After rushing into the house and closing the door, Klein realized that the curtains behind the windows had been tightly drawn, with only the crimson moonlight faintly seeping through to provide a little light.
He did not bother to observe further, found a wooden chair, sat down, and attempted to enter a meditative state to calm the tendency toward physical mutation he had been suppressing.
Having witnessed the incomplete mythical creature form of a Saint-level Beyonder, how could he withstand it so easily? This wasn’t the mystical space above the
Because Klein had relatively high spiritual resistance in this regard, he was able to extricate himself from the chaos of his thoughts early on and barely control his tendency to lose control, completing his escape, but that did not mean the problem was fully resolved.
He sat there, relying on meditation and his own emotional control, to resist wave after wave of maddening thoughts. During this process, he heard the cracking sound of his facial bones, saw his black hair growing uncontrollably thicker, his chest gradually straining against his clothes, and granule-like sprouts appearing on his skin.
After nearly thirty seconds, Klein finally let out a breath and relaxed slightly.
He had completely shaken off the effects of
The madness and physical mutations caused by glimpsing a mythical creature not only exhibited the symptoms of losing control of one's own Pathway, but also carried aspects of the opponent's Sequence… Back then, I was nearly roasted by the "
If he were not a Faceless, aside from the sprouts slowly retracting into his body, he would have needed external help to fix the rest.
Without time to lament, sigh, or analyze, Klein slowly stood up and turned his gaze to the tightly drawn dark curtains, trying to understand his current situation.
His expression suddenly changed because he heard low, chaotic murmurs coming from the street outside!
In that instant, he felt that the previously empty town, which had only himself and "Lady Despair" Panatiya, had suddenly gained many residents. They walked through the streets and alleys, greeting each other, discussing whether to buy only bread today or be a bit extravagant and get a pound of beef.
The Misty Town had suddenly come to life!
However, the indistinct figures did not try to enter the houses on either side; they seemed to be walking back and forth on the street continuously, and the sounds they made were hardly believable as speech, closer to the low growls of beasts.
Klein could not imagine what the scene outside was like, only knowing that this danger would even cause a demigod-level witch to avoid it.
He withdrew his gaze, pondered for a few seconds, and muttered to himself: «I can’t go out…
«But I can’t stay here either…
«Who knows when the red moon in the sky will be covered by the mist again, allowing Panatiya to move freely. When that happens, at such close range, I won’t be able to escape at all!
«But if I don’t go out, how can I move?»
In the silence, Klein slowly turned his body toward the old, black, pointed church.
According to "Lady Despair" Panatiya, that church was the only area she had not and dared not explore, and it seemed that only by entering there could he escape her "hunt."
Of course, Panatiya the witch might not be telling the truth, but Klein judged that she would not lie about such matters because, in her eyes, he was merely prey, a meal.
Moreover, Panatiya had already been using rhetoric and her own charm to guide him step by step, setting a trap, preparing to hunt. With the confidence of a demigod, it was unlikely she would deceive him with the information she revealed. Also, at this point, telling the truth was the most carefree and safest choice, without worrying about the prey sensing deceit and fleeing early.
Unless her half-mad state made her lie habitually, it should be fine… With no other options, Klein quickly made up his mind.
He lowered his left hand and made "
—Although he knew he couldn’t use "Travel," he still clung to a sliver of hope, because now the red moon was at its clearest, unshrouded, round like a silver platter. Whenever this happened, Mr. Door could transmit his cries for help from where he was lost to the ears of his descendants and bloodline, and "Travel" would become strengthened; it was not impossible for it to undergo a mutation.
Klein's figure rapidly faded and disappeared, and after a few seconds, it reappeared in the same spot.
«I can’t enter the Spirit World, I can’t even sense it… This Beyonder power ‘Travel’ now only has its first third effective, barely usable as a kind of ‘invisibility’…» Klein muttered to himself, summarizing the experience and lessons, and found a puzzle in it, «But why does the fading and transparency caused by ‘Travel’ work if it is based on the Spirit World’s peculiarity?»
Klein thought for a dozen seconds and vaguely came up with some guesses: «Everyone is necessarily connected to the Spirit World because the astral body is always within it, receiving all kinds of abstract information—this is the principle behind divination gaining revelations.
«So, when we are transformed into a ‘concealed’ state, is our connection to the Spirit World also included in that?
«This would explain why we can still borrow the Spirit World’s peculiarity but cannot enter the Spirit World, because the former is already part of the ‘concealment’! Hmm, in my earlier rush, I tried ‘Flame Jump’ and succeeded, which also requires borrowing the Spirit World’s peculiarity.»
Having determined this, Klein raised his right hand, snapped his fingers, trying to light the remaining half-candle in the neighboring house.