Returning to his room with the Iron-Blooded Knight characteristic, Anderson's expression relaxed considerably, but soon turned serious again: "I don't have the Iron-Blooded Knight potion formula, so even with this characteristic, I can't use it."
"Moreover, the ritual to advance to a demigod is not easy, and I'm still carrying a bait targeting High-Sequence Hunters, which could attract unknown demigods at any time."
Sighing deeply, Anderson slumped into the armchair on the balcony, looking unwilling to think.
In the living room, Iliya, a senior deacon of the Church of the Evernight Goddess, explained her purpose:
"Thank you for your assistance in killing Ince Zangwill. Because his remaining spirit was severely damaged, the clues I could obtain through spiritual communication were not many, so I came to you to understand more details."
"Besides Ince Zangwill, I also represent the Church of the Evernight Goddess's support for the independence of the Southern Continent's government, and with this, I propose cooperation to you."
Leyton opened his mouth, intending to say, "Why don't you go directly to Bishop Luke?" But as the words came to his lips, he suddenly remembered that the other party was preparing for the Dream Weaver advancement, and he was temporarily taking over his duties.
My avatar is also preparing for the Cognizer advancement; I can't even find someone to help me share the work.
Sighing inwardly, Leyton straightened his face and began a more formal negotiation with Iliya, who represented the Church of the Evernight Goddess.
On the south bank of Paz River Valley, in the Red Rose Church, Bernadette slowly walked and sat down beside Sasrir, who was praying in front of the statue. Beside her, a black and white penguin quickly stretched its body, transforming from a cute penguin, the height of an adult's calf, into Roselle, wearing a dark red coat with rusty gold threads.
Roselle calmly looked at the statue of The Hanged Man in front of him and said with great emotion:
"It's truly surprising that Adam is another identity of the Ancient Sun God. I have to say, a Visionary after high sequence is truly terrifying, making it impossible to guard against."
"You deceived everyone, and you deceived all gods."
"Not all of them," Sasrir slowly shook his head and said calmly, "The Night should have suspected it long ago. Herabergen was once the Dragon of Wisdom, and he is not unfamiliar with the Visionary's abilities. That Sage, who can represent knowledge to a certain extent, also knows."
Without waiting for Roselle to ask further, Sasrir continued:
"Both I and The Night have paid attention to you. Unfortunately, you didn't choose the Seer pathway, and you secretly went to the moon outside the gods' gaze, which led to your corruption."
"Paid attention to me..." Roselle froze for a second, his eyes shifting from confusion to shock. He pointed at himself, then at Sasrir, and murmured:
"You too..."
"Why? Why did you never contact me? I once thought I was the most special one."
Sasrir slowly stood up and said peacefully, "When I noticed you, you were already the Son of Steam, a mad evil god. Between a mad evil god and Steam, one of the Seven Orthodox Deities, the choice is obvious."
"As for The Night, she might have noticed something from the beginning, but not belonging to those three pathways, she couldn't grasp the details too precisely. As for later, perhaps she felt your style was not suitable to be a reliable ally."
Roselle's face alternated between red and white. He didn't even dare to turn his head to look at Bernadette standing beside him, and he weakly defended himself:
"This is the custom of Intis; I was just doing as the Romans do."
The prayer hall was silent for two seconds. Roselle sighed, ending the topic, and then asked:
"How is Bornova doing?"
Sasrir slowly paced towards the stained-glass window embedded in the wall, and at the same time, said in a low voice:
"I planted the seed of Fallen in him. The human emotions and desires within him will slowly emerge, but these are mostly negative ones."
"To truly solve the problem of divinity suppressing humanity, I have to wait for my main body to awaken from slumber."
"Before that, he needs more anchors with strong emotions and will to resist the oppression of divinity."
Roselle sighed and nodded, "I understand."
After two seconds of silence, he turned his head to look at Bernadette beside him, nodded slightly to her, indicating that they could leave.
Layers of green vines hung down from mid-air, quickly engulfing Roselle and Bernadette's bodies. A pumpkin carriage clattered out of nothingness and stopped in front of them.
In the pumpkin carriage, Roselle leaned back against the carriage, looking at Bernadette opposite him, who was frowning slightly, with an expression of wanting to ask but also hesitating. He chuckled twice, then said:
"When I truly resurrect, I will tell you these long-hidden secrets. For now, there are still some things I haven't figured out."
He paused, then added:
"Do you know the honorific name of The Fool? I want to have a good talk with this fellow who collects my diaries."
Bernadette hesitated and nodded, then directly read the honorific name of The Fool that she knew in ancient hermes:
"The Fool who does not belong to this era; the mysterious ruler above the Gray Fog; the King of Yellow and Black Who Holds Good Luck."
