"???"
After a brief pause of puzzlement, Amon readily said, "Sure, lie down and don't move—let me just steal away all your vitality."
He reached out to use [Theft] on Ariehogg again, but his own feet suddenly staggered back two steps, the attempt interrupted. His expression darkened with displeasure.
"Didn't you want to die? Why stop me?"
"Not yet."
Hidden behind the illusory door, Edward's heart stirred as he asked, "When you say 'kill you,' do you mean…killing off one of your personalities?"
"Exactly."
Ariehogg continued, "There's a personality within me that has been tampered with. It lurks at the very bottom of my consciousness. Even as a Sequence 2 Spectator, I cannot expel it. Worse, the higher my sequence climbs, the stronger it grows, waiting for its chance to replace me."
Amon chuckled. "Dragon King Ankewelt?"
The pale-gold vertical pupils of Ariehogg flickered. "As expected of that one's child…You truly do know much."
"So then, are you Ariehogg, or the Dragon King Ankewelt?"
"Ariehogg." Its voice thrummed like a resonant hum. "But soon, I will become Ankewelt."
That answer confirmed the original speculation: Ariehogg was indeed the contingency left for the Dragon King's resurrection. Only now, what trick was it playing with this act?
Edward pressed further, "Why do you want to kill Ariehogg? Aren't you…the vessel left behind for His return?"
Ariehogg replied, "No one wishes to be merely another's vessel for resurrection. I am no exception.
"More importantly, Ankewelt has already been corrupted. The resurrected Him will not be who He once was. Perhaps in His madness, He no longer cares—but I do."
Edward could not tell whether it was speaking truth or falsehood, but he had no choice except to follow its lead. "So how do we kill you—Him? Do you mean literally?"
"Of course."
Edward scoffed. "You think too highly of us, don't you? Asking us to kill a former deity? And the three of us…"
Right—just look at this merry band.
Three people, each with their own schemes, ready to stab the others at the first chance. You really expect us to help you kill Ankewelt?
Are you insane?
Sensing Edward's doubts, Ariehogg said, "At this time, I had no other choice. If I miss this chance, I will never have another.
"When He first awakens, His state will be extremely poor. More than half His strength will be diverted simply to keep His corruption at bay. And I will interfere with Him as much as I can, to win you an opening.
"If you fail, only annihilation awaits you. But if you succeed—you will reach your ending, and leave this place."
Great. Just great.
So this was what they call driving ducks onto the rack.
Forget whether they could cooperate—forget even whether Ankewelt's personality could actually be killed. More crucially, all this talk of not wanting to be a resurrection vessel, of needing Ankewelt's personality destroyed…it was entirely the words of the Mind Dragon before them. There was no way to distinguish truth from deception.
For all they knew, it might flip at the last second: what if the one destroyed was the Ariehogg personality, leaving Ankewelt behind instead?
If so, Edward and the others would truly end up facing the Dragon of Imagination in battle.
At that moment, Ariehogg's pale golden eyes began to lose their colour, fading into lifeless grey. Its massive body slumped low upon the stone pillar.
Almost simultaneously, a violent, terrifying aura surged forth from behind that colossal throne-pillar—the supposed seat of the "Dragon of Imagination."
On the mural-covered wall, at some unknown moment, a black, yawning passage had appeared, slanting downward into the depths.
A gentle, pure radiance then shone out, illuminating the tunnel in startling clarity. At its deepest end stood a pair of towering bronze doors, ancient and imposing.
Upon them sprawled countless indescribable sigils, interwoven like chains that extended endlessly into the beyond—sealing something within, emanating an oppressive weight and unfathomable mystery.
This gate…
I've seen it before!
A sudden flash struck Edward's mind—he recalled the ancient bronze gate deep beneath the vampire castle on the outskirts of Backlund. Some had claimed that beyond the gate lay the Abyss, while others insisted it was the Chaos Sea.
But whichever it was, the truth remained the same—it was unimaginably dangerous.
Creak!
The massive bronze doors suddenly swung open. From within, boundless, pitch–black darkness poured out like liquid, spilling in all directions before surging straight into the body of the mind dragon.
At once, a powerful heartbeat echoed through the vast hall—
Thump…Thump…
It sounded both like the dragon's heart being invaded by darkness and like their very own hearts beating in unison.
The three immediately turned pale, preparing either to strike or to flee.
In no time, the mind dragon—now engulfed in darkness—had its once pale–grey pupils turn an abyssal black, laced with eerie blue fissures.
The next moment, Edward felt a strange chill seep into his body. It was as though every single "cell" had developed a consciousness of its own, striving to assemble another "self."
Almost simultaneously, countless identical eyes snapped open across his body, cold and unfeeling, staring at him as silent cries echoed in his mind—an irresistible summons.
