Chapter 29 : Experiment (2)

[Gehrman Sparrow bent down and raised the wooden door, allowing it to stand in front of the collapsed wall.

He reached out for the handle and twisted it downwards.

Then, he pushed the wooden door forward and let it lean against the wall.

Almost at the same time, he saw a grayish-white fog. He saw the faintly discernible streets and houses in the fog.

Amidst the houses, the clearest, most eye-catching one was the Bansy Harbor Telegraph Office. The rest were more or less blurry.

At this moment, the calm voice in the telegraph office asked through the door :

« Who… are… you ? »

« I'm… Gehrman… Sparrow. » The young man in a half top hat replied in the same staccato.

The interior of Bansy Harbor Telegraph Office suddenly fell silent as though someone was walking silently towards the door.

At that moment, Gehrman Sparrow turned his head to the other side.

In the deep end of the street, a figure walked over. He was wearing a straw hat and had a towel around his neck. He was bending over to pull something.

As the figure approached, the outline of the object behind him gradually became clear.

It was a black vehicle with two wheels. It had a roof that could block the scorching sun and rain.

In the vehicle sat a lady wearing a waist-length dress with an embroidered fan.

Both she and the driver were concealed by thick fog, making it difficult for anyone to see their exact appearances.

When they passed Gehrman Sparrow, he barely managed to see a few details through the fog.

The hunched man pulling the carriage had a rotten face with pale-yellow pus flowing. In areas where the lady wasn't covered by the fan and clothes, her skin was swollen with a glisten amidst many blue and black spots.

With a ring, a bell sounded. A blue train with two carriages sped out from in front of Gehrman Sparrow.

At this moment, Gehrman Sparrow realized that there was an iron-black track on the ground. Above him were long lines.

On the top of the train carriage, there was a rather complicated metal frame that slid over the long lines.

Through the glass window of the train, Gehrman Sparrow saw the passengers inside.

They faced the streets, but only their heads remained. Each head was dragging a bloody spine.

Gehrman Sparrow's pupils dilated as he silently watched this scene without moving for a long time.

After nearly a minute, he took a step forward in an attempt to enter the blurry street beneath the grayish-white fog.

However, the fog blocked him. No matter what method he used, he couldn't pass through it.

Fifteen minutes later, Gehrman Sparrow stopped his attempts and closed the wooden door, eliminating the fog. Then, he dragged the wooden door and "Teleported" directly to the pirate ship. He wasn't worried about being cursed at all.

He then placed the wooden door on the deck and reached out his left hand again to grab the door handle.

Suddenly, there was a cracking sound from Gehrman Sparrow's neck. His head seemed to be raised by an invisible hand as it dragged out a bloody spine.

Gehrman Sparrow's expression didn't change as he coldly raised his right hand and pressed it above his head, pressing his head back to its original position.

Immediately after, he turned the handle as though unaffected and pushed the wooden door open again, allowing it to lean against the shipboard.

However, this time, there was no grayish-white fog to be seen, nor were there any visible streets, houses, or trains. It could be said that there was nothing unusual.

In the next second, the wooden door rapidly decayed, turning into a pile of mud, as if it was trying to avoid the fate of being tested.]

The dream divination ended.

Ouch, what the hell is this.

I tried to erase this scene from my mind.

Ah, I remember a last time where Bansy was mentioned.

It was when Klein was talking with Amanises…

[« I want to know if the grayish-white fog that envelops the River of Eternal Darkness has something to do with that Lord of the Mysteries. »

Amanises : « Yes. Furthermore, not only is the River of Eternal Darkness enveloped by the grayish-white fog, but the city behind Bansy Harbor, and the entire Western Continent is enveloped by the same grayish-white fog. »

Klein hesitated for a moment before saying :

« This is a kind of seal ? »

The Evernight Goddess's dream projection nodded.

« That's right. Apart from Sefirah Castle and the Chaos Sea, all the other sefirot were sealed in the Western Continent by that mysterious Lord of the Mysteries. »]

Mr. Fool had also said that the city behind Bansy Harbor's door was like the former Shanghai.

Sorry, I don't think that the former Shanghai was full of decomposing people, but of course I never went there.

He said that the City of Calamity affected that city in the real world, as well as Bansy. When he saw the scene behind the door in Bansy, he had suspected that it had something to do with the Western Continent. Furthermore, according to the clue that Bansy was the headquarters of Red Angel Medici's family, he suspected that behind the door was the reflection of the sefirah, the City of Calamity.

