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Tingen City, Lanevus Steel Company's temporary outpost.
Crimson moonlight spilled in. Lanevus, clutching his chest in agony, squatted by the window. Tearing off his shirt, he saw the skin between his chest and abdomen had turned deep red, and a faint, inverted human figure was vaguely forming as his flesh wriggled!
"How is this possible? How can there still be the True Creator's divinity within my body...?"
Struggling to get up, Lanevus cursed intermittently, involuntarily looking towards the part of the room that emitted an even more terrifying aura:
On the soft couch in the bedroom, Megose's once smooth forehead was bulging with dark veins, and her body secreted a liquid full of blasphemous meaning, looking extremely grotesque and terrifying. Yet, her eyes remained tightly shut, as if she was trapped in an inescapable nightmare.
Her lower abdomen was highly distended, as if something was restlessly wriggling within. Just then, a sudden sound echoed in the deep, dim, and quiet room:
"Wah!"
It was the cry of a baby.
A sharp pain shot through Lanevus's brain. Blood instantly dripped from his nostrils, the corners of his eyes, and his ears. All his capillaries seemed to have burst open.
Escape, I must escape, and I must escape Tingen City...
There was no time to think about what was happening. Only this thought remained in Lanevus's mind. Such a large commotion would surely attract the major churches of Tingen City.
Neither the Beyonder teams of the Church nor the True Creator's offspring, which he himself had planted within Megose, were something a Sequence 9 like him could handle.
Struggling, he leaped from the window. Kneeling on the deserted street, Lanevus immediately felt the discomfort in his body ease significantly. He vigilantly looked around but found that the piercing cry of the baby had vanished, and the expected chaos did not occur.
His heart pounded fiercely. Lanevus subconsciously looked at the window he had jumped from, discovering that it seemed to be shrouded in a layer of shadow.
Within the shadow, the previously distended lower abdomen suddenly stiffened, becoming eerily flat. Megose, who had begun to mutate, returned to normal. Aside from the messy bedsheets, the room appeared no different than usual.
-----------------
Outside Tingen City, Ince Zangwill suddenly gripped Alzuhod, which was writing ceaselessly without anyone holding the pen, and found several new paragraphs on the notebook:
"The layout of Tingen City does not seem to be developing in the direction Ince Zangwill desires."
"Dunn Smith's problem has been alleviated! His condition is clearly improving! He has actually mastered the Acting Method! And this was taught to him by the Nighthawks' Klein Moretti."
"And the evil god's offspring hidden within Megose seems to have sensed the aura from the Sea of Fog, wanting to be born prematurely! Poor Ince Zangwill's ultimate plan is about to be aborted before it even begins...."
His pupils, blue to the point of appearing deep black, stared intently at that paragraph. The single-eyed Ince Zangwill's forehead twitched slightly, and he quickly added to the end of the notes:
"The evil god's offspring within Megose suddenly lost its perception of the outside world, so it, not yet fully nurtured, fell back into slumber. This is a very reasonable development."
"Lady Sharron of the Demoness Sect, in order to completely pit the conservatives and the new party in Tingen City against each other, and to vent the madness accumulated little by little after her body transformation, decided to risk killing Senator John Maynard."
"Although her reasons were insufficient and her motives not strong enough, she still acted, as everyone has moments of unclarity, and she was in such a phase, moreover, she had full confidence in not being discovered."
.....
"Lady Sharon was finally dealt with, and Kenley of the Nighthawks team also died. Dunn was very remorseful and, as per custom, consumed the Beyonder characteristic left behind by the other party."
"In the constructed dream, Dunn personally saw the statue of the Primordial Demoness worshipped by Lady Sharron and suffered more subtle pollution. His digestion process was also interrupted and stagnated as a result, and his mental state became quite unstable."
"Under a series of coincidences, Ince Zangwill's plan returned to the right track, but he no longer intended to wait."
"To prevent any further unforeseen circumstances, he decided to bring the story of Tingen City to an end next week, and Ince Zangwill would also successfully advance to a demigod!"
Whoosh, the pages flipped rapidly, and the manuscript snapped shut, leaving only the brown cover facing outwards.
-----------------
Within the Lost City of Newins, Aaron reopened his eyes and vigilantly looked around. Contrary to the expected complete Darkness, scattered specks of light revealed a ruined city below, with architectural styles distinctly different from the outside world.
