Without needing anyone to make the introductions, the four demigods present clearly understood a reality:
The giant-like man who was sleeping on the iron-black throne was the left hand of God, the deputy of Heaven, Dark Angel Sasrir!
Amongst them, Lovia could clearly sense the oppression coming from this absolute high-level existence. It was like the response when praying to the True Creator. It was an aura that could cause her thoughts to scramble, her soul to degenerate, and her body to tremble.
Suddenly, she heard a burst of laughter. She turned her head to the side in a daze.
Klein bent his back slightly and laughed.
"‘He' is still sleeping. Should we directly wake ‘Him,' or wait for ‘Him' to wake up?
"If we choose to wake ‘Him,' how should we greet ‘Him'? Hey, Your Highness Dark Angel? Rose Redemption Leader?"
These two questions sounded ridiculous and arrogant, but they had managed to shake off the influence of the environment and made Colin Iliad fall into deep thought.
Just now, they had instinctively considered the first question. It was rather important, and it concerned their subsequent actions.
Colin Iliad thought for a moment before saying, "Let's not wake ‘Him' up for the time being. Try approaching ‘Him' and search for clues and information."
"That's my thoughts as well." With his left hand, Klein casually snapped his fingers and walked towards the black throne.
At this moment, he felt fortunate that he had already taken care of Shadow and restored his spirit to its complete state. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to completely restrict his Virtual Persona. When he was imagining how to do the greeting, he almost blurted out "Hi, Sassy."
Seeing that Gehrman Sparrow had taken two steps forward, Lovia finally snapped out of her daze.
"I'll give it a try using a Grazed soul."
This was a relatively safer method which wouldn't harm the expedition team.
Klein nodded. With his black staff in hand, he turned to his side with a beaming smile.
A three to four-meter-tall phantom image appeared in front of Lovia. A pair of goat horns lined with mysterious patterns sat atop its head. Its skin was back and matte, exuding a sinister fullness. It was a Devil.
It was different from the Devils that he had seen before. Its body was covered with signs of decay, with yellow-green pus hanging off it, as though it was mixed with the power of "Degeneration."
As Klein casually sized up the phantom image, the Devil spread its huge bat-like wings, causing the light blue flames on it to burn even more vigorously, dissipating the strong smell of sulfur.
It took a step forward, slowly approaching the iron-black throne and the staircase meant for giants. Using its intuition for danger, it surveyed the area for any abnormalities.
While Colin, Klein, and the other demigods were paying attention to it, they also began scrutinizing the details of the shadowy palace. They discovered that behind the iron-black throne that Sasrir was sleeping on, there was a pair of dim, grayish-blue double doors that depicted sunset.
This might be the "door" that leads to the outside world... This thought flashed across the minds of the three City of Silver demigods—Colin Iliad, Derrick, and Lovia.
At this moment, the Devil, who had traveled midway, suddenly paused. It was enveloped by a cluster of silver lightning and quickly faded away after being blasted to pieces amid crackling sounds.
A pillar of light with swirling holy flames smote out of thin air, completely purifying the soul that belonged to the Devil.
Lovia didn't feel any pain from losing her Grazed target. She only frowned slightly and couldn't think of a better way to probe the way.
Klein looked around and said with an exaggerated smile:
"As expected, I'm the man for the job."
As he spoke, he slowly walked forward. As he took out a box of matches from his pocket, he lit them one by one and casually threw them around.
"I've always been a little timid." After throwing half a box of matches, Klein turned around and explained with a smile.
And even Derrick Berg wasn't convinced by this sentence.
Following that, under the illumination of the scarlet flames, Klein continued walking towards the iron-black throne that might've belonged to an ancient god.
When he arrived at the spot where the Devil's soul was destroyed, his left palm suddenly tightened.
Klein lowered his head and saw that Creeping Hunger had returned to its human-skinned form. An exaggerated crack opened in his palm. Inside were two rows of illusory white teeth.
This Sealed Artifact was attempting to gnaw at Klein's flesh in a bid to consume both his body and spirit.
Creeping Hunger had degenerated!
"Tsk." Klein let out an obvious sigh as he glanced at the Staff of the Stars in his right hand. He confirmed that the Grade 0 Sealed Artifact which didn't have any living characteristics had yet to show any abnormalities.
He then raised his right hand and stuffed the other end of the Staff of the Stars into Creeping Hunger.
Creeping Hunger bit at it a few times before it finally calmed down when sensing the suppression effect of a higher-level entity.
After laughing twice, Klein took another few steps forward, covering a few meters.
