the Lord of the Mysteries’ will inside you, you did not enter a half-mad state. That is because an external force is helping you.

“You should have a very important avatar, or perhaps even a main body that has lowered its status, much like Pallez, slumbering with Adam. He, as a Visionary, is personally maintaining your mental state. As long as the revival of the Lord of the Mysteries’ will does not exceed the limit Adam can bear, and as long as that place does not lose control, you will not go mad.

“So, your gravest hidden danger is that you must constantly maintain a normal connection with that body. Once it is interfered with, your state will develop problems. And under the separation created by Sefirah Castle, that connection is actually very fragile.

“You deliberately displayed signs of being half mad not only to guide me into searching for an opportunity along that line and step into the trap you had prepared, but also to hide this point, preventing me from fighting around that connection.

“Of course, aside from this, there are still quite a few other problems. After all, you haven’t truly completed your preparations. If I had discovered these earlier, even if I were only a King of Angels who had accommodated a Uniqueness, I would have had a way to defeat you.”

Amon quietly listened to the end. He raised His hand and adjusted the crystal monocle lodged in His right eye socket. The corners of His lips lifted slightly, and He let out a sigh with a smile.

Seeing this, Klein smiled and shook his head.

“You are indeed powerful, cunning, and terrifying—fully worthy of the title God of Deceit. If I had not long ago considered what I should do if you forced me into a dead end with no other options, I would certainly have hesitated just now. And with even the slightest hesitation, I would already be dead.”

In that case, Amon would have completely seized control of Sefirah Castle, using it to prevent Klein from returning from the fog of history and making his resurrection impossible.

Amon gazed at the increasing number of evil tentacles extending from beneath Klein’s dark cloak. He slowly inhaled and said with a smile, “The Lord of the Mysteries within you is about to truly awaken.”

The smile on Klein’s face had already taken on a somewhat neurotic quality.

“You can compete with me on that as well.

“Our next battle is very simple. We compete to see whose Lord of the Mysteries’ will awakens more, and who gains deeper control over Sefirah Castle. Fifty percent, seventy percent, ninety percent, all the way to one hundred percent. Then—bang—we explode, and He returns.

“How about it? Want to make a bet? Let’s see who can no longer hold out first. It will be thrilling, interesting, very much to your taste. It is like the roulette popular in Feysac: two people with one revolver, one bullet inside, taking turns placing it against their temples and pulling the trigger. Whoever gives up first is equivalent to letting the other win. And if neither gives up, if both insist until the end, then there will be no winner. Only He will win.”

Amon’s brow moved slightly. He smiled, but said nothing.

Looking at Him, Klein said with a bright smile, “Although you have always been known for pursuing excitement and daring to take risks, most of the time, you achieve your goal. Not only do you lose nothing, you even gain quite a lot. And in the smaller number of cases where you fail, you merely lose some avatars or a few items. You have never truly suffered severe damage or fallen into a desperate situation.

“Almost every one of your actions is the product of meticulous planning. Even if you fail, there is always a path of retreat.

“Does this mean you value your life more than I imagined? You do love excitement and seek pleasure, but being willing to pay any price for them is only the image you package for others. How could the true God of Deceit use Himself as a wager?

“Of course, this is only my personal guess. Perhaps it is wrong. In any case, would you like to bet?”

Amon stroked the monocle ground from crystal and clicked His tongue like Medici.

“You really have gone quite mad.”

Klein answered with a smile, “To others, this is indeed madness.

“But to me, it is only a choice.

“Compared to you, I am more willing to trust that past Lord of the Mysteries. He is a true Great Old One, overlooking the cosmos and regarding the overwhelming majority of living beings as insects. That, on the contrary, will keep Him away from reality.

“And I should still have time to ask the Lamp Genie to serve as witness and have that Lord of the Mysteries promise certain things—things very simple and worthless to Him.”

At this point, the corners of Klein’s mouth exaggeratedly curved upward.

“I won’t lose too much. Only myself.

“There are always some things higher than others.”

Amon maintained His smile, but did not speak.

Klein then looked around and found the Wishing Lamp and the Trunsoest Brass Book among the floating fragments of wilderness in the void.

He immediately laughed aloud.

“See? I haven’t been punished. That means I wasn’t lying. Everything I said was true.”

In truth, the rules formulated by the Trunsoest Brass Book had already begun to lose effect when the “star” descended and the divine kingdom shattered. The Amons had later even dared attempt multiple Thefts at the same time. But Klein’s main purpose was not to prove anything with this. Rather, it was to display his firmness, his resolve—or perhaps his madness.

Of course, everything he said was true. He truly was willing to put those words into practice. Otherwise, he would not have been able to deceive Amon, nor create enough pressure upon Him.

With a smile on His lips, Amon said without the slightest panic, “It sounds very interesting.”

