A thin, pale red veil covered the dimly lit room, making everything indistinct and unclear.
The three men in black coats were fast asleep in different places, while on the small sofa, Klein lay half-hidden in the Evernight, his eyes closed, seemingly also asleep.
His dreams were a gray, Distortion world, occasionally flashing with light.
Ultimately, these radiant lights were captured in a single image.
It was a gloomy corner, with sewage flowing on the ground. A man with short, brown hair, a white shirt, and a brown vest was lying against the wall, surrounded by a dense swarm of gray rats.
The man's lips were half-eaten off, revealing slightly yellowed teeth and rotten gums. His nose was nothing but blood and grime mixed with a few short hairs. Patches of flesh had disappeared from his face, clearly revealing stark white bones. Countless white, fat maggots were crawling in and out of his body, constantly wriggling. His throat appeared to have been gnawed by some wild beast, with at least half of it missing.
Klein could barely recognize that this was Zerrell Victor Lee; he was no longer the same person as the mature and handsome figure in the black-and-white photo Ian had given him.
Zerrell is already dead. In a few days, he'll probably be eaten to the bone, or maybe even the bones won't be intact... Klein emerged from the dream, recalling the scene he had just witnessed.
His past experiences have made him able to witness similar corpses with relative calm.
Gazing at the Crimson Moon outside the window, Klein pondered for about ten seconds before deciding to try Spirit Channeling, Spirit Channeling with the man in black beside the sofa.
He had already prepared a bottle each of the corresponding " Amanda " hydrosol and " Eye of Spirit " potion in the previous few days. As for the Tranquility Potion, Klein did not need it, as he was able to remain calm and rational when others invaded his dreams or forcibly Spirit Channeling him.
After setting up a simple altar and letting the quiet, peaceful fragrance spread, creating a half-dreaming, half-awake state, Klein prayed to himself and to the " The Fool That Doesn't Belong to This Era."
Then, he entered above the Gray Fog and responded with more than two-thirds of his Spirituality.
"Once I advance to Sequence 7, similar prayers should be able to slightly influence the power of the mysterious space above the Gray Fog, just like summoning and sacrificial rituals..." Klein looked around, made a rough assessment, and quickly returned to the real world.
He traversed the Starry Sky sky and the chaotic Storm of thought, entering the target man's mental realm, where he saw the man's illusory figure Levitation in mid-air.
"Who sent you to the Zerrell family?" Klein glanced at them and asked in a deep voice.
The man's illusory figure, with lifeless eyes, answered in a daze:
" Meursault, Meursault sent me to wait for a boy named Ian."
In his Mind World, the light and shadow shifted, revealing a lean, wiry man with a dark complexion—the leader of the group that Klein had encountered on the Steam subway who was chasing Ian.
It really was him... Klein had used up too much Spirituality responding to the prayers and was now beginning to feel tired. He quickly asked:
"And who instructed Meursault?"
"I don't know... He's our Zmanger Gang's 'executioner,' nobody can order him around except the boss," the man said blankly.
Zmang... the word for "warrior" in the Highland Language... Klein, the pseudo-historian and true Mystic, suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head, and his body involuntarily flew out of the Storm of thought.
Before long, he broke out of his Spirit Channeling state, feeling only a hollow, twitching sensation in his head.
He didn't rush to leave. He methodically tidied up his materials and short, brown hair, then opened the bay window to let the cold night wind blow in, dispelling the smells of " Amanda " hydrosol and " Eye of Spirit " potion.
During this process, Klein returned to the balcony, locked the door from the inside, and wiped down everything he had touched.
Once Zerrell's bedroom was back to its previous state, he bowed deeply to the three still-sleeping men, pressing his hand to his chest.
Straightening his back, Klein put on his gloves, and with a quick leap, nimbly flipped over to the outside of the cantilevered window, standing steadily on his tiptoes in the unusually narrow space.
He lifted the vertical pin upwards, placed a tarot card at the bottom, and used the " Clown's" abilities to sense the details and adjust the balance.
After a few seconds, Klein slowly pulled the tarot card back, and the vertical pin remained firmly in place without falling down.
brush!
He first closed the half of the window that wasn't latched, then darted over and pushed the other half of the window shut with his right hand.
The action was so fast that the pin didn't fall down until it vibrated, precisely inserting itself into the matching iron hole.
A loud, persistent clang rang out, like a strong gust of wind slapping against a glass surface.
Klein knew the three men in the bedroom would slowly wake up, so he didn't delay any longer and jumped straight into the street.
The second floor was no longer dangerous for him, but he couldn't land silently anymore, and it still made a somewhat noticeable noise.
