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119 Death

The spirit world, the entrance to Calderon City.

Amon stood at the door and looked at the scene inside. The foggy city was silent and there was no sign of any living thing.

His eyes swept across the entire city inch by inch, and finally whispered like a sigh:

"What should I do?

"I seem to be late."

"This is normal," Will Auceptin's clear voice sounded, "Before His accumulated luck runs out, it's normal that we can't find Him - even if we find Him, we can't catch Him."

Amon didn't seem to care about the content of this sentence. He chuckled and asked curiously,

"Is it us now?"

After two seconds of silence, Will Auceptin's low voice sounded:

"What can I do? You are my 'mother' now. As a child still in your mother's belly, of course I can only trust my 'mother'."

There was nothing wrong with this, but Amon paused for a moment, then he asked hesitantly:

"So, who is your father?"

"...I don't know," Will Auceptin was full of confusion and puzzlement, "Maybe it's you too?"

Amon did not speak. He scanned the interior of Calderon City again and disappeared on the spot.

…

After discussing the issue of the Time Worm Spell with Pales, Leonard turned his attention back to Klein's letter and read it carefully.

"Possessed by evil spirits. The origin and main purpose of evil spirits...

"I don't have enough knowledge about evil spirits, and I don't have any ideas at all..."

After thinking for a few minutes, Leonard took out a box of matches, burned the letter, then frowned and muttered:

"It's a pity that Ms. Daly isn't here... and she's on wedding leave."

It's not entirely true that they were taking a wedding leave. Leonard knew that if something really happened that made the "Nighthawks" too busy, Dunn and Daly probably wouldn't mind postponing or canceling the wedding.

Thinking of this possibility, Leonard shook his head and started writing while praying that everything would go well.

Ask Ms. Daly. Hmm, it seems that there are also "Nightwatchers" in Gurain City who are good at this... Well, it's a pity that we are not familiar with them, but it should be okay. What we need to be careful about is the wording...

Leonard pondered while considering the wording of the letter, filling it with all the questions he could think of, and pushed the excuse onto Alice before he let out a breath, frowned, and decided to ask other people in the Nighthawks team who were good at related matters.

He doesn't need to worry about excuses or anything else. The fact that he was once familiar with Miss Destiny and still has a decent relationship with her is his best shield.

——This is Klein's suggestion.

…

Fortunately, Klein received a reply from Leonard before going to bed. In the letter, he described his gains in detail and expressed his admiration for the usefulness of Alice's signboard.

As the one who proposed the suggestion, Klein had no guilt at all. He skipped this paragraph and read the specific content, trying to get more information from it and pass it on to Leonard.

…

Alice, who didn't know she had become a shield, showed up at St. Samuel's Church the next morning and saw the entire incident.

The reason why every parish that discovered this incident chose to report it without hesitation was undoubtedly that honorable name.

Alice's fingertips traced over the honorific name she had seen before, and suddenly looked up and asked:

"Have any of you read it?"

Anthony shook his head.

Alice didn't say anything, but just frowned a little bit.

This is actually natural. Among the official Beyonders, few people would be stupid enough to recite a name of unknown origin. Even Alice, who was bold in the past, would not rashly do such a thing now.

Even though Cassandra seemed to be a prophet from Sequence 2 at most; even though Cassandra seemed to know her and was very familiar with her; even though Cassandra...

Maybe there was no ill will towards her.

In fact, Alice even had a guess that she herself was unwilling to believe - she suspected that the two "prophetic" characteristics behind "Cassandra" and the Chanis Gate of St. Samuel Church were just a little more autonomous.

But the unreality of this matter is not here. The attitude of half-giving up like Ouroboros is different from the attitude of sudden enlightenment like Charlie King. If "Cassandra" is like this speculation, it can only be that she has this mentality from beginning to end, and...

No matter how she looked at it, Alice didn't think it was possible for Cassandra to expel her Beyonder characteristics and retain consciousness - the result of doing so would be certain death.

Moreover, the things it did before...Arrodes said it was playing the role of "prophet"...

Alice calmly read through the results of the entire incident and understood what Selwyn had done.

For some unknown purpose, Selwyn spread the news of the "witch who can fulfill wishes" everywhere in various forms, with the sole purpose of spreading the news and attracting more people.

