He stepped into the bathroom, ran a quick divination to confirm no one was watching, then used his silver penknife to seal the space with a layer of spirituality — and reversed four steps up to the Grey Fog.
He wrote out several divination queries and confirmed them one by one, verifying that Charles had spoken truthfully. Only then did the last knot in his chest genuinely ease.
Phew.
He exhaled, then wrote: "Releasing Charles and letting him leave is harmful to me."
Seven repetitions. The topaz swung — counter-clockwise. Not only no harm, but positively beneficial?
He ran several more variations. The results were broadly the same.
"Alright. That settles it."
A minute later, Klein walked back out, drying his hands on a paper towel.
"I'd suggest getting out of the Aurora Order sooner rather than later," he said. "Whatever the True Creator is or isn't in terms of being a fellow countryman — He is, right now, an evil god that every nation and Church would love to put down. Staying in the Aurora Order is not a smart move."
"What about you? You've joined the Demoness Sect — that's not exactly any better."
"It's different."
Klein shook his head, but gave no further explanation. For safety's sake, not a word about his real identity.
"I'll have my associate release you shortly. After that — take care of yourself."
He turned to go.
"Hey, wait—" Vincent said quickly. "If I need to reach you, how do I?"
Klein actually didn't want to cut off contact entirely. He thought for a few seconds. Give him the Fool's honorific? No — if he's captured and they learn he has a transmigrator identity, knowing the Fool's name could create problems for me.
"Give me something you carry on you. I'll come to you if I need anything."
"There's a fountain pen in my left pocket."
Klein stepped forward and tested the starlight cage — his hand passed through easily. He reached in and pulled out the pen. He'd sacrifice it above the Grey Fog later; no one would be able to track it.
"One more thing: do not tell anyone you're a transmigrator."
"You think you need to tell me that?"
Shortly after Klein left, Vivienne walked back in. Vincent immediately broke free of the starlight cage, reassumed Bernadette's appearance, and changed back into her clothes.
"Your Majesty — your friend is waiting outside."
"Good work, Vivienne."
Vivienne smiled warmly. "I actually found it rather interesting."
She stepped back. "I'll head back then."
Outside, Klein was leaning against a tree, staring at the street, thoughts elsewhere.
"Mr. World — I've released him."
"Thank you, Mr. Lovers."
Vincent made a show of puzzlement. "He's someone who watched you from the shadows — you're sure it's fine to let him go?"
"It was a misunderstanding. We worked it out."
"Well — I won't pry into other people's business then."
Brief small talk. Klein said his goodbyes and left. He needed to get to the Church immediately.
Vincent watched the carriage disappear around the corner. "So. What do you think?"
Bernadette's tone was measured. "Roughly matches what I'd already assessed. Good person, more or less."
A pause. "Whatever you told him — Mr. Fool will know all of it shortly."
"Why not tell Mr. Fool directly?" Vincent asked.
"It would look too calculated."
"Mm."
Vincent sighed. "Not that it'll change much. The Fool said He can't intervene in physical reality to any great extent right now. He might not be able to do anything about George III regardless."
"But He is still a god."
Vincent didn't push it. He changed the subject. "The Intis Ambassador should by now have passed the intelligence about the Conqueror characteristic exchange back to Intis. The Hunter Pathway hunters lurking in the shadows — even if they're not bold enough to act yet, they'll come to look."
"And with George III's Black Emperor ascension spreading through the Beyonder underground — with the moves we've set in motion, we might actually strangle this whole plan before it gets anywhere."
Bernadette's voice remained even. "We should start distributing Boon slots more broadly and building up grey crystals in reserve. If something sudden happens, we'll at least have enough for one proper Shadow Box pull in the Nation of Disorder."
"Understood."
...
St. Samuel's Cathedral.
Klein — wearing a different face — walked into the main hall and immediately spotted Leonard sitting with Daly, completely unguised.
He hesitated, then walked over and signalled his identity.
Leonard waved him over. "Perfect timing — I was just giving Daly a rundown of the past few days."
Klein scanned the room and dropped his voice. "Leonard — you're not wearing any disguise. Aren't you worried the Aurora Order will spot you?"
