As Patrick Bryan chanted, the skulls surrounding the dark coffin gradually took on a sinister green hue, blending with the white of the coffin to create an extremely eerie atmosphere.
The " Spirit Dance " grew more and more intense, as if the voices originating from the Underworld echoed continuously, and the skulls Levitation one after another, seemingly possessing their own life force.
Then, in a chaotic yet orderly fashion, they were thrown towards the heavy, dark coffin, passing through the lid as if they were not solid objects, and entering inside.
The coffin instantly transformed into a deep, insatiable vortex, expanding on the spot and emanating a cold, chilling, and aloof aura that made Patrick Bryan instinctively tremble and lower his head.
This is the aura of an Angel, a " Death Consul "!
At this moment, the Death God followers who were performing the " Spirit Dance " convulsed and collapsed to the ground, their consciousness becoming hazy, as if they were traveling in the Underworld.
Meanwhile, Klein, the " The Fool," who had expanded his vision above the Gray Fog with the help of the light of the Marionette's prayer, secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The probing methods employed by High Priest Heitel, the leader of the Spirituality Religion's Artificial Death Faction and the Angel slumbering in the mausoleum, had not surprised him. He had used the " Death " pathway—the ability of those in power to enslave and control those in power—to directly obtain the information he sought from Patrick Bryan.
This is, in a sense, a kind of "torture" on a psychological level, which Klein is quite adept at handling.
He immediately let the " Red Priest " card fly into his hand and enter his body.
Suddenly, Klein donned a deep red robe stained with blood, rust, and gunpowder, his face adorned with a striped, ancient dark gold mask, and a crown inlaid with red, blue, and green gemstones atop his head.
Then, he mobilized all the power of the mysterious space above the Gray Fog that he could control, turning it into an invisible torrent that swept over the pre-prepared paper figures and rushed toward " the Undying " Patrick Bryan through the points of prayer light.
At that moment, Patrick, who was trembling and submitting to his teacher's aura, shuddered slightly, as if he saw layers upon layers of sacred wings.
Klein concealed the true form of the Flame Angel, revealing only a partial impression; in other words, he deliberately interfered with the special effects.
One after another, divine wings descended and vanished, leaving Patrick with a disorienting feeling as if he were hallucinating.
As a Sequence 4 Demigod, he quickly regained his senses and found that he no longer only wanted to obey, no longer unable to disobey his teacher's orders. His consciousness seemed to have been partially extracted, hovering high above the Mind World, calmly looking down on everything.
At the same time, as a fanatical believer, Patrick Bryan did not hesitate for a moment to regard the " Angel's Embrace " as a gift from " Death," without any doubt.
At this moment, from within the deep vortex formed by the pitch-black coffin, a voice, aged and icy, seemed to emanate from within, making one's soul feel as if it were about to leave the body:
Well done.
What progress have you made recently in awakening God?
Patrick Bryan immediately began to describe his efforts and dedication, half-truthfully, according to the account given to him by His Blessed.
After a brief exchange, Heitel, the Angel of death on the other side of the vortex, showed no suspicion and calmly stated:
"Great, keep it up, I'll support you."
He paused for a moment, then casually mentioned:
"I'll assign you an assistant first, a ' Spirit Guide ' of Sequence 5, to help you complete the tasks and reduce your stress."
Is this what Your Blessed meant by not trusting me? My teacher truly doesn't want to see me gain God's favor and threaten His position... Having been subtly influenced by Klein through their daily correspondence, Patrick Bryan, whose perceptions were gradually changing, couldn't refuse such "kindness" and could only respectfully reply:
"Yes, teacher."
As soon as he finished speaking, the pitch-black vortex suddenly unfolded, transforming into a pair of bronze doors covered with mysterious patterns, the feeling of which was difficult to describe.
With a creak, the door opened, revealing a crack.
Beyond the crack lay a deep, still darkness, as if countless eyes were hidden within, silently watching the outside world.
Just then, a hand reached out and rested on the crack in the door.
Its skin is quite pale, and the bluish veins underneath are clearly visible.
With a grab and a pull, a figure leaped out of the doorway.
This was a tall, young-looking man wearing a long robe with a black background and red patterns, and he had pulled up the hood.
His facial features were soft, and his skin was brownish, clearly indicating that he had Southern Continent ancestry. His features were relatively good, but he lacked color.
The young man stomped his foot on the solid ground, didn't even glance at Patrick Bryan, raised his head, looked up at the sky, a slight smile playing on his lips, and sighed with half-closed eyes:
"This atmosphere is intoxicating..."
As Beyonder of the " Death " pathway, Patrick Bryan was undoubtedly annoyed to be ignored by someone below his own Sequence, but he couldn't say anything in front of his teacher and could only follow the procedure to complete the ritual step by step.
