Volume 7: The Inverted Man Chapter 14: Tributaries

　　Because it is not clear what state Amon is in, therefore, Klein did not dare to delay, after the initial resolution of the spiritual problem, immediately came to Calderon, ready to take the water of the “River of Eternal Darkness”.

　　Because it involves the source material, he can only to a certain extent divination and prophecy, a vague vision of some images, can not accurately make a judgment.

　　Looking around, Klein raised his hand and summoned his own historical pore image from a few minutes ago, allowing his body to return to the “Source Castle”.

　　His consciousness was then transferred to the projection, giving it a substantial presence.

　　Then, Klein grabbed into the void and pulled out the historical projection of the “Staff of the Stars”.

　　Frankly speaking, after being able to use most of the extraordinary abilities of the “Apprentice” pathway up to Sequence 0 through the “Source Castle”, Klein didn’t really need the “Staff of the Stars” that much anymore. After using most of the extraordinary abilities of the “Apprentice” pathway up to Sequence 0, Klein didn’t really need the “Staff of Stars” so much anymore – he was able to reproduce most of the latter’s wonders, with little to no negative effects.

　　However, he still believed that an angel should have a melee weapon, because he didn’t know when he would fall into the predicament of having his active transcendent abilities fail.

　　In the Mystic World, this was definitely something that could happen, whether it was the rule restriction of the “Arbiter” pathway or a certain degree of transcendental failure brought about by a certain foreign god, it was possible to reach a similar effect.

　　In this case, copy a hard cane with some passive effects, and directly hit the enemy’s head is not a proven method.

　　As a king of angels of the “Diviner” path, it was instinctive to be prepared in every aspect!

　　Weighing the “Star Staff” and pressing his bowler hat, Kraven took out the bird-shaped gold jewelry from the “Source Castle” and pinned it to his left breast pocket.

　　Then, he took a step forward and entered the city of Calderon, which used to be the kingdom of the ancient god of death, the immortal bird originator Grey Carrie.

　　The first thing that met his eyes was a huge, deep pit whose bottom could not be seen, and all kinds of oddly shaped buildings circled around this deep pit, extending downward in circle after circle, forming a magnificent city that was beyond ordinary people’s cognizance.

　　Some of those buildings are towering at the top of the pale stone pillars of a single house, there are long square giant coffins, no windows, the door opens on the roof, some directly is a tomb pit, the entrance stood monument, some built by a variety of white bones, looks quite messy …….

　　The closer to the bottom of the deep pit, the more well-preserved the building was, and the closer to the top, the more collapsed it was, full of time-washed decay and dilapidation.

　　Klein just took a look, and let a light gray mist emerge around his body, directly by virtue of the “source of the fortress” frame, resisted Calderon’s rule of transforming all living beings into the dead.

　　Turning into the undead wasn’t too negative for him, but he didn’t like the cold and indifferent feeling.

　　”The ‘gray flood’ that rose earlier have receded ……” Klein, who wore a bowler hat and a trenchcoat and carried a cane, nodded thoughtfully and took a step into what could be seen with the naked eye in the Calderon depths visible to the naked eye.

　　This time, he utilized the extraordinary ability of the “Stealer” pathway, directly stealing away the distance within the range of perception, so as to avoid tangling with the various dangerous monsters active in this mysterious city.

　　It wasn’t that he was afraid, it was the monsters that should be afraid, if not for the fact that he didn’t want to waste time, he wouldn’t have minded taking the opportunity to collect a batch of secret puppets to fill in the losses caused by the destruction of “Utopia”.

　　In addition to this reason, Klein was also cautious about another point:

　　Calderon is a city of the undead, and it is very likely that the River of Eternal Darkness flows in the deepest part of the ground, and the secret puppets are already undead by nature, so once they get close to the ground, there is a possibility of mutation.

　　Step by step, Klein realized that he had overthought things:

　　None of the monsters hidden in this strange city dared to appear, as the scent of the “Source Castle” made their survival instincts override their crazy tendencies and predatory habits.

　　The deeper he went into the ground, the quieter Klein’s surroundings became. The strange buildings were obviously intact, but they seemed to have been dead for many years, and even their scent had become cold, dark, and decayed.

　　Now it’s the same feeling as watching a black and white silent movie, if not for the fact that I can hear my own “breathing” and “heartbeat”, I wonder if I’m deaf …… Klein coughed softly. He fought the silence of death with an internal grunt.

　　He intuitively believed that once he had adapted to this environment, and his body and mind had become silent, he would truly and irreversibly die a little.

　　The closer he got to the ground, the stronger this feeling became.

　　In the constant stealing distance, Klein traveled forward for a long time and finally saw the bottom of the deep pit.

　　No, it wasn’t really the bottom, there was just a huge, deep black palace blocking the way down.

　　The palace was held up by a giant pillar, inlaid with all sorts of bones and different parts of corpses, and certain parts were even covered in bloody, skin belonging to different races.

　　Klein gazed at the palace for a few seconds, and without hesitation, carried his Star Staff through the open door and entered the interior of the palace.

　　On both sides of the hall, there were one coffin after another of different shapes and colors, which were quietly placed there, as if even their existence itself had been weathered by death.

