Volume 7: The Hanged Man Chapter 29: Home Field Advantage
While Amon was speaking, Klein appeared to be listening, but in reality, he was already trying to leave the “Source Castle”.
This was not because he wanted to give up or surrender, nor was he too timid to subconsciously consider avoiding it, but rather, he thought that this was the optimal solution for the current situation:
If he stayed in the “Source Castle”, Klein would face three major problems:
First, he had just been promoted to “Fool”, and his own state was extremely unstable, so he would have to use most of his spirit to suppress the revived will of the “Blessed Xuanhuang Heavenly Father”; second, he would not be able to obtain the help of his allies, and would have to fight alone; and third, he would be in a situation where everyone could influence the “Source Castle”, and would have to fight alone. Thirdly, in a situation where everyone can influence the “Source Fortress”, even if Kraven has a higher level of control over this source material than Amon, he still can’t show an overwhelming advantage, and will even be interfered by the other party because they are good at exploiting loopholes and creating “bugs”, making it difficult to use the “Source Fortress” properly. The “Source Fortress” is on the same level as the other side.
In this way, Sequence 0’s “Fools” face the half-crazy “Bugs” and “Gates” dual-path True God, even if not 100% failure, the probability of winning is extremely small.
After seizing the opportunity to break away from the “Source Castle”, Kraven will immediately obtain the help of his allies, reversing the situation of both sides:
If Amon chases after him, Kraven will interfere with K’s move to return to the “Source Castle”, so that K will face his allies directly. At that time, the “Original Witch” will definitely not make another move, and the Ancient Sun God may not be able to regain half of its old power in a short time, so that the “Goddess of Night” will be able to take the opportunity to escape from the “Source Castle”. The six gods led by the “Goddess of the Night” were enough to take care of Amon.
Even if Amon, who holds all the power of the two realms of “Error” and “Gate”, is not so easy to kill, the gods can certainly weaken K, seal K, and wait for Kline to stabilize his mental state and deepen his control over the “Source Castle”. After Klein stabilized his mental state and deepened his control over the “Source Fortress”, he would then kill K in a targeted manner.
Such a process is almost irreversible, even if the ancient sun god can still explode with the same position, level and strength, it can not be changed – k’s limit seems to be to suppress three gods at the same time, which can not include the “goddess of the night”.
Of course, there is no doubt that the Outer Gods do not want to see the birth of a new “Lord of Secrecy”, and in the event of such a situation, the K’s will certainly try to interfere to prevent the fall of Amon, but before the world barrier has collapsed, the K’s influence is quite limited, and may not be able to produce too much of an effect, just as before, Klein believes that the “Dark Side of the Universe” is a “dark side” of the universe. The combined power of the “Dark Side of the Universe” and the “Bound God” is less than that of the “Hidden Sage”.
Even if the Outer Gods did affect the situation, Kraven would not have much to lose. Those beings would not allow Amon to kill him in reverse anyway, so he could find a place to hide, stabilize his mental state, and then plan again when he was ready – the “Goddess of the Night”‘s Misty Town was the best place to hide. “The misty town is a good choice.
If Amon doesn’t chase after him and remains inside the “Source Castle”, Klein can make Amon unable to do anything inside the “Source Castle” by virtue of his identity as the owner of the “Source Castle” and his control over various matters inside the “Source Castle” that he can influence at any time. Inside the “Source Castle”, Amon can’t do anything, even if he wants to deal with the members of the Tarot Club through the Crimson Star, he can’t do it.
In short, whoever wants to make better use of the “Source Castle”, will be very difficult, but to destroy each other’s attempts is absolutely simple.
Under this kind of stalemate, Klein has all the time in the world to stabilize his mental state, deepen his control over the “Source Castle”, and little by little turn the situation around.
At the end of the day, Amon could either run and hide, or let the “Fusheng Xuanhuang Tianzun” come back to life completely, dragging Klein to die with him.
Therefore, although he didn’t have time to analyze the pros and cons of the situation, Kline still quickly came to a judgment:
Leaving the Fortress of Origin now was the best choice.
However, as soon as his consciousness sank to the edge of the “Source Castle”, he saw a piece of crystal ground into a monocle.
It appeared just in time to disrupt Klein’s disengagement.
”You think I would leave such an obvious loophole? And of course, you can always stop me from leaving the ‘Source Castle’.” Amon laughed as he bent his right index finger against the underside of the monocle.
Behind the chair where K was sitting, the symbols outlined in bright light changed rapidly, sometimes a mishmash of symbols corresponding to parasitism, time, and destiny, and sometimes a layer upon layer of ‘doors’.
The two different symbols alternated and could not really be pinned down.
Kraven didn’t bother to listen to what Amon had to say, and as soon as he failed to disengage, he created the real Realm of Secrets, the complete Kingdom of the Fool.
In front of Amon’s eyes, the light and shadow changed instantly, bringing the disappearance of the magnificent palace, the mottled long table and the gorgeous high-backed chairs, and the emergence of an ancient castle.
Amon didn’t know exactly what this ancient castle looked like, because he was standing in a corridor inside the castle, and could only perceive the changes in the “Source Castle” and see the limited scene as far as his vision could reach.
