"He's already dead…"
Only at this moment did he seem to realize that he had long since died and "come back to life," no different in essence from William,
This change lasted only two short seconds. Edwards's face suddenly twisted, the already pallid skin darkening rapidly, tearing apart inch by inch.
Beneath the skin, patches of bright red flesh began to rot at a visible rate, dripping foul-smelling pale yellow liquid.
With a whoosh, Edwards raised the iron-black axe in his hand.
Splat!
He drove the axe savagely into the top of his own head, as if trying to stop the unwanted thoughts bubbling up in his mind.
The axe was both heavy and sharp, splitting directly through Edwards's skull all the way down to his brow.
Drip, drop—milky-white brain matter trickled along the axe blade and slid down Edwards's twisted, torn face, like a splash of milk poured over a bright red strawberry.
"Don't, don't come near me…" After burying an axe in his own skull, Edwards rasped out hoarse, strained words toward Bernadette's "Invisible Servant."
Before his words had faded, his expression returned to its blank state, his gaze gradually turning vacant once more. He turned around and walked back toward the forest they had come from, leaving one footprint at a time.
His tall, thin, withered body bent slightly, as though he had suddenly become hunched.
Bernadette had probed with her question because she had too many doubts and concerns about entering the mausoleum, hoping to indirectly point out the problem with Edwards's very existence in order to find more clues from his answer. She never expected that this knight—once famous across the Northern Continent during Roselle's era—would react so violently and strangely.
After two seconds of silence, Bernadette had the "Invisible Servant" call out to Edwards's retreating figure: "Your descendants are all doing quite well. They've all achieved something of note."
Edwards, who had his back to the mausoleum, paused mid-step for a moment. Then he continued forward, crossing the invisible boundary and vanishing into the forest.
His destination appeared to be the stone-pillar graveyard where the dead could obtain "new life."
At the same time, Bernadette raised her gaze toward the sky.
The faint blackness lingering there had noticeably dissipated, but something indescribable had taken its place. The entire primitive island had undergone a subtle, indefinable change.
Suddenly, Bernadette, hiding at the edge of the invisible boundary, reached back with one hand and touched her own back.
It felt heavy, as though something new had been added.
When her left hand found the object, Bernadette discovered it was a lock of hair.
At this moment, she wore an Intis-style woman's blouse with a large lace pattern at the collar on the inside, an indigo captain's coat with markings on the outside, off-white trousers and near-knee-high boots, and a feathered tricorn hat—dressed like the captain of a pirate vessel.
In this guise, her chestnut-brown hair had originally been tied in a half bun, just long enough to drape to her shoulder blades, and now, though her hairstyle was unchanged, her hair had instantly grown a significant length longer, reaching all the way down to her waist.
Right after that, Bernadette lowered her head and looked at her right palm, only to see the nails on all five fingers growing outward simultaneously.
The "Mysterious Queen" showed no surprise or panic. Following the instincts of a "Master Diviner" and the experience accumulated over long years, she took several steps forward, crossed an invisible boundary, and thoroughly left the primeval forest behind, entering the open clearing where the "Black Emperor's" mausoleum stood.
During this process, Bernadette also recalled her "Invisible Servant" to the Spirit World.
Only three or four seconds later, she felt the ground begin to tremble faintly, and the mausoleum itself exhibited a distinct vibration.
Subconsciously, Bernadette turned her head to look back toward the primeval forest.
One glance, and her gaze froze for a brief moment.
Those massive trees, so dark green they were nearly black, waved their branches, tore their roots from the earth one after another, and then—like human beings—began closing in on Bernadette.
The entire primeval forest had come "alive"!
Watching the dense, tightly packed trees surge forward like a tidal wave that nearly blotted out the sky, Bernadette was seized by a sensation that the end of the world had arrived and every last corner would be swallowed by the forest.
A colossal crimson dragon with flames coursing across its scales soared rapidly into the sky, an eight-legged demonic wolf began bolting among the trees—every supernatural and mutated creature on the island had grown agitated, all of them rushing toward the mausoleum.
Despite being a "Master Diviner," Bernadette had never imagined that such a simple, obliquely posed question would trigger a deviation of this magnitude—as though it were a key that had opened a door connected to an abyss.
High above the
"When he realized he had long been dead, that flaw—that shadow—was detected by the order, and the 'patching' began.
"And the 'patching' strengthened that order, causing the entire island to undergo this transformation.
"I can feel that there is a degree of the 'Black Emperor's' power at work here. It influenced Edwards, allowing him to retain a part of his own will even after his 'rebirth.' But where did the original order of the primeval island come from?