Boom!
Lightning bolts descended from the sky, covering the entire area illuminated by the huge crimson moon with a silver "forest."
Lightning flashed and destructive auras swept over, not leaving any spot unscathed.
The giant grayish-white dragon, which still had a human head, appeared again. There were tiny bolts of electric bolts scurrying over its scaled body. There were also some obvious cracks.
Hvin Rambis's Psychological Invisibility couldn't be maintained under such a wide area-of-effect bombardment. After all, his interactions with his surroundings couldn't be avoided. All he could do was eliminate his sense of presence and stay in the blind spot of one's attention. Once the level of interaction grew excessive, he didn't have the means to avoid exposure.
As soon as he appeared, the Lightning Storm calmed down quite significantly. The Gehrman Sparrow's body on the roof instantly blurred and phased into existence diagonally below the incomplete dragon.
Right on the heels of that, the glove on the crazy adventurer's left hand protruded with fine black particles that were deep and dark.
Then, he opened his mouth and said as word filled with foulness and corruption from the Devil language:
"Slow!"
Hvin Rambis knew that his opponent was using Creeping Hunger and knew the true level of the item. He found Gehrman Sparrow amusing and was about to raise his left claw that grabbed onto an ice-blue metal cylinder, slamming it down at his enemy beneath him.
This was a Sealed Artifact with unknown origins called "Rotting Meteor." Hvin Rambis had obtained it from a particular existence, and he was only aware that part of it came from the cosmos.
This ice-blue metal cylinder could fire special dark-green bullets that would instantly poison anyone who was hit with it. They would begin rotting in a way that even their Spirit Bodies wouldn't be spared. This was also effective against demigods.
Its negative effect was that the wielder had a probability of gaining the attention of the cosmos and suffering corruption without realizing it. If not for having the item sealed thanks to a particular existence, Hvin Rambis definitely wouldn't have dared to carry it around. But even so, he tried to limit his usage of it, lest he suffered a strange death or anomaly. That was a common ending for many of the previous owners of Rotting Meteor.
Currently, Hvin Rambis didn't believe that the Language of Foulness, which was at most at Sequence 5, could affect him in his incomplete Mythical Creature form. He planned on using Rotting Meteor to finish off the Sealed Artifact- equipped enemy that posed a threat.
However, at this moment, his actions had really slowed down, and his entire body felt stiff.
On the pitch-black roof under the gigantic crimson moon, another Gehrman Sparrow in a black trench coat and silk hat had appeared at some point in time. He held a six-barreled revolver in his right hand and aimed his left hand at the Gehrman Sparrow beneath him before balling his fist and turning his wrist.
Earl of The Fallen—Magnify!
This was Klein's other marionette, a demigod from the Lawyer pathway, Qonas Kilgor!
With the help of his "Magnify," Creeping Hunger could amplify the Beyonder powers it obtained from "Grazing" souls, almost raising it to the level of Sequence 4, or in other words, at the level of a demigod!
Of course, Magnify couldn't be used consecutively in quick succession. It was limited to a one-time use each time.
Due to Hvin Rambis's current Mythical Creature form, no matter how "Magnified",,SlowM was, it couldn't affect him for long. Therefore, it was the Gehrman Sparrow, who was actually Enuni, who had to seize this short opportunity and control Hvin Rambis's Spirit Body Threads.
Normally, he would take three seconds to attain initial control. However, his opponent had already revealed a powerful Mythical Creature form, and time would definitely extend the time required. It would take perhaps about seven seconds or even more than ten seconds to succeed. And by then, Hvin Rambis would've long extricated himself from the influence of Slow, restoring himself to normal and carrying out the corresponding countermeasures.
At this critical moment, Qonas Kilgor aimed his left hand at Winner Enuni once again and clenched his fingers.
Another Magnify!
The control of the Spirit Body Threads was "Magnified"!
Suddenly, Enuni's control of Hvin Rambis's Spirit Body Threads became easier, as if the Mythical Creature form hadn't been revealed.
In other words, he could obtain initial control in three seconds.
This was already rather formidable, but the problem was that the dragonified Hvin Rambis wouldn't take more than a second to extricate himself from the influence of "Slow."
No, he had already escaped!
At that moment, there was a gunshot. A bullet that looked lusterless—deep and profound but not dark—swiftly shot out with its many strange patterns and struck Hvin Rambis who had just escaped from his "Slow" state.
In another comer of the garden, another Gehrman Sparrow in a black trench coat and a silk top hat appeared.
Hvin Rambis's dragon body stiffened once again. Not only did his thoughts come to a halt, even the wings on his back froze, and he had lost all his control of himself. The entire dragon collapsed to the ground.
Control Spirit Bullet!
Klein had used his Worms of Spirit as the material to contain the Control Spirit Bullets made from the powers of the mysterious space above the gray fog. It could even freeze Sequence 3 saints for one or two seconds!
At that moment, Hvin Rambis, who had an incomplete Mythical Creature form, wasn't much stronger than a Sequence 3 saint. Back when Amon's avatar was hit by the Control Spirit Bullet, it had also froze for more than a second.
In addition, Klein could also get Qonas Kilgor to "Magnify" the power of the bullet. However, to grab the opportunity, he had failed to do it in time.
The string of team combination attacks from before had already made Klein turn poignant, as obtaining the aid of a demigod from the Lawyer pathway was terrifying. It was very, very effective. Of course, under normal circumstances, the Earl of the Fallen's Magnify could only amplify the effects and influence that strengthened one's body or actions without helping others. However, the problem was that, as marionettes with Worms of Spirit within them, they were without a doubt, no different from Klein. He hadn't been augmenting others, but himself!
