Mystery: Those years when I was a foreign aid for the Aurora Club

867
……

"Finally we are reaching the top of the mountain..."

It took a full five hours, from the white edge of the sky to the zenith of the sun, and one person's mountain climbing could finally stop temporarily.Leonard took a breath while leaning on a straight branch he picked up on the road, preparing to rest for a while before moving on.

There was no sound in his mind. Pales might have rested or was thinking about something. Anyway, he didn't talk to himself or answer his babble to himself on the road.So he slowed down and walked among the gentler mountains, enjoying the scenery along the way to pass the time.After a while, I suddenly found traces of humans in front of me.

Leonard suspected that he was dazzled. He stopped, stretched his neck and looked forward. He really saw a path through the mountains with only dirt, gravel, weeds and trees.

This road is very simple, even crude, just paved with stone slabs on the dirt.The shape of the stone slabs was not uniform, but the cuts were fairly smooth. Just like this, a stone road that seemed to be cut off and about one meter wide appeared four or five meters in front of Leonard.

Is it a relic?Leonard didn't find it strange that ruins appeared on the inaccessible barren mountains. After all, this was the Honakis Mountains, and it was the Duke of Antigonus who Pales told him was the main believer in the Fourth Age. The location of "Land of Night".And if there were people living here, there would be no traces of human activity until near the top of the mountain.

After confirming that there was no danger around him, Leonard bumped his molars up and down once, summoning a spirit contracted with him to hide nearby. Then he cautiously approached the road with a branch and crutch.

When you step on it, it's quite stable.

Unexpectedly, after a thousand years, this stone slab has not decayed into mud, but is just shaking.

Leonard stepped hard a few times, and after carefully checking with Ling whether there were any remaining extraordinary abilities and traps near the road, he spoke to the air and said to himself:
"The ruins of the Kingdom of Darkness are on the top of the Honakis Mountains. They are exposed to the wind and sun. How could they be so well preserved? There must be extraordinary power involved, right? Could it be some remnants of Duke Antigonus' protection? Here?"

He openly sought help from living history books. Anyway, the old man was still an angel even if he lost his legs. Unless Duke Antigonus was here, no one would be able to find him.If anyone in the ruins is paying attention here, then Leonard is talking to himself.

However, Pales still didn't speak, as if he had fallen into a deep sleep as before.

In other words, there is no danger ahead, or the danger is within control, or the danger is so great that the old man simply gives up resistance?

It can’t be that Duke Antigonus is really here...

After all, they don't know who the final winner of the "war between gods" that took place in the spiritual world is, and whether the loser has already lost his life.

Leonard immediately retreated in his heart. Anyway, there is more than one route over the mountain. If it doesn't work, just turn back and change places. There is no need to accidentally enter someone else's territory and endanger your life.But just when he was about to retreat and turn around, a will suddenly appeared in his mind. Pales did not speak, but hinted to him not to retreat and to continue walking forward.

The old man said so, so let’s move forward.

Leonard gripped the branches and crutches tightly and continued to move along the relatively flat path.

The stone road is indeed much easier to walk on than the dirt on the mountain. It is obviously a walk, but it is much faster than before.

Soon, a piece of empty and flat land appeared in front of Leonard's eyes.After turning a corner, the view suddenly became wider.

Leonard's eyes lit up, and he saw the side of a church directly in front of him.

The gray-white stone path under his feet extended from the side door of the church.This church is simple and simple, with no sculptures or flower windows. It is a bit rough according to the current architectural level, and it is not tall enough to allow people to feel the heritage of the church and the majesty of God from the outside.But as a church built on the top of a mountain thousands of meters above sea level, it is very exquisite, and may even require the participation of extraordinary powers. This shows that the people of the "Land of Night" respected the "Lord of the Night, the Mother of Heaven" and beloved.

However, the church also took Leonard's vision seriously.

"Want to go in and take a look?" Leonard said to himself again.

He didn't feel the presence of anything alive in this ruins or even in this entire area, not even a trace of the existence of spiritual beings.Since it's so clean, no one has been here for a long, long time.

As soon as he finished speaking, Leonard suddenly felt a stinging sensation in his eyes, as if something had come out of his eyeballs, or as if a sharp object had stabbed his eyes.Leonard subconsciously bent over due to the pain and reached out to cover his eyes, but then, he was shocked to find that he could still see things!

——At the same time, he also saw things that he could not see originally.

He saw that around his body, or rather in the open space where the church was located, there was an extremely thin gray mist floating around his feet, flowing slowly.

Gray fog?

