Chapter 815 - After-action review
Backlund, 160 Böklund Street.
Gehrman Sparrow’s figure suddenly appeared inside his bedroom as his black trench coat fluttered while his half top hat remained straight.
The Dwayne Dantès lying in bed immediately turned incorporeal, receding into a palm-sized mirror.
Probably no one came tonight. Arrodes didn’t cause any trouble… Upon seeing the peace and quiet, Klein secretly heaved a sigh of relief as his body grew a lot taller and his sideburns turned gray. His blue eyes deepened as he transformed into Dwayne Dantès.
Meanwhile, watery waves stirred in the mirror as silver light gathered to outline words:
“Great Master, I didn’t do anything today! No, I seriously acted as the sleeping Dwayne Dantès.
“In addition, I encountered something. Do you wish to know what it was?”
Ignoring Arrodes’s desire to be praised in its first sentence, Klein felt his heart skip a beat. As he took off his hat and threw it on the reclining chair beside him, he said in a deep voice, “Tell me.”
The words on the mirror disintegrated and squirmed into new text.
“A lady peeped into this house when she was walking past this street.”
How does that matter? There are plenty of people who admire the surroundings when passing by every day… Klein was just about to say something when the aqueous light stirred on the mirror’s surface, outlining a figure.
The person was dressed quite oddly in the eyes of normal people. She wore a spirit medium’s black robe. Her eyeshadow and blush were blue. She looked beautiful, but she also had an uncanny appearance. She was none other than Daly Simone.
This lady had turned her head to look out as she passed by Unit 160 while on a carriage moving down Böklund Street. She had stared out for more than three seconds.
Man, she not only had an impression of Dwayne Dantès because of his eyes, but she has also grasped something about the situation? Klein frowned slightly and asked, “Anything else?”
“No!” As Arrodes presented the word, it sketched what symbolized a sworn oath.
Klein nodded and ignored the mirror’s passion. He then sent it away.
After doing all of this, Klein took out a candle and set up a ritual. He summoned and responded to himself, bringing all the spoils of war and his clothes above the gray fog. He planned on separating Gehrman Sparrow’s and Dwayne Dantès’s clothes. He didn’t wish to miss out on any details in the future.
Pa!
He snapped a finger and made the candlewick burn with a scarlet flame.
Flame.
Flame…
Klein’s gaze froze as he quickly closed his eyes and turned around, his back facing the candle.
Then, he controlled Senor to approach the desk.
During this process, Senor’s body trembled violently, but he ultimately reached out his right hand to extinguish the fire.
I’ll sleep for the night and think about it tomorrow… No, I have the Tyrant card on me, and it has already been activated. Although there’s the wall of spirituality to seal it, it might not be able to fully screen out the attraction force from those of the same pathway. It might only weaken its influence and take more time… Back when I was in Bayam, I came and went quickly, without daring to stay too long… Just as Klein calmed down, he thought of certain problems.
A few seconds later, he slowly took a deep breath, raised his hand, and snapped his fingers to light the candle.
Following that, he held back the horror in him as he controlled Senor to take another two candles to set up the sacrificial ritual. This way, it skipped the step of him responding to the summoning for the entrance to the real world via the flame.
After everything was done, Klein turned around with great difficulty as he “piously” lowered his head. Without looking into the candlelight, he seriously chanted the honorific name of The Fool.
Via sheer willpower, to the point of him bursting out in tears, he finally completed the ritual and sacrificed all the items, sending them above the gray fog.
Phew… Klein exhaled, taking four steps counterclockwise, he arrived at the silent mysterious space. Sitting in The Fool’s seat, he first picked up the Tyrant card, and he triggered the content hidden within.
The Card of Blasphemy immediately became three-dimensional, like a palm-sized book.
As he flipped through the pages, each page had a Roselle Gustav. He was either playing the role of a sailor, or he was wearing a captain’s hat and holding a sextant; otherwise, he was singing loudly with the sea as his background.
Klein was rendered speechless by this sight. He felt increasingly convinced that his fellow Earthling was way too narcissistic.
I’ll be really impressed if the Demoness card also uses his image… As Klein lampooned, he read through the corresponding contents, analyzing the Sequence names, ingredients, and rituals of the Storm pathway.
“Sequence 9: Sailor… Sequence 8: Folk of Rage… Sequence 7: Seafarer… Sequence 6: Wind-blessed… Sequence 5: Ocean Songster… Sequence 4: Cataclysmic Interrer… Sequence 3: Sea King… Sequence 2: Calamity… Sequence 1: Thunder God… Sequence 0: Tyrant…
The ritual to become Tyrant, or in other words, the Lord of Storms, is very different from that of the Black Emperor. Firstly, it needs hundreds of thousands of followers to submit and believe in said person out of fear. Secondly, it is to challenge a true deity, in other words, another Sequence 0, and survive. Finally, in this atmosphere of fear and submission, consume the potion to complete the advancement.
