Part 2: The Faceless Man Chapter 234: The Portrait

　　After another round of bombardment, the tunnel into the main chamber was revealed to the members of “Mechanical Heart”.

　　The ground was littered with crumbs, and another extraordinary diamond-like feature that reflected the human face was lying quietly at the bottom of the right wall, mirroring the other two glowing items.

　　Potholes appeared throughout the entire tunnel, including the walls on both sides and the stone slab at the top, but there was one item that was intact.

　　It was a picture frame hanging seven or eight meters away in front of it, brownish yellow in color, with a distinct wood texture that only revealed its sides for the time being.

　　Without needing to be reminded, all the extraordinary people present saw its oddity.

　　At this time, Archbishop Horamik Haydn of the Church of Steam and Machinery, who hadn’t been making much of a fuss, stepped forward and said in a soft voice:

　　”It should be the ‘Ghost Picture Frame’ that belongs to the Amon family in the data records, as long as one walks into its range and is reflected into it, the spirit body will instantly detach from the flesh and blood and become a portrait that is sealed inside it forever, in such a state, even if the portrait is replaced and there is no corresponding way to do so, it is also cannot be rescued.

　　”If it has been sealed for too long and the body has already died, even if one grasps the correct way to unseal it, the spirit will quickly dissipate.”

　　As he spoke, Horamik took one step forward, approaching the strange picture frame.

　　Klein was subconsciously a little worried, not daring to observe the exact process of the demigod and half-human fighting against the sealing object, but he quickly snapped out of it, he was only looking at the holographic image provided by the Magic Mirror Aroldus, what was there to be afraid of?

　　It’s normal and normal, it’s the same as the instant feeling of watching a horror movie and playing a dark type of game …… Klein enlightened himself and accelerated his pace, following Horamik Hayden.

　　The half-god, half-human archbishop soon came within range of the magical item that needed to be sealed, and the figure in the white priestly robes and clergyman’s fedora was reflected a little into the glass on the surface of the frame.

　　Glass …… was available in the Fourth Age? It seems so, at least there has been glass in the history of the Fifth Age, and there is no mention of who invented it …… Klein waited with interest for the “battle” between the demigod and the half-human and the strange seal.

　　The upper half of Horamik’s body appeared in its entirety in the “ghostly frame”, but his eyes did not lose their color!

　　He approached the frame face to face.

　　The figure in the frame fluctuated, as if it were shrinking inward, but could not do so.

　　Horamik stopped, took out a large, almost opaque black cloth, which he had prepared long ago, and covered the “ghost frame”.

　　The frame trembled a few times, but eventually it was completely covered by the black cloth and returned to peace.

　　Horamik seems to not be affected by any, easily remove the “ghost frame”, with black cloth to complete the package, tied a knot in the back.

　　This …… this is not occult …… is not said that the spirit will be sucked into the frame, turned into a portrait? How come the archbishop didn t have anything at all …… Is this a special half god, half man, or is there another reason? Klein was puzzled for a while, and looked up and down at Horamik Haydn, and did not find the slightest abnormality.

　　The eyes have God, the expression of mercy, flesh and blood …… Unfortunately, not in the scene, otherwise you can open the spiritual vision to study it …… Klein retracted his gaze, and waited for Iconser and other “mechanical heart” members to come over. The “Mechanical Heart” members came over.

　　Horamik handed the “ghost frame” to a member of the team, and went forward on his own, towards the entrance of the main chamber at the end of the tunnel.

　　There was a black stone door filled with knife-like patterns, with an off-white disk set in the center.

　　The surface of the disk was divided into twelve compartments with a black hand, just like a clock in the outside world.

　　However, those grids were not evenly distributed across the disk’s surface; there were large and small grids that were extremely incongruous, and half of each grid was painted with shadows.

　　”The coat of arms of the House of Amon.” Archbishop Horamik gave a slight introduction.

　　He didn’t explain the symbolism of the coat of arms specifically, as only the deacon ranked Ikonser Bernard was qualified to know here.

　　Klein, on the other hand, relied on his own occult accumulation and tried to make an interpretation:

　　”The combination of the disk, twelve compartments, and the pointer clearly represents time, which coincides with the point that the ‘Worm of Time’ was left behind after the demise of Amon’s alter ego, and the twelve compartments that are supposed to be equally divided among the disk are of varying sizes and shrouded in a certain shadow, does it indicate that the Amon family is the dark side of time? And where does their title of ‘Blasphemer’ come into play?”

　　While Klein’s thoughts spun, Archbishop Horamik pushed open the stone door with nothing to protect it.

　　The stone door heaved back, revealing an extremely spacious chamber.

　　In the center of the chamber was a high platform with a deep black coffin.

　　On the surrounding walls were iron colored lamp holders holding white candles that were still burning quietly.

　　All the candles did not flicker, quietly as if they were just frozen images, completely free of the traces of one or two thousand years of time.

　　In the straight line from the stone door to the coffin, there was a body collapsed, they either wore a black tweed overcoat and a half-height silk bowler hat, or dressed as a common laborer with a duck-tongued hat, it seemed that they were people who had only entered the place in the last few years.

