As Daly Simone resolutely picked up the Sealed Artifact before Chanis Gate and strode toward the blackened, corrupted floor above, Leonard's fists clenched, pounding the ground helplessly:
"Why, why did I deliberately slow my advancement to seem less exceptional—"
He muttered inwardly.
"If I were Sequence 7, if I were Sequence 7, I could help Daly and Klein!"
He cursed himself in his heart.
Pain etched Leonard's face. He yearned to help, but under the evil god's corruption, his body refused to move. Humiliated, he dragged himself to a corner, clutching the small box Daly entrusted to him, holding it tightly to his chest.
Klein wasn't faring better. Before him, after the building's glass shattered, "Megose" seemed triggered, screaming as her flesh grotesquely mutated. As "Megose" let out piercing shrieks, Klein reached into his pocket, pulling out a thin golden charm. He prepared to throw it, but a sharp pain struck his chest. Looking down, he saw a pale hand piercing through his torso.
Yet Klein reacted swiftly. Having faced Qilangos as a spirit body, he'd gained insight into mid-sequence powers. Before the hand could act further, Klein struck first.
Abandoning any attempt to identify the enemy, their strength, or their eerie abilities, Klein activated the Sunflame Charm in his hand. From his lips, he uttered a word in ancient Hermes:
"Light!"
A curtain of light descended, its Beyonder power like sunlight—warm, yet lethally potent. A violent explosion radiated from Klein's arm, tracing rings of fiery patterns in the air. Light and flame erupted from his palm, but with no time to throw the charm, Klein desperately pressed the activated charm against the enemy's chest. As searing, pure white flames ignited, a sharp pain shot through his right arm, his vision darkened, and he lost consciousness.
Ince Zangwill roared, countless spirits materializing around him, shielding his body. In the pure white sunlight, they melted one after another. Feeling his enslaved spirits writhe in agony, Ince Zangwill leaped back, shifting direction to sprint toward Chanis Gate. But then, he noticed 0-08, previously listless in his robe, secretly writing on his hem.
"Oh! Ince Zangwill is terribly unlucky. Daly Simone has mastered the Acting Method, becoming a Sequence 6 Spirit Guide in mere moments! Oh, foolish, unlucky, terribly unlucky Ince Zangwill! He thought letting the Primordial Demoness gaze here would merely disrupt Chanis Gate, forgetting the True Creator's divinity, provoked, triggered an early descent! It's inevitable, but this fool didn't notice. Oh! The Aurora Order's Mr. A, drawn by Beyonder characteristic convergence, has arrived in Tingen!"
"Shut up!" Ince Zangwill's face twisted. He snatched the gleefully writing 0-08, scrawling on his arm:
"…These events are too coincidental, thus impossible. Ince Zangwill's luck is exceptionally good today! He brushed past the True Creator's divine vessel, closing his Spirit Vision in time, unharmed. With Daly Simone preoccupied with the evil god's descent, Ince Zangwill reached Chanis Gate, seizing Saint Selena's Beyonder characteristic."
"I will surely become a great demigod!"
The Actor has pushed the Writer's script this far—hah, time to act. The High-Dimensional Overseer, watching 0-08 scribble its script with gusto, rose from His Sefirot. Extending a "hand," He chose to follow His residual humanity for a bold gamble.
As an Outer God, He left Himself an escape, but this act alone, among cautious Outer Gods, was a daring bet.
He intended to send a Sequence 1 characteristic through the barrier.
Yet, He couldn't let His avatar absorb it now. Without the prerequisite Sequences 2 to 9, a human body couldn't withstand an Outer God's power. Gradual ascension was feasible, but swallowing a Sequence 1 as a mortal would be reckless, even for the High-Dimensional Overseer.
Myriad glowing fragments coalesced into a humanoid hand. The massive hand-like shadow tapped the veil, peeling a Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristic from His Sefirot. In the air, it condensed into a paintbrush dripping with radiant pigment. On a speeding train, the High-Dimensional Overseer stood, smiling, and entered the train's simple washroom. Lighting a candle, He recited His Honorific Name before a mirror.
Before the ritual gate could open, He gently stirred His spirituality, transforming the emerging "paintbrush" into a photograph. Simultaneously, the charm He'd given Klein, still on the unconscious Klein, glowed with fine threads. Using spirituality, it teleported the sealed photograph to Tingen. The intense ritual fluctuation stirred Klein, his eyelids fluttering open.
As Klein's eyes opened, the photograph restored itself, wobbling under his gaze to overlap with 0-08's position. As Klein widened his eyes, questioning if a photograph truly appeared, the paintbrush on it vanished. Ince Zangwill, dropping his pen to flee, saw 0-08's fluid writing falter. With a more artistic flair, it danced across his robe, inscribing highly stylized words.
