Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Are you looking for me…”
The moment the voice entered his ears, Derrick froze. His skin tensed up, and his hair stood on end.
Why is he behind me?
Why is he in my room?
What happened to the seal?
What about the effects of the mystical items?
His forehead dripped with cold sweat, and he subconsciously wanted to turn around to take a look.
But his instincts stopped him from doing so.
This instinct originated from the teachings of the City of Silver’s General Knowledge of Monsters lessons and the strange scene he had experienced after joining the patrolling teams.
When someone is speaking behind you, don’t turn around in a hurry!
Derrick raised his hands and clenched them into fists in front of his chest, then slowly, he turned around, bit by bit.
The room was shrouded in darkness, making it impossible to see anything. However, there was a tint of golden light that was expanding in his two eyes, transforming into what seemed like two miniature suns.
With his Light Suppliant powers, he saw a dark figure sitting quietly on the edge of his bed.
The dark figure rapidly turned clear, revealing a head that had been split in half!
In the middle of his head, two gray brains wriggled like they were alive, trying to get close to each other but being unable to do so.
The thick, viscous liquid on the severed surface of his brain had turned into thin threads, but they were shrinking like maggots.
Each eye that was on the two separate sides were distanced apart, and the nose bridge was separated from the middle. The color of the blood was bright and evident.
The left side of his mouth was open, but the right side of his mouth was tightly shut.
This terrifying monster was naked, and there were numerous dark red wounds on its body.
The countless wounds had torn open savagely, revealing rows and rows of white teeth. They said the same sentence in quick succession, “Are you looking for me…”
It paused for a moment, the corners of its mouth and the edges of its wounds were curling up.
“Look, am I not normal…”
Derrick’s pupils contracted, and without thinking, he placed his folded hands on his chest and raised them to his chin, as if in prayer.
The small room suddenly became bright, and a pure beam of light, swirling with fire, fell from the roof and onto the monster’s body.
The beam was not as grand as the one used by Derrick outside the spire. This was because of the seal here and the mystical item which left him isolated from the spire’s exterior.
But at that moment, Derrick was stunned to see the holy light beam that he had prayed for was suddenly thickening. It was so bright that he couldn’t help but close his eyes.
A few moments later, something purer and thicker separated from the magnificent pillar of light. It was like a man made of light with no facial features and no clothes!
The “man of light” suddenly coruscated and pounced on the monster.
All the “mouths” on the monster suddenly opened, as if it was letting out a blood-curdling screech.
Yet, Derrick heard nothing.
The monster began to tremble violently and quickly disintegrated under the burning and illumination of the “man of light,” disappearing as if it were melting.
Just as it was about to become transparent, a phantom wearing a black classical long robe and a pointed hat suddenly appeared!
The shadow had black hair, black eyes, a wide forehead, and a thin face. It wore a monocle carved from crystal.
As soon as he appeared, the “man of light” exploded, and Derrick’s vision was filled with whiteness.
When his eyesight was restored, he found himself outside the room, in the corridor with the metal lamps set in it, in the dim light of the setting sun.
He tilted his head blankly and looked into the room. He saw a tall, muscular figure in dark trousers and a brown coat.
In front of this figure was the bed which Derrick had been sleeping in. Dawn-like rays of light condensed onto a white leg bone, turning it into a pure white, sharp sword.
Next to the straight sword lay a translucent worm.
It was only the length of a thumb, and its slimness was almost that of a child’s finger. One ring after another, of completely transparent colors, divided it into many sections.
It was a fleeting scene, and without specially counting the number of rings, he had a vague feeling that there were about ten of them.
The tall figure which had its back facing him reached out his hand to pick up the strange translucent worm. As he turned around, he sighed.
“It was close…”
At that moment, Derrick finally saw the face of the tall figure.
His hair was grizzled, unkempt, and rather disheveled. He had deep wrinkles around his cheeks, but there were no wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. Some old scars, that were either deep or twisted, remained on his cheeks.
He was dressed in a flaxen-colored shirt with a checkered leather belt around his waist, and his pale blue eyes were deep and weathered, like a book full of stories.
For a moment, Derrick was stunned, and then, as though he had been in danger all his life, he opened his mouth in pleasant surprise.
“Your Excellency!”
In front of him was Chief of the City of Silver’s six-member council, a powerful Demon Hunter who was over a hundred years old, Colin Iliad!
Colin nodded slightly and said, “We always knew that he had a problem, but in order to find out what kind of ulterior motives the man named Amon had, we intentionally didn’t eliminate him directly, and we instead locked him at the bottom of the spire, sealed under the influence of mystical items, and we often let Beyonders, who only have symptoms of losing control, live next to him and talk to him. We wanted to see if we could induce some abnormal changes in him in order to learn the information we wanted to know.