Klein quickly left the vicinity and exited Rose Street, but did not take a taxi directly back to Minsk Street in the Cherwood Borough.
He made several turns and headed towards the adjacent East Borough.
The night was cold and the wind chilled to the bone. Klein shivered and decided that he would need to wear a sweater from now on. He also decided to buy charcoal in the next few days so that the fireplace could serve its purpose.
After an unknown amount of time, without a map, he entered the East Borough Backlund by instinct.
There are very few gas streetlights here; you can only see one or two in the distance. If it weren't for the fact that the dark clouds hadn't obscured the red moon tonight, Klein believed that many sections of the road would be so dark that you couldn't see anything at all.
As he walked, he suddenly saw pairs of eyes appear in the deep darkness ahead, followed by hunched figures.
They swayed in from a blurry distance, silent and still.
Living Corpse? Klein suddenly stopped, reached out and grasped the " Requiem Charm " and tarot cards, and quickly activated his Spirit Vision.
He saw the unhealthy and weak aura and color, and he also saw the shapes of those figures.
These are all living people, normal living people, only their expressions are numb, their eyes are empty, and their movements are weak; there are both men and women.
It was almost midnight, why were they still walking on the street...? Klein suspiciously and warily moved to the side, stepping over the group from the curb, but soon he encountered a second wave, and a third wave, all with the same numbness mixed with pain.
He frowned slightly, about to go up and ask, when he suddenly heard a shout of cursing coming from ahead:
"Get up! All of you, get up!"
"You sons of bitches!"
"Streets and parks are not places for guys like you to sleep!"
... Klein paused, then the words " Poor Law " immediately popped into his mind, and he understood what was going on.
He himself had experienced the same thing.
Whew... Klein let out a breath, quickened his pace, and headed towards his one-bedroom house on Black Palm Street in the East Borough.
There, he slept for two hours, regaining some of his Spirituality, and then went out again, breaking off a withered branch to use as a "divination staff."
"The location of Zerrell's body."
"The location of Zerrell's body."
Through repeated Divination, guided by the Divination the man with the short, brown hair, Klein walked for a long time until he reached a corner of the East Borough, where there was a sewer entrance.
Following the great plague 12 years ago, the Kingdom of Loen gradually established an advanced sewer system in its capital, surpassing the " Roselle Legacy" of the Republic of Intis.
Klein removed the lid, held his breath, and climbed down the vertical metal stairs.
Because the clothes weren't specially made and didn't have many pockets, he couldn't carry too many items. He had to give up the " Oil of Krag " he'd learned from Frye, the " Oil of Krag " that refreshed him and eliminated odors, and now he deeply regretted it.
Ten seconds later, Klein landed on his feet and felt the sticky ground.
The filth caused goosebumps to break out on his arms and body, but he could only force himself to endure it and continue walking forward through the empty, quiet sewers.
A fork in the road appeared ahead, one of which was relatively hidden, and a strong, even more disgusting stench wafted out from it than from the other places.
Klein turned the corner and walked all the way to the end, where he saw countless points of Spirituality light and colors of energy.
Without needing a candle, his Spirit Vision vision directly illuminated the gloomy corner and the rotting, mangled corpse.
This was exactly the same scene he had seen in his Dream Divination.
squeak!
The dense swarm of gray mice scattered and fled, but some remained in place, unwilling to leave, reluctant to part with their food.
After confirming it was Zerrell, Klein hesitated only briefly before quickly setting up the Spirit Channeling ritual.
Hmm... if Ian's description is correct, Zerrell has only been dead for a few days, and " Spirit Channeling " should yield some basic information... he thought with considerable confidence.
Ugh!
As the wind swirled and the Wall of Spirituality was erected, the rats all fled. Klein proceeded with the ritual as before.
" Zerrell's cause of death."
" Zerrell's cause of death."
As he chanted the mantra repeatedly, Klein's eyes turned black, his pupils and the whites of his eyes disappearing. He quickly entered a dream state through Cogitation.
However, nothing was revealed in that misty, illusory world.
Klein opened his eyes, frowned slightly, and made a judgment:
" Spirit Channeling failed..."
"Someone has 'dealt with' Zerrell's spirit..."
"There are Beyonder involved in this matter."
"His ability to impersonate Zerrell without being detected by Detective also proves this point."
After a moment of contemplation, Klein made a decision: to stop here and not get involved any further, since he had already exceeded his expectations in fulfilling his commission.
"Tell Ian to call the police," he whispered, putting away the materials and dispelling the Wall of Spirituality.