In the Forsaken Land of the Gods, within Sasitan's ruins, a faint, misty glow, difficult to perceive with the naked eye, surged from the Spirit World Depths.
Countless complex and pure knowledge swiftly converged, reassembling Leyton's body.
After advancing to Sage and recovering his identity, merely appearing here allowed him to sense the hidden Beyonder characteristic of a Knowledge Magister.
It seemed as if, with just a stronger will, that characteristic would break through its seals and fly into his hand.
He also had some control over matters related to the Paragon Pathway, though it was weaker than his own Hermit Pathway.
Muttering to himself, he suddenly extended his right hand forward, clenching it in the void.
Sasitan, submerged in dense Darkness, suddenly emanated a layer of illusory light from all directions.
This light overlapped, as if constructing a vast and complex city.
These lights gradually merged into the ruined city, and the entire city seemed to come alive at that moment.
The information world hidden on the other side of this city ruin was directly extracted by him, forcefully merging it with the city in reality.
Click! Click! Click!
The sounds of machinery operating and gears meshing were everywhere, as if the city had transformed into a giant mechanical factory, and dim yellow lights gradually lit up the streets.
Leyton calmly stepped forward, and behind him, layers of pure white, illusory feathers condensed, forming a pair of exaggerated, pristine white wings.
Beneath the pure white wings, his body rapidly split open with cracks, and the pitch-black substance buried beneath his skin gradually turned outwards, transforming his entire body into a black mass covered in countless eyes, exuding auras of madness, destruction, ominousness, and disaster.
As the aura spread, under the influence of Mystical Reenactment, eyes filled with madness and ominousness began to grow in the surrounding air, dust, ground, and collapsed building ruins.
They wantonly scanned their surroundings, analyzing and recording everything they saw, and transmitting this information into Leyton's mind.
During this process, mad mechanical puppets continuously emerged from the city that had come alive in the Darkness; their bodies, assembled from iron sheets, wooden strips, and dry grass, were undergoing frenzied mutations.
The painted surfaces secreted a thick, black liquid, green leaves grew on the dry grass, and crimson fruits appeared.
Rust-covered iron sheets developed layers of cracks, extending outwards like barbed scales, and wide, pure white feathers grew from the seams of the puppets' bodies.
In their eye sockets, a deep crimson, like blood, slowly flowed, filled with a sense of madness and bloodlust, as if long-suppressed wonderful emotions had finally been released, their malice undisguised.
With each step they took, a clicking sound emanated from them, and one or two white feathers or a few drops of thick, black liquid fell.
Beneath the pure white wings, the eyes on the black thread ball suddenly deepened, flowing with a profound pale purple; he meticulously examined each mad puppet emerging from the Darkness, his gaze penetrating their bodies, dissecting, analyzing, and recording them piece by piece.
Every puppet gazed upon by these eyes became sluggish and heavy, its parts constantly emitting groaning sounds under the strain, as if it could disintegrate at any moment, scattering into a pile of loose parts.
The mutations on the puppets' bodies rapidly intensified, and the wide, pure white feathers growing from the seams fell off one by one, revealing the blood-filled eyes hidden beneath them.
Whooshing sounds of wind exploded, and a violent and sharp wind suddenly swept through the surrounding streets, scattering the madly mutating puppets.
The swirling wind seemed to carry tiny blades, leaving small marks on the puppets' bodies, the surrounding ground, and the collapsed building ruins on both sides of the street.
Occasionally, a few silver-white lightning bolts, crimson fireballs, and the mournful wails of what seemed like specters were interspersed within the howling wind.
The continuously mutating puppets around completely ignored Leyton, who was walking in the center of the road, and began tearing at and attacking each other.
Leyton, maintaining his mythical creature form, moved at a steady pace through the ruins of Sasitan.
Soon, eyes filled with madness, destruction, ominousness, and disaster covered the entire city, dense and countless, as if to assimilate the whole city.
After traversing the entire city, Leyton finally stopped before the perfectly preserved Zenith Church.
Beneath the pure white wings, the black mass covered in eyes began to contract and churn inwards, transforming back into Leyton's appearance.
He raised his right hand high, condensing a slowly rotating cluster of brilliant stardust; as if drawn by an unseen force, the eyes that had grown in various corners of the city ruins also began to shimmer brilliantly, like countless stars emerging, dense and dazzling, their pale blue starlight bathing the entire city.
