As she spoke, a slit opened in Megose's belly, yet not a drop of blood flowed out. A thin, black arm reached through the opening, a single eye staring from its palm.
The True Creator!
Edward's hair stood on end. He bit down hard on his tongue and finally regained control of his body, then waved his hand to summon a large crate from nearby and hurl it at Megose.
At the same time, he pulled his wand from the Leather Pouch and used Apparition without hesitation.
This time, however, Apparition failed. He remained right where he was.
"I knew Apparition wasn't a cure-all!"
Edward quickly cast a Shield Charm on himself, firing a Stunning Spell, an Impediment Jinx, a Fire-Making Spell, Petrificus Totalus, and more at Megose in succession as he skirted around her and ran for the door.
Megose clearly had no combat experience. At first, she dodged on the instincts granted by the baby in her womb, but soon she simply took the attacks head-on. One of her hands turned into a stark white bone blade, and she charged through the spells toward Edward.
Her body clearly wasn't tough enough to ignore every attack, though. New wounds kept appearing, only to heal swiftly.
"Waaah!"
A baby's wail rang out.
Edward felt as though he had been struck over the head. Dizziness, suffocation, and nausea swept over him. He staggered, barely able to stay on his feet.
"Don't run!"
Megose shrieked hysterically, leaping up and swinging her bone blade down at Edward.
"Sectumsempra!"
Slash!
Fueled by more than half his spirituality, Sectumsempra sliced straight through Megose's waist without resistance, cutting her in two in midair. Both halves fell.
But she wasn't dead. Slimy tentacles writhed from the severed surfaces of her upper and lower halves, quickly converging before dragging the two parts of her body back together.
"Waaah!"
With the baby's second wail, most of the black infant's body crawled out of Megose's belly. He had only one eye on his face, making him a horrifying sight.
"Pfft."
Edward spat out a mouthful of blood. Blood flooded his vision, turning everything crimson. His throat felt as if someone had clamped it shut, leaving him unable to breathe, and his consciousness grew increasingly hazy.
"Rennervate!"
He immediately cast a Wakefulness Charm on himself, then poured in almost all his remaining spirituality:
"Confringo!"
"Fiendfyre!"
"Avada Kedavra!"
Boom!
As Edward rushed out of the warehouse, explosions and flames engulfed it, shaking the entire dock.
"Protego."
In the final second before the shock wave struck, he cast a Shield Charm on himself. Then he was thrown more than ten meters into the air. As he fell, his body distorted and vanished.
Empress Borough, the Villa.
Edward fell out of midair and slammed into the floor, smashing the nearby table and chairs to pieces.
"Hah, hah, hah!"
He gasped violently. Everything in his vision seemed doubled, blurred beyond recognition. The prolonged suffocation left his lungs and throat burning.
After quite a while, he recovered a little. He picked up the Copper Kettle that had fallen nearby and gulped down the half-kettle of water left inside.
"That was close... far too close."
He tossed the Copper Kettle onto the floor and was about to lie flat and keep resting when a heavy sensation settled on both shoulders, as if something were hanging from them.
Edward turned his head and found himself face-to-face with a black, one-eyed baby.
Chapter 29: Oh, Poor Mr. Fool (An Extra Chapter Today)
Edward's pupils abruptly contracted.
A moment later, he forced a smile that looked worse than crying. "Hello there."
His remaining spirituality warned him like mad, but he had only one thought now: I'm tired. Just end me. Make it quick.
The one-eyed baby moved very slowly, crawling along Edward's shoulder little by little until he reached the front of his body, soon leaving him sticky all over with something-amniotic fluid? His arms wound around Edward's neck as if they had no bones.
His spirituality kept warning him.
Edward kept giving up.
He had no choice. In this situation, even another Apparition clearly wouldn't shake the baby off. Should I just go straight to a church and take him down with me?
The baby's blood-red pupil moved rapidly up and down in its socket, sometimes violent, sometimes crazed, and sometimes relatively calm.