The once towering metal buildings had long since decayed, and black, fine holes appeared in every corner of this steel ruin. It was hard to imagine what had happened here.
The initial concept of the Chained Pathway is that "the mind is the Prisoner of the body, and the body is the Prisoner of the world."
This refers to bound madness and suppressed desires, also representing those who are suppressed, with their spirituality and desires bound by reason, body, and the world.
As a Sequence 2 Ancient Bane of this Pathway, Alvin Gallows was extremely sensitive to the aura of curses and pollution. He sensed chaos and distortion from the ruins below, seemingly affecting the minds of all intruders.
His body rapidly expanded, finally transforming into a giant rag doll entwined with sinister vines. His blood-red eyes stared intently at the center of the ruins. As one of the participants who had personally nailed the final nail into the coffin of the Solomon Empire, he seemed to have discovered something.
The Bizarro Pendant floated out on its own, and the figure of Pallez Zoroast appeared, looking with complex eyes at the several corpses on the massive altar in the center of the ruins.
Before the two angels who had experienced the Solomon Empire era could take further action, the surrounding soul-fire-like specks of light suddenly intensified, and a giant, pitch-black arm pierced through the altar and stretched out.
The chaotic arm directly grabbed towards Aaron and the others floating in the air. From its color and state, it looked more like a part of a shadow, but it wasn't a thin layer; instead, it was filled with flesh, appearing extremely bizarre.
Another arm also extended, supporting itself on the ground with its elbow, moving forward with difficulty, as if trying to pull the subsequent, larger and more terrifying part from beneath the ruins.
Relying on the large number of angels, Aaron did not move, coldly watching as that arm was shattered by several attacks.
Through his True Sight, Aaron saw more and, combining it with his knowledge of mysticism, made some conjectures:
"The order within the Lost City of Newins is chaotic, but it differs somewhat from the chaos of the Sea of Ruins. This is like a loophole in order, or rather, a shadow...."
"When those remnants of Solomon entered here, affected by the aura of the Chaos Sea, their souls eventually seemed to merge with that Duke of Entropy Beyonder characteristic, forming a consciousness aggregate manipulated by chaos. This could be considered an alternative form of Beyonder characteristic activation."
"When outsiders entered, this loophole, this shadow, was discovered by order and began to undergo 'repair.' And 'repair' led to an enhancement of the original chaos, causing the entire ruin to undergo mutation."
Amidst a flurry of thoughts, as several angels attacked simultaneously, Aaron keenly perceived that the chaos within the ruins reached its peak at this moment.
The previously mottled specks of light seemed to transform into miniature Suns, rapidly merging into the black giant crawling out from beneath the ruins. Golden patterns covered its body, which constantly manifested distorted faces.
The Monster's previously shattered arm recovered in the blink of an eye, but the auras of all the angels and demigods, including Aaron, simultaneously weakened by a few points.
This is also the most crucial ability of the Duke of Entropy: "Entropy Change," used on a specified unit or range of targets through a loophole in order.
It directly manipulates the target's chaos index, causing the target to undergo entropy increase or decrease, which can both weaken the enemy and strengthen allies.
The energy released or consumed during this process is obtained from the area covered by the Duke of Entropy's order shadow. The higher the degree of chaos, the greater the energy that can be obtained.
The description of the Duke of Entropy's abilities from the family's ancient texts flashed through his mind. The Trunsoest family initially held the Black Emperor Pathway, so they were naturally very familiar with angel-level abilities.
"The chaos here diminishes!"
His pupils suddenly turned golden, and the dark gold mist within the grand palace boiled accordingly. Dense chains of order emerged from Aaron's body, enveloping the entire underwater ruin with the Sefirah's blessing, and also isolating any potential external prying.
Seemingly sensing the aura of the Nation of Disorder, the Duke of Entropy, besieged by several angels, emitted black mist from his body. The concept of space seemed blurred, and he charged towards Aaron like a Lunatic.
The ruins, covered in fine holes, were stirred into a pulp of waste. He desperately drew upon the energy of "Entropy Change," and the ruins abruptly plunged into complete Darkness, but he finally managed to barely break free from the encirclement of Alvin Gallows and Liana.
Just then, in the Darkness, brilliant light arrows, extremely white and inscribed with dark gold patterns, suddenly appeared, shooting towards the Duke of Entropy, who was rushing towards him with an extremely weak aura.