These stars cast down streaks of radiant light, converging into a magnificent pillar of light that enveloped the entire city.
In this light, whether it was the ruins of streets and buildings, or the madly mutating and attacking puppets, all began to dissolve little by little, collapsing into tiny pale blue specks of light that undulated under the starlight, slowly approaching Leyton's position and merging into the slowly rotating stardust in his hand.
The slowly rotating stardust grew larger and faster, gradually covering the entire Zenith Church in front of it.
The massive and magnificent Church, built of megaliths and Steel, seemed to be stimulated, emitting a mixture of bright yellow and deep red light from within, forming a huge light screen that enveloped the entire temple, attempting to dispel the surrounding starlight.
Leyton gazed at the scene before him, his eyes slightly lowered, feeling the gradually awakening will deep within the temple, and softly murmured:
"Will you choose to awaken at all costs, or will you completely dissipate in this slumber?"
As if responding to his words, an ancient, desolate, chaotic, and mad aura permeated from deep within the Church, and the consciousness slumbering there was slowly awakening.
Above the Church, the bright yellow and deep red light began to retract and twist, gradually gaining a tangible quality, transforming into countless interlocking, slowly rotating gears.
Click-clack! Click-clack!
The sound of machinery operating constantly echoed in Leyton's ears; before him, the slowly rotating stardust gradually solidified, even its color rapidly evaporating, as if it could collapse into the smallest particulate structures at any moment.
Leyton's figure flickered, instantly moving from the ground to mid-air; he looked down at the colorless, gradually collapsing stardust below, and pressed his right hand downwards.
Silently, brilliant starlight descended from mid-air, merging into the dull, colorless stardust that enveloped the entire Church.
The dim starlight once again became brilliant, regaining its color; the pale blue, misty starlight re-illuminated, gradually disintegrating the light screen interwoven with bright yellow and deep red, revealing the temple below, where a faint bronze glow flickered.
Snap!
Leyton raised his hand and snapped his fingers, leaning back leisurely; specks of starlight descended around him, quickly condensing into a high-backed chair floating in mid-air.
Leyton, leaning back in the high-backed chair, looked down with lowered eyes; starlight continuously flickered in his eyes, reflecting a mottled wilderness of light and shadow.
In this state, he could clearly feel the Knowledge Magister characteristic that was attracting him from the temple below.
With another snap, he exploited the Earl of the Fallen characteristic he had pulverized and restored, which he carried with him, to distort and magnify the Convergence effect between Beyonder characteristics.
The temple below continuously trembled, as if it could disintegrate at any moment; specks of bronze-colored light separated from it, converging towards Leyton.
"Ah—"
The moment the bronze-colored light approached him, Leyton's ears echoed with ethereal, fleeting cries, like helpless roars, pleas for mercy, or even mournful curses.
As more and more light specks gathered around him, the magnificent Zenith Church below gradually disintegrated, turning into fragments that floated in the bright yellow and deep red light.
During this process, the ethereal, fleeting roars constantly echoed in his ears until no more light specks separated, and the sound gradually faded away.
From beginning to end, the will of that Secret Angel never truly appeared; only the roars echoing in the spiritual imprint.
"What did Amon do after I left that information world? This Secret Angel's residual will is so weak that it can't even return in the form of a mad Monster?
"I initially thought it was too cowardly to return in a corrupted, completely wonderful state, but it turns out it only had the strength left to lie on the ground and moan."
After muttering to himself, Leyton squeezed his right hand, and the Knowledge Magister characteristic that had just formed shattered in his hand, transforming into floating specks of bronze-colored light.
Under his deliberate manipulation, the bronze-colored light specks floated around his arm, gradually converging and forming, ultimately becoming a mechanical glove inscribed with numerous intricate patterns, its surface shimmering with a bronze luster.
As the glove formed, corresponding information automatically appeared in his mind:
This glove contains one of each Beyonder characteristic from Sequence 9 to Sequence 2 of the Savant Pathway.
It possesses certain living characteristics, but it is very rigid and mechanical, and will periodically attract dangerous factors from the surroundings, creating chaos and panic.
Life force needs to be drawn and infused into the glove at fixed times; otherwise, it will automatically draw life force from the user, and after each use, life force also needs to be drawn to feed it.
The minimum amount of life force to be drawn is one person, and the maximum is a city; the exact amount is determined by the glove, and if it cannot be satisfied, it will directly draw the user's life force.