　　As Klein entered, these coffins suddenly made a little sound, like rusty joints opening in turn.

　　The gray mist around Klein’s body thickened some more, and all the coffins suddenly quieted down.

　　Ignoring these things, Klein took a step into the depths of the hall, where there was a downward gray stone staircase, and a huge stone monument was erected at the entrance.

　　At the top of the monolith stood a statue of a giant bird with a slender body, as if it was made of bronze, with various pale symbols on its feathers.

　　Underneath the bird-shaped bronze statue, on the surface of the stone monument, a text derived from the “Word of the Dead” seemed to be a very simplified bird of different shapes or a snake coiled into different shapes, forming two sentences with vague meanings:

　　”Even the gods can’t get rid of it;”

　　”Even death will be detained.”

　　Is this a warning to all beings who come to Calderon not to go down this staircase? It leads directly to the River of Eternal Darkness? Kraven’s thoughts turned, and he carefully interpreted the words on the tablet.

　　In his opinion, it seemed to be stating that even a true god of sequence 0, once close to the “River of Eternal Darkness”, would sink there, unable to get out, and even death itself would be detained by this abstract river of source material, although it would not fade away from now on, but it could not be liberated either.

　　So it seems that, just like the “Sea of Chaos”, without the protection of the source material, even if it is only close to the “River of Eternal Darkness”, it will also produce a terrible mutation. …… Klein retracted his gaze and straightened his chest. He straightened the bird-shaped gold jewelry on his breast pocket, bypassed the stone monument topped with a bronze statue, and descended along the gray steps, step by step.

　　He didn’t steal any more distance, lest he run straight into danger.

　　In the darkness and deathly cold environment, the bird-shaped gold jewelry on Klein’s chest radiated a pale glow, illuminating a very small area, just like a small boat of life struggling to hold on in the waves of death.

　　I don’t know how long he had been descending, but the aura of the “Source Castle” around him expanded reflexively and became extremely dense, as if it were a grayish-white silk cocoon.

　　At the same time, Klein tilted his head slightly and heard a slight, illusory clattering sound.

　　This seemed to be indicating that deep underground, not far from the current location, there was a dark river slowly flowing.

　　In the next second, Klein looked down, to his feet.

　　A deep, dark, insubstantial flow of water had surged there at some point.

　　On its surface, not even light could exist.

　　”This isn’t quite the same as the last time I saw it ……,” Klein frowned slightly.

　　When he went to Calderon to hunt the “Spirit World Predator”, he had triggered a certain change, causing a large amount of grayish-white illusory water to come up from the bottom of the deep pit.

　　The two times he saw it, the colors were very different.

　　Just as Klein’s thoughts were spinning, at the bottom of the stone staircase, where the deep dark tide was coming from, a thin grayish-white mist spread upwards, combining with the illusory water, expanding into a grayish-white “light” water that was more on the side of mist.

　　After the water reached Klein’s feet, it quietly shrank back, as if in a cyclical rise and fall.

　　This light gray mist is a bit familiar ah …… Klein’s expression became gloomy.

　　After pausing for a few seconds, he continued downward.

　　This time, the rising illusory tide flooded him, causing his body to become light, causing his emotions to fly cold, and causing his thoughts to gradually decay.

　　If it weren’t for the protection of the “Source Castle” aura around him, Klein suspected that he would have passively and irresistibly merged into this tide.

　　Next, the grayish-white “cocoon” rose and fell in the current, and slowly reached the end of the ladder as the tide fell.

　　Beyond the end was a void, in which flowed a straight, wide, illusory, colorless dark river.

　　The river was so blurred that it was difficult to see, as it was surrounded by a grayish-white, barrier-like, pale mist.

　　”Sure enough ……,” Klein couldn’t help but whisper at the sight.

　　He was not unfamiliar with this kind of fog, he had seen it behind the door of the Banshee Ruins, in the easternmost part of the Godforsaken Land, and under the Fortress of Source!

　　Unlike other places, part of the “River of Eternal Darkness” penetrated through the gray and white mist, and merged with the latter to some extent, sometimes deep and dark, sometimes pale.

　　This part of the river was constantly rolling up and down, as if it were a tributary rushing through the blackness of the void.

　　On both sides of the tributary, one huge and pale stone pillar after another was erected, as if they were supporting something and not letting the other collapse down.

　　At this moment, between these stone pillars and at the edge of the tributary, countless slightly blurred translucent figures walked back and forth, hovering, slowly but without stopping.

　　Among them, the most noticeable was a bewildered figure that sometimes walked into the depths of the tributary, and sometimes turned around and came back, but couldn’t get out of the river in any way.

　　It was so huge, almost as big as the stone pillars around it, and it was cloaked in deep black robes, its sides already pale.

　　Suddenly, it turned its head and looked at Klein.

　　Its face had the distinctive features of the southern continent, but it had rotted out with mark after mark, sprouting one white feather after another stained with pale yellow oil.

　　Klein knew K. K was the father of Mr. Aztec, the “God of Death” of the Fourth Age:

　　”Emperor of the Underworld” Salinger.