Seizing the opportunity of Hvin Rambis falling into a state of paralysis, Winner Enuni obtained initial control over the Spirit Body Threads.
The incomplete dragon had just ended its rigid state when its thoughts became sluggish. Its movement had a certain delay.
It had to be said that, after a Bizarro Sorcerer obtained a powerful marionette, they could unleash terrifying powers through their cooperation with their marionettes. Klein also had a cheat-like method like Control Spirit Bullets. This was something that could only be created by him because he was the only one who could stir the powers of the mysterious space above the gray fog. Of course, Amon and other powerhouses also had similar charms and bullets. The only difference was the effects would be different.
Seeing that Hvin Rambis had come under a certain level of control, Klein began preparing to disrupt any form of resistance he tried putting up, preventing him from escaping from his current state until he became a marionette. However, at this moment, his head suddenly ached due to an intolerable mania in his heart.
Then, he became extremely down, as if he couldn't feel joy anymore. He despised himself and wished he could give up his life just like that so that he wouldn't be a burden on others.
In the blink of an eye, he became excited. His eyes seemed to be blood-red and filled with hatred towards anything, wanting to destroy everything he saw.
Not good... Before his mental state deteriorated, Klein realized that he had been influenced by Hvin Rambis at some point in time. Something was wrong with his Body of Heart and Mind.
He hurriedly attempted to Cogitate to fight against the abnormal mental state. However, various thoughts that didn't seem to belong to him flashed through his mind:
"Let's end it here..."
"F*ck, think of a way to save yourself!"
"What exactly happened? I think I have a serious mental illness..."
"A psychiatric disease that's contagious? The special mental illness that Miss Justice mentioned? This is indeed a High- Sequence Beyonder power of the Spectator pathway!"
"Why are you saying so much? That's a demigod Psychiatrist you're facing. Turning him into a marionette will easily resolve this problem."
Realizing that Gehrman Sparrow hadn't shot the second bullet, Hvin Rambis's face, covered in grayish-white scales, revealed a faint smile.
Although he hadn't anticipated the tight cooperation between Gehrman Sparrow and his two marionettes, causing him to quickly fall into a perilous situation, it wasn't like he hadn't done anything prior to this.
Before he left the sea of collective subconscious, he had secretly planted Contagious Madness in a marionette!
A marionette was, after all, a dead person. Although it was unable to be controlled by any other methods other than Spirit Body Threads, it didn't mean that they didn't have an island of consciousness. It was just a dead mass, but it was precisely here that Hvin Rambis buried a "seed" named madness.
The seed couldn't affect the marionette itself, but it could secretly infect the sea of collective subconscious of its surroundings, causing the person who kept switching between bodies to unknowingly place themselves in an environment with a contagious mental disease. Also, this madness could also be transmitted via Spirit Body Threads.
In addition, this type of infection stemmed from one's "self." It wasn't something an angelic blessing could screen. At most, it would be weakened and have the effects weakened.
This was a High-Sequence Spectator's power, Manipulator's Mental Plague!
In ancient times, there would be people from time to time who were placed in repressed states for prolonged periods of time and appear abnormal at the same time. Their abnormality influenced the people around them, causing "mass hysteria" to happen. An ancient folk song once sang of it in such a manner:
"Seven young ladies are dancing weirdly on the street;
"Nine men are rolling on the ground laughing by their sides;
"On a horse carriage passing by, the nobles are slapping their faces;
"The stoned children are crying outside the house by the street;
"People are hurting each other. The entire city is crazy."
If one thought about it carefully, it would make one feel an inexplicable sense of horror. However, Hvin Rambis knew that the scene described in the myth was true. It was an experiment from a Spectator pathway demigod.
A highly-contagious Mental Plague!
By the time Gehrman Sparrow's actual body went crazy, his control over his marionettes would undoubtedly be lost. When that happened, Hvin Rambis would be able to escape from his predicament.
It wouldn't take long, as it only took a few seconds!
At that moment, a Manipulator like Hvin Rambis wasn't afraid that Gehrman Sparrow had the charm which Audrey had used—the one that could temporarily swap fates between two people. This was because a swap would put Gehrman Sparrow in a state of becoming a marionette. His thoughts would turn sluggish and his body would stiffen. As for Hvin Rambis, being infected by the Mental Plague was a relatively simple problem for him to resolve.
At this moment, Hvin Rambis saw the Gehrman Sparrow on the rooftop aiming his left hand at the Gehrman Sparrow who was holding the iron-black, long-barreled revolver. He gripped his fingers and slowly turned his wrist.
Distortion!
Klein had used Qonas Kilgor's Beyonder powers to distort the level of his mental disease, weakening it and slowing down the deterioration!
Making use of this period in which he had clarity of mind, he raised Death Knell again and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Another Control Spirit Bullet shot out and hit the motionless, massive incomplete dragon.
At the same time, Qonas Kilgor used Magnify!
Despite being attacked, Hvin Rambis didn't escape from Enuni's control, because he had fallen into a "long" period of feeling numb and stiff.
Klein silently kept count of the time, shooting a third Control Spirit Bullet before Hvin Rambis truly recovered.
And before the third Control Spirit Bullet's "Magnified" effects ended, the grayish-white, incomplete dragon trembled as it returned to "normal," no longer looking sluggish.
