Lord of the Mysteries

Monday evening. 160 Böklund Street.

Klein set up a ritual and summoned himself. He planned on investigating the secret hidden in the sewers.

While responding above the gray fog, he was in a dilemma about the card to use—the Black Emperor or the Tyrant card. It was like the selection of clothes before heading out.

In consideration of how Backlund was a place where the Church of Storms was a very powerful faction, and being afraid that he would end up attracting High-Sequence irascible bros, Klein ultimately chose to use the Black Emperor card. He wore a crown and black armor with a cape behind him.

Aside from this Card of Blasphemy, he also brought Creeping Hunger, Azik’s copper whistle, Senor’s gold coin, and Broken Finger, the Marauder pathway’s mystical item which Cattleya had given him three hours ago, as well as some ordinary explosives.

Of course, Klein didn’t bring the entire crate of explosives. For a Spirit Body, it was just too heavy. He only took out five sticks and left Senor to hold them in his body.

As for Death Knell, he had left it in his room. This was to prevent himself from having the urge to participate in a battle. He had very clear goals, so once he discovered any problems, to avoid danger, he would immediately leave and not stay behind. On the contrary, a powerful weapon would end up making him act bold, making him wish to probe deeper and resolve the matter by himself.

This is Backlund. It’s best that I don’t create too great a commotion… As for what’s hidden in the sewers, I have no way of being clairvoyant about it. I can only divine whether it will be dangerous… Klein looked at the wall clock in his room, and he confirmed that there was another hour and a half before Hazel took action like she usually did.

His figure suddenly vanished as he passed through the balcony’s glass and flew into the streets before entering the sewers.

In the dirty and humid environment, Klein took out a Loen gold coin and made Wraith Senor appear in front of him with his dark red coat and old triangular hat.

Following that, he handed over the tweezers that resembled two ground bone fingers to his marionette.

Just holding it on him for a short period of time had nearly made him steal the sewer’s manhole cover.

Senor held Broken Finger and walked ahead. Dressed as the Black Emperor, Klein turned invisible and walked behind, allowing his marionette to open up a gap of at least fifty meters from him.

With this distance between them, he was no longer affected by kleptomania, and as a dead person, Senor also lacked the thoughts of stealing.

He didn’t even have any thoughts!

Turning in at the corresponding fork and passing through the hidden door, Wraith Senor held the grayish-white tweezer and appeared inside the half-natural, half-artificial cave.

Unlike before, the oilskin-wrapped tools like shovels had changed positions. The hidden passage on the right had deepened a little.

That was clearly Hazel’s main focus.

Right on the heels of that, Klein, who didn’t enter the fork, leaned against the water of the sewers, his back facing the target region. He controlled his marionette as he walked deeper into the right passage.

Soon, Senor came to the end.

At this moment, Klein suddenly felt the grayish-white tweezer in his marionette’s hand tremble subtly, as though it had been attracted by some unknown object not far away.

The unknown item was deep and profound like a calm ocean. It made it difficult to pry into its exact state.

A characteristic that’s alive, much closer to that of a spirit… Klein was only able to determine this as he immediately let Senor use Mirror Leap to return to the half-natural, half artificial cave, onto a shovel that hadn’t rusted. He didn’t attempt to head deeper underground via the passage.

Then, Senor appeared again, took out the five ordinary sticks of explosives from inside its body, and placed them in different spots.

Every Wraith was a demolition expert!

After doing all of this, Senor’s figure phased away, appearing on the surface of the gold coin in Klein’s hand.

As he stuffed the gold coin into his body, Klein raised his right hand, in preparation to snap his fingers and trigger the five sticks of explosives!

His idea was very simple. It was to deliver an explosion of a suitable scale in order to destroy Hazel’s hard work and traces. It would attract the Nighthawks and resolve everything.

This way, regardless of what was hidden deep in the passage, it wouldn’t bring him danger!

In Backlund, knowing how to ingeniously “sound the alarm” was more effective and safer than rashly attacking by himself. This was especially so when Klein wasn’t capable of determining that the matter involved a demigod!

I’m such a good citizen! As Klein gave a self-deprecating remark, he prepared to snap his fingers to ignite the explosives.

Suddenly, his head swayed a little as he lowered his arm, as though nothing had happened.

The cautious Klein immediately ended the summoning and returned above the gray fog. Then, he returned to the real world and entered his physical body.

Just as he was about to busy himself to bring back Creeping Hunger, Senor’s gold coin, and the other items from the mysterious space above the gray fog, he frowned slightly.

He seriously recalled the entire process of his late-night exploration when he was alarmed to realize that he had apparently lost a small portion of his “memories.”

He didn’t remember if he had triggered the five sticks of ordinary explosives!

As he turned his head to sense his surroundings and confirmed that the entire street was very silent, Klein began to believe that he hadn’t snapped his fingers.

