"..."
Edward lifted his head and looked over, his pupils shrinking sharply.
How is that possible?
This person…why was Christine here?
Wasn't she from more than a hundred years in the future?
Why would she appear in the past?
Did she travel back with me at that time?
Christine looked a little surprised. "Eh? Why are you looking at me so strangely? As if you…know me?"
She didn't know me?
Edward froze, and a conjecture quickly formed in his mind:
Either this woman in front of him merely resembled the Christine from the future…
Or—Christine had originally existed in the past all along!
"Is there a possibility…that she has always…been me?"
He suddenly recalled what Christine from the future once told him.
So the "from the very beginning" she spoke of…actually began more than a hundred years ago?!
Tap, tap, tap.
Christine approached slowly with a smile. "Don't worry. Don't be afraid. I don't want your life. I just want you…to give me a child."
Confirmed.
This woman was indeed the Christine from the future!
The next moment, Christine's figure vanished into thin air.
Edward only felt the blood-red moonlight falling onto him suddenly solidify like liquid, wrapping around his entire being.
Almost instantly—
Edward felt as if all the cells in his body possessed independent life. They rapidly swelled and grew—gestating life!
This wasn't pollution, but the Authority of "Fertility" wielded by the Mother Goddess of Depravity.
He immediately took a step back, trying to hide behind the Phantom Doors.
At the same time, lightning flashed in his palm. He slammed his own chest, using thunder to suppress the abnormal changes within his body—and then, with each flash, he turned into streaks of phantom door, constantly ejecting large, round-bellied Worms of Star.
But the crimson moonlight transformed from Christine clung to him like maggots on bone. No matter how he teleported or fled, he could not shake it off.
"Just a little more. Just a little more and I can complete the deconstruction."
Rapidly expelling such a massive number of Worms of Star in a short span placed enormous strain on Edward—not only accelerating his depletion of spirituality, but also draining his body of strength. His brain throbbed with stabbing pain that nearly made him faint.
No way.
He couldn't hold on.
Edward gritted his teeth and sharply raised his head toward the sky. "Leo—"
Yes. He was going to magnify again!
But at that moment, the clinging crimson moonlight abruptly withdrew. A look of suspicion flashed across her eyes—the "Leo—dero" almost uttered was swallowed back. Her figure paused:
"Hearth."
Edward vanished from the deserted island.
A few seconds later, the liquid-like blood-colored moonlight swiftly condensed back into Christine. Her face carried a hint of surprise.
"Impressive. Even a spatial seal that can isolate the Sefirah Castle still couldn't stop him."
She raised her head toward the scarlet moon in the sky and spread her hands.
"You saw that, right? You can't blame me for this. It's your fault for not sealing this space properly and letting him slip away."
"I used the Authority you granted me immediately. After all, this body I'm parasitising is just a Sequence 9. You can't expect me to use the full power of the main body, right?"
"…What? Fine then, just descend your consciousness directly."
Christine suddenly arched an eyebrow, sat down cross-legged on the spot, and closed her eyes as if surrendering.
But after a while—nothing happened.
She lazily stood back up, brushing the dust off herself.
"If you're sure you won't descend, then I'm heading back."
She took a step out, tore open the air, and stepped through—but just before entering the Spirit World, she suddenly turned her head toward the place Edward vanished. She smiled lightly.
"Don't you dare die. Whether you can truly escape His control...it all hinges on you."
———
Calderón City.
A massive cluster composed of countless Worms of Star—heads and tails both fading into the Void—appeared out of thin air in the ruins. Each worm had a belly swollen like a sphere, desperately burrowing in all directions.
However, the gray-black fog swirling around the cluster prevented their escape, forcing them back, herding them into convergence again.
Then those worms rapidly vaporised, condensing into an intangible black "mist" flecked with starlight—obviously it was an Obscurus.
It dragged a long trail of black smoke behind it, rampaging madly through this city that had been abandoned for thousands of years. Every building it passed was shattered, making this already dilapidated ancient city even more fragmented and ruined.
After more than ten minutes, the crazed Obscurus gradually calmed down. It circled once in midair and returned to where it first appeared—then instantly condensed into a physical form again, reverting back into Edward's original appearance (a child).
He plopped down on the ground, panting heavily, hurriedly lowering his head to check his entire body. Only after confirming there were no abnormalities did he let out a long sigh of relief.
"Damn it, this isn't 'making me give birth to a child,' this was making every single one of my worms give birth!"
"Luckily I completed the deconstruction at the final moment, otherwise, right now I might've been smashed dead by Leodero's lightning and entered resurrection instead."
