This kind of despair was enough to make any creature willingly give up the struggle to survive!
She couldn’t understand why that Technique Spirit hadn’t given up yet, why it was still moving forward!
Passing through countless Wonders that hindered her way, once the dark figure finally stepped onto the white jade surface, she began by consolidating her bones, growing flesh, weaving her nerves, and soon, she had regained the posture of the Black Witch.
The mere sight of this terrifying regeneration of flesh and blood was enough to shatter the mental defenses of most people.
The Secret Guard stared dumbfounded at the woman who had walked out of Hell, her legs unconsciously weakened, and she collapsed to the ground.
No armor was strong enough to protect her vulnerability.
No heaven was grand enough to conceal her insignificance.
Her Battle Intent had long been crushed, step by step, by the Black Witch.
She murmured, "What on earth are you? How can you endure so much pain? Why won’t you give up?"
"You ask questions that I myself am very curious to know."
The Black Witch looked down at her hands, "Unlike the current me, she was only a year and a half old then, without having experienced betrayal and setbacks, without having seen disaster and death. She was like a flower in a greenhouse, only stiffening her resolve with defiance, nothing but a trembling girl’s heart beneath her apparent strength."
"My heart is much stronger than hers. The pain she had to bear is only a fraction of what I can endure; and the torture I went through is nothing but an inconsequential moment to her."
"How exactly did she crawl out of Hell and drag you into the Abyss?"
The Secret Guard gazed blankly at the Black Witch, "What are you talking about? I don’t understand."
"It’s okay, I wasn’t talking to you."
The corners of the Black Witch’s mouth curved upward as she walked over and crouched in front of the Secret Guard.
"Auntie, can you tell me, even though I am your niece, why do you show me no mercy at all?"
"I..." The Secret Guard’s vacant expression twisted with conflict, "I just..."
The Secret Guard stammered for a long time without uttering a word, but the Black Witch seemed very patient, not rushing at all. She reached out to touch her aunt’s head and held the Black Knight in her arms, soothing her like a sister would comfort her younger sibling.
The Secret Guard gradually relaxed into the embrace of the Black Witch, her voice so low it was barely audible, "I... because I hate Lissdia."
"Why do you hate her?"
"Because she is the chosen Inheritor of Her Majesty... she is the future Empress Yisu... the future God of Mankind, the incarnation of the Gospel, the earthly embodiment of the All-knowing Weaver."
The Secret Guard murmured, "Even though I am exactly like Lissdia, even better than her... But why does she have all the luck, while I can only hide inside armor, a nameless Secret Guard with no chance at happiness?"
"I also want to wear dresses, I also want to fall in love, I also want to be cherished... What did I do wrong to get nothing?"
"I hate Lissdia, I am jealous of Lissdia, I hate myself for not being Lissdia... So, so I..."
Hearing the sobbing in her arms, the Black Witch gently stroked her aunt’s hair and said softly, "I understand, I understand it all, I know the taste of wanting something but not being able to have it."
"So, I hope you can understand me."
The Secret Guard stared blankly at the Black Witch, who cradled her face and wiped away her tears with her thumb, "Someone told me that what we call ’rectifying regrets’ is really just ’self-comforting.’ I also know that even if I take revenge here, it won’t diminish that person’s pain by the slightest bit."
"But I keep thinking, if it weren’t Red who died that day, but me instead, would everything be different? So, I’m not here to rectify regrets, nor to take revenge, but to..."
"Make a choice again."
Four murky, ink-black wings unfurled behind the Black Witch. The Secret Guard, held in the Black Witch’s arms, witnessed this and was plunged into unspeakable shock.
Four-winged...Technique Spirit?
The Black Witch hugged the Black Knight tightly as the Sky Palace began to collapse, and both of them plunged into the burning world.
"You granted my wish."
The Black Knight suddenly bellowed, and a shock wave burst through the air, expanding in all directions and sending Ash flying against the wall.
He grunted and summoned the ’Joyful Sword’ to himself, wanting to continue the battle, but then he saw the Black Knight rolling on the ground, clutching his head, screaming hysterically.
Ash immediately thought of his ’Evil Demon Cloak’ and breathed a sigh of relief: "Hmph, this is what you get for daring to look at me directly!"
Diya was also a bit stunned. Could it be that the reward from the Weaving Festival was so powerful that even the Royal Secret Guard was no match for it?
Just then, a small hole suddenly collapsed in the ceiling near the window, and Igula stuck out a hand covered in dust and blood, yelling, "Get up here! The Secret Guard has a Miracle Blessing that absorbs all damage; you won’t be able to kill her, run!"
Damn, there’s even an invincible blessing, how are we supposed to fight? Ash immediately rushed towards the hole, signaling Diya to hurry.
The Secret Guard felt her previously light armor become unbearably heavy, the bile she vomited accumulating inside her helmet, scorching her face. She felt every bone in her body decaying, every nerve contorting, every blood vessel reversing its flow. The immense pain that originated deep within her soul seeped into her limbs, even distorting the fabric of reality.
She saw the Princess hazily running toward a man, her consciousness like jelly squeezing out a last bit of rational thought.
Four-winged Technique Spirit, Lissdia, the House of Yisu, incarnate of the Gospel, jealousy, dissatisfaction, yearning, loneliness, Weaving Festival... The chaotic thoughts and emotions made her soul even more bloated and unbearable until she remembered a conversation from before her departure:
"If something happens that even the Gospel can’t hear, and the Princess is forever taken by others..."
"Then she is no longer a Princess."
The Secret Guard shakily raised her right hand, and the Gospel Book loyally appeared before her.
"For the sake of..." The Secret Guard didn’t even notice she was speaking out loud, the first time she had done so in real life in over a decade: "The Gospel."
The moment the Secret Guard touched the Gospel Book, her consciousness plunged into an endless abyss of pain.
As Diya was running towards Ash, she suddenly lost her balance.
She stepped into thin air.
The floor under her crumbled into dust, the layer beneath it, and then the layer below that also disintegrated like artifacts in an ancient tomb, leaving a large hole through which the night freely entered and exited the Senheiser building.
Ash, having jumped up to grasp Igula’s hand in time, did not fall. He saw Diya step into nothingness and instantly switched from sweet words to a hidden dagger, grabbing the tip of the blade tightly with his palm, stretching out his arm with the hilt forward, hoping Diya could grab hold of it.
Diya also clenched her teeth and reached out her hand, never before despising her small stature as much as at this moment.
It couldn’t even be described as regrettable; even as Diya used all her strength, even as she wished her arms would dislocate, her fingertips were a full meter away from the hilt of the sword.
The only things that crossed were their gazes, and then she arced into the embrace of the night sky.
She fell from a tall building once again.
But this time, there was no Bronze Dragon watching over her.