Everything before his eyes seemed veiled behind an indistinct curtain. Both the sky and the ground reflected a colour that defied description—something seen yet unseen, present yet impossible to grasp.
Chaos. Turbidity. The ineffable.
In an environment like this…where am I supposed to go?
The moment the thought appeared, the distant sound of rushing water reached him. It was startlingly real, so real that a roaring river surfaced vividly in Edward's mind.
Huh?
Isn't the Chaos Sea supposed to be…a sea? Why does it sound like a river?
Heh. Don't tell me that when I get close, I'll discover it's actually the River of Eternal Darkness?
It was meant to be a casual joke, but once the idea formed, Edward froze for a moment.
It wasn't impossible.
Otherwise, why would the Evernight Goddess urge him to come here?
With that thought, he moved his spirituality and opened a door that led toward the source of the rushing sound. Stepping through, he arrived directly at his destination—upon a high, protruding rock.
But the imagined surging river was nowhere to be seen.
Looking downward, he saw a boundless expanse of thick, sludge-like black seawater. Floating and sinking within it were countless corpses—mostly demons of all shapes and forms, with a few humans and animals mixed in.
Layer upon layer. Everywhere.
This place was neither sea nor river.
It was a sea of corpses.
No—
Edward's pupils contracted.
This was the Abyss.
Not the edge of the Abyss he had visited before in the depths of the Fog Sea—this was the Abyss itself.
Indeed, in the original work, Klein had briefly suspected that the bronze door beneath the Sanguine's ancient castle might lead to the Abyss. But both Arrodes' answer in the original and the one just given earlier had overturned that possibility.
"ROAR!!"
A furious bellow echoed from the distance. The sticky, silent seawater churned violently, accompanied by a suffocating wave of malice.
Edward immediately blurred his figure, leaving behind a series of illusory doors while hiding behind the last one, fully prepared to retreat at any moment—he wasn't afraid of dying now, but that didn't mean he wanted to die for nothing.
Soon, a gigantic demon—its entire body covered in branch-like protrusions, with two enormous sharp horns jutting from its forehead, standing dozens of meters tall—charged toward him. Compared to the last time he had seen it, the demon was even more frenzied, completely devoid of sanity.
The moment it saw Edward, it spat out deadly demonic language infused with the aura of death and desire, shattering every illusory door it passed.
Ancient gears spun within Edward's eyes. The enormous demon, which had been rapidly closing in, suddenly rewound like a reversed recording, retreating backwards. At the same time, its Sequence was forcibly pried loose, faintly showing signs of falling—before stabilising again.
Still, that was enough for Edward to draw a conclusion.
This massive demon was at most Sequence 1.
Not a Sequence 0 True God.
Which meant—
He could fight it.
Last time, he had thought this creature was the Ancient God Farbauti hiding within the Abyss and had fled without even daring to fart in its direction.
The regression ended.
With a renewed roar, the massive demon charged forward once more. Flames with a strong sulfuric stench rapidly erupted across its entire body, sweeping toward Edward like a world-consuming tide.
Edward vanished in an instant, reappearing behind the demon. He extended a hand and lightly grasped.
Theft.
He successfully stole the demon's demonic language ability, plunging it into brief stupefaction. Then [False Reality] unfolded, empowered by the strength of [Fantasy].
The moment the demon regained consciousness, it saw—towering above it—a man in a black robe, a silver cross hanging from his chest. The roots of his hair gleamed pale gold, and his eyes were pure gold. Behind him shone an immense radiant silhouette that seemed capable of supporting the Universe itself..
The frenzied, mindless demon found its gaze suddenly clear. It cried out in disbelief:
"Sun God!!!"
A colossal golden cross descended from the heavens and struck the demon squarely on the head. Yet the demon only stared in terror, making no attempt to resist or even dodge. It could only scream:
"No! You can't kill me!!!"
BOOM!
In the next second, the demon was swallowed by the exploding golden radiance. Its massive body shattered instantly and vanished without a trace.
Of course—
All of this was merely a hallucination created by Edward.
If Edward were given enough time to gather imagination, he was confident he could genuinely Fantasise the Ancient Sun God into existence. But ever since he advanced to Sequence 2, he had not had a single opportunity to collect imagination. So the Fantasising he used just now relied entirely on his own spirituality—merely empowering False Reality.
The massive demon had already been in an extremely unstable, deranged mental state. Deceiving its five senses was not difficult. But the most surprising thing was that the moment the silhouette of the Ancient Sun God appeared, the demon immediately and wholeheartedly believed it—without even a shred of resistance.
One could imagine how, in the distant ancient era, the Ancient Sun God really had beaten those ancient gods into long-lasting psychological shadows.
While the giant demon remained trapped in its illusion of death, Edward extended his hand again and lightly grasped.
