Inside the iron-black "Throne..." the space here was dozens of times larger than it appeared from the outside, grand and magnificent, making Klein momentarily doubt where he had been teleported.
Following his spiritual intuition, he arrived at a rather spacious hall. On both sides, gray-white stone pillars, carved with many strange patterns, stood tall, inlaid with golden gems.
Beneath each stone pillar, a dark full-body armor, holding a long spear and a straight sword at its waist, stood.
On the high platform at the front of the hall, there was a rather ornate high-backed chair. On it sat a figure wearing a crown, a magnificent long robe adorned with many ornaments, and holding a scepter inlaid with gold threads and gems. His face was obscured, as if he were an Emperor in slumber.
Klein cautiously stopped at the doorway, using his Spirit Body Threads vision to observe the full-body armor in the hall and the figure seated on the Throne.
He found no Spirit Body Threads on the dark full-body armor or the figure seated on the Throne at the front of the hall, nor did he sense any living aura from them.
With a clang, a gold coin was flicked from Klein's hand, then fell back into his palm, King's head up!
"No danger. Of course, it's more likely that my divination was interfered with. All the anomalies and inconsistencies in this palace seem to flow here in the end. It's hard to believe there's no danger inside."
As he spoke, the black trench coat on his body suddenly writhed, dripping piece by piece onto the ground, turning into a pool of scarlet blood and flesh, then rapidly surging upwards, reforming into a human figure—'Admiral Hell' Ludwell, dressed as a butler.
In Ludwell's eyes, a pale figure was reflected, his face grim and expressionless. This was his second Marionette!
Originally, he had three Marionettes, but Qonas Kilgor belonged to the Black Emperor Pathway. He was worried about being affected by some anomalies in the Specter Empire, losing control, or even rebelling. Before coming, he had sealed him using a secret art provided by Leyton and placed him above the Gray Fog. As long as he retrieved him in time, that Marionette would not collapse.
After distributing the pre-prepared Mystical Items to his two Marionettes and making ample preparations, Klein directly let Ludwell, who was possessed by the Wraith, step into the hall.
The moment Ludwell stepped into the hall, his vision also changed, mysteriously appearing in the hall.
Klein was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted:
"My Marionette and I are being treated as a single entity? Doesn't that mean any injuries my Marionette sustains will also be reflected on me?"
Beneath the stone pillars carved with strange patterns and inlaid with many gems, the dark full-body armor all turned in unison, looking at Klein and his Marionette.
But in Klein's eyes, there were still no Spirit Body Threads on the armor, as if they were already dead.
"Trouble. The special nature of this place somewhat restrains a Bizzaro Sorcerer's abilities." As thoughts flickered, Klein gently rubbed his fingers, and the corner of his coat ignited, a crimson flame shooting up and engulfing him.
At the same time, in the hallway outside the hall, a match Klein had dropped spontaneously ignited.
"Deprive!"
A majestic and solemn voice, whose tone could not be discerned, sounded out of thin air.
The flames flickering on Klein's body quickly extinguished. His body remained in place; the Flame Jump was unsuccessful, and he had also lost the Beyonder ability of "Flame Jump."
"It can also use decrees to deprive Beyonder abilities? This has already surpassed a Sequence 5 Disciplinary Knight; it's a demigod-level ability, isn't it?"
As he thought, he saw some of the dark full-body armor turn silvery-white, covered with golden patterns, floating in mid-air in defiance of physical laws, emitting a strong sense of majesty. The surrounding air seemed to become viscous, making his movements difficult.
The remaining dark full-body armor rushed directly towards him, not fast, but closing in within a few steps, as if the standard for measuring surrounding distances had become chaotic.
"What are these things? Why does it feel like every piece of full-body armor here has the might of a demigod?"
As he spoke, he had already manipulated Ludwell to wield the large scissors in his hand. Silver-white thin blades directly shot out from inside the approaching dark full-body armor, making a grating, teeth-aching sound.
At the same time, fine but not deep cutting marks appeared on all the full-body armor.
Klein retreated while observing his surroundings, thinking about how to deal with it. "Is this the Earl of the Fallen's ability? Twisting the target's probability, distributing the damage evenly among all the full-body armor?"
As he pondered, he manipulated his Marionette Ludwell to conjure a twilight storm in the hall using a Mystical Item, isolating all the full-body armor and himself on opposite sides of the storm. Then, he took out an iron-black square talisman from his Inventory—the Yesterday Reappearance Talisman!
