105: 'Amon'

Don tried to pick up the water cup on the table, but his hand passed right through the somewhat worn-looking cup without any physical contact.

He was merely a projection from higher dimensions to lower dimensions, a 'depression' of Euclidean space in the real world.

This was similar to two sheets of white paper that were parallel to the ground and parallel to each other, where one sheet was poked at a corner by an external force, pressing it toward the other sheet.

Parts of the two sheets overlapped, but this overlapping portion could not be considered as one entity, just as things drawn on the first sheet could not truly appear on the second sheet.

What belonged to the first sheet was the first sheet's, and what belonged to the second sheet could only belong to the second sheet.

Though seemingly existing in the real world, he still belonged to a different space. The two worlds were completely parallel, and in this situation, the higher dimension still had no power to truly affect the lower dimension.

"Overall dimensional reduction of Euclidean space would cause this effect, and in this state, I myself would also be protected by Euclidean space, just like when I previously observed the Worm of Time without being detected, when the divine descenders from the universe's dark side tried to trace my whereabouts but returned empty-handed, when attacks could not take effect, when divination lost its efficacy, when danger intuition could not find the source of danger, when all influences caused by beyonder powers were cut off."

Perhaps even Angels of the Marauder pathway could not steal his belongings, because he wasn't in the real world—this was just a projection.

"...Well, maybe not. It's also possible that part of the Euclidean space's power could be stolen? But what anomalies would occur if that happened, I dare not be certain."

Apart from being visible, in this state, Don's safety was also greatly ensured.

"This is an irresistible condition for Marionettist, and in this state I can also dimensionally reduce my own beyonder abilities."

Don recalled his previous battle with that judge. "Combined with the manipulation of Spirit Body Threads, just like when I targeted that Loen colonel before, in a situation where the enemy cannot detect the true location of the Bizarro Sorcerer's main body at all, I can completely turn enemies into marionettes at close range. As long as the enemy doesn't immediately run beyond my observable range, then my enemies, even unto death, will never know where exactly a Bizarro Sorcerer is hiding."

Hmm, this also seemed very fitting for a Bizarro Sorcerer.

Bizarre and intangible, unable to be found or caught, unable to even touch his shadow even unto death.

Don looked down at the two figures below.

The baby-faced knight appeared very cautious, and his inner communication with the Angel beside him was constantly displayed before Don's eyes.

While observing this Angel and his parasite, Don played with the monocle in his hand, simultaneously trying hard to recall, using the Clown's beyonder ability to perform Amon's appearance with the help of the mirror in the room.

"Hmm, like this?" He lifted the monocle and clipped it to his left eye socket. "Like this?"

[Host, your smile is terrifying...]

"Don't speak if you have nothing useful to say... Oh, right, I'm also quite curious. If I scare you to death, what do you think would happen to my mission?"

Don deliberately imitated Amon's voice that he had heard when observing Amon before.

Scaring to death a part of the Knowledge Moor—his potion should be completely digested immediately, right?

System: [...]

The system went crying to find the main system for comfort... and to see if there were any other good things there to bring back for the host.

Main System: [??]

"It really seems like there's no one here." On the first floor of the castle, the baby-faced knight looked at the large glass windows facing the garden outside, where flowers bloomed in clusters, each blossom carefully tended and cared for, the soft soil appearing as if maids had just been working there.

Walking through the kitchen, there was still steaming hot food in the kitchen, making the baby-faced knight unconsciously swallow, and only through strong willpower did he slowly shift his gaze away, not looking at those things.

The ground was clean and tidy, and those decorative ornaments similarly showed signs of careful maintenance... Pallez Zoroast examined the surroundings, and the more he looked, the more he felt the current scene was beyonder discordant.

"It's too quiet here."

This wasn't just auditory quietness—there wasn't a single living thing in this castle.

For Worms of Time, birds and beasts, flowers, birds, insects, and fish, even microorganisms in the air—everything that existed with spirit bodies and life signs were potential targets for parasitism, yet this castle had left nothing behind.

