Klein looked down at his palm as his eyes reflected the gold coin.
It was heads.
This meant that Klein should use the marionette's eyes to look at himself!
After receiving this revelation, Klein remained hesitant. He pondered about holding a ritual to send Enzo above the gray fog. Doing so was relatively safer, allowing the damage and corruption his Spirit Body suffered to be completely screened by the environment before making an attempt.
However, he suspected that he wouldn't receive an outcome. This was because Beyonders of the Fate pathway were noticing the projection of the mysterious space on his body. Above the gray fog, that uniqueness might no longer exist. It was like an attempt to observe an elephant's body; instead of doing it outside, he was doing it internally.
Pressing his fingers together, he clenched the gold coin in silence for a long while before making up his mind.
He suddenly stood up, took out a ritual dagger, and created a wall of spirituality to isolate the room.
This was to prevent anyone from hearing the possible screams or strange commotion!
Immediately after that, Klein set up a ritual and sacrificed Creeping Hunger above the gray fog.
He was afraid that the glove would turn on him when something happened to him!
This was a fixed trait of Creeping Hunger itself. Once it didn't have its fill and couldn't secure a schedule of eating one person a day, it would view its wearer as food. And Klein starved it more often than he fed it.
After doing all the preparations in a meticulous and orderly manner, Klein reached out to take the Flower of Blood from Enzo and wore it on his left palm.
This ensured that he could recover even if he suffered any serious physical damage.
At the moment he was about to wear it, Klein thought for a moment and paused. Taking a piece of paper, he wrote: "Remember to take off the ring."
He was worried that he wouldn't take Flower of Blood off after his experiment due to his lowered intelligence.
When that happens, perhaps I need a beautiful princess to wake me up with a kiss, no-take off my ring... Klein gave a self-deprecating laugh and exhaled. Removing his outerwear, he wore the ring.
Then, he cast his gaze at his new marionette, Winner Enzo.
The sense of crisis and nervousness was inevitable, but as long as he made up his mind, the experienced him could only forge ahead without flinching.
After doing some adjustments and entering a state of Cogitation, Klein made the marionette slowly turn around to look at him.
With the Winner's eyes, he first saw a layer of thin, emanating grayish-white fog.
Amidst the fog, there was a resplendent door of light that was tainted with bluish-blackness.
The door of light was formed from countless layers of spherical light. Each spherical light enveloped squirming maggots. Some of them were transparent, others translucent. They had complicated and indescribable symbols and patterns that had profound meanings.
Before Klein could discern the actual details, he felt his mind buzz as he lost consciousness.
After an unknown period of time, he slowly woke up. He had momentarily lost his memory, almost imagining that he had slept till daybreak.
What happened? It's still dark outside... Klein sat up with a push of his hands, only to realize that he was on the ground.
At this moment, he caught sight of Enzo through the corner of his eye. Plenty of scenes and voices suddenly surged through his mind.
That's right. I was trying to figure out what Beyonders of the Monster pathway can see from my body... I suffered too much stimulation and fainted immediately? I still vaguely remember painful screaming. Was that me? Klein, who had recovered his memories, hurriedly inspected his condition. He was surprised to see a bloody, gruesome wound on his body, as though something was about to tear out of it.
At this moment, flesh was squirming in the wound, reforming at an abnormally fast speed.
Klein then looked to the ground and saw that there was blood that had outlined a silhouette of where he was lying down.
Thankfully, I wore Flower of Blood; otherwise, I might've slowly died due to the heavy injuries brought about by the breakdown of my body. After I resurrect, I wonder if I'll be in a human form or a monster form... Klein raised his hand and rubbed his temples as he scanned his surroundings. He found that the furniture had toppled, but the wall of spirituality remained intact.
He heaved a sigh of relief, confirming that the abnormality was only limited to himself and a small area around him. Nothing had spread.
And from the speed at which his wound was recovering at, Klein determined that he hadn't been unconscious for more than a minute.
He picked up the chair and sat down, feeling as though he had forgotten something, but he just couldn't recall what.
Only when he instinctively cleared the area did he see a note with the words: "Remember to take off the ring." Only then was he enlightened as he removed the golden ruby ring on his left hand.
More memories surfaced as Klein shook his head and muttered with a lingering sense of fear and amusement, "Luck is really important at times. If the negative effects of the Flower of Blood randomly reached its peak potency, I might not be able to recognize those words and fail to be reminded..."