“Is that so? Then let’s begin,” Klein replied without hesitation, his eyes growing even darker.

Amon’s smile froze slightly. His palms suddenly came together.

Beneath His classical black robe, slippery, evil tentacles likewise shot out one after another.

His aura changed to a certain extent. His body seemed to be draped in a dark cloak as well.

At that moment, Amon became more like the Lord of the Mysteries.

But He was not competing with Klein to see whose Lord of the Mysteries’ will would awaken further. Instead, He was disguising Himself, using this to deceive Sefirah Castle, create a corresponding “bug,” and create an opportunity to escape.

For the authority of Error to take effect between existences of the same level, different prerequisites were often required.

First, the medium and target must have sufficient similarity. Second, a certain connection must exist between the two. Third, certain matters or objects must contain logical contradictions. Fourth, some rules must indeed possess imperfections. Fifth, it must not directly affect the target, but rather construct an environment full of “errors” in the form of a divine kingdom…

In this regard, Fooling had fewer limitations. But once the conditions were met, Error became harder to defend against and stop.

What Amon was doing now was actively disguising Himself to satisfy the first category of conditions.

This was like a virus invading a system. It first had to make the other party believe it was one of its own, thereby avoiding identification, before it could paralyze the defense mechanism and achieve its goal.

When a fruit looked like a strawberry, smelled like a strawberry, and tasted like a strawberry, it would basically be treated as a strawberry.

But in reality, exceptions could very likely exist.

At this moment, Amon’s appearance was like the Lord of the Mysteries. His aura was like the Lord of the Mysteries. His abilities were like the Lord of the Mysteries. Even His spiritual imprint was like the Lord of the Mysteries. Combined with the authority of Error, it would naturally cause Sefirah Castle, in a certain instant, to mistakenly believe that He was the Lord of the Mysteries.

All at once, Klein’s shattered divine kingdom of The Fool completely collapsed, and the grand ancient palace and the mottled long table inside appeared.

The grayish-white fog that had originally been beneath Sefirah Castle surged upward, shrouding this space.

The grayish-white fog split into two waves and collided violently at a certain point, producing vortex after vortex that tore downward, opening a rift toward reality.

In that one second, the power of Sefirah Castle contradicted itself, as though it did not know which Lord of the Mysteries’ command it should obey.

Amon’s figure instantly vanished. Using the authority of Door, He rushed straight toward the outside of Sefirah Castle.

But just as He reached the edge, His body first froze. Then He flew backward.

In The Fool’s position, Klein sat there, the corners of his mouth slightly raised. The strange door of light between his brows and around his body had grown ever clearer, almost corporeal.

This released an unimaginable force of convergence, like an invisible hand that forcibly dragged Amon back.

Amon’s body abruptly split apart, transforming into countless copies of Himself.

In front of each Amon appeared an illusory Star Door.

Soundlessly, those Star Doors opened at the same time. Yet within the boundless darkness behind the doors, one slippery, evil tentacle after another shot out first, blocking the Amons’ path of escape.

At the tips of these tentacles, brilliant starlight lit up point by point, instantly enveloping the Amons.

The Amons converged uncontrollably, transforming into a mass of concepts.

Those concepts included, but were not limited to, pointed soft hat, classical black robe, monocle, fate, time, key, door, bug, and Trojan horse.

Klein slowly stood, looking at the passively conceptualized Amon as he smiled.

“You can also let the Lord of the Mysteries’ will awaken further, but this is different from death. It will absolutely affect the body over at Adam’s side.”

The conceptualized Amon swiftly regained physical form. Relying on the authority of Door, He broke free of that state.

With a smile still on His lips, He did not respond to Klein. He seized this opportunity to apply the authority of Error to replace the genuine with the false, attempting to use a prepared avatar in the outside world to replace Himself and swap their positions.

This resembled the Seer domain’s exchange of positions between main body and marionette, but it was at a higher level and operated on different principles. It would not be interfered with by the overwhelming majority of circumstances.

However, Amon still failed.

He discovered that His authority of Error had been forcefully suppressed.

As Klein slowly rose, more slippery, evil tentacles lifted around him, and the smile on his face grew increasingly exaggerated.

Immediately afterward, Amon’s eyes went dull. His smile froze. Even the monocle ground from crystal lost its luster.

At the same time, on Klein’s face, that cold, eerie mask wriggled.

The effect of Blind Stupidity!

The next second, he grafted himself to a certain concept in the starry sky and used the authority of Fooling to influence the corresponding environment.

The slippery tentacles around him then bent, like revolvers one after another, all aiming at Amon.

Within Amon’s eyes, where a trace of dullness still lingered, a supernova erupted.

An unimaginable, exceedingly incandescent sea of light surged forth, shattering His monocle and drowning His body.