Edward Crawford, with a gaping hole in his chest, leaned on Sealed Artifact 1-114, half-kneeling with difficulty on the floor.
His collar had come loose, revealing his previously hidden neck, where a green wreath hung conspicuously.
Emerald green light surrounded his body.
The cavity in his chest was enveloped by the glow, and the organs within stopped bleeding, instead slowly wriggling and continuing to function.
It was that sealed artifact with healing abilities!
Silas recalled that Lady Daly had once used this wreath to heal the injured, though he didn't know when Edward had hidden it on his person.
That guy!
In the carriage, they had clearly agreed to introduce their respective abilities to each other, but who knew he'd still held something back! Of course, Silas himself had also kept his own secrets, so he didn't really have the standing to criticize.
More importantly, compared to worrying about all that, the current situation was more urgent.
So after only a momentary daze, Silas immediately threw himself back onto the array on the ground, striving to complete the modifications as quickly as possible!
His body became lighter, no longer plagued by disease. On the contrary, an abnormal flush suddenly appeared on Lady M's face, and she began coughing.
Clearly, Edward had just used the "Staff of Chaos" to change the rules, "scrambling" the disease's effects onto her.
"Don't interfere with me!"
Lady M lost the composure she'd had when dealing with Edward earlier, her face furious as she shouted.
Squeezed and surrounded by the flesh mass, she raised one hand. Several crimson fireballs rapidly formed in her palm and shot toward Edward.
"Thud!"
Edward looked at her with contempt and, without hesitation, raised the staff once more, striking it against the ground.
"Crack!"
With that motion, his body split with fissures like shattered glass. The fireballs that had been flying toward him suddenly veered and rebounded back onto Lady M.
Flames blazed, scorching Lady M's flesh and blood.
Her screams weren't particularly agonized but rather filled with fury, because Edward's interference prevented her from stopping Silas. She could only watch as he modified the array.
Almost done, almost done!
Silas modified the final section, his teeth clenched tight. Edward had originally said the "Staff of Chaos" could be used at most three times. This was already the fifth time. He was rapidly consuming his own life!
Finally, while the fire on Lady M's body had yet to be extinguished, he completed the final rewrite, changing the Abyss of Blood and Flesh array into an array with a different effect.
"Master of all creation!
Ruler behind the curtain of shadows!
The fallen nature of all living beings!"
The moment he finished, Silas dropped the silver dagger, stood on the array, and shouted in Hermes.
He was going all in. This time, he didn't just recite the first two lines of the True Creator's honorific name but directly invoked the full title!
In an instant, a mad and indescribable existence looked down upon him. His mind filled with blasphemous and corrupting whispers.
If not for the illusory tide's barrier, just this impact alone would have been enough to make him lose control and become a monster.
Time was pressing. Silas endured the pain and continued shouting the prayer:
"May the Master's gaze linger here,
May the Master's mercy bestow grace,
Let the fallen flesh receive the Master's baptism!"
"You're insane!"
Lady M, hearing his prayer, showed an expression of both anger and terror. "You actually want to use the Master's precious holy body to make a flesh bomb!"
That's right. Silas had modified the array. He had changed the original Abyss of Blood and Flesh ritual array into a ritual array that prayed for the power of flesh magic.
He was going to use the True Creator's power to create a flesh bomb, and the bomb's material was precisely this giant flesh mass before him!
Come on, True Creator! Blow your ritual and your servant sky high together!
The array had taken shape. Silas's blood glowed from the infusion of spirituality... However, the True Creator's power was slow to descend.
After her initial panic, Lady M quickly calmed down, as if she'd figured something out.
"Silas, you're truly foolish. Do you think the Master would destroy His own descent ritual to instead bestow power upon you?"
She asked with a smile.
Silas was momentarily stunned by her words.
In the previous rituals, he had so easily borrowed power from the True Creator that he'd almost forgotten.
Right, the True Creator was only mad, not stupid! He would only grant power when He was willing to. Obviously, how could He destroy His own divine descent?
A sense of absurdity and bewilderment filled his heart, leaving him speechless. The slim chance of survival he'd fought so hard for had, due to a cognitive disconnect, become a dark joke.
