World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 218 The Tongue of Deception
Simon turned his head and was taken aback when he saw Lin An's expressionless face and Rocky rolling around.

He hadn't expected that Lin An, whom he had just fought, was just some kind of illusion. Then Simon stared at the blond boy in the fishing net, frowning in confusion.

Why can this child speak like Adenauer Emmanuel?

Rocky, no match for Lin An, was in tears, his expression ferocious and out of control. His soul was like a piece of wood hollowed out by termites, teetering on the verge of collapse and almost dissipating.

Rocky simply couldn't bear to die at Lin An's hands.

He's always the one toying with others; no one has ever dared to torment him like this!
Even the renowned God King couldn't defeat him!

In their several encounters, Rocky could tell that Lin An's radiation level was actually lower than his, but he was just too good at too many mystical arts, including both offensive and supportive types, and recently even the "prophet" seemed to be immune to them.

But Lin An has a weakness.

He hasn't mastered any real methods of resurrection!

The death of the original body would be a fatal blow to Lin An!

“Simon Lloyd, I’m the kid you met at the supermarket entrance last February,” Rocky shouted. “The mall was having a sale that day, so I asked a passerby to watch my luggage, and he just grabbed my backpack and ran off.”

“You came then! You helped me get my luggage back and even bought me bubble tea. We sat on the street chatting, and you mentioned that you had recently seen an exhibition at the University of Ann Arbor Museum, and you were particularly interested in one of the exhibits donated by the Aske and Embra Heritage Foundation, the Cursed Bowl.”

"The incantation engraved on the bottom of the bowl is a hymn to 'Sariel,' and you resonated with it. But your inclination is towards the 'god of agriculture.' When I reported this to Wednesday, he told me to kill you directly to prevent any unplanned deviations."

Lin An was preparing to deliver the final blow to Rocky when he heard these words, and his thoughts raced.

In his past adventures, Lin An encountered some recurring mysterious archetypes, as well as different versions of "secondary creations" derived from the same "legend".

For example, the original dwarf demon and the fairy Rutin, and more recently the Mothman and Barbatos...

Later legends, due to differences in individual understanding, culture, beliefs and customs, incorporate the interpretations of each region, ultimately deviating from the original text. Furthermore, due to individual personalities, they present differentiated media and prototypes.

What's so special about this?
Rocky continued.

“You helped me, Simon, and I didn’t want you to die! So I ignored Wednesday’s orders and secretly helped you complete the ritual—you must be the ‘Lord of Dreams’ to satisfy the Black City.”

Rocky's statement is quite strange... Lin An thought to himself.

Moreover, this sentence reminded him of the riddle Doris had mentioned at the Starry Sky Pavilion.

"If our planet and another planet are orbiting close together... I think the first to be captured will not necessarily be the planet itself, but rather the smaller satellite orbiting it."

If the so-called divine medium is actually the moon surrounding "Commerx," reflecting the stars of that galaxy...

Suppressing his speculations, Lin An summoned [Blessing of the Primal Avatar], selecting the Blessing of Power. The phantom of the war armor appeared, and power spread throughout his limbs and bones, causing his entire body to crack and pop.

He punched Rocky's fishing net, which immediately transformed into a fly to dissipate the terrifying force.

"Simon! Help!"

Upon hearing Rocky's original childish voice calling for help, Simon, who was initially completely bewildered, was jolted awake.

"You're the one I heard that day..."

"Yes! I have been observing your life and thinking about how to save you, even at the cost of keeping it a secret from my subordinate, the woman named Siglo, who is now the research director."

"What exactly did you do?" Simon stared at the young god of mischief with trembling pupils.

The boy's appearance was pitiful, yet his beauty could not be concealed, that much was certain. But his beauty was difficult for ordinary people to perceive, because it always shimmered, melted, and blended, like the shape of an invisible flame.

He is the spinning needle and thread—arrogantly weaving through human destiny, and at some point, Rocky's smile can turn into a conman's trickery.

"Tear!"

Lin An pulled away Rocky's fishing net, which startled the latter, causing him to fly around wildly and make a constant buzzing sound.

“Simon, your parents are unhappy that you are wasting your time pursuing a wanted criminal. Although you disagree with them, you dare not rebel.”

"Then the ceremony is quite simple. I wrote a 'prophetic' letter to both of you, similar to the one Uncle Lin received, and called you to a hippie gathering place that you hate the most to negotiate the agreement. Sure enough, your parents still do not support your ideas."

“When your anger reaches its peak, I’ll tell you: kill them, seal all those annoying people who don’t suit your taste into another world. We must dare to be ourselves, right, Simon?”

Rocky's words reminded Simon of painful memories, that bloody and insane night.

The shadow of "Comers" descended from another dimension, and his repressed desires and obsessions erupted. It seemed as if someone had given him a push, causing his thinking to cross the line of humanity.

When Simon came to his senses, the area around him had turned into a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood.

His former comrade-in-arms, Adenauer Emmanuel, lay weakly in his arms.

