Pretending not to notice that he was trapped in a real dream, Klein ceased maintaining the self-projected image of the "Death Regent" while simultaneously attempting to summon a copy of himself from the historical void—to deceive the guardian of this Tudor ruin and allow his true body to slip free of the dream and sneak toward the secret mausoleum to carry out his sabotage.
He could currently maintain only three images from the historical void—the "Death Regent"
As for Ariana's state, Klein not only suspected that the real person had descended, but also had another theory—that the head of the Convent of Darkness, upon detecting that her past image had been summoned in the Amanda Mountains, had deliberately entered a concealed state, vanishing from the real world to allow her projection to gain consciousness. This was a perfectly feasible operation, especially since the Authority over "Secret" likely afforded her some degree of control over her own image within the historical void.
With such a secretive Angel, Klein couldn't use the feedback from maintaining the historical projection as an "Ancient Scholar" to confirm her true situation, so he chose not to make any changes, preventing any accidents.
Just as Klein was about to summon his past self, the real dream he was trapped in silently vanished, and everything around him returned to normal.
He was standing on the cliff face at the entrance, with the towering, majestic, deep-black mausoleum looming below.
An unremarkable old man hovered in midair, illuminated by the faint glow of subterranean moss and the lamplight from stone pillars within the cliff. He gazed calmly at Klein and sighed, speaking in Ancient Farsac: "You weren't deceived by the dream I wove."
The old man's hair was entirely white yet still thick, his face bore few wrinkles, and his features were utterly unremarkable.
"A 'Dream Weaver,' Sequence 3 of the Spectator Pathway? No—at least an Angel…" Klein's nerves tightened. Without responding, he immediately pulled out his silver-white adventurer's harmonica, raised it to his lips, and blew into it.
No sound emerged, but at Klein's side,
One of the golden-haired, red-eyed heads she carried spat out a rectangular, diamond-like charm, while another head chanted in Ancient
Revisit Yesterday!
The messenger lady was going to borrow power from her past self!
And compared to the Sequence 1 "Snake of Fate," the power she borrowed would last even longer.
However, the charm remained completely unchanged.
The old man floating in midair, draped in a grayish-white robe, chuckled softly and reminded her amicably: "Don't use Ancient Hermes in front of me."
…Hermes… This was the Hermes who survived from the Second Era and created Ancient Hermes? An Angel of the Spectator Pathway… the origin of the Psychological Alchemy Society… Klein was first startled, then quickly sensed something was off: Hermes's willingness to participate in the battle and stop him wasn't very high!
No—perhaps this was deliberately feigned, meant to lull them into complacency… Beyonders of the Spectator Pathway were masters at manipulating the human heart… The thought had barely flashed through Klein's mind when Reinette Tinekerr's other two heads had already begun chanting in
The rectangular, diamond-like charm was instantly engulfed by transparent flames and dissolved into the void.
Reinette Tinnecurr's body began to swell rapidly, and the four heads in her hands flew up simultaneously, landing on her neck.
One after another, the four heads turned ethereal, overlapping into a single form.
In the span of a heartbeat, Reinette Tinnecurr had become a rag doll the size of a castle, dressed in a black gothic gown covered in countless mystical symbols and entwined with sinister vines, her eyes a vivid, blood-like crimson.
Her gaze swept over Hermes from the distant ancient era. Her tightly shut mouth opened, yet not a single sound emerged.
The Angel of the Spectator Pathway flashed with a brief glimmer of light and instantly transformed into a plump white rabbit.
"Ancient Abomination." "Transformation Curse!"
The rabbit showed not the slightest panic. Its body began to inflate until it was half the size of a mountain peak, big enough to crush Klein with a single stomp.
For an Angel of the Spectator Pathway, believing oneself powerful enough makes one powerful enough — outer form holds no constraint!
As the rabbit became a monster, subtle shifts occurred within the ruins, the real and the illusory intertwining until even Reinette Tinnecurr could no longer clearly distinguish dream from reality.
Klein could still tell the difference, and he noticed that not only was the young lady in her mythical creature state — the rabbit's body was also covered in ashen scales, its various patterns weaving together into three-dimensional symbols that seemed capable of connecting directly to the mind.
Angels truly were terrifying — entering battle immediately in their complete mythical creature form… As Klein marveled at this, he didn't dare stare too closely or attempt to glean knowledge. First, time did not permit it. Second, his status was still not high enough — gazing upon a complete mythical creature form would inevitably affect him, inflicting a certain degree of negative conditions, which was something to be avoided at all costs on a dangerous battlefield.
Taking advantage of the young lady's battle against the dragonified rabbit, Klein let the raging wind carry him toward the secret tomb while silently chanting a divine name in the Giant's language in his mind, reaching his hand out to grasp at the air.
The first attempt — failed. The second — failed. The third — still failed!
Just as white, plump rabbits began appearing one after another on Klein's mental island, forcing him to elevate his consciousness and fight back with no capacity left to think about anything else, his instinctively outstretched right hand finally touched upon an image within the crevices of history.
As he pulled his arm back, that image rapidly took shape. She was a woman, clad in a dark robe, wearing a wide hood, possessing a delicate face and slightly vacant, deep-black eyes.