But the person who came to the door never came back - wherever she went, the message had changed to "Man-eating witch".

...Could it be that she really eats people?

Unable to figure out the purpose of Selwyn's behavior, Alice came up with an extremely unreliable guess.

This is too outrageous. As soon as Alice thought of it, she rejected this guess. She frowned, put down the file, and asked Anthony:

"Is she still where she was last mentioned up here?"

"I don't know," Anthony answered frankly, "We haven't sent anyone to check... and the local 'Night Watchers' contacted the police to block off the area, prohibiting pedestrians from approaching."

Alice's eyes widened in surprise, and she blurted out:

"This can't possibly be here! Even a fool would know he's been discovered!"

Anthony didn't say anything. He and Alice stared at each other for more than ten seconds before Alice made a decision:

"I want to go to the scene and take a look."

"I'll help you contact the local 'Nightwatch'." Anthony said without hesitation.

Alice nodded in agreement, and after a pause, she asked curiously:

"No, I remember that our church wasn't the only party involved in this matter. What about the Mandated Punisher and the Mechanical Heart? How did they handle it?"

As if he had expected her to ask this question, Anthony answered calmly:

"The news about the 'Mechanical Heart' was eventually reported to Backlund. They activated the Sealed Artifact Arrodes - you should know about it?"

Alice nodded, so Anthony continued to explain:

"After questioning Arrodes, they reported all the information to the Nighthawks and no longer participated in the investigation.

"As for the 'Made in Punishment'..."

Anthony paused for a moment before speaking:

"Investigation is not what the Punisher is good at. They often prefer to solve problems with more direct means."

A more direct method...?

Alice looked up at Bishop Anthony with a strange expression, and remembered the Sequence 8 of the Church of the Storm.

"Are you calling them stupid?" Alice asked calmly after looking around and making sure there was no one else around.

Anthony denied it decisively:

"No, of course not.

"Is that what you think?"

Alice was silent for a moment, then lowered her head and pretended to be looking at the details of the incident carefully.

She sat quietly for more than ten seconds, and when she felt the time was about right, she raised her head and said:

"I want to go to the scene."

Anthony nodded without hesitation and said, "I will contact the local Night Watchman immediately."

Alice did not refuse, she agreed to it, and then said seriously:

"Before we leave, I have one more question."

"What?" Anthony asked subconsciously.

Alice kept a serious expression and said, "I don't know what the address is."

Anthony opened his mouth and closed it again. Only then did he remember that the church's information contained a detailed introduction to Miss Destiny's personality, which mentioned that she hated studying very much - and from subsequent contacts, it seemed to be true.

So, up to now, she has been running around the world, is it all based on mystical coordinates...?

Anthony looked at Alice hesitantly, but in the end he said nothing, just smiled and said:

"I will ask the local 'Night Watcher' to pray to you and provide you with the location."

Alice nodded with satisfaction.

…

Although it took time for the message to be transmitted back and forth, it was not too long. When Alice heard the prayers ringing in her ears, she knew they were ready.

Just as Anthony said, the scene had been cordoned off by the police and the Night Watchers. Alice was in no mood to make small talk. She ignored the group of people and stared directly at the two-story building at the center of the cordon and asked,

"Is it here?"

"Yes." The Night Watcher who prayed to her said honestly.

Hearing the affirmative answer, Alice no longer hesitated. She raised her leg and was about to walk inside, but her steps suddenly stopped and she raised her head as if she sensed something.

The cloaked woman poked her head out from the windowsill and lowered her head to reveal her face. Alice frowned at the first glance.

The originally clean and clear blue eyes were now filled with red bloodshot, and it was obvious that she was not in good spirits. The face that should have been charming and belonged to the "witch" was now covered with countless cuts with a knife, and her facial features were a bloody mess. Alice could only recognize the owner of this face by intuition.

As for the hair…

Alice looked at her hair for a brief moment and then frowned. It didn't look like hair, but rather a snake shape was faintly visible. Alice almost thought several times that this person had a snarling snake on her head. She looked away and around, and found that no one was staring at it. Everyone had turned their eyes away.

She felt relieved and looked upstairs again.

