The lady who suddenly appeared had a beautiful, expressionless face, and her dark, deep black eyes lacked vitality.
As Klein met her gaze, a cold yet not piercing sensation suddenly emerged, instantly soothing the distracting thoughts and worries in his heart, as if he were quietly gazing at the Darkness, gazing at the Cosmos.
He remembered this feeling vividly, having a fleeting illusion of time flowing backward, returning to that day in Tingen City when he pressed his hand on that holy relic and chanted the Goddess's honorific name.
This… Before Klein could fully recover, the figure instantly faded and vanished from the spot, along with Trissy, who had been screaming shrilly.
Standing alone in the now grayish-white living room, Klein's mind raced with various conjectures, somewhat disbelieving that he had just escaped danger.
Calming his mind, he finally found a sense of reality:
"The one who could give me that feeling must be a powerful individual sent by the Church. She arrived in time and dealt with Trissy, who was connected to the Primordial Demoness."
"However, I am far from safe right now. With such a major upheaval in the Demoness Sect, the Loen Royal Family, who has been secretly plotting something, will definitely take action. I must leave Backlund as soon as possible!"
After quickly assessing his situation, Klein was still planning whether to use the East Tucker family to escape Backlund when sudden changes occurred before his eyes.
Reds became redder, yellows became yellower, and various colors intensely overlapped, depicting a strange oil painting!
A man of medium build with bronze skin slowly walked out. His brown eyes revealed a sense of vicissitude, his features were quite gentle, and there was a tiny black mole below his right ear.
"Mr. Azik!" Seeing this familiar figure, Klein exclaimed in surprise. At this moment, all the suspicions and anxieties he had felt after learning Mr. Azik's identity vanished, replaced by a true sense of peace filling his heart.
Mr. Azik chuckled softly, explaining in a gentle tone:
"I left a contingency on the copper whistle. When that Demoness took it, I discovered the anomaly and arrived at Minsk Street, but by then, you had already entered the mirror world, until that person just left…"
He paused, quickly moving past this topic and continued:
"Something big is going to happen in Backlund. I'll take you out of here first!"
Looking at Mr. Azik, whose expression had turned serious and somewhat inscrutable, Klein, though curious about the identity of that mysterious lady, rationally chose not to press further.
At Mr. Azik's reminder, he finally noticed that Backlund outside the window had changed. Under the crimson moonlight, yellowish-green smog began to spread like a tide.
"This, what is this?" As soon as he spoke, Azik grabbed his arm and moved through the depths of overlapping, intense colors!
Everything around them seemed like an illusion, colors intense and overlapping, rapidly receding.
Klein's expression changed for a moment, and he sighed helplessly, beginning to observe and experience this wondrous passage, his gaze unconsciously drawn to the seven mirror lights suspended at the highest point.
Just as he was about to ask Mr. Azik some questions, Klein felt Mr. Azik's hand, which was gripping his arm, trembling slightly.
The surrounding illusory and blurry Spirit World creatures fled as if in escape, and within the colorful, overlapping blocks of color, an illusory pair of large Doors instantly outlined themselves.
The Door seemed to be made of bronze, not quite real, yet extraordinarily heavy, its surface covered with countless strange patterns and symbolic signs of unknown meaning.
With a creak, the Door split open, and from within, pale, bloody arms stretched out, jostling each other. Besides these, there were also greenish-black vines with infant faces and slippery tentacles with protruding eyes, attempting to seal off the area.
Mr. Azik's expression turned cold, and an indescribable aura surged from his body. The arms, vines, and tentacles emerging from behind the Door of the Underworld trembled uncontrollably, revealing a black-robed man hidden within them.
"Numinous Episcopate's Patrick Bryan, by the Grand Archpriest's decree, has come to pay respects to Death Consul Azik."
Patrick Bryan pulled down his hood, revealing a sharply defined, lean face with black hair and brown eyes.
Klein, protected behind Mr. Azik, instantly recognized this Numinous Episcopate demigod whom he had met once in the Green Cemetery on the outskirts.
