As one incantation after another left Ebner’s lips, the scarlet moon in the sky above took on a strangely blood-soaked hue.

Inside the Harvest Church in Backlund, a figure with silver hair and silver eyes — as though embodying the very concept of "beauty" — appeared abruptly beside the glass window. The figure tilted its head to look at the night sky and murmured with a slight curve of the lips:

"A blood moon... Let’s see whether you’ll see through my plan this time..."

...

Inside a building on Williams Street in the West Borough, a girl with beautiful golden hair and a parasol in hand had been speaking with the "Red Angel" Medici, who lived there. But all of a sudden, she turned her head to look at the sky, and her right eye was fitted with a monocle.

"Something quite interesting seems to have happened..." Amon’s female avatar grew intrigued, and turned to ask the "Red Angel": "Do you know what this is about?"

"Go ask your former colleague... if you have the nerve." Medici blew a smoke ring and said with characteristic mockery.

Ever since parting ways with Soren and Einhorn, He had offered a prayer to the "True Creator" and had, unsurprisingly, been "bestowed" with an Angel-level Beyonder characteristic.

He no longer needed a "Gatekeeper" to remain active in reality for extended periods.

"Now is not yet the time to go see Bethel..." Amon narrowed her eyes slightly, then said: "Are you interested in becoming a True God? I can offer some assistance."

Medici did not believe a single word from the "Angel of Time" and let out a scornful laugh: "What — do you have a ’Conqueror’ characteristic in hand? Or did you steal the Uniqueness of the ’Red Priest’?"

"I do not have either the ’Conqueror’ characteristic or the ’Red Priest’ Uniqueness..." Amon gave the parasol handle a spin, then continued: "But have you never considered switching pathways?"

"Oh? Do you have confidence in killing the ’Primordial Demoness’? Her condition may not be good, but she is still not something the two of us can deal with... and furthermore, the Lord is not in a position to act openly." Medici retorted dismissively, then tossed the cigarette butt to the ground and stamped it out.

"What I mean is — you could follow the example of the ’Blood Emperor,’ only in reverse, and become the ’Black Emperor’!" Amon smiled and revealed the answer.

"’Black Emperor’? So all your scheming has been to get me to help you deal with the Augustuses!" Although Medici did not trust Amon in the slightest, He genuinely considered the suggestion inwardly.

"You should be aware that after the ’Black Emperor’ is revived, the ’madness’ from switching pathways can be washed away — and as long as the Augustus candidate fails, I have the ability to ’take’ all the materials on His body...

"Furthermore, the Augustus family’s advancement to Black Emperor was pushed forward by that obsessive madman — don’t you want to ruin His plan?"

Having said this, Amon did not wait for Medici’s answer, and with a single turn disappeared into the night, leaving only the words "I hope to receive a satisfying answer when we next meet" echoing in the "Red Angel’s" ears.

Medici narrowed His eyes and stared at the spot where Amon had stood for a moment, then silently mocked: "The little crow took on a woman’s body and came out a bit more pleasant than before.

"At least I didn’t think about burning its feathers just now...

"But ’Black Emperor’... heh, it sounds enticing, but it’s not so easily done!"

Medici admitted that for just a brief instant, He had actually been moved.

...

Aboard the Future, docked at "Morning Star City," Sharif — who had been suffering Frank’s experiments to the point of wishing he were dead — suddenly sat upright among the mushrooms.

He raised his head and looked through the porthole at the blood moon in the sky, then glanced at Frank, who was researching a peculiar plant from "Morning Star City," lost in thought over something unknown.

...

And at that same moment, inside the Observer’s Castle, as the ritual proceeded, Ebner suddenly saw what appeared to be a profound darkness beginning to take shape before his eyes. Within the depths of that darkness were endless unceasing storms and lightning that flashed from time to time.

In the next second, a voice reached his ears — not in the Giant language, nor in the Elven tongue, nor in the ancient Hermes language, but in a language he had never encountered before.

Yet the moment he heard it, Ebner could understand it completely, feeling as though it was the true origin of many of today’s languages.

"This must be Mr. ’Door’s’ ravings. No wonder Fors was unable to endure them back then — the ’contamination’ of this kind of voice is already close to directly beholding an ’incomplete mythical creature form’...

"Where on earth did Mr. ’Door’ learn this kind of ’technique’? Hmm — based on the original story, He was very likely ’contaminated’ by more than one Outer Deity. Could this be an ability brought to Him by the ’Unceasing Ravings’?

"But after all I am not Mr. ’Fool,’ and still cannot correctly discern the meaning within His words. As far as I can hear, what He is crying out is simply ’save Him’..."

Just as that thought crossed Ebner’s mind, the call from infinitely far away suddenly ceased, and the surroundings fell into a silence like death.

Two or three seconds passed, and then a voice — ethereal yet capable of piercing straight through a spirit body — entered his mind:

"It was you who performed the ’Door of the Gray Fog’ ritual."

The sentence was plain and flat, without the slightest fluctuation, yet it made Ebner furrow his brow, because the "contamination" contained within it was something even he, in his current state, found somewhat difficult to bear.

That was, of course, without activating the "Pure White Eye."

"Who are you?" Ebner asked, feigning ignorance.

The voice gave a low laugh:

"You may call me Mr. ’Door.’

"And there’s no need to pretend you don’t recognize me — I would imagine I am not unfamiliar to you."

...Given the concern you showed toward Aglaia, you may very well be one of my sons-in-law! Ebner mocked inwardly, then spoke up to get to the point:

"Mr. ’Door’... You are His Highness Bethel Abraham, aren’t you?"

The voice that had crossed through countless barriers reverted to its earlier flatness:

"Yes.

"But I can sense that you seem to carry the bloodline of the Abraham family — should you not address me as your ancestor?"

The reason He had this impression was because, as a precaution, it had been Alvin conducting the ritual from the very beginning.

"Ha — but your ’cry for help’ plunged the entire Abraham family into a curse lasting over a thousand years. Virtually no one could become a ’Planeswalker,’ or even a ’Scribe’ — they would always lose control and turn into monsters during their advancement or on nights of the full moon." Ebner spoke in the tone of a rebellious young descendant of the Abraham family.

Mr. "Door" fell silent for two seconds and said:

"Is there no longer a ’Secrets Sorcerer’? No other Demigods?

"Then how do you account for yourself? Switching to the ’Seer’ pathway should not make the ravings disappear."

"After the ’War of the Four Emperors’ there were none left, and the curse you brought ensured that no one in the Abraham family could advance to Demigod... As for me — I have my own secrets." Ebner said evenly.

Mr. "Door" let out a sigh:

"I was banished into an eternal night, blocked by unceasing storms with no way to stop, unable to know what was happening in the real world, and never imagined that the entire Abraham family had fallen to such a state..."

"Enough — let’s not speak of that..." Ebner cut off the other party’s words. He had no patience for idle chatter with this Mr. "Door," and instead moved to address the matter at hand: "I am currently performing the so-called ’Door of the Gray Fog’ ritual, and need to borrow your power."

As he said this, his thoughts stirred, and he reached out through the "Source of Depravity’s" body, and in an instant the remnant power of a "Great Old One" spread along that connection toward the source of the voice.

In the next moment, that flat voice underwent a sudden transformation, becoming agitated and frantic.

"Do not save me!"

(End of Chapter)