The barrier of gray fog shattered, dissolving into motes of light that were instantly swallowed by the encroaching darkness.
But this darkness wasn't empty. It was alive. It was a canvas for the Moon.
It didn't rise from the horizon. It blossomed from the silhouette of Amanises. The Uniqueness of the Moon Pathway pulsed in her hand, turning the absolute darkness of her concealment into a realm of terrifying, bloody beauty.
The thousands of marionettes charging down the mountain—knights in silver armor, giants wielding hammers, mutated wolves—suddenly faltered.
Amanises didn't attack. She simply existed. Under the crimson light, her starlight dress seemed to weave into the fabric of the universe. She became the embodiment of the Yin, the primal concept of allure that transcended species and sanity.
The marionettes, possessing only the rudimentary spirituality granted by their master, stopped. They looked at her. Their dull eyes widened. Their jerky movements smoothed out, becoming reverent.
Clang. Clang.
Weapons dropped to the cobblestones. They knelt.
It wasn't mind control. It was a biological and spiritual imperative to worship the most beautiful existence. Even the wind seemed reluctant to blow past her, lingering to caress her veil.
"Cute," Amanises giggled. Her voice was a melody that made Klein's own Spirit Body tremble, the threads of his rationality fraying at the edges.
"Don't look at her!" Klein shouted, tapping his wrist.
[Self Sense: Active. Isolating intrusion.]
The Neurotech Chip burned hot against his skin, pumping calculated logic into his brain to counter the divine charm.
The Secretive Plotter snorted, shifting his gaze to the sky.
"Flashy."
ROAR!
The spell was broken by a sound that tore through the crimson night. From the central palace at the peak, a wave of gray fog erupted, clashing with the darkness.
Two figures descended. One was a woman shrouded in storm clouds and darkness, holding a bone sword—Philanias, the Mother of the Sky. The other was a nightmare. A giant, wolf-like monstrosity covered in tufts of white and black fur and strange, transparent maggots that formed symbols of concealment and fate.
Antigonus.
"Amanises!" Antigonus howled, his voice layered with the distortion of a Mythical Creature. "You dare invade my kingdom?!"
He raised his claws.
Swish.
Invisible threads shot out, covering the sky like a spiderweb. Only Klein had seen it.
[Spirit Body Threads].
He didn't aim for the trio.
He aimed for the concept of their control. He attempted to turn the entire invading party into marionettes instantly.
"I'll handle the sister," the Plotter stated boredly. He didn't move. He simply appeared at a different coordinate. Philanias swung her sword at him, but the blade passed through his body as if he were a hologram.
The Plotter grabbed the empty air. The space around Philanias folded, dragging her into a pocket dimension of pure white nothingness.
"Leave the dog to us," Amanises said, snapping her fingers.
The kneeling marionettes suddenly shrieked. Their bodies twisted. Bones cracked and reshaped. Fur sprouted from armor. Under the influence of the Moon, the army of the dead mutated into hideous, bloomed monstrosities—vampiric giants, werewolf knights—that turned and attacked their former master.
"Insolence!" Antigonus swiped his claw. Space distorted. The mutated marionettes were sliced into ribbons, their flesh vanishing into the Historical Void.
He turned his many eyes toward Amanises.
"You... You are even more beautiful than before." His voice trembled with a twisted, mad affection. "I will make you my finest puppet. We will be together forever."
Looks like he didn't fully regain his sanity.
"Creepy," Amanises muttered. She raised the Scythe "Junior, flank him!"
She began to use the slumber on thousands of Antigonus's marionettes.
Klein moved.
[Flaming Jump].
He flashed through the explosion of a marionette, appearing on a rooftop to Antigonus's flank.
['Star Will' is affected by Probability of the Third Epoch!]
[Modifier 'The Monarch of Waning Eternities' has been temporarily acquired!]
[System Alert!]
[The Seal of 'Lv. 13 Cane of the Depraved Monarch' is getting weaker!]
He raised the [Cane of the Depraved Monarch]. The bone-wood artifact hummed, the seal of the 9th Demon King loosening as it tasted the thick spirituality of a Demonic Wolf.
"Rot," Klein whispered.
[Projectile Launch]
He fired a "bullet" of decay.
It wasn't a physical projectile. It was a gray-green blur of withering energy.
Antigonus sensed the threat. He didn't dodge.
He swapped places with a marionette.
[Paper Figurine Substitute].
Splat.
The marionette disintegrated into dust before the bullet even hit it.
But Klein twisted the handle of the cane.
The beam of decay curved. It ignored the logic of the swap. It locked onto the identity of Antigonus, tracing the spiritual connection back to the main body.
It struck Antigonus in the shoulder.
"ARGH!" Antigonus screamed as the fur on his shoulder turned black and fell off. The flesh underneath liquefied. The wound didn't heal; it spread, defying the regeneration of a Mythical Creature.
"You..." Antigonus turned his gaze toward Klein. The transparent maggots on his body writhed in unison.
He focused on Klein. Klein felt his own Spirit Body Threads tighten. His arms jerked. His thoughts became sluggish. 'He is trying to control me! He's brute-forcing it with higher status!'
Klein's hand moved to his pocket, but his fingers were stiff.
[Giant Story 'The Kingdom That Rotted in a Single Night' glances at the enemy!]
[Giant Story 'The Emperor Who Refused to Die' roars!]
"Got you," Antigonus hissed. "..?"