This was corruption.
And not just any corruption—it carried an exceptionally high degree of authority. Even Edward, whose body was supposed to be "immune" to such pollution, found himself showing signs of being affected.
"Rebuke!"
Without hesitation, Edward invoked [Rebuke]. His figure flickered repeatedly in the mind dragon's low growls, and phantasmal doors manifested around him.
Some doors stood ajar, some opened into unfathomable depths, some bore mysterious sigils, and others had hollow centres through which infinite darkness could be glimpsed.
The number of these spectral gates multiplied rapidly, overlapping one another until they encircled Edward in dense layers, shielding him from the liquid–like darkness.
But Amon and Steph lacked such a defence. The moment the heartbeat resounded, both of their bodies were forced into mythical creature forms.
Every Worm of Time on Amon's body opened an eye, fixing him with a chilling, horrifying gaze.
Steph, meanwhile, transformed into a mass of black Shadow and writhing Flesh, yet even his flesh sprouted eyes—countless eyes—even within a single massive bronze one, smaller eyes began to grow at frightening speed.
"Rooar!"
At that moment, the corrupted mind dragon let out a guttural roar. Its abyssal eyes, crisscrossed with blue fissures, suddenly regained a faint golden glow. Its pupils reflected raw agony.
"Hurry!"
That was Ariehogg's voice.
In that instant, the aberrations consuming Amon and Steph abruptly stopped and quickly began to recede.
Amon reached toward Edward as though to snatch something. He stole away one of the phantasmal doors to place before himself, then pinched his monocle. A faint glimmer flashed.
Within his dark irises appeared two dim Worms of Time, each with twelve translucent segments. They joined head to tail, forming a vertical circle.
The ring rotated slowly, casting a vast, ancient phantom behind him.
It resembled a stone–carved clockface divided into twelve sections. Each segment was mottled in shades of grey or dark cyan, their boundaries sharp, each bearing a unique sigil.
Dong!
A bell toll, as if resonating through the ages, reverberated across the empty Hall of Truth.
The next second, an indescribable, formless torrent burst forth, surging against the endless darkness and hurling it toward the colossal stone–carved clock.
But just then, Amon's body once again began to mutate. Fixing his many eyes on Edward, he said,
"Steal the corruption from me."
"…What did you say?"
Eyes sprouted rapidly across his face. "I don't know why, but you're unaffected by it, aren't you?"
"…"
Normally, corruption couldn't simply be stolen away with [Theft]—otherwise Roselle's resurrection wouldn't have been so painstaking. Even if Amon's main body attempted such a theft, it would only spread the corruption into himself, leaving both him and his target contaminated.
But Edward possessed [Dullness], allowing him to use [Theft] to actually steal corruption—just as he had done with Reinette earlier.
After a brief hesitation, Edward reached out and snatched the corruption from Amon. Yet the moment he drew away a portion, Amon's body immediately began accumulating more.
By then, Steph had also recovered. He swiftly entered the peak state of the Trinity Body, his three heads alternating abilities. Cloaked in holy radiance, he lunged at the mind dragon.
The Fallen Shadow that once clung to his form split away again, quietly emerging from the dragon's own shadow, striking with the Flesh–and–Spirit Blade at its body.
Clang!
The blade was deflected by the dragon's pale scales. Its abyss–dark eyes, streaked with blue cracks, lowered coldly. In an instant, the Fallen Shadow exploded.
But Steph had already ascended to the massive dragon head. The Flesh–and–Spirit Blade stabbed straight toward its most vulnerable eye.
Whether this mind dragon was Ariehogg or Ankewelt, in the end it was only a Sequence 2. Its true threat came from the overwhelming corruption.
And now, with that corruption temporarily diverted by Amon and Edward's unorthodox means, Steph—also a Sequence 2—naturally had the power to harm it.
Yet—
Just as the blade struck, Steph's movements froze. His otherwise impassive eyes trembled violently, as though he had glimpsed something unimaginably terrifying.
This was the Spectator's Pathway's Sequence 2's ability—able to pierce into the target's latent mental vulnerabilities, to discern its deepest fear, and then strike directly at the heart.
Swish!
The gray–white dragon thrashed violently, its massive tail lashing out and flinging Steph away. He plummeted to the ground like a ragdoll, unconscious, lost within an endless labyrinth of the mind. He was not dead—merely trapped in a psychic maze.
On Amon's face—eyes blooming and vanishing—there was a hint of surprise.
"This zealot has mental weaknesses too? And they were caught so easily?"
He turned his gaze toward Edward.
"Looks like it's up to you now. Use the strongest ability you've recorded—kill him!"
———
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