The flowers outside the window could not be parasitized, the vines and moss in the corners could not be parasitized, the insects in the air could not be parasitized—there seemed to be no living life here, it was a forbidden zone of life.

But for an Angel, this scene was terrifyingly false.

Seeing this, the Angel chuckled softly.

"Illusion."

As this word fell, the surrounding scene suddenly changed.

It was still the same castle, still the same corridor, but the surroundings had undergone completely different changes.

The black stone brick floor was cracked, green plants covered the walls, full of fissures. The kitchen that once contained delicious soup was now crawling with white maggots, and the chef who had been cooking had long since become a skeleton, staring vacantly at the door.

The windows had long since shattered into pieces, glass shards scattered on the ground. The delicate flowers in the garden had long withered, replaced by skeletal hands that had lost all flesh, desperately reaching out from the earth.

Dusk had arrived, but the crimson moon had not appeared. A pure white moon shed its radiance, illuminating the pitch-black stone bricks that crawled with fat maggots. Under the protruding stone bricks, countless corpses seemed to be buried.

This instant change in scenery almost made the baby-faced knight fall to the ground, staring around in bewilderment and confusion, feeling fear.

"Wh-what happened?"

Pallez Zoroast clicked his tongue again. "This is still an illusion."

"Ah?" The baby-faced knight was shocked and terrified. The stone brick ground he felt was so vivid, the stench in the air was so obvious, the distant skeleton was so real.

How could this possibly be an illusion?

"In the beyonder world, what's impossible?"

Pallez Zoroast said nothing more, and in the next moment he stole away this layer of illusion.

Now they finally returned to the normal world. But it was equally quiet here, the bizarre feeling still existed—this wasn't brought by the illusion, but the castle itself was like this.

"The previous marionettes have all disappeared."

Pallez Zoroast looked around and didn't discover any strange traces.

"It seems the manipulator behind the scenes has already discovered that someone knows the secret of this castle... Then, high-sequence Beyonders of the Seer pathway, or corresponding Sealed Artifacts, are obviously nearby. Who could it be? And what do they intend to do?"

He was already quite curious about this question.

And soon, he got his answer.

The sound of footsteps came from the nearby stairs, and a somewhat thin young man, as if controlled by something, walked step by step into the sight of Pallez Zoroast and the baby-faced knight.

"Young Master Lamud?" The baby-faced knight cried out in surprise. Pallez Zoroast shook his head but didn't mean to stop his host.

"Why... have you come here?"

The second son of Baron Lamud had a pale face.

In this territory, anyone who had lived here long enough knew quite clearly the lord and the main members of his family.

Even though nobles and common people were naturally separated by a gulf, nobles usually stayed in their castles year-round, and their social activities mostly didn't appear before commoners, rarely appearing in public, those who were clever could still make preliminary judgments through age, attire, and other rumors.

And those who became knights could naturally be considered as people under the nobles' command. The first lesson for becoming a knight was to teach them loyalty to their lord, so naturally they couldn't possibly mistake who their object of loyalty was.

With the dim environment as cover, it wasn't difficult to see that Young Master Lamud before them had a poor complexion, as if he had been tormented for a long time, his expression like a dried corpse, numb and helpless.

"Young Master Lamud, it's like this..."

The baby-faced knight instinctively wanted to explain something, wanting to say they meant no harm, but he also realized something.

"You shouldn't have come here, shouldn't have come here..." Young Lamud only kept repeating this sentence, making people feel he wasn't a person with his own thoughts, but rather an exquisitely made puppet, only able to monotonously and repeatedly do certain preset things.

And Young Master Lamud used the word 'you' plural?

He could see? He could see the being with beyonder power?

This abnormality, this indescribable bizarre feeling made the baby-faced knight feel chilled.

Without much mysticism knowledge, he suddenly understood at this moment what the phrase "madness and bizarreness are the keynotes of the beyonder" truly meant.

But Pallez Zoroast made his move at this moment.

