After breaking through the blockade laid down by the Demoness of Catastrophe Natalia, Ebner immediately stopped drawing upon the crown formed from the Conqueror characteristic, sealing it back up using the residual power left behind by the Goddess.
Although he wasn't purely relying on this Grade 0 sealed artifact—more accurately, he was leveraging the knowledge and experience provided by the Calamity Seal, using the abilities of a Cognizer to pry at leverage points so he could exert the strength of a Sequence 1—
even so, even after simulating the upgraded abilities of the Warrior pathway's Weapon Grandmaster to minimize backlash, Ebner still didn't dare allow the crown to remain in an "unsealed" state.
After all, the crown carried with it an astonishing curse—one that continuously drew enemies and hatreds to the bearer…
In a sense, it was the ultimate version of "Provocation."
Or rather—
that terrifying curse was like issuing a "challenge" on Ebner's behalf to the River of Fate itself, which of course responded by delivering "surprises."
Come to think of it, the reason that "Black Saintess" was so unlucky—getting besieged by five Angels, then escaping with the crown only to crash directly into the Goddess's hands—
aside from his own "aggregation effect," the crown's negative effect had clearly played a role.
And the fact that four Demonesses just so happened to show up seeking revenge at this moment?
Eighty percent chance that was also the crown's doing… even though the Goddess had already sealed it, drastically weakening the effect…
Fortunately, the enemies it drew in were still within the range Ebner could handle.
While mentally吐槽ing the artifact's side effects, Ebner continued his movements without pause.
A few Flashes brought him directly before the door of the Delien Family's underground vault.
Along the way, he didn't encounter a single obstruction—not even traps—as if the interior of the Delien Family manor had zero defenses.
That was… highly abnormal.
Suddenly, Ebner's gaze hardened.
He saw that the vault door had already been opened—
and lying in a pool of blood before it was Sero Delien, the former Second Pope of the Church of the Eternal Sun, and currently a servant of Ebner.
Although this former Pope's condition was even worse than that of the third Pope "Richelieu" inside the Mirror, ever since he entered Sero's body he had been slowly recovering.
With the physique of a Black Knight, discounting mystical items, his real combat strength exceeded that of most Saints.
Yet even he was now sprawled in a pool of blood?
And with the Black Knight's dominion over flesh, he actually couldn't stop the bleeding or regenerate?
A flash of pure white ran across Ebner's eyes—
He instantly grasped everything that had happened.
Without showing the slightest concern for Sero's life or death, Ebner manipulated the Unknown Land even as he stepped directly toward the vault entrance.
But before he could enter—
Countless sword beams materialized out of thin air, some in front of Ebner, some within his body.
In the next instant, they all exploded simultaneously—
shredding Ebner into pieces.
Silence returned to the area before the vault.
Half a minute later, a figure gradually appeared.
It was a man in his thirties, wearing dozens of small braids in his hair—
yet thanks to his strikingly handsome features, the hairstyle actually made him appear stylishly unrestrained.
He held a lavish orange greatsword and laughed:
"Just as expected—
another rat trying to infiltrate my family's treasury during the chaos.
"What a pity…
everything in there ultimately belongs to the Lord!"
Glancing at the blade in his hand, he added lightly:
"And that includes you."
The orange hue faded from the sword, then the entire blade vanished—
yet its sighing voice echoed from nowhere:
"I fled because I did not wish to aid another demon…
yet I've somehow ended up in the hands of a believer of the True Creator…
"Jack, haven't you ever considered that your 'Lord' does not actually want what's inside the vault?
And that by doing this, you are sabotaging His plan?"
This man—Jack Delien—belonged to the Delien Family's "Evil God" faction, originating from the Ironblood Cross Order.
He himself was an Ironblood Knight, and by wielding the greatsword that had defected from the Prime Minister, he relied on its "Borrowing Light to Hide" and the "Flash" ability of its paired silver rapier to heavily wound Sero guarding the door.
Then he used the blade's inherent "Dusk" to freeze Sero's time, preventing recovery.
At the sword's words, Jack sneered:
"The Lord didn't stop me."
The sword sighed again, its tone full of meaning:
"And you haven't noticed anything… wrong… around you?"
Wrong?
Jack froze—
and then the scene around him shattered.
He now saw the man who had attempted to slip into the vault standing not far away, smiling at him.
Perhaps wary of the greatsword, the man had not taken advantage of Jack being trapped in the dream to attack.
Yes—
everything just now had been a dream.
Even with the sword's "Borrowing Light to Hide," the moment Jack prepared to strike, Ebner had Insight Eyes-ed him and immediately dragged him into a dreamscape.
Staring at the seemingly relaxed Ebner, Jack's eyes flickered with suspicion.
Unable to hold back, he asked:
"You didn't enter the vault while I was unconscious?"
That didn't make sense—
Not attacking him could be chalked up to fear of the sword,
but waiting for him to wake up?
What kind of operation was that?
Before Ebner could reply, the sword answered with another sigh:
"He is not the real one—
he's merely a Historical Projection."
Indeed, the Ebner standing before the vault was just his Historical Projection.
Ironically, this was all the result of Jack's own over-clever scheme.
He believed that by opening the vault door himself and placing the dying Sero nearby, he could trick intruders into thinking someone had already killed the guardian and entered.
In their haste to chase the perpetrator, they would drop their guard and walk directly into his ambush.
Unfortunately for him—
such petty tricks were laughable before a Cognizer.
Even when Ebner had been just a "Detective," he could sometimes reconstruct past scenes.
Now? This was trivial.
So once Ebner learned there was an enemy with formidable weapons hiding in the shadows—
he immediately sent a "Divine Revelation" through the Unknown Land to Scholar of Yore Daphne, ordering her to summon the Divine Envoy Ebner's projection.
And because Daphne had sensed the aura of the Deep Abyss and come out to investigate—not far from the Delien manor—Ebner's projection easily locked onto his location and teleported directly to the vault corridor.
The projection was concealed the whole time under Evans's Hidden Barrier, so Jack never detected it.
From there, things were simple:
Ebner's real body slipped through the door, while the projection dragged Jack into a dream until he woke.
"Historical Projection…
Are you from the Arcane Scholar organization?" Jack narrowed his eyes, attempting to discern the stranger's weakness via mysticism so he could launch a killing blow.
At this moment, the greatsword sounded almost curious:
"My Demon-Hunting Eye tells me he is not a Scholar of Yore—
he seems more like a Saint associated with Knowledge…
"A Prophet Master? An Arcane Scholar?
Or a Cognizer?"
Ebner's projection was in no hurry, happy to stall for time.
After several seconds of silence, he casually countered:
"You should be one of the three special artifacts Roselle forged—the Sword, Mirror, and Seal, correct?
"Am I wrong, Your Eminence, Patriarch who betrayed the Combat God?"
The greatsword remained speechless for a long moment before finally protesting:
"I never intended to betray the Lord…
I was tricked!"
"So that's how it is," Ebner said with a knowing expression.
"As expected—
the pursuit of Vicente Miranda really was a private order from that Inquisition judge.
"But perhaps this was also within the Combat God's calculations—
otherwise that nightmare-and-dusk citadel formed from the collision of the Night Goddess and Combat God's power near Indor Port would never have come into being.
"In the end, you were merely a tool used in someone else's grand design."
(End of Chapter)