After Qonas Kilgor realized which Beyonder pathway his enemy belonged to, all the Gehrman Sparrows in the garden, vineyard, and main building, raised their left hand. They curled their middle finger, ring finger, and pinky, extending their index finger and thumb, making them take on the simple shape of a gun.
The index fingers that represented barrels and muzzles aimed at Qonas Kilgor in the air before their respective arms jerked up seemingly due to the recoil.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Amidst deafening noises, illusory doves appeared to the side of the Earl of The Fallen who was dressed in a white shirt and black trousers. They flew at him from every direction in a spectacular sight of utmost beauty.
This was the random anomaly that came about from the iron-skinned pocket watch and Concerto of Light and Shadow. It made the Air Cannons which could blast through houses turn into doves of peace that didn't pose any threat!
Having used "Disorder" to disrupt the enemy's collective volley, Qonas Kilgor wasn't surprised to see the doves fly up and disperse into the air.
He was already mentally prepared.
He had already endured the negative effects that the Sealed Artifact had brought for years!
Taking advantage of this opportunity, he didn't hesitate to raise his hands which held the iron-skinned pocket watch and revolver, doing so in a bid to make them collide.
This was "Distortion," one that targeted all the Gehrman Sparrows beneath him.
To Qonas Kilgor, what frustrated him the most when fighting a Bizarro Sorcerer was that he was unable to tell if the enemy he faced was a marionette or the actual person unless the marionette was of a very crude level.
As such, he had many Beyonder powers he didn't dare use because they were ineffective against marionettes.
A large-scale "Prohibition" effect was still alright, but a single-target "Deprivation" was meaningless in actual combat. No matter how many Beyonder powers of a marionette were deprived, it didn't affect the actual body. When that happened, his opponent just needed to switch marionettes to resolve the problem.
Due to similar reasons, using "Magnify" on the mystical items on the marionettes was temporarily written off by Qonas Kilgor for strategic purposes.
Similarly, an Earl of The Fallen's "Bestowment" was of no use. It was even inferior to "Deprivation," as it could cause a Bizarro Sorcerer's marionette to lose its corresponding Beyonder powers. However, the negative effects "Bestowed" to a marionette was unable to interfere with it at all. Be it turning them sluggish, losing the will to fight, making them turn anxious, or only focus on money, it was meaningless to a marionette who was, in essence, dead, without any ability to think or inclinations to take action.
Therefore, Qonas Kilgor decided to first resolve the problem of identifying marionettes and the actual body.
In this aspect, others might not have a solution, but a High-Sequence Beyonder of the Lawyer pathway definitely didn't have such worries.
There were rules to everything, and everything followed certain rules. As a Lawyer demigod, they were good at finding whatever loopholes there were to exploit them for themselves.
Together with his combat experience fighting other Bizarro Sorcerers, and how he had seriously considered solutions for dealing with them during the aftermath, Qonas Kilgor was quite certain that "Distortion" could suppress his enemy.
He knew that Bizarro Sorcerers could seamlessly switch between their actual body and marionettes. He planned on "Distorting" this, making the Bizarro Sorcerer only be able to switch to two to three marionettes!
This way, the difficulty of identifying the actual body and the marionette would be minimized.
Of course, if it wasn't for the fact that Distortion couldn't exceed certain limits, and area-oriented "Prohibition" effects had reached its limit, Qonas Kilgor definitely would've used a simpler method to deal with his opponent, such as forcing the Bizarro Sorcerer to only be able to swap with one marionette, or he would "Prohibit" swapping with marionettes.
Pa!
Qonas Kilgor smashed the Rever's Shout of Despair and Concerto of Light and Shadow together as though he was compressing a large area to a small area.
Earl of The Fallen—Distortion!
Silently, he produced a red glow with a deep shadow in his hand. It appeared as though he was offering it to the Gehrman Sparrows in the garden, vineyard, and main building. As for the thick and thin, normal, or terrifying crazy adventurers, none of them experienced any abnormalities.
Qonas Kilgor also suffered a random anomaly, one brought about by Concerto of Light and Shadow!
It had changed the Distortion effects to summoning a flower from the garden below.
And at that moment, the Air Cannons that had turned into illusory doves continued!
At that moment, the battle between two demigods turned ludicrous, comical, and funny.
Of course, be it Gehrman Sparrow or Qonas Kilgor, none of them thought that was the case—especially the latter. He once again felt a familiar sense of helplessness.
He didn't hesitate as he slammed his palms together again, completing the "Distortion." He wanted to rely on quantity to resist the random anomaly effect.
However, Gehrman Sparrow wasn't a dead person who would abide by the etiquette of turn-based combat. The large swath of crazy adventurers either raised their hands in firing stances or used a Death Knell with questionable authenticity, aiming at the Earl of The Fallen in midair.
Meanwhile, Qonas Kilgor's heart stirred. He turned his head slightly to look up and saw that a figure had appeared once again inside the gigantic crimson moon that hung above the black steeple.
