Chapter 933: Thin Skin

...The Goddess really answered... When he saw the words formed by the powder, Klein's first reaction had nothing to do with the actual content but was a shock that this seemingly absurd thing had actually happened. Although he was psychologically prepared and believed the probability of success was not low, he still fell into complex emotions and couldn't break free for dozens of seconds.

After a while, Klein slowly exhaled, raised his right hand, and drew four circles in the clockwise direction over his chest: "Praise the Goddess!" He then ended the ritual and forced himself to focus back on the "oracle" itself: "Malevolent spirit possession, needs exorcism? How could Ince Zangwill be possessed by a malevolent spirit? He rose from Sequence 9 to Sequence 5 on the Death pathway, and at the critical stage of gaining divinity, he switched to the Night pathway Sequence 4 'Night Watcher', which is extremely good at dealing with spiritual creatures. Only vengeful spirits and malevolent spirits should fear him, how could he be possessed by undead? Unless that malevolent spirit is of very high level or has an extremely special nature. Unfortunately, I've only seen one true malevolent spirit — the ancient one sealed in the underground ruins of Alistair Tudor. I don't know much about such monsters, so it's hard to grasp many details. Well, I can later write to Miss Sharon, or have Little Sun inquire — that Shepherd elder Lovia keeps a malevolent spirit... No wonder Ince Zangwill wants to meet a demigod from the Spiritism Church. In exorcising malevolent spirits, after the Church of the Goddess of the Night and the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun, it's probably the Spiritism Church. Ah, and maybe the Church of the War God should be added — similar pathways often share similarities. And one more thing can be seen: Ince Zangwill doesn't want his possession to be known by the cooperating royal faction and the Witch Sect, otherwise he wouldn't need to come to the Southern Continent himself! Both those factions originated before the Fifth Epoch and have long heritage; they certainly could find a sealed artefact to exorcise or purify a malevolent spirit. Even if they really couldn't, contacting the Spiritism Church through the Witch Sect would be much more covert and safer than Ince Zangwill making the trip himself..."

As his thoughts turned, Klein spread a sheet of paper on the desk and wrote: "The intelligence you provided allowed me to string together the clues I'd previously gathered. And thanks to the help of a great existence, it points clearly to a conclusion: Ince Zangwill is possessed by a malevolent spirit and is seeking help from the Spiritism Church.

Even starting from this fact alone, we can make several useful judgments: Ince Zangwill often shows inconsistency in his words and actions; he occasionally goes off the rails and does things we would never expect him to do, making mistakes we find hard to understand; until this problem is resolved, his contact with the Spiritism Church will not cease and may even become more frequent...

Investigating from these judgments might let us catch Ince Zangwill's tail, but I think we still cannot pin him down — ordinary coincidences cannot overcome the coincidences created by that Grade 0 Sealed Artefact."

Writing up to here, Klein couldn't help recalling his previous direct encounter with Ince Zangwill: His investigation at that time did not directly point to him, but nearly exposed their plot. So Ince Zangwill acted personally, dropping a meteor to kill Sherlock Moriarty and erase the clues. In the end, thanks to Mr. Azik's help, Klein escaped the desperate situation, forcing Ince Zangwill to step out from behind the scenes, onto the stage, and into the spotlight.

Under those circumstances, if Mr. Azik had returned to his previous level, Ince Zangwill might have died... But to create a similar situation where he has to appear before us is still very difficult, because last time involved not only me and Mr. Azik, a 'Death Consul' who could use the Gray Fog to break coincidences, but also 'Triss Chick' and the ring on her hand that is suspected to be a Grade 0 Sealed Artefact. Without this lady's sudden escape, Ince Zangwill would never have been forced to act personally... Klein weighed his words and wrote again: "If we could find out the origin and main purpose of that malevolent spirit, the situation might turn..."

After finishing the part about Ince Zangwill, Klein suddenly wanted to also mention another matter. But after sketching the first few letters, he stopped his pen, raised his left hand and pinched both his cheeks, looking very hesitant, as if embarrassed.

After muttering soundlessly for a few seconds, Klein finally wrote smoothly the following: "Even without that Grade 0 Sealed Artefact's help, Ince Zangwill is an enemy that neither you nor I can face head-on. We must be better prepared.

"If you can provide some 'Time Crystals', I can make them into high-level charms capable of dealing with demigods. It's called 'Destiny Stealer', and it can swap the fates of myself and the target over a short period."

Klein put down his pen, didn't look again, and rapidly folded the letter, solemnly placing it into an envelope.

He then took out the adventurer harmonica and a gold coin, summoned Miss Messenger, and had her take the reply letter to Leonard Mitchell, but this time not to 7 Pinst Street, but directly to his current residence — it hadn't been long since Leonard wrote the letter, and Klein believed he should still be within Reinette Tinekker's sensing range.