"The Fool"?
Is Mr. Fool here?Is He watching here?This gray mist is obviously a symbol of Him!
Pales did not speak or answer. After all, it is correct to say that this is related to the "fool". How can a "half-fool" not be a kind of fool?Leonard had only seen the "grey fog" and not the fog of history. Now that he was confusing the two, Pales was not in a hurry to explain.

Leonard was startled, and then his spiritual intuition naturally showed his current image. His eyeballs were not broken, but a ring with twelve links suddenly appeared around the center of the pupil. translucent insects.Seeing the familiar "Insect of Time", Leonard immediately understood that this was Pales hinting that he should use his person and identity to see... But, what should he see?
After receiving such power for the first time, Leonard blinked curiously.

His left eye and right eye saw two worlds at the same time.

It was the left eye that saw the abnormality, while the right eye still saw the peaceful ruins of the city.It seems that the old man is fully capable of completely changing his vision, but in order to show contrast and avoid Amon's characteristics, he chose to do it in the eyeballs.

Leonard quickly adapted to the slight sting when his left eye, whose spirituality was suddenly strengthened, saw extraordinary things. He re-examined his surroundings, his eyes suddenly widened, and finally he slowly raised his head and looked at the sky high above the church. , and used the "spiritual vision" at the angelic level to see the huge palace hidden in the sky with nothing but white clouds and blue sky.

"Temple..." he whispered in disbelief.

Whose temple is it?It is the god of the "Land of Night" and the temple of Duke Antigonus!
Not only him, Pales also completely saw the ancient palace with collapsed walls, dilapidated walls, and shrouded in fog.

There seems to have been a fight.Leonard observed the ruins and basically guessed the outcome of the Kingdom of Darkness.

"Old man, how do you get up there?"

Since Pales has lent his power and personality to him, but has not come forward in person, there must be something that Leonard can do.He was already very familiar with Pales's thoughts, so he spoke directly.

That palace obviously does not exist in reality. Only angels can see it. A mortal like himself is definitely inaccessible.

"Stealing," Pales said.

Leonard didn't hesitate. Although he didn't know what to do, he immediately raised his arm, pointed it at the castle in the sky, and made a motion of clenching it hard and pulling it back in his direction, as if he was firmly holding something on the opposite side. Caught in hand.

The next moment, Leonard truly felt that something had been "stolen".A similar mist appeared on his body immediately. Leonard was startled by this change. He felt as if there was a thin film between himself and the world around him, and the mist blocked some of the light.In the different fields of view of the two eyes, the things seen by the left eye are clearer and more real, but the things in the right eye are covered with a veil.

Leonard understood immediately. He ran over without delay, grabbed the raised stone bricks on the church and the edge of the window and climbed up.

Relying on the excellent physical strength of the "dark night" pathway, Leonard quickly climbed to the top of the church, which was about four or five stories high.Looking up, I saw the ancient and dilapidated palace above my head.He took a few steps back, then jumped up with all his strength. Finally, with the help of Pales' "stealing distance", he successfully moved from mid-air to the main entrance of the palace, and then reached out to push it open.

Leonard suddenly felt something and raised his head.

He saw corpses, countless corpses hanging on the roof like bacon - what appeared in front of him was a hall hanging with many corpses, each corpse was different, either male or female, or dressed in gorgeous clothes. Either simple, exquisite, or casual.

Behind these hanging people, there is a transparent and smooth tentacle with complex patterns. They all come from the dark mist deep in the hall. There seems to be a familiar high-backed chair... Leonard looks at it intently. Go, and then the left eye was forced to close in severe pain.

He didn't see anything, but Palles saw that in the deepest part of the fog of history, an illusory and fuzzy figure sat on an ancient high-backed chair. Transparent and twisted worms hugged themselves into a ball and grew wantonly, extending out into the surrounding area. Another weird tentacle.

Who is that?
Is it Antigonus, Klein, or the hidden "server of mystery"?
Pales still doesn't know the answer to this question, but he knows it must be "The Fool"!
The real "fool"!
As if he sensed the door opening, as if he sensed someone approaching from the outside, Leonard saw those slippery tentacles seem to tremble at the same moment, and then, Leonard Mitchell, who was only Sequence 5 at this time, A scene that is unforgettable to me, and that I have been avoiding for decades to come, is a scene that I will never forget about the "Soothsayer" sequence.

There was no wind blowing, and the countless hanging corpses on the ceiling slowly moved and turned, starting to gather around Leonard.Leonard's scalp was already numb when he heard the rustle of clothing coming from above, and his Adam's apple rolled. In order not to be attacked from above by an unfamiliar enemy, he still mustered up the courage to look up. go.