Seeing that he had mostly recovered from his wound, he made Enzo wear Flower of Blood and take off Green Essence.
Using the latter's treatment, Klein no longer felt any discomfort. He focused his attention back on the scene he saw. It was a scene that Beyonders of the Fate pathway saw on him.
A door of light tainted with bluish-black. Countless spherical lights. Transparent and translucent maggots clumped together. Symbols and patterns that are mystically complicated, hiding plenty of knowledge but giving zero feedback to others... What do these represent?
This is a particular Mythical Creature form that corresponds to the mysterious space above the gray fog? It's one that belongs to a Sequence o true god?
Due to the gray fog's screening, only Beyonders of the Fate pathway can see it directly, suffering the visual impact and corruption? Likewise, it's also because of the gray fog's screening that those Beyonders don't directly break down as though they are seeing a deity with their own eyes while also not receiving any knowledge?
Klein thought for a moment and began to use divination to decipher the hidden meaning.
The door of light seems to resemble the symbol behind the Apprentice's chair. It might also point to Mr. Door...
Countless stacked spherical light is identical to my Cogitation. And the latter stems from the mythical systems as described by some novels from Earth... Influenced, my subconscious chose the most relevant and closely-matching memory? Or could it be that my choice influences the expression of the scene from the gray fog?
The distorted and transparent maggots are similar to the clump of maggots on the gigantic throne on the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range, but there are some tiny differences. That's Sequence o The Fool of the Seer pathway? I didn't manage to see the translucent ones clearly. It's hard to tell...
Also, the bluish-black color keeps making me connect it to the depths of the mysterious space that I can't reach... Back when I stood on the highest step of the staircase of light, I could see some hints of bluish-black on the cloud-like mass that condensed in midair...
Klein thought about it for quite some time but failed to receive an answer. All he could do was keep it at the back of his mind and analyze it when he had more information and clues.
After clearing the scene, he took four steps counterclockwise and went above the gray fog. He planned on doing a thorough inspection of his physical condition and confirm if Enzo still had any passive luck or bad luck.
Bayam. In the poverty district, in a dilapidated house that wasn't too big.
Admiral of Stars Cattleya was sitting behind a table looking at the door when she heard a unique knocking pattern on the door.
"Come on in." She didn't deliberately disguise her voice.
The wooden door creaked open as The Hanged Man walked in, wearing a hooded black robe.
Seeing his suspicious disguise, Cattleya nudged her heavy glasses and said with a smile, "If you were to walk out like this, you would be surrounded by the members of the Church of Storms within five minutes."
She didn't wear any disguise because she knew that the matter of her permitting Gehrman Sparrow to board the Future had long spread across the seas. It wasn't difficult for The Hanged Man to guess that Admiral of Stars was Ma'am Hermit.
Alger didn't directly reply to her. As he closed the door, he pulled out a chair and snapped back, "It's the same for you."
He meant that Admiral of Stars was just second to Admiral Hell amongst the seven pirate admirals. Furthermore, she was suspected to have deep connections to Gehrman Sparrow. She was a target of pursuit by the Church of Storms and Church of Evernight. Her bounty had risen to 45,000 pounds, and no matter which city she was in, it only spelled trouble once she was recognized due to not being disguised.
Cattleya nodded slightly and turned to look at The Hanged Man's hooded face.
"In front of me, such a disguise is meaningless.
"However, I respect your choice."
She continued wearing her glasses.
She has a domineering stance and great confidence. As expected of the Admiral of Stars... Alger, who was wearing a mask under the hood, didn't harp on the disguise as he went straight to the point.
"Thank you for providing me with assistance."
Cattleya placed her right hand on her left elbow.
"I'm curious. With your present strength and the resources you have, you should be able to resolve the Artisan's problem even without my help. Why are you being excessive?"
Alger was already prepared as he succinctly replied, "I do not wish to become a topic of discussion for others."
Cattleya seemed to grasp the meaning in between the lines. Pondering for a few seconds, she said, "I need more information."
Alger nodded lightly and said, "According to my observations and guesses, the Artisan is likely controlled by those who believe in the Primordial Moon. The latter belong to the original faction of the Southern Continent, not the traitors of the Life School of Thought."
Cattleya's expression remained unperturbed as she thought for a moment.
"Why don't you find Mr. Moon? He should be very interested in such matters."
Alger curled his lips and replied in a normal tone, "If we aren't able to resolve it, I might do so."