The figure that was probably Selwyn smiled with its bloody face, and the eyes that could be barely made out were fixed on Alice. Alice heard her hoarse voice:

"Oh hehehehe...

"Are you the one who is here to help me out of this predicament?"

...?

Alice was stunned for a moment. She couldn't figure out why Selwyn said this. She thought for a moment and answered decisively:

"Yes, fate has guided me to appear at this moment to save you from the pain in front of you..."

"No need!" Selwyn suddenly screamed, "No need! Why didn't you come earlier? Why did you have to come now? Why did you have to come when everything was irreversible?!"

Everything is irreversible...?

Alice still didn't understand. She remained calm and said:

"That's not the case. Everything has turned around, but you haven't noticed it yet..."

"Are you trying to say that you are the turning point?" Selwyn glared at her fiercely from the windowsill. "'Cassandra' said the same thing at the beginning, and now - I have burned it to death!"

"…Ah?" Alice's facial expression went out of control.

She really couldn't understand how things were going this time. Not to mention that "Cassandra" was suspected to have extraordinary characteristics of the "Prophet", even if it was just an ordinary magical item, it shouldn't be able to be "burned to death".

——Only angels have the power to crush extraordinary characteristics.

Selwyn seemed very satisfied with this. In Alice's confused expression, she raised her head proudly and crazily, and laughed hoarsely like a winner:

"Haha, hahahaha…

"I know that you so-called 'prophets' are a bunch of damn liars!

"Sylvia is, 'Cassandra' is, and you can't be an exception!

"Oh, you, and you..."

Her laughter suddenly stopped, she lowered her head, stared at Alice viciously, and said in a hoarse voice, gritting her teeth:

"I will kill you!"

Alice blinked blankly, looking at Sequence 6 Selwyn with a hesitant expression.

The questioning expression succeeded in making the emotionally broken Selwyn even more agitated. She screamed and crawled to the edge of the windowsill, shouting in fear:

"Just wait! I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you now! I'm coming down right away to kill you! I'm going to burn you like I burned 'Cassandra', and let you and your followers meet the fate you've been talking about!"

My believer...?

Alice was even more confused. She felt that Selwyn's words seemed to contain some incredible news, but before she could ask, Selwyn, who had already climbed to the edge of the windowsill, jumped without hesitation.

Alice's pupils shrank slightly, and then her eyes closed tightly. Her figure flashed without hesitation, disappeared from the spot, and reappeared at the far end.

Bang!

With the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground, the image of Selwyn's head hitting the ground disappeared from her mind. She opened her eyes again, but did not look at the scene blocked by the back of the person in front of her. She just spoke coldly:

"She landed on her head, didn't she?"

This was the strategy Alice took in the short period of time just now.

- Even though Selwyn seemed to have revealed something incredible, and even though Alice really wanted to know what had happened to Selwyn that caused such a change, there was no rush for information, and she didn't necessarily have to be alive to obtain it.

Without hesitation, Ai Li decided that her final outcome would be that her head would hit the ground when she fell from the second-floor window sill. (End of this chapter)

120 Sacrifice

"Yes." someone answered.

Alice didn't look at the scene on the ground. The scene of brains spurting out did not match her aesthetic taste. She had no interest in appreciating it. As for what Selwyn knew...

Alice tilted her head and stretched out her hand as if she had a premonition. A book with a dark blue cover appeared in her hand at the right time. She gently opened it and a line of silver words emerged silently:

"Do you want to know what happened, Your Highness?"

Alice didn't say anything. She stared coldly at the book in her hand for two seconds, then raised her hand to close the book and walked upstairs.

The book seemed unwilling to be ignored. It opened again, revealing new words:

"It is safe up there now. You can leave the exploration to others."

Alice stopped and frowned at the book in her hands.

She remembered Selwyn's words before he died, lowered her head with a strange expression, frowned and asked:

"...You won't tell me that you are my believer, right?"

Cassandra denied it without hesitation: "Of course not."

Alice breathed a sigh of relief, and the strange feeling in her heart faded a little. Just as she was about to take a step forward, a new line of text appeared behind her:

"I am a sacrifice, Your Highness."

…?

The expression on Alice's face gradually froze.

The Nighthawks seemed to have sensed something was wrong. In the silence, someone asked,

"Sir, this book...?"

