Chapter 844 A Glimpse of the Truth
"Yes, I have gathered all the ingredients for the 'immortality' potion."
To Klein's surprise, Angel simply nodded calmly, skipping over this important news and continuing:
"Also, I discovered a strange mage in the Fountain of Youth... a strange mage who was in the process of completing the Ancient Scholar's promotion ritual. After a less than pleasant exchange, I dealt with her and conducted spiritual communication with her."
Ancient scholars… Klein's thoughts paused for a moment before becoming confused by surprise.
He hesitantly asked:
"So, you... asked for the potion formula of the 'Ancient Scholar'?"
"Unfortunately, no."
Over the next few minutes, Klein heard from Angel the entire process of her exploration and battle in that special mirror world today. In addition to easily obtaining the most important goal, the dead branches of the ancient tree next to the "Fountain of Youth", he was also sincerely happy for Angel by gaining various Beyonder characteristics.
Of course, the most important thing to Klein is the "ritual" mentioned by the strange wizard Sophia.
"Completely detached from reality for 300 years, taking the potion after becoming history and no longer belonging to the present era..."
Repeating the promotion ceremony of the "Ancient Scholar", Klein fell into an inexplicable sense of absurdity.
The concept of "not belonging to the current era" immediately reminded him of the name "Fool" he made up, the first sentence of which is "The Fool who does not belong to this era."
The other Tarot Club members understood this as a description of themselves by a resurrected ancient god. Klein also intended to guide their thinking in this direction, but he knew that this sentence was entirely a mockery of "Zhou Mingrui", whose soul had traveled to this world and had no fixed place to live. It was also a summary of his own identity at the time.
But after choosing the "Fool" card at the circus on Iron Cross Street and becoming the "Fool" above the gray fog, and choosing the "Fortune Teller" path under the influence of Russell's diary, and finally seeing the blasphemous card representing his own path, Klein had a strong sense of fate in his heart after the "Fool" card, and realized that many of his choices had long been influenced by many forces.
He had originally comforted himself that all these changes were caused by his own choices, and that his "subjective initiative" had led to a two-way rush. However, after learning about the promotion ceremony of the "Ancient Scholar", the feeling of being surrounded by fate and walking step by step on a long-marked path returned to Klein.
Angel didn't seem to notice his trance, or perhaps she thought it was a normal reaction for a "trickster" upon hearing about an almost impossible promotion ceremony. She just smiled and continued:
"Thankfully, Sophia has pointed out a clear path for us. This must have been prepared for her by her teacher, the Zaratul you met... Continuously soaking in the 'Fountain of Youth' can keep the body in optimal condition, allowing it to survive the agonizing three hundred years. Once the ritual is completed and the potion is taken, the longer lifespan of a Sequence 3 will offset the 'loss' of these three hundred years... This may not be the best method, but it has proven to be effective."
No, Angel, I don't need...
If I had truly been destined for this, if I had long ago accepted someone's "gift," then I should have been able to consume the Ancient Scholar potion immediately after preparing it. Because the time I'd been suspended above that light gate must have been countless times longer than three hundred years...
Klein heard his own voice in his head.
At this moment, he could no longer conceal his frustrated expression, and he didn't even want to use the characteristics of the Faceless Man to conceal it.
All that remained in his mind were the choices he had made since arriving in this world. Images flashed through his mind: joining the Nighthawks, choosing the "Fortune Teller," meeting Angel, being attracted to him, trying to integrate into this world, but dying in Ince Zangwill's scheme, being resurrected, and meeting Angel again...
Are these so-called "choices" and "decisions" really your own thoughts?
Was he already part of some kind of "arrangement" from the moment he became "Klein Moretti"?
Suddenly, Klein felt his upper body tighten, and Angel's arms tightly embraced him.
He also heard the other party's soft voice beside his ear:
"It's okay. I'll always be with you... In the 175 years that Sophia has guarded the Fountain of Youth, only three 'ageless' witches have advanced there, which means this order has a very long lifespan. Once you've digested the 'trickster' potion and are ready, we'll go there together and spend this relatively short time."
Angel...
Klein pursed his lips, stretched out his arms, and hugged her tightly.
He knew the other party must have misunderstood his expression, thinking he was despairing over the rigorous "three hundred years of detachment from reality" promotion ritual. This was indeed a major challenge for a normal "trickster," perhaps even more difficult than gathering potion ingredients. But for him, it was a problem that had already been solved and no longer needed to worry about.
Just like the promotion ceremony of the "immortality" potion... Wait, why can Angel bypass this so easily? She doesn't seem to worry about the long time required for the "mismatch between age and mentality" required for "immortality"?
I spent a long time suspended above the light gate. Could it be that she...she happened to complete the ritual due to a change of identity, as Ince Zangwill said, or is it because...she doesn't belong to this era either?
Thinking of the three empty light cocoons he saw above the gray fog, and the last unknown "traveler" besides Emperor Roselle, Klein's heart became tangled again.
On the one hand, he hopes that Angel is the last "companion" he is looking for, which will add another bond to their already extremely close relationship; on the other hand, he is worried that his guess is not correct. In addition to disappointment, it may also expose Angel's unwillingness to reveal secrets and affect their relationship.
This made him extremely hesitant, and he never dared to take this step and speak to test it.
