"Ah, Edward, you really are putting in a difficult position."
Dumbledore let out a sigh. "I still haven't figured out how to deal with Lily and Jas's resurrection, and now you've handed yet another hot potato."
Strictly speaking, this wasn't just an ordinary hot potato—it was a nuclear warhead that could explode at any mont.
"No matter what, Harry will be happy, won't he?" Edward said.
"Perhaps," Dumbledore replied. "He doesn't know yet. Lily and Jas said not to tell Harry for now—they're worried about frightening him."
Edward shrugged. "Mm, all right. We'll respect their decision."
Dumbledore shook his head, a gentle smile appearing on his face. Turning to Amon, he said in a warm voice, "Mr. Amon, please co with ."
Amon looked at Edward indifferently. "You will regret everything you've done today."
"Go on now. Bye-bye."
Edward waved casually, watching the two figures walk away and enter Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. He then took a step back and, in the next instant, returned to the world of the Lord of the Mysteries.
The mont he arrived, he once again went to the divine kingdom of the Primordial Demoness, Cheek, arriving beneath that ever-growing, increasingly terrifying rift. He looked up at it, a thoughtful expression appearing in his eyes.
At that mont, his spirituality stirred as he sensed sothing. His figure flickered, and he traversed away.
———
The Forsaken Land of the Gods.
An endless wasteland shrouded in greyish-yellow fog.
In this dim world, streaks of lightning occasionally flashed across the pitch-black sky—this being the only natural light source in the Forsaken Land of the Gods. Klein followed Amon as they walked upon this perilous land.
After being captured by Amon, Klein had thought it was all over for him this ti. Instead, Amon hadn't been in any hurry to do anything to him, but had proposed playing a "ga"—
I run, you chase; even with wings, I can't escape.
Several hours had passed, yet Klein hadn't rushed to attempt anything. He knew very well that the Amon before him possessed at least the status and strength of Sequence 2, a true Angel in the strictest sense—soone he couldn't confront head-on at all. Moreover, as a mber of the Marauder Pathway, hailed as embodying errors, loopholes, and bugs, Amon's abilities were bizarre and unpredictable, impossible to guard against. Klein believed that any conventional self-rescue thods he could think of would be basically ineffective.
What was more, Klein hadn't advanced to Sequence 3 as he had in the original tiline. The only thod he could think of was death—followed by revival within Sefirah Castle.
But Amon clearly hadn't given him any such opportunity. The mont Klein showed even the slightest inclination in that direction, the relevant thoughts would imdiately be stolen, or he would outright lose control of his body.
Thus, Klein discovered, with bleak clarity, that there seed to be only one thing he could do right now: wait for Edward or Roselle to co and save him. Yet it wasn't even certain that they had realised sothing had happened to him. Moreover, this was the Forsaken Land of the Gods—a place even deities could not set foot in. Without special bug-abusing abilities like Amon's, whether they could even enter at all was a serious question.
Just as he was lost in thought, a vague sound of prayer suddenly reached his ears. Klein halted and looked at Amon.
"Soone is praying to . Can I go up to Sefirah Castle to respond?"
Amon curled his lips and glanced at him sideways. "What do you think?"
Klein frowned. "If you're worried, you could just co with and keep an eye on things in Sefirah Castle. You wouldn't seriously think that inside Sefirah Castle, I'd be a match for an Angel like you, would you?"
At once, mories transmitted back from Amon's main body surfaced in his mind—
More than a hundred years ago, the main body had confidently infiltrated Sefirah Castle with Adam's assistance, only to be massively played by Edward and turned into a crow, hung inside Sefirah Castle and kept as a pet.
Thus, the mont Klein "invited" him to Sefirah Castle, Amon imdiately rejected it with cold indifference. "What do you think?"
"..."
Klein shook his head, sowhat helpless. "But I'm already in your hands. Whether you plan to kill or carve up, couldn't you at least say so? Isn't it boring to play this kind of ga with ?"
"I find it quite interesting," Amon replied.
"Hm. I rember Edward telling that you intend to steal Sefirah Castle, but don't want to bear the corresponding fate and responsibilities—is that right?"
Amon smiled faintly and nodded in admission. "That's right."
As they spoke, the two of them passed through the region shrouded in greyish-yellow fog and arrived before an extraordinarily deep ravine. As lightning tore across the sky, a massive, heavy, gray-white structure could be faintly seen at the bottom.
At this mont, Amon stepped to the edge of the ravine. With the grey-white, sprawling building behind him, he spread his hands slightly and said with a smile, "This is the sacred land where my father awakened. It buries the history I wish to explore. My father once told that this place bears an extrely ancient na, known as…"
Under the illumination of silver-white lightning that split the heavens, Amon—dressed in a classical black robe—paused. He spread his arms a little wider and spoke with a trace of solemnity:
"Chernobyl."
Upon hearing Amon's words, Klein's first reaction was sheer shock.
Imdiately afterwards, his mind began to churn like boiling water. One question after another, one "coincidence" after another—familiar nas, architectural styles utterly different from those of the Fourth Epoch, the Third Epoch, or even the Second Epoch, and piece after piece of common knowledge about the present world—
Thump!
Klein's heart contracted sharply, then expanded again. His mind instinctively tried to stop him from thinking further, yet deep down, an uncontrollable question still surfaced: Could it be that there had never been such a thing as "transmigration" at all? That I had always been on Earth, only suspended above the grey fog and beneath that door of light for far, far too long—so long that I truly no longer belonged to this era?
