Part 3 The Traveler Chapter 182 – The Race to the Top
A mermaid?
Klein’s heart was filled with joy, and a long-lost excitement emerged.
After nearly four months away from Birkeland, and after experiencing many things, he had finally arrived at the destination of this “trip”, and fulfilled the last condition needed to be promoted to Sequence 5 “Secret Puppet Master”!
The agitation and disturbance in his heart due to waiting has been growing since he entered this sea, and all the seemingly absurd and ridiculous things that happened on the “Future” are exceptionally frightening when thought about, as well as the dangers and unknowns hidden in the three states of darkness, midday, and dream within the God’s War Ruins, which made him always tense up his spirit! He spent every minute of every hour in torment.
Now, these emotions and pressure finally have a chance to vent and release!
Hoo…… Klein slowly exhaled, directly returned to the cabin, entered the room belonging to his own.
No panic, no forgetfulness, he took out the Aztec Copper Whistle, Will Onsettin paper cranes according to the scheduled procedure, and used them to interfere with the possible existence of the “mysterious queen” snooping.
After taking the remnants of the ancient spirit, the eyeball of the six-winged gargoyle, the bark of the dragon tree, and the metal flask containing the water of the golden spring of Sunia out of the suitcase and unfolding it on the desk, he entered the bathroom, unlocked the door of the room, and skillfully set up the ritual of praying for the blessing.
Having finished this ritual, he did not rush to respond above the gray mist, but instead set up an additional ritual, one of summoning himself!
Walking four steps in reverse, chanting incantations in a low voice, Klein came to the gray fog, responded to the summoning ceremony, and through this, he came to the real world in a spiritual state, and brought the “kindling” glove back to that mysterious space.
After doing the preliminaries, Klein did not relax, came to the position of the Fool, manifested a pen and paper, quickly wrote a divination statement:
”The one singing ahead is a mermaid.”
Removing the citrine pendant, he used divination to confirm the situation:
The singing mermaid in front of the “Future” was the mermaid!
Calming himself, Klein beckoned the iron cigarette case to fly out of the clutter and land on the long, mottled bronze table.
With a snap, he opened the lid and saw the pupil-less “all-black eye” still lying quietly inside, the ultimate madness and danger vaguely perceptible, but as if sleeping.
Silently staring for two seconds, Klein picked up the “kindling” glove, slowly put it on the right palm.
After completing this, Klein did not hesitate any longer, extended his right palm forward and opened his fingers.
The image he saw in front of his eyes suddenly floated on a variety of light masses, gray, copper green, deep red and black and heavy constitute the main tone of this mysterious space.
Inside the “all-black eye”, a steaming, clawing iron black light was wrapping around all the remaining colors.
Without relying on his own spiritual intuition, and only based on his own understanding of things, Klein could clearly recognize that what represented the spiritual pollution of the “True Creator” was this iron black light!
On high alert, he closed his fingers together, grasped the target, and then twisted his wrist.
The iron black light was immediately withdrawn into the “kindling” glove, and Klein’s ears were again filled with the hissing sound of the illusory, evil, horrible, déjà vu, which he could not name.
This destroys his mind, grinding his spirit, bringing the pain of his head about to explode, but soon suppressed by the power of the gray fog, completely calm.
With no time to think, Kraven followed a preplanned and well-rehearsed maneuver, grasping the Spark Glove in his left palm, slipping it off, and dropping it onto the stone tiles of the grand palace.
Immediately afterward, Klein, somewhat numbly, grasped the “all-black eye”, which was no longer a problem, and quickly responded to the ritual of praying for the bestowal of the extraordinary properties of the “Master of the Secret Puppets” through the illusory door to the altar located in the washroom.
He did not dare to make any delay, but only glanced at the “kindling” glove, which was already stained with iron black, with twisted fingers and torn palms, full of a sinister feeling, and wrapped himself in his spirituality, simulating the sensation of a rapid descent back to the real world.
If the “writhing hunger” witnessed the whole encounter and result of the “kindling” glove, I wonder what it would feel …… Klein opened his eyes, grabbed the altar within the “All Black Eye”, straight to the room outside, at the same time, the heart flashed in such a thought.
Stopping in front of the desk, Klein took out the steel milk pot originally belonging to the kitchen of the “Future” from the side, and poured 80 milliliters of spring water from the golden spring of Sunia into it.
The light golden liquid slowly swirled, clear and transparent, making people subconsciously feel their mouths dry and want to drink a cup to quench their thirst.
One by one, the bark of the Dragon Tree, the eyeballs of the six-winged gargoyle, and the remnants of the spirituality of the Ancient Grievous Spirit were put into the pot by Klein, provoking different reactions, and in the end, the color of the potion’s base agent turned into a dark gold, but it seemed to be light and fluffy, without a bit of weight.
At this critical point, Klein instead became exceptionally calm, calmly picking up the pupil-less black eye and sinking it into the base agent.
He could already confirm that the spiritual pollution of the “Real Creator” could not penetrate the gray fog and return to the “All Black Eye”!
This was predictable.
The “All Black Eye” was instantly submerged by the dark golden liquid, and bubble after bubble rose from the surface of the water.
Each bubble burst, the potion blackened by one point, and after ten seconds or so, all the changes ended.
Inside the milk pot, the magic potion took shape and was all black in color, and there seemed to be countless tiny bugs inside that could not be seen too clearly by the naked eye as they swam rapidly.
Klein took out a gold coin and made a quick confirmation using the divination method.
After receiving a successful revelation, he breathed a sigh of relief and poured the “Secret Puppet Master” magic potion into a metal bottle prepared in advance and stuffed it into his coat pocket.
