Ego did not know how to react, but they did manage to hide their surprise.
'It's as you said.'
'Mmm,' Edmond gave a silent nod.
Ego did not know how he would respond now that he knew the truth, but he did know that now that the entire crew was on the same page it was time to retaliate.
They switched to the wisps implanted in the crew and told them of Edmond's realization.
'So, he's noticed,' Null figured he would have noticed sooner rather than later as the facade was far from perfect.
Just a few actions on their part gave them away after they separated Edmond from the imposter.
Still, the imposter was distracted by the notion of them leaving the plane to notice any changes in the emotions of the crew.
Less than a few seconds had passed from the beginning of the interaction between Ego and the imposter as the connection between the wisps was faster than verbal communication.
"Before we leave, why don't we let the lord of this realm know of our departure," Edmond gave rise to a confusing idea.
"What if he doesn't allow it? We should just leave immediately," the imposter meekly suggested.
'This bitch. To speak while posing as my beloved makes me infuriated to no end.'
Despite his calm and warm aptitude, Edmond was slowly boiling over.
"I insist. I have a few words to share with the one who looked after you for so long in my absence."
Having no reasonable comeback to the remark, the imposter begrudgingly remained silent.
'Are you hearing this, my lord? These ingrates dare to waste your time and patience. Especially this dirty demon!'
'Hmm? It seems he did not get the message earlier. I permitted him to see his long-lost lover, and he turns around and acts this way? Whatever. I guess I'll listen to his final message before telling him to get lost.'
'As expected of my gracious lord! To permit a lowly demon to give his thanks despite being rejected from the start. Truly magnanimous!'
And so, the crew now linked with the wisps of Ego's consciousness were going back to the throne room where the God sat in wait.
While the crew had no idea why Edmond insisted on speaking with the conniving God, they speculated among themselves along the way.
'Do you think he truly wants to just speak with him? What is he planning,' Klein with his limited knowledge on the feeling of love asked innocently.
'Just be prepared to back him up. Shit's about to go down,' Z'oelo warned.
'It's like he said,' Null agreed, 'Not only did he belittle him, but he hid Ms. Florie and even made him waste his feelings on a fake. It doesn't take a genius to tell he's looking to get some payback.'
'The question is: does he have confidence in his strength or is he acting purely on emotion,' Barter's Ruler was with him, but did not want to throw their lives away for the latter.
'Personally, I don't care. We've done our best to aid him from the start and that's not gonna stop just because we're facing a bigger baddie,' Theef, the ride or die, stood with him and was thinking about his role in the upcoming battle.
The closer they got, the more tense the atmosphere became.
At this point, the imposter was beginning to suspect something deeper was at play, but kept the thought to herself as she had an unwavering faith in her God.
Upon entering the room, the God was sitting in a relaxed manner as he was unaware of the fact that his plan was a failure.
"What reason do you have to face me once more?"
His domineering aura washed over the crew like a tidal wave, but they stayed firm.
"I only have one query," Edmond spoke with a softer tone, his countenance as warm as the kiss of the Sun, "Do you wish to repent for your sins?"
This momentarily stunned the God who then broke into a bout of laughter, "Me? Sinful? Every act of mine is pure and absent of all that is wicked, yet you dare to claim that I have sinned?"
"That is unforgivable! Apologize immediately to his excellence this once, Edmond," even the fake was not having it.
"Apologize?"
Edmond turned to the fake Evangeline and spoke with a low growl, "You, who dares masquerade with the face of my beloved, actually expect me to apologize?"
"Masquerade? What do you mean? I only ask that you respect the one that took care of me all this time," the fake refused to admit the truth.
"The time for respect is no more," Edmond's cape ignited with the Flames of Retribution, his chains uniting into one, "Now is the time for judgement."
Seeing him preparing for a fight, the God laughed even harder, "So an imp thinks that just because he felled a Devil, he has become one himself? Is that it? I'll have you know that the fool Azazel had the same idea as you to challenge my authority and look where that got him."
"Killed by me so I could make my way to you. Sure, he was wicked in and of himself, but he bore the same likeness of yourself, so I wonder where he got it from."
"Enough of this nonsense! I can kill you with just one look and my eyes are beginning to twitch. Give me one reason not to."
'Don't worry about his spiritual pressure now that I'm here to protect you,' Ego absolved Edmond of his worry.
This only emboldened him as he threw one end of the chain at the sinful God.
