Chapter 1027: Deceit
After Qonas Kilgor realized which Beyonder pathway his enemy belonged
to, all the Gehrman Sparrows in the garden, vineyard, and main building,
raised their left hand. They curled their middle finger, ring finger,
and pinky, extending their index finger and thumb, making them take on
the simple shape of a gun.
The index fingers that represented barrels and muzzles aimed at Qonas
Kilgor in the air before their respective arms jerked up seemingly due
to the recoil.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Amidst deafening noises, illusory doves appeared to the side of the Earl
of The Fallen who was dressed in a white shirt and black trousers. They
flew at him from every direction in a spectacular sight of utmost
beauty.
This was the random anomaly that came about from the iron-skinned pocket
watch and Concerto of Light and Shadow. It made the Air Cannons which
could blast through houses turn into doves of peace that didn't pose any
threat!
Having used "Disorder" to disrupt the enemy's collective volley, Qonas
Kilgor wasn't surprised to see the doves fly up and disperse into the
air.
He was already mentally prepared.
He had already endured the negative effects that the Sealed Artifact had
brought for years!
Taking advantage of this opportunity, he didn't hesitate to raise his
hands which held the iron-skinned pocket watch and revolver, doing so in
a bid to make them collide.
This was "Distortion," one that targeted all the Gehrman Sparrows
beneath him.
To Qonas Kilgor, what frustrated him the most when fighting a Bizarro
Sorcerer was that he was unable to tell if the enemy he faced was a
marionette or the actual person unless the marionette was of a very
crude level.
As such, he had many Beyonder powers he didn't dare use because they
were ineffective against marionettes.
A large-scale "Prohibition" effect was still alright, but a
single-target "Deprivation" was meaningless in actual combat. No matter
how many Beyonder powers of a marionette were deprived, it didn't affect
the actual body. When that happened, his opponent just needed to switch
marionettes to resolve the problem.
Due to similar reasons, using "Magnify" on the mystical items on the
marionettes was temporarily written off by Qonas Kilgor for strategic
purposes.
Similarly, an Earl of The Fallen's "Bestowment" was of no use. It was
even inferior to "Deprivation," as it could cause a Bizarro Sorcerer's
marionette to lose its corresponding Beyonder powers. However, the
negative effects "Bestowed" to a marionette was unable to interfere with
it at all. Be it turning them sluggish, losing the will to fight, making
them turn anxious, or only focus on money, it was meaningless to a
marionette who was, in essence, dead, without any ability to think or
inclinations to take action.
Therefore, Qonas Kilgor decided to first resolve the problem of
identifying marionettes and the actual body.
In this aspect, others might not have a solution, but a High-Sequence
Beyonder of the Lawyer pathway definitely didn't have such worries.
There were rules to everything, and everything followed certain rules.
As a Lawyer demigod, they were good at finding whatever loopholes there
were to exploit them for themselves.
Together with his combat experience fighting other Bizarro Sorcerers,
and how he had seriously considered solutions for dealing with them
during the aftermath, Qonas Kilgor was quite certain that "Distortion"
could suppress his enemy.
He knew that Bizarro Sorcerers could seamlessly switch between their
actual body and marionettes. He planned on "Distorting" this, making the
Bizarro Sorcerer only be able to switch to two to three marionettes!
This way, the difficulty of identifying the actual body and the
marionette would be minimized.
Of course, if it wasn't for the fact that Distortion couldn't exceed
certain limits, and area-oriented "Prohibition" effects had reached its
limit, Qonas Kilgor definitely would've used a simpler method to deal
with his opponent, such as forcing the Bizarro Sorcerer to only be able
to swap with one marionette, or he would "Prohibit" swapping with
marionettes.
Pa!
Qonas Kilgor smashed the Réver's Shout of Despair and Concerto of Light
and Shadow together as though he was compressing a large area to a small
area.
Earl of The Fallen---Distortion!
Silently, he produced a red glow with a deep shadow in his hand. It
appeared as though he was offering it to the Gehrman Sparrows in the
garden, vineyard, and main building. As for the thick and thin, normal,
or terrifying crazy adventurers, none of them experienced any
abnormalities.
Qonas Kilgor also suffered a random anomaly, one brought about by
Concerto of Light and Shadow!
It had changed the Distortion effects to summoning a flower from the
garden below.
And at that moment, the Air Cannons that had turned into illusory doves
continued!
At that moment, the battle between two demigods turned ludicrous,
comical, and funny.
Of course, be it Gehrman Sparrow or Qonas Kilgor, none of them thought
that was the case---especially the latter. He once again felt a familiar
sense of helplessness.
He didn't hesitate as he slammed his palms together again, completing
the "Distortion." He wanted to rely on quantity to resist the random
anomaly effect.
However, Gehrman Sparrow wasn't a dead person who would abide by the
etiquette of turn-based combat. The large swath of crazy adventurers
either raised their hands in firing stances or used a Death Knell with
questionable authenticity, aiming at the Earl of The Fallen in midair.
Meanwhile, Qonas Kilgor's heart stirred. He turned his head slightly to
look up and saw that a figure had appeared once again inside the
gigantic crimson moon that hung above the black steeple.