He did not rush, nor did he mess up, according to the scheduled process, he quickly disposed of the altar in the washroom, and retrieved the Aztec copper whistle and the Will Onsettin paper crane.
It was only at this time that he left the cabin with slightly quicker steps and came on deck.
By now, the symbols, magical signs and strange patterns on the “Future” had lit up in layers, forming a bright sea of stars, which minimized the mermaid’s song.
–Rumor has it that the mermaid’s song would make humans lose their minds and become obsessed, thus jumping off the ship they were on and becoming food for the mermaids.
Klein subconsciously looked up at the corresponding window of the captain’s room.
The “Star General” stood there, surrounded by starbursts, looking back with a complicated gaze.
Is this remembering what he said and the attitude he displayed in the dream? Klein made a belly laugh and said with an indifferent expression:
”I want a small boat.”
”It’s already prepared.” Without seeing any surprises, Gadelia pointed to the boat’s side position.
When Germaine Sparrow hired the “Future”, he had already mentioned that his purpose was to look for mermaids!
Soon, Klein left the “Future”, leaving the protection of the bright sea of stars, stepped on a small boat, in the ocean.
The sound of the song drifted in and seemed to penetrate directly into his spiritual body, leaving him tingling and wanting to hear more.
It wasn’t nearly enough of a degree for Klein, and his spiritual instincts told him that he had to get a little closer, to make the song a little clearer, in order to fulfill the needs of the ritual.
”Storm!”
Klein pulled out a charm made of white pewter and summoned a controllable gale to propel the boat, forward.
After an unknown amount of time, the mermaid’s song suddenly grew louder and clearer as if it was being whispered in Klein’s ears, every note of it striking a spiritual body, every melody mesmerizing and yearning.
Klein drifted off for a moment, nearly jumping into the sea and swimming to the source of this beautiful song.
Doing his best to control himself, he realized that there were many reefs not far ahead, and a figure was sitting on the edge, singing softly in a mannish voice.
These creatures had the heads of humans, their eyebrows were a bit voluptuous in their innocence, their chests were high and bulging but covered by dark red scales, their lower bodies were large fish tails that beat the reefs very rhythmically.
Different mermaids had different looks and different tail scale colors, which had an alien beauty to humans.
Klein let go of his control of the boat and raised his right hand, about to probe into his coat pocket and take out the magic potion.
Just then, a mermaid sensed his approach and looked over.
Then, one by one, these creatures, also known as sirens, stopped singing in panic and leapt into the water with a plop plop plop.
Don t go ah …… Klein’s right hand feebly grasped two times in vain.
Isn t it a good idea to use the song to attract humans as food? How come the humans came and you guys ran away instead? I am not a bad person, I just came to listen to a song …… At this time, Klein s heart was filled with I grass emotions.
He quickly discovered that the mermaid’s song did not completely stop, in the farther position of this reef, there are still a few mermaids with their backs to this side, in the background of the wind and waves did not find the escape of their companions, and still boldly sang.
Klein’s spirit was lifted, and after a moment’s thought, he took out another spell.
This was the spell of the “Neptune” domain that made the underwater creatures close to the user!
”Storm!”
At the sound of the incantation, greenish-blue flames wrapped around the white tin sheet, causing it to disappear into the real world.
Seeing that the remaining “mermaids” were no longer timid to run away even though they were aware of him, Kraven immediately took out the metal bottle containing the “Secret Puppet Master” magic potion and unscrewed the cap.
Catch the time, in case of accidents!
Gulp, the slightly bitter potion with a stale feeling rushed into Klein’s mouth, along his esophagus, straight to his stomach pouch.
Suddenly, Klein realized that he had become unusually stiff, as if he had returned to Tingen, back to the state when he had been manipulated by the strange puppet of the seal “2-049”.
He tried to move his joints, but they seemed to be filled with lead.
At the same time, he felt a tiny worm burrowing into every cell of his body and into his spirit.
His thoughts began to slow down, and the ability to mirror his own state within his mind gradually failed.
The mermaid’s song came liltingly, stirring up the kind of longing that built up fervor and obsession, allowing Kraven to keep the last of his emotions in check and to use this lure to get rid of his rigid and sluggish state a little bit.
A grayish mist of indifference quickly appeared in front of his eyes, and his ears resounded with the illusory “Hornachis …… Fregla …… Hornachis… …Fregla……”, and he was promoted to “Diviner”, “Clown”, Compared to when he was promoted to “Diviner”, “Joker”, “Magician”, this murmuring has become obviously intermittent, as if it is being interfered with by something to exclude.
Unlike when he became a “faceless man”, his ravings are obviously much stronger, and he can intermittently break through the barrier between the gray fog and the blending power of reality……. My ability to think has been restored! Klein’s heart was happy, tried to raise his arm.
The pain in the joints was still there, but it was getting weaker and weaker!
At the same time, Klein “saw” his current appearance:
His skin color was yellowish-brown, like a mannequin that had been buried alive for years with old bandages wrapped around it;
A bud of flesh was hidden under the skin, wriggling, separating and merging.
Kraven immediately outlined countless balls of light in his mind, using “meditation” to calm this state.
During this process, the mermaid’s song still echoed in his ears, causing his joints and muscles to twitch and slowly recede from their stiffness.
After an unknown amount of time, Klein opened his eyes, his body completely normalized.
He sucked in a breath and voicelessly lamented:
”Finally ……
”Finally Sequence 5!
”Finally ‘Secret Puppet Master’!”