Alice was silent for two seconds, then looked upstairs. After confirming that it was safe, she closed her eyes and said:

"The upstairs is safe. You can go up and investigate. As for this book..."

Alice paused for a moment, looked down at the book in her hand, and asked,

"What should I call you? 'Cassandra'?"

The words on the page disappeared, and after a moment, a new line of silver words appeared:

"He called me 'The Book of Answers.'"

He...

Alice's eyebrows jumped, and she closed the book again, turned her head and said to the others:

"The 'Book of Answers' comes from a 'Prophet's' Beyonder characteristic - that is, Sequence 2 level. The effect... well, I don't know, but what is clear is that it has a certain degree of predictive ability, has extremely high activity and even intelligence, and can communicate. In addition...

"It can move, can carry its owner with it, and, it seems to...

"Choosing a protagonist?"

When Alice mentioned this, she subconsciously glanced at the "Cassandra" lying on her hand. After finding that she was motionless, she raised her head and continued:

"I don't know the specifics, I'm just talking about the 'protagonists' I know…they have two things in common.

"One is that life will undergo a great change because of its existence, which may be good or bad, and the other is...

"They had a lot of trust in the book — an abnormal amount of trust."

After saying this, Alice let out a breath and asked them:

"Hmm... if I want to report, these should be enough, right?"

No one spoke. They looked at each other. After exchanging glances, one of them asked in a deep voice:

"What are you going to do with it, sir?"

Alice frowned at him, and the man seemed to realize that his tone was wrong, and hurriedly explained:

"It is like this, sir.

"According to convention, after discovering a '0' grade sealed object, we should first report it to the Holy Temple. Moreover, '0' grade sealed objects are very dangerous..."

Alice understood.

"I'm not bewitched," she interrupted directly, "I don't think the goddess would watch me be bewitched either."

After thinking about it, she decided to bring up the goddess. This woman was indeed more credible than herself, and the others felt more at ease. Seeing this, Alice disappeared without hesitation, holding the book.

After placing "Cassandra" on the desk, Alice also sat down in front of the desk. Without stretching out her hand, she leaned back in the chair and looked at "Cassandra" without saying a word.

Cassandra was not going to compete with her in patience. Its pages opened by themselves, and silver words appeared on them:

"You don't believe me."

"Isn't this as it should be?" Alice asked in surprise, "I believe you are the one who is weird, right? I don't want to be like your two previous masters."

"Then you can crush me," Cassandra answered without hesitation, "Crush me and let me regain my Beyonder characteristics. Then I will be safe."

"?" Alice's eyebrows jumped and she looked at it with a questioning look.

As if sensing something, Cassandra said calmly:

"The truth of this statement should be verifiable to you."

...It's true.

Alice knew this clearly. When Klein was looking for a way to remove the contamination of the True Creator, he chose this method - as long as the Beyonder characteristics were crushed and re-condensed, the contamination would be excluded.

This can also make "Cassandra", a magical item, completely lose consciousness, killing two birds with one stone.

As for whether she could crush it... Isn't there a goddess?

There was nothing wrong with this proposal from beginning to end. It seemed that she had truly considered Alice's perspective and made the most reassuring and feasible suggestion for her - but that was exactly the problem.

"Well," Alice tapped the table, deciding to ask a more meaningful question, "what does Selwyn mean by that?"

"I don't know," Cassandra said frankly, "I'm not Selwyn, I don't understand her thoughts, but I guess she did that because I told her the truth."

"What truth?" Alice frowned.

New silver words slowly appeared on Cassandra:

"I didn't tell her before that the potion needs to be digested and that Beyonders may lose control. At the same time, I told her that as long as she is promoted to Sequence 4 Iron-Blooded Knight, she will turn back into a male..."

Alice felt as if she was falling into an icy cave.

She realized without thinking too much what kind of impact this would have. Selwyn would definitely try his best to advance, even before the potion was fully digested...

"By the way," Cassandra added, "I didn't tell her about the existence of the potion formula. I just guided her to find the extraordinary properties..."

Alice took a deep breath and murmured softly, "I kind of understand why she's like that..."

