"No, no, no, she's mine, she's mine."
Amidst a series of almost sobbing sounds, his body began to change. Coarse, short hairs started growing under his skin, clinging tightly to it. His skin lost the luster of a living person, becoming like a dry tree stump. His eyes grew large and protruded, and his mouth split open to his ears, resembling a horrifying puppet.
During this process, he began to chant a revered name, over and over again, as if in a trance:
"Mother Tree of Desire;
"Perpetual Blatherer;
"Heartless God."
Above the Gray Fog, Klein's spiritual intuition suddenly gave a warning, as if something bad was brewing, and a disaster was spreading towards him.
"I can't see clearly, but it's very dangerous."
Muttering softly, Klein threw out a crudely cut paper figure, which merged into the illusory star representing The Hermit, Cattleya.
After doing this, he separated some Worms of Spirit, and then began to follow his intuition to find the root of the problem.
Soon, he locked his gaze on Darrell, who had transformed into a monster. A silver-white lightning bolt appeared out of thin air in the hotel room.
Amidst the crackling of electricity, Darrell, who had turned into a terrifying and evil Puppet, quickly charred and shattered.
"I couldn't even tell he had a problem when I was above the Gray Fog. Who intervened?"
As he muttered to himself, the scene he saw above the Gray Fog suddenly froze. The spirituality of the entire Utopia was mutating, seemingly transforming into layers of barriers, enclosing every person, every Puppet in the city.
Immediately after, the surroundings suddenly boiled, and viscous black liquid flowed out from the void, continuously spreading outwards, eroding the void upwards, interfering with the overlap of reality and the Spirit World, and restricting Klein's vision above the Gray Fog.
"More than a third of my Worms of Spirit are here. I must retrieve some, otherwise my state will decline severely, possibly even losing control."
"Once I leave the Gray Fog, I will inevitably face the attacks that Zaratul and the True Creator have already prepared."
While Klein was struggling, the Worms of Spirit in Utopia began to disconnect from him one by one. His state started to slide uncontrollably, and slippery, transparent tentacles extended from beneath his clothes, flailing wildly around him.
Klein sighed and calmly reached forward, borrowing spirituality and state from his past self to prevent himself from losing control immediately.
Then he turned his gaze to the crimson star representing The Hermit, Cattleya, and extended his spirituality to touch it.
In the captain's cabin of the Future, which was still in Midseashire, Cattleya suddenly saw a dense Gray Fog surge forth before her eyes, revealing a majestic figure seated deep within the Gray Fog, seemingly looking down upon the entire world.
Before she could think or ask, golden streams of water abruptly appeared within this Gray Fog, coalescing into a figure filled with chaos and distortion.
The Genie looked at Klein across the Gray Fog, and His figure quickly moved forward, bypassing the obstruction of the Gray Fog and appearing before Klein:
"It seems you are more eager than I imagined. Your state seems unwell. If you hadn't borrowed power and grafted your state from your past self, you would have already lost control."
"Tell me, what wish do you desire, and what can you offer in return?"
Klein chuckled lightly, not at all anxious, and calmly said:
"Heh, I need two wishes. In exchange, I will send you back to the cosmos before the apocalypse arrives, how about that?"
"Of course, these two wishes cannot be counted on both me and Bernadette."
As he spoke, he shielded some of Cattleya's senses, preventing her from perceiving the conversation between himself and the Genie, allowing her only to see a blurred light and shadow of his negotiations with the Genie.
The Genie paid no attention to Klein's actions. After he finished speaking, He refused without hesitation:
"I refuse. This condition is not equivalent to my two wishes. You need my help now, and as the apocalypse approaches, I will inevitably be able to return to the cosmos."
"But at that time, you would also have lost the initiative. Then you might not only fail to reclaim the authority and characteristics lost here, but you might even become prey for other Outer Deities."
"And I can promise to send you back to the cosmos before the apocalypse arrives. Restricted by the wishing lamp, I am your only viable partner now."
"Helping me is to contend against the former Lord of the Mysteries, and you will not lose anything because of it."
Klein articulated the words he had long prepared, one by one. After speaking, he leaned back in the high-backed chair, calmly awaiting the Genie's reply, not at all worried that the other party would refuse. Just as he said, the Genie had no other options for cooperation.
After a brief silence, the Genie sneered and said:
"Unfortunately, with the help of that Erudite, I have already corrupted a Hand of Order."