On his deathbed, he mustered all his strength to tell Simon.

"As long as the sword remains in its sheath, madness will not go beyond a certain point..."

These words brought Simon back to his senses, and he voluntarily accepted the trial at the headquarters of the St. Anilof Foundation. While he was confined in the isolation room, he prayed constantly, asking for God's mercy.

At that time, Simon believed that the gods had truly heard his prayers, because Adenauer Emmanuel had miraculously survived and reappeared before him, reaching out his hand to him.

"From now on, let's work together."

These beautiful and faith-filled fragments of memory, which had once supported him out of the shadows, shattered with Rocky's words.

A chilling suspicion crept into Simon's mind, and he asked numbly, "You're not Adenauer... then where is he?" "Remembering death."

"what?"

“His ashes are mixed in with that painting, ‘Remembering Death,’ which hangs in my office. He was smiling on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge when I was teaching you how to wield the ‘Lord of Dreams,’” Rocky said sincerely.

Simon gazed at the Scandinavian gods, who responded to him with their innocent yet pathetic state.

“Look,” Rocky said, “how much I love you, Simon Lloyd, the wise, intelligent, cunning, and shrewd Rocky Alberg, who has poured a whole year of his heart and soul into you…”

Yes, how can we deny that he is acting in a divine way? Simon thought, he transforms the ugly, disgusting, and utterly evil things in our lives into lofty concepts, up to the pinnacle of what human thought can design.

It's all Rocky's fault; that's just the kind of god he is.

Even when you are most grateful to someone, you should hate them; and even when you hate them most, you should still be grateful to them.

"Your words are contradictory." Lin An tore the fishing net apart, exposing Rocky's true form. He had nowhere to escape. "Didn't you say you were trying to trick my captain to earn some pocket money?"

“There’s no conflict. I’ve done so much, why shouldn’t I be paid?” Rocky suddenly became smug. “Simon, cooperate with me to kill the ghost of Alpha-002! I’ll come back to rescue you later!”

Lin An extended the palm of Asherah's blessing and grabbed the chattering fly, causing Rocky to let out a sharp squeak.

"Since I'm going to give up the quarter of divine power I finally obtained anyway, I might as well just explode with you! Just you wait, Lin An!"

Divine power?

Lin An narrowed his eyes, and without the slightest hesitation, cleanly and neatly crushed Rocky's body. Blood mist filled the air, and the latter screamed as he turned into a lump of mangled flesh.

"puff!"

The child's body was completely pulverized into mincemeat, and the irritating screams finally stopped.

Rocky is dead.

Lin An let out a breath of stale air, finally having a chance to turn around and check on Simon's condition.

Hopefully, he won't be influenced by Rocky's self-righteous words.

This was obviously impossible. The cruel truth surfaced, causing all of one's faith to collapse completely. An angel, who had completely lost his human form, suddenly unfolded dozens of pairs of dark gray wings before Lin An's eyes, with green eyes gleaming beneath each feather.

"Captain, the level of contamination you've caused..."

It exceeded 80%.

The words caught in Lin An's throat as his body stiffened.

Evil eye!

Lin An hurriedly instructed the system to search for a way to "escape the evil eye." The coldness of the clock tower echoed Sariel's ruthlessness, and a strange buzzing sounded from behind.

In that instant, the world held its breath.

From the reflections of countless evil eyes, Lin An saw a burst of intense light erupt and attack him.

His heart pounded in his chest, his veins hissed, and the sound transformed into a magnificent, layered call in his ears.

The intense light illuminated Lin An's soul, like a flame leaving a mark on steel, and the strange and overwhelming thoughts in his mind turned into wild whispers.

The so-called divine power, it really was the power of the Goddess of the Lamp. Lin An thought, "This has no effect on me..."

In that instant, he felt a slight unease, as if he were sitting on pins and needles.

The strange discomfort quickly subsided, replaced by an indescribable comfort...

sleepy……

The sound and heat were so primal that they scorched the retinas, turning the night into a dazzling day, and the air was filled with the fragments of reality—wood, glass, steel—the burning crystallization of civilization dancing in a fiery waltz.

But all of this was slipping away from Lin An, and his drowsiness grew stronger, until he could no longer lift his eyelids.

A hazy mist, swaying reeds, a call...

Lin An drifted into a deep sleep.

In the ensuing explosion, the base floor of the New Tower of Babylon shattered, and the sleeping Lin An plummeted downwards.

…………

The staff lounge in the ancient section of the University of Ann Arbor's museum.

As if waking from a nightmare, the short, blond boy clutched his head, groaning in pain. His chaotic recollection was interrupted midway and dissipated into the river of time.

The boy felt he should remember something, but all he could find in the past was emptiness.

He raised his head and stared intently at his reflection in the glass display case, his dreamy eyes empty and bewildered, unable to come back to his senses for a long time.

"Who...who am I?" the boy murmured to himself.

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(End of this chapter)