Chapter 1081 The Returnee
With Patrick Bryan’s chanting, the bones around the black casket were gradually stained with a dark green layer. They blended with the white, bringing out an extremely scary sensation.
As the Spirit Dance became more and more intense, as though the voices from the Underworld were constantly reverberating, the bones floated up one by one, as though they possessed lives of their own.
Then, they were cast towards the heavy and pitch-black casket in what could be described as orderly chaos. They passed through the lid and entered as though they were incorporeal.
The casket immediately transformed into a deep whirlpool that seemed like it couldn’t be filled. It expanded on the spot, emitting a cold aura that was high and mighty. This made Patrick Bryan instinctively tremble and lower his head.
This was an angel, the aura of a Death Consul!
At that moment, the believers of Death, the ones who were dancing Spirit Dance, all collapsed to the ground with their bodies left convulsing. Their consciousness became muddled, as though they were touring the Underworld.
And above the gray fog, with the help of his marionettes’ prayer points of light, The Fool Klein secretly heaved a sigh of relief because the leader of the Numinous Episcopate’s Artificial Death faction, the angel who was sleeping in the mausoleum, the High Priest Haiter’s test didn’t exceed his expectations. Using the enslavement and control higher Sequence Beyonders of the Death pathway had on lower Sequence Beyonders, “He” could directly obtain information from Patrick Bryan.
From a certain point of view, this was an “interrogation” at the psyche level, something that Klein was rather proficient at dealing with.
He immediately let the Red Priest card fly into his hand and enter his body.
All of a sudden, Klein had a dark red robe draped over him. This appearance seemed to look like rust and settled gunpowder. As for his face, it was covered by a dark gold mask. The patterns on it were ancient and set off a contrasting appearance with the crown he wore that was embedded with gems that sparkled red, blue, and green.
Following that, he mobilized all the powers of the mysterious space above the gray fog that he could, turning them into invisible torrents that surrounded the paper figurines he had prepared in advance. Through the prayer lights, it shot towards Undying Patrick Bryan.
At this moment, Patrick’s body trembled slightly due to the feeling of submission he felt towards his teacher’s aura, as though he could see layers of holy wings.
Klein had hidden the exact appearance of the flaming angel, allowing a portion of it to be revealed. This also meant that he had interfered with the special effects.
One holy wing after another enveloped Patrick before vanishing, causing him to hallucinate in confusion.
As a Sequence 4 demigod, he quickly came to his senses. He realized that he no longer yearned to submit and not be able to disobey his teacher’s orders. His consciousness seemed to have been pulled out of his body as he stared calmly at everything above the mind world.
At the same time, as a zealot, Patrick Bryan didn’t hesitate to view Angel’s Embrace as a gift from Death. There was no doubt about it.
At that moment, in the deep vortex formed from the black casket, an old and cold voice sounded out—one that could rip out a person’s soul from their bodies:
“Not bad.
“Any progress in awakening God recently?”
Patrick Bryan followed the instructions given by the Blessed, and he described his efforts and intentions in a half- truthful manner.
After a series of questions and answers, the Death domain angel on the other side of the vortex, Haiter, didn’t suspect anything. “He” calmly said, “Very good. Continue doing it. I will support you.”
“He” paused for a moment and nonchalantly said, “I’ll send you an assistant first. A Sequence 5 Gatekeeper to help you in completing the corresponding tasks to relieve your stress.”
Is this what His Excellency mentioned about not being at ease with me? Teacher is indeed unwilling to see me gain the favor of God and threaten “His” position… Having been slowly influenced by Klein through his daily communications with him, Patrick Bryan, who had slowly changed his mindset, had no way of rejecting such “kind intentions.” He could only answer politely, “Yes, Teacher.”
Just as he said that, the pitch-black vortex suddenly opened up. It transformed into a mysterious pattern, conjuring up a pair of indescribable double bronze doors.
With a creaking sound, the door opened and a crack widened.
There was still darkness behind the rift, and there seemed to be eyes hidden in the depths of the darkness, quietly watching the outside.
At that moment, a palm stretched out and rested on the door crack.
Its skin was rather pale, allowing one to see the blue blood veins underneath.
With a tug, a figure leaped out of the door.
This was a young, tall man wearing a black robe with red linings with his hood pulled up.
His facial features were gentle, and his skin was slightly brown. It was obvious at a glance that he was from a Southern Continent bloodline. He was rather handsome, but he looked anemic.
Stepping on the solid ground beneath his feet, the young man didn’t even glance at Patrick Bryan. He raised his head and looked into the sky. The corners of his mouth curled up as he narrowed his eyes and sighed.
“This intoxicating atmosphere…”
As a Beyonder of the Death pathway, to be ignored by someone whose Sequence was lower than his, there was no doubt that Patrick Bryan was a little angry, but in front of his teacher, he had no choice but to follow the flow and end the ritual.
