He strolled out onto the terrace and leaned against the railing, gazing into the distance. All of Trier lay in darkness, utterly silent.
He calmed himself and checked his potion digestion. [Deconstruction Scholar] had barely changed, but [Wanderer] had finally advanced a small step.
If each of the next six divine kingdoms let him digest this much, he should have more or less finished digesting the Wanderer potion by the end of the trip.
That was certainly something to be happy about.
But whenever he thought of still having to digest Deconstruction Scholar, obtain a Miracle Invoker Beyonder characteristic from Zaratul, and seek out the Evernight Goddess to "trade" for a Planeswalker Beyonder characteristic, Edward's scalp prickled.
The more he had admired Cuttlefish's clever design for keeping high-level powers in check while reading Lord of the Mysteries, the more he now worried about advancing to higher Sequences.
It had not been apparent at Sequence 4 or even Sequence 3, since there were still plenty of Beyonder characteristics and Beyonder creatures at those Sequences. But starting at Sequence 2, their numbers dropped sharply, and almost all of them were controlled by particular factions. Becoming a Sequence 2 angel without going through them was practically impossible.
"My fate is mine, not anyone else's! Anyone who stands in my way dies!"
This adolescent thought suddenly surged into his mind. He did not need to think to know that childishness was "acting up" again. Edward immediately patted his face, forcing himself to stay calm.
Then he lay down on the sofa beside him and began using [Deconstruction] on himself, continuing to remove the portion of "bad data" related to childishness. He lay there until dawn.
The next day, he returned to the Earth Mother's divine kingdom. It looked like a garden, but was actually