Unlike before, Patrick Bryan now held a sinister green skull in his hand, its hollow eye sockets like a deep, bottomless vortex.
Stimulated by Mr. Azik's aura, that vortex expanded, emitting a cold, chilling, and superior aura that made Klein instinctively tremble and lower his head.
This was the aura of another Death Consul!
Even if Azik's strength was currently only at the Undying level due to his memory loss, his essence as a Death Consul, or even higher, gave him a natural suppression over demigods of the Death Pathway. Only by holding such an angel-level artifact could one reduce or avoid this negative effect.
Reverently holding the skull, Patrick Bryan, with a fanatical yet somewhat puzzled expression, questioned:
"You are a blood relative of God. If you could join us, God would surely awaken from slumber. Why are you unwilling?"
"If it's because of your memories, if you agree, I can take you to the Grand Archpriest right now, and all your questions can be answered."
Azik's expression was cold, and he was not moved by Patrick Bryan's words. He merely said coldly:
"I told you before, I wish to find my memories myself. Now, disappear from my sight!"
Patrick sighed deeply, as if he had already anticipated this, and no longer suppressed the sinister green skull in his hand, allowing it to burrow into his glabella.
A sudden ominous feeling surged in Klein's heart. Before he could react, he felt an intense sensation of weightlessness, his body uncontrollably falling and even spinning. He was directly flung out of the Spirit World by Azik.
The surrounding red, yellow, white, and other colors rapidly faded. In the last moment before leaving the Spirit World, Klein saw dense black mist appear, enveloping the area where Mr. Azik was, faintly forming a coffin.
The complacency he had felt from his rapid advancement was utterly extinguished by these successive blows. Klein felt a deep-seated sense of powerlessness. Now, he couldn't even protect himself, let alone others.
His chaotic thoughts were abruptly interrupted. Klein fell heavily onto the solid ground, his head dizzy and his internal organs churning.
Through his vision, which was dotted with golden stars, everything slowly returned to normal.
To his left was a dark, bottomless Abyss, like the legendary Abyss of Devils. To his right was a gray stone wall that stretched upward, seemingly supporting the entire area.
There was no crimson moonlight here, nor any yellowish-green mist. The only light came from luminous moss growing in different places. Darkness and profundity were the main colors of this "world."
"This is an underground ruin… Is it in another area? Or is it still near Backlund?"
Klein endured the soreness throughout his body, forcing himself to stand up from the ground. Before he could further investigate his current situation, he felt a strong sense of malice and resentment.
A section of a curled, blood-stained umbilical cord with burn marks was bound by fine threads woven from starlight, twisting and wriggling above his head, seemingly holding a deep grudge.
His eyelids twitched. Klein instantly recognized that this was the remnant of the Evil God's offspring that he had given a "great gift" with a Sun Flame Talisman back in Tingen City.
"How did this thing appear here?"
Thinking this, Klein almost instinctively tilted his head slightly. A greenish-blue vine abruptly grew out of the steep, smooth rock wall, and a woman dressed in a unique style sat casually on the vine, her azure eyes sparkling with an assessing gaze.
What's going on today? Why are all these High-Sequence powerhouses appearing in clusters… Feeling a bit bitter, Klein froze in place, unsure what to say for a moment.
Before Klein could come up with a probing excuse, a clear, ethereal voice resounded:
"Sherlock Moriarty…"
She knows me? Why? These two thoughts flashed through Klein's mind, and then he heard a more explanatory addition:
"Duke Aaron once mentioned you to me. As one of the additional conditions for helping me advance this time, I will safely send you out of Backlund."
After speaking, without giving Klein a chance to choose, a long whip condensed from starlight lashed fiercely at the Evil God's umbilical cord. The wailing of wronged souls immediately arose, making Klein's forehead twitch and causing him to obediently shut his mouth.
Once this evil object settled down, Bernadette led Klein around the cliff face and into a dark corridor with a vaulted ceiling. The walls on both sides were adorned with numerous mottled murals.
