The descent in progress

49

Dunn opened the urn of Saint Selena's Ashes. Sensing a deadly threat, Megose glared at him and shouted:

"You're going to kill my child!"

"You must die!"

Bang! An invisible force hurled Dunn across the room, slamming him into the opposite wall hard enough to crack it and send bricks flying. Agonizing pain tore through his chest and back, briefly paralyzing his thoughts. Blood sprayed from his nose and mouth, but sheer willpower kept his grip locked around the urn of Saint Selena's Ashes. Cold, black threads tightened around Megose, binding her firmly in place.

After holding out for ten seconds, Klein and Leonard rushed out from behind the partition together. One held a warm, thin gold leaf; the other had already wound the Blood Vessel Thief around his left wrist and spread his five fingers toward Megose. Suddenly sensing danger, Megose opened her mouth wide. At that same instant, Leonard snapped his fingers shut and twisted his wrist through half a turn.

Megose made no sound-Leonard had used the Blood Vessel Thief to steal her ability to use Blasphemous Words!

Seizing the opportunity, Klein spoke in a low voice, uttering a word in Ancient Hermes: "Light!"

The thin Gold Leaf charm in his hand abruptly grew scorching hot. Without hesitation, Klein poured most of his spirituality into it. Dazzling golden light erupted from the charm, as though it had become the sun in his palm! Then he hurled it at Megose, who was struggling desperately after sensing the danger!

The reception hall instantly became brilliantly illuminated, its gloom and sinister atmosphere vanishing.

Klein's and Leonard's pupils contracted sharply.

The charm released its full power, its light resonating with the sun above, but-the light had been deflected. Something had knocked the charm away before it could erupt completely, causing it to discharge beside Megose. Not only had it failed to destroy the terrifying mother, it had burned through the threads restraining her.

They turned in disbelief. Behind them, Dunn had silently raised his revolver, wisps of smoke curling from its muzzle.

50

Dunn slammed into the wall, and his vision immediately blurred. A pair of hands seemed to gently support his shoulders and lift his arm, helping him draw his gun and take aim. The muzzle pointed straight at Klein, who was helpless under Megose's relentless assault.

"Shoot." A voice spoke beside his ear, its gentle temptation reaching straight into his soul. "We agreed. Kill them."

Yes, I must kill Klein and Leonard, because they stopped the Descent of the True Creator. Dunn accepted the thought as perfectly natural, aiming at Klein as he desperately dodged, the muzzle tracking his head.

Just then, a chill seeped from the urn of Saint Selena's Ashes in his hand, like a bucket of cold water pouring over him from above. Dunn suddenly remembered-he remembered everything. Horror seized him, and cold sweat instantly soaked his entire body. His hands trembling, the Nightmare stared wide-eyed as a sealed memory abruptly surfaced: that night, he had mistakenly entered the other's dream and received knowledge from him, establishing a bargain he could not resist. And the terms were-

"From now on, you are my eyes and ears within the Nighthawks," the Devil had told him. "If anyone stops the Descent of the True Creator, kill them."

"No..."

"Kill them."

The gentle voice sounded beside his ear again. Blocked by broken walls and partitions, the two team members could not see through the walls. Naturally, they could not notice their captain, drenched in sweat and his face twisted, aiming his gun at their temples and the backs of their heads. Before Dunn's horrified eyes, his finger tightened around the trigger little by little. His resistance meant nothing.

"Don't even think about it...!!!"

"No, I will absolutely... never... hurt my... team!!"

Just then, Klein threw the charm and shouted, "Light!"

Bang!

As the light blossomed, Dunn sensed a momentary pause from the person controlling his body through words. He mustered every ounce of strength to shift the muzzle a fraction, just as his finger pulled the trigger all the way. The bullet knocked the charm aside, and the sun-bright pillar of light missed the enemy. Taking advantage of that opening, he immediately drew his hand back, aimed the muzzle at his own temple under his teammates' bewildered gazes, and savagely pulled the trigger!

"Captain!"

"Captain, what are you doing?!"

