Lord of the Mysteries

The red brandy-nosed man rushed to a safe within a few steps where he then took out a radio transceiver and a codebook from a secret compartment.

He crouched there and transcoded the incident that happened to Charlie Raker. Then, he started to send the telegram.

Meanwhile, in the house above the Raker bookstore, a brown-skinned maid rolled up her sleeves and poured an indigo-blue liquid on her left arm.

Her skin around the spot immediately changed colors, but under the indigo-blue colors, there were wisps of black light extending out like threadworms.

These black beams of light quickly manifested a strange, palm-sized face. Its eyes were as tiny as rice grains, and its mouth was as wide as a tea plate.

“Charlie Raker has had an accident,” the maid enunciated each word while looking at the face on her arm.

Every word she said seemed to have its own shape, forming an indigo-blue bodied entity like her mouth and arm.

Immediately following that, the words that seemed to be written began to intertwine as they were enveloped by smoke of the same color.

At this moment, the strange face on the maid’s arm slowly opened its mouth and sucked in the indigo-blue smoke and text.

All the abnormalities vanished, other than the patch of skin on the maid’s arm remaining an indigo-blue color.

In the darkness outside the window, a tiny, ordinary bat flapped its wings, changing its motionless state and flying off to some unknown location.

On another street that was less than 500 meters away from the Raker’s bookstore, in the air above a restaurant that specialized in Southern Continent cuisine.

Tiny bats flew out from the darkness and gathered together, forming thick smoke.

The smoke and bat appeared incorporeal and disappeared in the blink of an eye. All that was left behind was a man wearing a tuxedo without the corresponding hat.

This man was thin, tall, and upright. He had light-colored hair that was nearly silver in color. His eyes were bright red like blood as though blood was hidden within. He was none other than Sanguine Earl, Mistral.

He raised his left hand with the ghostly-blue gem ring and touched the slightly exaggerated bow tie. He looked down at the restaurant that had already closed and said, “Both pieces of intel eventually led here.”

As soon as Mistral finished speaking, a figure appeared in front of him, wearing a black regal dress and a bonnet. She had light blonde hair and blue eyes, and her face was pale like a rather intricate doll.

The trees on the street below suddenly swayed gently as the light from the gas lamps flashed.

“A Puppet.” Earl Mistral nodded slightly and acknowledged Sharron’s status and level.

Sharron ignored him and looked at the second floor of the restaurant.

“There are remnants of Mother Tree of Desire worship.”

“Then there’s no problem.” Mistral turned around in midair and nodded towards the darkest area. “Lord Nibbs, please seal this place.”

An elderly, deep sigh sounded before a pair of wings covered in dark-colored skin and countless patterns suddenly extended out of the darkness. It extended out, turning broader and bigger, taking two to three seconds to envelop the entire area.

The restaurant sank into an unnatural state of darkness, as though it had been moved out of the real world.

Mistral didn’t hesitate nor did he attack directly. He took out a bronze box embedded with many ruby gems and took out something from it.

It was a transparent glass sphere that resembled an eyeball.

Then, the Sanguine Earl, Mistral, grimaced as the glass sphere fell from his fingers and landed downwards.

The glass sphere emitted a glint in the darkness as it constantly changed directions and moved towards something in the air as though it was being attracted by something.

Finally, it landed in a room on the second floor of the restaurant.

A dazzling white light exploded. It was as if a “sun” had risen in the room, illuminating everything. It made all the corruption, decadence, evil, undeath, and darkness rapidly melt away.

“Eh…” Mistral, who had already closed his eyes, suddenly frowned and let out a puzzled voice.

He didn’t feel any resistance from that restaurant!

Sharron, who looked down from above, leveled her gaze. Although there wasn’t much of a change in her expression, her tightly bound blonde hair seemed to shake a little.

After the “sun” rose, it quickly “set.” The bright white light shone helplessly and silently in the darkness.

As this was an item that was targeted at evil spirits, the building in the restaurant didn’t suffer any damage. The Sanguine Earl, Mistral, opened his eyes and looked at it for two seconds before reaching up with his right hand and clenching it.

The darkness above the restaurant instantly came to life, transforming into illusory chains that bound the entire roof.

Amidst the jarring sounds, the roof was forcibly uprooted and suspended in midair.

Without this obstacle, be it Mistral or Sharron, they could clearly see the situation in the target’s room:

On a square table covered in table linen, a radio transceiver sat on it with a transcoded telegram message beside it. In contrast, the ground was indigo-blue and charred.

On the other side of the room, there was an old piano. The piano stools were brown in color and seemed to have been moved moments ago.

On the piano, there was a cup of red wine. There was a small, sticky, flesh-colored figure soaked inside.

As for the decorations and layout, it was like any normal residence. The only difference was herbal powder and essential oil extract splattered around.

This made Sharron, who could directly obtain information from the spirit world, have a thought:

The person here had just left!

Before she, along with Earl Mistral and Marquis Nibbs could react, the flesh-colored figure soaked in red wine emitted a misty glow.

