He had seen this door before—back when he defeated the Flame Giant inside Bansy's "Inner World."
In the original story, it was after Gehrman Sparrow pushed open that very same wooden door that he saw what lay behind it: "Old Shanghai."
If that was the case, did that mean he could leave by pushing this door open too?
And if he did, would the Wanderer's Beyonder characteristic drag him back here again?
He flipped a gold coin.
Just before it fell into his palm, it suddenly slipped free and dropped to the floor. It rolled all the way to the wooden door, bumping softly against it before stopping.
The divination had failed.
That wasn't surprising. After all, this was the City of Calamity—its level of existence was equivalent to that of the Sefirah Castle itself.
"Phew…"
Edward exhaled slowly. Holding the tin box that contained the Wanderer's Beyonder characteristic in one hand, he raised the other—an invisible hand—and pushed it toward the door.
If anything went wrong, he would immediately throw away the box and escape via [Hearth].
But the invisible hand passed straight through the door as if it didn't exist at all.
Frowning, he stepped forward and pressed his real palm lightly against the door, counting silently in his heart:
"Three…two…one."
It looked like nothing more than a rotting wooden door, but when he pushed, it felt as heavy as solid stone. He strained with all his strength before finally managing to open a narrow crack. Just as he let out a breath of relief, the door suddenly began to close again with force.
Snap!
Edward hurriedly thrust his hand into the gap and pressed it against the frame, using his shoulder to wedge the door open inch by inch.
Suddenly, a sharp pain pricked the back of his hand. Startled, he yanked it back—only to see that his skin had grown covered in soft white fur, and his body was rapidly changing, morphing into a rabbit the size of a man.
"The hell—what's happening?!"
A few seconds later, his form returned to normal.
Before he could make sense of what was going on, the door slammed shut again. He quickly tried to stop it, but the moment his fingers touched the surface, the decaying wood exploded into a storm of fragments.
The shards ignited midair, swelling outward into a massive vortex of dim firelight—deep, crimson-tinted, and endlessly spinning.
Then, a familiar voice came from within the whirlpool, stabbing straight into Edward's Spirit Body like a needle:
"You again?!"
"…"
Edward hesitated for a few seconds. "Mr. Door?"
"Excellent," the voice replied, laced with amusement. "I'm growing more and more eager for our next meeting."
"…I'd rather we didn't meet at all."
"Hahahahahaha!"
The laughter echoed, and then the vortex abruptly stilled—its fiery depths flattening into a mirror-like surface of water. Through it, Edward saw a smiling figure with rippling blue eyes layered like waves: Mr. Door.
Only, his eyes were faintly veiled by a scarlet radiance.
Suddenly, that crimson tint vanished, and the smile on his face disappeared just as quickly. Mr. Door gazed at Edward in silence.
"…Well done."
"Huh?"
He's back to normal?
The next second, Mr. Door's figure was forcefully pushed aside—as though something immense had shoved Him out of view.
A colossal, blood-red celestial body came into sight. Its surface was entangled with countless masses of flesh that pulsed rhythmically, as if breathing.
At its very centre was a single, mad, all-consuming eye.
The moon?!
No—this was the Mother Goddess of Depravity.
The man and the sphere stared at each other across the mirror's surface.
A chill seeped up Edward's spine, cold enough to reach his soul.
He could feel the faint traces of corruption leaking through the barrier, creeping toward his body—an all-too-familiar sensation.
It was the same as when Christine (Mother Goddess of Depravity) had tried to make him "bear Her child."
Suddenly, he grinned at the fleshy, moon-like mass before him.
"Rebuke!"
Crack!
The mirror shattered instantly, bursting apart into a swirl of dark flame—then collapsed completely, vanishing without a trace.
The surrounding fog dissipated in moments.
Edward found himself standing before an old, timeworn building. Glancing around, he realised—this was Bansy Harbour.
And the structure before him was exactly where the future Bansy Telegraph Office would be built.
He was out.
———
Trier Palace Catacombs.
Krismona landed lightly atop the bronze coffin, narrowly evading yet another strike from the Purple-robed Witch. Her condition, however, was clearly deteriorating—her body was riddled with wounds of every size.
Though both were Sequence 2 Demoness of Catastrophe, Krismona had never feared the Demoness of Purple. Even if the other woman had fused part of Cheek's flesh into Herself and temporarily gained power comparable to Sequence 1, Krismona still had "Mother" Lilith's backing. With their careful preparations, they should have held the advantage.
What they had not expected was that Cheek had actually joined forces with an Outer God—the strongest of them all, the Mother Goddess of Depravity.
Although Cheek had not allowed the Mother Goddess to directly break through the barrier, he had borrowed Her power of corruption. The descended vessel was saturated with high-level contamination, forcing Krismona not only to defend against pollution but also to hold back from unleashing her full might.
The only good news was that even Cheek did not dare to maintain a link with this descended body, for fear the Mother Goddess might corrupt Her through it. She had let the Demoness of Purple become a puppet who knew only how to madly hunt Krismona.