"Let them spot me," Leonard said, completely unbothered.
"???"
Leonard raised an eyebrow. "I'm currently the No. 3 figure in the Aurora Order's Backlund chapter, carrying out an assignment from Mr. A."
"What assignment?"
"Infiltrating the Church."
"???"
Klein thought he'd heard wrong. "The Aurora Order sent you to infiltrate the Church?"
"Exactly."
"..."
Daly said quietly: "The Aurora Order almost certainly figured out Leonard's identity a while back. The assignment is essentially designed to let him pass their intelligence back to us."
Leonard looked mildly put-out. "Miss Daly, you could've let me mess with Klein a bit longer."
Klein still couldn't follow it. "But why would the Aurora Order do that?"
"Still unclear. I've reported the situation to Archbishop Anthony. His word for now is to act as if we don't know. I'd assume the Church's upper tiers have their own read on it."
Leonard looked at Klein. "What did you find?"
"A lot."
Klein nodded. "George III of Loen…"
Before he could finish, Leonard cut in: "Wants to advance to a higher Sequence?"
"???"
Klein blinked. "How did you know?"
"That information's already been circulating among Beyonders."
Klein was genuinely surprised. Already out?
He checked himself. From Leonard and Daly's reactions, they didn't seem to understand that "higher Sequence" meant Sequence 0 godhood — that the gods themselves could be created through potions was so devastating that almost no one at their level would know it.
He asked deliberately: "Higher Sequence — what exactly does that mean in this context?"
"Above demigod. Something the Church explicitly forbids. Every king and emperor is contractually bound to a Sequence 5 ceiling. George III has clearly already broken it." Leonard's voice cooled. "The Church won't look past this one."
Right. Exactly as planned.
The intelligence Vincent and Bernadette had released was careful — "higher Sequence" without specifying "Sequence 0" or "godhood," because stating that outright would mean declaring war on all seven Orthodox Gods in one stroke. But for those who already knew the full picture, the implication was instantly clear.
Leonard gave Klein a teasing look. "Don't tell me you came all this way just to report that."
"I know what the Demoness Sect and Aurora Order are actually here to do."
Klein laid out both organisations' role in the scheme — cooperating with the royal family to manufacture a catastrophe as cover.
Leonard and Daly's faces shifted immediately. Leonard pressed his fingers together, voice dropping: "The royal family has lost their minds."
If you knew they were trying to become a god, you'd understand.
"Do you have any sense of when they'll move?"
"Not yet."
Daly made the call without hesitation. "I'm going to the Archbishop right now."
"Miss Daly — one more thing."
Klein told the full story of Trissy: the encounter, the ring, meeting the Demoness Sect's senior member, ending up with the ring forced onto his finger. Daly's expression turned even graver. "Understood. Come with me — the Archbishop should have a way to help."
"And me?" Leonard watched them disappear, started after them, then sat back down with a sigh. "We agreed I'd handle the Aurora Order side and Klein would handle the Demoness Sect side. And somehow he just cleared my assignment too. Is this guy trying to show me up?"
"Your friend is in serious trouble."
Pallez's voice surfaced quietly.
"What trouble?"
The old man's tone was unhurried. "On that ring, I can sense the presence of Cheek — which is what you call the Primordial Demoness."
"!!!"
Leonard went still. "Old man. Be specific."
"The exact details I can't say for certain. But what I can tell you — your friend may have already attracted Cheek's attention. If the Evernight Goddess doesn't intervene, he's… in for it."
"..."
Leonard's expression cycled rapidly. "No other options?"
"My suggestion: starting now, he stays inside this church. Twenty-four hours a day. Not a single step out."
Pallez gave a low chuckle. "Young one — what do you think could make the Loen Emperor willing to cooperate with two evil god organisations, willing to manufacture disasters and deaths, willing to offend every Church — just for a 'higher Sequence'?"
Leonard was quiet. "…What is it?"
"Heh heh. The highest pursuit of every Beyonder — myself included."
"Sequence 0. A True God."
...
Night fell.
In the Gloucester family ancestral graveyard, a slender figure moved through the ruins in the deep crimson moonlight. Melissa.
