Chapter 124 Hidden Sage

‘The f*ck?!’ Odis cursed inwardly at that moment.

About an hour and a half ago, he had just seen Bernie, but that had been a corpse, a corpse that had been gnawed on by rats!

And now, here was Bernie in the herbal shop. He still looking a bit listless, but the cheeks and the back of his hand that had been gnawed by rats were perfectly intact. There was nothing corpse-like about him at all.

“Thank you for the herbs you recommended before,” Bernie said with a smile, “I feel much better now.”

Odis snapped back to his senses and replied, “Ah, good… That’s good to hear.”

‘Better? Really? A dead man feeling better?’ He retorted inwardly.

Even without his spirituality warning him, Odis knew he was in trouble today, but he quickly calmed down.

He gestured for Bernie to take a seat, then said to his assistant Kain, “Go to the Backlund Institute for Mechanical Research and urge them about the payment. They’ve been delaying it for a long time.”

“Alright.” Kain nodded and quickly left through the front door.

This was a coded phrase between the two of them: it meant Kain should hurry to the research institute and request aid, the sooner the better.

Odis sat down across from Bernie, smiling as he asked, “Are you still feeling uncomfortable anywhere?”

He had to stall Bernie by any means necessary.

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Meanwhile, over at the docks, at the trap set by the official Beyonders… a Wraith suddenly appeared on the glass of a warehouse window. He saw the square white stone in the center of the warehouse.

There was no one in the warehouse. The Wraith sensed no watching eyes, nor did his spirituality detect any danger, but he knew there had to be a trap set by the official Beyonders here.

Still, seizing that stone was a mandatory mission.

Fortunately, based on their earlier observations, the official Beyonders had not placed enough importance on this stone. Although they had set a trap, it was just the Nighthawks and Red Gloves taking turns guarding the place. They hadn’t even assigned a Demigod to watch over it.

This was an opportunity.

The Wraith understood his mission clearly: to attract the attention of the official Beyonders lying in ambush nearby. Then, the two Demigods of the Rose School of Thought hiding in Backlund would strike swiftly, seizing the stone before the official Beyonders could react.

The Wraith leaped from the glass onto the warehouse floor and cautiously approached the stone.

Complete silence reigned over the surroundings, which set the Wraith on edge, but to his surprise, he actually reached the stone without a hitch, and the official Beyonders’ ambush still had not appeared.

The Wraith inspected the stone before him. Once he confirmed its authenticity, he lifted it up and prepared to leave.

A broad grin spread across his face, thinking he had accomplished a great feat this time. At that moment, his foot tripped over something, sending him tumbling to the ground as the stone rolled far away.

*Bang…*

The Wraith was about to go retrieve the stone when he suddenly heard what sounded like a distant gunshot. He froze for a fraction of a second, then immediately rolled aside.

The world around him shifted drastically in a dizzying blur. The warehouse was no longer so quiet as figures appeared one after another.

The battle between the Rose School of Thought and the official Beyonders had already begun. The air was filled with piercing shrieks and the rhythmic ‘rat-tat-tat’ of Beyonder machine guns

Only then did the Wraith realize that the moment he had jumped into the warehouse, he had been pulled into a dream by the Nighthawks.

He scrambled up to join the fight, only to discover that he hadn’t been tripped by something, rather, he’d been hit by some unknown attack and had already lost his left leg…

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~Unit 51 Henry Street~

Odis chatted with Bernie with a genial smile on his face, but anxiety raged within him.

Bernie spoke less and less. The expression on his face gradually stiffened, until finally it froze into a bizarre smile.

The sight of that smile sent chills down Odis’s spine. He felt as if he were being stared at by a corpse, and all he could hope for now was that the Machinery Hivemind’s support would arrive soon.

Just then, someone else came to the herbal shop. It was a woman in her twenties.

Her features were not striking, but she carried herself with a distinctive air.

Odis felt as if he had grasped a lifeline, because this was Aelia, a subordinate of the Queen Mystic.

Aelia had entered the place with a smile, but it vanished instantly the moment she laid eyes on Bernie.

Odis hurried to his feet and said, “Ah, you’re just in time! The things you wanted have long been prepared!” Then he turned to Bernie, “Apologies. Let me attend to this young lady first.”

“Go quickly and come right back.” Bernie said, still wearing that eerie grin, “I still want to keep chatting with you.”

Odis squeezed out a smile and, pulling Aelia along, went to the backyard.

“There’s something wrong with that man’s Spirit Body!” Aelia said gravely.

“I know!” Odis nodded, then asked, “Can you contact the Queen Mystic? I desperately need her help right now.”

“Yes.” Aelia also sensed the urgency of the situation.

Just as she was about to recite the Queen Mystic’s honorific name, a voice suddenly came from behind them: “I must correct you. You might have been able to before, but now you can’t.”

Bernie had actually followed them into the backyard. That same smile remained on his face, only now it seemed even more bizarre, bordering on being sinister and terrifying.

Aelia and Odis immediately assumed defensive postures, but they both knew the true enemy was not the corpse before them.

