That ancient, blood-stained lance, seemingly having appeared in a time long beyond recall, immediately absorbed all presence within the room and pierced straight through the body of "The Saint of Secrets," Butis. The sturdy, chestnut-haired figure of Butis suddenly became translucent, transforming into a pair of deep black doors. At the same time, Butis appeared behind these doors, now existing in a separate realm, gazing across at the formidable lance. In the next instant, the lance, stained with dark red blood, shattered through the deep black doors and entered the space where Butis once stood. Butis's form retreated continuously, shifting and transforming into one virtual door after another—some composed of two curved stone figures, others featuring a hole the size of a clenched fist at their doorways, some adorned with silver nails, others bearing intricate, mysterious patterns—each door layered upon the next, one after another, forming a continuous, endless sequence. In silence and without a single pause, the "Spear of Longinus" continuously pierced these phantom gates, leaving the "Saint of Secrets," Butes, utterly unable to find a moment to escape. Within less than a second, the bloodied spear, radiating intense destruction, shattered countless phantom gates. After its breath noticeably waned, it finally struck true, piercing the chest of its target. Butes' body instantly cracked open with countless fissures, as if shattered ceramic ware that had fallen to the ground. With a crisp crack, the "Saint of Secrets" turned black and dissolved into fragments, scattering across the ground. This was not his true form, but rather his shadow. It was a technique of shadow substitution he had learned from a Sequence 3 Saint under the "True Creator." Of course, had it not been for the successive layers of "gates" weakening the spear's force, Butes believed he would have shattered both his shadow and his true form. After narrowly avoiding the blow, Butis endured the dizziness in his head and the impact of Gardeleia's incomplete mythic being form, focusing his gaze to summon a massive silver serpent without scales. This serpent was so vast that it filled his entire field of vision, its surface adorned with dense patterns and symbols forming one after another intricate, mysterious wheels. The serpent's head and tail intertwined, merging with countless ethereal rivers to evolve into a blurred, somewhat unreal, slowly rotating great wheel. Around the circumference of the wheel, various symbolic signs represented different futures. Suddenly, the black fragments that had remained on the ground rose one after another, reassembling into Butis. The lance stained with dark blood—the Lance of Lancre—retreated swiftly through one series of rapidly forming phantom gates, finally returning to the front of the distorted "black mass." The wave of intense fear that had previously enveloped the room gradually receded, withdrawing from the chamber. Cracks and "black clusters" of eyes were pulsing and healing, restoring the woman—wearing a deep-capped cloak and a purple-veined black robe—back to her original form. Everything returned to the state it was in before the "Ugly Duckling" cast her magic. "A Rebirth of Fate!" This was one of the rewards the "Keeper of Secrets," Butis, had received when he overthrew the Abraham family, a sequence-1 extraordinary ability recorded by the "Angel of Fate," Uloros. Of course, this version differs greatly from the original. It can only reset reality within a three-second window, only affect this single, connected room, and even fails to influence the first floor of the apartment. Immediately upon the reset concluding, the "Shadow Saint" Ksma, who had been prepared all along, took swift action. The distorted shadows originating from the Count's bloodline extended their arms, embracing the Red Moon in a gesture of welcome. Dark energy surged around Gardeleia, instantly forming a series of ethereal yet solid black chains that firmly bound her in place. And the flesh flooding the ground, walls, and ceiling gathered together, forming a knight clad in a solid black armor, wielding a heavy, solemn sword, exuding immense pressure. At the openings of this black knight’s face mask, two glimmers of deep red light subtly pulsed, instantly locking onto the woman in the hooded cloak beside the pumpkin carriage. Suddenly, the shadow beneath Gardeleia’s feet came to life, grasping her ankle and flowing upward like water, tightly ensnaring her. "The Black Knight," "Lord of Shadows!" Then, the colossal knight, whose presence seemed drawn from myth, barely touching the ceiling, took a single step and reached a point not far from the target, delivering a powerful, long, broad, and deep slash with his great sword. On the other side, the "Saint of Secrets," Butis, saw silver-white, ethereal scrolls swiftly flipping within his eyes, pausing on one particular page. Reaching out with his left hand, he extended his arm across twenty to thirty meters, grasping the pumpkin carriage and the mysterious woman dressed in a purple-and-black robe. His arm suddenly lengthened, its surface dark and viscous, as though flowing with strange, malevolent liquids. Within these liquids, pale skeletal heads emerged, veins clearly visible in the eyes, sharp-toothed tongues formed, and all manner of bizarre structures bloomed, rapidly spreading an atmosphere of profound evil and frenzied madness. In the room, the floor cracked instantly, and several live cockroaches that had been moving moments before stiffened and fell dead. This was an attack in a specific state from "Divine Calamity" Seara! When, outside the city of Bayam, the "Saint of Secrets" Butis was drawn by the "Seed of