He couldn't help recalling how Edward and Roselle had reacted not long ago when he had asked whether it was possible to return ho. They must have known long ago—known that this place was precisely the holand he had yearned for all this ti, rely a world thousands, even tens of thousands, of years in the future.
As those mories and images gradually dimd in his mind, Klein finally ca to accept a reality:
So I never left my holand…yet I will never be able to go ho again.
At that mont, the corner of Amon's mouth curved upward. He walked to Klein's side and said softly, "It seems that this building before you has helped you understand many things. Perhaps if I were to hand you a potion of the Scholar of Yore right now, you'd dissolve it the mont it touched your lips."
After a few seconds' pause, he continued, "Actually, I had originally planned to bring you here only after you advanced to Sequence 3—to use this concealed ancient history to help you digest the Scholar of Yore potion, strengthen your connection to Sefirah Castle, and thereby complete the final deception."
"Fate would be yours. Sefirah Castle would be mine."
"Unfortunately, I don't have the ti to wait for you to grow at your own pace anymore. Still, I decided to bring you here to take a look at the 'truth of the world.' Perhaps now you'll reconsider the proposal I made earlier." Amon smiled as he spoke. "Hand Sefirah Castle over to of your own accord. I can promise to make you an Archangel under my throne. I can promise to protect those you care about. I'll also continue maintaining that gathering of yours, ensuring that all its mbers reach a good ending."
"This is a deal where everyone wins. All you need to do is nod your head."
After a mont of silence, Klein let out a long breath and said flatly, "Not interested."
Amon lightly pressed a hand to his forehead. "Ah…I knew it would be like this."
"Fine, then. We'll wait for my main body to co and properly 'discuss' it with you." He sat down on the spot, propping his cheek with one hand, looking utterly helpless. "Let see where my main body has gotten to…Has he already dealt with Edward…"
As he was muttering to himself, Amon's pupils suddenly shrank. For one of the rare tis, a look of shock appeared on his face.
Because he discovered that—
His main body had disappeared.
Silently, soundlessly, it had vanished from this world. The sensation was as though it had already been killed by soone!
What the hell?!
Even Amon couldn't help but curse inwardly. "Didn't the main body already advance to Sequence 0? Even if Edward still had so hidden ans, even if he managed to rope in Roselle or even the Evernight Goddess to help, it shouldn't have been possible to kill the main body so easily!"
"Wouldn't that an…"
Everyone's happy?
If I can seize Sefirah Castle, then in the upcoming collective decision of the Amons, the probability of becoming the main body will increase dramatically!
Amon's rapid succession of expression changes did not escape Klein's notice. Klein's first instinct was that Amon was pulling so new deception again. Though he was puzzled, he didn't ask anything.
At this mont, however, Amon broke into a grin. "I have good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?"
Klein: "..."
"All right, since you don't want to say anything, I'll start with the good news," Amon announced with a smile. "My main body just suddenly disappeared. There's a very high chance he was killed."
"???"
Although Klein had resolved not to pay attention to anything Amon said or did, hearing this still left him sowhat stunned.
"The bad news," Amon continued, "is that there's no need to wait for the main body anymore. I'm going to take your Sefirah Castle right now!"
The instant the words fell, Klein saw Amon reflected in his eyes—wearing a soft, pointed hat, a monocle, and a classical long robe of a magician. The corners of Amon's mouth lifted slightly, brimming with indescribable delight.
Imdiately afterwards, the surface of Klein's skin bulged with distinct traces of Worms of Spirit. He stood on the brink of losing control. From within his body, a Worm of Ti composed of twelve segnts burrowed out, transforming into an illusory figure of Amon dressed in a black magician's robe, wearing the sa pointed hat and crystal monocle.
This illusory Amon turned his head, glanced at Klein—whose thoughts had been wiped clean, leaving him unable to move his mind—and revealed a smile identical to that of the Amon outside:
The corners of his mouth slightly raised, overflowing with pleasure.
He then turned around and, using that invisible connection, "leapt" toward Sefirah Castle above the grey-white fog.
In an instant, Amon saw the grey-white fog, saw the ancient and majestic palace looming above.
So long as he reached out, passed through the final obstruction, he would be able to truly touch Sefirah Castle—directly take possession of it, and steal it in substance.
But at that very mont, the illusory Amon's movents froze.
He began coughing violently. He abruptly felt his breathing turn searing and difficult, his strength rapidly being drained away.
This was a Demoness's…disease!
It was Lilith!
No—just a little more! Just the last half step, and I could touch Sefirah Castle, I could—
In the next second, blood poured from the illusory Amon's seven orifices. His skin turned black-purple all over, his figure rapidly shrank, reverting once more into a Worm of Ti, which then died completely.
At the sa ti, the Amon outside suffered a nearly identical fate. He repeatedly used Theft on himself, attempting to steal the disease away from his body. Yet his surroundings were already enveloped in fog thick with pathogens, constantly invading him, inflicting continuous, catastrophic damage on his organs—and even on the Worms of Ti composing his body.
"Lilith…"
Amon gritted his teeth and said, "If I were you, I wouldn't waste ti here. Don't you know? The advancent ritual you've planned for years has already been tampered with by soone else. If you delay any further, a new Red Priest is about to be born!"
Lilith's figure abruptly manifested. Her face was dark as she demanded, "What did you say?!"
———
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