Bernie said, “Mr. Alvis has already sealed off the surrounding Spirit World. Your prayers will have no effect. If you don’t believe me, you can try.”

Aelia made no attempt to pray, because doing so would expose the Queen Mystic’s honorific name.

“I’ve been wondering just now, what is your objective?” Odis shifted slightly to the left, hiding behind a large flowerpot planted with medicinal herbs, as if intending to use it as cover against Bernie’s attacks. Without waiting for an answer, he added, “If I’m not mistaken, you must be from the Moses Ascetic Order; specifically, the faction that hasn’t been corrupted by the evil gods from the Cosmos.”

That startled Aelia: ‘Evil gods from the Cosmos? Over these past years, fighting members of the Moses Ascetic Order had been my primary mission, but how have I never heard of any evil gods from the Cosmos?’

Bernie’s voice suddenly turned a bit raspy: “It seems our target wasn’t wrong. Knowing so many secrets is proof enough.”

“I do indeed know a few secrets,” Odis said, “When you tipped me off about that Werewolf’s address last week, you were actually testing the Machinery Hivemind’s attitude toward me. Once you learned that they valued me highly, you deliberately used another of their informants, Leader, to let me know you were investigating the Nighthawks and preparing to seize that stone…”

“…In reality, you were creating the illusion of an attack on the official Beyonders, all to draw the attention of the Machinery Hivemind and Queen Mystic. From beginning to end, only the Rose School of Thought had the mad idea of attacking official Beyonders! If I’m not mistaken, the operation on the Rose School of Thought’s side has already begun. Right now, the Machinery Hivemind’s main forces are at the docks. The assistant I sent out probably won’t be able to bring back any reinforcements. And Queen Mystic’s attention has been drawn there as well. So she won’t be able to make it here in time.”

Although the Machinery Hivemind had people watching Odis, they might not immediately notice the anomaly here.

Bernie chuckled in a raspy voice: “Being so clever saves me the trouble of explaining our operation to you.”

“Back to my question,” Odis said, “What exactly is your objective?”

“You.”

“Me?” Odis found that incredulous, “Why me?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that not long ago, the great and mysterious Hidden Sage cast His gaze upon you.” Bernie spoke with a hideous expression, “And commanded us to bring you back.”

‘Sh*t!’ Odis cursed inwardly again, ‘The God of Steam and Machinery’s gaze was already uncomfortable enough, so why had the Hidden Sage turned His gaze over, too?’

This left Odis feeling rather helpless. This was the downside of having deities presiding over both his own and adjacent Pathways… the slightest anomaly would easily attract Their attention.

Aelia, on the other hand, asked, “Where did you acquire this method of manipulating corpses?”

She also knew the key now was to stall; to delay until the battle at Backlund Bridge District ended, until the Queen Mystic’s attention was drawn.

“This is the method the great Hidden Sage imparted to me.” Bernie said, “Such a puppet can even fool Spirit Vision. Actually, this method of creating puppets requires living people. I had already discarded this puppet to avoid drawing unnecessary trouble. But two people saw this corpse, so I had no choice but to relocate the body and repurpose it.”

Odis and Aelia both understood that the other party meant that this method had been instilled in him through Knowledge Pursuit by the Hidden Sage.

Just as Odis was about to raise a new topic, Bernie suddenly raised a hand and said, “No need to stall any longer. I didn’t act earlier because I needed to conduct a final observation of Odis. Now that I’ve confirmed the target, there’s no need to wait any longer. As for you, Aelia, your appearance is a pleasant surprise. Even Mr. Alvis agreed to let you in and have you killed here!”

As he spoke, he abruptly lunged at Aelia…

At the same time, a man in his thirties appeared in the herbal shop’s front room, his face hidden by a hood. He was presumably the one controlling Bernie.

A slowly swirling cluster of Starlight appeared in his left hand, and he was currently chanting an incantation in Odis’s direction.

The Starlight in his hand was sufficient proof that he was a Constellations Master, capable of using Spellcasting without the need for powders or scrolls.

Suddenly, Stars began to emerge within the Starlight, followed by a flash of green radiance.

The herbs in the courtyard abruptly grew lush and vibrant, then as if possessing life, stretched out their branches and leaves to entangle Odis.

The latter did not dodge. Instead, he charged forward.

Before the plants could entangle him, he lunged and pressed his hand to the ground in front of the flowerpot, activating the array in the courtyard.

*Whoosh!*

Walls of fire suddenly erupted in the courtyard, igniting the writhing herbs and Bernie, who was lunging at Aelia!

“Over here!” Odis hurriedly called for her to come over; only the spot where he stood remained untouched by the raging flames.

The inferno had startled both the Constellations Master and Aelia, but the latter reacted first prompted by Odis’s warning, leaping over a wall of fire to take cover beside him.

Bernie, already ablaze, attempted to pursue them, but after breaking through two walls of fire, his body finally gave out, and he collapsed to the ground.

He continued stretching his hand toward Aelia amid the roaring blaze, seemingly having not forgotten his mission.