Even so, as the battle dragged on, Krismona's position worsened.
"Lil Krismona, use it," Lilith's voice murmured in her ear.
Krismona's breath caught. "But Mother, you still need it to…"
"Hee-hee. Survive first, talk later."
"…"
After a brief silence, Krismona reached into her pocket and drew out a small object—entirely golden, engraved with indescribable mystical sigils, shaped like a miniature kettle.
The Magic Wishing Lamp.
She rubbed it lightly. At once, the wick within the spout ignited of its own accord. The light it emitted was thick and viscous, like water heavy with sugar, surging upward to coalesce into a twisted, indistinct, pale-golden humanoid figure.
Then a vast, resonant voice boomed from it: "Speak your wish. Anything is possible."
Dodging the Demoness of Purple's attacks, Krismona held the lamp and vanished in a sudden flicker. "Magic Wishing Lamp-Spirit, my second wish is—"
"Wait, Lil Krismona."
Lilith's surprised voice cut her off. "Cheek's Outer God contamination seems to be disappearing."
"What?"
Krismona immediately looked up. The scarlet halo surrounding the Demoness of Purple was rapidly shrinking and fading; that hair-prickling sense of oppression vanished with it.
"Speak your wish!" the pale-golden figure urged.
Lilith's voice followed at once. "We have no wish. We just thought you might be bored staying inside for so long, so we let you out for some fresh air."
"…"
The golden phantom fell silent for a few seconds. "Are you mocking me? Do you really think that by not making the third wish you've left me powerless?"
Lilith countered, "Otherwise?"
She had personally seen Bernadette hesitate at the last moment, toss the Wishing Lamp aside, and watch the Lamp-Spirit do nothing at all.
"You don't believe I have countless ways to bring misfortune upon you?"
"I don't."
"You—&&&*****!"
"Enough. Krismona, put it away," Lilith said calmly.
Krismona obeyed at once, tucking the Magic Wishing Lamp back into her pocket without sparing a glance at the Lamp-Spirit's impotent rage.
"Now it's simple. Go!"
In a flash, she blinked forward, appearing directly before the Demoness of Purple. She did not call upon the Demoness of Catastrophe's apocalyptic powers, nor virus nor black flame. Instead, in that instant, countless threads—transparent as spider silk—exploded outward, sealing off every avenue of escape.
The Demoness of Purple naturally refused to yield. As the net of threads sliced toward her, she used the Staff Substitute spell, narrowly dodging the first wave. She then immediately invoked the Mirror Substitute spell.
This time she failed.
At the instant the substitute mirror shattered, a slender white arm reached out from the fragments and seized her by the back of the neck. A gentle voice followed:
"Did Cheek's descending flesh never tell you? Mirrors are my domain."
"…This is the true reason She's hunted me all these years."
Crack.
The Demoness of Purple's neck broke. Shock and confusion still lingered on her face, as if she were asking: I'm a Sequence 2 angel. How could I die just from a broken neck?
The pale hand released her and withdrew back into the mirror.
Krismona darted forward anxiously. "Mama, are you all right?"
"I'm fine. I'm not as frail as you think."
Yet even as she spoke, Lilith's voice had grown markedly weaker, as though even talking cost her strength.
"Don't just stand there. Take it."
"Right!"
Krismona's fingers moved like a pianist's, flicking rapidly and lightly over the Demoness of Purple's corpse. Invisible threads sliced the body into pieces. Amid the fragments lay a black piece of flesh the size of a fingernail, still wriggling slowly—
It was flesh granted by Cheek, the Primordial Demoness.
Lilith sighed softly. "Ah, what a pity. If Cheek hadn't brought in the Outer God's corruption and frightened Herself into severing Her link, I could've had a long-distance chat with Her through this flesh."
"She dares to cooperate with an Outer God and isn't afraid of the Seven?"
"Of course he isn't," Lilith said with a faint laugh. "Cheek's ambition exceeds your imagination. She…wants to become the Oldest One."
"!!!"
"It's fine, Lil Krismona. As long as I live, Her ambition will never succeed. If I die…hee-hee, who cares if the flood comes after?"
"Cheek will be the one to die!" Krismona murmured.
She bent slightly and drew a thin cut across the piece of flesh with her finger. Black-red blood welled out. With a flick of her hand she collected it into a special test tube.
Only after finishing did she summon black flames to burn all the fragments—including Cheek's flesh—into ash.
"We finally got it—Cheek's blood."
Lilith giggled.
Her reason for going to such lengths to obtain Cheek's blood was not to use the Witch pathway's curse—after all, She was the Primordial Demoness, the "mother" of all witches. How could a pathway's own ability harm its progenitor?
Krismona stared at the still-vital blood in the tube. "Mama, can you really revive yourself this way?"
"But of course."
Lilith's melodious voice recited:
"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!"
"Flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed, you will revive your master."
"Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe."
"When the three are united—that shall mark my return."
———
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