“Unfortunately, he had been very normal until today, way too normal.
“Why do you think he suddenly mutated and attempted to break through the seal? Do you have any idea what makes you different from the others?”
So it was purposely arranged for me to live next to the former exploration team captain… After a few seconds of silence, Derrick said, “Maybe it’s because my Beyonder pathway is different from the others. Sequence 9 Bard, Sequence 8 Light Suppliant.”
In other words, the Sun pathway… If Mr. Hanged Man is right, that the Amon family is the descendant of an ancient Sun God, then it’s normal for me to cause a mutation to happen to him… Derrick felt he knew the truth to a certain extent.
Colin listened without a change in expression. He sized up Derrick for a few seconds before saying, “We were monitoring him. The members of the six-member council took turns, but we didn’t expect him to suddenly mutate. There were zero warning signs, and his actions were very decisive and determined.
“What were you doing in the room just now?”
Derrick, who was considering the relationship between the Sun pathway and the ancient Sun God, didn’t instantly realize what the Chief was asking about.
When he realized it, his mind was still blank as he seriously recalled what he had done.
I didn’t do anything. I just knocked on the wall and tried to talk to him… Before this, before this, I was participating in the Tarot Gathering… The Tarot Gathering!Derrick was suddenly stunned. He felt that things might not be as simple as he had imagined.
He knew that he couldn’t inform the Chief of his thoughts, but he didn’t know what kind of expression to make, so he could only maintain his lonely, reserved silence. He said thoughtfully, “I knocked on that wall three times.
“Before that, the candle in my room had extinguished, and there was complete darkness. I had tried to practice some of my Beyonder powers.”
Colin looked into Derrick’s eyes quietly and said after nearly twenty seconds, “Unfortunately, what Amon left in his soul was not his original body. Moreover, this matter happened too suddenly, so we were unable to obtain the desired result…
“Before his mutation, did you sense anything amiss?”
“No.” Derrick shook his head with conviction.
Colin’s eyes suddenly flashed with two complex, dark green symbols, and he reflected Derrick’s body in them.
After nearly ten seconds of silence, the City of Silver’s Chief closed his eyes and said, “Your condition has stabilized. You don’t need any more treatment, so you can go back now.”
Derrick was startled.
“Alright.”
He watched Demon Hunter Colin Iliad turn back into the room, pick up the sharp white sword, and turned it over and over in his hands.
He quietly took a deep breath and walked along the corridor towards the exit. On the way, he met the Keepers who had rushed over one after the other.
He slowly walked back home and closed the door. He carefully observed his surroundings for a while, then he sat down on the edge of the bed and recited in a low voice, “The Fool that doesn’t belong to this era, you are the mysterious ruler above the gray fog; you are the King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck.
“I’ve just experienced something terrifying…”
Derrick recounted what had happened and mentioned his two guesses.
After doing all of that, he felt much more at ease.
And with his tense state of mind relaxing, he felt immense exhaustion wash through him. He lied down and quickly fell asleep.
In the silent and dark room, flashes of lightning would occasionally illuminate everything. Otherwise, it would seem like the dark night.
The sleeping Derrick suddenly flicked his right index finger and leisurely tapped it on the bed.
Once, twice, thrice…
…
After the Tarot Gathering, Klein didn’t divine the Werewolf’s Beyonder characteristic or the Biological Poison Bottle due to his spirituality expenditure. Instead, he went straight back to the real world for a nap. After twenty minutes, he woke up and drew the curtain, allowing the light that penetrated through the mist to bring a certain degree of light into the room.
Sitting on the chair in front of the desk, Klein calmed down and began considering what he needed to do in the short term.
The main goal is to continue concluding the rules of a Magician and make adjustments according to the subtle feedback from my spirituality.
Although rules like “never performing unprepared,” “the need to have a stage and a performance,” and “completing a performance using means of diversion” do not seem problematic at the moment, if I were to continue acting this way and performing slight adjustments, I’ll eventually digest the potion and reach the advancement state. But this sort of acting isn’t sufficient. I’m still lacking some of the important rules. Currently, what I’m doing will make the digestion slow and not thorough. Perhaps, it will take a year, or perhaps even two or three years before my Sequence advancement is possible.
And Ince Zangwill won’t remain there waiting for me! Only through becoming a High-Sequence Beyonder as soon as possible will I be qualified to take revenge!
Therefore, figuring out the other Magician rules is of utmost importance. I’ll first determine them through experimentation whether the applause from an audience will stir my spirituality and result in better digestion of the potion.
Just as Klein was deep in thought, he heard a series of illusory, stacked pleas.
