After more than ten months, Ebner looked at the small town below, which had hardly changed, and couldn't help feeling a bit emotional.
He had first met Fanny and Emma here… Even the mausoleum-styled Old John Hotel looked exactly the same as before…
These thoughts flashed past and vanished. Ebner shifted his gaze, then blinked directly to the entrance of the ruins of the Baron of Conva's castle.
Because Mr. Azik had sealed this place with a single drop of his blood, the surrounding area looked extremely withered, with not a trace of vegetation, even though it was late May.
Fortunately, this location sat at the foot of a hill, in a rather desolate area, so no one had become suspicious.
Of course, Mr. Azik's seal was strong enough that even the two "Conva" barons inside could not escape. Even if some passerby noticed something strange here, they would have absolutely no way to deal with it.
But Ebner clearly did not belong to the category of "average people."
He didn't even use the "Pure White Eye." Merely by activating his "Insight" ability and observing for a few moments, he had already found the weak spot of the seal. After a brief thought, he had a plan.
He "created" within his own "White Tower" an illusory Sequence 4 Beyonder characteristic of the Death pathway, then briefly turned himself into an "Undying," using the domain of Death to invade the weak point of the seal. Using it as a fulcrum, he pried at the entire structure of the seal until, after a few minutes, it collapsed on its own due to internal disorder.
"Tsk, resolving a problem in the easiest manner possible—this is exactly the quality a true 'Discerner' should have!" Ebner nodded in satisfaction, then stepped into the buried ruins of the Baron of Conva's old castle without hesitation.
At that moment, a heated argument echoed from the underground ruins:
"Are you a curly-haired baboon? You can't solve such a simple equation? Because of your mistake, my entire month of work has gone to waste! After all, the original data you gave me was wrong!"
"How is that my fault? My deductions were perfectly fine! The problem lies in the parameters you gave me!"
They quickly began pushing the blame back and forth, apparently still unaware that the seal had been lifted.
Ebner had already seen this through "Insight." After all, he had let the seal collapse on its own; the disturbance had been almost nonexistent.
Soon, one man and one ghost who were practically wrestling appeared before Ebner.
The ghost was no different from the Baron of Conva in Ebner's memory—young, handsome, and filled with the thirst for knowledge. This was the very same "Baron of Conva" who had been killed by Bernadette, whose spirit had been preserved and imprisoned here by Mr. Azik.
The other one should be the "new Conva," the one Mr. Azik had mentioned—the one who had been reborn here immediately after the first Conva died.
Only, this "new Conva" appeared significantly older than the previous one, already looking like a middle-aged or even slightly older man.
The two men, engrossed in their academic bickering, still hadn't noticed Ebner's arrival, continuing to toss blame at each other.
Ebner remained concealed nearby, his "Pure White Eye" open, his "Insight" running at high speed as he stared at them for a long while. Finally, he let out a sigh and murmured silently:
"So that's how it is!
"So this was the actual result of that experiment… No wonder Roselle was inspired after finding the abandoned castle at the center of the Delaire Forest and, in the Dream Labyrinth Tower, turned himself into a state similar to the Baron of Conva, producing a pile of polluted, alternative Avatars…
"Unfortunately… first, the 'Sea of Chaos' that polluted the Baron of Conva still lacks a concrete consciousness; second, Roselle lacked a crucial requirement… and that is that the Baron of Conva is my descendant, and he is not!
"Huh? Wait… It seems he really did consider making Fanny bear my 'son' to achieve that. I just arrived too early…"
Thinking of this, Ebner examined the two "Convas" again. Although he had still not recovered the memories of his time as the "Death Consul," "Conva" was ultimately a descendant of Vicente Miranda, Jane's ancestor. He couldn't simply ignore this situation.
As for why Danitte had used Vicente's descendants for the experiment—it had been a forced choice. When Danitte and the vessel of the "God of Knowledge" went to the abandoned castle at the center of the Delaire Forest to conduct research, that person had already been polluted by the "Sea of Chaos." Using him as an experimental subject could at least preserve a sliver of hope for survival.
At this moment, the man and ghost—both "Convas"—turned their heads at the same time and looked at the figure of Ebner, who had suddenly revealed himself.
Before they had time to react, they saw that the cuff of the familiar-looking man's shirt was growing larger and larger, and the next moment they were involuntarily pulled into it.
