Who was the Childlike Demon?
Angel still wasn't sure.
He could observe every NPC in the Box Garden from a god's-eye view, but observation was all he could do.
According to the information Valentine had compiled, the Childlike Demon had hidden a sliver of its consciousness inside an NPC in the Box Garden. Until the final confrontation was triggered, though, that consciousness would remain dormant.
The NPC might not even know that the Childlike Demon's consciousness lay dormant inside them.
Under those circumstances, Angel could only identify the Childlike Demon by diving deep into the Sea of Authority and forcibly searching for the relevant information.
But turbulent undercurrents still ran through the Sea of Authority. If Angel forced his way in, there were only two possible outcomes: he would find what he wanted but leave his mental strength so exhausted that recovery would take days, or he would find nothing and still suffer the same exhaustion.
Neither outcome appealed to him. Unless it was absolutely necessary, Angel would not dive deep into the Sea of Authority.
So for now, he did not know who the Childlike Demon was.
What he had said to Gabriel earlier had only been a warning.
There was certainly something suspicious about the little girl playing cat's cradle, but was she really the Childlike Demon?
It probably wasn't that simple.
The little girl was too closely connected to Fatty. Anyone who entered the hidden storyline would notice that. Naturally, their attention would settle on her, and they would conclude that she was the Childlike Demon.
But the moment they reached that conclusion, they might have fallen into a trap designed to lead their thinking.
Of course, Angel wasn't ruling out the possibility that the little girl was the Childlike Demon.
But if the Childlike Demon were