All of Lilith's fur instantly stood on end. She let out a shrill cry and bolted, trying to get as far away from the place as possible.
But it did nothing to stop the foreign presence that had intruded into her mind!
Lilith had a terrible premonition—if that thing succeeded in fully forcing its way in, sothing disastrous would happen!
Without hesitation, she activated her Incitent ability, directing it both at the invasive consciousness and herself, attempting to provoke disgust or rejection from it, forcing it to withdraw.
But it was useless. Completely ineffective.
Her vision blurred.
Lilith slamd headfirst into a wall at a fork in the tunnel. She felt her consciousness fading, her control over her body slipping.
A chilling thought surfaced in her mind: Is Miss Lilith…going to die?
Die in an unknown sewer where no one would ever find her.
Edward wouldn't know. Audrey wouldn't know. Susie wouldn't know either.
They would never see her again. And she would never see them again.
But…I haven't turned into a real human yet. I haven't even made roast rat for Edward with my own paws…
Or rat ribs, stewed rat, deep-fried rat, stir-fried rat…
The light in her usually lively and innocent eyes dimd.
Is Miss Lilith…really going to die here?
Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out, "Weaken mysticism. Strengthen reality!"
In an instant, Lilith felt the consciousness trying to invade her mind abruptly retreat. She snapped back to full awareness.
"Ah! Edward!"
She found herself in Edward's arms. After a mont of stunned surprise ca uncontainable joy.
"You're here~!"
Edward gently ruffled her head, his tone apologetic. "I'm sorry, Lilith. I ca too late."
——
Fifteen minutes earlier.
After leaving the docks, Edward didn't head straight ho. Instead, he made a detour to the Church of the Evernight Goddess, praying for the goddess to help cleanse him—after all, who knew what curses or marks the Rose School of Thought might have left on him?
Once he was sure he was clean, he finally returned to the little villa in Empress Borough.
Inside, the house was pitch black. At first, he thought Lilith was still out. But when he entered the bedroom, he found the sheets all rumpled—clear signs Lilith had been rolling around.
On the desk were splatters of ink…and a trail of tiny inky cat paw prints.
Edward's heart skipped a beat. He hurried forward and found a piece of paper on the floor, with a few crooked Chinese characters written on it:
"So...one…O...."
The "O" was obviously a substitute for a character Lilith didn't know how to write. Was she trying to write help?
He imdiately picked up a strand of her fur from the bed, tossed a gold coin into the air, and asked, "Is Lilith in mortal danger?"
The coin landed with the number face up—No.
Edward exhaled in relief and pulled out his divination cane.
"Lilith's location."
The cane tilted slightly northwest.
Edward imdiately Apparated a few hundred ters in that direction, used the cane again, then kept flashing westward in rapid bursts.
Soon, he crossed from Empress Borough into Backlund's North Borough, where the illuminated silhouette of St. Samuel's Cathedral lood in the night.
Just then, the cane indicated Lilith was nearby. Edward enlarged the cat hair and cast a Tracking Charm on it, watching as it floated off to lead the way. He followed closely behind.
The hair whooshed down through an opening in a manhole. Edward hurriedly lifted the cover and climbed down. After a few hundred ters, he spotted Lilith being carried down from above by a girl with long moss-green hair.
Next thing he saw, Lilith bit the girl's hand and broke free, only to slam into a wall—sothing was clearly wrong with her.
And then, the scene that had just unfolded occurred.
"Ah! Edward!"
Just a second ago, she thought she was done for—never again would she get to eat rat at. But when she opened her eyes, she was in Edward's arms. After the shock ca delight.
"You're here~!"
Edward softly rubbed her head again. "Sorry, Lilith. I was late."
"Nope~ You ca just in ti~"
She huffed and pointed a tiny paw ahead. "There's a big bad guy in there! He tried to shove his mind into Miss Lilith's head!"
Edward was montarily stunned, then followed her gaze. The green-haired girl blinked in surprise, staring at Lilith.
"D-Did that cat…just talk?"
Sensing her suspicion, the girl quickly tried to explain, "I—I thought the cat was lost, so I planned to take her ho first and help her find her owner tomorrow. But then sohow I ended up back in the sewer…"
Back in the sewer?
In the original novel…wasn't there a noble girl who kept crawling into sewers because she was being manipulated by a Marauder Pathway Demigod?
Realisation struck.
Edward's eyes flicked past the girl, scanning her surroundings.
So just now, Lilith nearly got parasitised by that Marauder Pathway Demigod?
With that, he imdiately cast another interdiction:
"Parasitism is forbidden here."
The Sequence 4 of the Marauder Pathway—Parasite—allowed one to steal another's life and identity by rging consciousness and body.
Once parasitism was complete, the host was essentially dead.
Edward's heart filled with dread.
Had he arrived just a bit later…Lilith might have—
He clenched his fists, overwhelming anger boiled over like a supervolcano just about to erupt—but he did not act recklessly.
