Upon hearing Klein's reply, Amon smiled and shook his head. As "He" reached out to open the door, "He" casually asked, "How did you think of such an honorific name?"
"It needs to have a certain connection with myself, but also be able to avoid others from using the prayer's automatic response to lock onto me. There aren't many such honorific names." Seeing that his identity had been exposed, there was no need for Klein to hide it any further. Furthermore, he hoped to use such a conversation to grasp an opportunity.
At the same time, his mind raced as he began thinking about how to save himself.
I've been deeply parasitized. If I have any thoughts that aren't beneficial to Amon, it will be easily sensed and detected by "Him"...
Today is Saturday, and it's almost Monday again. If The Fool suddenly stops the Tarot Gathering without any warning, the other members will definitely be terrified, nervous, and confused. Here, those who have the means to contact The World will definitely attempt to summon the messenger to ask for the reason. And once Miss Messenger approaches me, "She" will be able to discover the existence of Amon. Then, "She" can use the Yesterday Once again charm to recover to "Her" peak condition. With the complete strength of an angel, "She" has a sizable chance of rescuing me from Amon's avatar...
The most important thing for me now is to persist and "live" for two days!
Yes, since Amon can't steal my fate right now, why did "He" try to trade peacefully? Even if I agreed to it, "He" wouldn't dare to let me go above the gray fog to grant "Him" permission. That would mean that I'm free from "His" control and able to Sefirah Castle to effectively purify and make a counterattack against the "Parasite"...
Is the "agreement" itself a switch, and there's no need to follow up on it?
Amon deliberately didn't mention this...
As expected, it was a scam!
Having grasped a sliver of hope, Klein decided to stall for time as long as possible for the next two days. The focus of Amon was still on the honorific name that no human and angel could think of.
As he walked out of the room, he scratched his chin and said, "Have you provided any protection to Backlund's magic and drama performers?"
I've protected a Trickmaster before... Having made plans, Klein was much more cooperative than before. He answered simply, "I'm a Magician myself. I've ‘performed' many times in Backlund."
The monocled Amon nodded.
"Barely counts."
He then walked out of the hotel room and went down the stairs to the street. Like a servant, he followed behind without any abnormalities.
Looking to his left and right, Amon pinched his monocle and sighed with a smile.
"How regretful."
"What's there to regret?" Klein asked in puzzlement.
I've already been caught by you. What else do you have to regret?
Amon pressed down on "His" silk top hat and maintained "His" smile.
"You can make a guess. If you can guess correctly, I can give you a better ending."
Klein didn't believe in "His" promise at all. In order to not be tricked into revealing more secrets, he shook his head and said, "I can't guess it."
"How boring," Amon said simply. "He" clenched "His" right hand into a fist and lightly tapped on "His" monocle.
From the pedestrians, the trees by the side of the street, the sparrows on the rooftops, the rats in the muddy corners, and all kinds of living creatures in the air, illusory worm-like figures flew out, returning to Amon like stars.
This son of a god's status instantly rose to the level of an angel.
As for Klein, he raised his left hand, and the human-skinned glove suddenly turned transparent.
This was the activation process of "Traveling."
At that moment, the only thing on him which was real was Creeping Hunger. The rest were made by using the powers of a Faceless, as well as the glove using flesh and blood as the material.
Seeing that "Traveling" was about to begin, Klein was taken aback as he blurted out, "Why didn't you teleport in the room?"
He had expected Amon to leave Backlund with him. After all, this was a place where even a King of Angels had to be wary of. However, he couldn't understand why "He" would open the door, go down the stairs, and leave the hotel in such ordinary fashion.
The eye behind the monocle swept across Klein as the corner of Amon's mouth slowly curled up.
"I've already answered you. What a pity that you didn't seek help from Pallez."
This Angel of Time had an obvious smile on "His" face, but there was no emotion in "His" black eyes. It made Klein shudder.
H-he's certain that I have some connection with Pallez Zoroast... Is it because of what happened the last time? No, stop it! Klein attempted to Cogitate, trying his best to control himself from thinking too much, so as to prevent his thoughts from being stolen by Amon.
Amon glanced at the panicking passers-by on the street in an impassive manner before looking up at the gray sky and saying, "I can only wait for the next opportunity. The most important thing now is to bring you to that place."
As they spoke, both of them turned transparent at the same time and vanished from the hotel's entrance. None of the people who came over felt anything amiss.
After passing through countless indescribable spirit world creatures and overlapping layers of different saturated colors, Klein and Amon appeared above the sea.
Beneath their feet was a huge fissure. The blue seawater had been cut off as they plummeted deep into the bottomless "darkness" like a waterfall without ever filling it.
This was the entrance to the ruins of the battle of gods.
With a thought, Klein asked, "You're taking me to the Forsaken Land of the Gods?"
