As he spoke, Klein raised his right hand.
A piece of pitch-black and filthy flesh had appeared in his palm at some point in time. It contained an indescribable aspect of madness.
"The answer is: The Hanged Man's corruption," Klein said to Shadow with a smile.
The thing that he had that Shadow didn't was the corruption left behind by the True Creator. This was an influence that even the power of Sefirah Castle couldn't dissipate for the time being!
And one thing he was certain of was that, before he met Dark Angel Sasrir, the True Creator wouldn't easily allow him to lose control or die.
Therefore, he deliberately allowed corrupted parts of his body to be infected by Mental Plague, pretending that he had lost control. Then, he pretended to be controlling Spirit Body Threads in an aimless manner so as to cover up the fact that the target was actually the Spectator Saint. When the opponent launched a further attack, he successfully entered a sluggish state, creating an opportunity for the Silver Knight marionette.
As he expected, the corrupted parts of him wrapped around the seeds of the Mental Plague, preventing the negative effects from erupting.
During this process, Shadow had distanced herself from Klein because of his concern about the effects of Mental Plague. This made him fail to notice the abnormality of the Spectator Saint's Spirit Body Threads.
How could Klein not know how careful and cautious he was?
Of course, Klein couldn't predict the kind of changes the corruption would bring when he met Dark Angel Sasrir. Would the Mental Plague that had been suppressed leak out and cause certain effects? All he could do was resolve the problems at hand.
Upon hearing his words, the pure Shadow suddenly burst into a scarlet flame that instantly engulfed him.
At the edge of the Unshadowed Domain, near the place where the Giant King resided, a wisp of fire rapidly rose up as Shadow appeared.
He didn't hesitate to escape. He ran towards the palace which acted as the resting chamber for the slumbering Dark Angel, completely ignoring Enuni and the Sun Saint!
When Klein, who was using his Virtual Persona, saw this scene, he was stunned. He couldn't help but smile with the Worm of Spirit and shake his head.
I'm actually that timid?
He suspected that Shadow, which splintered off from him, had taken away most of his caution and carefulness, leaving behind more of his impulsiveness and recklessness.
Pa!
A silvery-white beam lit up and smote the scarlet flames that descended outside of the Unshadowed Domain, shattering the pitch-black Shadow that had just appeared.
Klein hadn't wasted time muttering to himself. He had long controlled the Silver Knight marionette, then according to the distribution of the flames and his habits, he predicted the next few areas that Shadow would jump to. Then, he condensed "Silver Rapier" ahead of time and smote down the moment the flames descended.
"Unshadowed Domain" didn't have a barrier in the physical sense. Anyone could leave or exert influence on the outside world.
However, the torn-up Shadow eventually turned into thin pieces of paper and quickly disappeared.
Another few burning scarlet flames descended, and the black Shadow used them to jump, moving closer to the open door of the Giant King's residence. The silvery-white light that subsequently tore him apart had only managed to take down his Paper Figurine Substitutes—from Sequence 5, Beyonders of the Warrior pathway had the ability to see through illusions. Without the aid of "Psychology Invisibility," "Paper Figurine Substitutes" were obviously more useful than "Illusion Creation." It was only a situation when two Seers were in combat that scenes of shredded pieces and illusions would occur.
In just two or three seconds, scarlet flaming columns rose outside the Giant King's residence, as though they were releasing fireworks to welcome a guest.
In the next moment, Shadow jumped into one of the flames and hid in the area where the Dark Angel lay in slumber.
But at that moment, a figure quickly appeared in front of the scarlet flaming columns.
He wore a black long trench coat and a half top hat. His right face was normal, and his left face was formed from transparent and twisted maggots. It was none other than Klein's true body.
The corners of his mouth curled up once again as he snapped his fingers with his right hand.
Pa!
The scarlet flaming columns were extinguished as the black Shadow was forced to appear, returning to the staircase that was covered with the light of dawn.
Flame Controlling!
The reason why Klein could rush outside the Giant King's palace to intercept Shadow ahead of time was because, after Shadow decisively fled, he was no longer able to affect his summoning of items from the Historical Void. He easily took out Creeping Hunger and switched to the Traveler's soul.
"It isn't a good thing to be too careful," Klein said to Shadow, doing so with a smile on his face. As he bent his knees, he arched his back.
As he bent over, his figure suddenly became the knight in silver armor.
The knight stabbed his broadsword into the ground and created an invisible barrier, sealing off the door to the Dark Angel's resting ground.
At that moment, Klein swapped positions with his Silver Knight marionette. He gave Shadow the impression that he could enter the palace as long as he could destroy the Guardian's barrier.
Of course, his true body interfered with Shadow's summoning of historical projections and controlling of Spirit Body Threads.
When the tables turned, the battle between the three demigods of the City of Silver, Enuni, and the Sun Saint also changed.
When Colin Iliad once again kept Enuni, who had lost his black armor, busy, Derrick repeated their previous strategy.
At times, he would use "Flaring Sun" as an area-of-effect attack to trade injuries to the Chief for a victory. At other times, he would condense a pure, white "Unshadowed Spear" and engage in precision attacks. This wasn't used often, because it was easy for Enuni to avoid it, causing Colin Iliad to be accidentally injured.
