Terrible intuition—even though he hadn’t noticed that the “Gehrman Sparrow” in front of him was just a decoy, he still felt something was off… Klein, hiding in a distant house, gasped inwardly, his mind racing, and quickly devised a countermeasure.
He manipulated the Wraith Senior and made the puppet say in a low voice:
“I’m also a bit concerned,” the puppet said in a low voice. “After the ‘door’ opens, if you go first, then when I go out, you could ambush me outside. You don’t even need to ambush—just wait. I think I should go first, and before that, you need to give me back my flesh and hair. Then you can stay close to the door, so you’ll have enough time to pass through the ‘Escape Gate’ before the ‘Spirit Body Threads’ float to the top of the cathedral.”
Despair Witch
“That’s my worry too,” the puppet in Gehrman Sparrow’s guise replied without backing down. “After I get that special symbol, I’ll show it to you. That way, even if I close the ‘Escape Gate,’ you can reopen it.”
Panatiya fell silent again, as if pondering details, but she seemed irritable, unable to calm down, as if her mind was filled with madness.
After more than ten seconds, she spoke again: “I feel that a pure curse might not necessarily harm you. ‘Seers’ never lack ways to avoid harm, like the ‘paper figurine substitute’ you used earlier.”
Truly leaving no room for loopholes… Fortunately, the person in front of you is entirely fake… Klein grumbled inwardly and had the Wraith Senior take out one paper figurine after another from his clothing pockets and burn them all in front of the Despair Witch.
“I can’t be sure you don’t have one hidden away,” Panatiya still suspected neurotically.
Gehrman Sparrow’s puppet twitched the corner of his mouth without expression and said, “You can divine that. Witches are good at that, aren’t they?”
Panatiya smiled impatiently: “I can’t communicate with the spirit world here, and my spirituality…”
She didn’t finish, but her eyes became quite dangerous.
Klein understood what she meant. He knew that her spirituality had been contaminated by the “feeding” over the past half year, making it chaotic and insane, no longer able to give reliable “answers,” especially in front of a Beyonder who excelled in divination.
The two were deadlocked, temporarily unable to resolve how to establish trust.
At this moment, a hoarse and muffled voice came from the roof on the left: “I can serve as a ‘witness’ for you.”
Gehrman Sparrow and Panatiya both turned their heads and looked.
“How do you ‘witness’?” Klein had the Wraith Senior ask.
Mr. A pulled back his hood and smiled lowly: “I use ‘Blood Magic’ to get inside your body, monitor your condition. Once you stop manipulating the ‘Spirit Body Threads’ or try to use ‘paper figurine substitute,’ I’ll immediately warn or try to stop you. When the ‘Escape Gate’ you mentioned opens, I’ll leave your body and enter the gate before the ‘Spirit Body Threads’ are affected.”
“Do you think Gehrman Sparrow is a fool?” Klein made the puppet smirk. “As far as I know, Rose Bishops can indeed hide inside others, but when they come out, the host dies on the spot.”
“No, that method is used to avoid detection, so it requires fusing with the host’s flesh. This time it’s not necessary; I’ll just stay quietly in your stomach,” Mr. A explained in detail.
“No, not my stomach, but the puppet Senior’s stomach…” Klein took out a gold coin, pretending to try a divination.
The “Crazy Adventurer” muttered under his breath, and the coin began to jump between his fingers.
With a clang, the coin flew into the air and fell into his palm.
Gehrman Sparrow glanced carefully and said: “It seems he’s not lying. However, you must leave my body before I show the special symbol to the ‘Despair Lady’.”
Otherwise, Gehrman Sparrow might be murdered by the two working together—if Panatiya got the “door-opening symbol” and also held that obsidian slab, and time was relatively sufficient, she wouldn’t need Gehrman Sparrow’s help, and Mr. A’s presence would prevent the use of “paper figurine substitute.”
If Mr. A came out early, Gehrman Sparrow wouldn’t have this worry. He wouldn’t even fear if Panatiya, knowing the door-opening symbol, turned hostile. At that time, he could rely on “paper figurine substitute” to avoid a fatal fate, while Panatiya wouldn’t pursue him in the cathedral because as time passed, she would inevitably be hanged, and she must seize the opportunity to escape immediately.
On the other hand, the obsidian slab couldn’t be taken away, so Gehrman Sparrow would have a chance to escape later.
Although there were some flaws in this plan, it considered the three parties’ situations fairly comprehensively. The “Witch of Despair” Panatiya reached up to grab a strand of hair falling from her temple and suddenly asked,