Mystery: Chaos Path

"Okay." Lucifer smiled slightly, understanding that the Earth Mother was expressing her regard for him, or rather, she was probably eager to talk to him.

It seemed the Night Goddess had indeed shared a lot of information with her allies.

The three then followed Bishop Utravsky into the Harvest Church. Upon reaching the hall, Bishop Utravsky didn't rush to lead Lucifer to the Earth Mother. He turned to Klein and "Jack Jones" and said, "You two, please wait here for a moment."

Clearly, the Earth Mother intended to speak with Lucifer alone.

"You guys stay here. Don't worry, I'll be back soon," Lucifer said, glancing back at the two.

Klein and Jack exchanged a look and obediently found places to sit in the hall.

Rowan, disguised as Lucifer, followed Bishop Utravsky into the true interior of the Harvest Church, soon arriving at a door.

Bishop Utravsky opened the door for Rowan. Inside, in the very center of the room, was a potted plant.

Bishop Utravsky respectfully bowed and paid his respects to the potted plant, murmuring words of praise before respectfully stepping aside.

Rowan examined the potted plant and knew what was happening—a portion of the Earth Mother's will had descended upon this plant, somewhat similar to a divine descent, but without much power.

It seemed the Earth Mother really wanted to talk to him.

Thinking this, Rowan stepped into the room.

"Click—"

The door closed automatically behind him. Rowan didn't mind, simply looking at the potted plant and smiling, "Nice to meet you, Lady Lilith. Do you need me to introduce myself?"

"…You are indeed as the Night said, knowing many secrets," the flowers inside the potted plant suddenly opened after a few seconds of silence, emitting a soft, charmingly feminine voice.

"I'm curious, how did the Night describe me to you?" Rowan asked with a smile, his expression showing a hint of curiosity.

"The Night shared your information with me. Not too much, but enough to let me know what kind of existence you are," the flower carrying Lilith's will continued, "So I know you can summon that Sun God from the distant past, and I also know you helped Bethel and cleared some of the corruption from him, allowing him to regain a moment of clarity."

"Oh? Heh! It seems you are indeed intimate," Rowan chuckled, not surprised by Lilith's words.

After all, the existence of the Ancient Sun God wouldn't be a secret to the Night. He even specifically took the Ancient Sun God to the Storm Church to call out Leandro. With Old Pigeon Storm's style, he would likely share this information with the Night Goddess.

As for Bethel's matter, it was even less of a secret. The Night Goddess had been focusing on him all along. It would be strange if she didn't notice his changes with a little attention.

"We are naturally close allies," the flower carrying Lilith's will said, giving one the impression of a polite, fake smile despite having no expression.

"Indeed, after all, you are in a relationship where you can plot to backstab the famous War God together. The poor War God, he doesn't even know his mother has long been replaced. Even among the many stories I know, this is an absolute…"

Rowan paused here before uttering a word:

"Dark humor."

The flower carrying Lilith's will fell silent again, then spoke after a moment: "Perhaps we should both be frank, Mr. Lucifer. You didn't come to the Harvest Church today just to chat about everyday matters."

"I'm afraid the War God wouldn't like such everyday matters," Rowan shook his head, then smiled, slowly saying, "Shouldn't you be the one being frank, Lady Lilith?"

Rowan's gaze landed on the potted plant. He reached out and pressed his hand on a leaf of the plant, then shook his head, saying with a hint of emotion, "What a familiar aura. The last time I felt this aura was when I was clearing the corruption from Bethel."

"Lady Lilith, I'm very curious, how much of your current will still belongs to you?" Rowan asked, his expression like that of a scholar exploring an academic question.

If asked what the most obvious difference between the Earth and Moon pathways and other pathways was, there was undoubtedly only one answer: the influence from Outer Gods.

Although more than just these two of the 22 pathways on Earth once belonged to Outer Gods, only these two belonged to another pillar-level existence. This allowed the Corrupted Mother Goddess to easily influence the Beyonders of these two pathways, and it also caused Lilith, the former Ancestor of the Blood Clan, to choose to die once in the Second Epoch in order to get rid of the influence.

Lilith had succeeded once. Death and jumping from the Moon pathway to the Earth pathway greatly reduced the Outer God's influence on her, but she had also failed, because this influence had not been eradicated. It still followed her like a shadow, becoming increasingly serious as the apocalypse approached.

It was hard to say that if this continued, Lilith wouldn't become another Bound God, Tolzner.

"…I don't know," the flower carrying Lilith's will didn't deny Rowan's words, saying, "The current me, even I don't know, sometimes my will is from myself, or because of the influence of that Outer God."

"So I need help from you, Mr. Lucifer," Lilith didn't try to test anything further, this time speaking very decisively, "If you can suppress the power of the Outer Gods and clear the corruption of the Outer Gods, then that's exactly what I need."

No one wants to die, and becoming a puppet of an Outer God is even worse than death. Although Lilith had prepared to blow up the Mother Goddess in a big way at the end of the world, and was prepared to die, who wouldn't want to live if they could?

Rowan raised his eyebrows upon hearing this, not surprised. He simply said, "To be honest, I can indeed clear the corruption from Outer Gods, but that method might not work for you. What I can clear is power, not will."

Unlike Mr. Door and others who were simply corrupted by Outer Gods, Lilith's situation was actually closer to "The Primordial Awakened in my body." It's just that the Primordial and the Celestial Venerable had already fallen, while the Corrupted Mother Goddess, as the Third Pillar, was still alive and well.

Although Rowan's power could forcibly clear the corruption from Outer Gods, it wasn't very effective against the will inherent in Extraordinary characteristics.

The flower carrying Lilith's will fell silent again, this time for even longer than usual.

"…Being able to clear power is enough, at least it can allow me to last longer," Lilith finally spoke again, her tone carrying relief and a vague sense of loss.

"No, what I mean is, why not try another method?" Rowan said with a smile.