This sucks. A Sequence 1 who hasn’t experienced a qualitative change is to challenge a Sequence 0 true deity, doesn’t that spell almost certain death?… Besides, what if there’s no Sequence 0 during that era? Then, wouldn’t one need to think of a way to nurture one, or to switch to a neighboring pathway… Of course, the ritual might not be necessary. With enough luck, there’s still a chance of succeeding by directly drinking the potion. Sea God Kalvetua was such an example. It didn’t even consume a potion but instead an unconcocted Beyonder characteristic…
The core of this ritual is the courage to challenge a deity, with massive feelings of fear and submission?
Hmm, Tyrant doesn’t seem to come equipped with the Black Emperor’s uniqueness of distorting rules, preventing “Him” from resurrecting from the dead and returning from the void. However, it seems to be able to transform into lightning or light for a short period of time, perhaps capable of creating a planet-level disaster… Emperor Roselle’s focus is on the formula and ritual. His description of the Beyonder powers and deity authorities are very vague…
Klein casually summoned a piece of paper that wasn’t conjured. Using a fountain pen, he recorded the Cataclysmic Interrer’s potion formula and wrote a note in The World Gehrman Sparrow’s style of speech.
“Avoid recalling the contents of that picture usually.”
This was a warning for The Hanged Man. In the mysterious domain, matters that involved Sequence 0 required caution and carefulness. Care needed to be taken even if it violated common sense.
It didn’t mean that seeing and discussing that picture on the primitive island meant that they were safe in the outside world. If they often recalled the matter, there might be a day when they were “lucky” enough to have lightning smite down at them, them suffering from an unresolvable conundrum that killed them with an aneurysm, or them dying from heatstroke from the sun’s radiance.
The ritual of the Cataclysmic Interrer is extremely dangerous. It will trigger earthquakes and tsunamis, and the advancer needs to consume the potion in such an environment, holding out until it ends… Klein folded the piece of paper and placed it to the side while putting away the Tyrant card.
After using divination to confirm that the three Beyonder characteristics he obtained were separately the Black Emperor pathway’s Sequence 5 Mentor of Confusion, Storm pathway’s Sequence 5 Ocean Songster, and Planter pathway’s Sequence 5 Druid, Klein finally had the time to recall what had happened during his exploration as he considered the information it hid.
Eternal Blazing Sun is clearly of the Sun pathway, and that City of Silver Creator is also known as the ancient sun god. This can be determined from some of the Fourth Epoch history and the murals of the elves… According to the law of Sequence Beyonder Characteristics Conservation of having no Sequence 1 when there’s a Sequence 0, the White Angel back then likely wasn’t a King of Angels. But if “He” wasn’t a King of Angels, “He” had no right to partake in the feast of the City of Silver Creator. This not only has external elements in play, but it also includes the problem of jumping directly from Sequence 2 to Sequence 0 which has a high chance of losing control!
Either Eternal Blazing Sun had switched pathways to become a god, or the City of Silver Creator’s main authority wasn’t the Sun. After he defeated the ancient gods, “He” had already allocated parts of his authority to the angels beside him, making “Them” become Kings of Angels. Therefore, the elves’ murals and the name that eventually spread had only indicated that “He” once wielded authority over the Sun, and that it wasn’t an authority he held the entire time.
There’s also another possibility. The Creator, who took over the ancient gods’ authorities, had the ability to allow a Sequence 2 of the same pathway to advance to Sequence 1…
Klein’s train of thought quickly turned to who had built the cathedral and left behind the mural. Due to the messiness of the various situations, he conjured a piece of goatskin, and he summarized all the points by writing them down to seek out the connection.
“That primitive island was discovered by Qilangos and Mr. Hanged Man…
“Qilangos received a mission from the Twilight Hermit Order. To obtain a priceless item, he headed to Backlund to assassinate Duke Negan, and he ended up dying at Mr. Azik’s hands…
“Qilangos told Mr. Hanged Man that deep inside the ruin was a precious item that was in no way worse than Roselle’s tarot card, but it was something that could only be obtained at Sequence 5…
“He later obtained Creeping Hunger and became a pirate admiral, with a strength already equivalent to a Sequence 5…
“That Tyrant card remains deep inside the cathedral’s catacombs…
“Qilangos didn’t make any subsequent attempts? Or did his attempts fail?
“That cathedral was built by an existence who worships the ancient sun god. The mural depicts the dark history of the true deities before the Cataclysm, and is clearly on the ancient sun god’s side…
“The Twilight Hermit Order is suspected to be established by the son of God, Adam, with the goal of resurrecting the ancient sun god, the City of Silver Creator…
“That primitive island suddenly disappeared as though it never existed…
“Adam is an Angel of Imagination… Amongst the Twilight Hermit Order’s core members, there’s at least one angel of the Spectator pathway, Hermes…
“The Twilight Hermit Order tends to select members of the Sailor, Reader, or Sun pathways. It has a high chance of possessing High-Sequence ingredients and items from the Storm domain… There might be angels from the Storm domain in it…”
Klein lowered his pen and looked at the content listed out as he slowly made a guess.