Three times in a row, Klein failed to summon anything. On the fourth attempt, he finally felt he was about to succeed, but the next second, he grabbed at empty air.
Then, he saw Amon's main body reach out and pull a very familiar figure from the void, but He immediately made that figure disappear, in less than a blink of an eye.
He directly stole the historical projection I summoned. This is too much… He isn't an avatar, it's Amon's main body!
As the thought flickered, he heard Amon's voice:
"The Evernight Goddess is currently not able to make a divine descent, and that brute is injured again. Isn't it normal for my main body to come to Backlund?"
Klein swallowed, remaining silent, only able to pray silently in his heart that someone would quickly discover the problem on his side.
The Goddess should already know, but just as Amon's main body said, it is not convenient for divine descent right now. Ma'am Arianna and Al, their arrivals are only historical projections, and influenced by me, the power they can exert is limited.
The more Klein pondered his predicament, the more despair he felt.
"How did you find me?"
While trying to converse with Amon's main body to buy time, he released the historical projection of Leyton. This would both alert the other party to his trouble and hasten Zaratul's arrival to create a standoff with Amon's main body.
Amon's main body raised a hand to adjust the monocle over His right eye and said leisurely, "You don't need to be so circuitous in your probing. You can try to escape and resist. The longer you are in contact with me, the more things will disappear from you, from a thought, to a Beyonder ability, then to a segment of fate, and then to Sefirah Castle. Given enough time, I can steal everything that exists, or even concepts."
Klein's expression darkened. He didn't know how much of Amon's main body's words were true, but the ability to steal his thoughts and Beyonder abilities was certainly real. As they spoke, he had already lost several Beyonder abilities, including "Flame Manipulation," "Underwater Breathing," and "Paper Figurine Substitutes."
This is even more terrifying than Pallez. If He hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have discovered it at all, or even thought in that direction. Is this stealing thoughts? Truly terrifying!
"You indeed know Pallez. I should have played with Him longer back then. Perhaps then I could have found you sooner."
While Amon's main body was speaking, Klein tried to swap positions with the newly converted marionettes around him, but no matter how he moved, he always remained within two meters of Amon's main body.
It seemed that every time he swapped positions with a marionette, Amon's main body would deceive him, returning him to his original spot, preventing him from leaving.
He had tried Flame Jump, but had already lost the ability to ignite flames. Projections pulled from the historical void were always stolen by Amon's main body as soon as they materialized.
Silently, the surrounding light suddenly dimmed slightly. Arianna's figure emerged not far away. After encountering Amon's main body, Klein had maintained this historical projection, hoping the Goddess would indirectly help him.
Closely following was an old man in a black hooded robe, with eyes as dark as lightless water, and a long, thick white beard around his mouth and face.
As soon as the old man appeared, he chanted softly in Jotun:
"I wish..."
The surrounding space-time instantly distorted, as if they had arrived in the Cosmos, completely isolated from the outside world, where even information could not be exchanged.
This is a Divine Kingdom, no, it should only be a nascent Divine Kingdom. Can a Miracle Invoker's wish be used this way?
Klein looked around in astonishment. The Realm of Mysteries covered him as well, making it difficult to escape amidst the chaos. He could only try to minimize his presence and look for a suitable opportunity.
As soon as the old man appeared, he recognized him: Zaratul, who had ambushed him earlier in the historical fog. The aura on the other party was very distinct.
As a qualified Seer, Zaratul's true body would certainly not appear here. So, I can't go into the historical fog now, or I'd just be Zaratul's food... Why didn't I think of the historical fog just now? Amon's main body, how many of my thoughts has He stolen?
While Klein was thinking, he saw three more familiar figures appear beside Zaratul: Roselle from the Great Emperor's era, William Augustus I, the founder of Loen, and the Abomination Suah.
The historical projections summoned by Zaratul are more true than those I summon, or rather, the power and characteristics they contain are more comprehensive.
While Klein was thinking, Arianna also reached out and pulled a bone-forged longsword with strange patterns from the depths of the darkness. Profound darkness surged like a tide behind Her, rapidly approaching Amon's main body from behind.
Under the encirclement of multiple Angel-level historical projections, Amon's main body remained serene, calmly pinching the monocle over His right eye.
An ancient, mottled, stone-carved wall clock illusion emerged above His head.
The hands on the wall clock illusion rotated one increment clockwise, and a deep, melodious chime instantly rang out.