"Mr. Zoroast! Wait!"

Pallez Zoroast ignored his host's irrationality and immediately tried to steal away the Spirit Body Threads of the marionette before him.

But those Spirit Body Threads were abnormally 'tough,' making Pallez wonder if there was a problem with his beyonder power, or if he was still in a new layer of illusion.

Illusions layered upon illusions, difficult to guard against—this was an illusion cast by high-sequence Beyonders of the Seer pathway!

Pallez immediately frowned, but quickly realized the problem. This wasn't an issue with the illusion, nor had his beyonder ability failed, but rather—

"The source of the Spirit Body Threads is wrong."

The battle-hardened Angel immediately abandoned the idea of stealing the Spirit Body Threads and changed tactics: he stole the marionette's physiological functions.

For high-sequence Beyonders, facing sudden situations, urgent and incomprehensible events, years of accumulated experience provided ample precedents, allowing them efficient, swift, and precise countermeasures.

If Spirit Body Threads couldn't be stolen, then disable the marionette.

"You... should not be here—"

Young Lamud reached out his hand, instantly grasping the Spirit Body Threads belonging to the baby-faced knight.

In the next moment, a sluggish feeling surged through the baby-faced knight's spirit body, and he would be turned into a marionette within a few seconds. Pallez immediately stole away the marionette's manipulation rights over the Spirit Body Threads, and simultaneously stole the commands the marionette received from the other end of the Spirit Body Threads at this moment.

Marionettes couldn't think and had no way to do anything beyond the commands of their manipulator. When unable to steal the Spirit Body Threads, stealing the commands transmitted through the Spirit Body Threads to the marionette was equivalent to disabling this marionette.

"Look behind you."

But the manipulator's command was full of suggestive instructions, as if the person at the other end of the Spirit Body Threads understood very well that he was facing an Angel of the Marauder pathway, knowing and understanding that the opponent would definitely do this, so this sentence wasn't for the marionette, but for him.

This instruction was the thought that the demigod behind the Spirit Body Threads transmitted to him.

Pallez looked behind him, not feeling afraid because of this suggestive instruction.

"Even if it's a trap, not understanding the situation makes it easy to fall into passivity. Better to take the initiative and find out what it actually is."

Behind him would be nothing more than secretly hidden marionette.

When Pallez stole away the illusion, he had already discovered that some things here had quietly been transformed into marionettes, with Worms of Spirit within these marionettes, able to use the beyonder abilities of high-sequence Seer pathway Beyonders.

"But these roughly made marionettes pose no threat to a battle-hardened Beyonder."

As long as it wasn't Amon's true body suddenly appearing—

Then, he saw someone identical to Young Lamud in front of him, an unexpected person.

"Pallez?"

The Young Lamud behind him had a smile at the corner of his mouth, his expression gentle, his eyes warm and bright, as if genuinely joyful from the heart.

Only at his left eye socket, he wore what appeared to be a monocle carved from crystal.

The monocle's reflection showed Pallez Zoroast's figure, as well as the baby-faced knight who couldn't react at all throughout and could only barely manage not to be a burden.

"So this is where you are."

Pallez' heart jumped, obviously startled by Amon's silent appearance.

He hadn't noticed at all when Amon's clone had appeared beside him!

"Is this an avatar, or the true body?!" Facing his nemesis, this Angel instinctively struck out.

He instantly stole the surrounding space, seemingly wanting to distance himself from this Amon clone.

There was one Amon here, which proved there were already many Amons nearby.

When had Amon's Destiny Theft become so silent?

And this was indeed a trap, wasn't it?

Black curtains fell from the sky at some unknown time, isolating this place from the real world, seemingly forming a hidden world.

After Pallez stole space, his and his parasite's figures didn't leave the castle as expected.

At the same time, this Angel's Spirit Body Threads seemed to be grasped.

The sluggish feeling of thought didn't surge up. The 'Amon' before him looked quite interested, taking off his monocle and beginning to carefully wipe it.

(End of Chapter)