The City of Calamity was one of the seven Sefirot that was sealed in the Western Continent by the Lord of the Mysteries, it corresponds to the Sefirah for the Above the Sequences of the Red Priest Pathway and the Demoness Pathway.

Mr. Fool, don't bombard with so much high level mysticism knowledge each time I ask you a question. How can you expect me to remember everything ?!

*reminiscing the past when I did not know anything about this world and Mr. Historian (The Fool) just talked too much*

Conclusion : dream divination is great !

Putting all the clues together, The Fool's guess makes sense. Mr. Fool, I thank you to have done all the work for me.

In short, the people at the Green Lemon Restaurant were strange because they had been corrupted/influenced by the City of Calamity !

Secret solved !

Now, let's visit the City of Calamity !

I am the Error Uniqueness, of course I can create a bug to bypass the seal ! I am made of gray fog so the fog sealing that Sefirah won't stop me from passing through !

Seeing that it was night, I reopened the door and headed out.

Mr. Fool, watching her from Sefirah Castle : …The connection was cut off.

I looked around me and walked through the fog.

As I went deeper and deeper into the City of Calamity, I felt a gaze on me and turned to the side.

I saw a mysterious man.

I stopped walking and began a staring contest.

Suddenly, he chuckled and raised his hand.

An invisible force pushed me and, in no time, I was back to Bansy Harbor.

What the hell ?

Mr. Fool : Ah, the connection returned.

Was it a high Sequence Beyonder or something ? But how could they survive inside a Sefirah ? And in these cases, aren't they supposed to kill you or corrupt you instead of pushing you out ?

(Xin Jian : *wondering why she isn't dead*

Mr. Fool : If you know, why did you do it ?!)

(Remnant will of a Great Old One (the mysterious man) : This girl looked straight at me and survived ? How is it possible ?

Xin Jian : It was luck.

Luck : Too much luck was consumed, you will be unlucky for a while.

Author : It was plot armor I tell you.

Xin Jian : Plot armor doesn't need to intervene yet since I have many chances of resurrection (and the author is a sadist).

Plot armor : With the future script, it is reasonable that Xin Jian survived by luck.

Author : *speechless*

Mr. Fool : *looks at the script* Damn, that's true…)

That's how Bansy's episode ended.

(Xin Jian : No, I don't understand. What happened ?)

Puzzled.jpg

—————— I am the dividing line~

At the Tarot meeting, me, Lilith, The Fool, (Amon) and Adam were playing at a game.

Damn, do they all have the clown's Beyonder abilities or something ? They didn't even react when they saw Adam. Was His arrival that predictable ?

(Answer -> Yes.)

In our game, I betrayed The Fool and sided with Adam and Amon.

« Why did you kill me ?! »

With my usual stoic face, I answered :

« No reason. »

The Fool was annoyed.

"Why are you like this…"

I recalled Lanevus's death.

Sorry, I saw your past self say that hundreds of times, I must have unconsciously picked up your habit.

Conclusion : This is your fault.

Should I begin laughing like a madman now ?

(Since that's what happened after Lavenus died for "no reason".)

No, let's not do that…

—————— I am the dividing line~

Still above the gray fog :

Recently, Mr. Fool has been teaching me martial arts and, this morning, He had a "good idea"… At this point I don't know if I influenced Him or if He was the one to influence me.

But well, when we have ideas, it's always bad ideas… (Like when Klein makes divinations about gods, but at least it's fun).

« Xin Jian, if you want to fight, you must not only focus on martial arts, you should also use other weapons. »

I made a salute.

« Okay, Master. »

Mr. Fool continued :

« Since they are more commonly used, let's begin with guns. We will practice shooting. »

Lol.

Mr. Fool pulled out a gun's historical projection and gave instructions.

« You can shoot now, aim for the head of the target. »

I got into position, shot and put down the gun.

I looked at the target and closed my eyes.

« As expected. »

I heard Mr. Fool's voice behind me.

« …Did I do something wrong ? »

I answered.

« No. »

His heart was beating fast because the bullet had arrived right next to his face.

« Then why did you… ? »

« I was aiming straight ahead. »

I heard Mr. Fool's thoughts :

"Then why did it arrive in the opposite direction ?!"

As expected, I'm still so bad at aiming !

Mr. Fool became worried that He would get shot in the training process and pulled out a shield from the historical pores.

