Chapter 991: A Ritual Without A "Reply"

After ending the private communication, Klein made The World Gehrman

Sparrow look at Cattleya.

"Please inform Queen Mystic that I wish to meet her to talk about

something. The exact time and location is up to her."

Queen Mystic? So Ma'am Hermit represents the royals above the Five

Seas... Leonard was first taken aback before he came to a realization.

What's the matter? Cattleya frowned slightly in a wary manner.

"I will forward her your intentions, but I cannot provide any guarantees

over her agreement."

"Okay." The World Gehrman Sparrow nodded simply, indicating that it was

fine.

At this moment, Derrick finally had an opportunity as he asked,

"Everyone..."

He glanced at Mr. Hanged Man and Mr. World before continuing, "The

ritual needed for me to advance to Priest of Light requires pure

darkness. I need to bury my entire body in ice that usually doesn't

melt. In the City of Silver, such ice isn't difficult to find. However,

how do we create pure but safe darkness?"

So that's the Priest of Light's advancement ritual. Little Sun sure is

honest and simple... Due to her lack of experience and knowledge, Audrey

was unable to provide any substantial suggestions. All she could do was

cast her eyes at the person she believed was capable of resolving the

problem: The World Mr. Gehrman Sparrow.

And at this moment, The World raised his hands to pinch his temples. As

for The Fool Klein, he was rapidly trying to think of a solution.

Sigh, if this were the outside world, pure darkness is extremely easy to

obtain. Ice that normally doesn't melt would be the most troublesome

thing to obtain, but the City of Silver is the complete opposite...

There, darkness is too dangerous. Just being within it will result in

one's disappearance or suffering the attacks of strange monsters...

I can get Leonard to provide charms from the Evernight domain, and then

I can stir some of the powers of the mysterious space above the gray

fog. Using Little Sun's prayers, I can provide an area of artificial

darkness. But the problem lies in me being unable to determine if this

would bring the normal danger that the City of Silver encounters. This

is not something that can be answered with divination. When matters do

not involve myself, I can only determine if a matter is dangerous or

not, or when matters should be done. And under such situations, there

are too many elements involved, and the sources of danger are diverse...

Yes, I'll summon Arrodes later and ask it...

Klein had previously been considering the problem over Little Sun's

advancement, but he had never been able to find an answer.

Seeing The World silent, Leonard, who had originally wanted to say that

"creating pure darkness is extremely easy" slowly shut his mouth. He

began pondering over The Sun's words and caught notice of a word that he

had ignored: Safe!

In the Forsaken Land of the Gods, in the City of Silver, darkness is

equivalent to danger? Leonard roughly grasped the key idea, but due to

his lack of understanding, he was unable to provide any suggestions.

Finally, it was Alger who spoke.

He glanced at Derrick and said, "I will help you gather information and

seek out solutions. But in the process, you might need to provide some

help to confirm that it can be done."

"No problem!" Derrick answered without any hesitation.

Right on the heels of that, he added, "There's no need to rush it. I

still have about a month before I can finish digesting my Notary

potion."

Alger nodded gently, indicating that this wasn't something that needed

any reminders.

At this moment, Cattleya deliberated for a moment and said to Derrick,

"Perhaps we can consider this problem from another angle. Your

advancement ritual wouldn't last too long. We can simply increase the

time you can survive in pure darkness to resolve this matter.

"I remember that you've mentioned that after being left in darkness with

zero light, there are two dangers. The first would be the attacks from

strange monsters that come from unknown origins, and the second would be

a baffling instance of disappearance that is akin to evaporating.

"The former situation is easy to resolve. You can make a request to your

Chief for certain Sealed Artifacts, or you can get him to stand guard by

your side. As for the second case, I don't know enough. You can attempt

to ask your Chief."

Derrick thought about it carefully and suddenly felt that this was a

viable train of thought with a rather significant chance of success.

He immediately replied in pleasant surprise, "Thank you, Ma'am Hermit."

The exchange and learning session continued until the gathering slowly

came to an end. Seeing that it was almost done, The Fool Klein rapped

gently on the table's corner.

"Let's end it here for today."

"Your wish is our will!" Audrey and company stood up and bowed

reverently.

After they vanished from above the gray fog, Klein left the area and

returned to the real world.

He first took out his wallet and got the paper crane which was folded by

Will Auceptin. Spreading it across the table, he picked up a pencil and

simply wrote: "There's something!"

After folding the paper crane and stuffing it under his pillow, Klein

got into bed and genuinely took an afternoon nap.

In his hazy dream, he once again saw the pitch-black plains and the

towering steeple.

Passing through the plains and through the wooden doors, Klein arrived

at the familiar corner.

