Chapter 286: A Taunting Smile

In the clock tower of East Balam Dock, Klein hid in the darkness while donning a clown mask as he quietly stared at the dormitory of the Dock Union. An airship floated above.

He couldn’t see the details of the battle, and he had no way of knowing the developments of the operation in the red-brick building. All he could do was endure and determine the situation by observing the changes in the surroundings and the occasional black dot that passed by.

Just then, he saw all the gas lamps in the area extinguish.

All of them had been extinguished!

It was pitch black there!

Right on the heels of that, a feeling that left an extremely deep impression on him exploded from the small red-brick building. Even from a long distance away, Klein couldn’t help but tremble all over; his legs went soft, and he bent his waist.

It was the feeling of being looked down upon, a feeling that repressed one’s spirit.

It was a feeling that was impossible to resist or face!

No, don’t look directly at God… In his adrift thoughts, Klein seemed to recall the time when he was in the hall of the Blackthorn Security Company. It was like when he was about to activate his Spirit Vision to probe the mental state of Megose and the baby in her womb.

That feeling was exactly the same as it was now!

No, it’s even more extreme and terrifying right now!

How could this be? Wasn’t Lanevus just bestowed with a little bit of the True Creator’s godhood? At most, he would be given one or two other corresponding items! Why does it feel like an evil god is about to descend?

Before Klein could shake off the trembling of his body and the numbing of his thoughts, he suddenly felt a deep, serene, and profound darkness engulfing the feeling that couldn’t be looked at, probed, or resisted.

The two sensations were obliterated at the same time, causing the gas lamps in the surrounding area to light up once again. The airship which couldn’t stop itself from plummeting floated back up again.

Everything seemed to return to its original state, without the slightest change.

But Klein didn’t believe that everything was over. He stood up with all his might, knowing that something important had happened in the red-brick building.

The feeling that exceeds a Beyonder, at a fundamental level, is no longer there, nor is there the feeling of the descent of an evil god. This means that the True Creator or Lanevus’s plot has failed… However, the Nighthawks must’ve suffered some sort of serious blow as well. They might not even have much strength left… At that moment, Klein’s heart stirred. He quickly took out the spirit pendulum inside his left sleeve, holding it with one hand as he said in a low voice, “Lanevus is no longer dangerous at the moment.”

After quickly repeating it seven times, he opened his eyes and saw that the topaz pendant was rotating counterclockwise. However, its frequency wasn’t fast, and its amplitude wasn’t large.

This showed that Lanevus was still a dangerous man but to a lesser degree.

What caught Klein’s attention was something else.

The divination hadn’t failed again!

This meant that Lanevus had been separated from the godhood bestowed upon him by the True Creator!

A cold wind blew, seeping deep into Klein’s bones, causing him to shiver. He felt as if an electric current had instantly drilled into his brain from the soles of his feet.

Maybe I can do something! He suddenly had this thought and no longer hesitated. He took four steps counterclockwise in the dark clock tower and went above the gray fog.

Without wasting any time, he sat down and conjured a piece of yellowish-brown goatskin parchment and wrote a divination statement:

“Lanevus’s escape route.”

Klein leaned back, quickly chanted the statement, and entered a deep dream.

In that illusory, separated, misty world, he saw the slush-filled sewers with their dark, dirty tunnels and rusty metal pipes.

It was cramped and sealed.

It’s the sewers!

Klein immediately woke up, enveloped his body with spirituality, and descended into the gray fog.

As soon as he returned to the real world, he took a few steps back and came to the side of the clock tower that faced away from the airship.

Klein didn’t walk down the spiral stairs but instead somersaulted over the dark yellow fence. With the help of the platform, the bulging spots, and the decorations on the surface of the building, he jumped down level by level, his body was so balanced it was if though he was walking on the ground.

In a very short period of time, his feet stepped on the thick flagstones on the street.

…

Inside the small red-brick building, two Nighthawks wearing red gloves had collapsed by the door unconscious. The ancient silver-plated mirror had rolled to a corner, but it was no longer special. It no longer looked anything like a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact.

However, one could clearly feel that it was recovering bit by bit.

Crestet Cesimir was kneeling at an intersection, a stream of tear-like blood streaked down the corners of his eyes.

His short, golden-brown hair hung limply, and his standing collars on his windbreaker and shirt were in tatters, revealing his relatively sharp chin and his thin, stiff mouth.

Gasping for air, a distorted, semi-illusory, and translucent face appeared on each of his teeth.

Cesimir braced himself with his left red-gloved hand on the ground, with difficulty, he straightened his neck and looked straight ahead.

Directly in front of him was the staircase to the second floor, above which stood Lanevus who had his linen shirt completely unbuttoned.

Lanevus stood very straight, with the pure white, smooth bone sword stuck in his chest.

The skinless flesh no longer formed the outline of the hanging man’s figure, leaving behind a void.

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Vaguely, one could even see his back through the hole in Lanevus’s body.

Lanevus moved with great difficulty before suddenly laughing loudly. He said with a maniacal laugh, “Haha, haha, thank you!

“I really need to thank you!

“For real. Look at my sincere eyes. I really want to thank you!