The light instantly burgeoned and brightened, forming a gigantic “crimson moon” in the room.

The crimson moon’s glow dispersed the darkness of the region, making the demigod participating in the battle feel as though they were on the ground and looking up into the sky.

Sharron’s blue eyes froze for a moment. She raised her left hand suddenly and flipped it gently, revealing a dark red accessory in her palm.

The accessory looked like a full moon, and there were crimson gems embedded around it. In the center, there were symbols filled with full moons and mysterious labels.

This was the Scarlet Lunar Corona which Sharron had obtained thanks to Sherlock Moriarty’s help. It kept emanating a tranquil halo, imbuing the wielder with immunity to the effects of the full moon.

However, the “crimson moon” in the restaurant wasn’t something that was as simple as a full moon. It was even closer to a Blood Moon or even stronger. An indescribable surge of spirituality came into existence, making the area which Nibbs’s gigantic wings had isolated present a strange, deeply silent feeling. Even though Sharron wielded the Scarlet Lunar Corona, she sensed the maleficent thoughts in her burgeon as though an indescribable change was brewing.

She instinctively wanted to turn into an evil spirit and hide in objects like the trees and gas lamps along the streets. However, her rationality stopped her impulsive reaction because the crimson moon’s illumination had no blind spots.

At that moment, the Sanguine Earl, Mistral, saw his stomach bulging bit by bit. He felt that the life pulsing in his veins was slowly condensing as though making an attempt to take form.

As a supernatural creature that could use the power of the Moon, he hadn’t prepared to eliminate the effects of a Blood Moon. He originally believed that he would be filled with joy in such an environment, allowing him to freely show his prowess, but he never expected the abnormal changes to far exceed his expectations.

He felt that if this continued, he would give birth to new life. It was unknown where this terrifying vileness stemmed from.

The authority of the Moon included fertility and proliferation!

At the same time, from the huge bat wings that isolated the surroundings and created darkness, white fur grew out in an extremely harrowing manner.

Nibbs grunted softly as cracks appeared in the sealed-off area.

A few streets away, a bored Emlyn White was rubbing the blue-gem inlaid Oath of Rose. It was at this moment, Emlyn suddenly obtained the senses of Earl Mistral, seeing and hearing what he could.

The feelings and thoughts that belonged to Earl Mistral were transmitted into Emlyn’s mind after a long period of time. He sat up straight in fright. His expression distorted as his stomach churned, feeling the urge to vomit.

With the help of Creeping Hunger, Klein’s actual body was hiding in the shadows outside the restaurant, but the marionette he controlled, Qonas Kilgor, had already hidden into the darkness created by Nibbs and used “Distortion” to circumvent the isolation, staying within range of his control of the Spirit Body Threads.

At that moment, under the illusory crimson moon’s illumination, he was surprised to discover that his marionette, which was intrinsically dead, had an inclination towards reproducing!

And that new life was definitely the offspring of the Mother Tree of Desire!

Th-this is Sanguine Ancestor Lilith as mentioned in the legends of the City of Silver, as well as the manifestation of the Primordial Moon which Emlyn has mentioned before… Indeed, the Mother Tree of Desire has already grasped a portion of the Moon’s authority and has corrupted it into an especially evil state, far more than it originally was… Klein was just about to swap locations with his marionette and enter the region illuminated by the crimson moon and “Teleport” away with Miss Sharron when he felt an indescribable sense of joy within him.

It was the joy of seeing a flower in his garden slowly bloom after a long night amidst the morning fog. It was the joy from leaving the city and heading to the suburbs, taking in fresh air in a forest after the rain, watching mushrooms grow. It was the joy of seeing everything grow healthily with new life descending upon the world.

The white fur on the huge bat wings fell off completely as Earl Mistral’s protruding belly shrank back. The look in Sharron’s eyes, who struggled to hold on to Scarlet Lunar Corona, seemed to relax.

Right on the heels of that, the “crimson moon” in the restaurant quickly dimmed, as if large amounts of light had been sucked away by someone.

Finally, the “crimson moon” vanished and everything returned to normal.

Did Sanguine Duke Olmer take action? Klein nodded thoughtfully and continued hiding in the shadows.

Mistral restrained his anger and looked down at the dining room. He said in a low voice, “The target seems to have detected something ahead of time…”

“It wasn’t that much earlier.” Combining the present situation and the revelations obtained from the spirit world, Sharron gave her answer.

Mistral’s bright red eyes revealed a strange glint as he observed for a few seconds before saying, “It was almost at the moment we came over when the person left—the person who left behind the glass of red wine and the strange puppet.

“This trap doesn’t look like it was prepared. It’s closer to a last-minute setup…”

Upon saying that, Mistral looked at Sharon and said, “How did they detect danger in such a timely manner?”

Sharron’s expression was calm as she replied, “It’s not because of the Mother Tree of Desire.”

This evil god wasn’t capable of infusing too much energy into reality, making it difficult for “Her” to send any preemptive warnings.