A few hours after his TarotExpress, Klein decided to start preparing everything for his promotion.
Leaving the containers with the ingredients in his bathroom, he left the room but soon returned, this time with a very well-cleaned pot.
Placing the pot on the sink, Klein took all the materials for a sacrificial ritual from the cabinet, ready to take out the rest of the ingredients he had already obtained from the space on the Gray fog.
The Spring of the Elves brown Crystal was bought at the party a few hours ago, while the rest of the secondary ingredients were purchased in various shops in the district a few days ago, just after he finished the Chariot research mission.
In total, he had spent 150 sassem on supplementary ingredients.
Looking at the ingredients for his potion in front of him, Klein breathed slowly and calmed his heart.
He was now about to enter the trees-hold of the beyonder of Middle Sequence of the Modern Era.
He would say goodbye to only being slightly stronger than a normal person in certain aspects. Finally getting beyonder powers!
With all that in mind and with a calmer heart, Klein began to prepare the potion for his promotion, following the steps of first the secondary ingredients before placing the main ingredients.
With the Clown's ability to control his body, the initial preparations were completed and the main ingredients, the spinal fluid of the Dark Partered Black Panther and the Mist Treant true root, were placed one by one.
Plop!
After placing the last ingredient, a pale mist suddenly rose from the pot but was pulled back by an invisible force.
With everything calm, the clown took a copper coin from his pocket and placed it between his fingers, turning it.
Catching it in the palm of his hand, he watched as it came up heads. Indicating a positive result!
Without further hesitation, the clown put the coin back in his pocket and poured all the potion into a transparent bottle he had prepared.
The liquid was rather unique. It was as if fireworks were constantly being released from within it. Red, orange, yellow, green, and other colors scattered continuously, disappeared, and reappeared like fireworks in the night sky.
This was the Magician's potion!
Sighing slightly, the clown did not rush to drink the potion. Instead, sitting on the toilet, he closed his eyes and used Cogitation to rid himself of his emotions and thoughts for a moment.
As soon as his mind was free, the clown threw his head back as he brought the potion to his lips, and with deep swallows he drank it down.
As the potion passed down his throat, it felt as if countless bubbles were exploding.
Klein's entire body felt like this, and massive amounts of information flooded his mind, exploding in fireworks.
"Hornacis... Flegrea... Hornacis..."
The veins on the man's forehead swelled and it felt as if his head would explode.
However, this situation was not new to Klein. The ravings he heard every time he climbed into the mysterious space above the gray fog and the cries of the True Creator's baby were much more terrifying.
"Hornacis... Flegrea... C... Morn..."
The tempting murmurs came, changing slowly but unnaturally, like misinterpreted recordings.
"C... Morn... Blas... Blasfe... Blas..."
Klein managed to regain his thoughts, and began to draw the sphere of light in his mind to restrict them...
"Blasfe... Blasfem... Blasphemous!"
The sudden high-pitched scream that assaulted his mind drew a groan from Klein, whose state of cogitation was broken the instant he began to scream in pain.
"AHHHRGG!"
All the murmurs condensed into a single cacophony of voices, shouting and howling, the voices not at all like the ones he was used to hearing, but seeming to come from a very, very distant and strange place.
"Blasphemous! Blasphemous! Blasphemous!"
The man's head swelled and contracted, multiple veins appearing on his forehead writhing like worms. Klein gritted his teeth and tried to restrict his thoughts again, but they escaped him more and more.
The man could feel his sanity slipping away, but using all his willpower, he pulled himself together and clung to his thoughts, tying them up with string and not letting them go for anything.
Regaining control over his mind, Klein focused on drawing the sphere of light and entering cogitation. The swelling and contraction of his head stopped after an unknown time but he did not stop, he continued to draw the sphere of light until all the abnormalities he felt in his body stopped and the murmurs disappeared.
After an unknown time, Klein opened his eyes and took long gasps of air, thick layers of sweat covering his body.
Feeling his vision blur, Klein tried to hold on to the sink but his hand failed and the man fell to the floor with a loud thud!
The last thing Klein saw before everything went black was, from the corner of his bathroom, a pair of cold, translucent, merciless eyes fading away like smoke...
Everything in his vision was blurred but after a second, the detective blinked and his vision cleared.
Groaning in pain, the man clutched his head in near agony.
He could feel his brain wanting to explode!
"Those eyes... those eyes did something!" Clenching his teeth, Klein remembered those eyes as if it were yesterday.
They were the same ones he had seen behind Old Neil when he advanced to Seer!
The Hidden Sage!
'Is this what it feels like to have information forced into your brain? No wonder they took Old Neil away for treatment! Enduring this continuously would undoubtedly drive you mad and cause you to lose control!' Gasping pathetically, Klein did not move a muscle, he was sure that the slightest movement would only make his condition worse.
