"God, God has come to save us..."
Those words, choked with sobs, echoed at the entrance to Moon City, leaving the waiting residents in a daze, deeply moved.
At the edge of the solidified gray-white mist, beside a quietly burning bonfire.
After eating another round of mushrooms, Klein removed the long, black iron skewer from his hand and looked up in the direction of the deep pit described by High Priest Nim of Moon City.
He then reached out his right hand, gently pulled out himself from a quarter of an hour earlier.
After exchanging a glance, Klein's true form vanished rapidly, disappearing into the Fog of History. He raced to the beginning of the First Era and sat atop layers of City of the Great Old One.
His Historical Void images stood up, snapped their fingers repeatedly, Blink toward their destination amidst bursts of rising crimson flames.
When the crater formed from the hill was almost within reach, Klein stopped, cautiously extending his right palm again to drag the past Marionette, Qonas Kilgor, out of the void.
The tough-guy " Earl of the Fallen " twitched his facial muscles and quickly transformed into another Gehrman Sparrow.
He pulled a lantern from the Fog of History with one hand, rubbed his temples with the other, and muttered softly:
Why does the Marionette also have to change its appearance?
There's no one else here...
"Don't develop obsessive-compulsive disorder..."
A few seconds later, the Marionette projection, carrying a lantern emitting Yellow Light, walked step by step towards the deep pit not far away.
As the light flickered, Klein clearly saw the target location and discovered that it was not actually very deep; the bottom was no more than two meters below the ground. Of course, compared to the original hill, this change was indeed quite significant.
Inside the "deep pit," the soil was smooth, interspersed with a few stones, and surrounded by many mutated, Distortion, and indistinguishable plants, looking no different from other places.
After observing for a while, Klein, who had quietly activated his " Spirit Vision " and " Spirit Body Threads " vision, slowly entered the "deep pit," preparing to follow the planned route and re-examine every place worth re-evaluating.
As he walked, he frowned slightly and uttered a soft "Eh."
He found that his thoughts were moving at a certain slowdown, but it didn't affect his thinking!
It's like the feeling you have when you first wake up after sleeping too much—your head feels foggy, and your mind isn't very sharp.
This is a situation that happens occasionally to anyone, and those Beyonder through other means might not be able to detect it, but as Demigod through the " Seer " pathway, Klein could clearly sense the anomaly.
If we delve deeper, it's approaching the reaction caused by the " Marionettist " Manipulation the " Spirit Body Threads "... The influence left behind by the Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar? No, that's not right. If it was unintentional, it means it was in its complete Mythical Creature Form at the time, and the Moon City investigation team would have collapsed and gone out of control long ago... If it was intentional, what's the point? To tell others that it was here? Klein walked around with some doubts but found nothing else unusual.
After thinking for a moment, he took four steps backward, chanted an incantation, and entered the Gray Fog from a Historical Void that existed before the First Era.
He wants to do a " Divination "!
With the specific time and place, the description from High Priest Nim of Moon City, the on-site investigation, and the help of the illuminated historical fragments, Klein believed that the prerequisites for " Divination " were basically in place.
This isn't enough, but it's enough to give him a try. Moreover, if the hill turning into a "deep pit" is indeed related to the " Sefirah Castle " and him personally, then the success rate of the " Divination " will greatly increase, and the revelation will be very clear and undisturbed.
Without a second thought, having already considered all the details, Klein sat down in the high-backed chair of " The Fool," conjuring up a dark red, round-bellied fountain pen and yellowish parchment, and quickly wrote:
"On June 28, 1349, during the Fifth Age, an unusual event occurred in this place."
Setting down his fountain pen, Klein grabbed a clump of soil from Fog of History "deep pit" in his left hand, using it as a medium for " Divination."
Holding soil in one hand and the parchment in the other, he leaned back in his chair, recited the Divination phrases seven times, and then, through Cogitation, drifted into a deep sleep.
In the hazy dream world, Klein saw the gray, solidified mist, the hills tens of meters high, and the Distortion, mutated plants around him.
A few seconds later, the mist suddenly began to wriggle noticeably, and quickly "spit out" a dark shadow.
The dark shadow resembled a giant velvet Curtain, frantically absorbing all the surrounding light.
It was translucent, and it grew larger and larger until it completely enveloped the hill.
The hill vanished completely, leaving only a deep pit.
The strange plants on the edge of the covered "deep pit" suddenly developed thin, black, illusory " Spirit Body Threads," extending towards different sections of the black " Curtain."
The " Curtain " became increasingly transparent and ethereal, eventually reaching a point where it was invisible to the naked eye. If it weren't for the " Spirit Body Threads " revealing the actual situation, Klein would not have been able to discover that the " Curtain " was simply covering the surface of the "deep pit."
The screen flickered, the dream Distortion, and a new scene unfolded.
The five-person Moon City patrol team approached and discovered that the hill had disappeared, replaced by a deep pit.