The corridor was unusually eerie and dark, with two seemingly endless ends, and elegant silver candlesticks at long intervals, on which the light was dim and dull.
On both sides of the corridor there was one closed dark red wooden door after another, which seemed to connect to different rooms.
And all the rooms, there was not a single sound inside, not knowing what was hidden respectively.
Amon casually swept a glance and smiled like he was interested:
”It’s a bit interesting.”
As the most powerful “decryption scholar”, K of course knew that this was a divine kingdom, and it was the kind of divine kingdom that could not be broken by brute force.
This was because each door was “reorganized” with a different thing, and there was no telling what effect would be triggered if it was broken by force – Amon did not underestimate the ability and intelligence of a Sequence 0 “Fool”, and did not intend to take this issue lightly. Amon did not underestimate the ability and intelligence of a Sequence 0 “Fool”, and did not intend to experience multiple surprises and accidents.
However, when the rules of the Kingdom of God are fixed, the owner of the Kingdom of God will also be limited to a certain extent.
Simply put, Klein was bound to be in one of the rooms at this time, and would not be anywhere else.
Having gained benefits, one would have to bear the corresponding responsibilities.
”Trying to stall for time and stabilize your mental state this way?” Amon whispered as if he was talking to someone.
Then, wearing a pointed fedora and a classical black robe, K walked to the nearest dark red wooden door.
There were no holes in the wooden door, making it impossible to see the exact situation inside.
In other words, without opening the door to the room, it was difficult for Amon to know if Klein was here.
The corner of his mouth slightly hooked, Amon stretched out his right hand and drew a vertical rectangle on that dark red wooden door.
Inside the rectangle, a bit of starlight emerged and became transparent, revealing the scene in the room.
Amon relied on the authority of “Door” and the ability of “Bug” to force a window on the door without triggering the effect.
Then, he looked into the interior of the room.
Instead of tables, chairs, rugs, and other furniture, there was an azure sea.
”Sure enough, combining this door with the outside sea.” Amon smiled without being surprised at all.
Once K twisted this door, K would directly detach from the “Source Castle” and appear in the sea.
And at that time, with Klein’s defenses, it would be almost impossible for k to enter the “Source Fortress” again, just as Klein couldn’t leave the “Source Fortress” now.
This is the reason why Amon did not forcefully destroy the Kingdom of the Fool, but opened the doors one by one.
–Destroying it would cause a similar, repetitive effect over and over again on Amon, and even if there were more loopholes to exploit, K would not be able to completely immunize himself.
Retracting his gaze, Amon walked over to the room across the hall and opened a window in the door as he had just done.
However, this time, it was dark inside and nothing could be seen.
Amon raised his hand and pinched the top and bottom edges of his monocle and coughed lightly.
K’s figure split into two at once.
Amon’s numbers increased.
The Amon that was split off looked at the Amon standing in place and tsked:
”Why don’t you seek excitement yourself?”
As he spoke, this Amon extended his right palm and gripped the handle of the dark red wooden door.
k just had twisted it, his expression suddenly became stagnant and he sat straight down, as if he had lost the ability to think.
”Fooling effect.” Amon, who was standing in place, nodded slightly.
The already demented and foolish one, Amon, collapsed and turned into a transparent bugbear with twelve links.
A little bit of extraordinary characteristics precipitated out of it and returned to Amon’s body.
k relied on the utilization of the loophole to circumvent the effects of the negative effects suffered by the doppelganger on the real body.
When all the extraordinary characteristics returned, Amon released a stolen flame and burned the body of the “Worm of Time”.
After doing this slowly, K raised his head and corrected the monocle in his right eye.
On the crystal polished monocle, countless symbols, patterns, and logos stood out, swimming rapidly, intertwining, reorganizing, or changing, as if they were calculating something.
This was the combination of the “Deciphering Scholar’s” deciphering ability and the “Star Key’s” positioning authority.
Amon’s two attempts just now were mainly to gather intelligence and grasp the rules, in preparation for deciphering the mysteries of the Fool’s divine kingdom.
Soon, those symbols, patterns and signs formed a scene on the monocle:
Behind a dark red wooden door, Klein, who had a few slippery tentacles extending around his body, sat in a high-backed chair and calmly watched the entrance.
The corners of Amon’s mouth grinned as his figure flickered and appeared directly inside that room.
However, everything in front of him suddenly collapsed.
The Kraven with the “Fool” aura quickly thinned out and turned into a card.
On top of the card, Rossel Gustav was wearing a gorgeous headdress and colorful clothes, carrying a cane and luggage, with a longing in his eyes.
”The Fool” card.
The “Fool” card from the “Blasphemy” card.
Klein knew that relying solely on the “paper double”, even with the “fool” effect and the “grafted” real aura, he could not defraud Amon, a top-notch “swindler”. “So, he used the “Fool” card, which had the corresponding polymerization ability, to make the paper figure.
Although the “Source Castle” could not be reused, after all, this was Klein’s home turf, with his pile of junk, his collection of various items, the “Tron Solstice Book of Brass” he had just harvested, and the “Wishing Lamp” he had borrowed. The Wishing Lamp.”