The Corpse Cathedral around them shattered like broken glass as Amon released his stolen control over it.
When he returned to the real world, he was still sitting on a chair in the middle of the road. In front of him was the tea table. A short distance away, Leonard lay unconscious on the street.
Adam, wearing a plain white cloak, walked slowly toward him. His golden hair and beard caught the morning light, and the silver cross on his chest gave off a faint shine. In his hand he held a burnt quill. His clear, childlike eyes stayed fixed on his brother.
"Did you like my gift, brother?" Amon asked with a smile as he adjusted the crystal monocle on his right eye. His curly black hair framed his thin face under the shadow of a pointed hat. His black eyes gave him a youthful look.
Adam did not answer right away. His eyes turned toward the unconscious Leonard. "Your personality has changed drastically. Aren't you scared?"
"Of course not. I actually like these changes. What is there to be scared of?" Amon replied with a genuine smile, meeting Adam's gaze.
Adam looked at Amon closely, trying to read his true thoughts. His expression softened as if he had found the answer. Then he asked, "What do you plan to do now?"
"Ever the spectator," Amon said with a chuckle. His eyebrows wrinkled slightly as he looked up at the sky, where the faint red moon hung in the morning light.
"I need to attain godhood. Otherwise I will not be able to withstand the identity of Sefirah Castle's owner."
Adam lifted his head and followed his brother's gaze into the sky.
"Why not Antigonus? Did you not plan to steal his advancement ritual?" Adam asked, his calm voice carrying the weight of his words.
"Yes, but…" Amon tapped his monocle with one finger.
"You wish to save Abraham."
"Well, I have to fulfill Father's prophecy after all." Amon said with a crooked smile.
Adam shook his head slowly, the silver cross on his neck swaying.
***
In the Forsaken Lands of the Gods.
In the area where dusk was frozen, there were countless palaces, countless towers, and many majestic city walls. They were magnificent and opulent, resembling a miracle found in myths and legends. Furthermore, they were frozen in time.
This was the Giant King's Court.
Amon pinched his monocle as he admired the view. "The Giant King's Court was secretly Anor Lando all along…"
Amon turned toward the stairs in the distance, paved with gray stones and leading to the peak of the mountain from Afternoon Town through the Court Path. As he walked, he watched the rotting giants wandering across the land. They were broad, muscular humanoids of towering size, much like the trolls from Elden Ring.
A mischievous thought came to him and he chuckled. "Since this is Anor Lando, I should become the Chosen Undead to reach the boss room."
He laughed again. "The original body would seethe in jealousy if he learned I get to experience Dark Souls in real life while he didn't."
He looked down at his clothes. He wore a black coat over a plain white shirt, dark trousers, leather boots, a pointed hat, and his crystal monocle that hung over his right eye. "Should I go for mage build or warrior build?" he pondered.
As he walked and reached the Court Path, he thought out loud. "If I take the mage build then I would crush everyone here without any effort. It would not be fun at all." His eyes then fell on something ahead.
At the side of the road that led to the stairs, Amon saw a skeleton slumped against the ground. The skeleton wore broken and decayed armor and still clutched a sword handle, but half of it's body was gone, most likely crushed under a rotten giant's foot.
Amon walked closer. Without laying a hand on the skeleton, with a snap of his finger, he watched as the broken armor suddenly vanished from the skeleton's body and fell in front of him.
This was an advanced use of Amon's stealing ability. Instead of removing the armor from the corpse manually, he stole the actions he would normally need to perform in order to strip it. The effort, the time, and the motion required were all taken at once.
Amon named this ability Shortcut.
The next moment, he summoned the phantom of a huge ancient stone clock. Its hands were formed by his Worms of Time, constantly writhing as they moved. He focused his power on the armor and the weapon, and the flow of time on them began to reverse.
Something caught his eye. The Time Reversing ability had not repaired the sword. Only the handle was restored and the blade did not reappear. He picked up the sword and discovered it was a sealed artifact.
A chuckle left his mouth as he decrypted the ability in seconds. It was a sword with the power of the Twilight Giants Pathway, the Sword of Dawn ability. Each strike from it is imbued with a Purification effect, that purifies the Evil creatures like Devils or Zombies.
It had a drawback. The user needed to purify evil every day, or the sword would take control of the user's body in order to purify evil.
With a flex of his will, a dawn light emanated from the handle. It first took the form of a broadsword, then a longsword, and finally a dagger.
His attention turned to the armor. With a snap of his fingers, he used the Shortcut ability again and found himself wearing the new armor. It was made of steel and leather. The chest and shoulders had steel plates for protection while the joints and undersides were reinforced with flexible dark leather for easy movement. The steel was polished but not flashy, and the leather straps kept everything secure and practical for travel and combat.
