After returning to Bilesās house, Klein pulled a chair over and sat down without waiting for Roy and company to make inquiries. He made a rather pious wish:
āI wish for my spirituality to be restored.ā
With that said, he raised his right hand, snapped his fingers, and granted his own wish; thus, allowing his spirituality to return to its normal state.
Right on the heels of that, he extended his left palm, preparing to end the maintenance of the historical projection of the ācurtainā before summoning a new one, so as to continue sealing off the spirit world area corresponding to Belltaine City. This prevented the Church of the God of Combatās chief shepherd, Larrion, from escaping.
āThereās no need to do so. Thereās always a next time.ā At that moment, Arianna slowly shook āHerā head, indicating that Klein no longer needed to summon the ācurtainā that originated from the Dark Demonic Wolf.
There was a limit to the power of āWishes.ā A Miracle Invoker couldnāt satisfy the same wish in a short period of time, which meant that, within the next one or two hours, Klein couldnāt recover his spirituality by granting his own wishes.
Of course, to a qualified Seer-pathway angel, this limitation was something that could be avoided. For example, he could get Pasha, Roy, Biles, and Arianna to take turns to wish for Klein to regain his spirituality before granting their wishes as a Miracle Invoker.
However, the problem was that, even if he could recover his spirituality that many times, he wouldnāt be able to maintain the ācurtainā which was at the level of a Sequence 1 for more than an hour. Furthermore, he needed to wait an hour before 0-02 erased all the previous rules and rewrote them.
After some deliberation, Klein nodded slightly and replied with a smile, āLetās give it a try first. After all, weāre rather free right now. Iāll give up after my last spirituality recovery attempt. Yes, this will purely depend on the chief shepherdās luck. Perhaps āHeā might lose control because of anxiety, frustration, and nervousness?ā
As he spoke, Klein dispelled the maintenance of the original ācurtain,ā and his left hand moved forward immediately after that. He pulled out a new ācurtain,ā allowing it to appear inside the spirit world that corresponded to Belltaine City.
In an area where saturated colors overlapped one another, Larrion, who was wearing a black robe with white edges and a square hat, felt the restriction disappear. Just as āHeā was about to make āHisā way out, he saw a new ācurtainā descend, sealing him off again.
The smile on his face instantly froze.
Phewā¦ A few seconds later, Larrion slowly exhaled and composed āHimselfā mentally as he continued to wait.
In the next hour, the chief shepherd of the Church of the God of Combat repeatedly experienced the despair and pain of having āHisā hopes extinguished.
āHeā attempted to find the pattern and attempt to figure out the time interval so as to grasp the fleeting opportunity. āHeā wanted to rush out of the barrier the moment the old ācurtainā disappeared and before the new ācurtainā was produced.
However, āHeā eventually discovered that the intervals didnāt follow any pattern. The person stopping āHimā didnāt restore the barrier only when his spirituality was about to be depleted. At times, the other party would recreate the barrier far ahead of time.
If it wasnāt for the fact that Feysacian citizens werenāt forced to change faiths from the God of Combat, and that the decree that Larrion was considered a traitor hadnāt been widely spread, this Grounded Angel mightāve already lost control on the spot.
As time passed, Larrion once again sensed the collapse of the old ācurtain.ā
However, this time, there was no new ācurtain.ā
āHeā has finally reached his limitā¦ Larrion was delighted. Without any hesitation, āHeā rushed out of the collapsing nascent divine kingdom.
In the next moment, āHeā saw a woman holding four blonde, red-eyed heads, dressed in a complicated long dress, an unknown existence that was wrapped in bandages with yellowish-brown liquid covering the entire, and several strange but abnormally powerful spirit world creaturesā¦
The ācurtainā that Klein had summoned the previous times were Historical Void projections that had been tainted with Sefirah Castleās aura. It naturally attracted objects sensitive to it. He wouldnāt even be surprised if Amon was among the group!
The smile on Larrionās face froze again.
ā¦
Belltaine City, in Bilesās rental apartment.
Klein suddenly raised his head and looked up into the sky. He muttered softly, āImpressiveā¦ā
Following that, he became silent again until the magic mirror emitted an aqueous light that reflected the noticeboardās current state.
The rules on the paper disappeared in reverse order of their appearance.
This meant that 0-02 was beginning to erase the rules that it had set up, and was preparing to redo everything.
Once the curfew order was abolished, the highly-focused Klein immediately pulled Maāam Arianna and used Flaming Jump to appear outside the shrunken Belltaine City LIbrary.
As he looked over, he realized that, on the brass pages of 0-02, the speed at which the rules were being wiped clear had become very fast. In just a blink of an eye, the second half of the book was only left with the clause: āAll the following rules are ineffective.ā
Following that, the clause disappeared as a new set of rules rapidly emerged without any gaps:
āThe Trunsoest Brass Book is the most precious item. No living being is permitted to touch itā¦ā
Before this clause was completed, Ariannaās figure had already appeared beside the rectangular table. āHerā finger touched the brass page.
