More than a thousand Amons each committed “Theft.”
With “His” numbers, as long as “He” wasn’t extremely unlucky, there would always be a few who would’ve succeeded. Furthermore, The Fool’s potion was ownerless, so it wasn’t difficult to steal.
While carrying out the “Theft,” Amon removed a particular seal on “His” body, allowing the Apprentice and Marauder Beyonder characteristics to release their powers of convergence.
This was rather effective towards The Fool’s potion, allowing Amon to increase “His” success rate to the greatest extent.
However, all the Amons ultimately failed.
This was because a new rule had appeared on the Trunsoest Brass Book:
“Acts of theft are prohibited here!”
In order to deal with the awakening Lord of the Mysteries, Amon had weakened all the seals here and helped the Trunsoest Brass Book escape the “Fooling.” It could now have a limited number of effective rules for a brief moment amidst its repeated cycles, but now, this had adversely affected “Them.”
Seizing this opportunity, the illusory brand between Klein’s brows became more obvious.
A faint grayish-white fog gathered around him, forming a thin cocoon.
He activated Sefirah Castle with all his might. Together with his Attendant of Mysteries Beyonder characteristic, he created an extremely powerful convergence effect on The Fool’s potion.
The black liquid that didn’t have a fixed form seemed to be a starving beast that saw food. It immediately pounced onto Klein.
It kept extending and changing like a translucent skin, wrapping Klein inside.
Klein’s face appeared underneath this liquid. His facial features were sometimes distinct, sometimes blurred, sometimes distorted, and sometimes blank.
In the Forsaken Land of the Gods, under the giant shadow formed by the ancient sun god, words in the most ancient of languages rapidly took form on the illusory surface of the sea that contained all possible colors:
“Antigonus’s efforts at advancing to The Fool ultimately failed due to various reasons.”
The reason why this existence that once dominated the entire planet didn’t use Klein Moretti’s name was that he was now carrying the identity and fate of Antigonus.
If the subject in the sentence had been the former name, then Klein could completely ignore it.
What had Klein Moretti’s failed advancement got to do with Antigonus becoming The Fool?
But when the subject became Antigonus, it was like a prophecy, as if it was an arrangement that had the outcome already be decided. Such a sentence could make the situation turn very grim.
If Klein didn’t give up on Antigonus’s identity and fate, he would be restricted by those words.
If he gave up Antigonus’s identity and fate, then the Sequence 9 and 1 Beyonder characteristic in his body would no longer belong to him in the true sense of the word. He had never digested them before—they were Beyonder characteristics that Antigonus once controlled. At present, it had nothing to do with Klein Moretti. All he did was forcefully devour them.
Under such circumstances, even if there were no other factors, just the undigested Beyonder characteristics would likely cause Klein to lose control on the spot. And consuming The Fool’s potion in such a state and completing the advancement ritual was without a doubt impossible!
As the ancient sun god wrote this sentence, the Eternal Blazing Sun, the Lord of Storms, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, who were situated in the astral world, sensed something. Each of them launched the most intense of counterattacks in an attempt to interfere with the other party’s actions.
However, even though a large portion of “His” energy was spent restricting the three true deities, making it rather difficult, the ancient sun god quickly completed the sentence.
However, “His” giant shadow embodiment dimmed, as though “He” was unable to maintain it for too long.
In the astral world, within the floating ancient palace.
In the battle that pit the Earth Mother and the God of Steam and Machinery against the Primordial Demoness and Hidden Sage, the situation became even more intense. However, the former two were still able to divert a certain amount of strength to affect Amon’s avatar, preventing “Them” from destroying Klein’s advancement ritual.
The Amons were forced to “Blink” everywhere, but some of them still turned into plants, blooming and bearing fruit before returning to the land. Others collapsed into words as they were imprinted into illusory books.
Apart from that, a large number of “Them” were strengthening the seal, limiting the Trunsoest Brass Book, preventing the rules it enacted from being effective, or be effective for only an instant.
Under the influence of these three factors, even with Amon’s numbers, it appeared to be insufficient.
But even so, a small number of “Them” managed to seize the opportunity to make crystal monocles and similar circular symbols reflect Klein’s figure.
In the next second, the monocles and circular symbols emitted pure light.
