Chapter 685: From A Delay to Disconnection
In the room that had been reduced to shambles, Klein, whose top hat had
fallen to the side and clothes had become tattered, was about four
meters away from Kircheis, who was a behemoth with bat wings. The
situation was so quiet, as though a puppet show was being played.
In fact, Klein still had the means to do something else.
Back when Marionettist Rosago forcefully controlled both him and
Sharron, he could resist the Wraith's possession and use Flame
Controlling to summon a flame to destroy the shadow pulled in by
Sharron. If he hadn't made a serious mistake by targeting the Sequence 5
Wraith, Rosago could've diverted his attention to killing Klein,
snuffing out any chance of him using the Language of Foulness charm.
Now, although Klein was definitely inferior to him, there was also only
one enemy!
Of course, there wasn't really much he could do. Under the premise of
not losing control over Kircheis, he could move, but he couldn't do it
too hastily or quickly. He could use Beyonder powers which didn't expend
too much of his spirituality, but he couldn't divert his attention to
power the mystical items he carried, or use actions that required too
much movement like drawing a gun.
And when a target was controlled to a certain extent, several attacks
could nudge or stimulate the target, allowing them to resist the control
of their Spirit Body Threads to a greater extent and even show signs of
escaping from his control.
Therefore, Klein had to wait.
At that moment, his heart rate suddenly sped up as an uncontrollable
sense of horror and anxiety surfaced in his mind.
He couldn't help but suspect that Kircheis's companions who had their
intentions affected by Distortion were about to return!
No good! My emotions have been stirred! Klein was first taken
aback as he tried to use Cogitation to forcefully calm his agitated
heart.
Haha... He has... emotional stirrings... A chance... Kircheis
was delighted as a slow thought flashed through his mind.
Then, using his Beyonder powers, he attempted to magnify Gehrman
Sparrow's horror and anxiety, planting an emotional seed in him.
As long as he succeeded, all he needed was to completely "trigger" it,
maiming his opponent, making him unable to influence him further!
*No... How can it... be ineffective... His... emotional stirrings...
have disappeared...* Kircheis's bloodshot eyes constricted
slowly as it was gradually filled with shock, alarm, and anger.
Klein, who imagined that he had given the Desire Apostle a chance to
counterattack, discovered that nothing had happened after completely
calming himself down. The curled goat horns on Kircheis's head were
ignited, but he didn't attempt to use his emotional stirrings!
Moments after having this thought, Klein roughly understood the
situation.
It wasn't that Kircheis didn't wish to control his horror and anxiety,
but it was that he had failed!
From the moment he sensed the emotional stirrings, he had to take a few
seconds to digest the situation before using two to three seconds to
make the decision. Finally, he spent even more time to organize his
thoughts before channeling the corresponding Beyonder powers. All of
that took him at least ten seconds to complete.
Klein only took a total of three to four seconds to calm his mind after
detecting the problem.
Therefore, Kircheis's Beyonder powers naturally failed to be effective
against an enemy who was in normal condition.
*To put it simply, the delay was too long! Under such situations, don't
try to fiddle around with highly intricate matters...* Klein
lampooned before suppressing his sense of schadenfreude.
After another ten seconds, Kircheis finally understood the source of the
problem. He no longer considered targeting desires and emotions, and
instead, while flapping the bat wings on his back with great difficulty,
he relied on a Devil's powerful body and Spirit Body to resist the
control stemming from the Spirit Body Threads. He tried to make the
swirling light blue flames slowly coagulate into a fireball.
Klein could almost foresee fireballs bombard him; hence, he didn't
hesitate to split off some of his spirituality, snapping his fingers
using his right thumb and middle finger.
Pa!
The light blue flames suddenly soared before they truly took form and
collapsed completely. They were like fireworks blooming behind Kircheis.
Magician's Flame Controlling!
Kircheis continued struggling, but his actions became even slower as he
resembled a rusting puppet. As for Klein, he casually moved his feet to
dodge the Devil language Kircheis had launched with all his strength.
Three seconds, two seconds, one second... Klein suddenly
stopped as his eyes locked onto Kircheis's head which had lost its
curved goat horns.
At that moment, he still needed two and a half minutes from controlling
this Desire Apostle to turn him into his marionette, but Klein didn't
have such plans. He never had such plans in the first place!
It took too much time, allowing Kircheis's companions to rush back in
time!
Klein only had one ultimate goal---it was to control Kircheis to a
certain extent so that attacks within a certain limit wouldn't help him
escape his predicament!
The bloodshot eyes, grimacing expression, and sharp teeth with drooling
saliva reflected in Klein's eyes. He opened his mouth and said a word,
"Bang!"
Air Bullet! An Air Bullet of a Sequence 5!
This was already comparable to a bullet shot from a steam rifle!
Bang!
The Air Bullet accurately hit Kircheis's forehead, causing him to throw
up his head, yanking the Spirit Body Threads.
