Silence returned above the Gray Fog, as if the previous gathering had been nothing but an illusion.
Klein curled his fingers and tapped the edge of the mottled long table, bringing to light the Roselle's Diary that " The Hermit " Cattleya had just presented.
In an indescribable stillness, Klein solemnly turned his gaze to the first paragraph of the first page:
"On September 27th, I met Miss Ithaca again and had a thrilling yet wonderful experience with her. I still prefer women of this age. It's not just about reminiscing about youth; it's something that hasn't changed over the years. Hehe, so loyal."
"... I read your diary so carefully and seriously, and this is what you show me?" Klein's lips twitched slightly, and he made a sarcastic remark to the emperor who had only ever seen a portrait of him.
He quickly gathered his scattered thoughts and began to look around.
Inside a lounge in the basement of Saint Samuel Cathedral.
After opening his eyes, Leonard Mitchell considered his words for a moment, then lowered his voice and said:
" Old Man, it seems that Zaratul of the Secret Order is also in Backlund."
In his mind, that slightly aged voice quickly rang out:
"Really..."
Upon hearing this answer, Leonard immediately followed up with:
" Old Man, are you familiar with that Zaratul? Didn't you say that both the Zoroast Family and the Zaratul Family are high-ranking noble families in the Solomon Empire?"
In his view, how could the Old Man and Zaratul, as former colleagues who had fought side by side, not be familiar with each other?
Pallez Zoroast let out a "ha":
"The Zaratul I knew has already perished in the ' War of the Four Emperors '. This one should be his descendant. I may or may not have met him before."
"Alas, Zaratul had already obtained a second clue to Sequence 1 Beyonder Characteristic from the ' True Creator,' and was just waiting for the ' War of the Four Emperors ' to end before searching for it. If successful, He could be considered the Angel King. Unfortunately, during the ' War of the Four Emperors,' He directly encountered the Antigonus Family member, who was known as half a ' The Fool.' Bethel Abraham was also involved, and He could appear anywhere at any time. If He hadn't been quickly banished and sealed away by the Evernight and the Storm, I probably wouldn't have survived until the end of the ' War of the Four Emperors.'"
Half a " The Fool "... Leonard's eyelids twitched at this title, and he inexplicably thought of the one above the Gray Fog.
He immediately forced himself to control himself and shifted his thoughts to other things:
Even based solely on bystander descriptions, "Mr. Door" was clearly among the top beings of the Angel King. It took two true gods working together to expel and seal him. Well, it's highly likely that he was exceptionally fast and extremely difficult to kill. And given the tense situation at the time, eliminating a threatening enemy as quickly as possible was crucial...
Haha, the Old Man is reminiscing about the past, and his emotions are a bit agitated; he's said so much in one go...
Amidst a jumble of thoughts, Leonard suddenly spoke:
"I was left in Backlund because I wanted to use you to lure Amon here?"
The sentimentality in Pallez Zoroast's tone vanished instantly, and he clicked his tongue and said:
Who made this guess? I don't think it was you.
"However, it's not bad to know how to use one's own resources to investigate the truth of a problem."
"I've been doing this for a long time since I joined the ' Nighthawks ' team!" Leonard thought to himself, but didn't say it aloud.
Pallez Zoroast continued:
That's my guess too.
"To be honest, the relationship between your former colleague and the Evernight really puzzles me. If it weren't for the Concealment force that appeared that day that felt familiar, I wouldn't have dared to make this guess."
"Heh, Zaratul and I are in Backlund, and Amon is coming soon too. It's truly a perfect triangular balance."
What does this mean...? The Concealment power that dealt with Amon came from the " Evernight " realm, not Mr. The Fool? Does this mean that Mr. The Fool and the Goddess cooperated to some extent, or that a high-ranking member of the church actually worships Mr. The Fool? Leonard suddenly felt intensely confused and bewildered about his own position.
Seeing that Pallez also frankly admitted his confusion, he suppressed his own thoughts and refrained from asking about it, instead furrowing his brow slightly as he said:
"Two Sequence 1 Angel and one Angel King —could this bring about a devastating catastrophe for Backlund?"
He remembered Amon as a terrifying being who could kill countless people silently and still enjoy life as a victim.
Based on this, Zaratul, who follows a similar path, must also possess extremely terrifying and horrifying abilities. If he were to clash with Amon, half or even the entirety of Backlund Backlund become a "city of death" or a "city of the bizarre"!
Pallez Zoroast chuckled and said:
"Balance means everyone will be very restrained. Besides, Amon probably won't let his main body enter Backlund; at most, he'll summon a large number of clones. After all, the fact that the Evernight can't happen doesn't mean that Storm and Steam can't be divinely summoned."
