After a dozen seconds, Joey finally steadied his emotions. He turned his head slightly toward the deranged Wayne, then looked at his captain, Wade.
He realized that the upright captain, who would never tolerate wrongdoing, remained unmoved despite knowing that the war would claim most people's lives.
He was like an officer of justice who chose to stand idly by while a crime unfolded before his eyes.
Suddenly, a possibility seemed to occur to Joey.
In a world this filthy, where evil gods were constantly beguiling people, could pure justice really exist?
Perhaps Vade Wisker had been a champion of justice long ago. But what about now...?
Time could wear away so many things.
In his previous life, Joey had witnessed far too many changes in human nature, and those had taken only a decade or so, sometimes just a few months.
Here, in a world where lifespans were measured in centuries, could people's hearts truly remain pure?
A saying suddenly came to mind: The human heart is the most unfathomable thing of all.
Joey's pupils abruptly contracted as a possibility struck him: perhaps this was exactly what the captain wanted to see.
But he soon dismissed that conjecture.
If the captain were the force behind this war, the incident with Leila Aaron would never have happened.
One thing was clear, however: neither knew the other's true identity, so they could not have plotted this conspiracy together.
Could it be the influence of the Color Out of Space?
No, no!
He dismissed that idea again.
According to Wayne, planning had begun centuries ago, when the Color Out of Space had not yet been here.
Activating 0-09 required the sacrifice of vast quantities of blood from living beings.
Only war could make that happen.
Leila's plan was to open the Gate of the Abyss by secretly orchestrating a large-scale bloodbath through the Necromancer Sect.
The appearance of the Color Out of Space had merely expanded the scale of the incident, while 0-013 had made everything more plausible.
Every step seemed carefully designed by someone.
After all, they shared the same traits: beguilement and manipulation.
Then, returning to the original question, what role was Vade Wisker playing now?
Joey instinctively backed away. He realized the captain was the only person he still could not see through.
From his perspective, Wade should have been a supporter of the Empire's authority-in a novel, he would have belonged to the side of justice.
Yet when someone like him saw people preparing to massacre civilians on a vast scale, not only did he make no attempt to stop them, he seemed to be fanning the flames.
Joey used his Fortune Shifter abilities to minimize his presence. Only then would he be safest.
"Wayne, your plan is flawless. I'm suddenly rather curious about your relationship with Leila. I get the feeling you have some unusual feelings for her."
"You're not worthy," Wayne sneered, glaring at him with utter contempt.
Wade's laughter came from every direction:
"Your eyes have already given me the answer. You love her."
Joey nearly lost control and swore. Come on, could you at least pick a better time to discuss romance?
A flicker of uncontrollable anguish crossed Wayne's eyes. He stared at Wade with a venomous expression.
"You're not worthy of saying that word!"
While the two spoke, Joey had quietly moved to Wayne's side.
His goal had been clear from the beginning: kill Wayne and avenge Old Tony.
Five meters, three meters-the distance steadily closed. Without hesitation, Joey drew the broken blade from behind his waist and thrust at a vital spot.
"Die!"
Wayne, who had been arguing a moment before, whipped his head around. His hawklike eyes met Joey's, and a smug smile curled his lips.
"You couldn't hold back after all."
By then, Joey had clearly realized something was wrong, but it was too late.
A dense cloud of black mist erupted from Wayne and quickly enveloped Joey's entire body.
Instantly, a bone-deep, heart-piercing agony struck him. It felt as though countless ants were tearing into his flesh.
"Wade, you're stalling for time. But so am I."
He stood over Joey and sneered:
"Little bug, did you really think a Sequence 9 could escape me?"
"Did you really think Vade Wisker would accept you into the Survey Corps for no reason?"
"The only person to successfully advance to Fortune Teller in centuries. Do you know how many people have been waiting for you to appear?"
"Aah!" The pain left Joey unable to think about anything. He could only scream in agony, as though that alone might offer a moment's relief.
