LOM: Lord of Mysticism

Late in the afternoon, Klein returned home and drew the curtains, allowing his room to slip into darkness. He took out his pen and paper, writing down a sentence: "The kidnapping of Elliott was due to extraordinary elements."

As a Seer, Klein had tried to divine if the coincidences were a consequence of unnatural developments, but the results showed otherwise.

This time, he was influenced by Azik to look into these events again. He seriously designed an appropriate divination statement, eliminating any descriptions that might be vague or cause confusion.

"Yes, I should break down the three coincidences and divine them separately." Klein nodded as he slowly removed the topaz from his wrist.

He held the spirit pendulum with his left hand and allowed it to hang over the divination statement on the paper.

He entered a state of Cogitation. With his eyes closed, Klein started chanting repeatedly, "The kidnapping of Elliott was due to extraordinary elements."

As he recited the statement over and over again, Klein looked at the pendulum, only to see it turning counterclockwise slowly.

"It's still a negative..." Klein muttered to himself. He designed several other divination statements, but the results persisted—there was nothing strange about that incident.

He then separately divined the "event of Ray Bieber's stay in Tingen" and "Selena's magic mirror divination incident," but the answers for both events were normal.

Heh, was I, a real Seer, frightened by the charlatan, Mr. Azik? Besides, Captain and the others didn't feel that anything was off... Klein shook his head but was not fully convinced and planned on using the dream divination technique to get a final confirmation.

After some thought, he changed the divination statement to fit the change in method.

"The true reason for Elliott's kidnapping." As he scribbled with the fountain pen, Klein paused and pondered over his words.

After reading it over and over again, he tore the slip of paper, walked toward his bed, and laid down. With the divination statement in hand, Klein quickly fell asleep with the help of Cogitation.

He found himself in a contorted, broken world. Regaining his senses, he began moving through the blur.

Gradually, he saw the few kidnappers. He saw them lose their final chip at a gambling table, obtain guns from underground sources, and survey the area. They even rented the apartment across from Ray Bieber's apartment as their hideout...

These didn't form a continuous scene; instead, they were presented in the form of flashing pictures. Klein couldn't find anything abnormal. Furthermore, it had also aligned with the statements given by the kidnappers.

After exiting the dream, Klein separately divined the other two incidents but had the same result. Their developments followed logic. The coincidences were really coincidences.

"I was indeed overthinking things. Mr. Azik is merely a divination enthusiast. Klein stabilized his pendulum and shook his head with a bitter smile.

He was about to draw the curtains and allow sunlight into the room when he stopped.

"From the original Klein's impression of Mr. Azikc, he is a dependable and trustworthy person. He had never once said anything baseless. Even if he was always quarreling with Mentor, it was limited to academic topics, and each of them had their reasons... If he was truly a mere divination enthusiast, he wouldn't have interacted with me like that... And the memories of the original Klein have nothing about him liking divination... Of course, this could be due to the loss of corresponding memories." Klein frowned and couldn't ease his worries. He needed a way to confirm this.

Maybe Mr. Azik had unwittingly come across some insider information and was trying to remind him by mentioning divination.

If any of the incidents were really related to extraordinary elements, they would likely have been influenced by a Beyonder. If the power behind them was of a higher Sequence, it was reasonable to think that divining them would not be reliable with normal divination methods because Klein was only at Sequence 9. Divination was, after all, not an absolute fact. This was seen with how the clown had tried divining the situation but still died at the hands of Klein.

"How should I confirm this?" Klein paced back and forth across the dark room and tried to recall the other divination techniques he knew.

One step, two steps, three steps. He suddenly halted as an idea came to him.

"Let's assume that these coincidences are dubious. I'm unable to divine a result either because my Sequence isn't high enough or I'm being affected by outside interference. I can change my environment to someplace that is even more mysterious and even harder to understand." Klein felt pumped. He pulled open his drawer and took out a silver dagger.

He concentrated and allowed his spirituality to flow out from the tip of the dagger, becoming one with his surroundings.

With each step he took, the wall of spirituality sealed off the entire room.

Klein planned on doing the divination above the gray fog in that mysterious world.

...

In the magnificent ancient divine hall above the endless gray fog. Klein sat at the seat of honor on one end of the bronze table. Before him was a piece of goatskin he willed into existence.

He lifted a pen and tried writing the divination statement as he had previously.

"The kidnapping of Elliott was due to extraordinary elements." He held the spirit pendulum and hung it low.

Klein turned silent and ethereal. Half-closing his eyes, he recited the statement seven times, using his spirituality to interact with the spiritual world that stood above all.

Feeling the tug of the silver chain, Klein opened his eyes to look at the pendulum.