She found the gravestone. The entry she and Stephen had dug open yesterday had been sealed back up. She rolled up her sleeve to reveal the bead bracelet at her wrist. As spirituality flowed through it, her outline blurred and went translucent — she passed straight through the earth into the underground corridor.
"Light."
She threw a scroll. Bright illumination filled the tunnel. She jogged to the bronze door, produced a vial of prepared blood, and smashed it against the door's surface.
The blood was absorbed. With a resonant groan, the door swung open. She threw in another scroll to light the vault.
A creak — and the mummified form of Solicitor Derlin slowly rose to its feet. "Back already? You actually gathered everything I asked for?"
Melissa pressed her lips together and produced four test tubes. Three contained deep red blood. The fourth held clear holy water.
"..."
The dark hollow eye sockets seemed to fix on the three blood vials. "The blood of Sauron and Einhorn family descendants is not difficult to obtain. But the Medici bloodline — how did you manage that so quickly?"
Melissa answered honestly: "My teacher helped me. She's a demigod with teleportation abilities."
"Is that right. And who is your teacher?"
"She's just… my teacher."
"Playing games with me? I asked for her name, her identity."
"I don't know."
Melissa faltered slightly. "All I know is she helped me, protected me, and taught me mysticism. She's my teacher. She's never told me anything else."
The more she said, the more Medici's suspicion sharpened. Over centuries of being sealed here, many lost souls had wandered in. Every time Medici had spun some version of the same request — bring blood and holy water to break the seal — and not one had ever come back.
Yesterday this girl arrived. Medici told the same story, and a single day later she returned with everything.
This should be good news.
But the memory of what had happened a few days ago — that suspected avatar of the little crow — made Medici hesitate. What if this was another trap? Adam and Amon again, just waiting for him to step into it?
"Medici — are you going soft? One time you get set up and you're scared of them forever?"
A sharp voice cut through his head — one of the women fused into him during the entombment.
"Ha! You gutless coward — your chance to break free is right in front of you and you're standing there shaking. You disgust me, Medici."
Medici snorted coldly. "You two brainless old women — if this really is a trap set by Adam and the little crow, what waits for us will be far worse than whatever's left of this seal."
"Anything is better than being stuck here."
"If you haven't got the spine, hand us control!"
"Exactly!"
Melissa had been watching the corpse stand motionless. She asked carefully: "So — do you want what I brought or not?"
"Yes!"
Medici's hand snapped up. All four glass vials flew across the room and shattered against the wall. In the instant they broke, ripples spread across the stone — and cracks began radiating outward.
Boom.
The wall cracked. Collapsed.
"I am finally FREE!!!"
A bark of laughter — and the corpse crumpled to the floor without a sound. In its place rose a faint, incorporeal figure: a young man in blood-stained black armour, semi-translucent, red hair catching no light. His face was young and striking, but much of it had rotted down to bone. Between his brows was a mark like a rippling banner.
Medici crossed his arms and looked down at Melissa with a cool, contemptuous smile. "So, little girl — what do you want to know?"
Their arrangement had been made yesterday: Melissa would help gather the blood and holy water to free him, and in exchange, Medici would answer one question.
Melissa swallowed carefully. "I — I want to know what Emperor Roselle actually hid here over a hundred years ago."
Medici raised an eyebrow. "Sent by Roselle's daughter, are you?"
"Ah? I'm not sure what you mean."
He stared at her for a long moment, then said: "Doesn't she already know? It's the Magic Wishing Lamp."
Melissa shook her head. Remembering her teacher's instructions, she pressed further: "And what's actually hidden inside the Magic Wishing Lamp?"
"That's a fun question. What's in a wishing lamp? The genie, obviously. That Sealed Artifact has been around since the Second Epoch — I wouldn't have thought that was a secret."
Melissa wasn't entirely sure what "Magic Wishing Lamp" or "genie" meant in terms of deeper significance. She was simply carrying out her teacher's instructions. She asked again: "Is it truly just a genie?"
Medici's figure flicked — he appeared directly in front of her in an instant, startling her backward.
"Why don't you let whoever's behind you come out and speak to me directly?"
Melissa looked back. Nobody.
"There's no one behind me."
To be continued…
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