Something Seems to Be Missing...

"Colors that covered everything?"

"Yes, revered Sublime One, I saw indescribable colors. They seemed to be the source of every flash of inspiration in the world. They encompassed all things and covered all things."

"I could only see the parts I was able to see, but I instinctively believed that they still existed in the places beyond my sight."

"Sorry, great Sublime One, my description may be inaccurate. It was a magnificent sight beyond the limits of my knowledge and difficult to describe."

"Also, thank you for your gift. I gained quite a bit of inspiration. I discovered that my question-and-answer game could go even further. Simply using questions to make them suffer social death was too low-level. I should proceed step by step, using temptation in the questions so that they suffered while still enjoying the fun of the question-and-answer game."

Cyril: ...(⊙_⊙;)...

Don't talk nonsense. I'm not taking the blame for this.

For some reason, he began silently mourning Arrodes's holder within the Machinery Hivemind. He had the feeling that Arrodes had awakened something rather strange this time.

He suddenly no longer wanted to chat with Arrodes. To end this question-and-answer game as quickly as possible, he directly asked the question he had wanted to ask from the start:

"Do you know what happened at the Blood Axe Gang's headquarters?"

The silvery ripples on the full-length mirror suddenly became chaotic and dense, as if they had been disturbed. Arrodes was wrestling with something.

Half a minute later, the rippling silver waves vanished, and blood-red words that seemed to drip with blood surfaced one after another:

"Sorry, revered Sublime One, many terrifying auras remain there. Even much of the information in the Spirit World has been damaged and affected. I cannot filter out what you need from it."

"However, I made some other discoveries. Would you like to know?"

Cyril nodded lightly. "Speak."

New writing soon surfaced on the mirror: "Part of the lingering aura there is very, very similar to yours, but it also gives me a somewhat different feeling."

"Besides that, I saw decay and desire. Every one of these auras is dangerous. The sense of danger they gave me far surpassed even the Seven Deities."

Cyril nodded calmly. "I understand. What is your question?"

Lines of silver words cautiously emerged on the full-length mirror: "This is compensation for my failure to answer your previous question. It does not count as a question."

"Sorry, great Sublime One, people from the Church of Steam are about to reach where my main body is. I cannot remain here any longer."

"If you have other questions, you may call my name again later. Or draw a symbol like this on a mirror. As long as it is within Backlund, I will be able to see it and respond."

Cyril glanced at the symbol on the mirror, a blend of Concealment and peeping, and silently committed it to memory.

The symbol he had drawn on the mirror before could not be called entirely wrong. It was simply outrageously wrong.

The symbol Arrodes had given him used peeping as its core, supplemented by some distorted lines representing Concealment. The one he had drawn before had gotten the emphasis completely backward, treating Concealment as the core.

After memorizing the symbol Arrodes had given him to contact it, Cyril lightly inclined his head toward the mirror.

"That will do. You may leave."

"Arrodes takes its leave, great Sublime One."

A line of writing briefly appeared on the mirror before swiftly vanishing. At the same time, the room's chilling sensation faded away, and the dim mirror once again reflected the room's interior and Cyril's figure.

Something seemed to be missing...

A moment later, Cyril stared at himself in the mirror in sudden realization... emoticons!

Arrodes hadn't used emoticons while talking to me, and although it was respectful toward me, it wasn't fawning at all. Is it because I don't carry the aura of the Gray Fog, so I don't get Klein's exclusive treatment?

After pausing, he stopped dwelling on that somewhat off-track train of thought and instead considered the issue revealed by Arrodes's words:

It had indirectly told me at the end that the symbol drawn on the mirror was wrong, so the reason I was able to contact it was actually because I had murmured its name at the time?

What was this? If you keep thinking about someone, there will surely be an echo?

That wording was a little inappropriate. It should have been that my unintentional murmur had stirred my own status, allowing my voice to reach its ears directly. Uh, did it even have ears?

