All at once, Klein felt that familiar sense of being surrounded and threatened—each tree, each leaf, each stone, each blade of grass seemed determined to kill him. As the strange net woven from fragments and papers closed in, his body suddenly collapsed and thinned, transforming into a paper figure. Swish! Swish! Swish! Branches like arrows pierced through the paper figure and fell to the ground far away, while the net immediately engulfed everything there, folding it into a spherical mass that gently pulsed. Klein's body now floated several meters to the side, knowing that the attack he had feared had finally arrived. Without pausing to observe or hesitate, he raised his right hand and reached into his coat pocket, preparing to draw out the adventurer's flute. The experience he had just undergone had made him realize that the attackers were likely half-gods of the Rose School—enemies he could not yet overcome! The one who had previously pursued Sharon had given him that very sensation. At that very moment, the paper figures suddenly shot out of his pocket, landing on his face one after another, layer upon layer! Meanwhile, his sleeves actively tightened, cradling his arms and forearms and preventing his hands from descending. His Talarab shirt, his brown jacket, all contracted inward, as if a giant bear were embracing him! Within just a few seconds, he was securely bound by his own clothes, trousers, and shoes, his face covered in layers of paper figures, his ribs nearly breaking, his breathing growing increasingly difficult. Though克莱恩 had both mental preparedness and extensive combat experience, he remained calm and undisturbed at this moment, his right thumb and middle finger pressing together with a crisp snap. At the same time, a vibrant flame erupted at his thigh, instantly burning clean through the fabric wrapped around his knees, then spreading upward and downward. Seizing this opportunity, Caine straightened his knees, struggled to rise, and surged toward the right—like a cannonball launched but then falling weakly to the ground. Mid-air, he snapped his fingers, this time igniting the sleeve at the joint of his right arm! Where he had stood, the green grass suddenly withered, and the once-dark ground instantly turned pale, as though weathered by wind over time. This attack came silently and unexpectedly, without warning. If Caine hadn’t known the enemy’s strength, and had remained still in one place, he likely would have suffered an unyielding assault that would have compromised his legs, possibly even incapacitated him or ended his life. With a crisp *thwack*, two spots on his sleeve flared to life, giving his right palm room to move. He reached into his coat pocket and grasped the adventurer’s wind instrument. *Thump!* He landed, rolled over, then immediately used his right hand to prop himself up, lifting his body—his left hand, wearing a human skin glove, snapped its fingers in response. This time, his true target was the paper figures pressing against his face, suffocating him. Plink! The paper figures burst into flame, their crimson tongues of fire nearly reaching克莱恩's hair. At that moment, a vivid scene flashed through his mind: A slender, ice-crisped arrow, tinged with a pale green hue, sped toward his head at incredible velocity! Because of its speed and inherent transparency, this arrow was normally imperceptible. Even as克莱恩 sensed imminent danger, it was already too late—his movements were still constrained by his clothing, and he couldn't fully evade it. In an instant, he bent his waist slightly, leaned backward, and shifted his upper body to the right. Plink! The cold, slender ice arrow struck his left chest, instantly shattering the brown jacket and the white button-down shirt at that spot, sending them scattering into the air. Yet the deadly arrow failed to advance further, as a deep brown-bound book stood firmly in its path. This book, though seemingly ordinary—bound in common brown leather—has remained undamaged, neither cracked nor torn, as if it had withstood the impact of two layers of clothing. *The Grolsch Travelogue!* It is a rare item that has endured the direct assault of the "Lightning Storm" from the "Sea God's Staff," augmented slightly by the mysterious spatial forces! Last night, when the telegraph message "I saw you" had startled Klein, he was undoubtedly bolstering his protective measures, preparing every strategy he could think of. In addition to keeping the travelogue tucked closely at his vital points, he also placed an iron cigarette box in the opposite pocket, containing the "contaminated" "Seed" gloves. Should the situation deteriorate, he would dissolve his spiritual barrier, release this item, and hope to draw the attention of the "True Maker," prompting its emissaries to intervene and further complicate the situation. He knew that even the "True Maker" and the other devils held deep aversion toward the "Tree of Desire." After deflecting the ice arrow, Kline rolled backward, then brought the adventurer's flute to his lips and blew a strong blast. Though the smoke from the paper figure had darkened his face slightly, the aid of his "fire manipulation" kept him unharmed. Then, he felt the garments binding his left arm, waist, thighs, neck, and both legs gradually returning to normal, restoring his freedom. As he swiftly activated his spiritual vision while playing the flute, he saw the messenger girl step out of the void, her four golden-haired, red-eyed heads turning automatically to face the same spot. One of the heads hummed, opened its