Pairs of pupils with dilated pupils of various colors stared at him blankly;
Pale and stiff dead faces were facing him. Directly above him, a corpse's head and neck were already perpendicular to its shoulders. It was also looking at Renner from between his feet with wide eyes. Virtue, swinging leisurely in mid-air.

This scene was deeply etched in Leonard's mind.

The next second, Leonard, who was in Sequence 5, rolled his eyes and fainted under the unconscious and instinctive intimidation of his former colleague who was now an angel.

Of course, Klein would not know how much psychological damage his instinctive reaction of "wanting to see who is coming" caused to Leonard. Palles stole his dizziness, and Leonard's reaction after he passed out was He opened his eyes again in the next moment, but then continued to look at the hanging corpses staring at him - after repeating the process of being repeatedly stunned by the Sequence One magician five times, he finally chose not to Open your eyes again.

"Old man." Leonard closed his eyes and said weakly, "I shouldn't have messed with you recently, right?"

Pales almost didn't laugh out loud. If he hadn't been worried about scaring Leonard silly, he would have missed this simple and unpretentious method of scaring people. After all, in the Fourth Age, there was no child from an extraordinary family who was not safe. Tigonus, Amon, and the Zaratul family had frightened.

Now, those pranks that scared him so much that he turned pale have become a thing of the past worth remembering.

"Stop looking up and look directly at the ground." Pales said, "Then walk forward."

"That's the seat in front."

Leonard lowered his head and looked at his toes. He was glad that the floor of this palace was not a shiny black marble that could reflect people's shadows: "It's dangerous to go forward. I almost went blind when I took a look at Him just now."

"You don't have to walk there," Pales said. "You'll know where to stop."

Leonard only felt that countless eyes were staring at his back, as if if he did one wrong thing, the countless corpses on the ceiling would jump down directly, and one person could tear him to pieces in one go.Leonard had no choice but to try his best to ignore the omnipresent sight and the faint footsteps behind him, and bravely walked forward.

He took a step.

There was one more footsteps behind.

...Leonard stopped. Pales thought for a while and comforted him:

"Do you think they won't get close if you don't leave?"

Leonard was comforted. What the old man said really made sense. Maybe there was more than one corpse behind him. Maybe all the corpses were actually behind him. Maybe these corpses were stuck to his back!Under tremendous psychological pressure, Leonard simply gave up thinking and ran forward in stride.

The footsteps behind him also started running with him, hidden in his steps, faintly visible.

After running a few steps, Leonard felt the fog around him getting darker. Then he suddenly saw the bottom of the stone seat in front of him, the tarot card with the image of Russell the Fool and the words written in starlight. Lying quietly on the ground.

Just seeing this scene, Leonard's spirit suddenly suffered a heavy blow, and he had a tendency to collapse. Fortunately, Pales intervened in time, and there was no negative situation such as confusion of thinking or mental abnormality. He stood frozen in place, unable to make any movements.

If Leonard realized something, he rushed over with a big stride and grabbed the mysterious card that fell on the ground in his hand.

The next moment, Leonard's body dissipated, and the "mist of history" he stole was about to disappear. Pales directly distorted the distance and space, throwing Leonard into the "hidden town".Those greasy tentacles seemed to have just reacted now. They waved twice following Leonard's disappearance, and finally slowly retracted, allowing "Star" to pick up the cards on the ground.

The open door then closed little by little, hiding such a scene.

bump!
Leonard was thrown to the ground defenselessly. After rolling twice, he dusted himself off and stood up. Then he found that his body was intact and he seemed to appear in an empty town. .

"What was that just now? Are the tentacles in the form of mythical creatures?"

"If that is the form of a mythical creature, then it must be because of the old man's help that I am not going crazy and out of control now. What did he want to get by letting me enter that place?"

"Is it Antigonus or Mr. Fool? Are those corpses the 'Puppet Master'? It's really terrifying..."

Unable to suppress his fear, with joy and strong doubts in his heart, he opened his palm and looked at the items he got from that terrifying temple that he didn't want to recall again.

This is a tarot card. On the surface of this card is Russell Gustav, wearing a gorgeous headdress and colorful clothes, carrying a cane and luggage. His eyes are full of longing for the future. A small dog followed behind.

In the upper left corner of the card, a few words are outlined by the bright stars:
"Sequence 0: The Fool!"

TBC
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Good night! (end of this chapter)