The figure was wearing a silk top hat, a black trench coat, a human-skinned glove, and an iron-black revolver. He had a cold expression and a deep outline. He was another Gehrman Sparrow!
The crimson moon seemed to weigh down on his shoulders as he glided down, his body expanding and turning clearer in the process. As for the iron-black long-barreled revolver in his hand, he had already lifted it and aimed it at Qonas Kilgor.
Bang! Bang!
A bullet that had transparent and translucent sections to it shot out from the muzzle, heading straight for Qonas Kilgor.
This was a Deprivation Bullet, one which was created using a Worm of Time that Amon's avatar had left behind!
It was different from an Arbiter pathway's "Deprivation." In essence, it was theft. It could steal the last three Beyonder powers the target had used and become empowered with the ability to use them.
However, as long as the Arbiter pathway's "Deprivation" selected a target, then they could directly deprive them of their ability. Although this bullet's "Deprivation" effect didn't require contact in order to be effective, the target needed to be within a certain range and unable to leave the area. In short, one was unavoidable and could only be resisted or weakened through one's level or Sequence's characteristics, while the other could effectively be dodged if the shot was detected ahead of time.
Klein had given up on a sneak attack and had stalled for time because, on the one hand, he wanted Qonas Kilgor to use up all his "Prohibition" and "Deprivation" powers on Beyonder powers that appeared important to him. On the other hand, he was also waiting for the first random anomaly to happen. Then, he would seize the gap in between the two anomalies to steal Qonas Kilgor's three most powerful powers with the Deprivation Bullet.
For these two goals, he even handed Death Knell and Creeping Hunger to Winner Enuni and made him appear like the real Gehrman Sparrow instead of a marionette.
From the current developments, Qonas Kilgor was about to lose "Distortion,""Disorder," and "Magnify."
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Gehrman Sparrows underneath collectively fired shots.
Suddenly, the Air Cannons and the Deprivation Bullet exploded, turning into red, purple, yellow, or green fireworks. However, they were unable to illuminate the deep dark sky.
Concerto of Light and Shadow had once again created a random anomaly!
It had produced its effects several times in a row without any pauses or delays.
Qonas Kilgor immediately smiled and slammed his hands together again.
All of a sudden, the young men wearing silk top hats and black trench coats under the gigantic crimson moon's illumination turned gloomy. Only two maintained their previous states.
The Earl of The Fallen's "Distortion" had taken effect!
This meant that Gehrman Sparrow could only switch places with those two normal marionettes!
Right on the heels of that, Qonas Kilgor didn't hesitate at all. He swung his arm and threw out the flower that was held together with the pocket watch out.
The flower sped up and seemed to gain weight of unknown origins. Like an arrow, it shot towards one of the normal marionettes.
This attack had been "Magnified" and also came with the effects of Bribe—Weaken!
Boom!
The flower was like a cannon that crashed heavily into the ground, causing a violent quake.
The surging waves it stirred up threw up the ordinary and unordinary humans in the vicinity, tearing or severely injuring them. The two marionettes which Gehrman Sparrow could swap with had been reduced to pieces of meat.
Qonas Kilgor maintained his calm. As he "Distorted" his trajectory in midair and circled the area while in flight, he raised Rever's Shout of Despair and aimed it at the Gehrman Sparrow that had descended from the crimson moon.
At the same time, he silently prepared a "Bestowment."
He wanted to give his target the negative state of "lacking the will to fight"!
But at that moment, Qonas Kilgor's mind suddenly turned adrift as his thoughts turned sluggish.
This... Turning into a marionette... Qonas Kilgor's mental state stiffened as he understood his current situation.
He then saw that Gehrman Sparrow, who had descended from the crimson moon, wasn't as far away from him as before. The distance between them was only about a hundred meters.
He had unknowingly entered the range where Spirit Body Threads could be controlled. He had stayed there for at least three seconds without realizing it!
Deceit!
A Deceit Bullet made from Amon's avatar!
When Klein, who was actually Winner Enuni, had pulled the trigger, he hadn't only fired a Deprivation Bullet, but had actually fired twice!
This was to prevent any random anomalies from happening.
With an anomaly having happened once, even if another anomaly were to happen, only one of the two bullets that had been fired in intervals that were slightly spaced apart would be affected. After all, it was an intermittent random anomaly. It was possible to have it happen two to three times consecutively, but four or five consecutive occurrences were rare. Therefore, by attacking numerous times, there would be at least one or more instances that wouldn't suffer an anomaly!
Just now, the firing of the second Deceit Bullet had been concealed by the collective volley from the marionettes.
This was also why Klein made Winner Enuni use Death Knell—it was to rely on his luck!
Finally, he successfully deceived Qonas Kilgor and allowed Winner Enuni to secretly enter a safe distance of 150 meters from him and begin controlling his Spirit Body Threads and obtained initial control.
The moment this began, it meant that the Beyonder power was taking effect. Since there weren't any anomalies, it meant that there wouldn't be anymore!
