Above the Gray Fog, Klein, leaning back in The Fool's high-backed chair, exuded a mix of dim, low, lost, bewildered, and depressed emotions, appearing uninterested in everything.
If not for being above the Gray Fog, Leyton would have no doubt that Klein would have lost control directly; his state when he previously advanced to Bizzaro Sorcerer was already not very good.
"Did you know all along?"
Klein's tone was very certain; he didn't say what he knew, but he believed Leyton would understand what he was trying to express.
Leyton nodded, his tone calm:.
"If you're talking about this being Earth, I knew from the start."
At the head of the mottled long table, Klein was first angry, then bewildered, and finally let out a long sigh:
"That's right, you haven't been hung up before."
"I should have thought of it sooner, but I've always been unwilling to admit it, always subconsciously avoiding the question."
Leyton gently tapped the edge of the table with his right hand, making a thudding sound, and fragments of starlight overflowed from where his fingers tapped, spreading an invisible ripple outwards, "soothing" Klein's increasingly intense and extreme emotions.
After two seconds of silence, he lowered his voice and said:.
"Time is a distance more difficult to cross than space, but once you master the authority of history, you can at least look back through the river of history. Does that make you feel any better?"
Whoosh—
Letting out a long breath, Klein looked at Leyton expressionlessly, asking in an even tone:.
"Besides me and Roselle, who else is a Transmigrator? Or who else is a remnant from the ancient era?"
"Two people you are very familiar with." Leyton curled his lips:.
"Evernight Goddess Amanises, and the Ancient Sun God."
Klein's eyes widened in surprise; he did indeed suspect the Ancient Sun God's identity, but he hadn't expected that the Evernight Goddess, whom he had encountered from the very beginning, would also be one of the Transmigrators.
Composing himself, he murmured:.
"Goddess... No wonder..."
"So, from the very beginning, the Goddess noticed me?"
"If she hadn't intervened, you would have already been a goner."
Leyton leaned back against the chair, answering leisurely; he did not hide anything regarding Klein's questions.
Neither of them spoke again. After a moment of silence, Leyton leaned forward and sighed:.
"Time cannot be reversed. No matter how the world changes, we will always move forward, and we can only move forward."
"But before that, you need a Psychiatrist."
"I've already scheduled with Justice Audrey." Klein nodded calmly.
Leyton gently nodded, moving past the topic. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Card of Blasphemy he had brought with him to the Gray Fog, casually tossing it onto the table in front of Klein, and said:.
"Medici gave it to me. You can use it to play dress-up games."
Klein reached out and took the card, softly reading the small line of text in the upper left corner:.
"Sequence 0: Red Priest."
As spiritual energy was infused, the information hidden within the card was revealed:.
"Red Priest's ritual requirements: Initiate a continent-spanning war and achieve sufficient victory, then consume the potion amidst the sorrow and cheers of victory."
He thought of a page from the Roselle diary he had read earlier, which contained Roselle's speculation about the Red Priest:.
"Red" refers to the Red of War, and "Priest" can be understood as a priest of the essence of power.
As long as a Red Priest exists, they will naturally influence those around them, making them inflated and leading to violent conflicts. If willing, this influence can also become corruption.
Flipping the Red Priest card face down on the table in front of him, Klein leaned back in his chair and sighed:.
"Too bad it's not The Fool card."
Leyton leaned back slightly, saying calmly:.
"That Card of Blasphemy is on the main peak of the Hornacis Mountains. It seems a holder was drawn there but ultimately couldn't leave."
"Hornacis Mountains... What's there? It shouldn't be as simple as just being the birthplace of the Antigonus family, as you once said?"
Klein murmured softly, then pressed on.
Leyton didn't hide anything, stating frankly:.
"Antigonus, who was barely half a Fool, went mad and was sealed there by the Evernight Goddess."
"Half Fool..." Klein's already not-so-good complexion stiffened, and faintly discernible transparent worms squirmed beneath his skin.
After a moment, he twitched his lips and chuckled softly:.
"To be called the Half-Fool, he must have surpassed ordinary King of Angels, mastering a Uniqueness and two or three Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics?"
Leyton nodded calmly:.
"Two, but now he only has one Attendant of Mysteries characteristic left; the other has already been taken by Zaratul."
"I see." Klein nodded gently, slowly exhaling a long breath, and with extreme restraint in his tone and emotions, he brought up the next topic:.
"Can you tell me what happened before, when I was hunting Ince Zangwill? What all happened?"
