Oct 17th, 1349 of the Fifth Epoch
To keep up appearances for the local authorities, Max headed to the local auction house and bought a few useless items the next morning, claiming one of them was his reason for travelling all the way here, and swiftly returned to Backlund.
On the train back, Max had a rather ridiculous thought.
'What if I… plan to perfectly thwart my own ascension ritual, as thus succeed in ascending?'
'Huh?' Samuel asked in doubt as he thought Max was now losing it after finally getting his revenge.
'Hear me out now… what if I plan to destroy my own plan to destroy the demoness' advancement ritual, and hide the memories in the Amalgamation of All. Then, just before I activate my plan to thwart the demoness' plan, I receive my own memories of not wanting to do that, which would perfectly thwart my original plan to thwart the demoness' advancement ritual. This way, although I would fail in my advancement ritual, the memories of me wanting to stop my own advancement ritual would be the one that succeeds, and I would be able to advance. Right…'
'…'
'Unity?'
'…'
'…'
…
The rest of the train ride was spent in utter silence at the simply idiotic plan… that somehow made just enough sense to be considered, leaving everyone present within Max's three-in-one perfectly merged soul in stunned silence.
When they finally returned to Backlund, Max decided to hold onto these thoughts of failing my own advancement ritual and seal them in case the possibility of succeeding in destroying the demoness' plan actually failed, or had a high likelihood of failure, in which case he could take this gamble.
After that, he returned to his apartment for a night's rest as he had been travelling for half a day, then spent the night tracking down one of Stacy's Beyonder subordinates, and killed him, and then lured her to a place her could kill her as well. Then he only had two hours of sleep before having to wake up and attend an auction, before travelling again for half a day.
His mind and body were tired and so he peacefully went to sleep.
…
The next morning, Max got out of bed and went to have some breakfast at the restaurant across the street, but while he was in the middle of crossing the cobbled street, all the colours around him suddenly saturated rapidly.
Then, but a moment later, they all lost their colour completely and Max could see two figures in the sky, looking down on him with their mocking gazes.
One was Adam, wearing his priest robes and his golden hair. He spoke softly, but Max could hear it, "You killed him. This was not meant to be. I had warned you not to interfere with my story."
The other man, also looked like Adam, wearing the same clothes and with the same gentle demeanour. However, only a moment later, he pulled out a monocle from his breast pocket and fitted it to his face. His entire aura changed to that of a chaotic mess that would remind anyone of a malicious entity.
A devilish grin appeared on his face as Max also pulled out a monocle, the same one he kept to ward away potential Angel-level individuals, and put it on his face without wanting to do so. The grin that Amon sported was now plastered on Max's face as well.
"Now, let us see why exactly you killed poor Medici."