Amon! Amon, the渎神者! To Leonard, this figure was far from unfamiliar—he had faced his avatar directly, and he had also heard countless tales from old Palis Zoroastre of the Tarot Circle about Amon’s deeds and his notoriously harsh nature. At this very moment, however, Leonard’s thoughts were nearly completely still, his mind blank, with only a few scattered thoughts stirring. Just then, Amon’s lips moved, spilling forth utterances of divine grace. Instantly, within Leonard’s mind, a cascade of voices rang out—voices that seemed to come from countless Amons: "Are you surprised? Unexpected?" "Upon realizing that I would not soon receive the 'Source Citadel,' I shifted my focus to Beckland..." "If it were not to deceive you, why would I play such a simple game of cat and mouse with him?" “I think you must have some connection….” “He definitely told you—I’m still tracking him, still disrupting his operations, still setting traps at his destination…” “That’s merely a near-identical duplicate of Sequence 1.” “Oh yes, Palis—forgive me, I forgot to tell you. For a very long period during the Late Quaternary, I impersonated the founder of the Jacob family. I quietly absorbed Him, then watched His descendants panic, scrambling to establish a hidden treasure at the very site where the Touds would become the ‘Imperial Bloodline’…” “I didn’t eliminate them because I sensed the treasure would prove useful. I have one duplicate, sleeping there for over a thousand years, patiently waiting for someone to open the treasure. As for the others, I haven’t synchronized this information with them—perhaps that will allow me to subtly mislead them at certain moments.” “Well, this synchronization is my own invention, Palis—you’re falling behind the times.” “To truly confirm your whereabouts, I watched them dismantle the traps, seize the items, saw your duplicates steal traits and seals from their hands, watched Him carefully absorb and digest everything—now, patience has finally paid off.” “I suspect you’re Leonard was nearly out of control, in excruciating pain, utterly helpless—this was the Son of the Creator, this was the King of Angels. Meanwhile, changes were unfolding at 7 Pinstreet: black stone columns had risen without any prior notice, supporting a magnificent cathedral. Every column, every arch, every dome of the cathedral was embedded with the white bones of different races, densely packed and wildly disordered, their hollow eyes fixed upon Leonard, who stood small and vulnerable at the center of the hall, as though conducting a judgment. Amun stood at the foot of a cross hundreds of meters high in the cathedral's depths, smiling gently at Leonard, whose back was bent and face twisted. "This bone cathedral isn't bad, is it?" he said. "I've only just stolen it. Now, should the divine beings detect something amiss and descend, they'll at least be delayed by thirty seconds—enough." As he spoke, Amun lifted his hand and gently pressed on his single-piece crystal spectacles, his face bright with smiles. Suddenly, a soft "ding" echoed in Leonard's ears—ethereal and distant, as if coming from beyond infinity. This sound cut abruptly through the fragmented, whispering voices that had been tearing at Leonard's spiritual essence, silencing everything around him. Radiant beams of light surged from within Leonard's body, coalescing before him into a clear, pure form—like an angel, yet without wings. This figure stood a hundred meters tall, its surface constantly shimmering and pulsing, as though marking the passage of time. With an unseen force, Leonard was pushed backward, retreating toward the great door of the Hall of Bones. On the door, translucent, distorted faces emerged, sealing in and separating the realms of spirit and star. "Ding!" The sound of the bell rang again, and the faces, each etched with agony, suddenly froze in place. Leonard's figure was no longer obstructed, and in this brief interval, it passed through the doors of the "Church of Bones" as if intangible. Everything before him instantly resumed normalcy—there was still a hint of brightness in the sky, and the gas streetlamps by the roadside glowed, casting light upon the darkened 7th Street. From the outside, however, the building appeared silent, serene, and dark, as though no one existed within. The old man... it was only now, at this moment, that Leonard began to regain his thoughts, his heart tightening as he stepped forward, intending to reenter the house. Yet the doors of 7th Street remained heavy and immovable—briefly, he could not open them. With this obstacle now in place, Leonard regained a measure of composure, retreating with growing anxiety while swiftly pondering what he could do to save the old man. A few steps later, he paused, lowered his head solemnly, and swiftly recited in the language of the giant: "An fool out of this age..." Lennard had already realized that the one within was Amun's true form, and to confront Amun's true form, he could only appeal to the gods for aid! ... Holding his lantern,克莱恩 immediately stepped into the historical haze, reversing four steps to reach the gray mist. Upon hearing Lennard's prayer,克莱恩, who had initially been only