Flame" gloves, he initially appeared only to observe, collect the items, and then depart—yet in reality, he had been desperately recording the abilities and states of the higher beings. After repeated failures, aided by fortunate moments of destiny, he finally achieved his goal. Of course, during that encounter, he managed to capture only this single instance. Under this strange, black arm, Cadrya’s consciousness began to tinge with madness, momentarily unable to mount an effective response. Compounded by the binding of the dark chains and her own shadow, she could only stand frozen, watching as Ksma, the Lord of the Deep Darkness, brought his great sword down upon her, and as Butis, the Keeper of Secrets, reached out with his left hand. At that very moment, in the room where the physical walls had dissolved into nothing, a wind—formless and intangible—suddenly surged. As soon as it appeared, it grew fierce, sweeping toward the minds of both the Keeper of Secrets and the Lord of the Deep Darkness. "The Master of the Mind Storm." Faced with this overwhelming tide of thoughts, Butis not only remained calm but even smiled, gently curling the corners of his lips. As the conductor of the "reboot," he naturally remembered that the half-god who had ridden the pumpkin carriage also had a fellow of comparable strength hidden somewhere outside the dilapidated apartment building. He continues to focus on his openly visible adversaries precisely to draw out the half-god concealed in the shadows! Between the intervals of "Fate's Rebirth" and his "Divine Deficiency" state, Buthis has quietly implanted a form of self-hypnosis, enabling his mind to naturally delegate the majority of his "Stellar Insects" to handle cognitive depletion or information surges, while retaining only a small number to maintain bodily control and lock onto the hidden enemy. — The previous experiences of dragon-like intimidation and the inability to detect targets had led Buthis to firmly believe that the concealed presence was a half-god who had entered through the "Observer's Path." While his thoughts were momentarily paralyzed and blocked, several slender pathways swiftly activated, allowing Buthis to initially trace the origin of the assault. Yet at this moment, the thoughts resonating within the majority of his "Stellar Insects" did not appear to him as mere meaningless information streams, as he had expected. In his mind, a voice seemed to speak thousands or even tens of thousands of words in just one second: "Deep within the ruins of a once-grand castle in the Dreyler Forest, there lies a pair of bronze double doors that seal off the underground pollution—those with higher sequence levels are more susceptible to its effects as they draw closer." "The stars themselves are perilous, with unknown entities observing from afar." "The 'Dark Angel' appears to be a negative persona separated from an ancient solar deity." "...?" Buthis paused, struck by the intensity and urgency of these thoughts, eager to learn more. Just as he paused, his already-identified enemy vanished once again, slipping out of his awareness, and the godly hand reaching for the pumpkin carriage and the female half-god seemed to falter. The same effect was observed with the 'Eldritch Saint' Ksma, whose movements stiffened for a moment under the impact of the 'Mental Storm.' When they recovered, Gautherika had already opened her mouth and expelled a single pea. The pea grew instantly, transforming into thick, vibrant green vines that lifted Gardeleia toward the door, enabling her to break free from the darkness and regain a measure of mobility. When the deep, resonant sword of the "Saint of the Deep" and the dark arms of the "Saint of Secrets" touched her, they only shattered her shadows, failing to wound this "Mystic." At that moment, Gardeleia became the "Imperial New Clothes"—an entity that simply did not exist—and thus remained unharmed. The very next second, the lady in her purple-and-black robe, wearing a deep hood, suddenly became transparent, dissolving into a mass of foam. This foam swiftly dispersed and broke apart, leaving nothing behind, while the green vines continued to grow upward, igniting into a blazing flame that illuminated the surrounding streets. Silence returned once more, as though the brief and intense battle at the semi-divine level had never occurred. "The Saint of Secrets" Butis and "The Saint of the Deep Darkness" Ksma exchanged a glance, neither surprised by this development. Clearly, after the assault failed, the two half-gods had begun to fall behind, unable to achieve their objectives—especially since they were now in Beckettland, where the longer the situation dragged on, the more perilous it became. Thus, they seized the opportunity to retreat. To further distract the pursuit, they deliberately created a great commotion to draw the attention of Beckettland's official forces. As for the "Travel Notes of Lyman" and the exceptional seer of Sequence 7 or Sequence 6, a novice path, these were simply expendable decoys. After a slight nod, "The Saint of Secrets" Butis withdrew a crystal sphere from a deep pocket of his black robe, allowing it to glow brightly before it swiftly shattered and dissolved into the void. This was a measure to prevent tracking by the mystical arts. He indeed couldn't stay any longer and intended to simply "teleport" away, returning directly to the headquarters of the Aurora Association, then interrogate the bait to uncover the truth and decide what to do next. One second later, Buthis's form rapidly faded into transparency, vanishing, while Ksma, the "Lord of the Deep Darkness," swiftly entered the shadows and moved swiftly away, continuously erasing his trail along the way.