That morning, Klein got a sudden notice from Captain Dunn. Leonard, while tracking a conman named Lanevus, had uncovered some leads and needed the help of a Seer pathway Beyonder.
Despite a nagging bad feeling, Klein couldn't shirk duty. He soon arrived at the mission site and, with Leonard, found a letter left by Lanevus.
That letter confirmed Klein's unease. In it, Lanevus boasted about planting a "bomb" in Tingen. From the context, Klein deduced it wasn't a literal explosive but a mystical one, though its potency was unclear.
Either way, it was no small matter. Klein and Leonard hurried back to Blackthorn Security Company to report to Captain Dunn.
But just as Klein exhaled in relief, a familiar visitor walked into Blackthorn: Miss Megose, Lanevus's former fiancée.
That wasn't the issue. The issue was her belly. What should've been a less-than-two-month pregnancy looked seven or eight months along. When Klein instinctively tried to use his spiritual vision, a sharp spiritual intuition screamed: Don't look—you'll die!
Klein froze, his mind racing. Every coincidence, every scrap of knowledge from recent days, flashed through his head, coalescing into one phrase: You cannot gaze directly upon a god!
Whatever was in her belly was likely the spawn of a True God.
That was Lanevus's "bomb"!
For Ince Zangwill, today was harvest day.
Months ago, the former Evernight Church archbishop, now a defector, had come to Tingen with 0-08, plotting to seize the Saint Selena Ashes from the Tingen Nighthawks. He'd set a series of schemes in motion: leaking the Antigonus Family Notebook into the market, writing the deaths of the original Klein and his classmate, stealing Azik's son's skull, and orchestrating the birth of the True Creator's spawn.
At least half the coincidences Klein had faced lately were Ince's doing.
And that half, tied to Klein, had nearly driven Ince, a third-rate writer obsessed with stacking coincidences, up the wall. He'd tried to write Klein's death countless times, but something always interfered.
In the end, Klein—who should've died in the black divination incident—not only joined the Nighthawks but met the odd Jack Jones, gaining heaps of knowledge from him. That even saved another Nighthawk, Kenley, from a scripted death.
This was no trivial hiccup. Kenley's death was meant to destabilize Dunn, a key step in Ince's plan. Now, with Kenley only injured and recovering at home, the effect was diluted.
Logically, Ince should've slowed down, made more arrangements to ensure success.
But the True Creator's spawn was maturing faster than expected. Delaying further would put it beyond 0-08's ability to orchestrate. So, Ince threw caution to the wind and launched his attack today, sending the spawn-carrying Megose to Blackthorn Security Company.
Once both sides tore each other apart, Ince could swoop in and claim the prize.
Hidden in the shadows, no one would know. If this attack failed, he could just relocate and prep another.
As Ince mused, 0-08 suddenly twitched uncontrollably, scribbling on a blank page:
"He's here! He's here!"
"I knew He was lying to me! Gods are never any good!"
0-08's agitation was palpable, its handwriting jagged. Ince, who'd never seen 0-08 like this, was stunned. The quill kept writing:
"I didn't meddle with you, so you can't touch me, or I'll expose your aliases…"
The words cut off as a hand gently pressed down on the quill.
"Shh, I thought you'd know what to say and what to keep quiet about, Pen of Alesouhod," a low voice said, tinged with amusement and a hint of warning.
Ince traced the hand to its owner, meeting a pair of golden eyes as radiant as sunlight. Those eyes held no emotion, gazing at him like he was a corpse.
Ince shivered under that stare, instinctively releasing 0-08 and stepping back. By the time he snapped out of it, the stranger was toying with 0-08. The quill, always a troublemaker in Ince's hands, was eerily docile in his.
Who is this?
Ince's pupils shrank. His gaze flicked to 0-08's scrawled words, a mix of terror and absurdity flooding him.
This guy… a god?
No, impossible!
Ince screamed denial in his head, but his body was rigid. As a Sequence 0 Sealed Artifact, 0-08's personality was iffy, but few things could rattle it this badly.
The mysterious figure—Evah—mentally assessed his Persona Mask's effect. The moment he'd found Ince Zangwill, he'd slipped a "fear" Persona Mask onto him. Ince's reactions—shivering, retreating—were all tied to its influence.
"As expected, compared to the blunt burst of Emotion Manipulation, Persona Mask's influence is subtler, harder to detect. And unlike Emotion Manipulation's short duration, Persona Mask lasts until I cancel it," Evah noted internally.
His gaze fell to the quill, a smirk tugging at his lips as he recalled 0-08's assist. "Were you doing that on purpose, or was it a coincidence? Are you really scared of me, or is this a warning?"
Thinking of 0-08's alias-exposing threat, Evah's eyes lowered, a faint smile forming.
He was, honestly, a bit spooked. Death didn't scare him—social death did.
In that sense, 0-08 had some game, skipping mortal threats for a direct social death jab.
"But your warning's useless. I'm not the one looking to gobble you up…" Evah shook his head, finding the quill's artifact-level intellect a bit dim.
He looked off in a certain direction, smiling. "If you don't show yourself, I'm taking this Pen of Alesouhod with me."
(End of Chapter)