Seeing Klein gradually "calming down," Angel breathed a sigh of relief. She hugged him tightly again, loosened her arms, and used invisible silk thread and a ritual knife to quickly set up a spiritual wall in the bedroom. Then, under Klein's gaze, she took out the materials she had prepared long ago.
The blood of a centenarian, the dead branches beside the "Fountain of Youth"... and finally, the "immortality" property contained in a small wooden box.
After putting them one by one into the small pot used to prepare medicine, various solids or liquids such as blood and dead branches were mixed together, completely dissolving the extraordinary properties that kept attracting the attention of the two people. The red and gray in the pot continued to merge, gradually deepening, and finally became a pure black viscous liquid.
Although Angel knew the potion had been successfully prepared after seeing the Beyonder characteristics fully integrated, she still performed a divination and concluded that the potion in front of her was extremely dangerous, but acceptable.
Klein also swung out his amethyst pendant and solemnly performed a pendulum divination, obtaining the same result.
He was about to try another method to confirm it again when he heard Angel's calm but hesitant voice:
"If the promotion fails, I will do my best to suppress myself for a while before losing control. You should immediately transform me into a puppet and then remove it. This way, I won't pose a threat to you or others... Anyway, judging by previous events, the probability of my 'resurrection' is still quite high..."
As she spoke, she laughed dryly, but Klein didn't see any smile on her face.
She wasn't sure if she could successfully advance, or if she could be resurrected after death... Klein's heart tightened. He wanted to dissuade Angel from advancing for the time being, but he didn't know how to start.
Although the two of them dealt with Ince Zangwill, the problems they faced were no less than those in the middle sequence. The truth about the "big smog", the covetousness of the "blasphemer" Amon, and the existence of the "witch sect" all required them to face them with greater strength.
Furthermore, unlike the "fate" Klein suspected, Angel had truly received the attention of the "Imaginary Angel" Adam and became the goddess's favored one. The Church of Evernight bestowed upon her the extraordinary characteristic of "immortality," certainly not to allow her to craft it into a magical item for their own use, but to quickly elevate her sequence and become the true "Shadow of the Goddess"...
Pulling out a gold coin he carried with him, Klein tossed it up with a ding. His trembling hands almost failed to catch the falling coin.
Just as he lowered his head to look at his palm, Angel had already taken a deep breath and drank the potion in one gulp.
…
The black potion seemed to become mist, completely surrounding Angel.
She could feel the liquid entering her mouth instantly soaking her torso and limbs. The biting coldness made her skin tense all over, and it felt like something was slowly wriggling behind her head.
Those were strands of hair that had grown thicker, with the tips resembling eyeballs, snake heads, and tentacles.
This was a sign of losing control... Angel immediately calmed himself down and tried to control the changes in his body, restoring his hair to its smooth, light golden color.
Then, the black mist around her faded away, revealing a series of different pictures.
It was the year 2055, the day he, Angel Grey, was born.
It was a scene from his childhood when his parents died due to strange events that suddenly appeared around the world.
It was a picture of being taken in and trained by the church's institutions, and eventually joining them to become the Knights Templar.
It was a scene where the whole world united to fight against the evil spirits emerging from all over the world, but was inevitably heading towards doomsday step by step.
That was the scene when he accepted the order and led the team to hold back a certain demon, but was pierced through the body by a flaming spear thrown by the demon, and died unwillingly on the street.
This time, Angel was able to glimpse a clearer picture from the blurred memories in his mind, and recognized the flaming spear that was now extremely familiar to him.
That was the flaming spear formed by the "Arsonist" controlling the flames!
It turns out that, back then, I already had some kind of connection with the extraordinary power of this era, even though it came at the cost of my life...
Angel suddenly realized, and watched the scene beside him gradually emerge, then gradually disappear, and finally stop on the lonely street in the city, and on Angel Gray's body that seemed eternal and unchanged.
She knew that it was no longer "reality" but "City of Disaster".
I lay there, in the City of Disaster, for an incalculable amount of time, until the outside world was destroyed and reborn, until four long epochs passed, until the Fifth Age, when the gods no longer existed and humans dominated the earth, until... the day Cole Granger died...
Angel stared at his own body quietly until a new image emerged from the black fog.
It was a dark basement. A naked girl with long golden hair was lying quietly on the blood-soaked floor. Beside her stood two figures, a man and a woman.
The man was a middle-aged man wearing a simple white robe, with a light blond beard and a warm expression. He had a silver cross pendant hanging on his chest and his hands hanging naturally. It was Adam, the "angel of fantasy" that Angel had seen several times.
Beside him, the woman whom Angel had observed in the haze but had never been able to identify, finally no longer had her face hidden in the black fog.
She was not very old, wearing a classical hooded robe, with long black hair hanging down from both sides of the hood. Her black eyes were emotionless, and her face was beautiful but a little dull.
This time, Angel also recognized her identity.
She once expelled "Lady Despair" Panatia during the Backlund Great Smog, helping herself to be temporarily promoted to the Witch of "Pain" and stop the spread of the disease;
She once helped Mr. Azik stop the fusion of his memory with the god of death in the "Salinger Mausoleum" deep in the Raging Sea, and gave him the opportunity to choose his own life;
Her statue appears in a mysterious misty town and is called "Mother of Heaven";
She is the vessel that the "Goddess of Night" descends into when she walks in the world!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com