“If you hadn’t discovered me and arrived in time, I would truly become the vessel of the True Creator when ‘He’ descends in a few months. When that happens, how different would it be from dying?”

Cesimir was stunned when he heard that. He refused to believe that the person who had his crutch destroyed thanks to his hard work would be so happy.

At that moment, he wished to stand, but he couldn’t. He was also powerless to resist.

When Lanevus saw his confusion, he coughed and said with a smile, “Do you know? To people like me, it’s the most miserable thing when there’s no one to share a great accomplishment that I’m proud of.

“Cough, when I was in Tingen City, I was deceived by the True Creator who not only initiated the descent of his spawn, but he also secretly planted a ‘sapling’ in my body.

“No, I even believe that Megose’s child was just ‘His’ ruse. ‘He’ didn’t even get the members of the Aurora Order to protect her to divert attention. It was as though ‘He’ knew from the beginning that the ploy would end in failure.

“‘His’ true descent was set up inside me. The godhood ‘He’ bestowed upon me suddenly combined with the ‘sapling’ in my body after I reached Backlund. Haha, can you imagine that? I was being replaced bit by bit by ‘Him!’ In the end, I would become the True Creator.

“Before I came up with a solution, I was found by the members of the Aurora Order through the godhood. Thankfully, they’re all lunatics with simple brains. Haha, there are always so many fools.”

Cough! Cough! Cough! Lanevus spat out a mouthful of foul blood, seemingly recovering some of his mobility.

He took a difficult step forward, and his chiseled face suddenly turned soft for some unknown reason as he began resembling his original self.

Lanevus reached out to the staircase’s handrail and laughed tauntingly.

“Thankfully, if the True Creator wishes to fully descend and completely replace me, He’ll need large amounts of pessimism, despair, numbness, resentment and primitive evil. Only Backlund—only East Borough, the factory and dock area, could satisfy His requirements. This gave me a chance to interact with others.

“I knew that it was unrealistic to report this to the police simply through the people I interacted with because the people I come in contact could very well be members of the Aurora Order.

“I initially wanted to instigate a strike to get the police to notice me, but I was warned by someone from the Aurora Order. After being tortured, I could only hastily end it.

“I acted as though I was on the brink of losing control and had gained the opportunity to head into the sewers to vent. During this process, I secretly used my blood to corrupt the creatures living in there, turning them into terrifying mutated monsters. Unfortunately, before you could fully investigate the reason behind it, it was discovered by the Aurora Order. Apparently, a member of theirs died under a mutated monster. Sigh, now that I no longer have the godhood or the sapling, my blood no longer has such effects.

“After that, I was controlled even more strictly, but I still found an opportunity. I killed a prostitute and used the cruelest method to attract the attention of the police, but who would’ve thought that the people of the Aurora Order would disguise the case as part of series of serial murders? I still failed to receive the rescue I needed.

“Out of similar opportunities, I could only use a more ingenious method. I took the initiative to request for the fiercest, craziest, most radical member of the Aurora Order to watch me, and this suited their thoughts. Hehe, can’t they use their brains? Such a lunatic would get into trouble at any moment. As expected, you guys came!”

Phew… At that moment, Lanevus exhaled and began to move his body, as if he had finally gotten rid of the remnant effects.

He pulled out the holy bone sword from his chest and said regretfully, “What a pity. I can’t take it with me; otherwise, I would be quickly tracked and found by you.”

After the pure white bone sword completely separated from his body, not a single drop of blood remained from the exaggerated wound. The part that had disappeared didn’t seem to belong to Lanevus.

Lanevus pressed his right hand against his chest, bowing as he faced Crestet Cesimir and company.

“The people on the airship outside should be recovering soon. I can’t stay any longer.

“Thank you, thank you very much.

“Although you’re all very stupid, you still ultimately helped me.

“It’s an honor for foolish bastards like yourselves.”

Having said this, he straightened his body and smiled tauntingly, “Goodbye, foolish Nighthawks.

“Use your lives to send me off.”

Grasping the bone sword in his hand, he abruptly took a few steps forward, attempting to stab at Crestet Cesimir.

But at that moment, his eyelids began to grow heavy, as he felt like collapsing into a slumber.

“So you still have some strength. This is troublesome…” Lanevus bit his tongue gently and suddenly threw the holy bone sword at the unconscious Nighthawk by the door.

“No!”

Cesimir waved his hand with the strength he accumulated through painstaking means, causing an invisible entity to divert the holy bone sword.

Lanevus seized that opportunity and dashed to the side. He somersaulted out the red-brick building through the window at the washroom at the end of the corridor.

Soon after, he opened a manhole cover along the streets and quickly climbed into the sewers.

Lanevus seemed to be very familiar with this place. Even though it was dark, he could still run, jump, and turn, quickly fleeing deep into the maze of sewers.

Suddenly, he instinctively stopped and leaned back.

Oof!

A card had stabbed deep into his right chest and blood began dripping profusely from its edge.

Lanevus looked up, and with his ability to see in the dark, he saw his attacker.

It was a medium-sized man in a worker’s uniform, wearing a mask with a raised mouth and red nose.

It was a happy clown.