Both Convas immediately used their respective abilities, even letting viscous black liquid spread across their bodies. But it was all useless. They could only watch themselves get sucked into the sleeve.
"Mystic Reappearance — Universe Within the Sleeve."
A foe so formidable that Azik himself had once needed to intervene in order to temporarily resolve the problem was now so easily sealed away by the current Ebner.
"This isn't something worth being proud of. They were both Sequence 3s. Bernadette also easily killed the Baron of Conva back then.
"I wonder who is stronger now—me or Bernadette?
"Hm, speaking of which, the brightest moment of my descendant's life was probably when he fought Archbishop Holarmik of the Church of Steam to mutual destruction… Of course, he relied on the power of the Sealed Artifact '1-025' at that time!
"Heh, thinking back on it now, '1-025' sought out Conva, and Conva could use its power so easily, because in a certain sense, the former was the ancestor of the latter!"
After a few internal complaints, Ebner stepped again, leaving the ruins of the castle and descending into the core region of the Delaire Forest, into a half-collapsed castle overgrown with green vines.
Blinking into the underground hall of the ancient castle, he looked at the empty bronze-door frame—its doors removed long ago—and the corner of his mouth twitched. He thought:
Confirmed! Roselle really did remove the bronze doors of his dream mausoleum from here. He even took Lady Austin, whom the Baron of Conva admired and who had become an "Ancient Wraith," and made her the guardian of his mausoleum!
And thinking of the "God of Fortune" temple beneath the "Fragrant Manor" in Bayam that had been stripped bare…
Roselle truly was a master of dismantling things! Fortunately he died not long after becoming a god, otherwise he might have changed the Mythical Form of the Black Emperor pathway into a husky.
After mentally roasting Roselle for a while, Ebner stepped through the door frame that had lost its bronze doors and walked down the stairs into the bottomless pit below.
Originally, this place had been an "entrance" where the Sea of Chaos intersected with reality. But with Danitte's memories, Ebner now knew that after the experiments conducted by his previous-life self and the "two-five dragon," the "entrance" had been relocated. So aside from some leftover monsters formed from residual pollution, there was nothing dangerous here.
And those monsters were weaker than the Baron of Conva, so Ebner naturally paid them no attention.
As he walked, he casually unleashed "Storm of Light" to clear away all monsters along the path, and finally reached the bottom of the pit.
There was nothing here except a six-pointed star altar, with an open bronze coffin resting upon it.
"I remember this place used to have some decorations. After all, the 'me' of Danitte's era and the current me share similar personalities—particular, fond of 'ritual'…
"Could it be Roselle took those too?
"Tch. The information was wiped too cleanly. Even 'Fate' can't trace it… Besides the lingering influence of the Sea of Chaos, someone of the same pathway must have cleaned it up!
"The 'Knowledge Emperor,' perhaps?"
Unable to "see" anything useful, Ebner listed Roselle as the number one suspect. After cursing him a bit more, he approached the six-pointed altar and looked inside the bronze coffin.
Inside lay a man wearing full black armor. His features were handsome and heroic—this was the true body of the Baron of Conva, Benjamin Conva Grant Miranda.
At the moment, his eyes remained shut, but that did nothing to stop the threads of black, viscous liquid from slowly seeping out. Half the coffin was already filled with this tar-like sludge.
Fortunately, the seal formed by the hexagram altar kept the black liquid contained within the coffin, preventing it from spilling outward.
"To simulate 'my' state, Danitte and the 'two-five dragon' transferred the 'entrance' of the Sea of Chaos into Conva's eyes…
"Thankfully he is 'my' descendant, born a believer of 'Liu Bo,' so as long as 'I' permit it, he can borrow the power of the 'Unknown'—that's the only reason he wasn't completely devoured by the Sea of Chaos!
"And the core of this experiment was to let the Sea of Chaos replace the Unknown Land, let Conva's true body replace the great being sleeping deep within the Unknown Land, and let the reborn versions of his avatars replace the versions of 'me' across many lives, so they could simulate and test the many theories that 'I' and the 'two-five dragon' proposed…"
After murmuring this inwardly, Ebner couldn't help recalling the turbulent, dramatic life of Danitte Tinekerr, whose memories he had recently retrieved from the imprint within the Unknown Land…
(End of Chapter)