"Thank you, Fool, for granting me breakfast." Sno tapped his chest four times, tracing an Inverse Cross, completing his prayer to Mr. Fool before beginning today's breakfast.
He pierced the soft-fried egg with his fork, letting the rich yolk flow out and spread over the bread with the sauce. As he ate the soft bread, Sno idly played with Heavenly Punishment.
Compared to yesterday, the little figure on Heavenly Punishment had fewer of the muscular contours distinctive to men, and its facial features had become much softer. What drew the most attention, however, were its eerie, pure-black eyes.
This was the change that had occurred after he fed the Marionettist Pathway Extraordinary Item seized from Beckland to Heavenly Punishment.
Unlike what he had initially thought, Heavenly Punishment was not essentially "one" Mysterious Item. Its abilities were divided into two parts:
The anti-divination and Spirit-Flesh Blade abilities belonged to the Extraordinary Item itself, while Shepherding came from the evil spirit dwelling within it—
Although it could directly Shepherd Beyonder Characteristics through its exceptionally high status, and could even crush Sealed Artifacts and Mysterious Items, it could not conveniently switch abilities like a Shepherd.
Compared to Shepherding, its ability was more like the evil spirit's "containment." It was merely able to contain the vast majority of Beyonder Characteristics due to the peculiarities of the Hanged Man Pathway.
Conversely, even though it now contained thirteen Beyonder Characteristics in total—Hunter Sequences Nine through Six, Seer Sequences Nine through Five, and Lawyer Sequences Nine through Six—the only ability it could use was that of a Marionettist—
In other words, it could only use the highest-ranked characteristic among those it contained. It could not even combine Low Sequence characteristics from compatible Pathways. To switch, it first had to spit out every characteristic ranked higher than the