Leyton observed Klein deeply. His mental state had deteriorated further, looking as if he could lose his human form at any moment, collapsing into a pile of squirming worms.
Specks of starlight diffused from between his fingers, carrying the effect of soothing and purifying the mind, echoing through the ancient and magnificent palace above the Gray Fog.
Klein leaned back in the high-backed chair, letting the fragments of starlight glide over him, dispelling the accumulated emotions within him.
Feeling that his condition had recovered somewhat, Klein raised his hand and spoke in a calm voice:.
"I won't lose control so quickly. Although my mental state isn't great, my control over myself has become clearer."
"Heh, I should say, ever since my mental issues began, I feel much more 'spirited' overall."
"You should look in a mirror when you say that. The Worms of Spirit under your skin can't be hidden anymore."
Leyton sighed, then paused. He no longer dwelt on the topic, leaning lazily against the back of the chair, and began to recount the grand drama he and the True Creator had orchestrated for Klein:.
"When you were hunting Ince Zangwill, I and Ariehogg— hmm, that's Ankewelt's current identity— I, him, and Ouroboros were fighting the Amon brothers for 0-08."
As he finished narrating, Leyton pursed his somewhat dry lips, leaned slightly forward, and said with barely concealed excitement:.
"The final result was, the Lord of Storms descended, but his obstruction failed. The True Creator escaped the seal in the Forsaken Land of the Gods and descended upon the Southern Continent. Adam merged with the True Creator through self-sacrifice and fell into a deep sleep. This world's best Psychiatrist will treat his own psychological issues in his dreams."
"A Psychiatrist treating himself?" Klein sighed noncommittally, then continued:.
"Adam isn't the Ancient Sun God's child, but rather an identity he separated using his Visionary abilities, a contingency for resurrection, just like Ankewelt left Ariehogg?"
"No wonder he's an Angel of Imagination. I should have thought of this when I saw Ankewelt."
Klein let out a long breath, looked down at the gold-cased pocket watch he had materialized, and smiled at Leyton:.
"Let's stop here for today. It's time for my therapy session with Justice Audrey."
Leyton nodded calmly, and crimson light rose around him, dissolving his body and carrying his Spirit Body out of the space above the Gray Fog.
Klein's gaze swept across the empty hall. He rose from his seat and materialized a small room on the side of the hall, separated by a wooden partition, for Justice Audrey to help him with his psychological issues.
After sitting down on the other side of the small room, Klein raised his hand and pulled "Justice" Audrey, whose time was already reserved, into the space above the Gray Fog.
In the manor outside Inpace, Leyton walked out of the Spirit World, just in time to see Anderson standing in front of the bathroom mirror, holding a dull black short blade, gesturing at his lower abdomen.
After two seconds of eye contact with Anderson, Leyton nodded expressionlessly:.
"Remember to clean up the blood after you commit suicide. Don't dirty my bathroom."
Anderson's mouth twitched twice, and he muttered, somewhat speechless:.
"If I've already committed suicide, how can I clean up the blood? Turn into a Zombie or a Wraith shadow?"
"If you don't mind turning into a Zombie, I can help you."
Leyton nodded, and as he spoke, he threw the miniature, strange helmet, encased in transparent amber, to Anderson, saying:.
"This is the Iron-Blooded Knight characteristic. You just need to complete the advancement, and you'll be able to absorb the excess characteristic within your body through your own Beyonder rank."
"You can tell?" Anderson looked down at his lower abdomen, then looked up at Leyton.
"Mm, it's been almost two months." Leyton nodded gently, making a joke.
Anderson was speechless for a moment, only managing to utter: "This isn't pregnancy."
Leyton nodded dismissively and turned to walk towards the manor hall. During this process, a transparent, headless, paper-thin undead creature emerged from beneath the floor, leading the way for Leyton like a personal maid.
Following this undead maid, he arrived at the reception room located on the side of the hall, where Leyton saw a woman wearing the long robe of a Church of the Evernight Goddess clergyman.
She appeared to be around 30 years old, very well-preserved, with glowing skin on her face and dark hair. She wore heavy eye makeup, as if to conceal non-existent dark circles.
Seeing Leyton approach, she stood up, tapped her chest four times in quick succession, drawing the shape of a crimson moon, and greeted him gently:.
"Good morning, Mr. Tines, I am Iliya, a senior deacon of the Church of the Evernight Goddess responsible for matters in the Southern Continent."