Klein was momentarily stunned, completely unprepared for this unexpected turn. He became a little nervous. The Genie already had the ability to interfere with the outside world, which meant He had the capital to refuse him.
The Genie scoffed, looking at Klein calmly and seriously, saying:
"Heh, are you nervous? Compared to that old Mystic, you are still too young, but it is precisely this point that makes me choose to cooperate with you."
"We swear by the 'Sephirot' we each hold, guaranteeing that the other will fulfill their promise. Although at our level, it is always possible to violate a contract, doing so would cause damage to the 'Sephirot,' which would be more trouble than it's worth."
"Agreed." Klein nodded in response.
Then, under the witness of both parties, they swore by their respective 'Sephirot' and signed the contract.
Exhaling, Klein looked at the Genie before him and stated his first wish:
"Restore my state to its peak."
The Genie said nothing, reaching out and making a grasping motion in the empty space before Him, then calmly said: "Your wish has been fulfilled."
Klein nodded. He felt the abundant spirituality within him and the return of the Worms of Spirit.
After sensing his state, he immediately looked at the Genie and stated his second wish:
"Create an area in the Spirit World that corresponds to my Utopia. This should be within your capabilities."
"No problem." The Genie chuckled softly, and one chaotic vortex after another distorted out from His golden figure.
At the same time, a vividly colored town suddenly appeared in the Spirit World. Figures like Puppets swayed within the Spirit World city, seeming real yet also illusory.
"Your wish has been fulfilled. Don't forget your promise."
"I hope you can escape from the successor of 'God.' He is truly not a good partner."
The Genie's figure transformed into golden water streams and receded beneath the Gray Fog. His words gradually faded until they disappeared.
"The successor of 'God' should refer to the True Creator. No wonder I didn't notice the problem with that outsider at the time; his normalcy was entirely imagined."
Exhaling a long breath, Klein shook his head and sighed:
"I wonder what other traps await me outside. I hope the Great Emperor and the others work hard to intercept them for a while longer, at least long enough for me to reclaim the characteristics from Zaratul."
As he muttered to himself, he had already pulverized the black cloak draped over him, transforming it into pure characteristics. The nine Spirit World specialties and a glass bottle, which he had already obtained from the Seven Lights of the Spirit World, spontaneously flew out from the pile of miscellaneous items, rotating around him, quickly merging into a complete Sequence 1 potion.
The substance contained in the transparent glass bottle resembled the deep, dark night sea, light as air, with gentle ripples.
Without the slightest hesitation, Klein tilted his head back and drank the prepared potion directly.
In the palace hall on the main peak of the Hornacis Mountains, the Amon avatars, busy pilfering the characteristics from Antigonus and stopping Leyton, all uniformly paused their movements.
Antigonus, who was in a deep slumber, showed a slight sign of awakening. His instinct to resist grew stronger, and transparent, slippery tentacles flailed wildly around, smashing Amon avatars into fragments one by one.
All the doors and windows of the palace simultaneously reflected brilliant starlight, outlining a strangely shaped key, which connected with the illusory and abstract astral world.
Streams of illusory and complex information surged in through the doors and windows, condensing into beams of colorless light, purposefully striking each Amon, using vast amounts of complex and useless knowledge to burst their heads.
Almost at the same time, a deep, dark sea emerged around them. Every drop of water was like a light and shadow, as if representing a point of consciousness, an imprint.
Countless minds intertwined into a labyrinth, intercepting the surging torrent of information, dispersing it into the depths of the mind, into every drop of water in the collective unconscious sea.
A profound darkness descended silently, enveloping everything, imbued with an indescribable stillness and decay.
"Let there be light!"
A somewhat familiar voice echoed in every mind and its interaction with the unconscious sea.
Blinding sunlight suddenly descended, illuminating every corner of the surroundings, turning the area into a kingdom without darkness, leaving no shadow, allowing nothing to hide.
The Evernight Goddess attempted to exert influence but failed due to the True Creator's interference.
At this moment, an Amon suddenly grinned. His laughter had not yet escaped when he directly fell into silent slumber.
At the same time, Antigonus, who had fallen into eternal slumber, woke up, woke up!
Time and space around them instantly distorted, and the light grew dim. The area where the palace was located was completely isolated from the outside world; even information could not be exchanged.
In the hall, only the awakened Antigonus, a group of Amons dressed in various ways, and Leyton remained.