The magnificent "waterfall" was reflected in Amon's monocle. "He" nodded slightly and casually replied, "That's right. When we get there, even your messenger won't be able to sense you through the contract."
The Forsaken Land of the Gods was clearly separated from the spirit world. Only by relying on Sefirah Castle could a connection be made.
...Amon knows what I'm planning to do... The flame of hope that was ignited in him was extinguished by the cold reality.
He couldn't find another way to save himself for the time being.
At this moment, the levitating Amon muttered to "Himself," "If my mausoleum in Backlund hadn't been destroyed by the Church of Steam, we could've used the Abyss as a springboard to head there directly. We wouldn't have to go through all this trouble."
"..." Klein guiltily changed the topic.
"The Abyss is connected to the Forsaken Land of the Gods?"
"No." Amon shook "His" head and said with a relaxed expression, "But I can use some of its characteristics to go anywhere."
"I heard that there were some nasty changes in the Abyss." With a thought, Klein probed.
Amon turned "His" head and glanced at him without concealing "His" curiosity.
"You're actually aware."
"Yes, I once thought of exploring the Abyss." Klein didn't speak further, afraid that the King of Angels of the Marauder pathway would discover that he could read Roselle's diary.
At this moment, Amon suddenly laughed.
"You want to explore the Abyss?"
"What's so funny about that?" Klein was very interested in what had happened to the Abyss to begin with; thus, he took the opportunity to cooperate with Amon in an attempt to know more.
Just as he finished speaking, he suddenly had a new idea:
Using the conversation he had with Amon, he could grasp more historical secrets to speed up his digestion of the Scholar of Yore potion. That way, he could try using it to deepen his control of Sefirah Castle and escape from his current predicament.
This thought flashed through his mind as he quickly restrained himself and stopped thinking about such matters.
In regards to his question, Amon chuckled and said, "Your visiting of the Abyss is like offering yourself as a beautifully packaged gift to someone who wants it."
"...Dark Side of the Universe?" Klein was first alarmed before he made a guess.
Amon nodded.
"‘He' was originally the only surviving ancient god, the Devil Monarch, Farbauti. Now, heh."
Without finishing "His" sentence, Amon leaped and jumped into the huge, illusory rift with the strong winds.
With that, Klein lost the support of the wind and fell straight down.
After an unknown period of time, the water that resembled a fountain surged upwards rapidly, throwing him and Amon to the other side of the severed face.
Just as he entered the ruins of the battle of gods, Klein was hit by bright sunlight. He suddenly heard a series of intense and crazy ravings.
It was like a thin needle that pierced through his eardrums and stabbed into his brain, filling every thought with immense pain.
As for the Worms of Spirit that formed his Mythical Creature form, they gradually changed, as though they were about to give birth to a degenerate consciousness that didn't belong to him.
The True Creator's ravings!
With regards to this, Klein could barely withstand it, but it was difficult for him to hold on for too long. There was no way for him to go too far in the ruins of the battle of gods.
At this moment, he saw that the monocle on Amon's right eye absorbed all the light around them. It became unusually bright and white.
Then, a thick darkness ruled the sky.
Amon directly stole the "day" of the ruins of the battle of gods!
In the darkness, this Angel of Time's avatar brought Klein to an island and made him sleep against a stone pillar.
Soon, Klein arrived in the hazy dream world. He saw the projection of the Giant King's Court, which was filled with an epic feeling, opposite the black cloister and the cliff.
Amon, wearing the black silk top hat and crystal monocle, appeared beside him. With a relaxed smile, "He" pointed at the projection of the Giant King's Court that was frozen in the sunset.
"That's the entrance to the Forsaken Land of the Gods."
After some thought, Klein raised his doubts:
"Don't you need to enter a dream at a specific location to open the entrance?"
He couldn't help but feel a glimmer of hope again. He thought that it would be great if Amon wasted a week or two of his time in the ruins of the battle of gods.
"That's right." Amon didn't deny what Klein had said. "He" casually said, "If you wish to open the entrance, you have to travel on a ship to the core of this ruin's waters. This might take more than a month, and you will experience many dangers that you're currently unable to withstand. As for me, I don't have to."
"Is it because you're the son of the Creator?" Klein guessed in deliberation.
"No." Amon had one hand in "His" pocket as "He" turned to walk to the black cloister's entrance. "In chaotic places like this, ‘order' is in shambles, and the laws governing them have mutated. There are too many things that can be exploited."
As this Angel of Time walked, "He" turned to look at Klein.
"The Marauder pathway's Sequence 0 has a very abstract name, Error.
"It was named by my father. ‘He' once used a strange word of unknown origins to represent it:
"Bug.
"When translated, it's a trojan horse of fate, the slug of time, the loopholes in rules, the manifestation of all errors."