Thinking of Selwyn's almost crazy look, Alice was no longer surprised. She thought that anyone who had experienced such a thing and then suddenly learned the truth would not be able to accept it. Moreover, she might have thought that she was the one and only love, and "Cassandra" was her golden finger...

Thinking of this possibility, Alice's mouth twitched for a moment, and then asked:

"Why did she say she burned you?"

"It was a dream," Cassandra replied. "Given her condition, it's only natural for her to confuse dreams with reality... isn't it?"

Alice didn't say anything, she agreed with this statement. Judging from Selwyn's behavior before jumping off the building, this was indeed a normal thing.

After sorting out the cause and effect of the matter, Alice let out a breath, then raised her eyebrows and asked:

"It can't be a coincidence that she survived into the present, right?"

"Of course," Cassandra continued, "she is destined to die in front of you and in your hands... just like me."

Alice's pain shrank for a moment, and she thought of Selwyn's word "believer" again, and thought of "Cassandra" saying that she was a sacrifice. She asked coldly:

"What do you mean?

" "Is she a sacrifice like you?"

"How does she deserve it?" "Cassandra" asked without hesitation.

…?

It really seems like that kind of fanatic…

Alice took a breath, held down the table and asked, "Do you know me?"

All the words on the page disappeared, and after more than ten seconds, new silver words appeared:

"You can say I know him, or you can say I don't know him.

"I know you in the past. At that time, you... no, they were like two people.

"And now... I know you're not the worse one, but you don't seem to be the other one either...

"But it seems that they are all you."

Alice paused.

She felt as if she understood what "Cassandra" said, which was something she had always guessed about in the past.

——The person who appeared in front of others at that time might not be one person, but two people. One was extremely gullible and could be fooled by Will Auceptin, while the other... would fool others with that gullible face.

If He had a face.

This speculation has never been confirmed, and she hasn't even encountered many clues. On the one hand, she didn't take the initiative to look for it, and on the other hand, her past traces seemed to be unknown to the public.

If "Cassandra" is telling the truth, this is undoubtedly strong evidence, and it is also consistent with Alice's self-perception - relatively speaking, she may be more inclined to be the one who is easier to deceive, but at this point, she is no longer a simple person.

Just as Song Shu said to her in her dream, they are inseparable. Alice has actually realized long ago that it is meaningless to worry about who she is. She is the Alice of the present, the sum of everything in the past.

They or They together make up who she is today. They are all her and none of them are her.

In other words, she is nobody.

Well, in modern times, this should be called sacred cutting... No, maybe it can be said in a more philosophical way, the me in the past is not the me now...

Thoughts turned through my mind, then fed back into reality and turned into a long sigh.

Alice turned her attention back to Cassandra. She did not try to determine whether Cassandra's words were true or false. She wanted to ask the question before making a decision.

Moreover, even if it is a lie, it is not completely worthless.

Alice shook her head and continued:

"Why did Selwyn say you are my believer, and why..."

She paused, then frowned and asked with a strange expression:

"Why do you say you are a sacrifice?"

Cassandra asked back:

"You haven't found the ceremony to be promoted to 'Prophet' yet, right?"

If she had a face, Alice thought, Cassandra would now be smiling like a Riddler, for she usually had a similar expression when she spoke.

Alice had to admit that her promotion ceremony to "Prophet" was indeed not settled. In fact, she didn't even understand the meaning of that sentence!

- Take the potion when the torrent of fate converges.

This is a ritual that is comparable to the Riddler's and Sequence 0's rituals.

No, that can't be said. In fact, the ritual of Sequence 0 is very straightforward. It's just about the right opportunity. Although the right opportunity is a bit difficult to find, this is different. This is really incomprehensible...

Alice's expression twisted for a moment. She looked down at "Cassandra" and gritted her teeth and said,

"Why, do you have a solution?"

"I am a 'prophet'," 'Cassandra' replied, "In all stories, there is a 'prophet' - the 'prophet' is the intersection."

Alice was slightly startled, and suddenly had a bad premonition. She stared at "Cassandra" and a new line of text appeared on it:

"Fates intersect here with me... Kill me and use me as the material for your potion to advance to 'Prophet'. You will become the new intersection and the new 'Prophet'.

"Before I met you, I had already accumulated enough stories for you..."

