Lord of the Mysteries

At that instant, Leonard felt the surface of his body turn numb, as though lightning was leaping over it, creating a slight stabbing pain, one that would completely pulverize his body at any moment.

But following that, he didn’t get bombarded with irresistible pain, as though nothing had happened.

No, something did happen. A bolt of lightning smote down at him as if it had bared its fangs, shattering the ground and charring the soil.

Klein had personally redirected his casting of Lightning Storm from Ince Zangwill when Leonard Mitchell used the Fate Siphon charm!

“Ah!”

A shrill scream sounded as the rich darkness around Ince Zangwill failed to dissipate the storm that was formed from a mesh of silver lightning bolts. His body was swept into the heart of the storm.

He had suffered the fate of Leonard Mitchell being devoured by the Lightning Storm ability!

Boom!

The thunder boomed deeply as the lightning forest quickly dissipated, but before the Lightning Storm came to a complete end, more bolts of silver lightning smote down from the sky, causing a new wave of attacks.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The wrath of a thunder god smote down again and again as the lightning’s frequency returned to normal. There weren’t any gaps in between. Even though there were waves of darkness surging out from Ince Zangwill’s position, they were unable to obliterate the silver swath.

After a few Lightning Storms, the blinding light finally dimmed. The minute bolts snaked around weakly.

Ince Zangwill remained standing there without collapsing.

However, his head with pitch-black eyes, blood-red halos, and mysterious symbols had cracked. The flesh inside the cracks was charred black as a grayish-white liquid seeped out.

The four “legs” by his torso had already been burnt black and curled up together. All it took was a touch for them to fall off.

On them, not only were the white feathers gone, even the overlapping blood vessels were pulverized and had scattered to the ground, leaving them at head height with him.

But even so, Ince Zangwill still wasn’t dead. Creatures that had obtained godhood had an unimaginable vitality compared to ordinary people!

The blood-red halo in his eyes grew richer as the violent aura no longer had any room for decreasing. Feelings of hatred and regret surged in him, giving him the urge to vent them out.

He hated himself for only thinking of escaping in the beginning and not killing all the enemies present. Back then, if he hadn’t held back and had used his powers by releasing the terror of a demigod without any reservations, he was definitely able to kill Daly Simone and Leonard Mitchell amidst the lightning strikes. If he had done so, he wouldn’t have been left in such a sorry state by two Mid-Sequence Beyonders.

“Damn it! Damn it!” Ince Zangwill roared and threw away the darkened 0-08 quill. Using his remaining four “legs,” he pounced at Leonard Mitchell.

Leonard was just about to take action when he felt a coldness in him. It was as though thin, long hair was reaching out and binding him from the darkness, doing so from a dream. He was unable to move again.

Boom!

A bolt of lightning struck Ince Zangwill, but it only served to stagger him for a moment and drop a few pieces of charred flesh. He continued his attack and even revealed a cruel smile.

From that strike, he was already certain that the person hiding in the background casting the lightning was at their limit. The person was unable to use any more demigod-level powers!

As for Leonard, who was being bound by countless strands of invisible hair, his thoughts quickly became serene. It was as though he no longer put up any resistance and had wished to sleep in the darkness.

Unable to move, he bit his tongue lightly and temporarily recovered some of his lucidity. He made the transparent book in front of him emit the ethereal chanting: “I came, I saw, I record!”

With a resonating whoosh, a terrifying Hurricane swept at Ince Zangwill, who had arrived with a pounce.

It snapped the illusory black hairlike objects, giving Leonard freedom again.

Whoosh!

Ince Zangwill was thrown up as he slammed heavily to the ground. His body was covered with deep gashes as pale-white blood gushed out of him.

Despite having lost another front “leg,” he still wasn’t dead. He “stood” up again and locked onto the Evernight poet who still had his eyes closed.

Without any warning, Leonard suddenly slipped and fell to the ground. When he tried to get up, he seemed unable to maintain his balance. Even the gale he created had failed to sweep up his body.

“Damn it! I should’ve killed you when you were unconscious back in Tingen City!” Ince Zangwill cursed through clenched teeth. “That woman is about to die. The same goes for you!”

As he cursed, he hobbled over to Leonard’s location as though he had lost his ability to move at rapid speeds. With a ferocious expression, he said, “Your captain was irritating. Likewise for that teammate of yours. All of you are the same!

“After I kill you, I’ll leave this place and return to Tingen to dig up their graves!”

As he cursed, the darkness filled with cadaveric auras surged out of Ince Zangwill, sweeping towards the nearby Leonard Mitchell.

Leonard could sense that he was riddled with bad luck, but he could do nothing. He didn’t even dare to open his eyes.

Bang!

Amidst a gunshot, a pale-golden bullet pierced through the thick deathly darkness, bringing out blinding sunlight, terminating the abnormality within.

Pa! Tarot cards flew over, stabbing into the ground at different spots.

One of the cards landed in front of Leonard as it burst into scarlet flames.

Amidst the flames, a figure wearing a half top hat and black suit walked out with a revolver in hand. With a bookish demeanor, he had black hair and brown eyes with a face with a deep outline. He was none other than Klein Moretti.

Unable to use the Sea God Scepter anymore, he had decisively returned to the real world. He had rushed here with Death Knell!

