The woman in black gave a straightforward nod. "That's right."
Amon tilted his head slightly. "But how do I know you won't turn right around and back your father again, once the time comes?"
"I'm only Sequence 2. I shouldn't pose any threat to you at all, should I?"
"Amenisis does, though. How do I know this whole 'defying her plans to come make a deal with me' act isn't something she cooked up from the start?"
Amon glanced at Klein, his tone flattening. "I've always known exactly who my biggest rival in this world really is — and it's not this kid Amenisis picked up along the way. It's your father."
The woman in black was quiet for a few seconds. "But... he already jumped pathways, didn't he?"
"Oh? You know about that too?"
Amon looked genuinely a little surprised. "It took me quite a while to work that one out."
She said only, flatly, "I'm his daughter."
"..."
Amon lightly slapped his forehead. "Fair enough. Fair enough."
"Did you find anything?"
The woman in black asked, after a pause. "You suspected this man might be a fallback plan my father left behind — is that why you parasitized him?"
"Mm."
Amon answered, reluctantly. "The 'Lamp Spirit,' Roselle, and now this kid I've parasitized — all three were people I'd 'observed' as tightly bound to his fate."
"With the Lamp Spirit gone, and Roselle corrupted by the Fallen Mother Goddess, that leaves only this kid. But..." His tone shifted abruptly. "But I'm starting to think he's probably not a fallback plan after all. It's too obvious, too simple. He wouldn't be that careless."
"And the way you're reacting right now suggests you think the same — that he has nothing to do with your father."
The woman in black asked quietly, "Why trust my judgment on that?"
"Because you're his daughter."
Amon threw the same line back at her.
"But I've lost most of my memories connected to him."
She stated it plainly, calmly. "I'm not looking for him for his sake. I'm looking for the memories I lost."
"All right, I think we've wandered a bit off track. Have you decided... whether you want to make this deal with me?"
...
The moment Vincent stepped out of the Spirit World and arrived at Red Rose Manor, he found two "monsters," both in Mythical Creature Form, locked in a genuine, no-holds-barred one-on-one brawl.
The sprawling grounds of Red Rose Manor had been plowed through several layers deep by the two combatants' brutal fight, reduced to a wasteland.
But their battle hadn't spilled beyond the manor's boundaries — not because either of them was holding back, but because the entire estate had been enveloped in some strange energy, sealing it off into an isolated space.
Vincent looked toward the one remaining building not far off, certain that, barring surprises, Klein had to be inside.
But he found himself staring, stunned, at the ruined buildings scattered around him — not long ago, he'd met Prince Edsac right there, seen Ellie with her identity restored right there. He hadn't expected to return and find the place reduced to this.
To Beyonders, especially high-Sequence ones, ordinary people were as fragile as ants — an offhand skirmish could easily result in tragic, innocent deaths, and the Beyonders involved might never even realize it, or care, even if they did.
Vincent hesitated for a few seconds, then flicked out a coin. "Ellie is still alive."
The coin spun several times in midair before landing in his palm.
Heads up.
Confirmed.
The result caught him off guard — he'd already braced himself for the worst before flipping the coin, and yet she was actually alive!
Which raised the question — could she be buried somewhere in that rubble right now?
Vincent picked up a stick and used dowsing.
Under the influence of spirituality, the stick spun rapidly several times before finally settling, pointing toward somewhere outside Red Rose Manor: meaning Ellie was currently outside the estate grounds.
Had she simply been out when the fighting broke out, or had she gotten lucky and escaped in time?
Either way, the result put Vincent's mind considerably at ease.
"Time to focus on what matters."
Bernadette's voice cut in, right on cue. Rationally speaking, compared to a girl he'd only known a few days, barely even a friend, Vincent should be prioritizing finding Klein first, confirming whether this future "savior" was still safe.
But what if "you" were that girl yourself?
Would you want people to overlook you entirely for the sake of some grand, sweeping narrative, or would you want them to spend even half a minute checking on you first?
Still, Bernadette had to admit — someone with Vincent's temperament was never going to accomplish anything truly great.
"All right!"
"Judging by what we're seeing here, the Primordial Witch probably hasn't actually descended."
That wasn't hard to reason out — if a god had truly descended, the destruction would have gone far beyond what they were seeing now. That fire giant "Hunter" would've been dispatched by the Primordial Witch ages ago; there was no way he'd still be locked in a one-on-one with that serpent-haired gorgon.
Of course, there was another possibility too — that the Primordial Witch had descended, then immediately left to go handle something else elsewhere.
"Honestly, I'd say the fact that Backlund's still completely calm right now, with no sign of a divine war breaking out, is enough on its own to conclude the Primordial Witch didn't descend."
But Bernadette said, "Not necessarily."
"When a god descends through a vessel, they generally can't manifest at their full strength or true form. If the Primordial Witch's descent only reached Sequence 1-level power, there'd be no need for an actual divine war — driving her out of Backlund would be enough."
"After all, if a divine war broke out, the Primordial Witch would only lose a fragment of her consciousness — but Backlund being destroyed would be a devastating loss for the Church of the Evernight."
Vincent asked, "You mean the anchor point?"
"Mm."
The Kingdom of Loen was the Church of the Evernight's core power base. On the surface, Backlund's destruction would just mean losing one city's anchor point — but this happened to be Loen's capital.
If the capital were destroyed, every high-ranking figure in the country would be wiped out in one stroke, and other nations would waste no time seizing the opportunity — much like the eventual war between Loen and Feysac.
In the end, the War God's church had effectively been erased, with only a scattered handful of its followers still drifting around outside its ruins.
Of course, that outcome had depended on the War God actually falling. As long as the Goddess of the Evernight remained alive, other nations and gods likely wouldn't dare push things too far — but probing, testing, gradually squeezing the Church of the Evernight's territory was bound to happen regardless.
Vincent thought it over, then pulled the silver antique mirror, Arodes, out of the Secret Door. "Is there danger inside this house?"
Ripples spread across the mirror's silver surface, resolving into an image: Klein, sitting cross-legged on the floor, gazing up at the sky.
A few seconds later, more text appeared on the mirror: "There is danger. But if you don't go, my master will die. Could you really bring yourself to just stand by and do nothing?"
A little pitiful cat emoji was tacked onto the end of the sentence.
"..."
Vincent arched an eyebrow. Huh. That "pitiful" question is basically a threat, when you think about it. You've decided I'm your loyal little simp and I'll definitely find some way to save Klein no matter what, is that it?
The problem is — sure, I need Klein down the line to help deal with the apocalypse, but if the danger right now is genuinely lethal, why should I care about any of that?
"Did the Primordial Witch's descent fail?"
"Yes."
Compared to his and Bernadette's own guesswork, Arodes's answer carried a lot more weight.
Vincent quickly stacked several uses of "Mystery Reenactment" on himself, adding the Emperor's New Clothes, an invisibility hat, and then, using an item from the Witch Pathway, another layer of invisibility on top of that. Only then did he dissolve into shadow, moving carefully toward the house.
As he closed in on the one room in the house untouched by the destruction, he layered on a few more "buffs," slipped through the shadow beneath the door, and tucked himself away into the shadowed gap behind a vase in the corner.
"Found him."
Vincent immediately spotted Klein, in the exact same pose he'd seen reflected in the mirror, sitting front and center in the room.
The good news: the Primordial Witch really hadn't descended.
The bad news: Klein looked like he was... kind of dead.
To be continued…
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