Dong!
An indescribable, invisible torrent surged forth, as if traversing long history, instantly sweeping over everything around.
Silently, everything around them disappeared. Whether it was the historical projection of Arianna that Klein had summoned earlier, or Zaratul and the historical projections He had summoned, they all vanished.
Amon's main body looked at Klein with ease, smiling, "To deal with things with obvious limitations, all you need to do is steal their time of existence."
The highly polluting murmurs made Klein lose all thought for a moment.
Inside the No. 1 Ruin where George III had completely collapsed, streams of information appeared out of thin air, quickly reassembling Bernadette's body.
She had opened the door to this mausoleum through the temporary ability granted by the Hidden Sage, preparing to retrieve the Beyonder characteristic and Uniqueness from George III.
After Amon's main body and the Concealment Angels left, she wasn't the only one who came to this mausoleum; Hermes, the Discerner, whose performance in the previous melee was very strange, was also there.
Noticing Bernadette's arrival, the Angel of the mind domain showed no change in expression and spoke in a gentle tone:
"So it's you. When I was in that organization, I was quite familiar with your father. He was a very good and interesting person, except for being too curious and not having very good luck."
"I've had contact with the Hidden Sage. Your body carries His aura, which is truly too obvious, as if you're deliberately telling me."
Pausing, He said with a smile, "You want to take the Beyonder characteristic from George III?"
Bernadette nodded lightly, her gaze calm as she looked at Hermes, awaiting his next words.
Hermes probed, suggesting, "How about we each take a portion? This place is not suitable for a long stay or contention."
"Okay."
Her goal was clear: to take the Black Emperor's Uniqueness. This could help her father resurrect faster. With the Uniqueness, the remaining three Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics would spontaneously coalesce.
As her voice fell, a slowly rotating mass of stardust rapidly formed in her right palm.
Star after star emerged, densely packed, dazzlingly bright.
These stars floated around, casting rays of brilliant light that converged into a magnificent pillar of light, enveloping the black sludge formed by George III's collapse, causing them to dissolve under the starlight and rapidly disintegrate and disperse.
Hermes's eyes turned into pale golden vertical pupils, and the surroundings echoed with wailing, almost roaring wind, seemingly from reality, yet also from illusion.
This sound carried a strong will, constantly striking and weakening the residual madness within the "sludge."
Gradually, the pure, clear starlight around them gained some golden hues, becoming increasingly fierce and bright.
From the "sludge" that was George III's collapse, dark red light spots continuously precipitated, growing in number, almost filling the entire floor of the mausoleum.
At a certain moment, some abstracted entity separated from the sludge.
Bernadette's figure instantly virtualized, decomposing into pure, complex streams of information, surging rapidly, stirring up an information storm within the mausoleum.
A large amount of complex information flooded Hermes's mind, causing Him to lose focus for a brief moment. By the time He recovered, Bernadette had already departed.
Looking around, Hermes murmured, "She took the Uniqueness."
As He spoke, He influenced the residual mental imprints within the precipitated Beyonder characteristics, accelerating the rate at which the characteristics coalesced.
Almost at the same time as the characteristics converged, he saw William Augustus I, in a less-than-ideal state, arrive at the mausoleum.
The violent wind suddenly intensified, and an invisible, transparent breath descended towards William Augustus I.
Without minding whether His attack had hit, Hermes's body swelled, transforming into a gray-white giant dragon, and entered the Spirit World with the precipitated portions of the Beyonder characteristics.
After Hermes left, William Augustus I, with a numb expression, came to George III's corpse and swallowed the sludge mouthful by mouthful.
Dark red light slowly flowed from His originally azure eyes, and His aura became increasingly majestic, chaotic, and distorted, as if He were on the verge of madness.
Downstream of the Tussock River, Amon's main body retracted all the clones He had dispersed around. His aura became even more unfathomable.
Looking in the direction of Backlund, Amon's main body chuckled softly:
"Zaratul actually didn't dare to come in His true body. Indeed, you Seers are all cowards. If you don't divine beforehand, you wouldn't even know whether to step out with your left foot or your right foot."
"You don't need to wait. By my side, your messenger won't discover any problem, and the Death Consul is the same. The Evernight Goddess has already acted once, and She won't risk acting from afar again."
As He spoke, Klein's body uncontrollably followed behind Him, and their figures quickly vanished from the spot.