A chill rose from the bottom of her heart, and Alice finally understood why "Cassandra" had no objection to her killing it - just as it said, it was a sacrifice, and sacrifices must die.

This is it is a wish.

Alice wanted to tell herself that these words might be false, and that it might be deceiving her just like it had deceived its previous owners, but...

Is there any point in this lie?

Alice couldn't figure it out, because the biggest point of this lie seemed to be to destroy the book and turn it into a Beyonder again, which would not do "Cassandra" any good - unless she was really a fanatic.

...But there's no need for my fanatic to lie to me like this, right?

Could it be that it didn't believe me...?

Alice felt that her brain was like a mass of paste. She turned it over and over in her mind, trying her best to stir the paste and regain consciousness.

But this was doomed to fail. The mess in her head became more and more tangled. In a daze, Alice dug out from her memory the name that had been left by "Cassandra" several times, crushed it all together and stuffed it into the mess.

...Huh?

Alice suddenly had an idea and took out the crushed powder again and pieced it together bit by bit. She stared at Cassandra intently and said in a low voice:

"What does that honorific name mean?"

The open book lay quietly on the table. The occasional breeze did not stir the pages. It was not until Alice asked a question that silver words slowly emerged from the blank parchment:

"You finally asked me this question, Your Highness."

Alice's eyebrows jumped suddenly, and she stared at "Cassandra" intently, waiting for new words to appear on it. (End of this chapter)

121 Light Chaser

In the silence, line after line of silver text emerged bit by bit:

"To this day, I still remember the excitement I felt when I prepared the 'Prophet' potion. Becoming an angel is just around the corner. As long as I succeed, I will become a true mythical creature...

"With this in mind, I took the potion and learned about the ability of the 'prophet'. First of all, after being promoted to 'prophet', I will be able to truly glimpse the long river of fate and witness the changes in fate.

"At the same time, the potion also told me that during my time as the Chaos Walker and in the past, I already understood enough about fate and witnessed the fate of enough people. Now, as a Prophet, the most important thing for me is to observe my own fate and find the turning point of my own fate.

"So, I made a prophecy to myself…"

...?

Alice fell into deep thought.

Frankly speaking, if you had not watched the promotion ceremony of "Mercury Snake" beforehand and did not know the ability of "Prophet", there would be nothing wrong with this statement.

If I have to say something, it is that as the first power involved in authority after being promoted to an angel, being able to only see fate is too weak.

But reality is not a game, and balance is not important. The overall strength of the previous sequences of the "Destiny" path is not very high, and the ability of the "prophet" is indeed questionable, but it only makes people half-believe and half-doubt.

——Who would have thought that the description of one's abilities in the potion was false?

I don't think many people would have this as their first reaction. Therefore, it is not a low-probability event to follow the words in the potion and try to make predictions for yourself.

So, where does this lead to?

Alice thought of the prophecies she had seen and asked bluntly,

"Did you see your own death?"

"Of course," Cassandra replied, "At first, I didn't believe this prophecy. You should understand that feeling, the feeling of being half-believing and half-doubting under great shock, not wanting to believe it, but also worrying that it might be true..."

Alice thought of Amon and Klein.

She was silent for a moment, then changed the subject: "So, do you know... that believing in the 'prophecy' will affect the outcome of the 'prophecy'?"

"Yes," Cassandra replied, "Perhaps my despair and struggle pleased Him... I was lucky enough to learn the truth about the 'prophecy'."

Alice pursed her lips, but Cassandra hadn't finished her words:

"He told me that this is a gift He prepared for all 'prophets'. He gave us the ceremony to advance to Sequence 1. As long as we get the potion and take it when we are doomed, we can successfully advance to Sequence 1 and come back to life…

"He said this effectively prevented some of us from being limited by our ability or lack of courage to complete the ritual."

Alice took a breath.

Although she was still wary of Cassandra, Alice had to admit that this statement seemed true. How similar was this statement to the birthday gift?

Most importantly, there was not much room for deception in this statement. As long as she took the Sequence 2 potion, she would naturally know whether Cassandra's words were true or false. There seemed to be no need to deceive here.

…But if what it says is true, what is its purpose? Or, why does it say this?