During this process, the " The Fool " Klein above the Gray Fog reacted more violently than Patrick.
Because through the " Spirit Vision " provided by the Gray Fog, he saw the abnormality of the newly arrived " Spirit Guide "!
The Spirit Guide's "Self- Underworld " expanded strangely, encompassing every part of his body. Within that " Underworld " was only one spirit, young and handsome, with a full head of red hair, many signs of decay on his face, a banner mark between his brows, and wearing blood-stained black armor.
Klein was very familiar with this spirit and recognized it immediately:
The " Red Angel " Evil Spirit, Sauron Einhorn Medici!
This guy has returned to Backlund, and has even established a certain cooperative relationship with the Angel of the Artificial Death Faction of the Spirituality Religion... Klein instinctively took out the " Red Priest " card, contained the " Tyrant " card, and summoned the " Sea God Scepter," preparing to unleash a Lightning Storm on the " Red Angel " Evil Spirit. However, in a flash, he restrained the impulse and abandoned the idea.
This would expose Patrick Bryan's problem, leading the Angel of the Death Realm Heitel, to suspect that the Artificial Death was malfunctioning!
This hinders the " Evernight Goddess " from mastering and assimilating the " Uniqueness " of the " Death " pathway.
Amidst a flurry of thoughts, Klein swiftly left the Gray Fog and returned to the real world, allowing the Marionette to quietly but rapidly depart from the garment factory, " Teleportation " away with his main body.
He had originally planned to create some terrifying experiences for Patrick Bryan after the ceremony and had made some preparations in advance, but now he had to give up on that idea to avoid being discovered by the " Red Angel " Evil Spirit.
Inside the garment factory, the young " Spirit Guide " possessed by Sauron Einhorn Medici pulled his hood down even lower, turned his head slightly, and looked towards a certain spot outside.
That was the spot where Klein's Marionette, Qonas Kilgor, had just been hiding, nearly 1 kilometer away from the garment factory.
After staring for a few seconds, a faint smile appeared on the young " Spirit Guide's" face.
Patrick Bryan was about to speak, as the head of the Artificial Death Faction faction of the Spirituality Religion in Backlund, to reprimand his teacher's messenger, when Spirit Intuition struck him. He turned his body strangely and turned his gaze to another building inside the garment factory.
On the second floor of that building, behind the glass window of a room, a pair of emotionless black eyes were watching this side.
Patrick Bryan's eyelids twitched, and his body vanished instantly.
Hmm!
A cold wind howled, causing the glass window to silently decay and shatter into countless tiny "snowflakes."
Inside the room, Patrick, dressed in a black robe and with a gaunt face, appeared. The owner of those cold, black eyes was a crudely made clay Puppet.
Who made the Puppet...? Who moved it here? Patrick Bryan cautiously looked around, not missing a single corner.
Just as he turned his gaze toward the corridor, his body angled toward the window without glass, the crude clay Puppet's dark eyes suddenly shifted, and it raised its hands to grab Patrick's neck.
The clay Puppet seemed to lose its support and lifelessness halfway through the action, with numerous cracks appearing on its surface before it instantly disintegrated into a pile of fragments.
Patrick Bryan's figure first disappeared, then reappeared in the corridor, staring at the collapsed clay Puppet as if facing a formidable enemy.
He was genuinely startled for a moment. Although things related to spirits are full of strange and terrifying events, it was still quite frightening for a Puppet to suddenly come to life without any external spiritual influence.
The fragments of the clay Puppet lay there silently, without any further movement Patrick Bryan waited patiently for a while, finally confirming that there was nothing amiss.
He traveled through the Spirit World again, returning to the place where the ceremony had just taken place.
At this moment, the heavy, black coffin had completely rotted away, as if it had been buried under the soil for hundreds or thousands of years, while the believers around it, who had sensed the Underworld, slowly recovered from their semi-conscious state.
Patrick Bryan looked around but couldn't find the young " Spirit Guide " his teacher had sent; he had left sometime earlier.
Wasn't he here to spy on me? The Demigod of the " Death " pathway was momentarily bewildered.
Considering the unusual discovery of the living clay Puppet, Patrick Bryan. He quickly woke up his followers, cleaned up the scene, and dealt with the traces.
After he finished all that, he suddenly heard a voice:
"Is this garment factory yours?"
Patrick Bryan vanished instantly, then reappeared facing the person who had spoken—the young " Spirit Guide " who had disappeared without a trace.
"No," Patrick said, frowning slightly.
How could he possibly do such things in his own garment factory? If he were exposed, wouldn't he have no way out?
"Not too stupid..." the young " Spirit Guide " nodded gently.
Patrick's eyes narrowed slightly as he suppressed his anger and said:
Where did you just go?
The young " Spirit Guide " chuckled and said:
"I strolled around some familiar places and met a friend."