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Edward Vaughan blinked.
"Of course not."
He spoke in utter puzzlement. "Why would you wonder about that? The 'withering' in my honorific name refers to life and beneficial qualities. It's just that spelling it out would make it too easy to point toward certain high-ranking beings of the Death Pathway."
"Besides, I don't want to form any bad connections with the Abyss before I'm strong enough. After all, problems appeared there long ago."
The True Creator frowned almost imperceptibly. That answered his question, but it did not contain the information he wanted.
So he drew a deep breath and spoke gravely, making his question more explicit:
"Then why can this line of your honorific name point to you so precisely?"
"'The sovereign from the Land of Deep Black' might be your acting in advance, since few other pathways have sovereigns, kings, or emperors. I'll accept for now that it can point to you relatively precisely within that range. But 'the Eye That Watches Over Living Beings' shouldn't be the main identifying line! The obvious feature of an 'eye' would clearly bring the Mystery Pryer Pathway to mind, especially the Hidden Sage, who often appears as transparent eyes. Devils shouldn't think of that, and eyes have little to do with devils. So what allows this honorific name to point to you precisely should be that first line."
Edward listened to his analysis with considerable interest, feeling the pleasure of an author whose foreshadowing had finally been noticed by a reader.
*Ah, wonderful. He's guessed practically everything he could. Actually, apart from "the great existence behind the Curtain of Shadows," the other three lines can all point to "me"... The original version, "the devil ravaging the earth, the cold-blooded and merciless Massacrer, the grand duke drenched in blood," was the real