Disguise

The man holding the fountain pen was middle-aged, with short dark-golden hair. He had deep-blue pupils, a high-bridged nose, tightly pressed lips, and features like a classical sculpture, entirely free of wrinkles. One of his eyes was gray.

He continued writing rapidly:

"After repeatedly using the 'Death's Door' pendant, Aster, whose spirituality had become overly active, made an extremely impulsive decision: to head directly to Sivellas County and launch a surprise attack on Lanevus!"

"This operation was quite crude, but fortunately, his motive was strong enough to make our story more plausible."

"Aster made no disguise when boarding the train, but in an empty carriage, he activated 'Witch's Kiss,' replacing his mystical identity with Evelyn Kallio."

"Perhaps she would not remember this until she arrived in Sivellas County. Before she returned, Ince Zangwill would obtain everything he wanted."

"The investigators Christina sent informed her of the problems surrounding Lanevus. The lady angrily reported the case, which was subsequently taken over by the Mandated Punishers of the Church of Storms."

"Kallio, captain of the Tingen Mandated Punishers of the Church of Storms, assigned the task of tracking Lanevus's fiancée, Megose, to Rejel, who was old and about to retire. Megose was merely an ordinary person, so the task was quite easy."

"But what they did not know was that Megose was already carrying the True Creator's child. She was fundamentally different from her former self."

"Rejel suffered severe contamination from the True Creator, yet neither he nor the other Mandated Punishers noticed it in the slightest. The contamination would only erupt during his next watch over the 'Azure Door,' because the Grade 1 Sealed Artifact kept in the River and Sea Cathedral of Tingen City was very special!"

"1-27 possessed the characteristics and self-awareness of a living being. When it discovered the contamination within Rejel, it would naturally realize that this was an opportunity to escape!"

"And due to the peculiar nature of 1-27, the only official force in Tingen City capable of quickly sealing it was 1-84, which had another name: 'Saint Selena's Ashes.'"

The middle-aged man calmly wrote one final sentence to conclude the chapter: "This would be a great upheaval for Tingen City."

"Xio really knows how to get herself into trouble..." Pale-blue patterns rippled across the wall as Fors appeared inside the house in overlapping phantoms.

She tossed the empty bag in her hand into a corner—when she had left, the backpack had been packed full of food and daily necessities, but everything inside had now vanished.

Biting her finger in vexation and worry, Fors lay on the sofa and considered Xio Derecha's situation. "Xio was arrested for injuring that loan-sharking thug, and she'll soon be put on trial..."

"I can't take her and flee directly. That's the last resort. Breaking her out by force means becoming wanted criminals, and we'd only be able to live in hiding... Besides, I can't possibly save her by myself. Xio can't walk through walls like I can..."

She immediately dismissed the idea of "storming the prison by force," not only because she was not strong enough to defeat the Beyonders guarding it, but also because that would be a provocation against the kingdom's laws—secretly breaking out of prison was different from escaping through the front gate.

"Maybe I can find a way to get Xio out through the proper channels..." Fors gradually began to form some ideas, though they had yet to take shape.

Glancing at the wall clock, she decided to visit the Beyonder gathering she often attended and cautiously ask around, to see whether the other Beyonders could offer a better plan.

After taking a carriage to one of the gathering places she frequented, Fors knocked on the door. A servant opened it and welcomed her inside. By then, Fors had already put on a mask to conceal her features. She was not especially early; quite a few attendees were already inside, trading and chatting.

As she casually swept her gaze across the room, she suddenly felt puzzled and could not help muttering, "Mr. A isn't here today?" Fors discovered that Mr. A, the organizer of this gathering, was not sitting in his usual armchair. The seat was empty.

"Yes, ma'am. Mr. A has some matters to attend to, so he will not appear at the gathering tonight," the servant beside her answered respectfully, apparently having heard Fors's question.

Who knew? Perhaps Mr. A had some other purpose and had disguised himself among the other attendees. Or perhaps he wanted to use this to lure out some enemies and was pretending to be absent... Fors remained guarded against Mr. A—or rather, against most people. Unlike Xio, who appeared unapproachable but was sincere by nature and bad at refusing others, Fors seemed easy to approach, yet was rather aloof inside. Only those whom Fors truly acknowledged had any chance of gaining her trust.