During this process, The Fool’s response above the gray fog was even more intense than Patrick’s.
Because through the gray fog’s “true vision,” he could see the abnormality of the new Gatekeeper!
The Gatekeeper’s internal Underworld expanded in an odd manner, covering every part of his body. And there was only one soul in the Underworld—a young and handsome soul with red hair, signs of rotting on its face, and a flag mark on its glabella. It wore black blood-stained armor.
Klein wasn’t unfamiliar with this soul, for he immediately recognized it:
The Red Angel evil spirit, Sauron Einhom Medici!
This fellow has returned to Backlund again, and had a certain working relationship with the angel of the Numinous Episcopate’s Artificial Death faction… Klein instinctively took out the Red Priest card and accommodated the Tyrant card before summoning the Sea God Scepter. He planned on giving the Red Angel evil spirit a zap of Lightning Storm, but as his thoughts raced, he restrained this impulse and gave up on the corresponding thoughts.
This would expose Patrick Bryan’s problem and let the angel from the Death domain guess that something had happened to Artificial Death!
This wasn’t beneficial to the Evernight Goddess’s control and digestion of the Death pathway’s Uniqueness.
Amidst his thoughts, he quickly left the world above the gray fog and returned to the real world. He made his marionette secretly leave the clothing factory and “Teleport” away with his body.
He had originally planned on creating a shocking experience for Patrick Bryan after the ritual. He had even made some preparations beforehand. Now, he could only give up to prevent the Red Angel evil spirit from discovering him.
Inside the clothing factory, the young Gatekeeper, who had been possessed by Sauron Einhorn Medici, pulled his hood even lower before turning his head slightly and looking in a particular direction outside.
That was the spot where Klein’s marionette, Qonas Kilgor, had been hiding, nearly a kilometer away from the factory.
After staring at it for a few seconds, the young Gatekeeper revealed an obvious smile.
Just as Patrick Bryan was about to say something, planning to use his identity of the person-in-charge of the Numinous Episcopate’s Artificial Death faction to haze the envoy of his teacher, his spiritual perception was triggered. He turned around in a bizarre manner, casting his gaze on another building in the factory.
On the second floor of the building, behind a glass window in a room, there was a pair of emotionless black eyes staring at them.
Patrick Bryan’s eyelids twitched, and his body suddenly vanished.
Woo!
A cold wind blew, causing the glass window to rot silently. Without any movement, it crumbled into countless “snowflakes.”
In the corresponding room, a skinny Patrick in a black robe and a thin face emerged. He saw that the master of that pair of cold, black eyes was a rough mud doll.
Who made the doll… Who moved it here? Patrick Bryan looked around cautiously, not missing any corners.
Just as he turned his gaze towards the corridor and faced the glass window with his body slanted, the crude, black eyes of the mud doll suddenly turned. Then, it raised its hands and grabbed Patrick’s neck.
Halfway through the action, the mud doll seemed to lose its support and lost all mobility. Many cracks appeared on its surface as it instantly shattered into pieces.
Patrick Bryan’s figure disappeared first before he appeared in the corridor, staring at the collapsed doll as if he was facing a most powerful enemy.
At that moment, he had really jumped in fright. Although there were all sorts of bizarre and harrowing matters related to spirits, it was still quite scary for a puppet to suddenly come alive without the influence of an external Spirit Body.
The mud doll lay there quietly in fragments without so much as a stir. Patrick Bryan waited patiently for a while before finally confirming that there were no more abnormalities.
He shuttled through the spirit world once again and returned to the place where the ritual had been held.
At that moment, the heavy, pitch-black casket had completely decayed. It was as if it had been buried in the ground for centuries, if not millennia. And the surrounding Underworld believers were slowly recovering from their semiconscious state.
Patrick Bryan looked around but could not find the young Gatekeeper sent by his teacher. He didn’t know when he had left.
Isn’t he here to spy on me? The demigod of the Death pathway was at a loss.
Taking into consideration the abnormal discovery he had made—the living mud doll—Patrick Bryan didn’t delay any further. He quickly snapped his followers awake and cleaned up the scene and removed all traces.
After he was done, he suddenly heard a voice:
“Is this clothing factory yours?”
Patrick Bryan’s figure instantly disappeared and appeared again, now facing the person who spoke. That was the young Gatekeeper who had gone somewhere.
“No.” Patrick frowned slightly.
How could he do such a thing in his own factory? If he was exposed, wouldn’t there be no way out?
“Not too stupid…” The young Gatekeeper nodded gently.
Patrick narrowed his eyes and suppressed his anger.
“Where did you go?”
The young Gatekeeper chuckled and said, “I visited some familiar spots and met a friend.”