Cracks suddenly appeared in the shadows that covered the walls, pillars, and tiles, as one brass eye after another grew out.
A figure appeared in front of the countless eyes.
He was first presented as the black-haired, light-brown-eyed, and cold-looking Gehrman Sparrow. Following that, he warped into the black-haired, brown-eyed, scholarly-looking Klein Moretti with ordinary looks. Then, he degenerated into a blurry image, and a grayish-white fog emanated from him.
At this moment, these figures that seemed to expose all of Klein's secrets came to a halt.
Boom!
He exploded, transforming into countless illusory fragments that fell to the ground and disappeared.
Klein raised his brows and tsked with a laugh.
"The omniscient power of the Reader pathway?"
Just as he finished speaking, the brass-colored eyes, which grew out from the surrounding shadows and the ground, trembled. They emitted an ethereal voice that seemed to come from ancient times:
"The aura of Sefirah Castle..."
Sefirah Castle... Colin Iliad seemed to recall something and came to a certain realization.
It's only possible to get a response or approach Sasrir with a sefirah? That's why, despite The Hanged Man clearly having Lovia, a demigod believer from the City of Silver, "He" still forced me into the palace to meet the Dark Angel? It wasn't easy for Klein to control his virtual personality's instinct to speak.
Before he could consider what to say, the brass eyes hidden in the shadows emitted another voice:
"Your fate has intersected Amanises, Leodero, Adam, Amon, Herabergen, Aucuses, Medici, Ouroboros, as well as ‘Him'..."
With regards to the true names that the brass eyes had mentioned, Colin Iliad, Derrick, and Lovia were no strangers to the names. They knew that the first was the Evernight Goddess, followed by seven of the eight Kings of Angels. Furthermore, there was no lack of Sequence 0 true deities in the present day. This left them somewhat stunned. They couldn't believe that Gehrman Sparrow would've crossed fates with so many high-level existences who exceeded Sequence 1.
Together with the sleeping Dark Angel before him, Mr. World and the eight Kings of Angels had already crossed paths. How impressive... Derrick marveled from the bottom of his heart.
Klein was in no mood to quip about his "divine interpersonal skills." With an obvious smile, he asked, "‘Him'?"
Klein believed that "Him" referred to the True Creator. After all, he still had "His" corruptive influences left in his body.
The brass eyes on the shadowy curtain fell silent for a few seconds before saying with an ethereal voice:
"‘He' is another me..."
The True Creator was really another side of the ancient sun god. The side that was born from the god's corpse. It's a side filled with hatred and viciousness, one that controls Degeneration? Klein gradually drew an equal sign between the black and gloomy infant sitting in the cavity of the ancient sun god's chest and the True Creator. He had also gained initial confirmation that he was talking to the psyche left by the Dark Angel Sasrir.
He thought about it and couldn't help but smile.
"Why did you form Rose Redemption to assassinate the ancient sun god?"
The information that the question revealed was something that Colin Iliad and Lovia already had an inkling and some speculations of. However, after hearing Gehrman Sparrow say it with their own ears, they still felt pangs of depression and confusion.
The curtain that covered the walls, stone pillars, and floor tiles trembled, but the sleeping Dark Angel remained motionless.
Those brass eyes stared at him and said, "Sun God is just my original honorific name. You should now address me as ‘the Lord who created everything, the omnipotent and omniscient God, or God Almighty.'"
...I can tell that you've been leaning in that direction all this time. Finally, Klein laughed out loud. Then, he felt a lingering fear. This was because he was mocking Heaven's deputy, the left hand of God, a king among Kings of Angels, as well as "His" true form.
To not anger the other party, he quickly repeated the question:
"So, why did you betray yourself and form Rose Redemption with the Evernight Goddess to assassinate yourself?"
The brass eyes fell into silence once again. The curtain-like shadows that blanketed various areas swayed gently without stopping.
After a few seconds, the ethereal voice slowly said,
"The Primordial One had awoken in my body..."
Upon hearing this answer, Klein's pupils dilated. For some reason, he felt his hair stand on end as his back turned cold.
It was very close to his guess, but it was even more terrifying.
At this moment, the shadows around him thickened. It became more and more sinister and gloomy, as if it was giving birth to some terrifying, unknown, redoubtable danger.
Although Colin Iliad, Derrick, and Lovia didn't understand the meaning of Dark Angel Sasrir's words too well, they were still affected by the sinister and harrowing words. It left them shuddering in fear as they trembled.
"The Primordial One had awoken in my body..."
These words echoed in the air for a long time.
