At this moment, Black Earl’s voice reaches everyone’s ears.
"It’s not concealment nor diminishing presence; it’s more like entering the interstice of time and space." Black Earl paused and pondered on his wording, "Or perhaps, he has entered a viewpoint neglected by fate."
Black Earl’s words were somewhat obscure, and the two apprentices were still bewildered after hearing them. Meanwhile, Laplace inside the prism spoke quite plainly.
Laplace: "Is this an alchemy tool to ward off divination?"
"Yes." Angel nods while glancing sideways at Dangross, who is happily playing with his cloak. He initially wanted to pick it off, but thinking back, when he opened the Blood Night Shelter, he accidentally woke Dangross from its "training," feeling a bit guilty, he simply turned a blind eye to its mischievous behavior.
Laplace frowned for the first time, showing a displeased expression: "I told you before, Reflection of the Heart is not prophecy. Even if you possess tools or abilities to ward off divination, they can’t shield against the reflection of the heart."
Alchemy tools to ward off divination are exceedingly rare outside, considered priceless treasures. Everyone present understands its value, but Laplace’s words were true; this cloak is rare but only targets prophetic forces, so it does not constitute the answer Laplace seeks.
They all understood, but does Angel not?
The crowd looks at Angel, eager to hear his explanation.
Angel lifts his eyes and directly faces Laplace, looking calm: "I previously said that I had several potential answers in mind at the time, and would choose one to tell you. Back then, I couldn’t judge Reflection of the Heart as not prophecy. Moreover, this cloak was indeed among my potential answers."
Laplace can tell that Angel isn’t lying, but this explanation still leaves her somewhat dissatisfied, feeling...
"Sophistry."
Angel’s gaze remains unchanged, his tone still resolute: "I’m merely telling you the facts."
After pausing, Angel initially wanted to see if Laplace would continue to get angry, but unfortunately, Laplace didn’t show much emotion and merely looked at Angel with even more indifference than before.
Angel sighed softly in his heart before speaking directly: "I understand what you mean, why I still brought out the Blood Night Shelter is because it holds deeper significance... Uh, Blood Night Shelter is the name I gave to this cloak."
Angel’s sudden twist made everyone show expressions of "as expected."
Laplace, however, froze for a moment: "Deeper significance? What do you mean?"
Angel: "This cloak is something I crafted a few years ago. It was very successful in its craftsmanship; when I engraved the Magical Energy Array upon it, the Alchemy Omen appeared as expected."
At this point, Laplace still hasn’t heard anything unusual about it; the only valid information is—this person before her is an Alchemist.
As for other things like Alchemy Omen, even though Laplace hasn’t been to the Wizards’ Realm, she knows it’s a very common phenomenon.
While Laplace was puzzled, Angel continued: "I thought this time’s Alchemy Omen was similar to the past, and I had already prepared, based on past experiences, to battle intellectually with the ’Prophet.’
For any tool related to prophecy, within the omen, some resemblance of a ’Prophet’ typically emerges. These ’Prophets’ aren’t always humans, sometimes objects, or even the long stretch of road. They predict you, and you need to be prepared to predict their prediction.
Angel shrugs: "However, I didn’t encounter a ’Prophet.’ What I saw was... the River of Fate."
The River of Fate is one of the three main streams of the prophecy system, and since the Blood Night Shelter involves blocking prophecy, it wasn’t strange seeing the River of Fate in the omen.
"By the river of fate, I fell asleep. When I awoke, I had turned into a Clock Tower Monster. The time as the Clock Tower Monster was quite hard, the in-between process I won’t describe, but it lasted a full five years... in the omen, the time is different from reality. Five years later, I finally freed myself from the Clock Tower Monster and returned to the outside world..."
"When I say outside world, it’s not reality but by the River of Fate where I slept before."
At this point, Angel’s omen hasn’t deviated significantly from reality.
Nonetheless, it’s quite strange that an omen lasted five years. Even five years within the omen is considerable.
Also, spending five years thinking you’d escaped the nightmare of the Clock Tower Monster, yet hadn’t left the omen to return to reality is something unheard of.
Are there chain omens within Alchemy Omen?
Angel: "As I stood on the riverbank dazed for a while, the River of Fate rolled away before my eyes. When I came to, the River of Fate was gone, and I had reached an unknown Void, with a giant clock appearing before me. The hands inside the wheel ticked along with the gears."
Dox: "The clock you mentioned is..."
Angel: "The Wheel of Time."
The crowd had been guessing that it might be the Wheel of Time, and indeed it was.
Understandably, both the River of Fate and the Wheel of Time are two of the three main streams in the prophecy system.
In a single Alchemy Omen, Angel encountered both the River of Fate and the Wheel of Time? Could he possibly encounter the Strings of the World next? The three main currents are taking turns for Angel?
If so, this Alchemy Omen is intriguing.
Including Laplace, everyone’s curiosity was piqued. However, the progression of events differed vastly from their imaginations.
Angel: "On that towering Wheel of Time, I saw a figure."
"He told me I made a choice when becoming a Clock Tower Monster, and he intends to take another choice away."
Initially, upon hearing this, everyone couldn’t react until Dox exclaimed: "You mean he stole your choice?"
Stole a choice? This sounds familiar... they think they know who Angel encountered.
If it’s him, things might indeed upheave all "normalcy."
Laplace: "His name is..."
Angel: "His real name is very long... but if you’ve seen enough memories, you should have heard his other name. A name that spreads across the Boundless Universe."
"Thief of Time."