The respect he felt for his Teacher had increased enormously.
'One word and I almost lost control... Is this the danger of Gods losing their minds?' Klein was sure that what he heard was merely a distant echo, if it had really been an injection of information he would undoubtedly have lost control!
The word that almost killed him was repeated over and over in his mind, even though he was no longer receiving information. Due to the horrible method, it left a painful and torturous echo.
'Blasphemous... Blasphemous... Blasphemous...'
Klein did not know who or what 'He' was addressing, nor why the Hiden Sage was shouting that word with such hatred.
But he would not divulge or explore, not only did his condition prevent it, but it would be suicide to do so!
After an unknown time, Klein managed to regain control of his mind and the great pain he felt in his head subsided. Without pain, information began to come to him, but this time he could understand it.
Blinking, disoriented, his vision clear but empty in the face of change.
He saw himself walking with Captain Dunn and Sleepless Royale Reideen, walking along a strange path that he recognized as Old Neil's bungalow.
"What's going on? I don't remember this..." Confused and feeling that he could do nothing but observe, Klein did just that, he observed.
The scene changed and now they were in front of the place. Klein saw himself grabbing the rope and pulling it, ringing the bell inside the house.
After a few seconds of silence and no response, Klein watched confusedly what was happening.
Confusion turned to panic as he saw dark red blood begin to flow like a gloomy river through the gaps in the door.
Before he could react, the door opened with a horrible screech.
The carpet of the room was red and sticky, covered in blood and hair.
Looking up dazedly, Klein saw how the walls, the living room's floor, ceiling, round table, piano, and chairs were all covered in the same disgusting, sticky and hairy liquid...
Old Neil's head hung in the air, connected to the ceiling by a thick liquid. His forehead and cheeks each had a pair of eyes. They were cold and ruthless eyes with no eyelashes.
'Old Neil lost control?! That's impossible! The Red Gloves discovered his abnormality and took him away for treatment! He's alive and well!' Klein's mouth opened and closed in horror.
What did this mean?!
Just when he felt he was about to lose his mind, Klein watched in a daze as Dunn raised his revolver and pointed it at the floating head.
Bang! Bang! Crack!
With two shots and the scene shattering into countless pieces of glass like Old Neil's head, Klein didn't even have time to scream.
Before he knew it, the glass had grown back together and no longer showed Old Neil bungalow.
Now he could see a woman's room, a bed with elegant and sensual sheets was in the middle of the room while in a corner, he saw a chair and next to it a full length mirror that only reflected pure darkness.
In that room, Klein managed to see three people—a man wearing a black suit, black hair, brown eyes, an average-looking face.
Another man was standing next to him. He wasn't very tall, his brown hair was somewhat thick and his body was always average. In his hands he was carrying what appeared to be a mirror covered by a black cloth.
Klein recognized himself just as quickly as he recognized Kenley.
In front of them, he could see what appeared to be a woman, but her features were...
Did she have features?
His mind danced between illusion and confusion, closing his eyes to recover, to breathe, and after a moment he opened them again, but he didn't look at the woman's face, only at her feet.
The scene had accelerated, this time he watched as Kenley knelt, vomiting yellow vile, then a red heart, lungs and stomach.
What he was seeing suddenly jammed and repeated for a moment before jamming again—the movement very much like a damaged video.
The sound of a broken record from a megaphone resonated and finally the scene stabilized, but now it was different.
The woman's room was empty, there was no one there. The full-length mirror now reflected the Old Neil bungalow in its reflection, but this time there was no crimson river under its door.
The same static sound filled his ears and before Klein could do anything, the feeling of waking up overwhelmed him and the scene in front of him shattered like glass.
Gasp!
Sitting up suddenly, Klein looked around him in terror, ready to see another nightmarish scene unfold, but all he saw was his familiar bathroom.
Blinking dazedly, the detective touched his forehead in shock, but a sharp pain brought him out of his trance.
Lowering his hand, he saw it covered in a crimson liquid.
Getting up, Klein looked at himself in the mirror and saw a small cut on his forehead. Blood stained part of his robe and marked his face down the middle.
Frowning and blinking a little, Klein raised his right hand and placed it on his wound. When he removed it, the cut had disappeared, but his forearm had started to bleed a little.
This was one of the abilities he obtained after being promoted to Magician, Damage Transfer. As long as the wound was not fatal and he could move his arms, he was able to transfer injuries to different parts of the body. Turning fatal wounds into minor injuries.
With his wound treated, Klein turned on the tap of his sink and began to wipe the blood from his face.
Turning off the tap, he looked up and saw his reflection. His eyes looked tired and a whirlpool seemed to be moving in them.
After a few seconds of staring at his reflection without blinking, he muttered.
"What the hell was that?"
From what the Red Gloves had told him once they had extracted Old Neil, the Hidden Sage shared information from time to time and the old man was begining to listen to it.
