Click.
Clarisse slowly pushed open the door to Klein's room, only to find it completely empty — the person who was supposed to be there had already vanished without a trace.
Her expression didn't change. She simply gazed out the window for a moment, calm, before her figure abruptly vanished.
...
Meanwhile, Klein was running full-tilt down the street, Melissa leading the way.
Three minutes earlier, he'd still been in bed, pretending to sleep, when the woman calling herself Christine had suddenly jumped in through the window, telling him he was in danger and needed to run immediately.
After flipping a coin to confirm it through divination, Klein had jumped out the window right behind Melissa and taken off running — what puzzled him was that none of the official Beyonders who were supposed to be stationed outside the window had appeared at all.
"Where are we going?"
Once they'd put some distance between themselves and the villa, Klein finally managed to ask.
Melissa answered quickly, "The Church of the Evernight. Only inside a church will we be safe enough."
Klein glanced around at the bustling, crowded street in surprise. "In broad daylight, on a street full of people — you think they'd actually strike here?"
"I don't know. But what if they did?"
Klein glanced back over his shoulder. "Are you sure this is aimed at me?"
"Yes!"
Melissa nodded firmly. This was what Medici had told her — a high-Sequence witch was coming, and given that this "Cleya" carried the scent of the Primordial Witch on her, it was hard not to connect the two.
Thud!
Melissa's footsteps suddenly halted, her eyes widening in alarm at a woman in a black dress who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere just ahead. The woman regarded them with a calm expression, her gaze lingering on Melissa for a few seconds before settling on Klein.
"Cleya. It's time."
Her voice was even, unhurried.
Klein recognized the woman in front of him instantly. He swallowed and asked, "Time for what?"
Clarisse's figure flickered and vanished, reappearing directly in front of Klein. She raised a finger, pale as white jade, hooking it under his chin. "Time to fulfill the duty that's owed."
"..."
"Time to let our 'Mother' descend, within you."
In that instant, Klein's pupils contracted violently.
...
By the time Vincent arrived at Klein's location, all he found were official Beyonders collapsed everywhere on the ground — half of them already dead from illness, the other half still clinging on, wracked with agony from the plague ravaging their bodies.
As for Klein himself, he was nowhere among them.
Bernadette said, "This is a high-Sequence witch's disease."
Vincent's heart sank. "It's already started, then? She came all this way specifically to take Klein — and then... let the Primordial Witch descend inside him?"
Clack!
Just then, a faint sound caught his attention. Turning, he spotted a disheveled-haired man lying nearby, a strange, oddly shaped silver mirror resting at his side, a line of text surfacing on its face: "Humble Arodes is at your service."
The mirror's surface flickered, and an image slowly resolved from blur into clarity — Klein, standing off against a woman in a black dress.
Vincent picked Arodes up, glanced back once at the Beyonders still writhing in agony, then walked out of the villa. Raising a hand skyward, he cast a starlight spell, letting a brilliant burst of light bloom above the building.
If the Church could get here fast enough, there was still a chance to save them.
"Ask it where Stephen is."
Vincent nodded, tapping the silver mirror twice. "Tell me where Stephen is."
The silver surface rippled like water, and the image that emerged still showed Klein facing off against the woman in black — then the view zoomed in toward the upper left, focusing on Stephen, standing not far off, watching the scene like he was enjoying a show.
Vincent immediately tossed Arodes into the "Secret Door," took a step forward, and slipped through the Spirit World to the street shown in the mirror's image. But there was no sign of Klein or the woman in black — and no sign of Stephen, either.
The street was bustling with people, business as usual, as if nothing had happened at all. No one seemed to have seen a thing.
Only a young girl, standing two or three meters from where Klein had just been, was staring off in one direction with obvious frustration, muttering to herself: "Why didn't you stop that witch?"
"First — I'm not your subordinate, why would I help you? Second — you've known that woman for less than three days, you're not even friends, why would you want to help her? Third — do you honestly think a high-Sequence witch is that easy to deal with?"
Medici said this flatly, then added, "You'd be better off figuring out how to handle whoever just stepped out of the Spirit World behind you."
Melissa spun around in alarm, meeting Vincent's gaze directly.
"There's something off about this girl."
Bernadette said immediately, "I'm catching the scent of the Hidden Sage on her." She paused. "She's probably a member of the Morse Ascetic Society — possibly even a follower of the Hidden Sage himself."
After over a hundred years of conflict with the Hidden Sage and the Morse Ascetic Society, Bernadette could fairly claim to be one of the people who understood them best. Even with Vincent currently in control of the body, that didn't stop her from recognizing Melissa's "true identity."
"And it's not just that."
Bernadette's tone grew heavier. "I suspect she's a vessel for the Hidden Sage's descent."
Damn it — another god-descent vessel?
Was Backlund just getting way too crowded lately? Lanevus, Klein, and now this girl — three people, three evil-god vessels, plus that sealed item at the Church of the Evernight meant specifically for the Goddess of the Evernight's own descent. That was basically enough to round out a full table.
At the thought, Vincent asked quickly, "So, should we take her down?"
Sensing the hostile intent radiating off Vincent, Melissa scrambled backward in a panic.
That was exactly the moment the glass in the shop window behind her suddenly darkened, and an arm reached out from within it, landing on her shoulder.
"Ah!!"
Melissa barely had time to let out a startled cry before that hand yanked her straight into the mirror, vanishing into the glass amid rippling, water-like distortions.
Before Vincent could even react, Bernadette said coldly, "That mirror person again!"
She was starting to seriously suspect that person was deliberately going out of his way to mess with her.
Just then, Arodes gave a small tremor, a line of text surfacing on its face: "Would you like to know Stephen's current location?"
"Yes."
The mirror's surface rippled again, and the images of the woman in black and Klein reappeared — the two of them walking, one behind the other, across a lush, green-lawned estate, with Stephen following alongside them, no more than three or four meters away — yet neither of the two seemed to notice him at all.
A few seconds later, the image in the mirror shifted to a bird's-eye view, then rapidly pulled upward, gradually revealing the full estate. Vincent recognized it immediately: Prince Edsac's Red Rose Manor.
Vincent thought it over, then asked, low and serious, "Is the Witch cult planning to hold the descent ritual today?"
Arodes first offered a little crying emoji, then answered, "Yes."
"So the other witch, the one responsible for spreading disease to trigger the disaster — she's already moving too?"
"Yes. Would you like to know that witch's location as well?"
"Yes."
A few seconds later, a strikingly beautiful woman in a white dress appeared in the mirror — the very same witch known as the "Nightingale of Despair." Her expression was calm, gentle, the corner of her mouth curled slightly as she walked among the crowd, and everywhere she passed, the fog thickened, almost imperceptibly, tinged faintly with an iron-black color — the distance between her and her goal quietly shrinking.
This was the beginning of the "Great Fog" that, in the original story, had killed tens of thousands.
But this was too sudden!
Katerina's letter had only specified "next week" — Vincent hadn't expected it to be Monday, the very first day of it!
Which meant — were the other operations kicking off simultaneously too, right at this very moment?
"I wonder how Mr. Z is doing right now."
The thought struck Vincent at once. His eyes suddenly flared with a lapis-gold light as he slipped into the state of the Ambitionist, then stepped straight into the Spirit World, racing toward the island where Mr. Z resided.
To be continued…
Guys, do support me on Patreon; It helps me a lot!
Advance 100 Chapters are up on my Patreon!
pat reon.com/AlphaSenatus