Lord of the Mysteries

Illusory black threads emanated out of Senor’s body and entered Klein’s hands. With every jolt in spirituality, it gave a different reaction.

In fact, there was no need to use both hands when controlling the Spirit Body Threads. Klein was just accustomed to doing so, as it gave him a feeling like he was truly controlling a puppet.

From the looks of it, other Marionettists can discover each other’s marionettes. The Senor’s abnormality can’t be hidden from their eyes, so I have to be careful about this. Klein concluded the problems he discovered, and he quickly turned his thoughts back onto Senor.

This Admiral of Blood was dead. His Spirit Body had become a vessel for the marionette, losing any traits that belonged to him. Therefore, many divination methods were ineffective against him.

Of course, methods to seek his corpse were still effective. Klein planned on “cleansing” the Wraith in the gray fog before using Paper Angels to envelop the mirror-like objects that he had possessed before placing him into a cigar case that was sealed by a wall of spirituality, along with Azik’s copper whistle. This created a 3-layered interference effect.

This way, Klein believed that, even if the Rose School of Thought angel wished to, it was impossible to use divination to lock onto his position via Admiral of Blood.

As for whether the Mother Tree of Desire had left any “backdoors” in Senor’s body, he wasn’t too worried. This was because if that really happened, “She” could’ve mutated Senor during the demigod battle royale in order to deal with him. Based on the situation back then, there was a guaranteed chance of success.

Mother Tree of Desire, or should I say, the Chained God, strictly controls its organization’s members. It relies on a vow contract and other methods that are ingrained into the soul. This can be inferred from Miss Sharron’s descriptions and my interaction with the corresponding characteristics…

As long as I don’t attempt to use Admiral of Blood to divine the secrets of the Rose School of Thought or the potion formula of the Mutant pathway, I wouldn’t trigger any problems. The Werewolf Beyonder characteristic has remained normal despite being above the gray fog for so long…

Besides, there’s still the gray fog “cleansing” process. If there are any latent problems, it should be washed out… Klein thought for a while and took out Azik’s copper whistle from inside his body.

He turned his right wrist and made the side with fewer patterns appear under the sunlight, making it reflect the light.

Immediately, the copper whistle had Senor’s figure appear on it as it rapidly turned clear.

The Admiral of Blood in front of Klein suddenly vanished as a result.

Perhaps the Mother Tree of Desire can use the vow contract and other methods to vaguely lock on, but that doesn’t matter. “She” can sense the gray fog’s unique trait on me anyway, and “She” will sense me once I’m within range… Besides, this marionette might be destroyed at anytime when I use it as a shield… Klein was like a jobless tramp who was debt-laden. He felt that there was almost nothing he was afraid of.

Of course, he really was debt-ridden.

As long as I advance to a demigod and can hide my unique trait, it’s fine losing marionettes… Klein surveyed the area as he bent his back to pick up the silver necklace. He took four steps counterclockwise while chanting the incantation softly.

This time, he hadn’t entered via summoning his Spirit Body, so he couldn’t directly return.

The grayish-white fog was quickly emanated as hysterical ravings and roars echoed for an eternity. Azik’s copper whistle didn’t react abnormally, which meant that there weren’t any latent problems with Admiral of Blood.

Sitting at the end of the bronze table, Klein placed Azik’s copper whistle in front of him, making Senor, who was dressed in a dark red coat and old triangular hat, appear. He was like a butler awaiting orders from his master.

“Do you have any other items on you?” Klein asked, as though Admiral of Blood was still alive.

This was his attempt to act as a Marionettist!

Following that, he controlled Senor, made him rummage through every pocket as he subsequently took out 325 pounds, 16 soli, and 8 pence in cash. There were also 13 gold coins.

Apart from that, perhaps due to his frequent act of transforming into a Wraith state, Senor didn’t carry anything else on him.

How poor… As a pirate admiral, you don’t even have a single mystical item? Did you hand it over to the Rose School of Thought or your subordinates? Klein seriously considered cashing out Admiral of Blood via the black market.

Just in Loen alone, he was worth 42,000 pounds!

Yes, claiming the bounty from Loen isn’t pragmatic. Be it the Church of Storms and the kingdom’s military, they will follow the clues to capture Gehrman Sparrow, who managed to embroil so many demigods in a battle royale, and then investigate the organization backing him. They wouldn’t even pay, and they might even plant a trap…

By the same logic, the Churches and governments of other countries must have similar ideas. However, they might be easier to work with. Retrieving the bounty will require substantial risks…

Besides, there’s no rush. I’ll send Senor out when I plan on switching marionettes. After all, being a marionette for a few days won’t change his identity or value… Klein reined in his thoughts and cast his gaze on the silver necklace with an ancient coin attached to it.

