The Monocled Menace

"I just learned something interesting. Apparently, there was this crazy person called… The Angel of Time; Amon. Apparently all his believers are himself, all his family members are himself. And yet, their process of deciding things is well beyond the current era. They perform a democratic voting for making important decisions. Isn't that interesting? An army of Beyonder clones with their own self-consciousness, and yet they vote on what to do like civilised people despite clearly having long gone insane…"

The page did not have a lot of information, but it caused Klein's mouth to twitch uncontrollably while also causing cold sweat to break out on his back. A wave of irony and fear washed Klein's body, but he did not react much and simply turned the paper back into the grey mist and nodded at Max.

The rest of the meeting went as normal, and everyone returned to their lives right after.

Derrick returned to the real world and found himself in the dark, cramped room. He sat on the ground cautiously for a few seconds, but he didn't discover any unusual changes. He was finally able to let out a sigh of relief.

Remembering that Mr. Hanged Man had advised him to stay away from his neighbour, Derrick walked to the opposite metal wall, and just remained silent, vigilantly watching the metal wall between him and his neighbour.

He took quick breaths to calm down his racing heart as he recalled the strangeness of the Amon family, and how dangerous He could be.

At this moment, an elderly and fleeting voice came from the bed beside him, "Are you looking for me...?"

The moment the voice entered his ears, Derrick froze. His skin tensed up, and his hair stood on end.

'Why is he beside me? Why is he in my room? What happened to the seal? What about the effects of the mystical items?' His forehead dripped with cold sweat, and he subconsciously wanted to turn around to take a look.

But his instincts stopped him from doing so. This instinct originated from the teachings of the City of Silver's General Knowledge of Monsters lessons and the strange scene he had experienced after joining the patrolling teams.

When someone is speaking behind you, don't turn around in a hurry! Derrick raised his hands and clenched them into fists in front of his chest, then slowly, he turned around, bit by bit. The room was shrouded in darkness, making it impossible to see anything.

However, there was a tint of golden light that was expanding in his two eyes, transforming into what seemed like two miniature suns. With his Light Suppliant powers, he saw a dark figure sitting quietly on the edge of his bed. The dark figure rapidly turned clear, revealing a head that had been split in half!

In the middle of his head, two grey brains wriggled like they were alive, trying to get close to each other but being unable to do so. The thick, viscous liquid on the severed surface of his brain had turned into thin threads, but they were shrinking like maggots.

Each eye that was on the two separate sides were distanced apart, and the nose bridge was separated from the middle. The colour of the blood was bright and evident. The left side of his mouth was open, but the right side of his mouth was tightly shut.

This terrifying monster was naked, and there were numerous dark red wounds on its body. The countless wounds had torn open savagely, revealing rows and rows of white teeth. They said the same sentence in quick succession, "Are you looking for me..."

It paused for a moment, the corners of its mouth and the edges of its wounds were curling up. "Look, am I not normal..." Derrick's pupils contracted, and without thinking, he placed his folded hands on his chest and raised them to his chin, as if in prayer. Meanwhile, he recalled the words of Mr. Death, and just blurted out the name, "Adam!"

This caused the monster's number grinning 'mouths' to pause for a moment. But that very moment was enough, enough for Derrick.

The small room suddenly became bright, and a pure beam of light, swirling with fire, fell from the roof and onto the monster's body. The beam was not as grand as the one used by Derrick outside the spire. This was because of the seal here and the mystical item which left him isolated from the spire's exterior.

But at that moment, Derrick was stunned to see the holy light beam that he had prayed for was suddenly thickening. It was so bright that he couldn't help but close his eyes. A few moments later, something purer and thicker separated from the magnificent pillar of light. It was like a man made of light with no facial features and no clothes! The "man of light" suddenly coruscated and pounced on the monster.

All the "mouths" on the monster suddenly opened, as if it was letting out a blood-curdling screech. Yet, Derrick heard nothing. The monster began to tremble violently and quickly disintegrated under the burning and illumination of the "man of light," disappearing as if it were melting.

Just as it was about to become transparent, a phantom wearing a black classical long robe and a pointed hat suddenly appeared! The shadow had black hair, black eyes, a wide forehead, and a thin face. It wore a monocle carved from crystal. As soon as he appeared, the "man of light" exploded, and Derrick's vision was filled with whiteness.

When his eyesight was restored, he found himself outside the room, in the corridor with the metal lamps set in it, in the dim light of the setting sun. He tilted his head blankly and looked into the room.

He saw a tall, muscular figure in dark trousers and a brown coat. In front of this figure was the bed which Derrick had been sleeping in. Dawn-like rays of light condensed onto a white leg bone, turning it into a pure white, sharp sword. Next to the straight sword lay a translucent worm. It was only the length of a thumb, and its slimness was almost that of a child's finger.