A black pram came out of the thick shadows as Will Auceptin, wrapped in

silver silk, sucked at his right thumb and derided angrily, "You are

getting more and more impolite!"

Klein laughed dryly and said, "With our relationship, there's no need

for such pleasantries, right?"

Will Auceptin harrumphed and said, "Speak, what's the matter?"

"This is the thing; I recently encountered Amon's avatar," Klein said

directly.

The baby's mouth widened a little as though he was about to cry. It took

him great effort to control himself as he said, "I haven't been born for

more than a month!"

"...There's nothing I need from you. I only wish to ask you a question,"

Klein quickly added.

Will Auceptin raised his fleshy arm and waved it.

"What is it?"

Klein immediately said with a smile, "Amon's avatar can steal the

destiny of others and appear while replacing their identities. I wish to

know how I can see through such a terrifying matter."

Will Auceptin chuckled as he pointed up at the sky with his index

finger.

"Pray for help."

From the looks of it, using the powers of the gray fog can be used to

discover the grafting of destiny... Klein heaved a sigh of relief as he

felt even more certain.

When he thought of the word "using," he was referring to using his

marionette to pray to The Fool while he entered above the gray fog.

Through the point of light representing his believer, he could survey

the surrounding area to seek out any abnormalities. In a sense, this was

equivalent to The Fool's observation, an equivalent to an augmented

"true vision."

But the problem is that I can't stay above the gray fog to observe for

grafting all the time. It might be the case that, in between two of the

observation periods, Amon could've entered Böklund Street and have done

something... Klein thought before asking with some deliberation:

"Anything you would like to remind me of?"

Will Auceptin turned his head away without looking at him as he mumbled,

"You have to visit me and my parents once this week. During high tea..."

"No problem!" Klein agreed without any hesitation.

Only then did the baby turn his head back and giggle.

"Next week, around Wednesday or Thursday, there might be some changes in

your destiny."

Is that so... Klein nodded in thought as he watched the black pram

slowly retreat into the shadows.

After waking up from his dream, he packed up his items and began setting

up an altar without any rest.

This time, the target of his prayer was the Evernight Goddess "Herself,"

and not Artificial Death. This was to prevent Amon from prying upon the

source of the stirring via the changes in destiny and, thus, noticing

something wrong.

How could the Evernight's Blessed be praying to Artificial Death?

After setting up the ritual, Klein wiped his face and turned into the

cold-looking Gehrman Sparrow, causing his height to drop a little lower.

After igniting the first two candles in front, Klein made the ordinary

candle representing "himself" burn with a yellow flame. There were two

candles in front. One was a candle made of night vanilla and slumber

flower to represent Evernight, and the other was a candle made up of

white chestnut flowers and wild rose to represent "Concealment."

Following that, he created a wall of spirituality, dripped Full Moon

Essential Oil, and burned some herbal powder that pleased the goddess.

Bit by bit, he completed the ritual.

Towards the end, Klein took two steps back, activated his Spirit Vision,

and chanted softly, "I pray for the power of the dark night.

"I pray for the power of the mystery.

"I pray for the Goddess's loving grace.

"...I encountered Blasphemer Amon's avatar in Backlund. He was gathering

the characteristics of a Marauder pathway demigod...

"...I seek for the blessings of Concealment so as to complete the

mission of eradicating the Blasphemer's avatars...

"Night vanilla, a herb that belongs to the red moon, please pass my

supplication to the Goddess! "Moon flower, a herb that belongs to the

red moon, please pass my supplication to the Goddess!"

After he was done chanting, Klein patiently waited for a while, but

nothing happened. There wasn't any reply.

This... The Goddess is in a critical period of gaining control over the

Death pathway's Uniqueness and is unable to respond beyond anything

normal? Should I try to pray to Artificial Death? After all, if there

are the blessings of Concealment, Amon wouldn't be able to see it. If it

doesn't, then the source of stirring destiny wouldn't point to me...

Klein frowned little by little as he ended the ritual and cleared the

altar.

He felt that he needed to find other solutions.

After he finished clearing the desk and turned around, prepared to head

for the reclining chair, a figure suddenly appeared in front of him!

The figure wore a simple linen robe with signs of patching. By the

figure's waist was a belt made of tree bark. Raven-black hair cascaded

down freely as the figure's feet didn't wear any socks or shoes, making

them covered in dust and wounds.

It was a lady. She had extremely normal facial features. Her ghostly

black eyes were no different from the common person, but just looking at

her left Klein feeling a sense of extreme peace and serenity. Even

though feelings of alarm rose up within him, they were unable to

overpower the peacefulness.