Alice frowned. She suddenly remembered Arrodes, who called Klein master. She lowered her eyes to look at "Cassandra" and asked thoughtfully:

"Do you know a mirror called Arrodes?"

"We are different," Cassandra answered without hesitation, "I don't expect to follow you... I just hope to be a stepping stone on your path to godhood."

...That sounds nice, but it means death!

Alice still didn't understand this, so she asked directly:

"Even if you're telling the truth, but...

"Why?"

The words on the parchment disappeared. Alice couldn't read the book's expression. She could only see its answer after a long silence:

"I don't want anyone else to receive a gift like this… I hope you can put an end to this.

"You are the hope I found."

Alice froze in place.

The words sounded light, but Alice felt a heavy force pressing down on her, just like what she felt from "Sun" Derrick when she asked Cattleya to commission the food of Silver City.

——That's expectation.

This expectation was not as direct and heavy as Derrick's, because Alice did not know "Cassandra" before, and she had not seen its struggle with her own eyes, but she had indeed seen the people of Silver City and Moon City, and felt their perseverance in despair.

But this expectation seemed to be much heavier than theirs - after all, what the City of Silver was expecting was a savior, and it didn't matter whether it was her or not.

But here, maybe she is the only one.

It's not that Alice is narcissistic, but the reason why "Cassandra" said she was hope is obvious, because the "Key of Light" chose her, and the reason why the "Key of Light" chose her is also obvious - she may not belong to this world.

In this matter, she is truly irreplaceable.

The atmosphere gradually solidified in the silence, from gas to some kind of viscous liquid, and then to some kind of clay-like solid, making Alice, who no longer needed to breathe, feel as if she couldn't breathe.

It was Cassandra who first broke the silence:

"Please kill me."

Alice looked at "Cassandra" in silence. After a long moment, she sighed and said in a calm voice,

"Okay."

At this time, she really looked like a god.

It is said to be killing, but in fact it is using authority to crush the Beyonder Characteristics and then let them reunite.

Although according to the information Alice had learned in the past, all that was needed to accomplish this was an angelic status, she was still worried that something might happen when faced with the Beyonder characteristics of a Sequence 2, so she chose to pray to the Goddess.

The abnormality occurred at this moment. The ritual strangely did not receive any feedback. After Alice was stunned for two seconds, she jumped up in shock.

——Something went wrong.

It was definitely impossible to rush into the church with "Cassandra". After all, she was not a real child, so she naturally knew that it would be of no benefit for ordinary believers to know such things.

After a few breaths of panic, Alice quickly calmed herself down. She began to search for someone to discuss this matter with. The first person she thought of was naturally Klein.

But Alice did not contact Klein directly. She first conducted a test to confirm whether the goddess could respond to ordinary rituals.

The matter ended with her obtaining a sleeping charm.

After staring at the spell and thinking for two seconds, Alice contacted Klein and conveyed the message directly through the connection between them:

"Did anything happen when the goddess appeared last time in the 'Raging Sea'?"

This was the last time the goddess appeared in Alice's memory, but she ran away very quickly at that time. She didn't ask for the details afterwards, and Klein didn't say anything either, until today when he suddenly asked.

Klein had just finished chatting with Arrodes. He was stunned for a moment when he heard this question. He quickly guessed that Alice's prayers or something had not been answered, so he became suspicious.

This is not difficult to guess. He told Alice that the goddess was controlling the uniqueness of the "God of Death", and briefly told her about the specific events that happened last time. He also suggested that she could consider praying to the "artificial God of Death" if necessary.

...quite appropriate for the occasion.

Alice accepted the proposal and turned to ask Klein about the materials and procedures of the ceremony.

In order to prevent Cassandra from doing something when no one was around, Alice took Cassandra to sweep the underground markets in several surrounding cities that afternoon and found enough materials.

After preparing everything, Alice stepped back and pronounced the honorific name she had just learned in Hermetic language:

"You are the essence of death;

"You are the monarch of the dead;

"You are the final destination of all living beings.

"I beg for your help, and pray that you can destroy this magical item and return it to its extraordinary properties."

After she finished speaking, the candle flame suddenly expanded, seemingly becoming much brighter, but it was tinged with a dark green color, and the surroundings suddenly became eerie and cold.

