Though it had been less than two years since he had become a Beyonder, the experiences Klein had been through — even when measured against those of saints at Sequence 4 or Sequence 3 — were beyond all doubt colourful indeed; the items he had possessed, the items he had encountered, those that could swiftly slay his present self and were apt for summoning through the chinks of history, were far from few.
From among them he chose the «Sun Flare Talisman» he had used in Tingen — a «Sun Flare Talisman» whose incantation had already been recited and which had had spirituality poured into it, on the point of being triggered!
Granted, against a demigod of the «Diviner» pathway, which leans towards weirdness and mutation, the talisman had no especially strong counter-effect, relying chiefly on its own raw lethality; but Klein would not dodge, would not defend; he would open body and mind and embrace, to the fullest, that radiance of «Hope».
— Even at the tier of Sequence 3 «Ancient Scholar», a Beyonder of the «Diviner» pathway was still possessed of low defence; their pure attack power, relative to their own tier, was likewise plainly insufficient. This led to a sorry fact:
When Klein wished to slay himself, he himself had no swift means of finishing himself off — he could hardly manipulate his own «threads of spiritual body» and turn himself into a secret puppet of himself: a logical contradiction would arise — in the end, the deeper the puppet-conversion went, the less the man himself would be able to continue it.
And when Klein sought a means of suicide from without, he found that, so long as he did not avail himself of «Secret Puppet Exchange», «Paper Figurine Doppelganger», «Hiding within History's Chinks» and the like, there were far too many options for him to consider.
«Diviner» was just such a sufficiently powerful, yet utterly extreme, freakish pathway.
Seeing that Klein was about to pluck a «Sun Flare Talisman» from the mists of history and was attended by a strong urge to suicide, Amon merely smiled; without so much as lifting His hand, He stole away the entire stretch of his thought, while across that monocle wrought of crystal flashed a faint glow.
Klein at once forgot what he had just been intending to do.
But his motion did not pause!
When Klein had heard that he would reach his final destination in only half a day, the shock and dismay had been, in greater part, an act, for he had been on his guard all along against this «God of Deception», Amon — every utterance of His he had trusted but a little.
Within less than three days lay too many interpretations; Klein had long since prepared for the worst. Hearing those words from Amon, he had immediately drawn up, into a queue, the actions he would have to take next: after the notion of summoning a «Sun Flare Talisman» to self-slay would come the summoning of that Existence — the summoning of that Existence — the summoning of that Existence — round and round, so that no matter how long a string of thought Amon stole away, he could still, by the plan laid down, perform the corresponding operation.
In this, his earlier experience — when contending with «0—08», thinking from Above the Grey Fog and treating his real-world self as a secret puppet acting only by a preset programme — was of great help to Klein.
At this moment, although Klein did not know what he had just been thinking and did not even feel that he had forgotten anything, he knew perfectly well what action he would take next.
The past was not important; the present and the future were what mattered!
Klein once again thrust out his palm, grasping at the void to one side and ahead; the whole arm sank abruptly.
Yet when he drew his right hand back, he had drawn out nothing.
At the same instant, Amon raised His palm and, with a light gesture, grasped forward.
He had stolen the image of the history-chink that Klein had summoned!
A figure was sketched out in haste beside Amon: an aged man in a hooded black robe, eyes dark as a lightless water-surface, a long, thick, white beard upon his face.
Tsalatu!
Tsalatu, leader of the Esoterists, an angel of Sequence 1!
The Existence Klein had tried to summon was Tsalatu, and he had succeeded at the first attempt!
This was because Klein had laid his preparations beforehand.
Within that city-state established by the Followers of the Phoenix, when Klein had divided his secret puppets into three groups to summon history-chink projections, his true self had in fact been attempting to summon Tsalatu.
Without a doubt it could not have succeeded then; but for an «Ancient Scholar», to have one's own history-chink projection invoked without taking notice would be too much of a failure — and Tsalatu was, beyond all doubt, a veteran, an excellent, an exceedingly experienced «Ancient Scholar».
Through that summons doomed to failure, Klein had forged a bond with Tsalatu.
Such is the tacit understanding between «Ancient Scholars»!
Whereas a «Miracle Master», a «Mysterious Pryer», can make his own history-chink projection respond actively, just as every «Ancient Scholar» borrowing strength from his past self is a hundred-per-cent success.
Furthermore, an «Ancient Scholar's» summoning of images from the chinks of history bears no contractual bond; the manipulation depends upon the other having no intelligence or upon both having a tolerably good relationship. And in this world, among the high-tier Existences least pleased to see Amon obtain the «Origin Fortress», Mr. «Door» ranks first, Pales second, and Tsalatu third!
Which is to say, Klein and Tsalatu were, in standing against Amon, allies for a short while.
On these grounds, Klein was confident that he could summon Tsalatu in a single attempt — and so it proved.
And precisely for that reason he was not in the least afraid of Amon stealing the history-chink projection he had summoned; rather, he actually wished that «Angel of Time» would do so.
Why, before summoning Tsalatu, had he first put forth the thought of suicide? It was to make Amon steal that thought away; for Amon, a King of Angels who delighted in trying things and who pursued thrill, would, when so many options lay before Him, likely not repeat Himself the next time — would not again steal a thought, but steal away the history-chink image He summoned.
This was one of Klein's few hidden trump cards.
The next second, Tsalatu's gaze passed from dull and lifeless to lively, and in an instant possessed the feel of being real.
It was clear: that «Mysterious Pryer», that veteran «Ancient Scholar», had in person stepped into the chinks of history, granting the projection of that same era his own consciousness!