Lord of the Mysteries

The deep “sea” swallowed the bright spherical light, darkening the entire “Unshadowed Domain.”

Silver bolts of lightning burst out from its interior, turning the area where Enuni and Colin Iliad were fighting into a forest of lightning.

Amidst the sizzling sounds, countless bolts of lightning slithered upwards and drilled into the gaps in the armor.

This Silver Knight, who had shown his incomplete Mythical Creature form, immediately turned stiff, as though he was paralyzed by lightning. As for Enuni, his black armor, which seemed to be formed from powers of “Degeneration,” had completely absorbed the lightning, preventing his body from being affected by the rippling damage.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Enuni, who had pitch-black fragments peeling off from him, held the dark greatsword with both hands and slashed at an angle. And at this moment, Colin Iliad hadn’t completely escaped from his paralyzed state.

With a piercing stabbing sound, a deep crack appeared on his left shoulder. The sturdy silver armor seemed to lose its defense as it was cleaved open by the great sword.

This was a Black Knight’s “Cull of Spiritual Flesh.” Not only could it corrode flesh and blood, it could obliterate souls and cleave through barriers. It could also cause any living creature with degenerate thoughts to lose their defenses. It was a core Beyonder power belonging to the Black Knight, stemming from the “Degeneration” domain.

Seeing that the “Cull of Spiritual Flesh” had sliced open the silver armor on Colin Iliad’s left shoulder, with the crack quickly deepening as it went straight for the heart, Derrick tensed up and immediately condensed a spear made up of pure sunlight. He swung back his hand and threw it towards Enuni.

Unshadowed Spear!

Enuni didn’t abandon his attack or dodge. Instead, he raised his remnant illusory black wings and used them to shield himself.

Sizzle!

The “Unshadowed Spear” pierced through two layers of the illusory black wings, bursting out a blinding white light that seemed to give rise to a miniature “sun.”

At the same time, Colin’s entire body melted, turning into a pool of silver liquid metal.

The liquid flowed rapidly, reforming the body of Colin Iliad in the distance. He still resembled a giant, and he was still wearing silver armor. However, half of the City of Silver’s left shoulder and arm had fallen to the ground. The incision was clean with no blood flowing out.

With the use of “Mercury Liquefaction,” Colin Iliad sacrificed an arm to avoid Enuni’s lethal blow.

His gaze behind his visor didn’t waver at all. He grabbed the remaining sword of dawn and ran towards his target once again. It was like an unusually terrifying steam locomotive that exceeded its speed limit.

Derrick quickly condensed his “Unshadowed Spear” again from the side, causing the spears of light to fly towards Enuni.

During this process, he opened his mouth and solemnly said, “God says that the purification is effective.”

This was the Beyonder powers of a Notary at the Unshadowed level.

Its compatibility with the Unshadowed Domain created by the Sun Saint made the battlefield brighten even more, causing the degenerate auras on Enuni and Lovia to further weaken.

“God said it’s ineffective!” The Sun Saint immediately denied Derrick’s “proclamation,” causing the Unshadowed Domain’s purification effect to return to its former state.

Amidst the crackling sounds, the “Unshadowed Spear” approached Enuni. As for the black illusory wings on the Black Knight back, a few pairs had already faded under the miniature sun’s illumination. He only had half left.

Enuni couldn’t effectively dodge the pure, bright long spears closing in on him since his hands were full fending off Colin Iliad. He made a pair of illusory black wings spread out fully, disintegrating into “darkness.”

As soon as the “Unshadowed Spears” came into contact with the “darkness,” they were stained with a layer of thick, sticky, blackness. They either instantly corroded and broke, piercing the magnificent staircase, or left a curved arc in the air as it spun around and tore at Derrick Berg.

All of them degenerated at that very moment.

Upon seeing this, Derrick followed his battle instinct that he had honed from all his years of training and his patrolling and exploring experience. He jumped forward and rolled.

Sizzle!

Black spears landed behind him, corroding a large segment of the staircase.

At this moment, the Sun Saint was also throwing “Unshadowed Spears,” creating pure white beams that shot across the air. This forced Lovia to use one of her “Grazed” souls to constantly “Blink” in an attempt to approach the enemy.

To her dismay, she could only use the ability of one soul at a time in such a state. She couldn’t “Blink” while condensing “Silver Rapier” to cull the Sun Saint from a distance to create an opportunity for herself.

Meanwhile, the battle between Klein and his “shadow” was exceptionally intense. Amidst the booming sounds of Air Cannons, the flaring of scarlet flames, pieces of paper scattering in all directions, and illusions turned into bubbles described the battle.

The Silver Knight marionette had basically suppressed the Spectator Saint. After all, no matter how strong the mind dragon’s body was, it wasn’t a match for a demigod of the Giant pathway when in close combat.

Of course, the Spectator Saint wasn’t in any danger. After all, he had revealed an incomplete Mythical Creature form. If it wasn’t for the fact that his opponent was only a marionette, and Klein had already digested the Sequence 3 potion and seen many high-level creatures, he could use his exposed godhood to interfere with his opponent’s thoughts, slowly driving him crazy and losing his rationality.