The sight made him freeze. The pendulum was spinning clockwise, completely different from the result he had gotten in the outside world.

This meant that there was an extraordinary element behind Elliott's kidnapping!

There were no traces of any interference... Such power or means is terrifying... What could the reason be behind this? Is my fate intertwined with the Antigonus family's diary?

Klein put down the topaz. His expression was solemn. After contemplating for a few seconds, he didn't attempt to divine the other two events. Instead, he wrote a new divination statement: "The true reason for Elliott's kidnapping."

He held the paper in his hand and recited the statement seven times. Klein fell into sleep above the fog.

Soon, he saw an illusory grayish-white fog. The fog dissipated slowly, revealing a colorful grass plain filled with flowers.

The space behind the flowers and the plains was folding into itself. Klein tried his best to look forward, barely making out an image of a dark red chimney.

At this point, the scene before him shattered, putting an end to his dream.

Klein straightened his back in the majestic divine hall and took in two deep breaths to stabilize his chaotic emotions.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Klein tapped on the side of the table sometime later and slipped into deep thought.

Red chimney... garden... grass plains...

In the midst of this thinking, Klein felt alarmed, for himself and the others.

We might all be like puppets dancing on a string. What's even scarier is that we thought so highly of ourselves...

Sigh... I don't know how to raise this matter with the Captain. Old Neil's divination produced the same results as mine in the outside world... If they asked me to confirm it in front of them, I have no way of doing that.

Then he began divining the "event of Ray Bieber's stay in Tingen." Similarly, he first used spirit dowsing.

This time, Klein was shocked to see his topaz hang motionless. It was neither a confirmation nor a rejection of the statement.

"Strange," he muttered.

Following this, he tried the dream divination technique, but all he saw were fragmented pieces of fog. He no longer made any new discoveries.

The results of "Selena's magic mirror divination incident" were the same.

Klein could almost confirm his conjecture at this point. Since he had no way of notifying Captain Dunn Smith for the time being, he had an unprecedented motivation to improve his abilities.

"I must head to the Divination Club later and quickly succeed in my 'acting' to digest the Seer potion... Also, I have to confirm whether the Clown potion is indeed the subsequent Sequence of Seer, as well as gather clues about it... In addition, I have to interact more with Mr. Azik and see if I can dig up whatever information he holds." Klein quickly drew up a plan.

After some thought, a goatskin appeared in front of him again. He picked up his pen and wrote:

"The corresponding Sequence 8 of Sequence 9 Seer is Clown."

From his prior experience, the present Klein was completely convinced that his divination abilities were augmented and enhanced above the gray fog.

Sometime later, Klein received a definitive answer:

The corresponding Sequence 8 was Clown.

He then wrote on the paper once again.

"The corresponding Sequences 8, 7, 6, and 5 of Seer would grant at least one brand new, unrelated power."

He saw the topaz hang motionlessly without any rotations.

"Is there not enough information to complete the divination and receive a revelation?" He set down the silver chain and began considering the required statement for a dream divination.

After some thought, he picked up his pen and wrote, "Clues to the Clown Potion."

On the seat of honor at the ancient bronze table, Klein repeated the divination statement a few times before leaning back and entering a deep sleep.

His surroundings quickly became quiet. He saw a hazy view, with countless distorted and blurry scenes flashing past.

Gradually, Klein grasped his spirituality and came to his senses.

He saw a fireplace before him with a rocking chair in front of it. Sitting on it was an old woman dressed in black and white.

Although he couldn't see her face since she was hanging her head low, Klein's gut feeling told him that she was an old lady. And he was pretty certain about it.

The old lady was facing a desk directly. There were newspapers and tin cans on the desk.

"This is..." Klein found the scene before his eyes very familiar.

He quickly recognized what he saw. This was where Ray Bieber and his mother stayed, where he saw a bloated cadaver for the first time!

"There are clues that point to the Clown potion there."

The scene around him then transformed. It was a grayish-white warehouse, hidden among identical buildings.

There were white bones scattered all around and a few squashed pieces of flesh. In the middle of the warehouse was a grayish-white soft object that was the size of a fist.

Just as Klein recognized the scene and recalled something, the scene distorted like rippling water before transforming into another new blurry scene.

A naked body was laid on a long table covered with a white cloth. There were some bluish, discolored patches on the corpse's skin.

Klein muttered, "It was first the images of Ray Bieber's hiding place and his remains, and now it's related to the brand on the suited clown's wrist."

The scene changed again. A marble coffee table, a set of two leather couches, and a chandelier that hung high on the ceiling.