Above the Gray Fog, Klein, who had just finished his psychotherapy and was meditating in his manor room to recover, suddenly heard layers of ethereal prayer sounds echoing in his ears.
A strange voice, and it was a woman. Could it be Ms. Danitz? As the thought floated, Klein quickly got up from the bed, locked the room door, closed the windows, drew the curtains, and set up a layer of Wall of Spirituality.
After doing all this, he began to walk the four steps backward and entered the Gray Fog.
Inside the magnificent ancient palace, Klein looked at a new crimson star rising from the boundless Gray Fog outside the hall. He extended his spirituality to touch it.
Crimson light burst forth instantly, engulfing most of the hall, and quickly condensed into a scene.
"Queen Mystic? And next to her is... Emperor Roselle?"
Klein was stunned for a moment, not expecting that one day he would see the real-life image of Emperor Roselle.
Is this a one-to-one replica figurine?
As thoughts floated, he saw Emperor Roselle, sitting opposite Bernadette, look up and meet his gaze. The other party seemed to be able to see him through the Gray Fog.
"Are you the one collecting my diaries? Won't you invite me for a meeting?"
Roselle's voice echoed in his ears, making Klein pause... Not a puppet?
He took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled, and casually manifested his usual citrine pendant, beginning a divination.
After a simple divination, he looked at the motionless pendant in his hand and frowned slightly:
"Divination failed... To some extent, this also explains the problem. Being able to shield my divination above the Gray Fog definitely requires concealment at the level of a true god."
Muttering to himself, he once again extended his spirituality, touching the crimson star representing Leyton, and threw in the information he had just received.
Soon, the crimson star connected to Leyton vibrated, and a piece of information was transmitted through the newly established connection to the Gray Fog, transforming into a string of crimson characters:
"In a sense, he is indeed Roselle. You can ask him for the specifics yourself."
"If he asks you to destroy, or posts a request to destroy the diary at the Tarot Club, remember to refuse."
Destroy the diary... Klein was startled for a moment, then quickly realized that the diaries the Emperor wrote in the early days were truly embarrassing. Since he wasn't completely dead, it was normal for him to want to destroy such a piece of his own dark history.
As thoughts surged, he used his demigod status to leverage the power of the Gray Fog, infusing it into a paper figure he casually summoned from a pile of sundries. He then threw the paper figure, through the crimson star connected to Bernadette, towards Roselle, who was sitting opposite her.
In the pumpkin carriage, Roselle looked up in surprise. His gaze penetrated the void, seeing a tall angel emerging from the endless Gray Fog. He felt the aura of the Black Emperor from this angel's figure.
"Interesting, is that the Black Emperor card?"
Roselle raised an eyebrow, quickly connecting it to something Bernadette had told him: The Fool's Dependents had found the Black Emperor card disguised as a bookmark through his diary.
He allowed the angel, clad in black full armor and bearing twelve pairs of dark wings, to descend before him and envelop him in its layered wings.
Crimson light surged like a tide, quickly engulfing all his vision.
Relying on the Black Emperor's status and the aura from the paper angel just now, Roselle magnified and exploited that subtle connection, allowing Klein to easily pull him above the Gray Fog.
Inside the magnificent ancient palace, crimson light quickly floated and condensed Roselle's figure, who then sat on the lowest high-backed chair on the left side of the mottled long table.
Roselle looked around curiously for a while, finally settling his gaze on the figure shrouded in Gray Fog at the head of the mottled long table, and said with a sigh:
"I have always tried to establish a connection with this place, but all attempts failed. I didn't expect to have the chance to enter here after my death. How unpredictable life is!"
Klein nodded lightly and asked in a calm tone, "What's your situation now?"
When he observed the other party above the Gray Fog just now, he had almost figured out the other party's true nature: merely a mechanical puppet, a mechanical puppet that had awakened self-awareness. That's why he initially didn't believe the other party was truly Roselle.
Roselle sighed, a wry smile on his face:
"The location of the last mausoleum I built was problematic; it had already been corrupted by the Primordial Moon, which caused issues with my resurrection. I couldn't truly escape the corruption and could only forcibly interrupt the process, waiting for an opportunity."
"This current me is just a mechanical puppet. Relying on a portion of the Earl of the Fallen characteristic that I had infected, it developed an independent self and a flawed cognition. I used my Sequence 0 status to distort this flaw, allowing this mechanical puppet to, in a way, be equivalent to me, serving as my eyes to observe the outside world."
"Although it's a bit miserable, it's at least much better than the previous state of being neither dead nor alive."
"As long as I truly resurrect, or even don't need to fully resurrect, I can turn this mechanical puppet into the real me."