"Don't move." Wayne abruptly turned his head and watched Wade warily. "The most outstanding Archbishop in the history of the Church of the Sun."
"You hid yourself too well. We made extensive preparations to find you."
As he spoke, he pointed at Joey on the ground.
"The most important ingredient in the Fortune Teller Pathway's potion is Agate Worm saliva. Every mine in Senegal is under the sect's control."
"All so we could create a Fortune Teller at the earliest opportunity."
These sudden revelations made the struggling Joey freeze. In that instant, the pain in his flesh seemed insignificant beside the shock to his soul.
As he recalled all the coincidences he had experienced, and that unsettling sense that fate had arranged everything, Joey was shaken to his core.
From meeting Alisa and obtaining the Fortune Teller potion formula, to searching for ingredients and encountering Keen performing an evil god's ritual.
Then came his successful advancement, Wayne showing up at his door, and everything that followed. Separately, none of it had seemed strange. Put together now, the implications were terrifying.
"Quiet!" Wayne snapped his fingers. The insects biting Joey stopped and returned to his side.
Not a patch of skin on Joey's body remained intact. His clothes had been chewed to tatters.
His face was stained crimson with blood.
"You're furious, aren't you?"
Looking down at Joey, he sneered:
"It's fate. Your ending was decided the moment you appeared."
"Black hair, black eyes. Features completely unlike those of anyone in Senegal."
"To win your trust, we deliberately created an ordinary life for you. Were you satisfied?"
This was what it meant to destroy someone in body and spirit.
Joey gritted his teeth and asked in a voice that was almost a roar, "What about him?"
Wayne chuckled scornfully, then slowly lowered his gaze. Following it, Joey saw his shadow on the ground.
The hazy shadow writhed, then detached itself from the ground in a grotesque shape and slowly stood. Its figure and features gradually solidified until it became a person.
...Tony Crevi.
Joey stumbled back several steps, unable to accept what he saw.
The family member who had lived beside him day and night for half a year had appeared in this manner.
He still knew far too little about the abilities of the transcendent Sequences. If he could return to the past with his current standing as a Sequence 8, he might have spotted the clues.
Wayne split his lips in an unrestrained grin. "Joey, my boy, do you miss your old man?"
Now his mind was a complete mess. Nothing but bewilderment showed in his eyes.
If searching for the book title doesn't work, try searching for the author. Perhaps the title was simply changed!
Suddenly, something seemed to occur to him. He jerked his head up toward the sky and roared:
"These are all illusions you created, aren't they?"
He had thought of a possibility: perhaps everyone had unknowingly been misled by the authority of the Color Out of Space.
Joey rapidly retreated to a safe distance, guarding nervously against everyone.
He no longer knew whom he could trust.
Perhaps everything he saw now was false, or nothing more than phantoms.
Wade gave a cold snort, then spoke slowly in a low voice. "You shouldn't have treated him like this."
"You mean this shadow identity?"
He seemed very pleased with his handiwork. In particular, remembering Joey's expression when he called him "Dad" filled him with delight.
Soon, after calming down, Joey's expression turned grim. Even after activating Spirit Vision, he still found nothing unusual.
In other words, the Tony Crevi formed from that shadow was indeed a real person.
For a moment, a suffocating sensation gripped his entire body. He suddenly felt utterly ridiculous.
"What about Alisa? Did you arrange for her too?"
Wayne smiled and shook his head.
"No, that had nothing to do with me." As he spoke, he clicked his tongue softly.
"Still, I have to thank her. She saved me a great deal of effort and let you learn about the Fortune Teller Pathway's Sequence potion ahead of time."
"Did you arrange for Beckett too?" Joey thought of the home invasion.
"I merely spread a little information. You know, plenty of desperate men will kill for a single silver coin."
Joey's thoughts were remarkably clear at that moment. He linked together everything that had happened since he arrived in this world.
He turned his gaze toward Captain Wade.
It was like a chess game, and he was nothing more than a tool in the players' hands.
One consolation, however, was that Alisa and Wayne were not working together.
