That Saint was like a puppet, offering no resistance as he walked toward the largest cross.
His movements were mechanical and precise, as if he had rehearsed them thousands of times.
Starting from beneath his feet, an ominous grey-black aura spread across the reef and the ground. The hard rock sizzled with green smoke as if doused in strong acid, rapidly decaying.
The Saint did not hesitate. He stepped onto the reef, personally looped the coarse rope around himself, and hung himself upside down on the largest cross.
The young man in black, that Sinful Angel, had a frantic smile on his face, looking very satisfied.
He slowly opened His hand, and a deathly white dagger appeared out of thin air. The dagger was polished from the bone of some unknown creature, its surface covered in eerie blood-colored patterns.
The next second.
*Puchi!*
Without hesitation, He plunged the deathly white dagger deep into the Saint's body.
"Fate belongs to me, while you shall bear the curse for me, child!" His voice echoed over the coast, a proclamation full of loftiness. "I am the symbol of the eventual decay of all things, the End of the River of Time, the Master of Rot and Decay, the Irreversible Entropy—"
As soon as He finished speaking, eerie black-red flames erupted from the Saint's body. Within the flames, his flesh rapidly dissolved and then eerily reorganized.
Meanwhile, intense green and yellow-brown light erupted from the Sinful Angel. An aura of rot and decay surged frantically from Him, like a World heading toward its end.
He closed His eyes and spread His arms, enjoying the magnificent power continuously pouring into His body across the World barrier.
Everything seemed to be under His control.
But just when He thought everything was going smoothly, the transmission of that power cut off without any warning!
"Hmm?"
The Sinful Angel snapped His eyes open, a flash of bewilderment appearing in those pure black pupils.
At the same time, on the cross to the right, a ghostly black light on the upside-down Kaelan quietly dissipated like dispelled moonlight.
"Pffft—!"
The Sinful Angel's body shook violently as He spat out a large mouthful of yellow-brown blood. Carrying a thick scent of decay, the blood hit the reef and immediately corroded the rock into a deep pit emitting black smoke.
For the first time, His face showed uncontrollable shock and fury.
"Why?!!" He let out a heart-wrenching roar, staring fixedly in Kaelan's direction. "The ritual actually failed?! Evernight! What did you do?!"
An opportunity!
At the moment the Sinful Angel lost His composure due to the sudden change in the ritual, a figure stepped slowly out of the nearby shadows.
It was Lin Huai.
He ignored the sizzling blood on the ground that was constantly corroding the soles of his shoes and walked step by step to the front of the Sinful Angel.
There was no fear or tension on his face, only a calm confidence as if he held all the cards.
"As expected, I guessed right." Lin Huai looked up, meeting the Sinful Angel's burning gaze. "Your Excellency, you've lost. I was curious the first time I saw Kaelan. Thor said her body was cold and lacked warmth, not at all like a living person. I thought it was just the 'warmth of love' at the time—though what the hell does a brute like Thor know about the warmth of love? I didn't take it to heart then, assuming it was the influence of a Sequence or a Beyonder item."
Lin Huai continued to himself, "Another strange point is that Kaelan is a woman through and through. We all know who sits at the peak of the Demoness Pathway, yet she managed to promote to Sequence 5 while remaining so normal she didn't seem like a Demoness at all. Finally, and most importantly, when I realized I was that existence's Marionette, I used the power of Sefirah Castle to perform divination on my way here, yet I could divine nothing. Do you understand that moment of realization? Adding these three factors together, an absurd conclusion popped into my head."
The fury on the Sinful Angel's face instantly turned into an absurd look, as if He were looking at a Lunatic.
"Yeah... I lost... who would have thought?" He murmured in a low voice, as if asking Lin Huai or Himself. "A Sequence 5 Demoness... is actually a virgin!! This is actually a Demoness you people forcibly nurtured, a pile of rotten meat that went mad long ago—"
His voice suddenly rose, filled with malice and resentment.
"They stayed with my child, spending seventy years setting the stage, just to send me out, to kick me out of my homeland. I am also a life born from the Primordial One!"
"Evernight, you actually Concealed all her memories and her madness!!"
The Sinful Angel pointed at Kaelan, His body trembling slightly from extreme rage.
"This pile of rotten meat that has been mad for seventy years had fake memories implanted by you to suppress the madness, all for this moment, to deal me this fatal blow!!!"
As His words fell, an incredible scene occurred.
On Kaelan's perfect body, naked female forms suddenly sprouted one after another like growing tumors, their expressions pained and distorted.
Then, those countless female bodies seemed to lose their support and began to melt and merge. Finally, they turned into an indescribable, writhing, giant mass of flesh with numerous pale female characteristics, emitting a nauseating aura.
The failure of the ritual seemed to have severed some invisible shackle.
On the largest cross, the dead, dark silence in Saint Itmer's eyes receded like a tide, regaining clarity and humanity.
He glanced at the dagger in his chest, then at the frantic Sinful Angel below. He slowly raised his hand, untied the rope binding him, and landed lightly on the ground.
He smoothed his simple linen clothes, looked up, and gazed at the being who had raised him for a hundred years with a look of pity and determination.
"Teacher, you've lost."
His voice was hoarse but exceptionally calm.
"You nurtured me for a hundred years just so I would eventually accept your Criminal power, making it easier for You to reclaim your power as the Monarch of Decay. Then, through your authority above the Sequences, you intended for this body of mine—which would eventually go completely mad—to become Your avatar."
A bitter smile appeared on Itmer's face.
"The Prisoner is a Pathway that endures curses. In fact, if You hadn't let me experience the beauty of being human, I probably would have gladly accepted my fate."
He paused and looked up, an unprecedented light burning in his aged eyes.
"But now, for the humanity I have guarded for a hundred years, I declare war on You."
"Yes, I lost, but don't think you'll have it easy either. Although I still haven't figured out what you're plotting, this mysterious Marionette should have a great suppressive effect on that Old Trickster's revival—or perhaps it's a help. If this Marionette disappears along with his humanity, what do you think will happen?"
"I'm only losing an avatar, but let this Planet blessed by the Primordial One play along with your schemes and that Old Trickster!" With that, the Angel in black stood up. A ball of light filled with the aura of decay gathered in His hand as His eyes fixed deathly on Lin Huai.