LotM: Surviving as a Marionette

"This time, the goal is to determine how far into the future I can borrow power from when using the Yesterday Once More charm within Euclid space, as well as the extent of the power I can borrow."

Yesterday Once More charms weren't numerous, and Don currently couldn't advance to Bizarro Sorcerer. With insufficient Spirit Worms, mastering the most core power source that would be most beneficial to him was extremely important.

"If I use Yesterday Once More in the physical world, it would at most provide me with some spiritual support."

However, the demigod advancement ritual for the Seer pathway required orchestrating a magnificent theatrical murder of a demigod. Being at Sequence 5, without multi-party assistance, the gap between the two levels wasn't something that could be easily bridged.

"If it's a sneak attack within Euclid space, it might just be feasible." Don took out the Scepter of the Sun, skillfully checking first on Amon's avatar in Tingen, then observing the old grandfather in his own territory. After confirming that Amon hadn't affected this side and that the old grandfather didn't seem to plan on leaving, Don felt reassured enough to begin his experiment.

He remembered very clearly that the first time he used the Yesterday Once More charm, he saw the Scepter of the Sun beside him, and saw a book composed of thin bronze pages.

"That Sequence 2, or even Sequence 1 version of myself—the Sun Scepter's Beyonder characteristics must have been enhanced to a higher level, Sequence 3, or perhaps Sequence 2. If an Extraordinary item of this level could be brought over using the Yesterday Once More charm, even if only for a few seconds, utilizing the inherent properties of Euclid space to directly blast a Sequence 4 to death across a layer of space wouldn't be impossible."

Being unable to observe four-dimensional existence meant that the demigod wouldn't be able to receive any spiritual intuition feedback before the attack arrived. After all, spiritual intuition originated from the Spirit World, and Euclid space itself had higher dimensions than the Spirit World. The Spirit World couldn't capture information from higher-dimensional space, so naturally it couldn't provide spiritual intuition feedback to the demigod.

Similarly, abilities like a Devil's danger premonition wouldn't take effect until the attack "dimensionally reduced" through Euclid space.

Don picked up the scepter in his hand.

The sun symbol was like a bronze mirror, reflecting Don's figure.

In the extremely blurry image, beside his reflected figure, there was also a vague shadow.

It was far too blurry—rather than calling it a shadow, it was more like just a mass of unknown darkness.

After the Sun Scepter fused the Beyonder powers of all five pathways of the Omniscient and Omnipotent, it underwent uncontrollable and incomprehensible mutations.

It transformed from normal sunlight into a decaying, deathly Black Sun. All beings with spirituality covered by the black sun would produce "shadows" under the Sun Light—these shadows were reflections of themselves, but leaning more toward their dark side.

Subsequently, these shadows would animate, influenced by the Manipulator's power to separate them from their main bodies. The Savant's Beyonder power would simulate the main body's characteristics and combat techniques, the Black Knight would corrupt and strengthen them, the Wind-blessed would make both the main body and shadow extreme and mad. In the end, either the shadow would kill its master, or the master would kill their shadow, followed by power exhaustion.

After all, the shadow could also be considered part of him.

This involved the influence of multiple supernatural elements, and once those shadows truly killed their masters, they would take the master's place, becoming sources of terrifying pollution that were constantly in a state of madness.

It would become a new Black Sun. Any spiritual being that stepped into its territory would repeat the above process, until it killed those spiritual beings, or was killed by others.

The unbalanced Sun Scepter could already achieve this. A fully balanced Scepter of the Sun with all Beyonder characteristics reaching the same level—its simulation abilities and the mental influence it exerted would be even more terrifying.

Similarly, the Sun Scepter in Don's hands had an extremely terrifying negative effect.

[Remaining uses until next Sun Rises: 21 times!]

Conducting experiments in Euclidean space and killing Secret Marionettes to corrupt their shadows had consumed many uses.

But just this one negative effect, if used well, could even trap a King of Angels.

For example, getting Amon to steal this thing, and then having the sun emerge at just the right moment.

"But if I could borrow it, the spiritual consumption would probably be extremely terrifying."

As for the other item, that book composed of thin bronze pages, Don felt it was probably the Uniqueness of the Arbiter pathway.

The Trunsoest Brass Book.

"A Uniqueness polluted by a Sefirot, after becoming a Sealed Artifact it's also called the Book of Rules."

If targeting Amon, he felt this Book of Rules would be more useful.

The power of an Scholar of Yore didn't allow pulling historical projections of Uniqueness.

Uniqueness was just as its name suggested—unique. There couldn't be two identical Uniqueness in this world, even if one was false or from the past.

Similarly, the various Kings of Angels and deities who contained Uniqueness also couldn't be pulled from historical gaps through normal ancient projections.

"But there are also bugs."

Instead of pulling the Uniqueness, pull items related to the Uniqueness; instead of pulling deities, pull powers related to deities.

For example, concealed angels, or something like a deity's divine kingdom.

If he had seen the scene of that old pigeon Tyrant striking lightning in the astral world, he might even be able to pull out the old pigeon's lightning.

So what he wanted to borrow was part of the rules promulgated by the Trunsoest Brass Book... if there were any.

"History."

With the recitation in ancient Hermes, the historical mist and historical gaps opened once again.

Euclid space layered past, present, and future. Countless scenes made the historical gaps become long and profound. Don followed the charm's power and once again arrived at that massive, cold mausoleum.

Gray fog spread across the ground, illusory rivers flowed slowly, and the mysterious feathered serpent was wound with countless Spirit Body Threads extending to the dome above.

The young man with closed eyes sat on something invisible, and this time he saw more scenes.

The Uniqueness of the Death pathway was bound together with half of Father's soul. This was also why Father continuously maintained the state of an "Undead," constantly losing memories then recovering them, and then being involuntarily attracted to this massive mausoleum.

The soul yearned to become complete, and the Death's arrangement would cause Father's soul to reunite at the moment Death resurrected within his body.

The massive feathered serpent had undergone even more terrifying changes compared to the scenes Don had seen before.

The island-like feathered serpent had grown countless feathers with yellowish oil stains all over its body. Even the originally illusory Spirit Body Threads had been tainted with this eerie color. They were dying, merging into the illusory river, becoming part of it.

The Spirit Body Threads continuously "died" and were continuously awakened by some power.

The two opposing sides were locked in fierce struggle, and the massive feathered serpent also appeared to be in pain.

Don also understood what was happening here.

"It's grafting."

(End of Chapter)