In between his brows, a bloody hole that wasn't too deep had appeared.
It wasn't a mortal blow.
To a Devil, a Desire Apostle, their bodies seemed to be cloaked with
thick and hard armor. Their blood and flesh had extreme elasticity and
defensive strength.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Klein kept creating Air Bullets while making gunshot sounds, striking
Kircheis's forehead, again and again, slowly leaving it a contiguous
mess. At the same time, he stably controlled the Spirit Body Threads to
prevent him from using the feedback to weaken his influence.
Kircheis let out an angry stuttering roar as he tried moving forward in
a bid to counterattack, but Klein was a lot more agile than him!
And his plans to liquefy undoubtedly failed because of the control of
the Spirit Body Threads.
Bang!
Another Air Bullet struck Kircheis, completely shattering his forehead,
penetrating his brain.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The subsequent bullets flew in, one bullet
after another.
Bang!
Kircheis's skull was finally sent flying as black crevices filled his
brain. At that moment it was a complete mess.
The aura of this Slaughterer worth 9,500 pounds quickly dissipated, but
he didn't close his eyes, as he had already lost them.
Bit by bit, he collapsed to the ground slowly as Klein walked over and
extended his left hand.
Two blood-red eyes split open in the middle of the glove.
A cold and eerie wind appeared as Slaughterer Kircheis's Spirit Body, as
well as his black fog-like Beyonder characteristic shot towards Creeping
Hunger amidst screams before fixing itself to a blank finger.
Soon, the glove turned black once again, but this time it was profound
and pure, resembling countless squirming dots of the same color formed
one layer after another.
Klein sensed the changes for two seconds before walking towards the
shattered window, feeling somewhat disappointed and also somewhat
delighted.
When Grazing Kircheis, he had actually considered which Beyonder powers
he wished to receive and which he didn't wish to receive. The one he
didn't wish for was the danger premonition of a Devil, as this needed to
have Creeping Hunger constantly activated while maintaining Kircheis's
soul. And this meant that he needed to feed the glove every day, which
spelled an extreme inconvenience for himself. Furthermore, this also
overlapped with his powers as a Seer to a certain extent.
As for whether the danger premonition of a Devil worked after making it
into his marionette, Klein believed that it was targeted on the
marionette and had nothing to do with its controller.
What Klein wished for the most was to "draw" the Desire Apostle's
Beyonder powers of using a target's emotional stirrings or the use of
any of the Language of Foulness, with the best being Death or
Corruption.
At that moment, he had been quite lucky to obtain three Beyonder powers.
One of them was Language of Foulness, but it wasn't Death or Corruption,
but Slow. This allowed all targets in a seven-to eight-meter radius to
instantly turn numb or even come to a halt. However, it could only be
maintained for two seconds.
The second Beyonder power was Sword of Lava. It could create a flaming
sword with extremely high offensive power. One strike could directly
cleave through a thick stone column, leaving the sliced off end to
appear to be melted off. This was the option Kircheis had used when he
attacked maniacally.
The third was Sulfur Fireball. Not only could it create an explosion of
considerable might, but it could also poison people and objects which
had been stained by the flames. If matched with a Devil form's powers,
ten to twenty fireballs could be launched at the same instance. Out of
that form, it maxed out at three.
*That's not bad. The damage delivered by Sword of Lava to non-undead or
non-corrupt creatures is clearly higher than the Priest of Light's Light
of Holiness...* Klein came to the window and happened to see the
backs of Kircheis's companions opening up a distance from him.
*They haven't shaken off the influence? No, with so much time having
passed, they must've shaken off the influence and returned somewhere
nearby. Now, they're escaping? They sensed Kircheis's death? That's a
little weird...* Klein turned his head back and saw Kircheis's
corpse still in his Devil form. His form didn't change back into a human
as a result of his death.
He looked at the corpse for two seconds before coming up with a theory.
"Powers like the Devil form are a state that brings a body close to the
state of losing control. However, they still have their reasoning and
can change back while they're in control. Otherwise, they will maintain
their forms."
Klein didn't delay as he searched the Devil's corpse. He discovered that
Kircheis's gigantification had torn all his clothes and pants, causing
his wallet and cash to scatter across the ground. Later, they were all
destroyed due to the blanketing attack from the fireballs and sulfurous
flames.
"..." Just as Klein looked away, he suddenly discovered something
twinkling in the giant Devil's chest.
It was a thin and long crystal formed purely of blood. A faint smell of
sulfur emanated around it.
"What's that?" Klein frowned, unable to figure out an answer.
*Kircheis's Beyonder characteristics has clearly entered Creeping
Hunger. Why would his corpse produce something strange?* A
question flashed across Klein's mind.
Furthermore, as the second mate of the King of Immortality, Kircheis
didn't even carry a mystical item or Sealed Artifact. This had exceeded
his expectations.