Upon hearing the archbishop's instructions, Leonard was initially taken aback, then inwardly sighed:
"Mr. The Fool's prediction was so accurate..."
"No, it's not a prophecy; He already knew it all."
Leonard quickly composed himself, followed procedure to obtain an official document from Archbishop Saint Anthony, and then returned underground, taking two teammates with him as they entered through the Chanis Gate.
After the internal guards had examined the documents, he entered the room Emlyn White was imprisoned, illuminated by rows of intricately carved silver candles, and opened the heavy stone door with a brass key.
A ghostly blue light then seeped into the cell, causing Emlyn White to instinctively close his eyes.
His face was much paler than usual, and his body was much thinner, giving the impression that he would float away in the wind.
Recalling Mr. The Fool's answer, Emlyn suddenly felt more confident about the current situation. Without opening his eyes, he slowly stood up and chuckled:
"I knew you guys would offer to take me out."
"Would you be disappointed if I said it was just a routine check-up?" Leonard thought to himself, replying expressionlessly.
"You have thirty seconds. If you haven't walked out of Chanis Gate by then, I'll consider you to have volunteered to stay."
As a seasoned " Nighthawks " and the leader of the " Red Gloves " squad for several months, Leonard has extensive experience dealing with Prisoner.
Emlyn's expression froze. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but ultimately remained silent, walking past Leonard and his two teammates out of the Chanis Gate.
Once outside, he suddenly shivered several times, as if trying to expel the chill from his body.
"After you get back, just soak up some the Sun for a few days. Oh, the winter the Sun isn't very common in Backlund, and you Vampire don't like to the Sun... Aren't you Apothecary? You can concoct potions in the ' The Sun ' domain yourself." Leonard casually reminded him.
Emlyn's condition was not right. On the one hand, he hadn't drunk human blood rich in Spirituality for many days and could only rely on animal blood as a substitute. On the other hand, he had stayed behind the Chanis Gate for too long and had been somewhat eroded by the Evernight power supporting the seal. He needed a potion from the " The Sun " realm to remove the remaining effects.
As the " Potion Professor," Emlyn was quite confident in his physical and mental condition. He neither refuted nor nodded, but simply emphasized " Sanguine," before turning to ask:
Where is Father Utravsky?
"He'll have to stay a while longer. Hopefully, this damn war will end soon. Don't worry, we'll let him out twice a week to get some sun. Which two days we'll decide depends on the weather in Backlund," Leonard replied simply, then escorted Emlyn White to the ground and onto the street.
Emlyn hesitated for a moment, then asked again:
Where is the nearest hospital?
"What do you want to do?" Leonard asked professionally.
"A blood transfusion." Emlyn slightly raised his chin, trying to keep his expression unchanged.
Blood transfusion... it's more like drinking blood... Leonard didn't expose him, but pointed in a direction and explained the address.
After watching the Sanguine Viscount leave, he returned underground and began discussing the recent case with his team.
After several days of trekking, Klein finally arrived near the northern ruins of the North City.
This is also a desolate and lifeless plain, with the dried-up riverbed leaving its mark on the earth.
After gazing at the city, its outlines dark and indistinct, shrouded in a thin mist, Klein did not rush to approach. Instead, he found a secluded spot and murmured the name of " The Fool."
Then, he took four steps backward, chanted the incantation, and entered the Gray Fog —to return to the " Sefirah Castle " with just one thought, the prayers of all the members of the Tarot Club must be combined to form a strong and solid anchor, generating enough summoning power for the " The Fool ".
Using the light of prayer, Klein observed the North from afar with his " Spirit Vision." He discovered that the thin mist there was slowly but irresistibly dissipating, and on the surface of the city, there wasn't a single " Spirit Body Threads " in sight. People wearing linen-like robes or animal skin clothing lay dead in different places on the streets, completely unlike the vibrant and bustling scene that the City of Silver exploration team had witnessed upon their arrival.
"Did the Angel or Sealed Artifact that previously occupied this city choose to migrate after realizing their whereabouts had been exposed?" Klein speculated based on the situation before him, while turning his gaze back to the gray-white mist supporting the " Sefirah Castle."
He was taking precautions against the " Miracle Invoker," or the " Attendant of Mysteries," or the corresponding Sealed Artifact, who might be hiding in the Historical Void, ambushing Beyonder exploring the Ancient City of North. He didn't want to encounter a giant vortex of Distortion, tangled transparent worms when he "leaped" into the Fog of History, nor did he want to be chased by slippery, terrifying tentacles.
