Inside the school, bonfires were lit.
One crowd danced outside the flames; another danced within them.
It was an utterly absurd scene: butchers clad in pure white robes raised blood-dripping weapons while chanting sacred hymns.
Rather than worshiping, they were venting. That solemn, sacred atmosphere was more like the flatbread commonly paired with Wien bean paste—not because the flatbread was particularly delicious, but simply to cut through some of the cloying saltiness.
Long before humanity invented umbrellas, they had already learned to drape rain ponchos over their souls.
At this moment, amidst the "celebrating" throngs, a figure in a white robe walked among the crowd carrying an ancient earthenware jar. He blended in seamlessly, yet seemed subtly distinct.
After weaving through the Holy Fire believers twice, he immediately made his way to the outer perimeter holding the jar, turned into a quiet alley, lowered his head, quickened his pace, and hurried away.
Just then, a figure appeared before him.
The white-robed man looked up and saw that the man in front of him had a blood-red face with no facial features.
"Who are you?"
Neo raised a hand, pointed at the white-robed man, and said, "Perhaps it would be more fitting if I asked you that question."
The white-robed man kept holding the earthenware jar in his right arm while his left drew a pistol—a spell pistol.
Bang!
The white-robed man pulled the trigger, and a bullet shot out.
In certain parts of town tonight, gunshots had already become commonplace.
A barrier of Light materialized before Neo. When the spell bullet struck the barrier, it cracked open and burst into a web of lightning serpents. This was an elementary spell pistol loaded with paralyzing bullets; its primary function was not to kill, but to compensate as much as possible for the shooter's poor marksmanship.
Having casually deflected the bullet, Neo flashed directly before the white-robed man. His left hand clamped onto the man's right arm, and the fire of Light flared, instantly melting the limb away. The earthenware jar slipped and fell.
Reaching out to catch the jar, Neo thrust his other hand forward, seized the man's neck, and without another moment's hesitation, snapped it clean.
Yet just as Neo moved to carry the corpse away, two gray hands suddenly shot out from the body and grabbed Neo's arm. They carried not the slightest offensive intent, meant solely to leave a mark—and precisely because of their harmlessness, they had failed to alert Neo in time.
At the same time, the corpse began to combust rapidly, reducing to powder in an instant, leaving an intensely pungent stench hanging in the air.
Holding the earthenware jar, Neo fell back swiftly, reappearing beside Karen, who was standing further back. With a solemn expression, Neo said, "I'll give you two choices right now. Either you hurry back to your funeral parlor to sleep, or you run with me and help me shake off our pursuers."
Karen asked, "Why can't you swap the order of those two choices?"
"Because I'm afraid you really would choose to go back to sleep!"
Naturally, Karen couldn't abandon Neo. Carrying the earthenware jar, the two immediately relocated toward the outskirts of town at full speed. En route, Neo quickly explained what had just transpired:
"This whole thing is abnormal, completely abnormal. The man I killed was just an ordinary mortal with not a sliver of spiritual fluctuation on him, but his soul was tampered with well in advance, and special materials were embedded inside his body. Now I'm not only tainted with powder and stench, but my soul has been stamped with a tracking mark. Catch!"
Neo tossed the earthenware jar to Karen, who caught it.
Right away, the power of Light's purification began pulsing over Neo's body, feeling as if he were rinsing himself over and over with disinfectant.
Karen asked, "Did it wash off?"
"It faded, but hasn't disappeared completely. Just which faction orchestrated such a massive setup behind the scenes? Do you know what this is equivalent to? It's like a bank hiring an army of ants to transport stacks of banknotes!"
Neo's analogy was vivid, yet not at all exaggerated. Neo's original plan had been to secure the intact earthenware jar first, kill the carrier, and bring the corpse to a safe location to perform Awakening before interrogating him.
It could be said he had acted with extreme caution; even after realizing the target was just an ordinary mortal, Neo hadn't taken the easy route of capturing him alive.
"Karen, right now I feel like I've stepped right into a mousetrap—and got properly caught."
"I suspect the trap wasn't meant to catch you. Rather, they were unwilling or unable to let priests take part in this operation, so they deliberately arranged for ordinary mortals to carry it out. But because the matter is too critical to risk failure, they piled on extra failsafes and contingency measures."
"This is an extravagant setup."
"Yes, quite extravagant."
Neo looked up toward the sky. "I don't see any falcon knights up there, but I wager they've already taken flight."
Since the Regional Administration had issued a stand-down order to all priests, they obviously couldn't mobilize manpower in short order right now. To be precise... Neo and Karen were two of the very personnel the Regional Administration could deploy.
Therefore, if the regional leadership was truly involved in tonight's affairs, the forces conveniently available to act would be the garrison or the knight order, since they operated under separate command chains.
Yet the unfolding situation once again defied Neo and Karen's expectations.
From the area behind them that they had just passed, energy fluctuations from a teleportation formation suddenly rippled outward!
"Fuck! They're actually using teleportation formations to track and pinpoint me?"
"Captain, there won't be time to reach the outskirts," Karen said.