After three rounds of "Flaring Sun," Enuni finally reached the end of his rope. He once again spread out the last two pairs of illusory black wings, turning it into a pitch-black sea that devoured all light. He then drowned out Colin Iliad, causing the City of Silver's Chief's body to be covered with a layer of thick black liquid. His actions were clearly affected.
Seizing this opportunity, Enuni escaped from the entanglement and avoided the subsequent "Unshadowed Spear." He transformed into a shadow and quickly moved towards the Giant King's residence in an attempt to join forces with Shadow to break through the barrier.
At that moment, a silvery-white beam burst out from his body, ripping him into blobs of dark red flesh!
This sudden surgical strike came from Lovia.
This six-member council Elder had actually given up on dodging the attacks of the Sun Saint. At the instant Enuni was about to escape the battlefield, she decisively switched the Grazed soul to the Silver Knight evil spirit, dyeing her black armor silver.
Sizzle!
The dazzling white and pure "Unshadowed Spear" hit the lady, causing her to shrink slightly and the blazing sun to completely devour her.
The blobs of flesh in Enuni's body remained sentient. They quickly gathered together in an attempt to rebuild the body.
However, at this moment, the black sticky liquid restricting the movement of Colin Iliad exploded with specks of light. They turned into a storm and tore through the obstruction, allowing the silver armor to resurface.
Right on the heels of that, the gigantified Silver Knight took a step forward and swung the sword of dawn in his hand, allowing the "Hurricane of Light" from before to continue sweeping forward, inundating the blobs of dark red flesh.
A pair of illusory black wings appeared and dissipated, calming the "Hurricane of Light." However, Derrick's "Flaring Sun" continued. Holy flames ignited every blob of flesh and drop of blood, melting everything with pure light.
When the Sun Saint saw this scene, he knew that it was impossible for him to escape the fate of being destroyed. He didn't bother dealing another blow to Lovia and turned around, about to withdraw from his "Unshadowed Domain."
Suddenly, he heard a voice filled with malice and corruption:
"Slow!"
Lovia struggled to free herself from the remnant powers of "Unshadowed Spear" and "Teleported" to a spot not far from the Sun Saint. Then, she switched the Grazed soul to a Devil and used the Language of Foulness.
At that moment, the black armor on her body had completely shattered. There were many cracks on her purple-patterned black robe, revealing her slowly squirming flesh. Her aura was rather weak.
The "Slow" that wasn't at the level of a demigod couldn't affect the Sun Saint for too long. However, this was enough for Colin Iliad. He condensed a "Silver Rapier" and made it "Teleport" to the enemy.
This "Silver Rapier" experienced a random mutation. It directly pierced through the holy armor of the Sun Saint and exploded in his body.
Silver light bloomed as the Sun Saint blasted into countless pieces.
Pa! Pa! Pa! The flesh fell to the ground and vanished in a blink of an eye, as though they had returned to the pages of history.
After the battle ended, the three demigods of the City of Silver immediately approached the Giant King's residence and pincered Shadow.
Shadow leaped and attempted to hide in the fog of history. However, just as he saw the grayish-white fog, he was pressed down by a hand wrapped by transparent maggots.
Neither him nor Klein dashed to the time before the First Epoch, because they knew that the other party would definitely stop them or wait there!
With nowhere to hide, Shadow immediately fell into the encirclement of the three City of Silver demigods. His various powers were also offset by Klein. Even "Flaming Jump" was affected by "Flame Controlling," making it difficult for him to escape his predicament.
More than ten seconds passed. After the paper figurines were torn apart, Shadow finally expended all his substitutes. He was then stabbed in the abdomen by Derrick's "Unshadowed Spear."
A round of blinding white light and a miniature sun exploded. The pitch-black Shadow quickly faded and completely melted.
Klein felt a stabbing pain in his head, and his mind, which was on the verge of losing control, suddenly relaxed.
He instinctively looked to his feet and saw that under the illumination of the light of dawn, a faint black shadow extended out from them.
"Too weak..." Klein bent his back slightly and couldn't help but mock himself. After all, without the powers of a Scholar of Yore, without a marionette, and without the ability to control Spirit Body Threads, a Seer was relatively weak against other demigods of the same Sequence.
His spirit had been restored to its original state, but he had yet to remove the Virtual Persona. Furthermore, he had no intention of immediately summoning Miss Justice's historical projection to do this. As he had been corrupted by the Dark Angel, Enuni had shown the characteristics of the Sun, Spectator, Storm, and Secrets Suppliant pathways. If he wanted to enter the Giant King's residence, he had to be wary of psychological influences. Virtual Persona was a very good defensive measure.
At that moment, the transparent maggots on the left side of Klein's body quickly settled down, returning to his flesh and skin. However, due to the crazy effects of his Virtual Persona, there was still a translucent layer on the surface, allowing people to see the Worms of Spirit hidden underneath.
When Derrick, Lovia, and the others cast their gazes on him, Klein straightened his back and reached out to grab Life's Cane. He pointed at the open door of the Giant King's residence and laughed.
"Make every second count. The Dark Angel is waiting for us inside."