Klein's eyes remained calm behind the top hat. Klein didn't even need to use his own ability of controlling Spirit Body Threads. The Great Fables(to be precise their status) that he wielded with the help of his cane resisted the control.
False Logic.'[Special Skill: False Logic] activated.
"I am," Klein choked out, infusing his voice with spirituality, "a rock."
It was a lie.
A stupid lie.
But for a split second, the System and the World believed it.
The Spirit Body Threads slipped. You cannot turn a rock into a marionette (unless you are a higher sequence, but the logic hiccup was enough).
Klein dropped from the air. He landed in a crouch.
His eyes remained calm behind the top hat. 'You want a connection? Fine. I'll give you one.'(;3)
He raised his left hand. The sleek, black glove of [Hunger of the Digital Void] hummed. Blue circuitry lit up, forming a devouring maw.
[File 5: Naboredisley][Status: Active]
[Spirit Inhaling].
He didn't try to cut the threads. He used them as a straw. The Spirit Body Threads were a two-way street. They connected the user to the marionette. But Klein opened a void.
WHOOSH.
The spiritual flow reversed. Antigonus, who was pulling Klein's spirit, suddenly felt a massive, terrifying suction from the other end of the line. It wasn't just resistance. It was a black hole.
"What—?!" Antigonus choked. His massive wolf body stumbled in the air. His spirituality, his essence, even the transparent maggots on his skin were being dragged out of him, flowing through the threads and into Klein's glove.
Antigonus staggered back, the backlash of the severed connection hitting him.
"Who are you?!" Antigonus roared, his eyes widening. He sniffed the air. "You carry the scent... of the Gray Fog!"
Klein froze. The Sefirah Castle inside him buzzed. It resonated with Antigonus—the future Half-Fool, the being who had gone mad trying to accommodate it.
Antigonus's madness cleared for a second, replaced by absolute shock.
"The Castle... You have the Castle! You are—"
He gripped the cane with both hands. He didn't use a beam.
[Left Hand of Decay].
The air above the battlefield warped.
The Crimson Moon dimmed.
The Darkness receded. A massive, illusory left hand manifested in the sky. It was blue, swollen, translucent, and filled with yellow-green pus. Every capillary was a symbol of absolute end, a complex rune of death.
It wasn't an attack. It was a visual hazard. Antigonus looked up. He saw the Hand.
Freeze. The Demonic Wolf stiffened mid-air. His thoughts stopped. His spirituality stopped. His regeneration stopped. Even the transparent maggots on his body froze in place.
The image of the hand dominated his vision, overwriting his mind with the concept of Inavoidable Decay.
"Die," Klein commanded, slamming the cane into the ground.
CRACK.
Antigonus's body didn't explode. It crumbled. Gray fur turned to ash. Flesh turned to black sludge. Bones turned to liquid. The majestic Mythical Creature form collapsed into a pile of putrid waste in less than a second.
[You have killed a Sequence 2: Miracle Invoker.]
[You have acquired a Beyonder Characteristic.]
A cluster of translucent, writhing worms floated up from the sludge, converging into a glowing, gray ball. They tried to scatter, to reform, but the [Hunger of the Digital Void] was already open.
Whirrr. The characteristic was sucked into the glove's storage instantly.
"Brutal," Amanises whistled, landing beside him. She held a struggling, unconscious Philanias by the neck. The Secretive Plotter stood nearby, wiping his star-sword on a piece of cloud.
Klein looked back. There was a battlefield, a sleepfield of marionettes lying motionlessly on the ground.
"He... he sensed it," Klein panted, his face pale from the spiritual drain of the Cane and the terror of exposure. "Arrodes was correct."
"It's fine," Amanises said, looking at the pile of sludge.
She created a cage of darkness around Philanias. "Dead dogs tell no tales. But live sisters do."
She slapped Philanias awake. The Mother of the Sky gasped, her eyes darting around. She saw the pile of sludge that used to be her brother. "Antigonus!"
"He's gone," Amanises said coldly. Her voice was layered with horror. "And you are next. Unless you tell us."
"Tell you what?" Philanias spat, tears of blood leaking from her eyes.
"The Sequence 1: Attendant of Mysteries characteristic," Amanises leaned in, her eyes glowing like red moons. "I know Antigonus didn't have it yet. He was preparing the ritual. Where is the main ingredient?"
Philanias clamped her mouth shut. "I will never—"
Amanises didn't have time for torture. She placed a hand on Philanias's forehead.
She forcibly dragged the goddess into a nightmare, peeling back the layers of her mind like an onion. Minutes passed. Philanias convulsed, foam appearing at her mouth.
"Got it," Amanises released her, letting the unconscious angel fall to the snow. She pointed to the highest peak of the Hornacis range, to an ancient, ruined temple that predated even the Nation of the Evernight.
"It's there," she said. "An inheritance from Flegrea that Antigonus was saving for his ascension. He hid it in the Cathedral of Reverence."
She looked at Klein. "Go."
Klein looked at the peak. Then he looked at the Cane in his hand, feeling the creeping numbness in his fingers—the side effect of [Decay]. His thoughts were slow, but his resolve was iron.
[Quest Updated: The Missing Chapter]
[Objective Complete: Acquire Sequence 1 Characteristic]
[Next Objective: Prevent the Death of Ancient Sun God.]
[Current Status: Preparation for Rose Redemption Meeting.]