This is a Beyonder power of a Dream Stealer? It seems to be much stronger than Mobet… If not for the gray fog and my habit of doing an after-action review, I might not have discovered that my thoughts of triggering the explosives were stolen away… The other party might have also snapped his fingers, but without the Flame Controlling powers to work in concert, nothing happened… Klein’s expression turned grave as he thought, prepared to make another attempt.

Similarly, to prevent himself from being tracked, he still summoned himself and responded to himself.

With the Black Emperor card, Klein left 160 Böklund Street from another side, deliberately circling two streets away before arriving at the sewer’s manhole.

This time, he didn’t approach the fork. Staying not far from the manhole, he used his enhanced Flame Controlling to sense the explosive and lifted his right hand.

He raised it and lowered it as Klein rapidly ended the summoning and returned above the gray fog to prevent himself from being attacked by an unknown existence.

Not in a hurry to return to the real world, he sat at the chair of The World, doing a debrief of the entire process.

I forgot to trigger the explosives again… If I didn’t force myself to recall this, I wouldn’t have even considered such a problem… Truly quite impressive. The one that steered Hazel to the sewers to dig is probably a demigod… Why didn’t he directly parasitize Hazel? Could it be due to particular reasons that he’s sealed somewhere in the sewers and can only release some of his powers to drive Hazel to help him via a dream? The one that caused Broken Fingers to react abnormally via the law of Beyonder characteristic convergence is also him? He is unable to control the signs in regards to this? Klein thought as he rapped the corner of the long mottled table.

After having a rough guess, he discovered that there was apparently no way of truly carrying out his original plans.

This was because his thoughts would be stolen once he entered the distance in which he could use Flame Controlling to ignite the explosives. Even if he recalled it later, there was no way to make up for it.

Considering how Hazel would be affected by her dream, Klein suspected that the limits to the person’s powers didn’t stop at the manhole. If he discovered that Hero Bandit Black Emperor was related to Dwayne Dantès, then he would lose his corresponding thoughts and memories even while sleeping in his bedroom.

However, he has no way of locking onto me by passing over the gray fog… Heh, does he think it’s so easy to stop me from “sounding the alarm”? Klein thought as he cautiously summoned a paper figurine and used a tiny amount of the powers of the mysterious space above the gray fog. With the ritual that had yet been terminated, he conjured an angel and forcefully created an interference effect.

After doing this, he carried the Black Emperor card and entered his bedroom with his Door of Summoning.

Klein’s new plan was to head to another street, find a random house, and borrow some pen and paper to write: “At the end of the sixth left fork in the Böklund Street sewers, there’s a secret passage that’s suspected to hide a demigod from the Marauder pathway” or something similar. Then, with the image of Böklund Street, he would plaster the piece of paper on Saint Samuel Cathedral’s entrance as a public notice!

Of course, he would politely knock on the door to let the bishops inside sense it to prevent ordinary people from first seeing it.

At times, the most primitive methods are the most effective ones! Just as Klein was about to leave 160 Böklund Street from another area, he suddenly felt a tremor as a deep rumble sounded from afar.

It was ignited? The explosives were ignited? Who did it? Klein paused in surprise.

It was definitely not done by him, as it couldn’t have been delayed for so long. And previously, there wasn’t anyone in the sewers. Even if there was someone, the thought of igniting the explosives would be stolen away.

Unless a demigod happened to come. But how could it be this coincidental…

There’s another possibility. It was done by the demigod from the Marauder pathway… He had repeatedly stolen my thoughts before, preventing me from using Flame Controlling. It was to buy time to leave. Now that it’s finally done, he triggered the explosives to destroy all the evidence?

That adheres to logic, as he should know very well that a powerful being whose origins can’t be traced cannot be stopped if he insists on “sounding the alarm.” The best solution is to drop its tail in order to survive, just like a gecko…

However, if he can leave, why did he steer Hazel into digging the secret passage? Doing so will deal tremendous harm to him? Klein thought of certain possibilities, but he was unable to verify any of them. Furthermore, he was certain that the underground explosion was bound to have already attracted attention. Hence, he immediately left Creeping Hunger and other items behind, terminated the summoning, and returned above the gray fog.

After returning to the real world, he stopped the ritual, cleared the altar, and cleaned all traces before getting into bed.

…

39 Böklund Street, Member of Parliament Macht’s house.

Hazel, who didn’t sleep at all, was alarmed by the tremors and deep humming sound. She walked to the balcony and drew the curtains to look towards the sewer manhole. However, she didn’t notice any anomalies.

After observing for a while, the uncertain her had decided to cancel her operation for the night and sleep in peace.

At this moment, she suddenly heard squeaking as she turned to look at the corner of her balcony.

At some point in time, there was a gray rat sitting there covered in sewage water.