He wanted to borrow power from his past self who, above the Gray Fog, had borrowed Mr. Azik's power using the Conqueror Characteristic.
As long as he was fast enough to pray to himself in time to cleanse the corruption and influence, there would be no problem.
As thoughts flickered, he chanted the activation incantation for the talisman in ancient hermes:
"Yesterday."
The talisman in his hand instantly shattered and vanished. Many past versions of himself appeared before Klein's eyes: Gehrman Sparrow, Dwayne Dantes, and the Hero Bandit Black Emperor.
His gaze kept moving forward, seeing himself sitting above the Gray Fog, holding the Conqueror Characteristic, his face pale, with fine granulation constantly emerging from his skin.
The next moment, this figure overlapped with his current self. His skin became pale and transparent, pale flames ignited in his eyes, and his flesh writhed, growing out granulation like budding feathers.
He looked up, surveying the hall, taking in every piece of full-body armor, including the figure seated on the high platform at the very front.
The light in the entire hall seemed to dim for a moment. The surfaces of the full-body armor, whether dark or silvery-white, showed signs of rust, beginning to decay and wither uncontrollably, as if crossing the River of Death inch by inch.
Outside the iron-black "Throne..." two colossal figures still stood in place, neither moving, as if in a standoff, or perhaps confronting each other in a place that was difficult to observe.
More and more eyes emerged from the wisps of black mist around them, and the surrounding pale golden Chains of Order also intertwined more tightly, almost forming an airtight sphere around them.
At a certain moment, the crown worn on the head of the blurred light figure opposite Leyton showed signs of rust, decay, and withering, causing the tightly interwoven Chains of Order around it to tremble.
Leyton's tall figure instantly blurred. From the eyes emerging from the surrounding black mist, complex and illusory symbols condensed, pouring a large amount of chaotic and useless knowledge into the blurred light figure's mind, while also changing the surrounding physical laws to some extent.
The strict and tight laws and order of the surroundings were largely disrupted, causing the intertwined Chains of Order to become chaotic.
Leyton's illusory body surged forward with torrents of complex information. Before the crown-wearing blurred light figure could react, he had already reformed his body and flung a few drops of dark, lightless "river water" onto the magnificent, gem-inlaid crown.
The surroundings instantly dimmed. Stars, one after another, appeared, neither dazzling nor brilliant, imbued with a sense of deathly stillness.
The golden light figure wearing the crown uncontrollably fell into slumber, rapidly withering and decaying in slumber, slowly dying.
The order and rules shrouding the Specter Empire seemed to suffer a heavy blow in an instant, showing many errors and becoming incomplete.
The buildings in the city became dilapidated, the streets decayed, the trees and flowers in the flowerbeds withered and died, and the figures walking on the streets turned into skeletons, Zombies, and Wraiths.
As the aura of the River of Eternal Darkness corroded it, the figure wearing the golden crown gradually thinned until it vanished.
In the palace within the iron-black "Throne..." Klein's figure appeared on the high platform at the front of the hall, his right hand tightly gripping the large scissors Ludwell had used, plunging them into the sleeping figure, detonating the aura of Death, giving this strike a "fatal" effect.
Behind him, indistinct and dull rays of light surged in, dissolving the full-body armor, whether dark or silvery-white, in the hall, turning them into scattered dust that fell to the ground, their colors evaporating and quickly dissipating.
These lights then converged on the high platform, re-forming Leyton's figure.
He calmly observed the figure on the Throne, slowly dying in slumber, and in his eyes, complex and illusory symbols condensed one after another.
A large amount of complex, pure knowledge was extracted from the sleeping figure's body, outlining an identical figure in front of him, as if it could reveal all its secrets.
This figure was probably in his early twenties, with brass-colored hair, golden eyes, and a handsome appearance. He lacked the original majesty and instead had a somewhat bookish temperament.
Klein examined the figure outlined by pure knowledge and exclaimed:
"Can the power of knowledge be used like this? Directly extracting knowledge from another's body, forcibly analyzing the opponent."
"This is a manifestation of 'Omniscience.' I simulated it using my own authority combined with the Insight of the White Tower Pathway."
"Mastering all information and knowledge in this world can be considered 'Omniscience' to some extent, can't it?"
After a brief explanation, Leyton changed the subject:
"This is also a form of special spiritualism. You can ask him any questions you are curious about."
Klein nodded, then looked at the figure outlined by pure knowledge and asked curiously:
"Who are you?"