This wasn’t “Theft,” but the act of “returning” things.
At this moment, Amon’s decision was to return an item that “He” had formerly “Stolen” from Klein.
It was Klein’s thoughts of suicide!
Back when Klein was captured by Amon and brought to the Forsaken Land of the Gods, he had tried on many occasions to commit suicide but failed to succeed. He had such thoughts “Stolen” by the other party.
At the critical moment of his advancement, once he had the intention to commit suicide, the outcome could be imagined!
At that moment, Klein, who was tightly enveloped by The Fool’s potion, felt his thoughts turn chaotic and wander. His hair spread out as he felt an extremely cold, sticky liquid slowly invade him.
Then, he had the thought of committing suicide and giving up.
This was a change that Klein had never expected. He had long forgotten how Amon had “Stolen” his thoughts of committing suicide. Furthermore, he didn’t expect that not only was the other party unwilling to abandon these thoughts, “He” had even kept them carefully.
If it were anytime in the past, this thought might’ve been strong, but Klein could still use his self-control to resist it forcefully, suppressing it until it dissipated on its own. It would be akin to dealing with nasty thoughts.
But now, he was in the midst of an advancement ritual. He was being influenced by the potion, and his mind had lost its stability. He was unable to effectively suppress the thought of committing suicide.
The Amons always had various strange but rather effective methods.
Fortunately, Klein wasn’t only Klein, but also Antigonus.
What relation did Klein Moretti’s thoughts of committing suicide have to do with Antigonus?
With this level of knowledge from this additional identity, Klein didn’t immediately give up and end his life. He pulled the Antigonus mental imprint in his body and mixed it with the idea of suicide, barely suppressing it.
Under such a balance, Klein’s mind and body were further corroded by The Fool’s potion.
His thoughts were the same as when he advanced to Attendant of Mysteries—completely dispersed.
But the difference was that he didn’t fuse with the spirit world this time. Instead, he continued to extend, enveloping the entire planet, the entire spirit world, and part of the astral world like a gaseous body.
At that moment, Klein felt that he was in the bodies of different believers, in every human’s body, in every animal’s body, in every living thing.
Everything had godhood in them.
At the same time, he was still scattered within the fog of history, scattered through fleeting time, and scattered inside the silent flow of a river of light with multiple distributaries.
One was also Infinity.
At the level of godhood, an experience like this made Klein’s thoughts wear away even further, as though all that was left was a coldness that looked down on everything.
Even this coldness was dissipating slowly.
It wouldn’t be long before Klein completely lost himself and was led by the various mental seals in The Fool’s potion, becoming a true monster.
This coincided with Antigonus’s crazy fate, allowing the latter to accelerate.
At this moment, he felt something off. It was unharmonious, unnatural, and abnormal.
In the fog of history, there were a small number of light fragments twisting and distorting, unable to take form. It was as if there was a fundamental conflict between them.
They gradually separated, breaking out into different branches to record the different content, allowing the twisting to achieve the initial state of recovering.
Being imbued into everything, Klein’s mind was “thrown out” due to this tiny disharmonious abnormality. He found some aspect of self-awareness again.
With this self-awareness as the core, he quickly gathered his scattered mind and guided the fusion process between The Fool’s potion and his body.
But at this moment, the fate of Antigonus losing control thanks to the ancient sun god’s “Prophecy” erupted early. Klein’s body collapsed once again, unable to withstand The Fool’s potion.
Without any hesitation or having the luxury of time to hesitate, Klein immediately removed a portion of the “Theft” effects and returned Antigonus “His” identity, fate, and self-awareness, allowing the “Him” sitting on the huge stone chair to slowly open his eyes. The dazed Antigonus gradually regained “His” clarity of mind.
“He” didn’t immediately lose control, because the main reason “He” lost control was that the Lord of the Mysteries’s will had awakened to a large extent. And now, The Fool’s Uniqueness and most of the Beyonder characteristics that contained a portion of the will was no longer in “His” body.
Therefore, Antigonus could use his own will to resist the madness and try to stop the fate of losing control.
The prophecy of the ancient sun god came true: Antigonus really failed to advance to Sequence 0 The Fool.
And without “His” identity, the Sequence 9 and Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristic of the Seer pathway in Klein’s body turned into something that he hadn’t digested. This threw him to the edge of losing control immediately.