He heard their anxious, concerned questions, but his throat could no longer produce a sound. No agony struck his temple-the gun had misfired! He had not died, but his surroundings suddenly turned pitch-black and utterly silent. Those hands gripped Dunn's cheeks, forcing him to look up.

-He met a pair of pure black eyes.

"You broke our bargain."

"Your soul belongs to me."

The Devil whispered those malicious words into his ear, grasped Dunn's shoulders, and gently lifted-an action that looked like smoothing out his rumpled clothes, but which effortlessly pulled his entire spirit out of his body, as though stripping off a garment. Dunn suddenly felt impossibly light, the deep darkness infinitely welcoming. A lingering smile of relief rested at the corners of his mouth as his lifeless eyes closed. He slowly sank into a dark, sweet dream. An invisible force formed something like glass around his spirit, enclosing him within it.

Thank goodness, I didn't... hurt my companions...

...Leonard, Klein... leave... hurry... run...

The glass bottle slipped into the darkness and drifted lightly into someone's hand. He examined his new collection piece for two seconds, then casually set it on the table.

"Your resistance means nothing. A Devil's bargain leaves no room for escape."

Edward Vaughan spoke flatly to himself. "Break the bargain, and your soul belongs to me. Suicide amounts to giving up, and giving up is a breach. But even if you killed your companions and fulfilled the bargain, acting against your own wishes and the guilt would corrupt you, and your soul would still belong to me.-From the moment the bargain was struck, your soul was already mine."

"A reasonably radiant soul... but did the Eternal Blazing Sun glance this way just now?"

"So that's the secret? It seems I'll have to change my strategy..."

51

Dunn did not pull the trigger. Only after pressing the barrel hard against his temple for several seconds did the light finally return to his vacant eyes.

"...The Evil God's Offspring influenced me," he said, panting. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth into the urn. Megose, who had begun struggling during his daze, was bound tight once more, unable to move.

"Do you have another of those charms? I'll hold her down. Hurry!"

Klein hesitated for an instant. The captain certainly seemed off, but it was indeed difficult for anyone to remain completely normal under the influence of an Evil God's Offspring. His spiritual intuition gave no warning, and the immediate crisis left him no room to hesitate. Fortunately, he had two Flaring Sun Charms. Instinctively following Dunn's stern instructions, he took the other Flaring Sun Charm from his pocket and infused it with spirituality. Majestic Ancient Hermes burst from his tongue as he raised his arm, about to throw it at Megose!

"Don't trust him!" an aged voice rang out. "Run!"

"Klein!" The Midnight Poet suddenly roared. He rushed forward in a few great strides and slammed into Klein just as he was about to throw the charm, knocking him aside. The momentum sent Leonard off balance as well, and they tumbled together, sliding two or three meters. A curse reached the Seer's lips, only to catch in his throat. He saw every fine thread around Megose vanish at the same instant. With ghostlike speed, she lunged to their side, missing Leonard's toes by a hair.-Had Klein remained where he was, the newly freed Megose would undoubtedly have dodged the charm and torn him to pieces!

Sharp bone blades split from Megose's arms, and her fingers had completely transformed into monstrous claws capable of shredding a person. She landed where Klein had just stood, gouging furrows several centimeters deep into the floor! Terrified out of his wits, Klein immediately threw the Flaring Sun Charm clenched in his palm without a second thought. This time, the golden pillar of light finally erupted in the right place, enveloping Megose before she could move!

Seizing the chance, Klein and Leonard scrambled a few steps farther away on their hands and feet. Megose became an enormous ball of fire, rolling frantically across the floor and screaming in agony. Scorching wind and light struck their faces. The sudden rise in temperature drove away some of their fear.

"How did you know to push me away?"

"Instinct, just instinct! My instincts are really accurate!" Leonard regained his balance and stood, pulling Klein up as well. He had acted purely on impulse and instinct just now; only now did the fear truly hit him.

Leonard rubbed his arms. He had barely breathed a sigh of relief when the aged voice immediately rang out in his mind. It had never sounded so grave. He froze as though struck by lightning. "Leave! Stay away from him-from Him! Pray to the Evernight Goddess! Pray! Hurry!!"