« … »

Aren't you going overboard ?

—————— I am the dividing line~

Above the gray fog, I was trying to think up plans.

Plans about what ? That's already what I was trying to know so I can't answer this question…

I quickly gave up the plan to create 22 sealed artifact corresponding to the main arcana cards, the one to recreate an entire internet network and I finally settled on the one to harass everyone who did not like me.

Because, you know, when people are already annoyed by you and you voluntarily make them even more annoyed, that's really satisfying… (That's just the type of person I am, I can't help it.)

While I was thinking of that, the new secret puppet I let in Backlund to deal with the Life School of Thought saw a newspaper on the table.

I have to add that she was currently in a rented apartment that was, of course, paid by the church. I have also named her "fake Xin Jian".

(Author : *clap, clap, clap* That's so original ! So creative… !

Xin Jian : Hey, find a better name if you're not satisfied.

Author : No, thank you.)

I suddenly wanted to imitate Klein who usually read newspapers in the morning, so I controlled fake Xin Jian to pick it up.

I didn't really intend to read it but…

"A rumor has been spread in the slums recently that an evil god named the True Creator is dead and has been replaced by the new secret existence that emerged recently, namely, The Fool. The churches have not denied it and the Aurora Order is in chaos…"

« … »

Can you really put this in a newspaper ? It wasn't censored ?

I checked the date.

It was published since a few days ago.

I took a coin and divined whether Medici was the culprit for this…

« Medici, you're doomed. »

With a smile on fake Xin Jian's face, I made her crush the newspaper in her hand.

While thinking about how to take revenge on Medici, I controlled her to search for the members of the Aurora Order (with their newly created mysticism connection to Mr. Fool) and took over all of their Spiritual lines. (Because, if I just left them like that then they wouldn't listen to me anymore now that they know the truth.)

Ah… The Aurora Order is now completely annihilated, I guess I can only create an organization full of Xin Jians now…

The Xin Jian family… Or would it be better to call it the Xin family ? Or the Jian family ? Is Xin Jian my full name or just my name ? Hmm…

From then on, the name "Aurora Order" became the name of an organization completely different from the previous bunch of lunatics who believed in the now dead True Creator.

Meanwhile, the pitiful Medici who had tried to avenge Himself : Why do I feel chills all of a sudden ?

So, for the revenge, is it better to send Him a bunch of secret puppets who all have my face or just Amon ?

*horror movie.jpg*

I have decided.

I will travel around the world and try to use the law of aggregation of Beyonder characteristics to guide me to the kingdom of the night !

Since we were once accommodated in the same body, my mysticism connection with the Seer Uniqueness should be very strong ! We're also from adjacent pathways !

(Author : The kingdom of the night is in a secret state…

Mr. Fool : May luck guide you.

Xin Jian : But Mr. Fool could still see images of Antigonus in his divinations so the Hornacis Mountain range in itself in not in a secret state. My plan can work.)

Fake Xin Jian, I will let you in charge of Audrey's lessons from now on ! (And since you are basically me, it won't change anything.)

I controlled fake Xin Jian to nod and make a salute.

Then I went down the gray fog through Klein's crimson star and began to walk aimlessly in… whatever city we were in.

—————— I am the dividing line~

Complete luck guided my steps as I (literally) traversed land and seas.

After I had tried imitating Moïse by walking on water, I wanted to try flying and that's how I came across Edwina's fleet.

Next I will imitate Jésus by hanging myself on a cross, and after that I will imitate God by telling others to kill their son… The hardest part is to know if they have a son and whether they love him or not, if they don't love him then it won't be fun…

So, I went down and looked around the ship until I saw Edwina Edwards with the clown ability in one of these rooms.

I knocked on the door.

Hello, I am a stranger who literally appeared on your ship…

Ahem.

« Enter. »

Thank you…

I opened my mouth but Edwina spoke before me.

« Who are you ? »

And here's the question I didn't want to answer…

Okay, let's give an euphemistic description…

« I am an angel. »

Yep. I didn't add any weird adjectives or say that I serve a fake evil god or a secret existence, etc… so this is an euphemistic description.

Now Edwina will not feel threatened at all when I will put forward my suspicious request.

« …Do you want to join the Tarot Club ? It will let you learn a lot of mysticism knowledge… »

And I am an angel, I can kill you in an instant, your life is in danger so accept-

« No. »

Hey, you didn't even ask what the Tarot Club was.