They stopped and turned away from the area without hesitation, without rashly going forward to investigate.
After an unknown amount of time, a huge figure suddenly appeared from another direction.
It was a Demonic Wolf covered in dark, short fur, with eight legs, and standing four or five meters tall.
This Demonic Wolf had a tuft of short, grayish-white hair on its forehead, and its pure black pupils occupied at least three-quarters of its eye space. Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar, which had not yet manifested its complete Mythical Creature Form.
The Dark Demonic Wolf raised its head, opened its mouth, and seemed to let out a howl, but nothing came of it.
The next second, another figure appeared in front of Him; it was another Him.
The Historical Void image of the Dark Demonic Wolf pushed off with its eight legs and instantly arrived at the "deep pit".
After looking around, it carefully lowered its head and picked up the completely transparent " Curtain " that made the entire hill disappear.
The " Curtain " suddenly came to life, rapidly contracting and rolling back to entangle the Dark Demonic Wolf, as if adding a half-black, half-transparent garment to it.
The Dark Demonic Wolf trembled slightly, seemingly transforming into a puppet of "clothing" in just a few seconds.
But this was merely an image within Historical Void; the next breath, the original entity released the image, and it vanished instantly.
The " Curtain " lost its support and collapsed instantly, spreading out on the ground.
The Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar did not give up. Sometimes he transformed the surrounding Monster into Marionette, and sometimes he summoned Historical Projection, sending them forward time and time again. He suffered all sorts of failures, but in the end, his new batch of Marionette picked up and controlled the " Curtain ".
The entire process was completely silent, as if a silent play were being performed.
Then, the giant Demonic Wolf led the Marionette, carrying " Curtain," closer to it.
Just then, the nearby gray-white mist began to stir again, forming a vortex comparable to a hill.
The vortex emitted an invisible suction force, pulling both the peculiar " Curtain " and the Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar towards it!
This scene caused tangible ripples to appear in Klein's dreamscape, bursting forth with countless points of light, making it difficult for him to see the specific details clearly.
Once everything returned to normal, the Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar, draped in a transparent " Curtain," swiftly flew away from the re-condensed fog.
At that moment, the Moon City investigation team arrived and saw the ancient figure departing from the heavens.
Kotar glanced at them, then disappeared into the darkness without lingering.
At this point, the scene shattered, the dream ended, and Klein woke up.
He sat up straight, tapping his fingers lightly on the edge of the weathered long table, and muttered to himself:
"That solidified gray-white mist had indeed undergone some changes before my arrival, but the guardians of Moon City failed to notice, given that the mist stretched for an unknown length of time..."
"What is that ' Curtain ' that the grayish-white mist exhaled? When it's large, it can cover a hill, magically turning it into a 'deep pit'; when it's small, it can become the 'clothing' of Demonic Wolf, transforming it into a puppet... It's somewhat like a high-level item from the ' Seer ' pathway..."
"It was expelled because I entered the Gray Fog and completed the binding with the ' Sefirah Castle '?"
"It seems to be able to turn the surrounding plants into its own Marionette... This gives me a sense of familiarity..."
"By the way, the food prepared in the rooms of Foggy Town is problematic. ' Spirit Body Threads ' grow from it, extending towards the innermost church. Once you eat it, your entire body will instantly evaporate and disappear. Hmm, it's been suspended inside the church and become Marionette..."
"In other words, upon reaching the rank of ' Miracle Invoker ' or ' Attendant of Mysteries,' one can make plants, or things that once possessed spirit, grow ' Spirit Body Threads,' thereby transforming them into Marionette?"
"... Is that ' Curtain ' Beyonder Characteristic of the ' Miracle Invoker ' or the ' Attendant of Mysteries '?"
"Judging from the Dark Demonic Wolf's performance, it's most likely the latter..."
"Is this why that ' Attendant of Mysteries ' trait has been missing for so long, with only clues but no one able to find it?"
Before the ' Sefirah Castle ' had a 'master,' the grayish-white mist would unconsciously attract and contain the unused high-level characteristics of the three pathways. What was it trying to do?
"That suction force was really strong; it scared the Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar so much that he didn't bother to stay and only wanted to escape..."
What is He doubting, what is He fearing?
After some analysis, Klein's face gradually showed more excitement.
If we can successfully hunt down the Dark Demonic Wolf, an Angel -level being, it will be an unparalleled Harvest!
Of course, the Dark Demonic Wolf after obtaining that " Curtain " is definitely more difficult to deal with than before, and Klein's confidence in this matter has decreased considerably.
In a flash, Klein suddenly remembered something:
"Judging from the timeline, when the Dark Demonic Wolf arrived North the ruins of the northern city-state of North, it had clearly already obtained that ' Curtain '..."
"He transformed the entire city into Marionette, creating a city of puppets, not to settle down, not to gather helpers, but to prepare for the ritual of the ' Attendant of Mysteries '?"
P. S.: Requesting recommendation votes and monthly tickets on Monday!