"Dunn" released his grip, and the urn of Saint Selena's Ashes rolled to the floor. The golden flames on Megose gradually died out. Apart from her enormously swollen belly, she no longer possessed any human features. The Evil God's Offspring, whose birth had been obstructed, openly directed its venomous resentment toward the two Nighthawks present. A chill ran down Klein's and Leonard's spines at the same time, and both silently recited the Goddess's honorific name.

"You're not mature yet. He's too impatient." "Dunn" nudged the urn on the floor with his toe, treating the two Nighthawks as though they did not exist. Through the gap in the wall, he admired the bustling town outside and nodded in satisfaction. "Let me help you."

"Dunn" raised one hand, palm upward, and abruptly clenched it.

It had been a peaceful day, but from that moment onward, the illusion of peace suddenly shattered. Perhaps it began when a thief fleeing down the street panicked and drew his gun, sending a bullet through a police officer's eye socket and blowing away his hat and half his skull, splattering passing ladies and gentlemen with blood. Or perhaps it began when a nobleman suddenly coughed violently at his own banquet, spat out great mouthfuls of bright red blood clots, and collapsed dead among them. His bodyguards kept the guests inside to maintain order, and a chandelier that happened to fall, together with the gunshots outside, ignited their suppressed panic. Or perhaps an ordinary brawl on Lower Street finally went too far, and a thug's dagger slit a scrawny vagrant's throat, unleashing blood and terror together.

Everything was ignited, guided into erupting naturally.

Screams rose one after another. Fear and chaos roamed like a plague, and people fled aimlessly through the streets, weeping. The officers charged with maintaining order were the first to fall to gunfire and death. Their bodies lay in pools of blood on the streets, their gruesome appearance intensifying everyone's panic and fear.

Boom! Somewhere, gas seemed to have leaked and exploded. Bright yellow flames instantly rose from a corner of Lower Street. Makeshift shanties fashioned from connected pieces of filthy fabric provided the perfect path for the fire to spread. Unless something intervened, the flames would swallow half the block within two minutes, then ride the wind onward until all of Lower Street was engulfed!

A crazed horse threw its driver from his seat, then dragged the carriage straight into a wall, smashing it to pieces.

Screams, wind, sobbing, prayers, and the roar of burning flames swallowed the city. The clamor was deafening, overwhelmingly lively, like a vast tide. The second hand completed half a revolution, and half of Tingen had already plunged into bloodshed and chaos. Those seeking survival returned home or rushed toward churches, while crowding and stampedes drove the death toll higher still.

Of course, perhaps the true cause was simply that, two streets away, the Abyss Angel clapped his hands. A half-unfurled world of profound darkness flashed through the Spirit World and merged with the ground of Tingen. Silently, the city was severed from reality. The sun dimmed, and everyone unknowingly wandered upon the Black Plain of the Abyss. He watched it all, then calmly uttered a word in the Language of Foulness.

"Chaos."

52

At the center of the storm deciding Tingen's fate, the Nighthawks' small building remained peaceful-deathly silent, even. Klein held a pose of retreating and dodging. He seemed motionless, but closer observation revealed that his lips and body were moving at an extraordinarily slow speed. The infant in Megose's belly happily digested the negative emotions generated by the chaos. Beneath Leonard's feet lay a half-black, half-white clock smeared with shadows. Its second hand seemed welded to its face, one second stretched to its absolute limit.

In that moment of crisis, Pallez had wrung out what little strength he had left like squeezing a sponge, barely immobilizing Megose and the still-undeveloped Evil God's Offspring, which was concentrating on absorbing nutrients. He had pulled Leonard and Klein back from the blade of death.

"You're not Amon. A Worm of Time actually survived?" The Devil turned his face and studied Leonard with interest. "You're more valuable than the Nightmare. Who would have thought Tingen had a hidden Sequence One?"

Leonard gritted his teeth.

