Forgotten

"What? We're going to the beach?" Felix pushed the door open and came in carrying a tower of desserts, saying excitedly, "I've never been!" "Is that all right?" Daidalos came in with the drinks. "If we show up in public..." "Right, I almost forgot about that." Yaxiu pressed his palms together. "We have the sixth-tier Hell Wings, and the world secret realm. And now that the Supreme God-Leader can't descend to the mortal world, we're effectively the strongest in the human world... Even if more angels came down, they'd be no match for us!" "You know what that means, don't you?" Felix set a plate of cake in front of Yaxiu and asked casually, "Means what?" As she turned, her sleeve caught a glass on the table. Pineapple juice splashed out over her sleeve and Yaxiu's trousers. Felix instinctively reached out to wipe it off for him, but at that moment Yaxiu slammed a hand down on the table and slowly stood up, eyes fixed straight on her. The presence of a demigod sorcerer filled the room in an instant. Felix held her breath, her mind blank, unable to release even her Sanctuary, her legs trembling faintly as she watched, dumbstruck, while Yaxiu reached a hand toward her— and wiped the pineapple juice off her sleeve. Only when Yaxiu sat back down did she come back to herself. Her legs went so weak she nearly dropped to her knees. Intense shame and anger flooded through Felix, along with a trace of admiration she couldn't quite name, and she couldn't help but punch his arm hard, forgetting the difference in their status. "Sorry, Felix, I didn't mean it," Yaxiu said with a laugh. "I just wanted to demonstrate something: every single thing we do can now drastically affect the whole mortal world. Even a Sanctuary sorcerer can't avoid it, let alone ordinary people." "If we wanted to, we could wipe every living thing off this land." Yaxiu looked at the operators. "Of course we won't do that. But even the smallest bit of anger or goodwill we let slip, magnified by demigod-level strength, could turn the world upside down." "Next, when we go around playing, we'll inevitably end up in places with heavy foot traffic. We'd better keep our strength suppressed below legendary... And it would be best if Felix and Daidalos handle most things while we only have to enjoy ourselves. That way neither we nor the mortal world are affected." "Even though the mortal world belongs to the Divine Lord of Stars right now, I don't think there's anything wrong with how she governs. She genuinely wants to unite the five nations, guiding their exchange through low-intensity free competition, and she's doing it well." "She may be our enemy, but the mortal world is our mortal world too." Yaxiu bit down on the cake fork. "If we win, we can steal her world. If we lose... nothing will matter anymore." "You're going to challenge the Supreme Divine Lord of Stars?" Felix asked suddenly. "Yeah." Yaxiu looked at her and blinked. "Once our two-month vacation is over, we'll go to Heaven and make trouble for the Divine Lord of Stars!" They held each other's gaze for a moment, then Felix looked away. "I'll pray for you." "Just remember not to pray to the Four Pillar Gods." Yaxiu laughed. He didn't mind at all letting his plan slip to Daidalos and Felix—after all... they would never go challenge the Divine Lord of Stars. Looking at these teammates who had followed him through countless brushes with death, the companions who always believed in him, the lovers who knew him through and through and loved him, Yaxiu was suddenly flooded with a fierce sense of shame and exhaustion. He drew a deep breath and said seriously, "There's one last thing." "I keep thinking maybe we should wait until things settle down before discussing it. But if we can defeat the Divine Lord of Stars in the future, then there shouldn't be any enemy left in this world capable of threatening us, so it should be fine to bring it up now." "What's so mysterious about it?" Sonia asked curiously. "It's about our relationships." Yaxiu clapped his hands lightly. "It's time we settled them." Everyone froze, and then a storm broke loose in their hearts. They all rose to their feet on instinct, as if to stop Yaxiu from going on. How dare you bring this up now!? Aren't you afraid the team will fall apart! We're all holding the big picture together, and you still dare flip the table! Are you starting another war! Whether it was Vichy, who cared least about the matter, or Sonia, who cared most, they all knew this was absolutely not the time to discuss feelings. Only by staying united did they stand a chance against the Supreme Divine Lord of Stars, peerless in all of history. It was this vague, muddled relationship that barely held them together; the moment Yaxiu pierced that bubble, they might not even manage to remain surface-level comrades! Once everything was over, they would never have let Yaxiu leave this tangled relationship unresolved—but how could he bring it up now? Didn't he know that whatever proposal he made, someone would surely be dissatisfied, someone would surely be wronged? Or was it that he had really found... the miracle that made everyone happy? "I have a dream." Yaxiu's voice drifted. "To form an adventuring party with a few like-minded close friends, set out on a journey into the unknown, live through epic stories, and then retire and get married before thirty-five, and live out my days in the countryside." He looked tenderly at the operators. "And along the way, I hope I