1289 Fooling
After returning to Biles’s house, Klein pulled a chair over and sat down without waiting for Roy and company to make inquiries. He made a rather pious wish:
“I wish for my spirituality to be restored.”
With that said, he raised his right hand, snapped his fingers, and granted his own wish; thus, allowing his spirituality to return to its normal state.
Right on the heels of that, he extended his left palm, preparing to end the maintenance of the historical projection of the “curtain” before summoning a new one, so as to continue sealing off the spirit world area corresponding to Belltaine City. This prevented the Church of the G.o.d of Combat’s chief shepherd, Larrion, from escaping.
“There’s no need to do so. There’s always a next time.” At that moment, Arianna slowly shook “Her” head, indicating that Klein no longer needed to summon the “curtain” that originated from the Dark Demonic Wolf.
There was a limit to the power of “Wishes.” A Miracle Invoker couldn’t satisfy the same wish in a short period of time, which meant that, within the next one or two hours, Klein couldn’t recover his spirituality by granting his own wishes.
Of course, to a qualified Seer-pathway angel, this limitation was something that could be avoided. For example, he could get Pasha, Roy, Biles, and Arianna to take turns to wish for Klein to regain his spirituality before granting their wishes as a Miracle Invoker.
However, the problem was that, even if he could recover his spirituality that many times, he wouldn’t be able to maintain the “curtain” which was at the level of a Sequence 1 for more than an hour. Furthermore, he needed to wait an hour before 0-02 erased all the previous rules and rewrote them.
After some deliberation, Klein nodded slightly and replied with a smile, “Let’s give it a try first. After all, we’re rather free right now. I’ll give up after my last spirituality recovery attempt. Yes, this will purely depend on the chief shepherd’s luck. Perhaps ‘He’ might lose control because of anxiety, frustration, and nervousness?”
As he spoke, Klein dispelled the maintenance of the original “curtain,” and his left hand moved forward immediately after that. He pulled out a new “curtain,” allowing it to appear inside the spirit world that corresponded to Belltaine City.
In an area where saturated colors overlapped one another, Larrion, who was wearing a black robe with white edges and a square hat, felt the restriction disappear. Just as “He” was about to make “His” way out, he saw a new “curtain” descend, sealing him off again.
The smile on his face instantly froze.
Phew… A few seconds later, Larrion slowly exhaled and composed “Himself” mentally as he continued to wait.
In the next hour, the chief shepherd of the Church of the G.o.d of Combat repeatedly experienced the despair and pain of having “His” hopes extinguished.
“He” attempted to find the pattern and attempt to figure out the time interval so as to grasp the fleeting opportunity. “He” wanted to rush out of the barrier the moment the old “curtain” disappeared and before the new “curtain” was produced.
However, “He” eventually discovered that the intervals didn’t follow any pattern. The person stopping “Him” didn’t restore the barrier only when his spirituality was about to be depleted. At times, the other party would recreate the barrier far ahead of time.
If it wasn’t for the fact that Feysacian citizens weren’t forced to change faiths from the G.o.d of Combat, and that the decree that Larrion was considered a traitor hadn’t been widely spread, this Grounded Angel might’ve already lost control on the spot.
As time pa.s.sed, Larrion once again sensed the collapse of the old “curtain.”
However, this time, there was no new “curtain.”
“He” has finally reached his limit… Larrion was delighted. Without any hesitation, “He” rushed out of the collapsing nascent divine kingdom.
In the next moment, “He” saw a woman holding four blonde, red-eyed heads, dressed in a complicated long dress, an unknown existence that was wrapped in bandages with yellowish-brown liquid covering the entire, and several strange but abnormally powerful spirit world creatures…
The “curtain” that Klein had summoned the previous times were Historical Void projections that had been tainted with Sefirah Castle’s aura. It naturally attracted objects sensitive to it. He wouldn’t even be surprised if Amon was among the group!
The smile on Larrion’s face froze again.
…
Belltaine City, in Biles’s rental apartment.
Klein suddenly raised his head and looked up into the sky. He muttered softly, “Impressive…”
Following that, he became silent again until the magic mirror emitted an aqueous light that reflected the noticeboard’s current state.
The rules on the paper disappeared in reverse order of their appearance.
This meant that 0-02 was beginning to erase the rules that it had set up, and was preparing to redo everything.
Once the curfew order was abolished, the highly-focused Klein immediately pulled Ma’am Arianna and used Flaming Jump to appear outside the shrunken Belltaine City LIbrary.
As he looked over, he realized that, on the bra.s.s pages of 0-02, the speed at which the rules were being wiped clear had become very fast. In just a blink of an eye, the second half of the book was only left with the clause: “All the following rules are ineffective.”
Following that, the clause disappeared as a new set of rules rapidly emerged without any gaps:
“The Trunsoest Bra.s.s Book is the most precious item. No living being is permitted to touch it…”
Before this clause was completed, Arianna’s figure had already appeared beside the rectangular table. “Her” finger touched the bra.s.s page.