Seeing such a bizarre expression on Dunn's face deepened Leonard's fear. In this nearly motionless world, something wearing his captain's skin approached step by step. Those once-deep gray eyes brimmed with malicious delight. "Perhaps you need help. I can help you escape Amon's pursuit, and catch a few stray Amons for you to snack on. You hate him and fear him, don't you? The Evernight Goddess has yet to turn her gaze here, and the Eternal Blazing Sun has already looked away. Stay here, and you'll only be buried alongside this city and the god about to be born."

"The emperor you once served was his ally, wasn't he? We could actually cooperate..."

What?! Hearing this hidden knowledge, Leonard shuddered. His fear and rejection of the mysterious man parasitizing him instantly swelled to their utmost-wasn't the god about to descend the True Creator?! The person the old man had once served was his ally. Didn't that make the old man a companion of the being before him, an enemy of the Nighthawks and even the seven gods?! Didn't that make Leonard the culprit who had invited the wolf inside, all his struggles and efforts nothing more than an entertaining show to the old man? Suddenly overcome by regret and anguish, Leonard reached toward his holster, contemplating suicide to atone.

"Stop letting your thoughts run wild!" Pallez growled. His voice struck like thunder, breaking through Leonard's guilt and self-reproach. "Use your brain! Haven't you noticed he's deliberately telling you this?! He left out the crucial parts to drive us apart and lure you into corruption. Otherwise, he could have explained in more detail and made your head explode on the spot!"

"You seem to know Devils very well. I'm beginning to believe we really have worked together before." "Dunn" smiled.

"Who exactly are you?!" Leonard finally found an opportunity to speak. "What have you done to the captain?!"

"Dunn" looked at him and spoke in a rich, mellow voice. "..."

Leonard heard nothing.

"You little fool, have you lost your mind? Don't ask him questions!" Exhausted, Pallez stole Leonard's hearing. "Don't listen, don't look! As long as you actively or willingly receive anything from him, he can strike a 'bargain' with you, or even establish a 'contract'!!"

"That massacre during Roselle's era you read about in your church-school books happened for precisely that reason. A little girl traded him one of her candies for the lives of an entire city! Your captain must have inadvertently received something from him too, and paid the price with his soul!"

Paid with his soul... Leonard's face turned deathly pale.

"I think that was a three-way win, wasn't it?" The Devil smiled. "My friend won, I completed part of a ritual and received a candy, and the little girl got her enemies' lives. Isn't that wonderful?"

As that second approached its end, with Pallez's strength failing and death about to descend, Edward Vaughan suddenly sensed something strange. He raised his head and saw a trace of red mingle with the edge of the pale sun above. The red climbed upward, inch by inch, slowly consuming the warmthless sun within the Abyss. At some unknown point, pinpricks of light had appeared in the black sky. Stars spread from its corners, as though a black curtain were being lifted and replaced with a night sky.

"The Evernight Goddess who stands higher than the cosmos and more eternal than eternity."

"You are the Mother of Concealment, the Lady of Crimson."

"The Empress of Calamity and Fear, the Lord of Silence and Slumber..."

A tranquil power descended from above. "Dunn" shifted his gaze away from Leonard toward the Seer in the corner. He heard the Seer laboriously speaking, reciting the Evernight Goddess's honorific name over and over at a normal pace within this slowed world.

My Abyss has been invaded, he thought. After all, I'm only an Angel.

"I pray for your gaze. I pray for your descent."

"An Evil God's Offspring is being born. I pray that you save this city."

She actually came. People with secrets really are troublesome... The Abyss Angel smiled and shook his head as crimson moonlight enveloped the entire city.

TBC

How Edward's plan changed:

Come take a look, deal with the anomaly, then leave → 0-08 is here; see what's going on → read Ince Zangwill's Notebook, discover this little place has quite a few problems, and stay → control Dunn, assume nothing can go wrong → see the Flaring Sun Charm → revise the plan; the original plan was to sacrifice the entire city directly in reality, then use that to advance to Sequence One → separate it from reality with a Divine Kingdom Prototype, planning to swallow Tingen within the Abyss before advancing → never expect Klein to be able to recite the honorific name normally and actually attract the Evernight Goddess's gaze → honestly, after eight revisions, he no longer wanted to do it. But he still had to.