Because of his intervention in the Backlund smog disaster, the number of direct deaths was certainly far fewer than in the original… but the people who later died indirectly from disease and plague weren't much fewer than before.
It wasn't due to any extraordinary power, but the long-standing problems of Backlund itself: that smog, riddled with all manner of bacteria and particulates, was bound to inflict grievous harm on the human body! The "witch" merely accelerated the process.
So when workers and poor folk—who'd long lived under that smog's assault—fell ill without timely treatment, it was almost impossible for them to pull through…
In reality, they had no money for medicine… and the Church's aid was woefully inadequate.
He understood that this great smog calamity was almost inevitable in history; without the "witch" speeding it up, the deaths would have been spread out over a longer period, rather than so concentrated now…
But Ebner still felt that the Despair Nightingale deserved to die. After all, her actions served only to cover up conspiracy and play a part—she had no intention of promoting social progress or improving the system…
I'm no paragon of virtue myself, but where I can, I'll help these innocents get their revenge. If my thoughts can bring some justice, I'll act on them!
As his mind raced, Ebner controlled Alvin the Wanderer to use the Recording ability to summon a historical projection. He then thrust out his right hand and grasped once more at the air in front of him.
After five pulls, Alvin's arm muscles visibly tensed, as though dragging something unbearably heavy.
When he retracted his hand, a human silhouette was sketched into being.
The figure's features were soft and handsome, bearing a slight resemblance to Mr. Azik—only with paler skin and the same dark-gold hair as Jane's.
This was the author of The Book of the Undead, the late-Fourth-Era traverser known as the Death Regent, Lord of Wraiths, Vicente Miranda—also the ancestor of Jane who slumbered deep beneath Calderon City.
Ebner had known of him for some time and had even "traced back" a rather undignified memory of him in the Nightmare-bound Dusk Courtyard of Indorport, but this was the first time he'd seen him so close.
Perhaps because it was but a projection, His Highness's gaze was utterly cold, as if it could freeze one's very soul.
He wore a deep-black robe studded with stars and held a pale mask that gleamed like metal—imposing, yet devoid of any sense of life.
This was a Sequence 2 angel, a former Death Regent!
Ebner let out a breath and commanded the Wanderer to issue an order to Miranda's projection.
At the command, the angel's expression flickered with barely perceptible life. He stepped out of the church, hovered in midair, and swept his gaze across the entire fog-shrouded town. Then, his body suddenly expanded, transforming into a colossal serpent that blotted out the sky above the town!
The serpent was both illusory and real, composed of things beyond human comprehension. Its body was sheathed in massive, dark-green-tinged black scales, and from the gaps sprouted feathers—each feather and scale inscribed with strange symbols. Merely beholding it would rot flesh from bone, turning one into a living corpse.
This was the Feathered Serpent God of the Southern Continent myths. Pale flames burned in its eye sockets, and behind it unfurled a pair of exaggerated, thick, dark-golden wings.
As Ebner walked "through the door" behind it, protected by his Pure White Eye, he witnessed this divine form—but in an instant, he felt his spirituality drain at lightning speed, and the Pure White Eye nearly shut itself off.
Ebner quickly withdrew his gaze, astonished—Miranda's Feathered Serpent form differed from the description he'd read in Edwina's archives.
The difference lay chiefly in those enormous wings and their dark-golden feathers.
I remember in the original texts the Feathered Serpent's wings were white… Dark-golden wings are actually the symbol of Gregarria, the ancient Death Deity who opened the Underworld and the ancestor of the Phoenix…
So Lord Miranda's divine form combines traits of both Underworld Emperor Salinger and the Phoenix!
Hmm… Mr. Azik once said Vicente Miranda might be one of his brothers… Could he be the child of both the Underworld Emperor and the Phoenix? Or did the Underworld Emperor somehow seize the Phoenix's power of rebirth, making it one of his own aspects?
That would explain why Lord Miranda slumbers in Calderon City after death—after all, that city, dragged into the Spirit World, was once the Phoenix's divine realm.
The moment Ebner's mind ran wild with speculation, the feathered serpent coiled in midair thrust its upper body forward and opened its maw, spewing a pale flame that swept across the entire town.
Those white flames left houses and objects untouched and did not brush against any of the foods bound by spirit‐threads; they simply engulfed the remaining Beyonders in the town.
Almost every survivor, upon being touched by the pale fire, did not even have time to scream before their flesh rapidly withered and crumbled away, leaving only piles of bleached bones.
Only one woman, dressed in a simple white robe with a radiant, saintly beauty, managed to stave off the pale flame for a fleeting moment by igniting fierce black flames around her body, then tore off toward the town's edge.
Her resistance lasted only two or three seconds before the surrounding black blaze was breached, and the layer of ice beneath it melted in an instant.
Panatiya's heart clenched. She was about to cast aside caution and display an incomplete divine form to snatch life from death.
But before she could act, her spirituality began to rot; abilities she could once call upon at a mere thought now faltered and failed her.
Her fair, sacred face and body decayed at terrifying speed—within a second or two her flesh dissolved into yellow-green pus, chunks of blood and muscle sloughed off, falling to the ground.
Crack! Crack! Crack!Only the skeletal remains of the Despair Nightingale dropped onto the street before she could even feel her own despair.
With a final snap, Panatiya's form collapsed. The exposed white robe draped over her bones, hiding the stark whiteness beneath and concealing several fallen items—and shimmering among them, a faint glow.
Thus fell a Sequence 4 Demoness of Despair. Against an angel—even a mere projection—she had resisted for less than half a minute.
Once the serpent-god in midair confirmed her defeat, it vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, retreating into the rifts of Night Kingdom history.
So that was an angel… Ebner murmured, then "floated" down to Panatiya's bones and gathered up his spoils.
Because the pale fire had corrupted both her soul and body beyond recovery, he could no longer use the Magic Mirror to shepherd her essence. Instead, he merely reclaimed her Beyonder trait from beneath the white robe.
Hmm… this white robe seems like an extraordinary item too… it can alter the wearer's figure?
Xio might like it… but no, it's a bit too revealing… giving it to her as-is wouldn't be appropriate…
Perhaps I can modify it first?
Ebner examined the simple yet semi-transparent white robe before turning his attention to three items among the bones.
There was a clutch bag, a mirror, and a single card.
The mirror was ordinary—a tool the witch had likely used for Substitution Art and Mirror Traversal—useless to Ebner.
Inside the clutch were various cosmetics and ritual materials, but nothing remarkable except for a single lens that made Ebner uneasy.
He "analyzed" the lens and discovered it had been crafted by a Dream Stealer—it should have been a living piece, but pale fire left it irrevocably dead…
Wearing it would grant visions of occult secrets and restore hidden scenes… presumably an advanced application of the Cryptologist's ability…
But its side effects were severe: it caused the wearer to lose all memories, becoming someone else entirely…
How had Panatiya dared to carry it? Or was its negative effect milder when it was still "alive"?
Come to think of it, might its spirit have been Amon's? Ebner hardly cared; dead was dead, and when she'd been in Backlund, she wouldn't have risked sharing info with her true self or any Amon.
Finally, Ebner picked up the card—and there, Roselle's familiar face shone before him.
On the card, Roselle held a starry scepter and passed through a shimmering doorway.
It was a Blasphemy card—the Door card!
(End of chapter)