The burns on Lady M's body slowly healed. She was no longer in a hurry, caressing the flesh mass as she gradually freed herself. The great will suspended in midair descended into the flesh mass.
Countless rays of light emerged from the void, pouring into the flesh and blood from all directions, gradually constructing overlapping layers of light on its surface.
The terrifying aura within became increasingly solid. Some powerful gravitational force was pulling at Silas, craving his body...
The ritual had not been interrupted.
Was this the end?
Silas gritted his teeth and reached into his pocket to pull out the white bone whistle.
"Thud!"
However, at that moment, a familiar knocking sound once again entered his ears. Edward's ribs and waist swelled up, black flesh bursting through his clothes.
But he still firmly gripped 1-114 and, facing the flesh mass, used the "Staff of Chaos" for the sixth time!
His body was almost breaking into pieces. As the staff fell, the space around Lady M and the flesh mass began to distort. The rules were scrambled! The array on the ground lit up accordingly.
The flesh mass began to deform irregularly. Some parts turned into tentacles, touched the array, and exploded with a bang.
Other parts wrapped around Lady M again, dragging her deeper into the flesh mass.
"You blasphemers!"
She was screaming.
It was working, but it wasn't quite enough yet!
It needed to be even more chaotic to take full effect!
Without hesitation, Silas turned and ran toward Edward. "Give it to me!"
Edward looked at him deeply. Loss of control, spiritual exhaustion, and the side effects of the sealed artifact tormented him, but he still loosened his grip on the staff with tremendous willpower, letting Silas take it and charge back toward Lady M.
"Go to hell!"
Silas roared, thrusting the staff representing chaos and disorder at Lady M.
"You dare!"
Lady M shrieked, turning her hand into a blade and stabbing it toward Silas.
"Thwack!"
The sound of piercing rang out simultaneously. Lady M's hand and Silas's "Staff of Chaos" both penetrated each other's bodies at the same time!
"You have blasphemed the great Master!"
Lady M's face was right in front of Silas as she shouted at him.
"Your master can go to hell!"
His abdomen pierced through, Silas roared and gripped the staff with all his strength, pushing it inward, pinning Lady M and the flesh mass completely together!
"Crack!"
The illusory light layers on the surface of the flesh mass began decomposing the staff.
This black staff rapidly disintegrated, leaving only the most original, purest characteristic: absolute chaos!
"BOOM..."
The light layers twisted. Countless strange phenomena appeared simultaneously.
Madness, disorder, corruption, distortion, eruption. Rules no longer existed at this moment. Only chaos was the master of everything!
Silas covered his abdomen and slowly backed away. The flesh at his wound was wriggling with all its might, rapidly repairing itself.
He saw Lady M being pulled into the flesh mass. The flesh mass began deforming, twisting, mixing with the array on the ground and the True Creator's will from above.
His spiritual intuition told him that no matter what this thing before him was, it was going to explode!
Damn it!
Silas turned around, covering his abdomen as he stumbled away in escape. He rushed to Edward's side, reaching out to pull him up.
"Don't bother with me!"
Edward said angrily. His body was gradually collapsing. Loss of control and overuse of the sealed artifact had already brought him to the brink of death.
He removed the wreath from his neck and placed it in the hand of the unconscious Lady Daly beside him. She seemed to have also received treatment; the wound at her throat was gone.
Looking at Daly, a trace of tenderness flashed in Edward's eyes, but it quickly returned to his usual acerbic look as he said to Silas, "Take her and go. And tell Dunn not to be a coward, or I'll look down on him!"
"Got it!"
Silas grabbed the wreath. Emerald green light immediately enveloped his wound, making it heal rapidly.
He immediately felt energized. Hoisting the unconscious Lady Daly onto his back, he used every ounce of strength to desperately run outside!
Until this moment, he hadn't known he could muster such great strength, running so fast even while carrying someone!
The wind howled in his ears as he burst out of the trading company's doors and fled down the road into the distance.
Up ahead, several galloping carriages were approaching in the shadows. Reinforcements?
"Quick, stop..."
"BOOM..."
Before he could finish speaking, a thunderous explosion erupted behind him.
The surging, powerful blast wave viciously slammed into his back, sending him flying. The airflow impacted his lungs. His vision went black, and he lost consciousness.