"When will Mr. A return?" another attendee standing nearby interjected. "I have something to discuss with him."

"He went to Tingen. He will probably not return until the next gathering," the servant replied respectfully.

"Let me think. What else did I not get the chance to ask..." In an empty house in Kuman City, Aster had already shed the disguise provided by the gloves. He wore no wig, merely a shirt draped over himself as he sat cross-legged before Angelo's corpse, frowning in distress. "Hmm, who else knows this property belongs to you?"

"Only my two Intis friends know. We often shared our spoils here," Angelo's spirit added. This was also one of the differences between dead spirits and living spirits in the field of Spirit Channeling: channeling a dead spirit yielded more extensive and detailed information, but could only be done once; living spirits retained a great deal of self-awareness and instinctively kept secrets, even disrupting the Spirit Channeling effect when asked sensitive questions.

"What spoils?" Aster raised an eyebrow, having already guessed the answer.

"They were beautiful women whom they had seduced and deceived. We shared them here," Angelo's spirit answered calmly.

"Ha, repeat offender. That explains it." Aster chuckled, then watched Angelo's spirit gradually dissipate.

Whether it was when Angelo had struck up a conversation with Aster on the train and revealed that he was a local of Kuman City, or when he had tried to lure Rachel Jones to this house, either was enough to make Aster want to kill him—certainly not because Angelo had groped him all over in the hired carriage.

Bold of you. Evelyn is my wife!

Evelyn's devoted fan, Aster, fumed inwardly.

"If you hadn't been so desperate for women, you wouldn't be dead now. Why bother, kid?" After viciously kicking Angelo's corpse twice, Aster stood up, took out Witch's Kiss, and repeated his previous method. He burned the corpse with the Demoness's Black Flame and performed Anti-Divination.

To Aster, killing did not cause the slightest guilt or unease.

Looking at the gloves, which had changed from black to dark gray, Aster let out a long sigh. "Looks like I can use them twice more in succession. Time to start recharging again."

The external manifestation of how much spirituality the gloves stored was their color: when they gradually changed from white to pure black, it meant the spirituality stored within was full. Fully charged, they could allow Aster to strip Evelyn's appearance and fate from himself three times.

On the train to Sivellas County, he had found an empty freight car and activated the gloves' ability, turning himself into Evelyn the Demoness—Melvin had to be the one leaving Tingen, which would effectively lower the vigilance of certain people in Tingen City and induce them to pass along the corresponding information; meanwhile, the one arriving in Kuman had to be "Rachel Jones," in order to lower Lanevus's guard.

And just now, he had already expended the spirituality in the gloves and activated Metamorphosis once, reverting to his original appearance.

"Time is short, and the task is heavy." Aster glanced at the calendar.

July 11.

At most three days. He had to find Lanevus within three days.

Three days was already the maximum amount of time Aster had allowed himself. Beyond that, Lanevus would certainly leave Sivellas County. In fact, if he was a little more cautious, he might already have left Kuman City.

"I really was too impulsive." Aster helplessly patted his head, feeling some regret over how crude his actions had been. But following the players' rule of "since I'm already here," he could only first do his best to search for Lanevus's movements and location.

Even if Lanevus truly got away, the trip would not have been wasted. After all, Sivellas County also had several side quests with decent rewards.

After destroying Angelo's remaining clothes, Aster began considering his next move. He had always taken things one step at a time.

He absolutely could not act under Melvin's identity in Sivellas County. Hmm, he would use those two new identities instead... Aster reclined halfway across the two-seater sofa in the house and looked toward the setting sun outside the window.

This sofa was pretty comfortable... Aster stretched out on it, feeling none of the guilt a normal person should have over "occupying someone else's house," while planning how to use his new identities.

In his plan, Claude Chapman and Rachel Jones would be completely separated: Claude would be an ordinary person longing to enter the supernatural world, while Rachel would be a mysterious and powerful Beyonder.

When dealing with local gangs, he would use Claude's identity; when he needed to attend certain Beyonder gatherings or fight Lanevus, he would use Rachel's identity...

Aster nodded slightly.

In truth, he felt none of the embarrassment a normal man might experience after "turning into a woman."