The Fool’s potion that wrapped around his body like a cloak instantly completed the act of seeping through. The will of the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings was awakened once again!
“Give up…
“Leave everything to me…
“This time, I won’t accommodate another sefirah…
“I won’t help you protect the living creatures you wish to protect, but I won’t harm them either…
“It’s not that I won’t keep my promises, but it’s just that they’re too weak and not worth my attention…
“This place is an area that is off-limits to Outer Deities…
“…”
The unfamiliar yet weirdly familiar ravings reverberated in Klein’s heart, giving him the idea of giving up.
And the thought of committing suicide that he had been suppressed by Antigonus’s mental imprint previously, surfaced again after the balance created by it was lost.
The outcome of failing an advancement attempt was about to occur.
At this moment, the Evernight Goddess, who was originally powerless to slash downwards with the Twilight Sword, suddenly gave up on controlling Amon’s true body.
As Amon’s true body leaped out, and just as the avatars waited for Klein to fail the ritual, the goddess once again dragged the exaggerated sword that was covered in orange light.
This time, the target was Klein!
A thought flashed through Klein’s mind as he took the initiative to be controlled by the thought of committing suicide, not making any attempts to resist.
With a poof, he was slashed by the symbolic sword of twilight, shattering into a rotten body of “meat” that seeped out Beyonder characteristics.
Klein died. Before the Amons took any sort of measures against him, he was killed by the Evernight Goddess before the ritual failed and before he completely lost control.
In the next second, the Evernight Goddess wore the bird-shaped, golden accessory on “Her” head as “Her” body expanded and enveloped the ancient palace. She instantly erased Amon’s true body, avatars, Earth Mother, Primordial Demoness, God of Steam and Machinery, Hidden Sage, and Antigonus, as though “They” were erased by an eraser.
Concealment!
The ancient sun god seemed to understand what the Evernight Goddess wanted to do, but having already made two prophecies, there was no way for “Him” to write a third sentence. As for the three true gods, they continued throwing what they had at “Him,” holding “Him” back.
In the next second, a miracle happened. Klein returned from the fog of history.
The Uniqueness of The Fool that had already belonged to him and the three Sequence 9 to Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics rapidly returned to his body.
Afraid that he would be disturbed, the Genie quickly made use of the Trunsoest Brass Book to add a rule:
“This place is suitable for the return of Beyonder characteristics.”
Suddenly, Klein returned to his previous state of him “drinking” The Fool potion.
But the thing that was different from before was that, back then, his body’s pillar of support belonged to the Sequence 9 to Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics of Antigonus—ones he hadn’t digested yet. And now, the first to return to him was undoubtedly the digested Sequence 9 and 1 Beyonder characteristic that once belonged to him.
This way, he would have a true pillar of support that could accommodate The Fool’s Uniqueness and the remaining characteristics.
Klein was in a state that was the same as when he first arrived at the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range, an Attendant of Mysteries who had finished digesting the potion and was capable of attempting to advance to Sequence 0 The Fool.
By relying on his resurrection, Klein had completely overturned his state!
This was the flash of inspiration he had obtained from Roselle’s resurrection. Of course, the entire process was different from the resurrection of a Black Emperor.
The character that Klein had arranged to kill him was the Genie. He never expected that the Evernight Goddess, who he hadn’t discussed this with, would share such tacit understanding with him.
In that instant, his body split apart, turning into a thin gray fog and dark liquid.
The gray fog and black liquid blended together, and the countless maggots that resembled meat tendrils sprouted on the surface. Then, they intertwined into a translucent dark-colored cloak.
There was no body under the cloak, just darkness.
This process was very brief. In less than two seconds, the Evernight Goddess’s concealment of so many deities was clearly unable to last that long.
In an instant, a door of light traveled across the surface of the concealed world at an extremely high speed.
The door suddenly opened, and Amon, who was wearing a pointed hat and wearing a classic black robe, leaped out.
At the same time, “He” saw an illusory mask with blank facial features appear under the translucent dark-colored cloak.
The mask instantly outlined Klein, who had fused with Gehrman Sparrow’s traits. Amon’s thoughts turned chaotic as though “He” had his intelligence forcefully lowered.
The Fool was born.
