Countdown

The convoy wove through the highway, its headlights carving through the night like butcher blades. The energy grid of the Starry Country seemed intrinsically tied to the celestial canopy, where every glimmer of starlight had carried immense energy, supplying the land with light and power. Real starlight possessed no such might. Now, everything within the horizon was plunged into darkness, the standing lampposts resembling silent gravestones. From this day forward, the energy grid of the Starry Country would have to be rebuilt, and sorcerers who could no longer rely on a false starry sky would have only themselves to depend on. Yet that was merely the most trivial consequence. In the past, thanks to the convenience of the canopy, the Weather Bureau had regulated every kind of climate with effortless ease. But with the canopy shattered, eternal daylight for farming towns and eternal night for industrial cities could never be replicated again. The Starry sorcerers were about to face the trials of the natural elements. Inside the sports car at the center of the convoy, Yaxiu had finished telling his story quite some time ago. He poured everyone a glass of champagne. Felix drove steadily, not spilling a single drop. "The Divine Lord of Stars... The Starry Supreme actually extended an invitation to you?" Weise broke the silence. "To think the person I like was almost the partner of the Starry Supreme—it suddenly feels like I got an amazing deal." "She was just trying to eliminate every possible risk," Yaxiu said calmly. "To her, a partner is merely a bargaining chip to be spent. For a sorcerer who pursues power to the brink of madness, feelings have long ceased to be a factor in her calculations... just like Vichy." "No wonder the Pillar Gods referred to themselves that way. They really were pillars that once propped up the world," Diya marveled. "With every one that dies, the Void Realm gains another layer. We sorcerers are all exploring atop a mountain of corpses... It sounds like something out of a bizarre fairy tale." "If Harvey knew this, he'd be thrilled to death. It might even push him straight into the realm of gods," Yaxiu chuckled. "That necromantic worldview of his, which we've roasted countless times, actually turns out to be the closest to the real world." "Who knows where Uncle Harvey and Aunt Bogin went off to," Diya remarked offhandedly. She didn't pay it much mind, however; in fact, she thought Igola and Harvey had been very considerate not to disturb their reunion. The little empress looked at Yaxiu and asked, "So, in this trip to the Country of All Stars, you fell for three women?" "Rose doesn't count," Yaxiu said, shaking his head. "We're just friends." "Those words carry zero convincing power," Diya sighed. "Unless Rose is a guy... No, wait, even if she were a guy, I still wouldn't trust you. You completely fooled us back then with Tamashi." "Huh?" Weise paused, startled. "You didn't know Tamashi was a woman before?" "You knew?" "You could tell just by looking at the bone structure of her waist and hips. Even though she did her best to conceal it, the contours still gave away her undeniable feminine grace." Weise blinked. "Even if you couldn't tell, the necromancer in your party certainly would have. Yaxiu, you weren't pretending not to know just so you could keep taking advantage of Tamashi, were you?" "...I'll settle that score with Harvey later," Yaxiu grumbled helplessly. "Even with Tamashi, we were only friends back then. When you think about it, Rose and Tamashi are both unusual people, holding onto values completely out of step with the world, yet deeply loving a world that never loved them back. Maybe that's precisely why I became friends with them." "Even if Rose doesn't count," Diya pressed, "you still like Niya and Feili, don't you?" After a moment of silence, Yaxiu confessed openly before the girls he loved: "Yes." "It would have surprised me more if you said you didn't," Sonia murmured, leaning against the window and gazing at the sparse night sky outside. "When I met them in the Kingdom of Heaven in Dreams, I knew they had poured their hearts out to you." "Whoever likes you, you protect. Whoever bares their heart to you, you risk your life for... You've always been like this, never letting down anyone who loves you," she said. "You only break their hearts." Yaxiu gently caressed Sonia's cheek with the back of his hand, then suddenly asked, "Sword Princess, when I just woke up..." "Hmm?" "Did you..." "What