“You, it’s really you! You really are still alive! Die together with them!” Ince Zangwill’s movement speed instantly recovered as he circled around Klein, trying to forcefully pull him into a dream.

He had been acting!

However, Klein was completely unaffected. He didn’t show signs of falling asleep as he raised his right hand and pulled the trigger as though he had foreseen it.

Bang!

Ince Zangwill was thrown to the ground by a powerful impact. The cracks on his head widened.

“That shot was for Ma’am Daly,” Klein said in a deep voice as he snapped his fingers. Using the flames that burst up, he flashed to the side of Ince Zangwill.

Ince Zangwill’s eyes protruded out. As he moved at high speeds, he released bad luck in a bid to influence Klein, but it was completely useless.

“This shot is for Leonard.”

All the Tarot cards were ignited at the same time, like bursting fireworks. Klein flashed behind Ince Zangwill, cocked the gun, and relying on his intuition, he pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Pale-white blood spurted out of Ince Zangwill’s left leg as it broke.

His running came to an abrupt stop as he even failed to maintain his balance.

Using the burning tarot cards, he repeatedly cast Flaming Jump, preventing himself from entering the influence of the black “hair.”

“This shot is for Megose.

“This shot is for the Keepers.

“This shot is for the destroyed Blackthorn Security Company.

“This shot is for all the Nighthawks.

“This shot is for me.”

Amidst the gunshots, Klein kept pulling the trigger and did the corresponding reloading as he shot demon-hunting bullets. He blew through another of Ince Zangwill’s legs, blasting open his forehead, causing his roars to turn into a whimper until he fell onto the ground.

Finally, Klein flashed in front of Ince Zangwill. He then held Death Knell to his face.

At this moment, mysterious patterns accentuated Ince Zangwill’s almost-cracked head, creating an immense impact.

He still had the ability to resist!

He was waiting for him to approach and then use his Mythical Creature form to turn the tables!

However, Klein’s brown eyes continued looking at him without reflecting anything.

He thrust Death Knell forward and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Ince Zangwill’s head completely exploded, and like a smashed watermelon, the fragments and the juice splattered everywhere.

Death Knell had sounded the knell for him!

Klein raised his left hand and rubbed away his two eyes. The real eyes that hid beneath were moved back to their original spots.

His brown eyes had blurred up. He curled the corners of his mouth bit by bit and said to the already dead Ince Zangwill softly, “This shot is for Captain.”

He didn’t give Ince Zangwill a chance to leave any last words. He had no wish to know what bitter past the latter had experienced.

He then took out one remaining tarot card from his pocket and threw it on Ince Zangwill’s corpse.

It was an inverted The Star card.

At this moment, a figure appeared not far from him. He bent down and picked up the darkened quill.

This figure wore a simple white robe and had a pale gold beard that covered half his face. On his chest hung a silver cross as though he was the most ordinary priest, but he was the King of Angels, Adam!

Adam looked at Klein and said with a genial smile, “Unfortunately, I failed to retain the snake.”

He looked at the quill in his hand and then at the tarot card. He smiled and added, “A price is always exacted for what fate bestows(1), isn’t that so?”

With that said, he turned around and slowly disappeared from the ruined square with each step he took. He left the following words as though he sang it:

“Under the witness of a Spectator, Klein Moretti completed a grand performance, directing a magical murder. With that, he managed to digest his potion with enough energy left to attempt an advancement before the curtains fell.”

Klein didn’t take in the feeling of his Marionettist potion’s digestion and the corresponding feedback. With a Flaming Jump, he arrived in front of Daly Simone.

The lady was already on the brink of losing control. She said in a daze, “I don’t want to become a monster...”

“Alright...” Klein looked at her with a sorrowful gaze as he quickly thought of the means to rescue a Rampager.

He had considered getting her to chant The Fool’s honorific name before pulling her Spirit Body above the gray fog, but with her body already mutating, it was apparently useless. The only way was for Daly to choose to remain there forever. As for the Flower of Blood, it was also unable to resolve such problems.

Daly smiled with great difficulty as she resisted the white feathers and pitch-black scales that kept growing out of her.

“So it’s you...

“Didn’t you ask me why I didn’t take the initiative to confess to Dunn, to throw him in bed?”

She gasped for air and said with a bitter smile, “I had indulged myself too much in the past. H-he was a conservative man. I-I felt inferior.”

She couldn’t hold out much longer, with the outcome of her becoming a monster happening at any moment.

At this moment, she heard Klein Moretti reply, “Captain actually liked you too, very much. Because you were too outstanding and young, he felt inferior as well.”

Daly smiled as her blurry gaze saw a man in a black trench coat with a receding hairline. He had dark gray eyes. She watched as he pressed his hand to his chest, bent down, and reached out his palm to invite her to a dance.

She reached out her hand as her thoughts turned sluggish.

The gray-eyed man in a black trench coat pulled up Daly, whose mutation was slowly fading away. Under Leonard’s watch, they danced a brisk dance in the destroyed square with the fountain spewing water everywhere.

One material after another flew out. There were golden grapevines and a rather ugly rubber mask. Under the guidance of spirituality, they slowly mixed together and entered a small metal bottle.

Amidst the beautiful dance, Daly leaned forward gently, resting herself in Dunn’s embrace.

Klein held the potion bottle, brought it to his mouth, and downed it.

[1] Quote from Stefan Zweig.