On the deck of the Emerald.
In a quiet, unremarked corner, two small figures squatted side by side. Not far from them, a group of arguing women had escalated into a full-blown shouting match, with signs of physical altercation imminent.
Lilith gave a satisfied nod. "That's good enough! Next."
Susie crouched down, allowing Lilith to hop onto her back.
"Let's go!"
The cat and dog darted through the crowd like a pair of shadows. They left the deck, made their way into the cabin, and arrived at the main hall, finally stopping in another inconspicuous corner.
As one passenger after another walked past, Susie occasionally fixated on one or two for a few extra seconds. After about two or three minutes, she whispered, "The couple on the left seem to be having issues. The wife is sulking, while the husband keeps sneaking glances at women passing by."
"The two women up ahead? They pretend to be best friends, but they're locked in a silent rivalry."
"And those two men over there…they're probably business rivals, each one wishing the other would just drop dead."
"Oh, that girl really can't stand her little brother. Thinks their parents gave all the good things to him."
"And…"
As Susie continued her observations, Lilith kept switching targets to release her Instigation ability, while Susie provided real-time updates on the developing situations.
"Those two women can't keep up the act any longer."
"The wife looks like she's about to go off on her husband."
"The girl's trying to knock something over and pin it on her brother."
"As for the men…they're still holding it in."
Lilith nodded seriously and cast another instigation.
"Got it!"
By the time Audrey arrived at the main hall, the place had already been divided into multiple "combat zones." Men and women, men and men, women and women, adults and children, even children among themselves—everyone had been ignited by their long-repressed anger.
Some were shouting, others already throwing punches, while curious onlookers formed a ring around the chaos.
Audrey took a deep breath. At the edge of the crowd, she spotted the two sneaky little creatures and marched straight toward them.
"Susie! Lilith!"
"Ah! Audrey's here, run!"
Lilith leapt onto Susie's back, tapping frantically at her neck with her little paws. But Susie didn't move. Instead, she spoke in a tone only Lilith could hear, "Running won't help. Play cute."
"I am Miss Lilith, I refuse to—"
Plop.
Susie flopped onto the ground, tail wagging vigorously, wearing a sweet smile.
Lilith immediately sat up straight, gem-like eyes wide and innocent, and mewed softly, "Meow~"
Audrey: "….."
I must not fall for their act!
Audrey frowned. "Don't you two dare play cute with me! This time you've gone too far—especially…"
Her gaze shifted to Susie.
"Especially you, Susie. You've completely corrupted Lilith!"
"???"
Susie's goofy face was filled with shock, confusion, and disbelief: Me? I'm just the getaway driver—how could I corrupt Lilith?
Seeing this, Lilith instantly stepped forward, raised her right front paw, and struck a protective pose in front of Susie—A cat takes responsibility for her own actions! If you have a problem, bring it to Miss Lilith!
Audrey pressed her hand to her forehead, exasperated.
Just then, Lilith's eyes lit up with delight. She sprang forward like a bolt of lightning.
"Meowww~!"
Audrey quickly turned around. Seeing who had arrived, she smiled warmly.
"You're back, Edward."
"Yeah."
To return to the Emerald as fast as possible, Edward had first entered the pouch, exited through the Vanishing Cabinet onto the ship, and used a stone with Portus as a key to mark the Emerald's current position. Then he immediately returned to Bansy to retrieve the pouch and used the Portkey to come back.
The whole process had taken less than a minute. By the time he returned, the Emerald had only sailed a few hundred meters, so a single Apparition was enough to get him back into the cabin.
Catching the pouncing Lilith, Edward rubbed her head and said sternly, "Didn't I say you're not allowed to casually use Instigation on normies?"
She raised a little paw, trying to indicate "just a tiny bit," and whispered near his ear, "I only used a tiny bit…At most, they'll just have a little fight. Susie said sometimes a fight or argument actually helps relationships grow stronger."
