1220 A "Curtain" (1/2)
”God, God is here to save us…”
The words spoken in a sob-filled voice echoed at the entrance of Moon City, causing the residents who were waiting to fall into a trance.
…
At the edges of the grayish-white fog, a fire quietly burned.
After eating another batch of mushrooms, Klein dispelled the iron-black skewer in his hand and looked up at the crater described by Moon City's High Priest, Nim.
He then reached out with his right hand and gently pulled, dragging ”himself” out from fifteen minutes ago.
After exchanging looks, Klein's true form rapidly vanished and entered the fog of history. He ran all the way to a time before the First Epoch, and he sat in the old stacked cities.
His historical projection stood up and snapped his fingers repeatedly, flashing through the crimson flames as he headed for his destination.
When the crater that was once a hill was almost right in front of him, he stopped. He cautiously extended his right palm and pulled Qonas Kilgor out of the void.
The burly Earl of The Fallen's facial muscles twitched as he quickly transformed into another Gehrman Sparrow.
He took out a lantern from the fog of history with one hand and rubbed his temples with the other as he muttered softly, ”Why does a marionette have to change its appearance?
”There's no one else here…
”I can't develop OCD…”
A few seconds later, the marionette's projection carried a lantern that emitted faint yellow light as it walked towards the crater not far away.
As the light flickered, Klein saw his target location and realized that it wasn't too deep. The difference between the bottom and the ground wasn't more than two meters. Of course, compared to the original hill, this change was indeed huge.
Inside the ”crater,” the soil was smooth, and there were a few rocks in it. There were many twisted, mutated plants around it whose species were difficult to distinguish. It looked no different from other places.
After observing for a while, Klein, who had stealthily activated Spirit Body Threads and Spirit Body Threads vision, slowly entered the crater, planning on following his preplanned route and reassessing everything worth paying attention to.
As he walked, he frowned slightly and let out an exclamation.
He realized that his thoughts had turned sluggish, but it didn't affect his thinking!
It was as if he had slept too much and had just woken up—having a heavy head with insufficiently active thoughts.
This was a situation that a person would occasionally experience. Beyonders of the other pathways might not be able to detect it, but as a demigod of the Seer pathway, Klein could clearly sense something amiss.
If it were any deeper, it would be close to the effect when a Marionettist controls Spirit Body Threads… The influence left behind by Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar? That's not right. If ”He” didn't mean to leave it behind, it means that ”He” showed ”His” complete Mythical Creature form back then. That would've resulted in Moon City's investigation team in breaking down and losing control… If ”He” had intentionally left it behind, what would be the purpose? Telling others that ”He” was here? Klein circled the area in puzzlement, but he didn't discover any anomalies.
After some thought, he let his main body that was hiding in the Historical Void in a time before the First Epoch take four steps counterclockwise as he recited the incantation and went above the gray fog.
He wanted to do a divination!
With the exact time and location, Nim's description, and a real-world survey of the area, as well as lighting up some of the historical fragments, he believed that the prerequisite for making a ”divination” had basically been met.
This didn't mean it was enough, but that he could barely give it a try. Besides, if the hill turning into a crater incident had something to do with Sefirah Castle and him, then the chances of a successful divination would greatly increase. The revelation would be very clear and not be interfered with.
Without any further thought, he sat on The Fool's high-back chair. He conjured a dark red fountain pen and yellow parchment and wrote:
”28th June of June 1349 of the Fifth Epoch. The anomaly that happened here.”
He put down the fountain pen and grabbed with his left hand. He pulled out a handful of crater soil from the fog of history to use it as a medium for divination.
With one hand holding the soil and the other holding the parchment, he leaned back in his chair and recited the divination statement seven times. Then, with the help of Cogitation, he fell asleep.
In the hazy dream world, Klein saw the grayish-white solidified fog. He saw the hill that was tens of meters high, and the twisted vegetation around it.
A few seconds later, the fog began to churn and rapidly ”vomited” a black shadow.
The black shadow was like a huge velvet curtain, madly absorbing all the light around it.
Its translucency increased as it completely enveloped the hill.
Following that, the hill vanished without a trace, leaving behind only a crater.
The strange plants at the edge of the crater were also suddenly covered and had black illusory Spirit Body Threads that extended towards different parts of the black ”curtain.”
The ”curtain” became more and more transparent and illusory until it reached a point where one couldn't see it with the naked eye. If not for the fact that he had Spirit Body Threads vision to observe the reality of the scene, Klein wouldn't have been able to discover that the ”curtain” had covered the crater's surface.
The scene flashed, and the dreamscape twisted to reveal a new scene.
Moon City's 5-man patrol team approached and discovered that a crater had replaced the hill that had vanished.
They stopped in their tracks and left the area without hesitation. They didn't rashly investigate.