He moved his hands and feet to see if the armor fit properly. Satisfied, he pinched his monocle and started walking toward the rotting giants.
***
Being a Beyonder on the Error pathway, Amon had decrypted many fighting styles. Fighting these rotting giants was easy for him.
He dodged a swipe from one giant and, using his superior movement, grabbed its hand and used it as a foothold to jump directly toward its face. His glowing Dawn Sword pierced the giant's face to the hilt, but the giant did not flinch. Amon jumped backward, leaving the sword embedded.
Another giant swung at him and accidentally hit the first giant with the sword still in its face. The sword exploded in a flash of purifying light, destroying both giants and several others nearby.
Boom! Crack!
Normally it would not have exploded like this, but Amon had stolen the sword's lifespan, making it fragile. When the giant's hand struck the sword, it broke and released its power.
The broken sword handle instantly teleported back into Amon's hand as he used his stealing ability to snatch it from the air. The handle visibly repaired itself as he returned its stolen lifespan.
Amon landed lightly on the ground and scanned the area. More rotting giants were coming, lumbering toward him with heavy steps that shook the earth.
He rolled forward to dodge a sweeping arm and used the momentum to spring onto a fallen pillar. From there, he kicked off and landed on a giant's shoulder. With a quick twist, he drove his sword into its neck. The giant toppled, crushing the ground with a deafening thud.
Crash!
Another giant swung a massive sword at him. Sparks of light flew as steel met dawn's light, but Amon's sword moved faster than the giant could react.
One by one, he struck with precision, using the giants' own momentum against them. A kick here, a slash there. Within minutes, the area was clear, and Amon stood alone among the fallen. He adjusted his monocle and smirked. "That was too easy."
...
With ease, he crossed the empty Court Path and approached the stairs he had seen from below. They were entirely grayish-white, but an orange-yellow glow lit them. The stairs looked both gorgeous and silent, almost inviting him upward.
Every step of the staircase was relatively high. Any ordinary human would have found it very difficult to climb.
Amon chuckled and pinched his monocle. Behind him, a headless giant stood up. Instead of attacking, it extended its arm, and Amon stepped onto it. He had parasitized the giant, using it to climb the stairs instead of himself.
With its help, he reached the top and stood before the majestic city walls. In the middle of the wall was a door tens of meters tall, grayish-blue with golden nails embedded in it. Two guards stood outside in a very oppressive stance.
The guards were five to six meters tall, wearing sturdy silver full-body armor. One held a great sword, the other a great axe resting on the ground. Behind their visors, a single ball of orange light glowed like an eye. They were Silver Knights, Sequence 3 demigods of the Twilight Giants Pathway.
Amon's eyes glowed with excitement. He jumped down from the giant's hand and instructed it to move forward and open the giant door.
Before it could touch the door, the axe-wielding Silver Knight moved and bisected the headless giant in two.
Slash!
The giant holding the great sword turned its head toward Amon and let out a guttural roar. The sound was so strong that the air rushed past him.
Woosh!
Amon's smile deepened as he adjusted his monocle.
Next moment, The great axe-holding giant's single molten eye suddenly erupted into a thin beam of light that decimated the place where Amon was standing.
Boom!
It was the ability of the Sequence 3 Silver Knight called Silver Rapier. This ability allows a Silver Knight to release a beam of light from anywhere that can easily destroy a small hill without effort.
When the dust receded, Amon was nowhere to be found.
The great axe-holding giant looked around with its spiritual sense to see if any trace of the intruder remained but found nothing. Before it could retreat, it glanced to the side. Instead of seeing the other Silver Knight, it saw the intruder, now the size of a giant, standing atop the body of the great sword-wielding Silver Knight, holding the great sword, which was pierced into the ground through the head of the other Silver Knight.
With a scream of anger, the axe-holding giant attacked the intruder while the intruder struck back with the great sword.
Thousands of beams erupted from around the axe-holding giant.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The intruder withstood them all as the sword in his hand glowed with dawn light, and he thrust it directly toward the giant's head.
The axe-wielding giant swung its axe to cleave the intruder's skull. Neither of them thought to dodge the other's attack. Their strikes collided. The intruder was hit on the head by the axe while his sword pierced the axe-wielding giant's head.
Bam! Bam!
Near the door, clapping sounds resounded as the real Amon stood there, applauding the performance. As the Mentor of Deceit, deceiving these senile old giants was child's play for him. He made each of them think that the other was the intruder and deceived their thought process to ignore everything except killing the intruder.
He would have liked to fight them hand to hand, but as an Error Pathway Beyonder, taking on two Silver Knights without preparation or tricks would be foolish.
Without another thought, he opened the giant door and went inside.
***