Chapter 1008 Splitting
Minutes later, Klein—with the face of Gehrman Sparrow—walked out of 39 Böklund Street with Miss Justice Audrey and headed for places where the other Parasite victims were.
After a few silent steps, Klein suddenly looked ahead and said, “It’s not rare to see such matters happen among unaffiliated Beyonders. Without any suitable guidance, it often implies that they’re constantly dancing at the edge of a cliff with the possibility of falling at any time.”
Audrey tersely acknowledged and said after a few seconds, “I know. Compared to before, I’m not as… not as…”
She deliberated for a moment before breaking into a grimacing smile, as though she had found a suitable adjective she required to mock herself.
“Naive.”
Phew… She then exhaled without hiding it as she looked ahead. “If I had known that the mysterious world was so cruel and terrifying last June, I might not have raised the request of becoming a Beyonder.”
Klein turned his head slightly and took a look at the noble lady’s face. He asked in a seemingly casual manner, “If I were to give you the chance now to completely leave the mysterious world, would you accept it?”
Audrey was taken aback as she slowly pursed her lips and said, “No…”
After giving such a response, she seemed to relax a little as she smiled and continued, “Under the premise of knowing how cruel and terrifying the mysterious world is, the me from last June would’ve given up being a Beyonder. But the me of this year wouldn’t.
“This might be the price of growing up.”
“I understand what you’re getting at.” Klein continued forward at the same pace as he said, “After those victims are completely purified, a number of them will spit out Worms of Time. They can be used to create Fate Siphon charms. It’s a demigod-level item that can switch the fate between two parties for a short period of time. When the time comes, I’ll give you one as payment for today’s treatment.”
Audrey was about to decline it before she fell silent again. She then nodded gently and said, “Okay.”
Just as she said that, she suddenly paused. She turned her head to glance at Gehrman Sparrow and smilingly said with a mixed expression, “I know why you just asked me that question.”
Klein chuckled without giving a direct answer.
Audrey retracted her gaze and immediately felt a lot better. She asked as though they were having a chat, “I participated in the punishment operation at noon, and I dealt with the Amon aftermath in the afternoon. Today is really a ‘Tarot Day’…”
Her words were a double entendre as she said with utmost wistfulness.
From her point of view, noon was a cooperative operation that involved five members—The Moon, The Star, Judgment, Justice, and The Magician—with different levels of involvement. In the afternoon, the Tarot Club’s The World and Justice had involved themselves in the elimination of Amon’s avatars in different ways. This was indeed a day to remember, and in a sense, it could be considered a “Tarot Day.”
Klein nodded in agreement at Miss Justice’s words, but he didn’t tell her that The Star Leonard had also been involved in the afternoon operation. Furthermore, he was the main force in the operation.
“Amon’s avatar must’ve been difficult to deal with, right?” Audrey finally found an opportunity to raise the question.
She stared at Gehrman Sparrow, making no attempt to hide the curiosity in her green eyes.
Klein smiled.
“If I had done it alone, you wouldn’t be seeing Gehrman Sparrow, but Amon here instead.”
“Having your destiny and identity stolen?” Audrey asked in enlightenment.
Klein tersely acknowledged.
“We’ll discuss the specifics in the future. In short, to eliminate all of the Amon avatars in Backlund this time, we had mobilized angels.
“If you were to encounter Amon’s avatars in the future, never believe that you have the means to handle ‘Him’ alone. Immediately find an opportunity to seek help. Yes, ‘His’ trait is the wearing of a monocle. He enjoys pulling off harrowing pranks…”
Angels were mobilized… I wonder if it was that Death Consul or the angel from the Fate domain, or… Audrey looked up at the sky and saw the clouds frozen in midair. They appeared like props under the dark background.
Like an attentive student listening to a teacher, she seriously nodded and said, “I will keep that in mind.”
The two continued walking, occasionally silent, occasionally breaking out into a conversation until they entered 160 Böklund Street.
After a few minutes, inside the activity room of Hazel’s house.
Macht and company suddenly had the strong urge to sit in their seats, raise their hands, and place their clasped hands before their mouth. They then began to piously pray and chant the Evernight Goddess’s honorific name.
After an unknown period of time, they coughed in unison until their tears and snot flowed out.
Cough! Cough! Cough!
Without realizing it, they separately coughed out worms with twelve translucent rings.
The moment these worms fell to the ground, they vanished without garnering any notice.
Similar things happened in other places of Böklund Street, but everything was quickly restored to normal. And the darkness had faded away at some point in time as the clouds began churning again from the sweeping winds.
Amidst her parents’ coughing, Hazel slowly regained consciousness. She was puzzled as to how she fell asleep on the sofa during high tea.
She felt that she should’ve been in an excellent mood, but she just couldn’t bring herself to smile. She felt as though there was a feeling of indescribable sadness and pain bearing over her heart.
