Vincent cursed silently to himself. Part of him wanted to do something — but he could barely protect himself, let alone help Ouroboros.
"Ahh—"
Just then, Adam — who'd vanished at some point without anyone noticing, and now reappeared just as suddenly — tilted his head back, gazing up at the dense mass of lightning, and let out a long, weary sigh.
Suddenly, one black stone pillar after another rose up around them, a black roof forming above, and within moments, a vast, magnificent cathedral had risen into being.
Inside this cathedral, every pillar, every arch, every inch of the domed ceiling's surface was inlaid with bones — from countless different races, packed densely together, forming an entire cathedral built from the bones of the dead.
Across the cathedral's walls, windows, and doors, translucent, twisted faces bulged outward, as if countless trapped spirits were sealed within — and now, facing the lightning pouring down from above, these "spirits" opened their mouths wide, screaming in shrill, furious wails, as if hurling their outrage at the very master of that thunder.
RUMBLE!
Blinding lightning erupted, swallowing everything in its path.
The sky lit up in that instant, and the eerie yet sacred cathedral of bones, facing that world-ending storm of lightning, hung by a thread.
It didn't last even a single second before being annihilated completely, ground to dust.
But as quickly as the bone cathedral was destroyed, it rebuilt itself faster still — those dense, densely packed bones from countless races seemed to come alive, stretching, spreading, covering the destroyed sections, forming new roofs, new walls, new pillars.
Adam, gripping his silver cross, stood before the cathedral's massive crucifix, gazing upward through the roof at the lightning tearing through it, as if staring, across time and space itself, directly into the eyes of that "Tyrant" among the stars who had once betrayed him.
That single gesture seemed only to enrage the Tyrant further.
Amid a sudden blinding flash, bolt after bolt of lightning "leapt" out of the void, twisting together into a forest of thunder radiating pure annihilation.
The entire world turned silver-white in that instant.
After nearly half a minute of blindness —
The bone cathedral was gone. The forest of lightning was gone too. But everything in the surrounding area looked as though it had been plowed under by some colossal force — scorched black everywhere, the ground itself baked by the extreme heat into glittering crystal, like an endless field of glass.
Except the thick clouds still blanketing the sky hadn't dispersed at all — if anything, they'd grown even denser, more and more lightning of every different color rapidly condensing within them, clearly building toward something even bigger.
But this time, every bolt of that lightning was aimed squarely at Adam alone — Vincent and Ouroboros, by contrast, were being entirely ignored.
Adam turned to Vincent and sighed, quiet. "You really are just as reckless as each other, aren't you."
"What?"
Vincent froze, then asked quickly, "Who do you mean by 'each other'?"
"What do you mean, reckless?"
"Have you known me for a while, then?"
"If you were willing to help shield me from that thunder just now, that must mean we're on decent terms — so why didn't you do anything when I called out to you for help earlier?"
"What exactly are you after here?"
Adam's golden eyes rippled faintly. He shook his head, his gaze shifting to Ouroboros, now back in his human form, his whole body charred and cracked. "Give him my regards."
The words had barely left his mouth before Adam's figure vanished into thin air.
"Adam!!!"
RUMBLE!
Thunder cracked, and the lightning within the clouds surged out like a swarm of roaring dragons, streaking off toward the distance, carving trails of light across the far horizon — chasing after Adam, apparently, with an air of not stopping until the job was done.
In truth, the relationship between Adam and Leodro had always been this kind of endless, mutual hostility.
Setting aside Leodro's original betrayal of the Ancient Sun God, just the nature of their respective pathways alone guaranteed they could only ever be mortal enemies — after thousands of years as an exalted, untouchable god, there was no way Leodro would ever willingly return to being a mere Angel again.
Ouroboros gave Vincent's shoulder a light pat, and his body — moments away from losing control from spirituality exhaustion — rapidly recovered. Not only did the signs of impending loss of control vanish, but a small portion of his drained spirituality was restored as well.
"Let's go."
He said it flatly, giving Vincent's shoulder a light push, and together they stepped into the Spirit World.
After several minutes traveling through it, when they finally emerged, an endless ocean stretched out before them, with a rift behind them, splitting through the sea itself, endless streams of seawater cascading down like a waterfall into some bottomless, shadowy depth below.
Ahead lay a massive ruin.
Most of it lay submerged beneath the ocean, with only jagged peaks of gray stone and pillars breaking the surface, capped by something resembling a dome, its own curvature holding up a fairly sizable open space.
This ruin had clearly once been immense beyond imagining — through the clear water, one could faintly make out its structure continuing down, endlessly, into the depths of the sea.
"This is the Divine War Ruins."
Bernadette's voice sounded.
Hearing this, Vincent understood at once. One way to reach the god-forsaken land was through the Divine War Ruins — passing through the Giants' Palace gate, and entering from there.
So Ouroboros means to take me to the god-forsaken land, to meet the True Creator?
Vincent wasn't opposed, exactly, to meeting this "old comrade" — but Backlund's crisis wasn't over yet, and Klein was still desperately calling out to "Lord of Chaos" for help. If he went off to the god-forsaken land now, there was no telling what state things would be in by the time he made it back.
"Wait! Your Excellency Ouroboros — I can't go with you to see our Lord right now."
"..."
Ouroboros turned back, saying quietly, "But nowhere is safer than by our Lord's side."
Vincent froze for a moment, then it clicked: maybe Ouroboros hadn't been trying to bring him to meet the True Creator at all — just trying to get him somewhere "safe." And in his mind, being near the True Creator was, self-evidently, the safest place there was.
"This is already plenty safe, Your Excellency Ouroboros."
Vincent said, "I can't go to the god-forsaken land with you right now."
Ouroboros regarded him quietly for a few seconds, then gave a slight nod. "All right."
With that, he shot off toward the distant ruins without hesitation, his figure vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Vincent let out a slow breath, settling onto a nearby island-like piece of ruin — partly to keep recovering his spirituality, in preparation for the return trip to Backlund, and partly to use the Nation of Disorder to check in on how Klein was doing.
"What exactly was that strange sword?"
Bernadette's voice sounded in his mind.
There were plenty of sealed items in the Lord of Mysteries world more powerful than that strange sword — but using one of them to drive off three Sequence 1s, near-instantly taking down a Sequence 2 — even if it were possible at all, the user would have had to pay an enormous, likely fatal price.
But all Vincent had lost was his spirituality, half his remaining lifespan, and the sealed item itself, which had shattered. That was it — and to Bernadette, watching it happen, "that was it" felt like an almost absurd understatement.
"Honestly, I have no idea either."
The blade's appearance genuinely had left him completely baffled, with no way to make sense of what had just happened.
In all his previous attempts at Black Box, he'd only ever pulled out useless junk. At one point he'd guessed that Black Box's rewards might be drawing from the Harry Potter world, possibly the Lord of Mysteries world as well.
But now it looked like the Nation of Disorder's "Black Box" could reach all the way into the world of Bleach too. Which raised an unsettling question — could there be even more worlds out there it could pull from?
Countless heavens, countless worlds?
To be continued…
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