After turning a corner, they soon entered a large hall where four guards in dark black full body armor stood, their gazes sharp.
A flickering orange-yellow flame appeared out of thin air. Strangely, this flame "grew" on the tip of a matchstick, on the verge of extinguishing.
Klein, who was just about to observe this mysterious powerhouse's move, was somewhat astonished to find that the four guards, whose auras clearly reached the Mid-sequence level, seemed to see nothing, showing no unusual reaction even as the two walked through the hall.
What kind of Sequence ability is this… Klein's expression was momentarily blank. He glanced at the now extinguished and vanished matchstick, then quickly quickened his pace, following the passage to its end.
There was an illusory Door composed purely of faint blue light, completely sealed off otherwise.
Bernadette's azure eyes seemed to flow with illusory rivers. With one hand, she pinched the suddenly agitated, blood-stained umbilical cord, and clusters of brilliant starlight emerged from the void. After enveloping the umbilical cord, the starlight instantly condensed, forming a transparent amber.
This item, closely related to the True Creator, could sense the location of a divine descent altar, but the sensing was mutual; the altar's controller could also sense the arrival of an intruder.
After Bernadette arrived at this underground ruin using coordinates obtained from deciphering a magic array, she had been unilaterally interfering with and blocking that sensation using her Clairvoyant abilities, until now.
"Finally found it!"
A voice tinged with a smile echoed in his ears. Before Klein could fully grasp the meaning of this sentence, he felt a gentle force push him away.
An ancient-style spear appeared, its entire length from tip to shaft stained with dark red blood, emanating a strong aura of destruction.
With a whoosh, this terrifying spear shot out. All sounds vanished, and the guards who had been standing before the illusory Door were instantly annihilated into dust.
Amidst the crisp, piercing sound of shattering, the faint blue illusory Door rapidly collapsed, revealing a wide, deep passage behind it.
Illusory, overlapping cries emanated from the deep passage. It seemed as if someone was calling, and the sounds of painful groans seemed to turn into a tide.
Without the obstruction of the passage, as half a mysticism expert, Klein seemed to see illusory, transparent figures formed from unwilling resentment, rushing into the passage one after another, gradually becoming part of that tide.
They all seemed to be shouting the same words:
"The Lord that Created Everything,
The Lord who Reigns Behind the Curtain of Shadows,
The Degenerate Nature of all Living Things"
His expression suddenly turned grim. Klein looked at the woman in front of him, wearing a finely meshed veil, and without much thought, asked directly:
"Who exactly are you?"
Allowing the tide of numb despair, pain, and hatred to pour into the passage, Bernadette paid no attention to Klein's tone and said calmly:
"On the sea, they all call me Queen Mystic!"
"Queen Mystic" Bernadette? Roselle's eldest daughter?
Klein was stunned. He truly hadn't expected that someone who had only appeared in Roselle's diary would appear before him in such a way.
"Wait here!"
Starlight rippled around Klein, seemingly forming a barrier. After Bernadette left her last words, she transformed into a beam of light and entered the passage.
The brilliant starlight illuminated the palace within the passage, its dome supported by stone pillars, as well as the altar surrounded by layers of light, and the tall, thin figure standing within the altar.
Mr. A had removed his hood, revealing a beautiful, eerie, almost feminine face, while his left chest, shoulder, abdomen, and thighs were covered with wriggling, viscous, disgusting flesh.
Around him, the layers of light were filled with illusory, transparent figures, brimming with feelings of numbness, despair, and painful suppression.
Above the entire hall, even more radiance penetrated from unknown places, swiftly entering the altar along the stone pillars covered with symbolic signs and magical markings.
Sensing Bernadette's aura, this Shepherd's expression turned ruthless. He half-raised his hands, adopting an open-armed posture, and shouted in ancient Hermes:
"Great Lord, Your devout follower implores Your descent;"
"I am willing to offer my body as a vessel to bear Your great will!"
Amidst the prayer, a light suddenly descended from an unknown place above Mr. A's head, completely enveloping him.