Susie shot upright: I NEVER SAID THAT!
Audrey walked over. "How did it go?"
Edward considered for a moment. "The goal was achieved…but the process was… complicated. Let's talk in the room."
He gave the "combat zones" around the hall another glance and sighed. He flicked Lilith lightly on the head. Lilith puffed out her cheeks in protest, visibly sulking.
The four of them returned to the room. Edward gently rubbed Lilith's head and said softly,
"Sorry, Lilith. I shouldn't have knocked on your head just now."
She blinked. "Meow?"
Edward had suddenly realised—he was the one who had given Lilith the Witch potion, and he had asked her to play the role, too. But the Witch pathway itself was one steeped in disaster.
"Acting" wasn't always polite tea parties.
Just like his own path as a "Madman." To stay in character, he'd done plenty of "bad things" over the past two weeks—not all targeted at pirates. Inevitably, some innocent people had been affected too.
For Lilith, a mere cat, to show even some restraint…was already incredible.
"That's right!"
Receiving Edward's praise, Lilith instantly perked up and wagged her tail with pride. "Miss Lilith is amazing!"
"Since you're so amazing, then there's no problem with the assessment the day after tomorrow, right?"
Her face froze.
Edward turned to Audrey. "Those people Lilith instigated into fighting earlier…Let's think of a way to make it up to them tonight."
"Mhm, sure~"
And with that, Edward began recounting his recent adventures on Bansy.
——
"I thought the biggest danger this time would be the pollution on the island. I didn't expect the descendant of Medici to perform a sacrifice to an evil god…and turn into that monstrous thing."
"...and then there was that wooden door that appeared at the very end, and the unknown presence behind it. I have this feeling…if I'd hesitated even for a second longer, I probably wouldn't have gotten away."
Edward leaned back slightly as he spoke, voice low but steady.
"But overall, I guess it could be considered a narrow escape. At least I made it back alive, and even obtained the Beyonder characteristic of a Sequence 5: Reaper. On top of that, I've completely digested the Madman potion. Now, as long as I finish digesting the Astrologer's potion too, I'll be ready to advance to Sequence 6."
The Beyonder characteristic he had extracted from the Medici descendant's amalgamated form was only that of a Sequence 5. Disappointing, perhaps—but not unexpected.
After all, if the target had truly been a higher Sequence, they wouldn't have needed to resort to such a grotesque method of fusion just to grasp a Demigod's strength.
In Edward's mind, Madman should have been far harder to act than Astrologer. Yet somehow, he had managed to digest the former first, which came as an unexpected turn.
Audrey let out a quiet sigh. Although Edward claimed it had been a "narrow escape," just listening to his description of that abominable fusion creature made her skin crawl. And when she thought about how he later saw people who should have been dead—that was the part that truly chilled her.
The blood sample inside the pouch proved that Edward's account was real.
And Mr. Fool had already confirmed there was nothing unusual about Bansy right now.
So what had actually happened?
She had once believed that becoming a Beyonder meant stepping into the world of mysticism.
But now, she was beginning to realise…the mystical world might be far more 'mysterious' than she had imagined.
"That man named Verdu—did he ever show up again?"
"No." Edward shook his head. "I hope he made it out alive."
He rubbed his temples wearily. "I'm starving. Come eat something with me?"
"All right."
———
Nightfall.
At the border between Backlund's East Borough and The Bridge—
It was arguably the most chaotic, lawless, and hopeless part of this so-called land of hope.
Inside a dilapidated house, two corpses—a man and a woman, both middle-aged—lay sprawled on the blood-soaked floor. They were the original residents, labourers who had just returned home after a day of exhausting work. Before they could even rest, they were inexplicably slaughtered by an intruder.
Not far from their bodies knelt a tall figure—nearly two meters high—dressed in black priest robes. He sat solemnly within a blood-drawn ritual circle, muttering softly.