Klein still feels lingering fear from Zaratul's ambush, and it occasionally gives him nightmares. He wants to seek treatment from "Miss Justice " again to address his psychological trauma.
This was more stimulating to him than seeing the Marionette Enuni put on a monocle in front of him and be completely unable to move, because it also affected the Hound of Fulgrim.
After confirming the safety of the Historical Void, Klein returned to the real world, stretched out his hand, grabbed forward, and pulled out his previous self, who was also wearing a half-high silk hat, a black knee-length trench coat, and carrying a simple glass lantern.
The next second, he "leaped" into the gray mist, and along the illuminated Historical Void, he raced all the way to the place before the First Era, where the "corpses" of civilized cities were piled up.
For him, this was a very clever "safe house" because no other " Scholar of Yore " could trace back to this completely discontinued and lost prehistoric fragment.
Of course, for Klein, the journey to this place had also consumed a lot of his Spirituality. He would stay for at most another fifteen minutes, provided that his Historical Void images did not attempt anything too burdensome.
After the main body hid, the projection of Klein in the real world moved forward and quickly arrived outside the North Ruins.
He didn't blindly approach or enter. Instead, he circled around to a small hill opposite the dry riverbed, raised his right hand, and summoned his original Marionette —the " Earl of the Fallen " Qonas Kilgor, with a cold and hard appearance and deep blue to almost black eyes.
Qonas's body writhed and instantly transformed into Gehrman Sparrow. Then, he reached into the Historical Void and retrieved a lantern.
This Historical Void Image Summoning Historical Void image, illuminated by the Yellow Light of the lantern, blurred the sense of distance, and in a few steps arrived North City, alone.
He then took the lantern and walked step by step through the decaying and collapsed buildings, through the thin mist, and into the ruins.
Compared to seeing through the Gray Fog using " Spirit Vision," physical contact allowed Klein to discover far more details:
Most of the humans and Monster lying in different places showed signs of decay, suggesting they had been abandoned for a long time;
Some sat on chairs under the eaves, some slumped by the stove, some held moldy bread, some linked arms, some leaned against the wall, some sat on the ground with their lips pressed to bone flutes...
This allowed Klein to imagine what the city-state was like when they were still "alive":
Some people are taking a break, some are baking, some are shopping along the street, some are engrossed in music, some are chatting and laughing, and some are fighting Monster in the arena...
What a vibrant and lively scene this is! But in reality, everyone is already dead, no longer possessing their own soul, merely repeating the same actions in a predetermined manner.
But one day, at a certain moment, this eerie scene froze, ended in an instant, and everyone collapsed without warning.
"A city-state made up of Marionette, the most realistic theater... There was a similar situation in the Foggy Town back then... Although I am also a ' Seer,' I still have to say that in terms of horror, terror, and eeriness, our path is definitely in the top three... Could it be that I will have to play the same Acting in the future? A ' Attendant of Mysteries '?" Klein carried a lantern, walking through the streets littered with corpses, following his Spirituality intuition, and walked towards the center of the Ancient City of North.
The situation here convinced him that the one who once ruled the North was intelligent enough that after the City of Silver exploration team shattered the "peace" and "harmony" here, he did not choose to kill or destroy clues, but instead abandoned everything without hesitation and migrated to another place.
"The reason they didn't silence them might be because the City of Silver squad was followed by Amon at the time, or maybe it was out of respect for the ' True Creator '..." Klein's thoughts wandered aimlessly as he arrived at a relatively intact church.
Inside the church stands a statue of Demonic Wolf with eight legs and covered in dark, short fur.
The statue has a tuft of grayish-white hair on its head, and its jet-black pupils occupy at least three-quarters of its eyes.
"Not Flegrea... that Dark Demonic Wolf occasionally appeared during the Third Epoch, the God of Wishes? He spent thousands of years in the Forsaken Land of the Gods and finally found that Sequence 1 Beyonder Characteristic?" Just as this thought flashed through Klein's mind, he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps, "Tap, tap, tap."
He, who was already standing sideways, immediately turned his gaze to the outside of the church. In the thin mist, he saw a figure slowly walking towards him, quickly outlining a clear silhouette.
He was nearly 2.3 meters tall, with a slightly hunched back, completely white hair, wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, and a scar on his lip. He wore a dark black clergy robe and was a rather elderly priest or bishop.
His deep brown eyes were profound and calm, unlike the mad, bloodthirsty, and Spirituality Monster of the dark depths.
However, during the long, dark Evernight when lightning was infrequent, the clergyman neither carried a leather lantern nor lit a flame, but simply walked quietly through the thin mist.