"How did you know that?"

Amon chuckled. "She added a veil of concealment over you. Even if we were face-to-face, I wouldn't be able to easily perceive the fluctuations of your fate anymore."

Edward raised a brow. "So, you could see it before? What did you see?"

"Heh."

Amon merely smiled without answering.

"Heh your damn uncle!"

"..."

Amon shook his head, amused. "I wasn't laughing at your question about fate's changes. I was laughing because, after getting entangled with the Zealot, you've somehow managed to involve yourself with the Evernight as well."

"I really can't tell whether you're genuinely reckless or you have some hidden card up your sleeve."

"How do you mean?" Edward asked.

"If the Zealot is someone who makes me wary and keeps me on edge," Amon said, habitually adjusting his monocle, "then Evernight is the one who makes me afraid—no, terrified."

He tilted his head slightly, his amber eyes glinting playfully. "Let me guess…You got the Planeswalker Beyonder characteristic from Her, didn't you?"

Edward fell silent.

Spot on.

Amon grinned. "Looks like I was right."

"Congratulations—you're probably not far from disaster."

"Ah, how kind of you to warn me," Edward replied dryly, clasping his hands in mock gratitude. "Then tell me, great God of Mischief—what brilliant advice do you have for me?"

"I've said this long ago," Amon said lazily, "the Sefirah Castle isn't something you can truly control. Why not hand it over to me? Rest easy under my command as an angel. Leave the rest to me."

"After all, whether it's the Zealot, Evernight, or anyone else—they're all after your Sefirah Castle. Without it, you wouldn't have to deal with any of this trouble or danger."

Edward arched an eyebrow. "And then I can happily become a member of your big Amon family, right?"

Amon sighed and shook his head. "Ah, you misunderstand me too deeply. Apart from the Marauder Pathway, I usually only parasitise people on a superficial level."

"Right, I'll…think about it," Edward said perfunctorily, then changed the subject. "I want to consult you on something."

"Speak," Amon said, twirling his monocle chain, "though I don't promise to answer."

"I want to visit the Forsaken Land of the Gods. Any way to get there?"

"Oh?" Amon's tone lifted slightly. "Did Evernight send you?" A hint of confusion crept into his voice. "Strange…why would She suddenly take interest in that place?"

He tilted his head and pondered for a moment, apparently finding no clear answer, before continuing, "If you want to enter the Forsaken Land through proper means, there's only one way—through the Giant King's Court. For that, you'll have to consult the Hanged Man. Without his permission, even the Seven Gods themselves cannot pass."

He smiled faintly. "Of course, I have my own ways of going in and out, but they don't apply to you. Unless…you'd like me to take you there personally?"

Edward immediately understood what Amon meant. The methods available to Amon were twofold: one, exploiting a bug through the dream remnants of the Divine War, something only he could do; the other, using the Abyss as a transit route—which might very well be another form of bug exploitation, just with a different entry point.

In other words, there's no way I can reach the Forsaken Land by myself.

Should I go to the Sea of Ruins and try my luck again? Maybe I'll run into that "Angel of the Holy Word," Steph. But Steph's way into the Forsaken Land should be through the Giant King's Gate, authorised by the True Creator Himself…and the True Creator before fusing with that priest was a certified lunatic!

Unless…I could get Steph to recite—no, to find someone else to recite—my three-part honorific name, and open a Gate of Offering that leads into the Forsaken Land of Gods….

…Wait a second.

Am I seriously figuring out how to enter the Forsaken Land of Gods right now?

Damn it, Amanises asks me to go there, and I just blindly go along with it? Don't I look like a complete idiot who's way too easy to manipulate?

What? You think I should be grateful because you paid me?

You gave me a Sequence 2 Planeswalker Beyonder characteristic, and you think that's enough for the current Lord of the Sefirah Castle to risk his neck for you?

Dream on!

After that long string of grumbling—half self-mockery, half bitter humour—Edward temporarily tossed the matter of the Forsaken Land aside. For now, the most important thing was to meet Lilith first before deciding on anything else.

"Have you made up your mind?"

Amon yawned, his tone lazy and mocking. "Anyway, you've already gained complete control over me, haven't you? What's there to worry about? Or…" His smile widened mischievously. "Does that control only work inside the Sefirah Castle?"

Edward shot Amon a glance and said coolly, "Next time, I'll catch a few more Amons to keep you company—then you'll know whether my control is limited to the Sefirah Castle or not."

Amon smirked. "Heh, pretending to act serious suits you."

"And you turning into a crow suits you better."

Edward flicked a gold coin into the air. The moment Amon felt that all-too-familiar tightening sensation in his chrysanthemum, Edward's figure vanished from the Sefirah Castle.

"Ah, injecting humanity into me again, are you?" Amon clicked his tongue in curiosity. Tilting his head, he propped his chin up with a wing in a mock contemplative pose. "Evernight…did She really come for the new Lord of Mysteries? If it were me, I'd only ever choose someone from the Seer pathway. With Bethel around…that fellow hardly stands a chance."

"I can't make sense of this."

———

After descending from the Sefirah Castle, Edward first checked in with Krismona to assure her he was safe, then turned to Arrodes to ask about ways to enter the Forsaken Land of the Gods. Unfortunately, the mirror only repeated methods Edward already knew.