can meet a beautiful, sexy lover; a virtuous, considerate wife; a soulmate who truly knows me; and a bright, adorable girlfriend." Hmph. At least you have a conscience. It really is me! Looks like I win in the end. No way, is it really me? The looks Sonia, Diya, Weise, and Vichy gave Yaxiu softened, and they couldn't help shooting the others a pitying glance, bracing themselves for the quarrel to come. "And then, if they'd be willing to pretend not to know each other and live in different places, that would be even better." The operators froze and turned to look at Yaxiu, whose face was full of expectation. After a moment of silence, an expressionless Sonia and a puffed-up Diya walked toward him, while Weise and Vichy looked away. Daidalos clamped a hand hard over Felix's mouth, not letting a single trace of her laughter escape. A while later, Sonia and Diya clapped their hands and returned to their seats. Yaxiu was hanging from the wall. "If you don't agree, you could just say you don't agree..." he said plaintively. They hadn't expected that although Yaxiu couldn't satisfy everyone, he could leave everyone dissatisfied—this plan was worse than just gathering them all into a harem! If it were only a harem, Sonia would be the one firmly opposed while the others were half-reluctantly willing; but with the separate-palaces plan, even Vichy, who cared least, thought it was too absurd. Because there was only one Yaxiu. Say his time was 100: under the harem plan, each person would take 10, with 60 shared, so in theory everyone had 70, and how much they could actually fight for depended on their own ability. Under the separate-palace plan, each person would get only 25, and it could never increase. More importantly, the harem plan was proactive on both sides: since they'd all be together all day, even if Yaxiu didn't come to them, they could dig this trash can up and keep an eye on him at all times. But under the separate-palace plan, they'd have to wait obediently for Yaxiu to grant them his favor—who would want that! Still, after all the fuss Yaxiu had stirred up, the pressure the Supreme Divine Lord of Stars had put on them had eased considerably. Whenever they thought of her now, they thought of how, after winning the final battle, Yaxiu had actually meant to use this kind of plan to settle their feelings, and their worry about her turned into irritation at him. "Since Igola and Harvey aren't in Hell anymore, are we still going to Blood Moon?" Sonia suddenly remembered. According to the original plan, the next stop was Blood Moon, to gather traces of the secret poison and enter Hell for the fourth time. But since both of them had been spirited away to Heaven by the God-Leader, would there still be any traces of the secret poison? And if there were, would they point to Heaven or to Hell? Yaxiu peeled himself off the wall and thought for a moment. "Do you want to go to Blood Moon for a trip?" "Yes!" everyone said in unison, Felix included. "I want to see Shattered Lake Prison, where Yaxiu was held." "I want to watch a live broadcast of the Blood Moon Trial!" "I heard Blood Moon's entertainment industry is the best of the six nations." "Blood Moon is the nation that has preserved racial diversity best. I want to see if there are any rare species." Yaxiu scratched his head. "Then let's go. I don't know Blood Moon well myself, but for a vacation it's probably a pretty good place." "And we can see whether it's suitable for settling down," Sonia said. "We'll need somewhere to cultivate after the vacation, won't we?" Diya's eyes lit up. She was just about to speak when Yaxiu's voice came from behind her. "Wouldn't settling in the Divine Lord of Stars' domain be just as good?" Diya froze, forced down the urge to turn and look, and listened blankly to them talk. He forgot? "But under the Divine Lord of Stars' very nose, wouldn't that be too risky?" "If it's for the convenience of your cultivation, settling in Senluo isn't bad either. You can run wild however you like without affecting the environment." "Why not stop by Paradise and the Abyss while we're at it? I hear the environments of those two nations are quite interesting." "Or we could just go back to Gospel—no need to consider anything, just live in the palace." Yaxiu patted Diya on the head and asked, "Witch, where do you think would be best to settle?" "I..." The Witch lowered her eyes. "Anywhere is fine. I don't have any particular preference." He forgot. Sonia and the others found it a little strange that the Witch was being so docile today, but they didn't think much of it and began planning the coming itinerary and where they might settle. Diya turned and went to the washroom, her expression entirely normal, but streaks of other colors gradually appeared at the tips of her hair. He really forgot. He actually really forgot. He promised me, up on the high tower. How could he forget even our promise... "He hasn't forgotten. He simply doesn't care about you." Diya jerked her head up and looked at the black-haired girl in the mirror. The face was exactly the same, yet Diya felt an enormous sense of strangeness, as though the thing in the mirror were only a monster wearing her skin. Soon, though, the strangeness faded little by little. Diya felt herself growing closer and closer to the self in the mirror, more and more alike, until she saw... The black-haired girl in the mirror broke into an exaggerated smile, the corners of her mouth stretching wider and wider.