mouth, and inhaled deeply. A cold breeze surged, pulling a figure from within the emerald trees over a hundred meters away—stronger than any visible force—and the figure, no longer able to remain invisible, quickly became semi-transparent and semi-real. He was an elderly man with sparse white hair and deep wrinkles, his facial features distinctly characteristic of the southern continent. As his brown-olive eyes first caught the image of Reniet Tini科尔, his brows twitched involuntarily, and then, without hesitation, he opened his mouth, as if ready to unleash a curse that had been brewing in his silence for a long time. At that moment, the other head that Reniet Tini科尔 was holding also opened its mouth, as though making a silent, high-pitched cry. Thus, nothing remarkable happened within the forest. Seeing this, Jax turned his head slightly and looked toward Cline. Before Cline could react, images of the elderly man—his sparse white hair and exaggerated wrinkles—appeared in both of his eyes! His mind instantly grew cold; though his thoughts remained swift, he lost control over his body and could only watch as the white-haired elder faded away, while he himself turned to face the messenger lady. Renee Tynicol’s two heads suddenly launched themselves toward Caine, arriving before him. One opened its mouth to draw in breath, while the other’s red eyes dimmed and its teeth lengthened, sharpening to a keen point, existing in a state between the real and the ethereal. Caine watched as a translucent, sparse-haired elder was forcibly "pulled" out of his own body. Then, the head that had transformed into a toothed form bit down onto his shoulder, tearing off a substantial portion that seemed both ethereal and corporeal. Jacks furrowed his brow, remaining silent without a cry, and his form vanished abruptly, leaping into a fragment of glass a hundred meters away. Subsequently, he appeared and disappeared again, as though pursued by an invisible force or enemy, manifesting successively in shallow pools, animal eyes, and dewdrops on small grass blades, finally gaining a moment of respite—by which time Caine’s body still felt stiff, and a deep, internal coldness had settled throughout him. Hmph… Jacks entered the spiritual realm, then stepped out, now holding a small, damp, sticky figure about the size of a palm. This figure had only one opening on its face, through which gray-white mist—familiar to Caine—was being continuously drawn in and expelled. Without hesitation, Jacks simply pressed the figure into his mouth. Seeing this, the other two heads that Rénit Tiniçol was holding also detached from her hands, joining the first one and flying toward Jacks at the same time, so swiftly that it seemed to happen in an instant. Yet Jacks had already begun to transform. His skin darkened, wrinkled, and began to seep visible water droplets; his hair and eyebrows withered and fell away, while his limbs grew both thinner and longer. In just a single second, Jacks appeared to have been fully assimilated by the small figure, now transformed into a large, black, slender-bodied, water-soaked infant with swollen, wrinkled skin and elongated limbs! His eyes, nose, mouth, and ears had detached from their original positions and moved toward the center of his face, as though gathering together to form a completely new organ. His skin, his arms, and the shape of his new organs carried an incomparable mystery and evil. Upon merely glancing at them,克莱恩's body, still recovering from the chill, immediately broke out in intense itching, with patches of red spots composed of fine granules rising on his skin. His eyes, undoubtedly, were painfully irritated, prompting him to instinctively close them and squeeze out tears. After calming himself through meditation and reopening his eyes, he found the messenger girl and the rose-philosophy half-god missing. Yet, his spiritual intuition told him both were still nearby, engaged in fierce battles that alternated between the spiritual realm and the outer world—each falling leaf, swaying grass, crawling insect, or running beast signifying a fresh confrontation. At once, Caine drew out the revolver "The Bell of Doom" and, with his left thumb, quickly pressed the first joint of his index finger twice. In his vision, countless ethereal threads unfolded, revealing something beyond ordinary sight or spiritual perception: Two dense clusters of swift-moving, interweaving black threads swirling around him symbolized Renette Tiniel and the half-god of the Rose School! Beyond these, he noticed another dense cluster of ethereal black threads rapidly approaching his position, occasionally pausing to avoid the intense combat between the two half-gods. Another enemy? One who had previously remained at a distance, waiting for the outcome, now deciding to join the fray? In this situation, any entity approaching stealthily must surely be an enemy. Caine's eyes flickered slightly, and he pulled the hammer of "The Bell of Doom" back, letting it settle naturally, bringing the revolver into a deadly strike position. Then, he feigned not noticing the ethereal black line, reached into his pocket with his left hand, grasped a gold coin, and, in a divinatory gesture, let it glide and roll subtly between his fingers. He was disrupting the near ones' intuitive sense of the impending danger! After losing the mannequin, he could only resort to this method. Patience held for two seconds until the opponent entered range, and then, with a sharp focus,克莱恩 raised his right hand toward that direction and pulled the trigger!