　　The same group of Extraordinary People who had recruited help earlier? How did they get through the front area? The human skin ghost shadow and other monsters are obviously still alive ah …… Klein, with a head full of questions, gazed at the corpses.

　　When he looked at them, he was immediately a bit shocked.

　　Each of those corpses had thinning white hair, dry and wrinkled skin, and obvious markings, as if they were eighty or ninety years old.

　　There were no obvious wounds on their bodies, and they seemed to have died of old age, and had just died not long ago, before they had time to decay.

　　Obviously, there would not be so many aged extraordinary people to explore the tomb, and even if they found that the people here were already old and decrepit, when recruiting helpers, they would try to pick young and strong …… There is something odd here! Klein frowned slightly and looked around again.

　　He quickly associated the “Worm of Time” left behind by Amon’s doppelganger with the Amon family coat of arms on the stone door that had the meaning of time.

　　Is the ability to age quickly one of the extraordinary abilities of the Amon family? The Dark Side of Time …… The Worm of Time …… Could it be that while aging others quickly, members of the Amon family would regain their youth and live longer? Wait a minute, the ease with which these extraordinary people broke in here may have been an intentional indulgence on the part of the tomb’s owner, who wanted to plunder the time of others to maintain his own existence …… Klein looked speculatively toward the black casket on the raised platform.

　　At this time, Horamik Haydn, a powerful half-god, half-human being, raised his left hand and pressed downward, saying:

　　”You guys stop here.”

　　”Yes, His Eminence the Archbishop.” Ikonser and the others replied without hesitation.

　　As members of the official organization, they had all read a large number of transcendent event dossiers and knew that in similar situations, one must absolutely obey the will of the High Sequencers, and one must never act without authority and show off, or else they would die without even knowing how they would die.

　　Horamik looked forward, and his gaze stopped on a picture frame that was upside down at the bottom of the high platform.

　　He took a step without changing his expression and walked forward neither quickly nor slowly.

　　No preparation at all? The characteristic of a demigod and half-human is “recklessness”? Kraven was rather dismayed.

　　He seemed to be able to imagine Horamik’s teeth falling out, his white hair withering, his skin dry and wrinkled, and his rapid aging.

　　One step, two steps, three steps, the originally normal Horamik suddenly shuddered, and a tooth-achingly sharp rubbing sound came out from within his body.

　　His pace began to slow down, his movements were a bit stiff, and his skin became visibly dry.

　　This is a little wrong …… not the pallor of a normal human …… What is the friction sound just now? Klein muttered in his heart.

　　Four steps, five steps, six steps, a tearing sound came from Horamik s body, and something clanked to the ground.

　　Klein subconsciously looked over and saw a gear.

　　A gear covered in rust!

　　Horamik continued to move forward, things falling off his body from time to time, there were rusty screws, melted pieces of wax, yellowed bones, and slack springs …… He was getting thinner and thinner, staggering, and could disintegrate at any time.

　　It was, just like a robot …… er, in the terminology of the age, like a living mannequin …… Klein suddenly came to a realization.

　　He remembered the old Neil said before he died, Mother Goddess Church of the Earth Sequence 4 specializes in “life refining”, “generalist” pathway corresponding to the sequence is also barely able to do.

　　And Horamik is a high sequence powerhouse in the pathway of “generalist”!

　　The Horamik in front of me is not the real Horamik, but only a refined doll. The reason why the “Ghost Picture Frame” was ineffective just now was because the doll did not have a spirit body at all! The real Horamik should still be hanging in a far away place …… worthy of being a demigod …… While Klein was in a daze, the archbishop walked to the front of the high platform, bent his knees, bent his back, and flipped the upside down picture frame over.

　　Normally, when exploring tombs with transcendental elements, one would avoid getting similar items on the front, but Horamik made the opposite choice this time.

　　As the frame flipped over, a wind suddenly picked up inside the closed mausoleum, blowing away the invisible confinement and silence.

　　A candle on the iron-colored lamp stand quickly burned and became unusually bright, but soon came to the end of its life and melted away.

　　The pale corpse on the ground, on the other hand, rapidly rotted and filled with a foul odor.

　　In just a few seconds, the main chamber became dark, with only the lamps carried by the members of the Mechanical Mind barely illuminating the front of the room.

　　Horamik picked up the frame on the floor and swung himself up the steps to the high platform.

　　He reached the black casket, extended his right palm, and pushed.

　　With a creak and a scraping sound, the heavy lid of the casket cracked open, as if it had not been nailed shut at all.

　　Horamik looked down and said in an unchanged voice:

　　”No body.”

　　The scene then drew closer, and Klein saw that the interior of the casket was empty, with only a soft, pale-golden cushion at the bottom, on which was embroidered a worm with twelve rings.

　　At that moment, Horamik turned his body, and the picture frame he held in his hand was then reflected in the eyes of Iconser and the others.

　　With just a glance, Klein’s gaze suddenly froze.

　　It was a portrait of a young man with a smile on his lips.

　　He had dark eyes and dark curly hair.

　　He had a broad forehead and a thin face.

　　He hung a crystal monocle.

　　He wore a black peaked fedora.

　　Amon!