Pursuit by falcon knights would take time, but teleportation formations arrived instantaneously.
"I'm getting more and more curious about which faction arranged this whole play. What immense wealth!" Neo cast a glance behind them. "Head to that photo studio from last time. We'll use the teleportation formation there to get out."
The two immediately wheeled around, but soon detected the presence of pursuers behind them.
"Don't worry, they can't catch us."
Before Neo's words had fully settled, energy fluctuations from another teleportation formation surged ahead, right along the path to the photo studio.
"This isn't just tracking anymore; they're calculating our trajectory. I'll take care of the one ahead, you intercept the one behind. If you get pinned down, meet me at the photo studio. If you aren't tied down, pull out as soon as you've bought enough time. They can only pinpoint me."
"Understood, Squadron Leader."
Karen flapped his wings inward, halting his momentum. Turning to face their original rear, he nearly crushed the formation bead out of habit, but quickly checked himself. The Sword of Arius could not be summoned; doing so could bring massive trouble later on, especially when the enemy's backing was clearly immense.
The body of the Thousand Phantoms thrust out once more, while black mist swirled over Karen's face, concealing his features.
This halted Karen just as he was about to touch his ring to choose a mask. This Thousand Phantoms was far cleverer and sharper than he had thought.
Soon, a woman clad in white armor appeared before Karen. Beneath her visor, the eye sockets were pitch black.
Just then, voices drifted out from inside the woman's body:
"It's not in his hands. Bypass him. Retrieve or smash the honey jar."
"No, he's one of the accomplices. Capture him alive if possible."
They were discussing it?
Karen suddenly realized that not only were these not the armored woman's own voice, they weren't even the voices of a soul within her. Most likely, they belonged to her puppeteers—and the puppeteers were very far away.
A remotely controlled puppet?
In fact, infusing a soul into a puppet or granting it autonomy was simpler and far more cost-effective; conversely, purely steering a puppet devoid of self-awareness saw its expenses skyrocket as distance increased.
Yellow light flared inside the armored woman's eye sockets.
"Let me control it! Let me control it! It's been ages since I played with one of these, my fingers are itching! This mission is basically a bust anyway, let me have a turn. Hurry up and step aside!"
"Fine, you take it."
The yellow light in her eye sockets instantly vanished, replaced by flowing blue radiance. At the same time, she raised her arm. A miniature teleportation formation within her gauntlet activated, and a spear materialized in her grasp.
Though earlier encounters had already repeatedly demonstrated to Karen that this faction had deep pockets, the detail of summoning the spear further reinforced that conclusion.
Since the armored woman had arrived via teleportation formation in the first place, why hadn't she just brought her weapon along? Why bother teleporting it in separately?
The refrigerator at Karen's house was designed and built by Old Saman and upgraded by Kevin; even so, each use cost around three thousand Order coupons.
The puppeteers behind this armored woman made Karen feel as though he were once again witnessing Mavaglio's antics during training back in the Dinge Region—they truly did not care about such minor expenses.
Holding the spear, the armored woman charged at Karen. She was blisteringly fast, and her very first thrust stirred up a terrifying blast of air—she intended to use the most brute-force approach right from the start!
The wings on Karen's back beat rapidly as he flew backward. The armored woman was faster still, swiftly closing the distance, and hurled the fully empowered spear straight at Karen.
What kind of fighting style was this?
In terms of combat experience, especially close-quarters combat, Karen's learning and progress had always been evident, yet this still threw him somewhat off-balance.
The spear shot toward Karen with even greater velocity. From his arms, Karen projected two segments of the Thousand Phantoms' body—the outer hide was the Thousand Phantoms, but the skeletal core consisted of the chains of Order.
In an instant, the spear was bound fast. But that was only the beginning. Accompanied by a rapid clattering noise, the spearhead and several sections of the shaft began to rotate. Three colors swirled across the weapon: blue, red, and white.
Boom!
The blue at the spearhead detonated first, forming a blue black hole that exerted a terrifying gravitational pull. Karen's wings beat desperately, but his maneuvers were restricted right then and there. It was fortunate enough that he wasn't yanked straight into it; as for breaking away, it was virtually impossible at the moment.
Boom!
The second burst, red, unleashed a sweeping psionic storm. The head of the Thousand Phantoms thrust out from Karen's shoulder with a roar, creating a specialized barrier to shield Karen from the mental tempest.
The Thousand Phantoms was, after all, a unique lifeform birthed inside the Gate of Samsara, personally chosen and raised by Sumiel, the Gatekeeper of the Church of Samsara, awaiting its maturation; its potential was beyond question.
Now, when Karen "fused" the chains of Order with the Thousand Phantoms, it effectively granted the creature an inexhaustible supply of power from Karen, multiplying its innate strength several times over.
Next, however, the third color—white—exploded, unleashing a terrifying blast of destructive shockwaves.
If the first two bursts were a pull and a stun, then this one was the true killing strike.