do you want to ask?" Sonia looked at him, her ruby eyes calm and placid, yet so deep they seemed poised to swallow him whole. For a moment, the words caught in Yaxiu's throat. He didn't dare ask, feeling as though one step forward would plunge him into an irreversible abyss. —Had Niya's emotions flooded into Sonia's soul? He leaned in close to Sonia, and she did not pull away. But this time, she only gave his lips a few brief pecks, so frugal it seemed born equally of annoyance and bashfulness. "Vosloda." From the front, Felix suddenly spoke. "Did that man die?" "Yes." Yaxiu hesitated for an instant before giving a firm answer. "He intervened twice in the final Demon War—once to protect me, and once to protect Feili." "I see." With that, Felix said nothing more, but the tight grip of her hands on the steering wheel betrayed that she was not nearly as calm as she appeared. "Where are we heading next?" Diya asked excitedly. "Time to return to the Gospel Country, right? Even if the Starry Supreme has put a bounty on Yaxiu, I hold the Gospel God in my hands. In the Gospel Country, we have a near-infinite advantage." "I don't mind," Sonia chimed in with growing interest. "Dating in Gospel, getting married under the Blood Moon, and finally returning to the Starry Country for our honeymoon—that sounds like a lovely plan." "What?!" Diya was stunned. "Dating is one thing, but what's this about marriage and a honeymoon?" "Yaxiu already promised." Sonia cast a deadpan sideways glance at Yaxiu, the corner of her lips curving upward slightly. "You wouldn't go back on your word, would you?" This wasn't Sonia rewriting history; Yaxiu really had agreed to it, and he had no intention of going back on his word. In fact, he felt a fair bit of anticipation himself. He smiled and said, "No problem at all." "Me too!" Diya practically bounced in her seat. "Anything else is fine, but her progress absolutely cannot pull that far ahead of mine!" "Witch, it's not that I'm unwilling," Yaxiu offered gently. "Dating is on the table, but Lisi is still inside your soul, so..." "Just wait until I train up my Soul faction!" Diya hugged Yaxiu's arm tightly, just like a child staking her claim on a prize. "Until then, Lisi gets to sleep hugging Daddy every night, and neither of you even think about breaching the line of romance!" "What if you switch back in the middle of the night to launch a sneak attack?" Sonia asked out of nowhere. "Don't worry, I'll kick her out of bed," Yaxiu said mercilessly. "What if she uses a miracle to bind you and force herself on you?" "Haha, how could the Witch ever do something like that?" Yaxiu glanced at Diya. "Right?" Diya blinked back at him, wearing an utterly innocent expression. "...You wouldn't use a miracle on me, would you?" Weise burst into a giggle, feeling more and more eager for the future when she would possess a body of her own. The Sword Princess and the Witch were certainly forces to be reckoned with, but she loved worthy opponents most of all. If those two kept keeping each other in check, only for her to swoop in with the sheer violence of a god and take Yaxiu by force in the end, wouldn't that be even more thrilling? "Much as I'd love to spend my life with you all, living the days I've always dreamed of," Yaxiu said softly, "and even if it means tormenting one another until we're battered and bruised, I'd still be more than willing... but I'm afraid I won't be able to stay in reality for very long." He had not forgotten the Hell secret poison. Judging by the speed at which it regenerated in the Country of All Stars, his virtual wings would be fully grown within half a month. The chimes of Hell had already begun ticking down for him. Whether one passed the Hell Trials or not, a demigod could not remain in reality; otherwise, the strongest beings in the mortal world wouldn't be mere legendary sorcerers. While half a month was far from enough, it at least granted him two weeks to say a proper farewell. And with that half month to fulfill their wishes, he might stand a chance of talking them around— Right then, a look of sheer shock broke across Yaxiu's face. He suddenly unfurled his virtual wings, and a pair of dazzling gold-and-silver wings flared open inside the car, wrapping around his three operators—the Sword Princess, the Witch, and Weise. Before their very eyes, within a mere ten seconds, a single feather sprouted upon Yaxiu's rainbow virtual wings. "...Witch." Yaxiu's face turned deathly pale. "Can you locate Igola and Harvey?"