Holding this last and only hope, he looked up, his gaze passing through Lisdar's demonic shadow to stare fixedly into those playful and cruel black eyes. In Ancient Hermes Language, he recited word by word that five-part honorary name he had almost forgotten himself.
"The Overseer walking on the edge of order;"
His voice was not loud, yet it stirred some fundamental law of the Universe.
The wind stopped, and the turbulent energy currents calmed. Lisdar Nors's claws, which were about to pierce Loki's heart, stopped strangely in mid-air. For the first time, an indescribable look of horror and confusion appeared on his face.
He felt it. An indescribable, incomprehensible power that even transcended rules... had descended.
Space was decaying, time was decaying, even light was decaying. The authority he was so proud of—that thing which merged the Reality Stone and the power of the Abyss—also began an unstoppable... rot before this aura.
"The Master of crime and imprisonment;"
"...The Final Justiciar of failure."
As the last line of the honorary name was finished, a figure quietly took shape in front of Lin Huai.
He had medium-length black hair, his features were both weathered and handsome, and he wore a well-tailored vintage black suit. Two giant wings spread out from his back. One was made of yellow-brown bandages, looking both filthy and divine, representing the burden of curses and the protection of humanity. The other was a pitch-black wing, seemingly formed from the deepest corruption and filth, emitting an aura of decay that made the soul sink.
Dual Pathway of Prisoner and Criminal, Sequence 1.
Guardian of Humanity, Edward.
"...Your Excellency?"
Lisdar Nors's voice trembled. He was a Sequence 4 Devil and could clearly feel the absolute suppression coming from the peak of the Sequence. He recognized that aura; it was the authority of decay, a corruption purer than the Abyssal power within him.
This Devil, who had been so arrogant just a moment ago, now withdrew all his bluster and even bowed slightly in a submissive manner.
"Your Excellency Monarch of Decay... I am Lisdar of the Nors Family, serving the great Devil King, His Majesty Farbauti..." He quickly brought up his backing, wanting to remind the other party, "I did not mean to offend you. Everything here is a sacrificial offering to my Lord. I ask Your Excellency... not to interfere with the covenant between us."
But the descended Edward didn't even look at him.
His gaze fell on the piece of amber sealing a mosquito in Lin Huai's hand. In those pale blue eyes that mixed the divine and the filthy, a complex emotion, somewhat like sadness, flashed by.
In the next second, Edward looked away and slowly raised his right hand, pointing at Lisdar.
"What do you mean?!"
Lisdar screamed in terror. He tried to activate the power of the Reality Stone, only to find that the spatial rules around him had become viscous and sluggish.
Edward still did not speak.
He just looked at him calmly. The space around Lisdar's body began to fall away like rusted iron sheets. On his proud Devil body, spider-web-like fine cracks appeared on the hard keratin armor, as if it had weathered thousands of years in an instant.
"No! Why?!"
Lisdar frantically activated the power of the Reality Stone, trying to reshape the rules and repair himself, but that power of decay could penetrate anywhere, acting directly on the foundation of "existence," making all repairs meaningless. While blocking, he screamed shrilly:
"We have a covenant! It was His Majesty Farbauti who issued a divine oracle for the Nors Family to deliver the Beyonder characteristics of the Criminal Pathway from Sequence 3 to Sequence 1 to you! You... why? Your Excellency only reached today's level in the Mortal world by relying on my Lord's 'gift'! Why are you breaking the covenant!?"
Facing Lisdar's questioning, Edward's face remained expressionless, his pale blue eyes filled only with coldness.
He finally spoke, his voice devoid of any emotion: "I am not the Monarch of Decay."
"I am only myself. I am Edward Thornequist."
As soon as he finished speaking, his extended finger moved forward another inch.
"Crack... crack..."
A crisp sound of shattering.
Lisdar's resistance stopped instantly. He was scared out of his wits as he looked closely at his body.
Starting from his feet, his hard Devil body was rapidly crystallizing. It was neither freezing nor petrification, but a deeper level of transformation—life being forcibly converted into lifeless stone.
His pitch-black keratin armor turned into the purest and deepest obsidian, shining with the light of death. The restless crimson energy of the Reality Stone was also solidified within his body, turning into eerie blood-colored patterns, sealing the last moment of his life forever.
This process of decay and solidification actually had an indescribable, eerie beauty.
All of Lisdar's power and life were frozen at this moment. He felt his consciousness sinking rapidly. Before completely disappearing, an emotion that hadn't appeared for a long time suddenly surfaced.
It wasn't fear or anger; it was a kind of... sorrow.
He seemed to see the scene when he was still a Mortal, sacrificing his humanity to the Abyss for the first time in pursuit of power. Long years, endless slaughter, and schemes. He had gained the power he dreamed of, but forever lost the qualification to be "human." And now, before this final judgment, this discarded "humanity" was actually the only thing he missed.
The obsidian crystallization spread from his feet to the top of his head, freezing the horror and the last trace of sorrow on his face forever. Finally, this several-meter-high obsidian statue, flashing with blood-colored patterns, stood quietly in the center of the battlefield.
It no longer had any breath of life, yet it became an artwork full of the beauty of tragedy and ambition, silently telling of the birth and destruction of a Devil.
A light breeze blew by.
"Shatter—"
The statue shattered silently, turning into countless dust motes shining with red and black light. As the wind blew, they completely dissipated into the air of Asgard, leaving no trace except for a few glowing clumps.
Having done this, Edward turned around, his divine yet fallen eyes taking one last look at Lin Huai, who was collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. Then, his figure quietly disappeared, just as it had appeared.
The entire battlefield returned to its noisy state.
But all those who survived were plunged into a shock deeper than when they faced Lisdar just now.
Then they recovered at a shout from Queen of the Gods Frigga.
"Clean up the remnants of the Dark Elves first! Warriors, for Asgard!"