He immediately used divination to gain the gist of its origins and usage.

It came from a Sequence 5 Winner from the Life School of Thought. After dying at the hands of a Rose School of Thought demigod, this gentleman’s Beyonder characteristic and psyche fused with an ordinary silver necklace that he carried with him, turning into a mystical item.

As for the reason why the ordinary silver necklace would be carried by a Sequence 5 powerhouse for extended periods of time, Klein was unable to receive any effective revelations from it, as it had been too long and it had been corrupted.

The mystical item had two uses. One was to passively make the wearer lucky. In their daily lifestyle, the owner would encounter good things, easily succeeding in whatever they did. When suffering a lethal blow or terrifying disaster, ridiculous scenes would happen, allowing them to be successfully rescued. The latter situation only lasted for ten minutes.

The second use was to actively give an enemy bad luck, making the target unlucky. Be it in daily life or combat, it was easy for them to experience failure due to some trivial problem.

The corresponding negative effects of the necklace was the Conservation of Luck. After being lucky, they would immediately meet with repeated bad luck. They would be as unlucky as they were lucky before. It needed the wearer to be devoted and seriously avoid any danger; otherwise, it was very easy for them to die in a comedic manner, and even harm people around them.

The luck received in one’s daily life would often revert back after a month. The user would end up unlucky regardless of whether they wore it or not. However, such bad luck was slowly released, so it wasn’t too dangerous.

And luck obtained in combat would similarly strike back ten minutes later in a similar vigor.

Overall, this is a rather good mystical item, but I don’t have much use for it. After all, Fate Councilor Ricciardo was unable to change my luck… Hmm, I’ll just wear it on me for now. It has few negative effects on me. I’ll sell it if there’s a chance to pay off my debt with Miss Messenger… Miss Messenger wants gold coins, while I have gold pounds. It’s nearly impossible to exchange 10,000 gold coins through the banks or official markets. From the looks of it, I’ll have to do it in batches, getting each Tarot Club member to change some of it… Klein soon decided on a plan as he casually came up with a name for the necklace:

Scales of Luck!

Following that, he cast his gaze onto Senor, who was standing reverently to his side. He began to study the powers a Wraith had.

Forceful possession, Enemy Control, Wraith’s Shriek, Mirror Blink, Obstacle Penetration, death-related spells, and Invisibility that wouldn’t be discovered by most Mid- and Low-Sequence Beyonders… Klein distinguished each power, and he matched them with Sharron’s and Maric’s description, as well as his experience gained from combat.

He soon concluded this, afraid that the candle in the outside world would finish burning. And a dark cave was extremely bad for the present him who had a phobia of the dark.

Klein immediately took out a paper figurine from the junk pile, and together with the Black Emperor card, he stirred some of the powers above the gray fog, turning it into an anti-divination “angel.”

This angel rapidly spread its wings and wrapped around a gold coin. On its reflective side was Senor’s figure.

Then, Klein brought the gold coin, Azik’s copper whistle, Death Knell, and his suitcase back to the real world. As for Creeping Hunger and Groselle’s Travels, one of them hadn’t been fed, and the other might cause Klein to be swallowed into the book for carrying it for too long. Therefore, they were left in the junk pile above the gray fog.

Having returned to the cave, Klein hurriedly placed the gold coin and Azik’s copper whistle into a cigar case before sealing it with a wall of spirituality.

He cleaned up the scene, switched into formal clothes, and carried his suitcase. He followed the beach until he came to a residential area. He discovered that he was near Pritz Harbor.

He didn’t immediately return to Backlund. Instead, he changed his appearance, took a steam locomotive, and headed for Conant City in Desi Bay. He planned on circling the area once before changing his identity again.

…

Bansy Harbor.

Alger Wilson looked at the destroyed city under the afternoon sun.

He saw that the buildings had completely collapsed, and there were deep chasms in the ground and charred spots everywhere.

Such a scene extended into the depths of the island. Even the mountain had collapsed.

At that moment, there wasn’t anyone from the Church of Storms watching the ruins, since there wasn’t anything here. And the plans to rebuild the harbor wasn’t brought forward at all.

Alger jumped off the Blue Avenger and circled the ruins with his sailors, but they didn’t discover anything of value.

“Let’s go,” he instructed with a staid attitude.

He soon boarded the ship which hoisted its sails and left the island.

After an unknown period of time, a figure suddenly walked out from the depths of the ruins.

He wore a double-breasted, pure black clerical robe. He had dark golden hair, and his facial features were clear and distinct, like an ancient, classical sculpture.

His eyes were dark blue, nearing black. They looked lusterless, but they were filled with dense blood capillaries.