Lamia, as one of Lilith's avatars, actually had a true body that was a special plant suspected to have originated from the starry sky.
This kind of plant possessed an enormous attraction to the Abomination, Suah, so Lamia was ultimately captured by Suah while searching for Giuseppe.
From the intelligence I obtained previously, one of Lamia's "missions" was to hold Giuseppe back, preventing him from following his own "destiny" to complete the arrangement of the "Seal of Calamity".
However, interfering with fate at such a level would inevitably incur tremendous "backlash", so I previously believed that Lilith allowing Lamia to fall into Suah's hands was meant to divert the backlash from fate, letting the "Abomination" bear it instead.
Even if there were other purposes, they were most likely supplements to the so-called "Silver Moon Plan", serving some auxiliary role…
But judging from Suah's current condition, Lilith was clearly playing a much bigger game than I had imagined!
Suah was very likely like Roselle, having been contaminated by the power of the "Mother Goddess of Depravity", giving birth to a new consciousness…
And the source of that contamination was most likely the former Lamia!
It lay dormant all this time, only suddenly launching an attack and corroding Suah after the "Mother Tree of Desire" became entangled with the "Tenebrous World"… or even after the main body of the "Mother Tree of Desire" itself developed problems!
Could it be that within that plant from the starry sky, there had already been arrangements left behind by the "Mother Goddess of Depravity"?
Did Lilith and the "Mother Goddess of Depravity" share a certain tacit understanding in some matters—both opposing and cooperating at the same time?
But Lilith is a True God. Where did she get the courage to play such a game with a once top-tier Great Old One… was it given by the "Unknown"?
And Lilith's adoption of Frank, the handing over of her plant's branches to Judy's father, and a series of similar actions, as well as the recent arrangements the "Mother Goddess of Depravity" made regarding Sharf—were these matters also connected to all of this?
Ah, there are still far too few clues, and the levels involved are far too high. I can't "discern" them…
As his thoughts churned, Ebner's brows knitted even tighter, and he grew increasingly resentful of Giuseppe Castia's "uselessness". Living together with Lamia for ten whole years, yet he actually knew nothing at all!
"Additionally, these schemes may also be related to the memories Danitz lost… after all, his soul stone is currently inside the body of the 'Chained God' that Suah is relying on…
"So, could this also be part of his plan? After all, without the pressure from the 'Mother Goddess of Depravity', '1-025' and Danitz's soul stone would sooner or later be discovered by Suah, who is fusing with the body of the 'Chained God'!
"If that's the case, Danitz really does live up to being an lyb who could even scheme against the 2-5 Dragon. He even dared to include an Outer Deity in his calculations.
"Lastly, Monica once said that in the lifetime when I created 'Succubi', my honorific name was 'Father of Succubi, Lord of Desire, Source of Depravity'…
"Just hearing that makes it inseparable from the 'Shadow World' and the 'Mother Tree of Desire'!
"Although that lifetime was before the 'God of Luck' carried out the 'Liu Bo Reincarnation Reform', there's no guarantee that Danitz didn't obtain some kind of support from the 'Source of Depravity'… The part of his memories he hid may very well be related to this.
"In the future, when I go to 'revive' Danitz as an avatar, I'll have to be extra careful… No, not just him… Aside from Giuseppe, any 'me' who could reach demigod level wouldn't be willing to merely pave the way for others. They would all definitely leave behind backup plans like Alvin did, to seize the initiative.
"Even Rhine… although Lilith used his body as a vessel, is he really completely dead?
"Where is his soul stone?!"
Ebner suddenly realized that his thoughts had drifted too far. He quickly reined them in and returned to the issue of Suah.
"No matter what state Suah is in, I still don't have the ability to interfere in matters involving an Abomination… However, I can tell Tolzna about it…"
With that thought, Ebner immediately took out the marionette transformed from the "Saintess of Gray", Siglinde, and reached out to pinch it in a special manner.
Moments later, the marionette's eyeballs became lively. Then, the effect of "malicious deformation" was lifted, revealing the figure of a beautiful woman who looked about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old.
She had grayish-white hair tied up, and a pair of azure eyes swept around before fixing directly on Ebner. Her tone was somewhat stiff as she said, "No enemies… Am I still to act as a maid?"
"No." Ebner waved his hand, then organized his thoughts and told her the information he had "discerned" about Suah.
Tolzna fell silent for several minutes before manipulating the "Saintess of Gray" to speak, "It is indeed a good opportunity…
"But it could just as well be bait aimed at me… Therefore, I plan to wait until you grow up and everything is absolutely foolproof before going!"
Tolzna, you're actually this cautious? Then how did you get caught by the "Mother Tree of Desire" back then? Ebner mocked inwardly a few times, just about to continue asking.
But at this moment, Tolzna seemed to see through his thoughts and added, "I still remember the story of 'Li Changshou' that you told me when you were 'Danitz'!"
No wonder you're so "steady". So this is also my own fault, huh?! Ebner froze for a moment. After some self-mockery, he skipped over the topic and instead asked,
"May I know your evaluation of 'Danitz'?"
He wanted to know whether Danitz in others' eyes matched the one in his own memories… After all, if memories could be hidden, then they could also be altered.
Tolzna thought for a moment, then answered seriously, "Using his own words, he is…
"'A lecher disguised very well'!
"But in my view, those deeply human parts of him—such as valuing promises, cherishing friends, and enjoying watching the fun after scheming against others—are not disguises at all. They are equally important components of him, aside from the 'lewdness'."
Although Danitz summarized himself quite accurately, you really didn't need to keep emphasizing "lewd", did you? And besides, Danitz was the most "pure" one among my previous lives… After all, he was a genuine "Temperance Faction" member…
Still, this evaluation basically matched the memories I received… It seemed there wasn't much of a problem.
...
In the Rorsted Sea area, aboard the Future anchored at the Bayam Resistance's private port.
The sailor John sat on the deck, frowning as he wrote Loen words one after another with a piece of charcoal, then erased them.
These past few days, relying on the "Literacy Task", he had already obtained many Sequence 9 pathway "fragments" from the "Life Turnaround System", yet he hadn't managed to piece together a single complete formula.
This made him somewhat irritable, but thanks to the "calmness" he had cultivated since childhood, he still endured patiently and continued grinding through tasks.
And effort naturally brought rewards. With the help of the "Mind-Sync Translation" function provided by the "Turnaround System", after finishing learning the commonly used words, he finally obtained the precious Fragment 3 of the "Apothecary" potion formula.
Previously, he had already obtained Fragment 1 and Fragment 2 of this Sequence. Now, the final piece of the puzzle was finally in hand!
"Main ingredients: the horn of an adult unicorn pegasus, three grams of crown jellyfish venom crystals…"
Just as John was ecstatically recording the potion formula, Ebner's "Wisdom Eye" sensed a surge of divine power coming from the captain's cabin.
That was Cattleya attempting to "analyze" that drop of umbilical cord blood from Will. However, judging from what Ebner "discerned", the progress was clearly not very optimistic.
"And you even boasted to 'The World' that you could advance to 'Mysticologist' before next Monday? At your current pace, it would already be good if you finished the analysis by this time next month!
"Looks like my 'Pride' marionette can survive for a while longer…
"And you should be glad I didn't interfere in your deal with Klein. If I had given you a drop of the 'God of Luck's' blood to use in a ritual, your current state would probably be the same as Bernadette's…
"Mm, actually, it would definitely be worse than Bernadette's. After all, as an Angel, she still has some resistance to 'contamination'."
(End of Chapter)