"What do you mean? What do you mean by 'no way'?" Nader keenly grasped the key point in the Old Man's words.
Pallez Zoroast's tone suddenly became quite relaxed:
"Whether it's because of war or some other reason, the Evernight shouldn't be able to interfere with things on Earth right now. Otherwise, why would He have lured Amon here to create a balance? He could have just set a trap and maybe captured Zaratul, or scared away the timid ' Seer '."
"... Has something happened to the goddess?" Leonard suddenly became nervous.
The slightly aged voice replied:
"It's not necessarily a bad thing; it could also be a good thing."
Before Leonard could ask again, Pallez Zoroast sighed once more:
" Amon was drawn to Backlund by me, but what about Zaratul? And what about me?"
" Zaratul is probably because of you, and you are because of me in Backlund..." Leonard replied thoughtfully.
"Hey, why do you think you're in Backlund?" Pallez scoffed immediately.
Leonard immediately replied:
"This is the church's arrangement. It couldn't possibly be due to the influence of the Law of Beyonder Characteristics Convergence, could it?"
"That's not necessarily true." Pallez's tone became slightly more serious. "Often, the Law of Beyonder Characteristics Convergence doesn't manifest itself directly in ways you can perceive. It influences Fate more in a way that's more like boarding a train, only to suddenly find a certain scenic spot along the way particularly beautiful, so you get off early and linger in a small town. This might be because there are Beyonder or magical items with similar paths nearby."
"So, what else in Backlund attracted you and Zaratul here, and through you influenced my Fate, leading to my being assigned by the Church to spend most of my time in Backlund?" Leonard sought confirmation, seemingly enlightened.
Pallez Zoroast sighed slowly:
"That possibility cannot be ruled out."
Above the Gray Fog, Klein quickly turned to a valuable page in the diary:
"On November 21st, because I had done a lot of preparation beforehand, I obtained that chaotic and terrifying '0' level Sealed Artifact faster than I had imagined."
"Then, after a difficult struggle, with the help of others, I finally managed to restore it to its pure Sequence 1 Beyonder Characteristic."
"In a few days, once the ceremony is complete, I should be able to advance to Sequence 1 of the ' Mystery Pryer ' pathway, ' Knowledge Emperor '."
November 26th, sunny, light breeze.
"The ceremony went smoothly, I digested it thoroughly, the anchor was very stable, and there weren't many difficulties encountered throughout the process."
"I am now Sequence 1 Angel, the Emperor of Knowledge. Bernadette no longer needs to worry about the influence of the ' Hidden Sage ' and can continue on this path in accordance with the motto 'Do as you please, but do not harm'!"
"At the same time, the Angel rank of Sequence 1 means that I can largely resist the gaze and pollution from the Starry Sky and go above the Red Moon to see what's there."
"Regardless of whether ' Mr. Door ' is lying, everything indicates that Red Moon is the key to the problem. If I want to become a true god, I must find out the reason."
"We'll prepare for three more days and then attempt a moon landing!"
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind! Ha ha, that's not my saying."
Upon seeing this, Klein recalled Roselle's hysterical diary entry and became even more suspicious that it was written after the emperor's "moon landing."
Putting aside the remaining, unread diaries, Klein began to recall the contents he had read over the past year through " Dream Divination," hoping to find clues about Roselle's abnormal mental state in his later years by comparing the past and present.
Not long after, he saw a few lines of text in his dream, which were theoretically Roselle's last diary entry:
"I can't offer any specific suggestions because I can't see the Seven Gods clearly, nor can I see the true faces of those evil gods. This might be related to part of the contents of the second ' Blasphemy Slate ' hidden by that ancient organization. Unfortunately, I can only guess that there is a hidden part, and I can't confirm it."
In this diary entry, the emperor also solemnly warned any potential "companions" to be wary of the Moon.
The dream shattered abruptly, and Klein snapped back to reality, his eyes filled with obvious terror.
He clearly remembered that Roselle had confirmed long before that the second " Blasphemy Slate " had a hidden part:
July 19th, the night of the Blood Moon.
"Mr. 'Door's' answer confirmed one thing for me: the second Blasphemy Slate I saw within that ancient, Concealment organization was not complete!"
This...the Emperor forgot? No, how could he forget something so important? He seemed only a little extreme and biased, nothing seriously wrong, so why is he like this...? Klein muttered to himself, unable to contain himself, a strange and terrifying feeling creeping over him.
The Emperor Roselle wrote his last diary entry, or rather, that last sentence, seemed like a completely different person.
P. S.: Requesting recommendation votes and monthly tickets on Monday!