But that was only supposed to happen with the beyonders of the Mystery Prier Pathway!
Not the Seer Pathway!
Besides, what kind of information was that?!
Klein knew that those visions were not real, that the reality was something else.
That Old Neil was being treated in the barracks of the Church of Evernight Goddess and that he never lost control.
That Kensley is probably with her fiancé now, finishing the preparations for their wedding.
Klein knew that that was the truth, reality!
But...
'Those visions also felt like reality... A nightmare come true...'
He wasn't sure how to take this. After all, this was information revealed by an Evil God who is mad. The information given by 'Him' should not be taken as truth...
Using a towel, Klein dried his face of the excess water.
Watching as drops fell from his wet hair, and after thinking about the information for a moment, a dark thought struck his mind.
Maybe... Maybe...
Is that what would have happened if Chariot hadn't intervened?
That didn't make any sense!
Why would the Hiden Sage show him that? What was he supposed to achieve with it?
Shaking his head and quickly drawing the multiple overlapping spheres of light, Klein took charge of his thoughts.
This couldn't be something he thought here.
Quickly taking the four steps against the clock, he climbed into the mysterious space above the Gray Fog.
Immediately, he could feel how his connection to this space had intensified. And how he now had more control over it.
But Klein wasn't interested in that right now.
Using his newfound control over the Gray Fog, he bathed his entire body in it. He did this multiple times, only stopping when he was sure he was 'clean'.
Taking his place in the Seat of Honor, he finally allowed himself to think about what had happened.
Why had the Hidden Sage shown him that?
No matter how he thought about it or what excuse he could come up with, it didn't make sense that this deity would pay attention to such an event.
But Klein didn't let that make him dismiss the information.
Feeling he was getting nowhere, he reviewed what he knew about the Hidden Sage. Maybe that way he would find a clue...
'He' was an abstract imaginary concept used by the Moses Ascetic Order to refer to the source of collective knowledge, until 'He' one day came into being and transformed into an unknown hidden existence.
'He' murmurs knowledge from time to time in the worst possible way...
'Source of collective knowledge...' Klein frowned slightly.
Was it possible that the change in what was supposed to happen caught his attention a little and therefore he took a look at one of the participants?
That glance resulting in the mental assault he received?
Not feeling like he was getting anywhere and that he may be wrong, Klein could only shake his head. He lacked too much information to develop a correct conjecture, but this issue could not be abandoned.
Since he was already here, he looked at the bronze table in front of him calmly.
Reaching out to the air, he took out his bathroom mirror from the Gray Fog.
Controlling the mirror, he made it reflect him. Looking at his reflection, he controlled the power of the mysterious space and separated his reflection from the mirror.
Immediately freed from his prison, his reflection began to show changes, his eyes darkened. And he began to give off a gloomy and crazy aura.
This dark Klein trembled for a moment more. Klein only used his control over the mysterious space to suppress the effects of the separation.
After about 2 seconds, the other Klein's eyes lost their light and became empty, but the dark and crazy aura remained.
Lowering his hand, Klein in the seat of honor pressed his cheek against his knuckles and willed the other Klein to move to the back of the table, to the last seat that looked directly at him.
When the other Klein sat down, a thick layer of gray fog covered his figure and made him illusory, just like the other members.
With a thought, the other Klein raised an arm and waved, the movement natural and almost not costing him spirituality.
"It worked! I knew that with a little more control over this space it would be possible! Using my reflection as a smurf account, I'm a genius!"
Not only had his theory worked, but the spirituality that this consumed was very little, he hardly even noticed it.
The smurf account had been created!
The only bad thing was that the dark and crazy aura couldn't be changed easily, but Klein decided to keep it after a few attempts.
"Every Blessed of a God is peculiar. How could my blessed not be?" Satisfied with that reasoning, he put his hand down.
Happy and trying to forget the previous event, Fool Klein smiled at the last chair, "Hello."
Closing his mouth, he took 2 seconds but soon the other Klein also shouted, "Hello!"
'This is like talking into a microphone through my mind, I just have to think it and wish it and my reflection will do it!' Smiling victoriously, he gave a quiet nod to the last chair.
The Fool said calmly, "Welcome new member, which tarot card would you like to draw?"
The other raised his hand and scratched his chin, laughing hoarsely, "World!
"I choose the 'World' card!"
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Okay, I think everything is ready.
First, fuck my job.
With that said, the daily chapters are back. They will be published around this time.
Oh, and I haven't forgotten what I said.
For my faithful readers, here is what I wanted to give you 'Check the comment'.
I have to see how to send it but I'll see about that when the winner is decided.
Next Saturday I'll do the give out. In the coming days I'll post how it will work.
Beautiful kisses and good luck to everyone that will participate.
...
Oh, I'll also soon publish Flora's design.