"It's a bit eerie..." Alice muttered softly as she picked up the essential oil she had just bought and dripped it on the candle flame.

After doing this, Alice threw "Cassandra" in. With a whoosh, the pale flames devoured the dark blue-covered book and obscured Alice's vision.

After two or three seconds, the flames completely faded away, and Alice saw the powder emitting light spots spontaneously condense, bit by bit, and reassemble into a book.

Alice finished the ceremony and took back the newly created book. It still had the dark blue cover and parchment pages, but when she opened it, there were no more silver words.

Alice looked at the book for two seconds, then slowly lowered her head. She felt that the book seemed to exude an enticing fragrance, making her want to take a bite and taste it...wait a minute.

Alice suddenly woke up. She realized that this was probably a truly extraordinary characteristic without any impurities. The attraction of the extraordinary characteristic to her was intuitively revealed, making her want to finish reading the book.

Alice dropped the book in horror, then picked it up again and appeared in St. Samuel's Church in a flash.

Archbishop Anthony looked up from the table as if he had sensed something, and saw a book thrown in front of him. Alice said to him seriously,

"You have a way to cover up the aggregation of Beyonder characteristics so that I won't be affected by the aggregation and eat it, right?"

She didn't go looking for Klein, just like the previous sealed objects involving angels.

Anthony glanced at the book subconsciously, and as if realizing something, he raised his head and told her gently:

"Yes, but you might have to wait a few days before you get it."

"That's fine," Alice shook her head decisively, "It doesn't matter if I leave it with you. You won't take my things for yourself...right?"

"Of course." Anthony responded with a smile.

There was no problem with that. Alice left with peace of mind. After returning home, she was silent for two seconds. Instead of going through Klein, she contacted Justice Audrey herself:

"Ms. Justice, um...

"Are you available for psychological counseling now?"

…

In the Hall family's study, Audrey paused when she heard the sound, and a harsh wrong note appeared in the originally pleasant piano sound.

She stopped and looked at her music teacher, and said calmly,

"Teacher, I'm sorry, I suddenly want to go to the bathroom..."

This would not be denied, so sitting on the toilet, Audrey considered telling Alice that she would need the evening to be free.

After a long while, Alice's response came: "Okay."

…

After responding to Audrey, Alice opened her eyes, exhaled, and stared out the window in a daze.

The idea of ​​talking to Audrey was not new. Alice had had similar thoughts more than once, but she had never put them into action.

Of course, Alice didn't think this was a big problem. Referring to other angels she knew, Alice thought that she was already normal among them.

She waited quietly until the appointed time, without even having dinner. Only after receiving Audrey's message did she come back to her senses and appear in front of Audrey.

"Good evening, Miss Destiny." Audrey stood up and saluted cautiously.

Alice stared at her for two seconds, then suddenly sighed and said:

"Call me Alice...while the name still applies."

Audrey hesitated for two seconds. As a professional psychologist, she sat down and called out in a gentle voice,

"Alice?"

Alice nodded quietly.

By this point, Audrey had already noticed something obviously wrong with Alice. She paused for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said,

"I rarely see you like this... Most of the time, I think you're like a little girl. Only now do you really look a bit like 'Miss Fate' - do you understand what I mean?"

The pronoun she used was "you".

Alice did not reject this subtle attempt to bring them closer. On the contrary, she nodded slightly in a trance and said, "I know."

This was worse than a rejection. Audrey frowned for a moment, then asked tentatively,

"Why do you suddenly want to talk to me? I thought you were going to see Mr. Fool."

Alice was silent for two seconds, then turned to Audrey and said,

"I went to see Mr. Fool once before, and he said he wasn't a psychiatrist, but if I needed him, he could help me call a psychiatrist."

Mentioning Mr. Fool really makes Miss Fate more lively... Could Mr. Fool actually say something like this? This seems a bit like Mr. World...

Audrey's scattered thoughts did not affect her treatment. She asked in surprise,

"Pfft, can I ask who the psychiatrist Mr. Fool is going to call?"

"It's you." Alice turned her head and told her calmly.

Audrey was stunned for a moment. She stared at Alice's serious face, trying to confirm whether she was joking. Alice's vague gaze fixed on her and asked softly:

"Would you feel pressured by such trust?"

(End of this chapter)