Without the advantage of the godhood’s influence, the Spectator Saint could only use the Hypnotist’s “Battle Hypnotism” to force the target to act erratically, such as attacking in the wrong direction. Using this opportunity, he escaped from the melee battle and entered a “Psychological Invisibility” state again in an attempt to perform a sneak attack on Klein.

A Hypnotist’s “Battle Hypnotism” could forcefully hypnotize the enemy during battle, making him do all sorts of erratic actions. However, such actions couldn’t directly cause harm to the victim, and it couldn’t be maintained for too long, as the target would quickly wake up.

Of course, the “Battle Hypnotism” target of the Spectator Saint was definitely not the Silver Knight marionette. This was because it was essentially a dead person. This made it immune to all psychological effects. The target of his interference was the thoughts Klein transmitted through the Spirit Body Threads, targeting them so that the information the marionette received would be erroneous. As such, it would act differently from what Klein wanted.

This was actually a psyche interference, and not a psyche hypnosis. The effects were undoubtedly not as effective as the original version, but not every saint of the Spectator pathway could grasp such an effect. It was a result of digging deep into one’s Beyonder powers and experimenting.

To the Spectator Saint, there was nothing he could do about this. This was because, be it “Mind Deprivation,” “Mind Storm,” or “Mind Breath,” none of them were effective on a marionette.

The grayish-white dragon that had its head covered in shadows had tried to close the distance with Klein several times, or to use its area-of-effect Beyonder powers, but it was stopped by the Silver Knight marionette. It kept being forced to dodge the “Silver Rapier” which could erupt within its body.

As Klein controlled his marionette, he distanced himself from the Spectator Saint and dealt with his “shadow.” It wasn’t too easy, but it wasn’t too much of a burden.

Suddenly, his spiritual perception was triggered as he entered a state of clarity unique to instances when his dream or mind secretly intruded.

With his lucidity, Klein allowed a portion of his consciousness to rise to the sky and look down at his island of consciousness.

Then, he saw Enuni, the one who looked aged with a face covered in shadows, walk out of the boundless sea of collective subconscious, opening the door to his Body of Heart and Mind.

This Spectator Saint didn’t attempt to change the island of consciousness in Klein’s mind. All he did was produce a dark spherical light which had tentacles growing out of it. He turned it into a “seed” that was hard to discover before letting it sink into the ground.

A Mental Plague seed!

Without any hesitation, Klein immediately switched locations with the Silver Knight marionette, preventing the Mental Plague seed from landing in his island of consciousness.

The Spectator Saint noticed this change. Not only was he not disappointed, he even revealed a smile.

This was because he had long used Virtual Persona to secretly plant the Mental Plague seeds on the still island of the Silver Knight marionette. Although this couldn’t affect the marionette, it could unknowingly corrupt the enemy who swapped positions with the marionette and other targets in the surrounding areas.

This was a kind of corruption and infection that targeted the island of consciousness and the psyche. It wasn’t a direct attack, so it was difficult to use Virtual Persona to offset it.

When the time came, the problem that Klein had temporarily concealed with Virtual Persona would completely erupt. He would quickly plunge into a passage for losing control, entering an irreversible situation!

Shadow was no stranger to such situations, as Hvin Rambis had used such a method before.

As he secretly laughed at Klein for becoming crazy, reckless, arrogant, and acting like a clown, one who had forgotten lessons of the past, he snapped his fingers, summoning a scarlet flame. He then used it to jump over, embroiling himself with Klein.

Another round of paper shreds flew in all directions as the intense battle destroyed the afterimages.

After a short while, Klein suddenly stopped. He raised his left hand that was wrapped with transparent maggots and covered his left face.

“Hahaha, hahaha.” He let out a maniacal laugh, controlling the Spirit Body Threads around him like a madman, no longer distinguishing between friend and foe.

On his right cheek, pale meat tendrils protruded out, as if they were Worms of Spirit that were about to bore out.

When Shadow saw that Klein had gone crazy and was about to lose control, he was worried that he would be infected by the “Mental Plague.” He hurriedly made a scarlet flame rise up and swallow himself.

In the distance, his figure emerged from the flames that had yet to extinguish.

At this moment, the Silver Knight marionette would occasionally launch an attack and occasionally do a twitching dance. It was obvious that it wasn’t under normal control.

He no longer had the strength to stop the mind dragon manifested by the Spectator Saint. He allowed the other party to spread out his wings and fly into the air above Klein. He was prepared to use “Mind Breath.”

The Spectator Saint didn’t want to give his enemy who was infected by the “Mental Plague” a chance to breathe. He wanted him to immediately lose control!

Suddenly, this mind dragon’s actions became sluggish, as if every joint was injected with glue.

In the next second, a silvery-white beam erupted from his body, splitting his flesh and blood, tearing apart his Spirit Body.

With his back bent, the laughing Klein slowly straightened his body calmly. He released the palm covering his left cheek, and he smiled at Shadow in the distance.

Behind him, wave after wave of silvery-white beams tore apart the mind dragon, turning it into pieces of pitch-black flesh. They fell to the ground, and the knight marionette in silver armor retracted his broadsword and looked coldly at Shadow.

Looking at the slightly lost Shadow, the few Worms of Spirit on his left face curled up and stimulated the curved corners of a smile.

“You haven’t seemed to have noticed that I have something that you don’t.”