There were three people present—Klein Moretti, who had black hair, brown eyes, and a scholarly temperament; a chubby wealthy boy; and a young lady with fishnet gloves.

Following that, it was another three people and an object—a middle-aged man in a black robe who had thick spiky brown hair; a wealthy chubby man with pale skin; an elder with messy eyebrows, brown hair, and gray-blue eyes; and a black notebook on the round table in-between all of them that exuded an ancient and distant air—the Antigonus family's notebook.

Klein sat up straight, and the dream vanished. Looking outside the divine hall, he thought in confusion.

I was divining for clues to the Clown potion... Why would the Antigonus family's notebook appear?

Let me think, let me think, that chubby guy was Welch. Yes, Welch, an unfortunate fella who bought the Antigonus family's notebook and triggered a sequence of incidents... The young lady wearing fishnet gloves was Naya.

I remember, the marble coffee table and leather couch combination is a hallmark of Welch's place. I saw Spirit Medium Daly there.

In other words, what I saw was Welch's living room. It was a scene where the original Klein and his two classmates were discussing the notebook.

Klein tapped on the edge of the long bronze table rhythmically. Then, what does the last scene represent? The notebook appeared, and Welch appeared. Could it be the scene where he bought the ancient item?

There were another two people, and one of them looked very familiar. I feel like I've seen the middle-aged man in the classic black robe somewhere before... That spiky brown hair, severe dark eye circles... Yes, I know, he was Hanass Vincent from the Divination Club who 'died peacefully' after Captain snuck into his dream, having learned that Selena secretly obtained the secret incantation from him. No way, he was the one that sold the notebook to Welch? Everything appears to be coming full circle. The world sure is small, no—Tingen is really small! On careful thought, it really is possible that Hanass Vincent wasn't an ordinary fortune-teller. He was obviously deep into mysticism and obtained the attention of an ancient evil god. He had the opportunity to acquire the notebook that was lost by the Secret Order.

It's no wonder Captain and the others never figured out where Welch bought the notebook. They had attempted to investigate via the antique market... But when the actual whereabouts of the notebook were found, they gave up on that lead. What a pity, Hanass Vincent just passed away not too long ago. Otherwise, we definitely could've found out something regarding the notebook... Since he was involved in mysticism, he should've researched the notebook... His death was too sudden! However, there was another person at the scene who might know a bit of what happened.

Klein stopped tapping his fingers on the edge of the table and looked through every scene of his dream divination once more.

Ray Bieber's house, Ray Bieber's hideout spot, the remains of Ray Bieber, the brand on the suited clown's wrist, Welch's house; Welch, Naya, and Klein's original exchange; Welch, Hanass Vincent, and the Antigonus family notebook's 'group photo'. Hehe, besides the brand of the suited clown, everything else is directly related to the Antigonus family's notebook!

But I had divined for clues to the Clown potion... This isn't scientific, nor does it make mystical sense!

Klein summarized the context provided by Roselle's diary and attempted to interpret his dream divination.

The first possibility, the Secret Order, was searching and pursuing the relics of the Antigonus family. So, the symbolic meaning of the dream is to use matters related to the Antigonus family to lure the Secret Order into appearing so as to obtain the Clown potion's formula.

The second possibility: the Clown potion's formula is directly recorded in the Antigonus family's notebook... The fact that the Zaratul family is seeking the relics of the Antigonus family implies that they share very deep connections. They could've been allies or enemies. Hence, it seems fairly natural that the Antigonus family possessed parts of their Sequence.

But the second explanation wouldn't be able to link it to the brand of the suited clown. Sigh. I do wish that the second explanation were true, though. When the Holy Cathedral finds an expert to interpret the notebook, I would be able to obtain the Clown potion without any risk.

It seems that the first explanation is the most plausible. My gut feeling as a Seer tells me that there might be a deeper symbolic meaning.

Having thought of this, Klein realized the limitations of a Seer.

Unless it was a very simple and straightforward sign, a Seer had to be extremely careful when making interpretations. The suited clown's outcome was an actual and bloody example of what a single mistake in interpretation or failure to grasp a key point could result in.

At that moment Klein had an image of himself mastering the true essence of a Seer. He seemed to be just one step away from digesting the potion completely.

"Thank you for enlightening me with your life... Praise the Lady!" He muttered and drew a crimson moon before his chest.

Then he divined whether Azik had good intentions or if he was an amazing Beyonder. He received confirmations for both of them.

Eventually, the continuous divinations exhausted Klein. He had no choice but to stop and decide on the crucial matters that he needed to attend.

He had to find the man that appeared in the same scene with Welch, Hanass Vincent, and the Antigonus family's notebook as soon as possible. He could begin his search with the Divination Club.