With a crack, the leader of the Church of Evernight’s ascetic had “Her” neck suddenly constricted as though an invisible rope had hoisted “Her” up.
As an angel, “She” had actually suffered bone fractures and had difficulties breathing.
Death by hanging!
However, with Arianna’s finger sliding over with some difficulty, the first clause that appeared was “erased” before it was fully displayed. It entered a “Concealed” state.
As for all the rules set by 0-02, it had to be publicized or announced before it could truly be effective!
With a whoosh, Arianna picked up the Trunsoest Bra.s.s Book and threw it to Klein, who was outside the window.
In the previous hour, Klein had already antic.i.p.ated all the possible developments and had a discussion with Arianna. He was in no way nervous or fl.u.s.tered. While 0-02 was still in midair, he dragged another himself wearing a human-skinned glove out of the void.
Then, he grabbed the Trunsoest Bra.s.s Book and used his historical projection to “Teleport” away.
After his figure disappeared from his spot, Arianna landed on the ground with a loud thud, a deep mark left on “Her” neck.
In just a few seconds, Klein, who was holding 0-02, appeared at the top of the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range. He used his Spirit Vision at the level of an angel and saw the collapsed, dilapidated, and fogged palace.
Without any hesitation, Klein allowed his historical projection to take the Trunsoest Bra.s.s Book and “Blink” to the main door of the palace before pus.h.i.+ng the door open.
What appeared before him was a hall with many corpses hanging from above. Every corpse was different. There were men and women, either dressed beautifully, simply, exquisitely, or casually.
Behind each of these hangers was a transparent and slippery tentacle with complicated patterns. They came from the depths of the hall—from that ancient stone chair.
On the huge stone chair, transparent and distorted maggots were formed into a ball. They grew wantonly and extended out strange tentacles.
This was The Half-Fool of the Antigonus family, who had lost control and gone mad!
Sensing the door open, and sensing Klein’s historical projection approach, the cl.u.s.ter of maggots left the stone chair and fiercely flailed their slippery tentacles, causing them to surge towards the door as if they were being affected by an invisible suction force.
Similarly, at the bottom of the stone chair, the tarot card with Roselle’s image, which was written with a stellar radiance, flew towards the door.
Just seeing this scene pushed Klein’s historical projection towards experiencing a breakdown. Thankfully, he didn’t possess any sentience and was remotely controlled by Klein. He didn’t suffer the chaotic thoughts and the negative side effects of the mental mutation, nor did he stand motionless and helpless.
Before the historical projection dissipated, it threw the Trunsoest Bra.s.s Book at the terrifying cl.u.s.ter of maggots.
The transparent and slippery tentacles sensed danger and instinctively reacted by wrapping around Sealed Artifact 0-02.
Under such interference and the invisible strong winds, The Fool card had reached the door one step ahead of the strange tentacles.
Klein’s historical projection had mostly collapsed. Seeing this, he mechanically extended his right hand, grabbed the Card of Blasphemy, and threw it behind him.
In the next instant, the slippery tentacles that were rea.s.sembled had reached out to the door, but they were blocked by the fog, unable to exit. All it could do was wildly pound at the barrier.
The open door slowly closed, blocking out this scene.
Klein, who was hiding somewhere on the mountain peak, frowned slightly. He felt a sense of joy and relief, as well as a strong sense of doubt.
In other words, I used 0-02 to exchange for The Fool’s card? The G.o.ddess doesn’t need me to seek clues regarding the River of Eternal Darkness for the time being? Klein silently muttered to himself. He walked out of the hidden area and arrived not far from the ancient palace. He bent down and picked up the Card of Blasphemy.
On the surface of the card was Roselle Gustav, who was wearing colorful clothes and holding a stick and luggage. His eyes were filled with a longing for the future, and behind him was a puppy.
On the upper left corner of the card, the resplendent stellar radiance outlined a few words:
“Sequence 0: The Fool!”
…
Inside the ancient palace, the Trunsoest Bra.s.s Book fell to the ground and opened up to the first page of the second half of the book.
New rules began to form:
“…The Trunsoest Bra.s.s Book is the most precious item. No living being is permitted to touch it. Those in violation are to be sentenced to death!
“…One is not allowed to change the condition of the Trunsoest Bra.s.s Book in any way. Those in violation are to be sentenced to death!
Just as the two rules just appeared, and before it could “inform” the owner here, a line of words suddenly appeared between the two halves of the book:
“All the following rules are ineffective.”
An hour later, the two rules were wiped out, and new rules were written. However, after just two lines, there was an additional clause in front of them—0-02 seemed to have reached a blank slate that happened when the entire book was filled up.
Again and again, the Trunsoest Bra.s.s Book fell into an endless cycle.