One ring after another, of completely transparent colours, divided it into many sections. It was a fleeting scene, and without specially counting the number of rings, he had a vague feeling that there were about ten of them. The tall figure which had its back facing him reached out his hand to pick up the strange translucent worm.

As he turned around, he sighed. "It was close..."

At that moment, Derrick finally saw the face of the tall figure. His hair was grizzled, unkempt, and rather dishevelled. He had deep wrinkles around his cheeks, but there were no wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.

Some old scars, that were either deep or twisted, remained on his cheeks. He was dressed in a flaxen-coloured shirt with a checkered leather belt around his waist, and his pale blue eyes were deep and weathered, like a book full of stories.

For a moment, Derrick was stunned, and then, as though he had been in danger all his life, he opened his mouth in pleasant surprise. "Your Excellency!"

In front of him was Chief of the City of Silver's six-member council, a powerful Demon Hunter who was over a hundred years old, Colin Iliad!

Colin nodded slightly and said, "We always knew that he had a problem, but in order to find out what kind of ulterior motives the man named Amon had, we intentionally didn't eliminate him directly, and we instead locked him at the bottom of the spire, sealed under the influence of mystical items, and we often let Beyonders, who only have symptoms of losing control, live next to him and talk to him. We wanted to see if we could induce some abnormal changes in him in order to learn the information we wanted to know."

"Unfortunately, he had been very normal until today, way too normal. Why do you think he suddenly mutated and attempted to break through the seal? Do you have any idea what makes you different from the others?"

After a few seconds of silence, Derrick said, "Maybe it's because my Beyonder pathway is different from the others. Sequence 9 Bard, Sequence 8 Light Suppliant."

'In other words, the Sun pathway... If Mr. Hanged Man is right, that the Amon family is the descendant of an ancient Sun God, then it's normal for me to cause a mutation to happen to him,' Derrick felt he knew the truth to a certain extent. Colin listened without a change in expression.

He sized up Derrick for a few seconds before saying, "We were monitoring him. The members of the six-member council took turns, but we didn't expect him to suddenly mutate. There were zero warning signs, and his actions were very decisive and determined. What were you doing in the room just now?"

Derrick, who was considering the relationship between the Sun pathway and the ancient Sun God, didn't instantly realize what the Chief was asking about. When he realized it, his mind was still blank as he seriously recalled what he had done.

Derrick was suddenly stunned. He felt that things might not be as simple as he had imagined. He knew that he couldn't inform the Chief of his thoughts, but he didn't know what kind of expression to make, so he could only maintain his lonely, reserved silence. He said thoughtfully,

"I knocked on that wall three times. Before that, the candle in my room had extinguished, and there was complete darkness. I had tried to practice some of my Beyonder powers."

Colin looked into Derrick's eyes quietly and said after nearly twenty seconds, "Unfortunately, what Amon left in his soul was not his original body. Moreover, this matter happened too suddenly, so we were unable to obtain the desired result. Before his mutation, did you sense anything amiss?"

"No." Derrick shook his head with conviction. Colin's eyes suddenly flashed with two complex, dark green symbols, and he reflected Derrick's body in them. After nearly ten seconds of silence, the City of Silver's Chief closed his eyes and said, "Your condition has stabilized. You don't need any more treatment, so you can go back now."

Derrick was startled. "Alright." He watched Demon Hunter Colin Iliad turn back into the room, pick up the sharp white sword, and turned it over and over in his hands. He quietly took a deep breath and walked along the corridor towards the exit.

On the way, he met the Keepers who had rushed over one after the other. He slowly walked back home and closed the door. He carefully observed his surroundings for a while, then he sat down on the edge of the bed and recited in a low voice, "The Fool that doesn't belong to this era, you are the mysterious ruler above the grey fog; you are the King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck. I've just experienced something terrifying..."

Derrick recounted what had happened and mentioned his two guesses. After doing all of that, he felt much more at ease. And with his tense state of mind relaxing, he felt immense exhaustion wash through him. He lied down and quickly fell asleep. In the silent and dark room, flashes of lightning would occasionally illuminate everything. Otherwise, it would seem like the dark night.

The sleeping Derrick suddenly flicked his right index finger and leisurely tapped it on the bed. Once, twice, thrice.

Klein on the other hand received Derricks plea and checked him up, before using the power of the grey fog to eliminate the corruption that had found its way into Derrick. Of course, he had also noticed how the corruption came in the form of a monocled illusory figure and a shiver ran up his spine while he was helping the Sun, but soon after he calmed down and got lost in his thoughts once more.