"What the former Devil did does not compare to what I will do to you. Now suffer under my Chain of Suppression!"
The God merely grabbed the chain and chuckled, "Your chain? I am the one who created this and you dare use it against me?"
However, the chain shone a deep gray and felt hot to the touch— even to the God himself!
"Preposterous," was all he managed to shout.
"What's yours is mine now. I shall bear the weight of your sin and be reborn anew after absorbing your strength."
It seemed that Edmond had the upper hand just like when he faced Azazel, but the God was not suppressed as much as the former Devil was.
The chain only managed to burn the God's hand, not absorb any of his essence.
'It seems he is too strong for the chain at the moment. I need to weaken him first.'
Unfortunately for him though, the God had the advantage of a stronger spirit, and he tried to suppress the crew once more.
Those with Ego's wisp were protected, but Edmond took the full brunt of the attack once again.
Argh!
He weakly spoke to Ego through his wisp, 'Tell Null to sneak out of here and find Evangeline! I'll distract him with the help of the rest of the crew.'
Ego did as they were instructed and told the others to fire all that they had at the God.
Klein bombarded with magma balls, ice spikes, wind blades, and more elemental calamities.
Barter's Ruler summoned a vast variety of golden weaponry that pierced forwards.
Theef supported the projectiles with another of his treasures that complimented his chimera form perfectly.
It was the treasure of the Universal Rule of Unity and made it so that the wielder could combine different powers together.
He targeted the elemental and golden attacks and merged them into giant golden spears pulsating with mofei.
After seeing that they were distracting the God successfully, Ego suffused back into Null so he could utilize the Cosmic Structure to silently depart towards the hidden dungeon.
Having a sudden thought, he asked Ego to tell Theef to pass him something.
Soon, he had in his hands the invisible treasure that he analyzed with the Cosmic Structure so that he could copy its effects.
To make it even more suitable for himself, he added an Emotion to the mix.
He chose Apprehensiveness with its light gray color.
While the God was focused on Edmond's attack, he stepped back and left a mirage of his figure before disappearing entirely.
Even though he was careful as to not alert anyone, the fake Evangeline still noticed his actions after Theef gave him the treasure.
'My lord! One of the outsiders has used some weird power to disappear!'
With his attention on Edmond's chain and the rising flames coming from his palms, the God was pushed to focus on the guards stationed around the building to see through their eyes.
Noticing the lapse in his focus, Edmond pushed harder and fired a plume of flames that were stopped by a prismatic barrier of sorts.
'This flea is bugging me. I have yet to see that other pest, though I guess that is to be expected with his ability. But I can't let him get to my precious purity!'
He commanded his men to guard the entrance to the dungeon, but unbeknownst to him Null had another plan in mind.
'This should be right above her.'
Inside one of the rooms, Null stood still in his invisible state and accessed based on the direction the vortex was pointing.
Without hesitation, he channeled spirit energy throughout his body and broke through the ground.
BOOM!
The noise did not go unnoticed by the guards, and they promptly went to uncover the reason behind the noise.
'Just what is this pest up to!'
It took little effort to maintain the prismatic barrier, but aside from that, the God did nothing else to combat Edmond.
He had too much riding on the imprisoned Evangeline as not every soul that graced the Angelic Realm was as pure as she was.
She was like a drug to the God.
And now that there was a possibility of her being freed, he had to weigh his options of whether he wanted to use Evangeline as a hostage or stop them from seeing her while she was still alive.
He switched to his wisp inside Evangeline's mind and took note of the frequent shaking happening directly above her.
'He'll make it here soon.'
Now that there was a serious threat to his belongings, the God stood up from his throne and sent the prismatic barrier outwards to disrupt all of the attacks.
Then as if he teleported, the God disappeared.
When he reappeared, he was in front of Null with a face twisted in anger.
Disregarding his presence, Null broke the chains that held a barely conscious Evangeline and softly held her in his arms, "Worry no longer. I will take care of this unholy wretch."
Ego came out and quickly entered her mind to wipe out the God's wisp before anything could happen.
Since it happened unexpectedly, the wisp was destroyed with little to no effort, furthering the God's anger.
They took Evangeline from Null and allowed him to remain in control of the Cosmic Structure.
Just like Edmond, Null's countenance held no emotion.
While he was ready and willing to support his crewmate, he was getting tired of being on the sidelines.
"Forget absolving your sins. I will drop you at the feet of the wronged and make you beg them for forgiveness."