Endless light erupted, mixed with a little dark gold mist, spreading outwards. Aaron, wearing the Star Crown, ignored the scorching white flames that could burn angels, and appeared directly before the Duke of Entropy, who had collapsed into black viscous liquid.
The brilliant gems of the Star Crown lit up, and the Sun Chaser Scepter appeared in Aaron's hand. Without the slightest hesitation, he directly plunged it into the black viscous liquid, which was still twisting and wriggling, trying to reform its shape.
Accompanying the crisp sound of shattering, countless roars that simultaneously erupted gradually subsided. The souls that had merged into the Duke of Entropy Beyonder characteristic were finally completely purified.
Seeing that this activated Beyonder characteristic had fallen into silence, Aaron did not hesitate. Following his spiritual intuition, he looked up at Pallez Zoroast, who had not yet acted.
Pallez sighed softly, looking with complex eyes at Alvin Gallows, who was collecting the Solomon treasures scattered throughout the ruins. His figure dissipated, forming a colossal, ancient, mottled phantom above the ruins.
This phantom was like the surface of a stone-carved wall clock, divided into twelve sections in total. Each section was either grayish-white or greenish-black, intermingled with clear boundaries and distinct symbols. As the hands rotated, an indescribable, invisible torrent emerged, as if traversing long history.
Feeling the invisible torrent enveloping him, Aaron, who was already prepared, subtly moved his thoughts. A certain star above the dome within the Nation of Disorder immediately lit up.
Forsaken Land of the Gods, Moon City.
The High Priest Nim, standing on the high platform, prostrated himself devoutly. Under his leadership, the residents of Moon City, who had already gathered around the platform, chanted together:
"You are the source and shadow of order, You are the great Emperor of the chaotic realm, You are the chaotic beacon who wields rules!"
"You are the creator, maintainer, and judge of the world's order!"
.......
Prayers originating from the "Canon of Order," mixed with the chains of order spread throughout Moon City, seemed to connect to the Nation of Disorder.
With the Sefirah's authority, Aaron connected all of this to the invisible River of Fate constructed by Pallez Zoroast.
The chains of rules within the Lost City of Newins, originally permeated by shadows, were slowly being replaced by dark gold chains of order.
Using the authority of Fate Grafting from the Trojan Horse of Destiny to allow this avatar of Pallez to temporarily gain the complete Sequence 1 authority, with Aaron's active cooperation, the Sequence 1 Pallez stole the anchors and authority he had condensed from Moon City, grafting and replacing Newins' original chaotic rules.
A sense of incompatible control surfaced in his heart. Resisting the urge to immediately advance, Aaron subtly moved his thoughts, and the previously chaotic ruins were immediately separated. All the Solomon treasures hidden beneath the ruins flew towards Alvin Gallows, who had dispelled his mythical creature form.
"You all go first. My staying here to advance is enough."
The chains of order vibrated slightly, and an undeniable, majestic voice immediately appeared in everyone's minds.
Duchess Liana of the Purple Moon nodded slightly, glancing at Aaron, who seemed to have merged with this world, and opened the passage to the Moon Kingdom.
Bernadette, who had gained quite a few Solomon treasures through her Eye of Concealment, glanced at the brilliant crown on Aaron's head. She said nothing but pulled Nast, who still wanted to say something, into the blood door.
Once the ruins fell silent again, Aaron, who controlled part of the underlying rules of this space, immediately retrieved the Chaos Hunter Beyonder characteristic and two supplementary ingredients from the Nation of Disorder.
When advancing to Imperative Mage, Aaron had already sensed the anomaly in the Nation of Disorder. The mutation brought by advancing to Chaos Hunter could very likely be noticed by Liana and Cohinem, so he chose to clear the area.
Anyway, with the Star Crown, he could leave at any time without worrying about Ouroboros ambushing him.
Looking at the translucent, viscous liquid shimmering with golden patterns in his hand, Aaron, who had already delayed for some time and didn't know how long the authority stolen and grafted by Pallez Zoroast could last, drank it without the slightest hesitation.
His thoughts exploded. Aaron's last sight saw his body transform into dark gold particles, and lines of unknown meaning intertwined around the dark gold chains of order. Mad, chaotic thoughts instantly filled his consciousness.
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