However—
Why did Christine, or rather the Mother Goddess, go easy on him at the last second?
If she hadn't suddenly stopped, he wouldn't have been able to concentrate all his attention on completing that final deconstruction—and she never used any other methods besides the Authority of "Fertility."
Was she afraid she might accidentally kill him, thus preventing him from giving her a child? Or was it for some other reason?
The Mother Goddess of Depravity went through such trouble via Mr. Door to trap me—she was clearly determined to obtain me. There was no reason for her to hold back at the critical moment.
Combined with that "Mother Goddess save me" game Christine played with him in the future…
Edward's heart stirred.
Was there a possibility that although Christine was the Mother Goddess, she wasn't completely the Mother Goddess of Depravity?
Like how all Amons were Amon, yet each clone of Amon was relatively independent, having its own thoughts and considerations—even some clones wished the main body would die so they could become the new main body.
"If that's the case, then it makes perfect sense."
Even if the Seven Gods and that Russian Priest were trash, no matter how careless they were, they wouldn't just allow this "Mother Goddess" Christine to wander freely on Earth for nearly one hundred ninety years doing nothing, right?
Unless…they believed Christine's existence was beneficial to their efforts against the Mother Goddess of Depravity?
This was the only explanation Edward could think of.
Huh?
This was very similar to his own logic of "raising" an Amon—use you to fight yourself. Even if it didn't yield the desired effect, it wouldn't cause any real loss, nor was it too dangerous.
Basically a completely cost-free win.
Except, when did this Christine infiltrate Earth?
The missing heart from the original island!
The moment this thought leapt into his mind, the digestion progress of the Deconstruction Scholar potion advanced one more notch—completely digested!
"Tonight's adventure was indeed worth it."
At this moment, a faint smile finally appeared on Edward's face.
Lilith…
Just wait a bit longer. I'll come for you very soon!
———
Roselle's luxurious villa.
It had already been several days since he got the Antigonus family's notebook. But only today did he secretly deliver the information to the Secret Order, then wait for Zaratul's arrival.
The reason he dragged it out for several days was to avoid the Church coming to check after discovering the notebook was missing—then he could simply give the prepared excuse and hand the notebook back, and he would still remain the Church's trusted Son of Steam.
However, the Church didn't seem aware that a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact had gone missing—and possibly even if they knew, they didn't associate it with him.
Just like when he tried to help Klein borrow that Sealed Artifact rumoured to be able to answer any question—the Archbishop said very casually that it had gone missing a short while ago.
Seriously, were the Church people this unreliable? How could Sealed Artifacts keep disappearing one after another? Was everyone responsible for guarding them all useless?
Oh wait, I took one of them myself?
Then that's fine.
Roselle raised his wine glass and took a sip, muttering:
"I wonder when Zaratul will come…"
What worried him more was—
Even he felt that obtaining the Antigonus notebook was way too smooth. With Zaratul's personality, he would be even more suspicious, right?
Would he see through the fact this was a trap?
He was an Angel of the Seer Pathway—whether something was a trap, whether it was dangerous—he could know just by flipping a coin. But if the Chairman really was a god of the Seer Pathway, he must also have ways to disrupt Zaratul's divination, right?
Sigh, hopefully if something does go wrong, the blood spray doesn't end up all over my face.
Thinking about it, Roselle felt a burst of frustration. Over the past decade, although he had encountered terrifying high-sequence beings like Zaratul and the Archbishops, those encounters had not shaken his "protagonist mentality."
To Roselle, these people were just stepping stones that the protagonist was destined to step over on his path forward—he would surpass them sooner or later.
But ever since he created the Silver Plate and reached the Grey Fog—he had been dealt blow after blow, increasingly realising his own insignificance.
"Could it be that I'm not the protagonist at all?"
This thought had just arisen when he instantly strangled it.
"No! Maybe I'm not the cheap wish-fulfilment protagonist who cheats all the way through—I'm the real protagonist, the kind who needs to undergo tempering."
Yes!
The good days are still ahead of me!
He clenched his fist, silently cheering himself up in his heart.
At this moment, a series of light, quick footsteps approached. Bernadette, wearing a beautiful dress, ran toward Roselle, then braked and halted before him, assuming an unhurried, ladylike posture. Her big blue eyes sparkled with anticipation as she asked, "Daddy, do you know what tomorrow is?"
———
[Note]: 990 Powerstones for an Extra Chapter tomorrow! Go, VOTE!
And if you are like me and want to read 40 Chapters in advance of the current story right now, you can support me on my Patreon. Thank me later~
Link - (P)atre(o)n.c(o)m/ Iseeblack [Remove the brackets]