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*****
"It is finished."
Immediately following his successful advancement, George spoke a quiet reminder to Crestet, who was standing nearby.
Crestet abruptly ceased using his abilities to induce the mermaids to sing. He turned, his eyes widening as he stared at George in disbelief. "That's it? So soon?"
From the moment George began to the moment he finished, less than five seconds had elapsed. The mermaids hadn't even managed to finish a single line of their song.
Even for a genius among geniuses, advancing to a higher Sequence should require a significant amount of time to stabilize the newly acquired Beyonder characteristic. Furthermore, the process of consuming a potion to advance always carried a substantial risk of failure—even if the potion was completely "digested," the ritual was performed perfectly, and every preparation was in place.
The higher the Sequence, the easier it was to lose control during the advancement. Even within the Churches, where the risk for Beyonder's was at its lowest, there were plenty of cases where people failed the transition from Sequence 6 to Sequence 5.
Crestet's presence here wasn't merely to use his powers to make the mermaids sing for George's ritual; he was also here as a safeguard. Had George shown signs of losing control or failing the advancement, Crestet would have been the first to take action.
He wasn't the only one on standby, either. Given the influence and power George had previously displayed in Tingen City, four High Deacons were currently stationed in the surrounding area, armed with Sealed Artifacts and ready for any contingency. Even the Archbishop himself was secretly monitoring George's advancement.
Everyone remembered Ince Zangwill—the man who had orchestrated the descent of the True Creator's spawn in Tingen. Originally, he had been a Bishop of the Church. He had failed his advancement to Sequence 4 and nearly lost control in the process. Although he was barely saved, he was left as a broken man, struggling to survive on borrowed time.
To save his own life, Ince Zangwill had sought to switch to the Evernight pathway. However, the Church had no spare Sequence 4 Beyonder characteristics for that pathway at the time. They couldn't simply grant him the ashes of a Saint, as those ashes were required to suppress various locations across the continent.
The Church had refused his request. Consumed by hatred for the Church's perceived "abandonment," Ince Zangwill had stolen Sealed Artifact 0-08 and defected, causing immense losses to the Church.
The Church had treated George's advancement with the same level of gravity and solemnity, yet the young man had made the entire process look as effortless as drinking a glass of cold water. Honestly, if Crestet hadn't personally witnessed George swallowing the potion, he would have suspected the man hadn't advanced at all.
"I didn't expect the advancement to be quite this simple myself," George explained with a light smile.
He truly hadn't expected it to be this easy. He had assumed that since a ritual was required, the jump to Sequence 5 would at least involve some degree of struggle or turbulence.
"Simple..."
Crestet's mouth twitched involuntarily. How many Sequence 6 Beyonders in the Church lived in constant fear of losing control, never daring to attempt an advancement until the day they retired or died? Even when Crestet had advanced back then, it hadn't been smooth sailing; he had only succeeded through sheer force of will and his unwavering faith in the Goddess.
"Thank you for assisting me with the advancement. If there's nothing else, I'll be heading back now."
Having successfully advanced, George bid Crestet a casual farewell. He intended to use his Flaming Jump ability to return home and quietly study the new powers granted by his higher Sequence. However, Crestet moved to stop him.
"Actually, there is something. That 'Mr. A' you helped us capture last time... he had a specialized curse within his body. He died the moment we began the interrogation. So, if you have time after stabilizing your new Sequence, please keep an eye out for us. We need to know if there are other Oracles of the Aurora Order hiding within Backlund."
Crestet's expression turned serious. "They might be plotting something that could bring disaster to the city. If you can uncover the Aurora Order's conspiracy, that information could be traded for the formula of the Sequence 4 potion: Bizarro Sorcerer."
The Church of the Evernight Goddess was undoubtedly powerful, but they had to deal with supernatural incidents across every city in the Kingdom of Loen. They couldn't concentrate all their forces in Backlund. Currently, they were in the dark regarding the specifics or the scale of the Aurora Order's plot, and they couldn't afford to divert too many personnel to investigate.
Coincidentally, George had just reached Sequence 5, and he already possessed a track record of defeating two Sequence 4 combatants working in tandem while he was only at Sequence 6. Asking him to help with the investigation was a logical choice. Furthermore, the Archbishop suspected that George possessed a private intelligence network of his own; otherwise, it would have been too coincidental for him to have captured Mr. A so easily.
"So, the Sequence 4 of this pathway is called Bizarro Sorcerer."
George did not refuse the request. Instead, he nodded without hesitation. "No problem. I'll keep an eye out."
To him, this was hardly a difficult task. If the Church hadn't previously insisted that transactions could only be made through the rescue of those losing control or the capture of cultists, he would have already scoured Mr. A's memories himself. In any case, as long as the Aurora Order had a plan, they would surely send a replacement now that Mr. A was dead. When that happened, George would simply capture the new arrival and perform a soul-search.
Snap!
With a crisp snap of his fingers, George transformed into a plume of scarlet flames and vanished from within the Church.
Back at his residence, he began to analyze his new abilities as a Sequence 5 Marionettist, as well as the requirements for "acting" to digest the potion and eventually advance to Sequence 4.
The primary ability of a Marionettist was a massive enhancement of the Faceless powers, coupled with the acquisition of Spirit Body Threads, which allowed the user to turn enemies into puppets.
Initially, a standard Marionettist could only control one puppet. The preliminary conversion would take twenty seconds, while complete control required five minutes. As the potion was digested, these stats would gradually improve. Upon complete digestion, a Marionettist could control three puppets simultaneously, with preliminary control taking five seconds and total control taking only a minute and a half.
However, those limitations applied to "normal" Marionettists—not to George.
Spirit Body Threads were, essentially, an extended application of mental strength and spirituality. The stronger one's mental power, the more puppets they could control, and the faster the conversion process became. A normal Marionettist had a finite amount of spirituality, and thus their limits were fixed. It was only through further advancement and the subsequent growth of their soul that they could manage more puppets more efficiently.
But how strong was George's mental power?
It was far beyond that of a True God.
This meant that in terms of both the speed of conversion and the number of puppets he could maintain, George was already superior to a Sequence 0 of the Seer pathway. This was merely his "normal" state; if he were to converge the mental strength of his clones and his original body, he might even be able to transform a True God into his marionette directly.
Since he already knew that the Original Creator was dead, George felt no further need to meticulously hide the true scale of his mental strength.
Once he had mapped out the full extent of the Marionettist's abilities, the next step was determining how to "act" to digest the potion. Based on his deductions, the core of the acting involved converting and controlling a marionette while ensuring that no one else discovered the truth. The more powerful the controlled target—or the greater the number of puppets—the faster the digestion would be, provided no flaws were exposed.
"That's simple enough."
George wasn't worried about the digestion of the Marionettist potion in the slightest. With his level of power, converting a Beyonder whose strength exceeded Sequence 5 was trivial. As for avoiding flaws, he could simply pull the target into his own private world and read their entire memory. By doing so, he could perfectly replicate their behavior, ensuring no discrepancies would arise.
Furthermore, because his spirituality was so immense, the range at which he could control his puppets was staggering. He wouldn't even need to leave his house to maintain his control. A standard Marionettist at full digestion could only control a puppet within a maximum range of 150 meters.
George, on the other hand... as long as the puppet didn't leave the planet, he wouldn't have much of an issue.
"So, the question is: who should I choose to be my marionette to digest this potion?"
(End of Chapter)