« Okay. »

I turned back and left Edwina's ship.

Since it failed with Edwina, I'll try with Anderson instead. There isn't any seats left for girls anyway… (Except Cattleya's).

- Arouse Edwina's desire for research to join the Tarot Club. (Failed)

Now let's go back to the preparations for the bloodless war, I had actually put aside a few details…

*hung on a cross while thinking.jpg*

I tried the Hanged Man's position but it is not comfortable at all. I swear, that guy is a masochist.

(Mr. Fool : Where did you even find the cross ?)

Apart from the fact that I am not learning martial arts at all while being on this cross… No, I'm trying Qi cultivation and synchronization with nature, I'm sure Jésus did the same at the time. (Well, only if he existed.)

For the Numinous Episcopate, here is the information I gathered these past few days (from Mr. Fool).

*Mr. Fool is a wiki.jpg*

The Numinous Episcopate originated from the Southern Continent. After the collapse of the Balam Empire due to the destruction of the Death, a few surviving members of the Eggers Family started a new secret organization. Their goal is to revive the Death, the first Underworld Emperor, and Sequence 0 Death, Salinger, by following the Artificial Death project he left behind.

In short, they must not discover that the current Death is Amanises.

Mr. Azik, can't you go there and tell them to stop everything ? Or take control of the organization ?

But I'm actually not very comfortable with using Mr. Azik for my plans…

…Which does not mean that I can't use his appearance !

Anyway, Mr. Azik is sleeping. Even if He finds out something, I can always put the blame on His missing memories.

…Which will be found out immediately since He would have been sleeping at that time.

However, the seven orthodox churches knew of their intentions and were quite proactive in rooting them out. They were nearly eradicated after the Southern Continent was colonized, but they stubbornly survived and spread toward the countries of the Northern Continent.

Their members believe that death is not the end and that everything can be reversed.

Sorry guys, it's only the case for Mr. Fool…

Seriously, your organization's ideas look like a sentence to evade responsibility for your actions.

"Sorry, I killed you. But this is not the end ! It's not a big deal, everything can be reversed."

No, guy, you just committed murder !

In other words, this organization is totally illegal.

And I like it.

The Numinous Episcopate has many factions in their organization.

In the Artificial Death faction, the leader is Haiter who was once an archbishop of the Church of Death from the time of the Balam Empire. They have three saints and an angel in West Balam.

Three saints and an angel…

The strongest faction is the royal family faction. With the descendants of Eggers family as the core, they have established many organizations. Other than Sia Palenque Eggers, the royal family faction has five other saint apostles. Some of them are true demigods, while others rely on Sealed artifacts.

The other factions are relatively weaker. The main ones are the Repose faction and the Underworld faction. Only by working together do they have three powerful Beyonders who are equivalent to the saint apostles.

Like, what the hell ? You actually have at least four factions in your organization.

This is not a novel where four ducal households are opposing each other, guys.

No wonder you were nearly eradicated by the seven orthodox churches after the Southern Continent was colonized.

And the Numinous Episcopate also has a sub branch called the Eternal Life Society. They established the Black Skeleton Gang in East Borough, Backlund in order to grasp various intel and obtain funds and seek out any items related to Death, and send it back to the Southern Continent.

Haaa… What do I do, what do I do ?

So, Amanises should let the control of the Artificial Death faction to Klein through Patrick Brian, but I should still make a trip to West Balam to put the three saints and the angel to my side. Let's just control their spiritual lines…

See ? It is always easy to control secret organizations if there are high sequence Beyonders because they are often the higher-ups. Strength is power.

Then let's meet Sia Palenque Eggers and have a good talk, as well as with the five saint apostles of the royal family faction and their demigods. When Amanises will have accommodated the Death Uniqueness, She should have control over the pathway and be able to find them… Or let's just use divination.

Or let's go shopping in the Southern Continent with the mother of heaven and try my luck with the law of aggregation of Beyonder characteristics.

Nice, the plan is done.

As a Sequence 1 Uniqueness who can use three pathways, let's solve everything with violence !

The last thing was about the Rose School of Thought Temperance faction… Let's just find Miss Messenger.

Now that I think of it, Klein should make a contract with Reinette Tinekerr next week, and the Sea God's scepter should arrive on Monday.

Kalvetua, all my condolences. Your death is a necessary sacrifice…

I'll also have to study information on Miss Messenger before next week…

Well, that's all !

Snif, my list of things to do is even longer now…