Upon seeing her parents’ concerned gaze landing on her, not only wasn’t she touched, she even felt a little fearful. She trembled like an introvert who wasn’t accustomed to making contact with others.
Hazel knew that this wasn’t her personality, but she couldn’t control herself.
However, she didn’t find it weird or puzzling as she continued enjoying the high tea pastries.
Macht and Riana felt the same. They had a nagging feeling that there was something hazy about their memories, but they just couldn’t recall what.
160 Böklund Street. In the master bedroom which had its curtains drawn.
A figure suddenly outlined itself across the coffee table. It was the barefooted Ariannaleader of the ascetics, matron of the Evernight Cloister, head of the thirteen archbishops of the Church of Evernight. She was wearing a spartan robe with tree bark as her belt.
In the lady’s eyes, the gray sideburned Dwayne Dantès was about to leave the sofa. On the coffee table in front of him were nine transparent ringed worms.
“Good afternoon, Ma’am Arianna,” Klein said with a solemn bow. “Thanks to your help, Amon’s avatars in Backlund have all been eliminated. You can choose a portion of these spoils of war.”
He had previously prepared a marionette beside every person who had been Parasitized, and he used an Illusion to bring these Worms of Time back.
After hearing him, Arianna tapped her chest four times in a clockwise fashion and replied in a pious manner, “Praise the Lady.”
“She” didn’t decline the offer or stand on ceremony. She reached out her right hand, and two Worms of Time flew up and landed in her palm.
“Amon must have certain guesses about this. You still have to be careful in the future,” Arianna said simply before her figure vanished inch by inch as though she had been erased.
Watching this archbishop leave, Klein sat down and picked up a pen and paper, writing to Leonard Mitchell.
He wanted to ask what other effects the Worms of Time had other than creating Fate Siphon charms!
He believed that he couldn’t turn all the remaining Worms of Time into Fate Siphon charms, as it would be too monotonous. It made it easy to be countered, and it prevented him from handling different situations. Therefore, he had to consider other possible uses.
With the Worm of Time as a vessel, he could use the powers stirred from other symbols, patterns, and labels that differed from The Fool. This would likely result in different effects from the Fate Siphon charm. And this was something Pallez Zoroast was an expert at.
After writing his letter, Klein took out the adventurer’s harmonica and blew at it.
Reinette walked out of the void with the four blonde, red-eyed head in hand. The eight eyes paused before looking at the remaining seven Worms of Time on the coffee table.
Miss Messenger looked at it for three full seconds before retracting “Her” gaze. She then bit on the letter and gold coin which Klein handed over.
“Still 7 Pinster Street,” Klein succinctly said.
Reinette Tinekerr’s remaining three heads replied, “In the future…” “You…” “Can seek…” “My help…” “In such…” “Matters…”
“The payment…” “Will be the…” “Spoils of war…”
Klein was taken aback as he said, “Alright.”
After Miss Messenger returned to the spirit world and vanished from his room, he frowned and muttered, Since she can recognize the Worms of Time, it means that she knows that this battle might have escalated to the level of angels…
She wasn’t afraid at all…
Miss Messenger is stronger than I imagined?
7 Pinster Street. Leonard received Klein’s letter from Reinette Tinekerr’s mouth.
He still felt a hint of excitement as he eagerly unfolded the letter and read it.
After the messenger left, he immediately asked with a suppressed voice, “Old Man, there should be other ways to create charms, right?”
Just now, Pallez Zoroast had given him two Worms of Time from Amon as today’s reward for the risk he took.
In Leonard’s mind, the slightly-aged voice replied with a smiling tone, “Of course, once I sleep for a while and digest what we received this time, I’ll teach you. It wouldn’t take too long. Also, do not go to Böklund Street any time soon.”
“Why?” Leonard asked in surprise.
Pallez Zoroast chuckled and said, “All of Amon’s avatars in Backlund have been eliminated, and it is in no way a trivial matter. The number of people who can do that is just a handful. So, do you think ‘He’ will have some guesses?”
This… Leonard’s nerves tensed up again.
Pallez continued, “However, there’s no need to be too worried. ‘His’ true body wouldn’t be able to enter Backlund, and having recovered quite significantly, I don’t have to be too worried about ‘His’ avatars. In addition, I’ve found a piece of information from Flora Jacob from ‘His’ memory fragments. Somewhere in Backlund hides the treasure of the Jacob family.
“We shall wait until the end of the year for the gathering. There, we will seek out and cooperate with the other descendants of the Jacob family to excavate that treasure trove to share the items inside. When that happens, even if Amon gathers a large number of avatars, raising it to almost the level of a Sequence 1, there’s no way he can truly defeat me. Heh heh, to ensure balance, Dwayne Dantès can also be involved in it.”