"What do you think the Evernight Goddess might have hidden within the Forsaken Land?"

Faced with this question, Arrodes froze for a long while before slowly scrawling out in a half-dead script:

"G–Great…Being…thank you…for thinking so highly…of me…"

At the end, it even added a crying emoji.

"…"

Edward was instantly reminded of a line he'd once read online in his previous life: 'Any man who loves using emojis in chats is a shrimp-brained idiot.'

You shrimp-headed mirror!

"Then, if I gave you the chance to hide the most important thing to you within the Forsaken Land of Gods, where would you put it?"

This time, Arrodes replied almost immediately: "The Giant King's Court, or…the place where poor, pitiful me…was born."

Edward blinked.

Where Arrodes was born?

The Chaos Sea?

You know what…that actually makes sense. Other than the Giant King's Court—occupied by the lunatic True Creator—the only other place suitable for "hiding" something in that vast Forsaken Land was indeed the Chaos Sea. The first was ruled by a deranged evil god; the second was composed of raw primal matter—both impossible to reach via divination.

But still…hiding something in the Chaos Sea—wouldn't it risk getting corrupted by it?

Wait.

The Chaos Sea…If it really is the Chaos Sea, then maybe I don't have to enter the Forsaken Land at all.

He suddenly remembered: beneath that abandoned vampire castle on the outskirts of Backlund, wasn't there a bronze gate leading directly to the Chaos Sea?

Maybe, when the time comes, I should head there for a look…

———

The next day, Edward gathered his focus and once again stepped into the Astral Plane, arriving in a tranquil, boundless realm of darkness where moonflowers and night-scented herbs grew in clusters—

The divine kingdom of the Evernight Goddess.

This was his second visit here. The last time, he had only marked the coordinates and lingered briefly. Now, he returned as a Wanderer, moving freely through the area—Well, "freely" wasn't exactly accurate. It was more like he strolled leisurely, taking his time to admire the strange, dreamlike scenery.

He did not encounter the Evernight Goddess this time either. He had no idea where She might be slumbering. And given the extent of Her mastery over concealment, even if She were standing directly in front of him, he probably still wouldn't perceive Her.

He didn't know how long he wandered before arriving at a place that felt faintly familiar. Although the surroundings looked the same as everywhere else—dense clusters of night-vanilla and moonflowers amid endless darkness—his spirituality told him otherwise.

Ah, of course.

This was the spot where he had marked his coordinates in the future—the very place where he had first met the Evernight Goddess.

The one draped in the starry night itself…the deepest, most cunning old fox in the entire world of mysteries.

Why did She fall into slumber?

Was She wounded?

Based on the other divine kingdoms he had visited, the last battle between gods seemed to date back several millennia—when the Seven Gods joined forces to destroy the Underworld Emperor.

Then, due to the invasion of the Outer Deities, they had been forced to remain in the Astral Plane, maintaining the barrier—until that fateful divine war between the God of Combat and the Evernight Goddess, nearly two centuries later.

If it wasn't injury…then there was only one explanation left: The Evernight Goddess was fusing with a Sefirot!

But wasn't the River of Eternal Darkness already taken by someone?

Even if it weren't, She couldn't possibly acquire it for fusion. In the original story, one of Her main reasons for investing in Klein was precisely to wait until he became the Lord of Mysteries—so She could divert a portion of the River's current!

And besides, without obtaining the relevant characteristics of the God of Combat and the Death, what would She even use to perform the fusion?

Tch, a bunch of damned riddlers. Instead of just saying clearly what you want, you keep sending me on errands like I'm your unpaid errand boy.

As that thought crossed his mind, Edward's eyes flickered with mischief. A bold idea sprang forth, and mysterious symbols began to appear within his pupils. He activated [Deconstruction] on the divine kingdom before him.

At first, nothing seemed to change. It looked as though the attempt had failed—but his spirituality was draining rapidly.

Several minutes passed. The fields of moonflowers and slumber flowers began to fade away, replaced by an endless expanse of darkness, scattered with faint, distant starlight.

Edward continued pouring in spirituality. The starlight too began to dim until only utter, lifeless black remained—surging toward him from all directions, threatening to swallow him whole.

This darkness was the very essence that composed the divine kingdom—the divine power of the Evernight.

More precisely, it was the power of concealment itself.

His spiritual intuition told him that if he could continue deconstructing endlessly—say, for a thousand or two thousand years—he might actually reach the core of that authority and reproduce its nature.

In other words, he could indirectly grasp a portion of the Goddess's power!

A thousand or two thousand years to comprehend a god's authority…that would be a dream deal for most.

But even if the Goddess were fine with it, Edward didn't have that kind of time.

At that moment, within the infinite darkness, a river appeared—slowly flowing, whispering softly. Edward focused his gaze on it—

And suddenly, a pair of eyes opened within the current.

Eyes filled with fathomless meaning.

They looked directly at him.

In an instant, his breath caught in his throat.

Then, the river receded rapidly, and he was forcibly ejected from the [Deconstruction] state.

Before he could even recover, his spirituality convulsed violently, screaming warnings of mortal danger.

Damn it.

I've done it now…I've really gone and courted death this time!

The next second, he watched in horror as his own body began to vanish—as though erased from existence by an invisible rubber.

———

[Note]: Don't forget to VOTE. It keeps me motivated.