Just over ten minutes ago, he had suffered a major loss dealing with a Demigod-level Marauder-Pathway Sealed Artifact—his stolen abilities had still not recovered.
Even though he knew that the Jacob family's Marauder-Pathway Demigod was in poor condition, a living Marauder Demigod surely couldn't be much weaker than a powerful Sealed Artifact.
"Retreat!"
Edward took a step back, his figure twisting and vanishing.
Hazel's eyes widened in shock. Though she had been introduced to the mysticism world under her "teacher's" guidance and had beco a Beyonder, the extent of her exposure was still quite rudintary.
Things like a cat speaking, or a human disappearing right in front of her—those were still incredible to her. But she quickly adjusted her mindset. After all, she believed that one day, she would be able to do the sa!
She turned and whispered, "Teacher, what just happened?"
A mont later, a woman's voice echoed in her mind, "This place is no longer safe. I need you to dig through the wall as soon as possible."
"Yes, teacher."
Hazel nodded, then picked up the tools she had hidden earlier and began chiselling away at the wall again.
——
Edward brought Lilith back ho and imdiately used divination to ensure there were no hidden tricks left on her by the Marauder-Pathway Demigod. Once certain, he asked, "Lilith, what happened just now?"
Lilith looked up at him. "Miss Lilith is all dirty. Clean first."
"…Alright."
Once her fur was returned to its pristine state, she padded over to the washroom, carefully lathered all four of her little paws with soap, then dried them thoroughly on the foot towel before leaping onto the bed.
"Now I'm squeaky clean!"
Edward sat down by the bed.
"So, I was just waiting for you at ho, and then two bad guys broke in. Their eyes were all red, and they could turn into bats!"
"Vampires?"
"…They controlled and took to this big house. There was a huge coffin inside."
A coffin?
That Sanguine marquis?
Could this be about her na?
When Edward had nad Lilith, he hadn't expected to traverse into the world of the Mysteries. He had originally planned to na her "Lily," but once Snape heard it and used a random excuse to punish him with a week of toilet scrubbing, he had been forced to change it to Lilith.
After arriving in the world of Mysteries with Lilith, he had considered renaming her again, but the current Lilith—the progenitor of vampires—was now operating under the guise of the Earth Mother. She wasn't like Leodero or Aucuses, who would smite you with lightning or fire just for calling their na.
Besides, the Earth Mother was an ally of the Evernight Goddess, who had his back, so he hadn't thought much about it. Still, he'd always been careful to keep Lilith away from Earth Mother's churches and the Sanguines to avoid any unwanted trouble.
And yet, trouble had still found them?
But that didn't make sense. The only real contact he had with the Sanguines was through Emlyn, and their interactions had only been about a castle and so materials—nothing at all to do with Lilith. Why would the Sanguines suddenly send two people to capture her?
In the span of ten seconds, Edward had played out several ntal scenarios before continuing, "And then?"
"Then the coffin started talking," Lilith blinked. "He said sothing about the ancestor…Lilith sothing. So I asked him what he wanted with ."
Edward: "..."
"He looked surprised when he heard my na, then suddenly got super excited…"
"Surprised and excited? He wasn't angry?"
"Nope~"
Edward suddenly froze: "Wait—so he only found out your na then?"
"That's right."
So the Sanguines didn't co after her because of her na? Then why?
"How did you get away?"
Lilith scratched her head. "The guy in the coffin told the others to let go."
"He let you go?"
Edward grew even more confused. "He didn't say anything else? Didn't do anything to you? Just brought you back, let you walk around, and sent you ho?"
"They didn't send ho~ Miss Lilith snuck out while the three bad guys were talking!" She pouted, "Then I ran into that weird girl and almost died!"
Edward gently patted her head, speaking softly, "Shush, shush—don't say things like that. Lilith is so smart, there's no way you'd die."
She blinked and smiled. "Right!"
Edward smiled faintly, but his eyes held no trace of amusent.
So what exactly was the Sanguines up to, running in circles like this? Was the Sanguine Ancestor Lilith plotting sothing? But wasn't she an ally of the Evernight Goddess? If she wanted sothing, couldn't she just say it directly? Why play these petty tricks?
Backlund was practically under the nose of the Evernight Goddess—could anything really escape her notice here?
Maybe divine logic was simply beyond the understanding of mortals like him?
Then again, why had the Marauder-Pathway Demigod targeted Lilith? Parasitising animals ca with many limitations—body structure, hormones, instincts…Even if Amon had removed the Sequence 4 side notes in the original design, a weakened state with only one chance to parasitise shouldn't have chosen a cat.
Sanguines...
A Marauder-Pathway Demigod…
There was no way this matter would end so simply.
As for the vampire side, he would first consult the Evernight Goddess before deciding on any next steps.
As for the Marauder-Pathway Demigod…perhaps it was ti to visit old man Pallez. In the original storyline, he'd agreed to help Klein hunt Amon's Demigod clone. Surely, he would be interested in a Demigod from the Jacob family too, right?
———
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