Chapter 1169: My Anchors

In the blink of an eye, Amon had already glimpsed the grey-white mist, and seen the ancient, majestic palace Above the Gray Fog.

All He needed to do was reach out a hand, pierce through the final obstacle, and He could truly touch the "Sefirah Castle," enter it directly, and steal it in substance.

But just then, a massive blue-black hand abruptly appeared above Amon's phantom, blocking His path into the "Sefirah Castle."

Amon's phantom subconsciously turned its head, following the direction of the hand, and saw the long-dead cyclops, his body rotting and oozing pus.

This was Bradel, known as the "God of Honor." His exaggerated vertical eye still bore not the slightest trace of life, and a greyish-yellow miasma of curses constantly seeped from his body.

But unlike before, trailing behind his back were strands of nearly illusory black tubes that extended toward infinity, connected to some unknown destination.

Boom!

The blue-black giant, dozens of meters tall, instantly condensed a greatsword forged from orange-dusk radiance. Gripping it in one hand, He slashed ferociously toward Amon's true body, which stood at the edge of the deep abyss.

This young son of the Giant King, who had perished from the curse and wandered unconsciously for thousands of years, suddenly erupted with unimaginable power.

That "Dusk Greatsword" pierced through the void, materializing directly at the position where Amon, the Angel of Time, stood, tearing apart everything around it and transforming into a storm capable of annihilating this entire wasteland.

Amon did not move, remaining right where He stood, and no matter how the orange "blade" storm raged, it failed to harm Him in the slightest.

He seemed to have once again exploited some "error" of this world.

However, in this state, Amon could no longer transmit His delirious whispers into Klein's mind, finally granting Klein a sliver of peace.

Klein ignored his own state of impending losing control. Amid the clear, real, and layered sounds of prayer all around him, he recovered a measure of clarity, then immediately turned his thoughts to resonate with the crimson "figure" at "The Fool's" position above the Gray Fog, re-establishing their connection.

Without a moment's hesitation, he chose to return to the "Sefirah Castle"!

At that very moment, Amon's phantom attempting to sneak Above the Gray Fog was still being blocked by Bradel's blue-black hand, unable to break through that immense obstacle in an instant.

This King of Angels, wearing a crystal monocle, opened both his clone's and his true body's mouths simultaneously and uttered a single word: "Darkness."

Yes, this was help from the "Goddess of the Night" — but it was absolutely not without cause!

Although Klein had no certainty about this, he had always kept it as one of his trump cards, merely thinking it might not work, that the probability was exceedingly low, and it could only be hoped for as a sliver of light during the darkest of moments.

After truly entering the Forsaken Land of the Gods and gaining the space to think independently, he had been diligently searching for exploitable "resources," and then he recalled something.

The matter of the City of Silver's former Chief!

That "Monster Hunter" had attempted to switch to Sequence 3 of the "Death" Pathway — the "Ferryman" — but had encountered a mutation and become a monster within his own self-constructed tomb.

That mutation was related to those strands of illusory black tubes, and Klein had seen the same things on the artificial Death created by the Church of Spirit.

In other words, the mutation of the City of Silver's former Chief was very likely related to the artificial Death.

This indirectly illustrated a point: due to unknown factors, those capable of exerting influence on the Forsaken Land of the Gods included not only the "True Creator," but also the artificial Death that had partially "come alive."

And the current artificial Death could, to some extent, be considered equivalent to the "Goddess of the Night"!

Based on this reasoning, Klein suspected that the Goddess could exert a lower level of influence on certain things within the Forsaken Land of the Gods through the "Death" Pathway's "Uniqueness."

Furthermore, regarding the incident with the City of Silver's former Chief, only three individuals were directly involved: the current Chief Colin Iliad, the demigod Elder Wite Hilmont, and the "Shepherd" Elder Lovia. They were either Sequence 4 saints or important believers of the "True Creator"—it was impossible for them to have been "parasitized" by Amon without noticing.

As for Derrick Berg, the only one who had received feedback afterward—being under the gaze of "The Fool"—he was not a target for Amon's "parasitization" either.

In other words, Amon was unaware of the key detail that the former Chief of the City of Silver's mutation involved the black illusory tubes.

Therefore, even if He could deduce, through His grasp of the outside world's situation, that the "Goddess of the Night" had obtained the "Death" Pathway's "Uniqueness" and that the "God of War" had reacted violently, He would have no way of knowing that this could introduce certain variables to the Forsaken Land of the Gods.

With this understanding, Klein, without much confidence, consciously took certain actions in this regard: In that city-state that worshipped the phoenix, he had left behind the remaining Beyonder characteristic of the "Death" Pathway, hoping it could serve as a signpost;