With a crack, the leader of the Church of Evernightās ascetic had āHerā neck suddenly constricted as though an invisible rope had hoisted āHerā up.
As an angel, āSheā had actually suffered bone fractures and had difficulties breathing.
Death by hanging!
However, with Ariannaās finger sliding over with some difficulty, the first clause that appeared was āerasedā before it was fully displayed. It entered a āConcealedā state.
As for all the rules set by 0-02, it had to be publicized or announced before it could truly be effective!
With a whoosh, Arianna picked up the Trunsoest Brass Book and threw it to Klein, who was outside the window.
In the previous hour, Klein had already anticipated all the possible developments and had a discussion with Arianna. He was in no way nervous or flustered. While 0-02 was still in midair, he dragged another himself wearing a human-skinned glove out of the void.
Then, he grabbed the Trunsoest Brass Book and used his historical projection to āTeleportā away.
After his figure disappeared from his spot, Arianna landed on the ground with a loud thud, a deep mark left on āHerā neck.
In just a few seconds, Klein, who was holding 0-02, appeared at the top of the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range. He used his Spirit Vision at the level of an angel and saw the collapsed, dilapidated, and fogged palace.
Without any hesitation, Klein allowed his historical projection to take the Trunsoest Brass Book and āBlinkā to the main door of the palace before pushing the door open.
What appeared before him was a hall with many corpses hanging from above. Every corpse was different. There were men and women, either dressed beautifully, simply, exquisitely, or casually.
Behind each of these hangers was a transparent and slippery tentacle with complicated patterns. They came from the depths of the hallāfrom that ancient stone chair.
On the huge stone chair, transparent and distorted maggots were formed into a ball. They grew wantonly and extended out strange tentacles.
This was The Half-Fool of the Antigonus family, who had lost control and gone mad!
Sensing the door open, and sensing Kleinās historical projection approach, the cluster of maggots left the stone chair and fiercely flailed their slippery tentacles, causing them to surge towards the door as if they were being affected by an invisible suction force.
Similarly, at the bottom of the stone chair, the tarot card with Roselleās image, which was written with a stellar radiance, flew towards the door.
Just seeing this scene pushed Kleinās historical projection towards experiencing a breakdown. Thankfully, he didnāt possess any sentience and was remotely controlled by Klein. He didnāt suffer the chaotic thoughts and the negative side effects of the mental mutation, nor did he stand motionless and helpless.
Before the historical projection dissipated, it threw the Trunsoest Brass Book at the terrifying cluster of maggots.
The transparent and slippery tentacles sensed danger and instinctively reacted by wrapping around Sealed Artifact 0-02.
Under such interference and the invisible strong winds, The Fool card had reached the door one step ahead of the strange tentacles.
Kleinās historical projection had mostly collapsed. Seeing this, he mechanically extended his right hand, grabbed the Card of Blasphemy, and threw it behind him.
In the next instant, the slippery tentacles that were reassembled had reached out to the door, but they were blocked by the fog, unable to exit. All it could do was wildly pound at the barrier.
The open door slowly closed, blocking out this scene.
Klein, who was hiding somewhere on the mountain peak, frowned slightly. He felt a sense of joy and relief, as well as a strong sense of doubt.
In other words, I used 0-02 to exchange for The Foolās card? The Goddess doesnāt need me to seek clues regarding the River of Eternal Darkness for the time being? Klein silently muttered to himself. He walked out of the hidden area and arrived not far from the ancient palace. He bent down and picked up the Card of Blasphemy.
On the surface of the card was Roselle Gustav, who was wearing colorful clothes and holding a stick and luggage. His eyes were filled with a longing for the future, and behind him was a puppy.
On the upper left corner of the card, the resplendent stellar radiance outlined a few words:
āSequence 0: The Fool!ā
ā¦
Inside the ancient palace, the Trunsoest Brass Book fell to the ground and opened up to the first page of the second half of the book.
New rules began to form:
āā¦The Trunsoest Brass Book is the most precious item. No living being is permitted to touch it. Those in violation are to be sentenced to death!
āā¦One is not allowed to change the condition of the Trunsoest Brass Book in any way. Those in violation are to be sentenced to death!
Just as the two rules just appeared, and before it could āinformā the owner here, a line of words suddenly appeared between the two halves of the book:
āAll the following rules are ineffective.ā
An hour later, the two rules were wiped out, and new rules were written. However, after just two lines, there was an additional clause in front of themā0-02 seemed to have reached a blank slate that happened when the entire book was filled up.
Again and again, the Trunsoest Brass Book fell into an endless cycle.