He withdrew one arm, turning it back into a normal hand-though "normal" wasn't quite right either. After all, it was hard to use that word for a premature baby whose entire body was black.
The one-eyed baby raised his hand and pressed a finger against Edward's temple.
"Hel... lo..."
A hoarse, labored voice sounded in his mind. The moment it spoke, it used Russian, a language with a distinctly combative flavor, yet Edward could understand it. Wasn't the current True Rapper supposed to do nothing but rap?
"It has been... so long, so long... since I regained... normal... sanity," the voice continued. "You... are special. Near... you, I can... briefly... regain consciousness."
What an honor.
"So... is that why Megose kept chasing me?"
"No. She only wanted... to kill you. He... does not want to regain his sanity."
She wanted to kill me? He doesn't want to regain his sanity? What does that mean?
Wait.
A thought suddenly surfaced in his mind:
The ancient Sun God? Sasrir?
After the ancient Sun God was betrayed by the three Archangels of Wind, White, and Wisdom, a black infant had been born upon his body. Some said that Sasrir had reclaimed the Hanged Man pathway at that critical moment and merged with the negative emotions the ancient Sun God had felt before his death, becoming the True Creator.
He represented the ancient Sun God's humanity, but was constantly consumed by madness. And now he had actually regained consciousness because of Edward?
What was going on?
"You are special."
He repeated it once more. "But your special nature... is still... too weak... for me. You must grow stronger... as soon as possible... as soon as possible. Stronger, stronger, stronger..."
Hearing him repeat himself like a skipping record, Edward could only reply, "I understand. I'll work hard and grow stronger as quickly as I can."
"He will certainly... do everything he can... to kill... you! I will... do my best to stop... him from issuing orders... You must... grow stronger as soon as possible."
So I might be hunted by the Aurora Order next... or even by the other Snake of Mercury, Ouroboros?
Edward hurriedly said:
"With that ability he used earlier to pinpoint me whenever he wanted, how am I supposed to get a chance to grow stronger?"
"As long as he has not... descended in person... he cannot find you at any time, either."
Edward breathed a sigh of relief. After thinking for a moment, he ventured, "But I'm only Sequence 9. Could you offer me some help? Formulas, for instance?"
"..."
The voice fell silent for a moment, then streams of information poured into Edward's mind one after another. Overjoyed, he focused on "reading" them:
Sequence 9: Secrets Suppliant Main ingredients: Dark Octopus tentacles, Manhal Fish blood Auxiliary ingredients: ... Sequence 8: Listener ... Sequence 7: Shadow Ascetic ... Sequence 6: Rose Bishop ... Sequence 5: Shepherd ... Sequence 4: Black Knight ...
The smile vanished from Edward's face. You're not helping me grow stronger. You're pushing me toward becoming a rapper-toward my death.
"I want the Apprentice... no, the Door pathway formulas!"
The voice gave no further response, and the black baby vanished along with it.
Edward wanted to cry but had no tears. He had obtained formulas for more than half a pathway, yet he couldn't feel happy at all. Not being able to use them himself was one thing, but he didn't dare sell them freely, either.
Uh, am I being a little too greedy? I survived an evil god's son-or rather, the True Creator himself. What more could I want?
What he ought to consider now was something else he had always been reluctant to face: since the True Creator and Will had discovered his special nature, what about the other gods? If they had discovered it, why had they never done anything?
Edward paced around the room for quite a while, then took out the Paper Crane Will Auceptin had given him. He quickly wrote, "I need to talk to you," on it before returning to his room to sleep.
As drowsiness deepened, Edward found himself back before the black spire encircled by a giant snake. But he had only taken a few steps forward when everything around him suddenly shattered, and a voice whose gender he could not distinguish sounded beside his ear:
"Sorry. I cannot answer your question, either."
The next second, Edward woke up. Gritting his teeth, he cursed, "Some Sequence 1 Snake of Mercury you are! Completely useless! No wonder you can't beat Ouroboros!"
Elsewhere, in the ruins of the abandoned warehouse in the dock district.
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