Arrodes hadn't used words like pillar or dominator just now, so although my status had reached the level of a Great Old One, it hadn't reached the level of a pillar?

The Blood Axe Gang's headquarters had shown the aura of a Great Old One besides the High-Dimensional Overseer. Had It joined forces with an Outer Deity?

No, this involved Its most important symbols. Quite a few Outer Deities coveted the High-Dimensional Overseer's authority and symbols. Asking someone else for help with such a matter would easily mean delivering oneself into another's mouth. It should have borrowed the power of another Great Old One.

With the barrier left behind by the Primordial One, the power It could infiltrate was extremely limited. With insufficient control, it would instead become my nourishment. So It had to mix in the power of other Great Old Ones. Even if It failed to achieve Its goal, I would not gain Its power.

So what now? Ask Adam for help? But it seemed I could not afford the price of having him provide assistance.

As his thoughts shifted, he turned to look at the rolled-up tablecloth on the desk by the window. There was still some power belonging to the High-Dimensional Overseer within it. Naturally, he did not want to give it up, but he had no way to deal with it.

"A task. If you can complete it, I will lend you a mystical item. It can help you separate the energy within mystical items."

Adam's voice suddenly rang out. Cyril hurriedly turned his head and looked around, but he did not see Adam.

"This is merely a virtual personality lingering within your mind. I myself have not come here."

Adam's voice continued. This time, Cyril heard it clearly—the voice was coming from within his own body.

He immediately looked at himself in the full-length mirror. Nothing had changed about him.

After a moment of silence, he swiftly reined in every thought in his mind, thinking of nothing and guessing nothing.

There was no helping it. Before such a powerful Spectator, his thoughts were completely transparent. Although doing this could not stop the other party from peering into his mind, at least he had made the effort.

After a brief silence, he asked curiously, "What task is it?"

The next second, a lifelike Painting Scroll in the form of a wanted poster appeared before him:

It depicted a brown-haired, brown-eyed woman with sharply defined features, a somewhat fierce bearing, and a hint of affected delicacy. Her face was covered in heavy makeup, and she wore many lavish ornaments, giving her the incongruous impression of a blend between an aristocratic lady and a female bandit.

Below the Painting Scroll, lines of smaller Loenese introduced her identity:

Zoila Hernandez, leader of the Blood Axe Gang in Backlund's East District, Sequence 8: Listener. She went mad after hearing a voice from the starry sky. Her current whereabouts are unknown, but she is confirmed to still be wandering Backlund.

As his gaze swept over it, Cyril quickly seized upon a key point. "...She heard a voice from the starry sky?"

Adam's voice echoed slowly from the depths of his mind. "You should be able to guess who it was. This task is most suitable for you. Drawn by Fate, she will inevitably approach you."

Rather than saying she was approaching me under Fate's pull, it would be more accurate to say that I myself was her target.

Unable to stop himself from sighing inwardly, he immediately restrained his thoughts and asked aloud:

"No problem. I will complete this task. However, may I receive the reward for completing it in advance?"

"I'm only Sequence 9. The more power I accumulate, the more confidence I'll have in completing the task."

Adam's voice slowly rang out. "You may."

Then, the Painting Scroll before him rapidly turned transparent and disappeared. Immediately afterward, a cross-shaped accessory covered in verdigris materialized out of thin air.

Its style and characteristics did not belong to any of the nations of the Northern Continent in the Fifth Epoch. It possessed an ancient charm, with several spikes protruding from it, as though they had once pierced someone.

"This is the Cross of Unlight. After absorbing blood, it can use Demigod-level Purification, Solar Flame, and other spells of the Sun Pathway."

"Because of this item's powerful and pure purification ability, it repels contact with other mystical items and Beyonder Characteristics. They cannot coexist on the same person; it will purify anything that comes close along with itself."

"You can use this property to gradually separate the power within it from the Painting Scroll!"