Theft.
He effortlessly stole the demon's destiny of being alive. With the upgrade of [Theft] alongside his promotion to Sequence 2, he could now steal conceptual entities—fate, cognition, identity, and so on.
Without the enhancement of the Error's Uniqueness, it would be nearly impossible to affect a higher-Sequence or equal-Sequence target. But a Sequence 1 demon in a completely unresisting state?
That was too easy.
In an instant, the giant demon's body rapidly decayed and withered, racing toward death.
Just then, a heavy voice sounded, "Ah, my apologies…He can't die yet."
Edward immediately grew alert as he looked at the figure who appeared atop the demon's shoulder—a person completely wrapped in a black robe. The figure tapped lightly on the demon's horn, and its declining aura quickly recovered, returning from decay to normal.
But it still remained trapped within the illusion of being killed by the Ancient Sun God—standing there blankly.
"I still have to rely on him to help me bear some of the Mother Tree of Desire's corruption," the black-robed figure sighed. "If he dies, the next one to be polluted will be me."
Edward's heart stirred. "You are…"
"Call me Naboredisley," the figure replied calmly.
Huh?
He had thought it would be the ancient god—the Devil Monarch Farbauti.
"How did you get here?"
Naboredisley's gaze landed on him. "This is the deepest part of the Abyss. Even if you found the entrance through the Fog Sea, you shouldn't be able to reach this place."
Edward thought for a moment and said, "Adam sent me."
"Oh?"
"…Oh."
"I see."
There was a subtle shift in Naboredisley's tone. "Adam, huh? No wonder. It seems He already knows the secret of the Abyss."
"…"
The secret of the Abyss?
Adam might know.
But he certainly didn't.
"Hm? You seem unaware?" Naboredisley sounded genuinely surprised. "You came here without knowing? Even if you're a Planeswalker who can come and go freely, going forward means entering the Tenebrous World. And at the deepest point of the Tenebrous World lies the River of Eternal Darkness and the Chaos Sea. These three Sefirot have become entangled together. Even I don't dare get too close. Even the Mother Tree of Desire can only watch helplessly."
"!!!"
It really was the River of Eternal Darkness!
But—
Why was the Chaos Sea entangled with the Tenebrous World and the River of Eternal Darkness?
Why was the Chaos Sea hidden inside the Abyss?
What in the world was going on?
Naboredisley shifted slightly. "Since Adam was the one who sent you, He must have His reasons. Do as you wish."
"I hope all of you can end everything soon…and return my freedom to me."
After speaking, he tapped the demon's horn again. The demon's blank, whitened eyes regained clarity. It let out a furious roar at Edward, then reluctantly retreated back into the darkness.
Edward watched them disappear, but his mind was full of hesitation.
He had originally thought he was merely fulfilling his promise to the Evernight Goddess, and by the way, coming to the Chaos Sea to uncover the 'truth' for himself.
But the truth now seemed far more complicated than expected.
The Chaos Sea hidden within the Abyss.
Entangled with the Tenebrous World and the River of Eternal Darkness.
Three Sefirot intertwined.
Realising this, Edward couldn't help but sigh inwardly: Good, good, good…no wonder the Evernight Goddess and Adam refused to come themselves. Even a deity and a King of Angels wouldn't dare face three sefirot at once.
Had he known it would be this troublesome, he should have demanded far more benefits from them.
Although that was how he felt, Edward quickly made his decision—
Continue forward.
Following the decayed, muddy black sea, he encountered no further living beings. The deeper he went, the more corpses filled the waters, and the more pronounced the traces of corruption from the Mother Tree of Desire became.
No wonder, for tens of thousands of years, no external world had seen demons emerge from the Abyss. Perhaps it wasn't that they didn't want to leave or couldn't leave—maybe they had simply all died.
He had no idea how far he had travelled when the sea ahead suddenly dropped off like a cliff. Below was a bottomless black "Abyss," and the corpse-laden waters above were flowing upward in reverse from that "Abyss," being pulled back into the sea—gravity seemingly reversed in that region.
Suspended above the "Abyss," he saw layer upon layer of vague, shadowy darkness beneath him—illusory yet real.
Under the ability of Deconstruction, Edward's gaze pierced the endless darkness to the bottom of the "Abyss." The first thing he saw was countless branchlike limbs growing from demon corpses. Most bore twisted faces—filled with terror and pain—entwined together to block the passage to the deepest region completely.
It was clearly the work of the Mother Tree of Desire.
But such a small degree of pollution posed no threat to Edward.
After locating a path to the other side, he opened a door and passed effortlessly through the sealed area, arriving in the shadowy depths beyond.
———
[Note]: Don't forget to VOTE. It keeps me motivated.