He had light blond, slightly wavy hair and deep brown eyes that held a bestial intensity—but no madness.
Before him lay an open diary. Blood and flesh were constantly seeping from between its pages.
"Praise the Lord, who granted me new life. Praise "Him", who revealed life's true purpose. I shall spread despair, death, and chaos in "His" name."
"I offer my body for "His" descent. I surrender my soul."
With those words, he lowered his head and slammed it heavily against the blood-drenched floor.
Then, without warning, he gripped his own throat with both hands—and squeezed.
CRUNCH.
The sound of bone being crushed echoed through the room. For most people, a crushed neck would mean certain death.
But the tall man—Yurigus—growled lowly, and in the next instant, his body melted into the shadows like flowing ink.
BOOM! BOOM!!
The corpses of the middle-aged couple suddenly exploded, transforming into thick, sticky clumps of flesh and blood.
Half of the mass surged toward Yurigus, forming a cloak that could resist spells and reduce incoming damage. The other half moulded itself into a long-haired, shaggy-furred meat carpet that rushed toward the room's other occupant—a young woman dressed in a hooded black robe, with blue eyeshadow and blush painted on her cheeks.
Daly Simone.
Her expression remained calm. A symbol of the Gate of the Underworld opened on her forehead.
From it emerged a Spirit World creature—only its beast-like head visible.
Its maw stretched wide:
"Aaaaaaa—!!!"
The piercing scream shattered the night. The visible sound waves tore through the room, instantly ripping apart the approaching blood-carpet.
The cloak around Yurigus' body held on for a few more seconds before it, too, dissolved back into blood. He staggered backwards, blood gushing from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
"My Lord!"
Yurigus raised the diary high, letting the blood and flesh pour freely from it. In the blink of an eye, a humanoid figure took shape—a man made entirely of blood and meat.
He had a broad forehead, black hair, and brown eyes. His upper body was bare, but a large patch of skin was missing from his chest and abdomen, exposing raw, crimson muscle.
The raw flesh twitched, joining to form a suspended figure wreathed in divine aura.
Lanevus?!
He's alive?
No.
Everyone present quickly discarded the idea.
This 'Lanevus' was clearly nothing more than a blood-and-meat puppet wearing Lanevus' face.
"Kill her!"
The puppet snarled, charging at Daly. As he moved, a suit of black armour rapidly formed around him, and the divine pressure surrounding him intensified.
"Raaaargh!!!"
Still expressionless, Daly stared calmly at the blood puppet as she raised a greatsword to strike.
CLANG!
Everything shattered.
The puppet.
The Spirit World creature.
The destroyed house.
Gone.
All of it vanished as if it had never happened.
Yurigus was once again kneeling alone within his blood-drawn circle.
"A dream?!"
He reacted instantly. With no hesitation, he spun around, raising a hand to detonate the corpses on the floor—only to discover, to his shock—
They were gone.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunshots rang out.
Dunn fired in rapid succession. Yurigus snarled and thrust out his left arm—which exploded like a grenade, bursting into a rain of blood droplets that splashed across the room.
Dunn leapt back. Wherever the droplets landed, the floor sizzled and melted into deep, pitch-black holes.
Yurigus used the moment to crash through the window and leap onto the street.
In mere seconds, the flesh at the end of his severed arm began to writhe, rapidly regenerating a new limb. Though it was still flayed and bloody, a new arm had begun to take shape.
"Hello."
As soon as he landed, a hooded woman stood silently before him—her face hidden beneath her robe.
The Gate of the Underworld opened once more on her forehead.
"AAAAHHHH!!—"
The sonic wave engulfed him instantly.
Ssssshhhk!
The nearly two-meter-tall man—his body beneath the neck—was obliterated. Only a crimson skeleton remained standing.
His head for a moment—then began to laugh.
"Hahaha…"
"You…will all…face the Lord's...punishment…"
———
[Note]: Don't forget to VOTE. It keeps me motivated.