He sorted through his memories of Alisa.
Her innocent, carefree nature had not been an act. Now that he had stepped outside that circle and looked back, he could see things differently.
There had been plenty of clues about Tony Crevi.
For example, why would he take in someone of unknown origins in the selfish Outer City, where lives were worth less than grass?
And why was he physically frail despite being a Berserker, a Sequence with the strongest physical constitution?
Only after entering a transcendent Sequence had Joey truly understood these things.
With such powerful perception and recovery, even an injury could never have left him in that state.
Many scenes that had made no sense now had reasonable explanations once he put Wayne's face to them.
Only weakness would force someone to desire strength.
Joey still remembered that when he first arrived in this world, he had never entertained the sort of ambitions found in novels: conquering another world and becoming a mighty ruler.
After more than a decade of grinding under 996 and 001 work schedules, he had only wanted to do nothing.
As for becoming a Magician, he could not even be bothered to think about it.
How did that saying go? With great power comes great responsibility.
Whatever one gained, one also had to face the corresponding consequences.
Wouldn't staying home and farming be good enough?
That thought had become even stronger after he discovered that eating mutated food had no effect on his body.
How had things gradually turned out this way?
It had started one day when Tony Crevi was suddenly injured and left crippled.
He had been forced to go out and find food. After that, life had grown harder and harder, until he began to consider becoming a Transcendent.
Alisa had naturally entered his life, and he had coincidentally obtained a complete Sequence potion formula.
He did not understand why they had insisted on making him a Transcendent, even going so far as to stage a loving father-son relationship.
"Weren't you afraid I'd really be an obedient son and give up on revenge?"
"The facts prove you wouldn't, don't they?"
Joey keenly felt just how skillfully the man manipulated people's hearts.
If Tony Crevi had clamored for him to seek revenge back then, he might truly have ignored it and chosen to hide somewhere and live out his days.
"What about the Marionette?"
Joey was answered by a burst of mocking laughter:
"That was a lie. I never touched her. After all, people's hearts are fragile. What if the blow was too much for you? Wasn't it better to leave you something to hold on to?"
As Wayne said this, he turned a contemptuous gaze toward Wade. "Emotion is the best tool for keeping someone on a leash."
That look made Wade feel belittled. His low voice drifted out:
"You're a pitiful creature too, bound by emotion just the same. Why mock anyone else?"
"I don't care what you're all trying to do. I'm done playing along."
Everyone had been toying with Joey like a performing monkey. The fact that he had not yet broken down already showed how much he could endure.
Lying to me, are you? Plotting everything? Treating me like a clown, like a pawn?
I'm done. I'm flipping the table.
He turned and fled without the slightest hesitation.
Wind whistled past his ears. He had never imagined he could move this fast. In an instant, he was more than ten meters away.
But he soon realized something was wrong.
No one was chasing him?
That's strange. Am I really that unimportant?
He soon got his answer. A pitch-black barrier shrouded Earl Aaron Manor, making escape impossible.
"Damn it! You had this ready all along, didn't you?"
After circling the grounds, he found only a few Disciple corpses and no way out. With no other choice, he could only find somewhere to hide for now.
"Aren't you afraid I'll kill you?"
Wayne gave a calm, faint chuckle.
"So what? The opening of the Gate of the Abyss is already assured. With or without me, nothing will change."
Wade remained silent for a long while before his voice finally drifted out:
"Have you never thought about going out to see that world with sunlight?"
"Wade, you don't understand. That isn't my faith. Here, I have status and standing. I can get everything I want. Why should I pursue a goal so elusive and uncertain?"
"Then everything you're doing now...?"
Wayne suddenly lifted his head and looked into the distance, where a castle lay in ruins. His eyes held endless sorrow.
"Because Leila wanted to see that world."
His voice was low as he held his emotions in check.
"If she wanted it, I would do it, even if it killed me."
Even though they were enemies, Wade couldn't help admiring his resolve.
He gave a self-mocking smile. Compared with that, his own purpose seemed petty.
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