Ince Zangwill glanced at 0-08, startled, realizing it was relentlessly writing to doom him. Gritting his teeth, ignoring the prone Leonard, he snatched "Saint Selena's Ashes" from the divinity-blasted Chanis Gate. With a flicker, he vanished—too pressed to retaliate against Klein, who'd injured him, focused solely on escaping Tingen.
Meanwhile, the High-Dimensional Overseer, having prayed to Himself on the train, sensed the Evernight Goddess and Lord of Storms' gazes. Using His Rose Bishop powers, He subtly altered His flesh, sprouting a new mouth on His right shoulder. The mouth devoutly recited a prayer:
"Sole Crimson Moon, symbol of life and beauty, mother of all spiritual forces. I offer my life, may Your might manifest in the world—"
Before finishing the Honorific Name, the High-Dimensional Overseer decisively twisted off His head with His left hand, hurling it out the speeding train.
An Outer God using another as a shield? The Lord of Storms, observing, bristled. If this trick could fool Him, the "Tyrant" would lose all face. Then, a second voice emerged from the anomaly's source: "Mother Tree of Desire, Inextingushable Raving, God of Derangement. I…"
A second name? The Lord of Storms froze. The area's aura shifted, bearing the Mother Tree of Desire's gaze! The "Tyrant" hesitated, weighing whether to eliminate this Outer God-tainted figure and the train's potentially corrupted passengers.
"The Clock-Hand that Tampers with Time,
The Shadow that Roams across Fate,
The Embodiment of Deceit and Trickery;
I seek…"
Hearing Amon's Honorific Name from this Old Days-tainted, barely sane lunatic, Leodero sighed inwardly. Instructing His church to seal the next station swiftly, He withdrew His gaze.
Just a desperate madman. No one had recited Amon, the Creator's second son, in ages. This fool, spouting evil god names from who-knows-where, would surely catch the idle Amon's eye. The train's mortals would likely become Amon's pawns, but the catastrophe wouldn't spread further.
As clarity emerged, the High-Dimensional Overseer added fuel.
"Adam, Adam, Adam!"
A colossal lightning bolt crashed, torrential rain sweeping the earth, laced with silver-white thunder. A storm of wind and rain pummeled the train, threatening to shatter it. "Gao" extended His right hand, retrieving a monocle from the void. Amon, donning it over His right eye, eyed the impending storm, lips curling:
"Daring to recite my name—intriguing. Hm? This is…"
Boom—
The High-Dimensional Overseer lay on distant ground, flesh barely regenerated. Before leaving Backlund, He'd "snapped" photographs with His Beyonder powers, storing flesh for Rose Bishop recovery. He'd once mused about recruiting biologists to grow flesh-balls from trees…
Pity, in this era, finding such talent was tough. He hadn't settled on specs for the Aurora Order's scientist division.
He sneered at the descending thunder.
…
Klein, eyes half-open, watched Daly Simone fiercely battling the monstrous "Megose," coughing blood. His right arm useless, he propped himself up with his left, rising from the ground. Stumbling, he instinctively reached with his right to steady himself against rubble, only to grasp air.
As pain returned, Klein realized his right arm, from the elbow, had charred in the explosion. Bitterly smiling, he leaned on his left hand against the wall, standing upright. Taking a deep breath, he focused on Daly and "Megose"'s fight.
Under the True Creator's divine corruption, Daly was clearly outmatched. The evil god's avatar sprouted sharp bone blades on its arms, their edges lethal—a single hit could sever Daly. Each slash forced Daly to roll clumsily, but her movements grew sluggish, her body faltering.
No, this wasn't strictly an "evil god avatar." Klein's mind raced. From the High-Dimensional Overseer's intel and his reckless Gray Fog glimpse of the *True Creator, Klein sensed no malice from the god. After reading the Aurora Order's "Scriptures" and materials, he understood the True Creator's current state.
This "Megose" had slipped the True Creator's control, reduced to mindless, frenzied instinct. Hiding behind rubble, Klein made a decision.
Gripping his last Sunflame Charm, he wrapped it in spirituality. In the small ruin, he took four reverse steps, ascending the Gray Fog.
Klein believed the charm from the High-Dimensional Overseer, amplified by the Gray Fog, could transform him into a robed, masked spirit body. This charm, stealing the Eternal Blazing Sun's power, should yield similar effects!
Even if his battered body couldn't deal overt damage, he'd try to thwart the mastermind who attacked him, disrupting their plan guiding "Megose."
Only a spirit-bodied Klein could navigate these ruins.
(End of Chapter)
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