The Thousand Phantoms coiled rapidly around Karen, enveloping his body completely. A flurry of shrill impacts immediately followed. The Thousand Phantoms screeched sharply—not in pain, but in fury.
By comparison, Karen's reaction wasn't quite as radical, because the Thousand Phantoms' skeleton was formed from his chains of Order, meaning this barrage of concussive force battered against Karen's chains of Order directly.
It was like trying to trim thick fingernails with a blunt, rusted pair of clippers: pressing down hard again and again, awaiting that final snapping jolt—the aching soreness born of that violent jarring vibration was enough to make one shudder to the core.
Karen felt as though his entire body were convulsing, as if every joint were enduring brutal hammer strikes.
When it came to defense, the Thousand Phantoms was certainly inferior to the Sea God's Armor, but fortunately, he managed to withstand it in the end.
Having released all three colors, the spear began to fracture rapidly. A sacred relic had just been treated as a single-use consumable.
Karen finally understood what had caused his earlier bewilderment: he had truly never faced such an extravagantly wasteful opponent!
Although the spear's self-destruction hadn't defeated Karen, it successfully trapped him in a brief lull of sluggishness and numbness. The armored woman seized this opening to close the distance right before him.
She threw a series of punches at Karen, looking somewhat clumsy in the process.
Rather than retreating again, Karen gave a forceful flap of his wings, deliberately closing the distance before sidestepping her flurry. As the armored woman turned, Karen drifted smoothly around to her other flank.
Raising his hand, he planted his fingertips directly against the nape of her neck.
In an instant, the head of the Thousand Phantoms shot out from Karen's arm, piercing straight through the woman's neck.
The armored woman shuddered and pitched forward.
"You don't know close combat, let me do it!"
"Don't disturb me, damn it!"
"You had such a golden opportunity just now and you ran up to throw punches? Did you think you were having a tussle in bed with your wife?!"
"Assholes, what the hell are you two doing?!"
The bickering of three male voices echoed from inside the armored woman.
Soon, radiance flared from the fallen armored woman, forcing Karen—who had been about to dismember the armor—to step back. The light on the woman quickly converted into flames capable of incinerating souls.
The armored woman stood back up, the protective flames quickly dispersing.
Even without a head, the aura emanating from her showed no sign of waning. As she raised her other arm, another teleportation formation appeared, and a sabre materialized in her hand.
Hum!
The woman vanished from the spot, appearing behind Karen the very next instant and slashing down with her blade.
Karen didn't move. Instead, he reached forward, condensing three heads of the Thousand Phantoms before him. For a moment, it was as though three king cobras had opened their mouths, baring their fangs.
The woman's sabre struck Karen's head, but both the blade and her form vanished instantly—it was an illusion.
The real woman materialized directly in front of Karen, sabre still raised, only for the three heads of the Thousand Phantoms to be right in her face.
This was an overwhelming superiority in combat experience. The retired knight order vice commander who had trained Karen in the Dinge Region had fostered immense growth in him.
Having seen through the opponent's feint, Karen had set his trap in advance right where her true attack would land, merely waiting for her arrival.
"Roar!"
Two heads of the Thousand Phantoms lunged at the woman's shoulders and arm joints, while the third slammed into her chest.
Bang!
The impact jolted the woman, causing her arms to swing wide. The other two heads of the Thousand Phantoms darted through the openings, piercing straight through once more.
The armored woman's arms broke away, leaving only a pair of legs stumbling backward before she tumbled onto her backside.
Karen closed in once more. At the setting in the woman's breastplate, a gemstone shattered, and the soul-scorching flames flared up again.
"Retract!"
As a soul entity, the Thousand Phantoms was terrified of such flames. Receiving Karen's order to pull back, it recoiled into his body in an instant.
Flames of Light ignited around Karen, intertwining with the soul-damaging fire and canceling each other out.
The fire of Light parted the woman's defense. Karen raised the sabre that had fallen from her grip earlier and drove it down forcefully into the chest of the armor!
Squish!
The armor was pierced through, pinned firmly to the ground. From the breached plate emerged a cluster of yellow threads writhing and dancing as if alive, rooted in a yellow "sea urchin."
"What is that soul entity? A contracted soul, or an alien demon possession?"
"Why is there Light as well? That's the fire of Light!"
"He's a remnant of Light!"
Karen reached out and grabbed this yellow sea urchin. A conjecture suddenly dawned in his mind: just which church possessed such immense resources? Which church had so many novel inventions? And which church would actively take part in such a secretive scheme tonight?
In the notes Mr. Hoffen had left him, aside from formations, another major section detailed profiles of the various churches and alien demon families. The one given the most extensive coverage was naturally the church where Mr. Hoffen himself had spent his entire life.
Karen had come to study formations somewhat late, but he had begun reading that other section ever since boarding the ship from Ruilan to Wien, devouring it all as travelogues or an encyclopedia.
Immediately, Karen addressed the sea urchin in his hand in a solemn voice: "Praise the great God of Principles!"
"Praise the great Principl—"
"Praise the great Principl—"
Smack!
Smack!
"You two idiots!"
Chapter 392