Chapter 131: Intuition

His mind was clouded and he felt close to fainting.

He was rubbing his head to try to ease it but he was still in a daze, at least it was slowly subsiding.

The gray fog around Klein was enveloping his body and black smoke was slowly coming out of him...

"What's happening to me? Just looking at Chariot did this? But it was only a few seconds..." Klein muttered as blood slowly trickled from his nose.

He couldn't even get a good look at Chariot or whatever that man is!

If it's even a man in the first place...

He swore he had seen strange illusory symbols running all over the creature's body but before he could look any further his mind went hazy.

Klein was like this for a few moments but quickly his condition improved and his mind returned to normal.

The gray fog that was enveloping him receded and the black smoke no longer came out of his body.

All this happened before the eyes of Klein who was somewhat disturbed.

"A few more seconds and I think it would have killed me..." Klein muttered with a shudder.

He was sure of this because his intuition told him so!

Trying to calm down, he went into a state of cogitation to recover from that episode.

His breathing, which had been agitated before, was now calm and his heart was no longer so afraid.

He opened his eyes and began to tap the armrest with his finger.

'Is this what Chariot meant with the more you know the more infected you will be? Is the mere fact of looking at someone capable of infecting you?'

'But how is it possible that nothing happens when he is in the Tarot Club? He appears here as a normal person...'

A phrase came to his mind that he had been told not long ago.

Don't look at God!

As quickly as that sentence came, he shook his head as the force with which he tapped the armrest increased.

'If Chariot really were a God I'm sure I would have died looking directly at him. But all I got was an infection that the gray fog purged and my dazed mind and blood from my nose.'

Klein looked around him, at the gray fog that was in this space, ever-present.

The speed with which he tapped his armrest decreased but not the force.

'But that doesn't mean Chariot isn't a High-Sequence Beyonder!'

'How else would he have high-level knowledge? His seat in the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom should be quite high...'

Klein always kept his gaze on the surrounding Gray Fog.

'This space has purifying abilities.

This is good to know...'

The image of how black smoke was being expelled from his body was imprinted in his head.

Realization hit him and a shudder washed over him.

"When I return to my body, I won't be infected again? In reality, I don't have Gray Fog, so what will happen to me? When I return to my body, will I die or become a monster?"

Not wanting to risk it, Klein used the control he had with the Gray Fog and formed his pendulum.

He let it hang on his arm and closed his eyes.

'It's safe to return to my body...' he repeated this 7 times in his head and opened his eyes.

The pendulum was spinning clockwise at a good speed.

"It's safe..." Klein sighed in relief and leaned back in his seat.

"If Chariot's true appearance did this to me, what would it do to The Hanged Man and Justice?"

He already assumed that this was Chariot's true appearance. The 'man' hid it and took on a more human form to fit more.

'When he is in his human appearance it is safe to look at him directly but when he takes on his other appearance, just a glimpse of him for a few seconds stuns you greatly and I don't know what would happen if I looked at him directly...'

He repeated to himself that it had only been a glimpse.

'Is this the power of High-Sequence Beyonders? They don't even have to attack you directly, they just have to show that form and you'll already lose your reason and ability to fight...'

Chariot was a risk for the Tarot Club, if one day he wanted he could show that form and everyone, including him, would die.

Chariot's involvement was a danger he had to seriously consider.

The man contributed valuable things but these came from a jack in the box that could come out at any time.

'Will I have to expel a member so quickly? Justice hasn't even received her formula...'

'He can tease the members but he's never tried to hurt them and even goes to the trouble of taking human form to avoid hurting them...'

Klein shook his head softly as he extended his arm and prepared to make another divination.

He could not trust the goodness of people or their good hearts.

The only way to get an answer was either divination or Chariot himself.

'Chariot endangers my well-being and that of the other members...' he closed his eyes and mentally repeated 7 times.

Opening them he saw how the pendulum rotated counter-clockwise slowly.

'No' Klein sighed in relief but before he could cheer anymore the pendulum in his hand snapped in half.

In shock, he released the thread of it and saw how a black liquid came out of the remains of the pendulum.

Before he could do anything the Gray Fog around him boiled slightly and quickly engulfed the pendulum and purified it.

The black liquid disappeared and the gray fog returned to normal.

Klein looked at all this stunned and felt a chill go up his spine.

'Good thing I didn't use dream divination...'

'Chariot seemed to have anti-divination means and very strong ones...'

To provoke such a reaction...

Klein took a slow breath and looked at where the pendulum had been before with doubt.

'The result of the divination was real or was it interfered with? Chariot should not be able to sense that I divined him right?'

He didn't want to risk doing another divination so now he could only trust his intuition...

Tapping the armrest, Klein considered everything he knew about the man...

After a few moments, he let out a sigh as he raised a hand to his forehead.

Rubbing his forehead, he did one last check to confirm that this was the right decision.

'While Chariot's presence is a danger in and of itself, the knowledge he seems to possess is invaluable...'

'Not to mention that having a High-Sequence Beyonder in the club will be very helpful...'

Chariot also seemed to know quite a bit about the Seer Pathway but now those were things he couldn't ask.

Chariot thinks that he was the Ancestor of the Antigonus family and this family controlled this pathway.

If he were to ask that, not only would he ruin his mask of a great existence, but Chariot would know that his identity was false.

'And my identity may be the only thing I can use to control him...' he thought heavily while raising his head.

"I hope I don't regret this..." he muttered as he looked at Chariot's seat.

'All this would be easier if I could create a kind of smurf account to ask questions that my identity as The Fool does not allow me...'

Klein let out a breath.

'It's a shame that the meetings here are so different from the online forums, otherwise, I could make half the members here my smurf accounts...'

Klein looked at the other seats imagining how these were full of his alternate accounts and he could ask whatever he wanted.

'Maybe when I learn divination related to mirrors I can give it a try...'

As he looked at the seats he realized one thing.

"There are twenty-two seats here, and there are twenty-two cards in the tarot deck. That matches perfectly. But when I 'created' this hall I hadn't even named myself The Fool or intended to create a Tarot Club... Do these symbolize the twenty-two path sequences?"

"I wanted a divine hall, so a divine hall appeared. If I want a smurf account, would I get a smurf account?"

With nothing to lose he decided to try that...

....

Returning to his body, Klein was visibly disappointed.

He had tried several times but could not create a smurf account...

Disappointed, he could only lie back on his bed. He had used a lot of spirituality so he needed to rest.

As he lay in bed he couldn't help but remember what had happened.

As he closed his eyes to sleep he realized something that made him open them wide.

'I never looked at Chariot with my Spirit Vision!'

'Of all the chances I had to do it, I never did it!'

'Was it my spirituality that made me unconsciously ignore him? What would have happened if I look at him...' A chill ran up his spine.

His tiredness was gone...