slightly puzzled and carelessly attentive, instantly became alert—like someone just waking up in winter, having just climbed out of bed, only to be drenched with a sudden bucket of ice water. Amun's true form journeyed to Bakersfield... Amun's true form found Leonard and Palis... Amun stole the necropolis church from his brother, using it to delay the divine descent... In fact, when Amun first proposed the game of "who would find Kothar, the Shadow Wolf, first," he never intended to truly settle the contest, nor cared what the stakes were—his only purpose was to draw attention, to assure me that He was still tracking me, still actively striving to claim the "Fortress of the Source." Jacob had laid this trap, Amun had hidden it for a few thousand years, and now it finally came into play... Thoughts flashed through Caine's mind one after another. Then, he raised his right hand and summoned an object from among the clutter. "Zero-61," "The Box of the Ancient Days!" It is both a Zero-level seal and belongs to the "Apprentice" path, allowing better mobilization of the "Fortress of the Source's" power and greater strategic flexibility. Against Amun's true form, this might yet offer Palis a glimmer of hope. At the same time, Klein confirmed through prayer that Leonard had not been infected by Amun, and immediately, in the voice of the "Fool," instructed: "Leave the scene and go to the Church of Night. Make a prayer to Night, by the way." Below the divine, the pinnacle of battle was far beyond the reach of extraordinary beings like Leonard. Even with Klein having initially grasped the "Source Keep" and holding the "0–61," he felt little confidence—his only hope was to delay until the gods themselves arrived. Outside No. 7 on Pustert Street, Leonard's mind echoed with the words of the "Fool." He paused, looked up at the closed door, then returned his gaze, and suddenly turned, sharply knocking against a tooth in his mouth with the joint of his right fist. Instantly, streams of ethereal soil surged forth, spraying onto Leonard's head and enveloping him from top to bottom. In an instant, Leonard seemed to have transformed into a clay figure, gradually sinking downward, merging with the earth. It is a rare natural spirit acquired from the "Fate Hermitage," lacking exceptional intrinsic traits, with its abilities primarily drawn from the spirit realm. It enables Leonard to move swiftly through the earth, far outpacing even steam subway trains. As Leonard withdrew from the battlefield, Caine had already lifted the gem-encrusted "Box of the Ancient Days," leveraging the power of the "Source Fortress," and his gaze was fixed upon the towering church—black in hue, with white bones embedded throughout—overlapping the 7th Street location. This church severed his "true vision," preventing him from seeing inside; he could only gauge that the battle had not yet concluded by observing the shifting patterns of light and shadow through its stained glass. "Can we use the first layer of '0–61' power to swap the bones of the church with its internal space? No—that wouldn't simply mean Amun entering the 'Source Fortress'? With only the first layer of the 'Box of the Ancient Days,' we simply cannot contain Him. What if we activate the second layer, and relocate the entire 7th Street building to another place?" No. Not even possible. Without Beckland, timely divine interventions will fail, and the Palais Soloyasde will grow even more perilous... "The Third Layer? If we open it, the 'Source Citadel' might very well change hands on the spot..." "..." As thoughts flashed through him, Caine instantly formed a plan—focus the scope, act with precision! He intended to exchange the main gate of the Bone Church with the first layer of space generated by the 'Source Citadel's' push of the 'Ancient Box,' thereby directly invalidating the seals that had long isolated the spiritual and stellar realms. With this, the divine beings would become aware, and divine interventions would occur earlier. At the head of the weathered long table, Caine sat in his high-backed chair, aligning his gaze with the deep red star representing Leonard, and opened the first layer of the 'Ancient Box.' Suddenly, the immense and turbulent power within the 'Source Citadel' calmed, withdrew into quietude, and silently penetrated the deep red star. In the real world, at No. 7 Pinstreet, the stone gate of the bone-church, once overlaid with ordinary buildings, instantly lost its luster and soon transformed into a shallow expanse of sandy gravel and rounded stones. Suddenly, inside and outside became one, and the scene within became clearly visible to Caine's eyes. Before a cross towering a hundred meters high, Amun, dressed in a classical black robe and wearing a soft-capped pointed hat and a single spectacles, faced the now-open gate and slowly turned his body. In his hands he held a crystalline column formed by the convergence of light and shadow, within which numerous "Chrono-creatures" with twelve segments swam swiftly and gracefully, as if the entire world around had come to a standstill. Amun raised his head toward the sky, a slight upward curve forming at the corners of his mouth.