The figure was wearing a silk top hat, a black trench coat, a
human-skinned glove, and an iron-black revolver. He had a cold
expression and a deep outline. He was another Gehrman Sparrow!
The crimson moon seemed to weigh down on his shoulders as he glided
down, his body expanding and turning clearer in the process. As for the
iron-black long-barreled revolver in his hand, he had already lifted it
and aimed it at Qonas Kilgor.
Bang! Bang!
A bullet that had transparent and translucent sections to it shot out
from the muzzle, heading straight for Qonas Kilgor.
This was a Deprivation Bullet, one which was created using a Worm of
Time that Amon's avatar had left behind!
It was different from an Arbiter pathway's "Deprivation." In essence, it
was theft. It could steal the last three Beyonder powers the target had
used and become empowered with the ability to use them.
However, as long as the Arbiter pathway's "Deprivation" selected a
target, then they could directly deprive them of their ability. Although
this bullet's "Deprivation" effect didn't require contact in order to be
effective, the target needed to be within a certain range and unable to
leave the area. In short, one was unavoidable and could only be resisted
or weakened through one's level or Sequence's characteristics, while the
other could effectively be dodged if the shot was detected ahead of
time.
Klein had given up on a sneak attack and had stalled for time because,
on the one hand, he wanted Qonas Kilgor to use up all his "Prohibition"
and "Deprivation" powers on Beyonder powers that appeared important to
him. On the other hand, he was also waiting for the first random anomaly
to happen. Then, he would seize the gap in between the two anomalies to
steal Qonas Kilgor's three most powerful powers with the Deprivation
Bullet.
For these two goals, he even handed Death Knell and Creeping Hunger to
Winner Enuni and made him appear like the real Gehrman Sparrow instead
of a marionette.
From the current developments, Qonas Kilgor was about to lose
"Distortion,""Disorder," and "Magnify."
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Gehrman Sparrows underneath collectively fired shots.
Suddenly, the Air Cannons and the Deprivation Bullet exploded, turning
into red, purple, yellow, or green fireworks. However, they were unable
to illuminate the deep dark sky.
Concerto of Light and Shadow had once again created a random anomaly!
It had produced its effects several times in a row without any pauses or
delays.
Qonas Kilgor immediately smiled and slammed his hands together again.
All of a sudden, the young men wearing silk top hats and black trench
coats under the gigantic crimson moon's illumination turned gloomy. Only
two maintained their previous states.
The Earl of The Fallen's "Distortion" had taken effect!
This meant that Gehrman Sparrow could only switch places with those two
normal marionettes!
Right on the heels of that, Qonas Kilgor didn't hesitate at all. He
swung his arm and threw out the flower that was held together with the
pocket watch out.
The flower sped up and seemed to gain weight of unknown origins. Like an
arrow, it shot towards one of the normal marionettes.
This attack had been "Magnified" and also came with the effects of
Bribe---Weaken!
Boom!
The flower was like a cannon that crashed heavily into the ground,
causing a violent quake.
The surging waves it stirred up threw up the ordinary and unordinary
humans in the vicinity, tearing or severely injuring them. The two
marionettes which Gehrman Sparrow could swap with had been reduced to
pieces of meat.
Qonas Kilgor maintained his calm. As he "Distorted" his trajectory in
midair and circled the area while in flight, he raised Réver's Shout of
Despair and aimed it at the Gehrman Sparrow that had descended from the
crimson moon.
At the same time, he silently prepared a "Bestowment."
He wanted to give his target the negative state of "lacking the will to
fight"!
But at that moment, Qonas Kilgor's mind suddenly turned adrift as his
thoughts turned sluggish.
This... Turning into a marionette... Qonas Kilgor's mental
state stiffened as he understood his current situation.
He then saw that Gehrman Sparrow, who had descended from the crimson
moon, wasn't as far away from him as before. The distance between them
was only about a hundred meters.
He had unknowingly entered the range where Spirit Body Threads could be
controlled. He had stayed there for at least three seconds without
realizing it!
Deceit!
A Deceit Bullet made from Amon's avatar!
When Klein, who was actually Winner Enuni, had pulled the trigger, he
hadn't only fired a Deprivation Bullet, but had actually fired twice!
This was to prevent any random anomalies from happening.
With an anomaly having happened once, even if another anomaly were to
happen, only one of the two bullets that had been fired in intervals
that were slightly spaced apart would be affected. After all, it was an
intermittent random anomaly. It was possible to have it happen two to
three times consecutively, but four or five consecutive occurrences were
rare. Therefore, by attacking numerous times, there would be at least
one or more instances that wouldn't suffer an anomaly!
Just now, the firing of the second Deceit Bullet had been concealed by
the collective volley from the marionettes.
This was also why Klein made Winner Enuni use Death Knell---it was to
rely on his luck!
Finally, he successfully deceived Qonas Kilgor and allowed Winner Enuni
to secretly enter a safe distance of 150 meters from him and begin
controlling his Spirit Body Threads and obtained initial control.
The moment this began, it meant that the Beyonder power was taking
effect. Since there weren't any anomalies, it meant that there wouldn't
be anymore!