Dead Frenzy and the others were already the Four Pillar Gods?
Yaxiu asked blankly, "You're all... feelers of the Four Pillar Gods?"
"I stole the Tyrant's power, Mirror Demon stole the Treacherous Chancellor's intellect, Black Demon stole the Loving Father's life, and Nether Demon stole the Prince's desire," Dead Frenzy said faintly. "Don't get the wrong idea. We have no interest in the authority of the Four Pillar Gods. What matters is that, using them as mediums, we can reclaim our true power.
"The sublime sorcery might gathered across countless world lines, having buried countless civilizations and witnessed countless ends.
"All we need now is a vessel, and we will be able to display the full strength of our prime in this world."
"Even in your prime, weren't you still no match for the World-Swallowing Serpent?" Yaxiu said. "Even if you reclaim your lost strength, how much time can you really buy for this world?"
"Eternity."
Dead Frenzy stubbed out her cigarette butt, looking at Yaxiu with utter seriousness. "We might have a chance to slay Ouroboros once and for all.
"There were two reasons we couldn't defeat Ouroboros before. First, in terms of absolute strength, even as sorcery supremes infinitely approaching the theoretical limit, we still couldn't compare to an eight-winged existence. Second, we could never truly engage the real Ouroboros. No matter how many times we won, the serpent could always stage a comeback."
"The real Ouroboros?"
"Ouroboros is a transdimensional creature. It exists outside the world, while we are inside it. Only when it devours a world can we ever cross paths with it. That means no matter how hard we try, we can only see a single facet of it, or at best attack its digestive system.
"It's not as if we've never destroyed its digestive system before. But as long as its true body remains out of reach, its return is only a matter of time."
Yaxiu raised a question. "If you've destroyed its digestive system once, couldn't you just keep killing it back each time?"
"Setting aside the fact that the price we paid back then nearly exhausted the resources of an entire world line," Dead Frenzy said helplessly, "the crucial point is that Ouroboros isn't an idiot. Once it realized it couldn't swallow that bone, it went off to devour other world lines first, intending to return for revenge after growing even stronger."
*It actually grinds levels? That Serpent of the End is way too underhanded!*
"Because of those two reasons, we've done nothing but flee. If we can't solve both issues, all hope is merely despair," Dead Frenzy said. "Yet now, one of those problems has already been resolved."
Yaxiu started, then realization dawned on him. "Ouroboros didn't choose to digest Hell—it crushed Hell directly, burrowing into the world through the breach... Its true body forced its way in?!"
"Exactly." Dead Frenzy smiled faintly. It was the first smile she had shown since appearing, but there was not a trace of joy in it, only deep vicissitudes and exhaustion, like an isolated fortress besieged for ten thousand years that had finally seen relief troops arrive.
"This is a situation we have never encountered before. Its true body has burrowed into the Six Hells, meaning we can finally strike at Ouroboros itself. It feels as if fate deliberately allowed a sliver of hope to leak through... This might be the sorcerer civilization's only chance."
"Can you really defeat the World-Swallowing Serpent's true body?" Yaxiu hesitated. "You could barely contend with its digestive system. No matter how one looks at it, its true body must be vastly stronger than its digestive system... I caught a distant glimpse of it in Hell. It's an eight-winged creature far transcending a sorcery supreme."
"We can't," Dead Frenzy said. "Not alone. But with all of you, it might be a different story."
"Us?"
"We gave you *Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook*. You probably thought its most important features were the team-up or search functions, but no matter how fast you grow, could you possibly become stronger than us, who have traversed countless world lines?" Dead Frenzy said calmly. "What you possess is a kind of potential—a possibility we could never have, no matter what."
Yaxiu murmured, "Bonds."
"Correct. The greatest purpose of *Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook* was to introduce you to one another and cultivate your bonds." Dead Frenzy sighed. "The bond system is the ultimate secret technique the Observer created after reading eight million Sorcerer Handbooks and combining them with the power of the Fifth Pillar God's thoughts.
"One sorcery supreme can't beat it, and five sorcery supremes can't beat it either. But if the virtual wings, knowledge, and sorcery realms of five sorcery supremes were stacked onto a single person, might it be possible to temporarily shatter the shackles of this world's upper limit and touch the eight-winged ultimate?
"The bond system, however, has an almost disastrous flaw... That is, only when both parties are each other's 'most beloved' can they establish a Level 5 bond capable of sharing everything. Otherwise, all bets are off."
Yaxiu pointed out, "Right now, only Sonia and I have a Level 5 bond..."
"And she's the only one you could possibly have a Level 5 bond with," Dead Frenzy said. "Even if you can borrow the others' virtual wings occasionally, it's meaningless, because the prerequisite for a Level 5 bond is 'most beloved.' If someone is your most beloved, it has to be singular and unique. Still, breaking past that restriction isn't entirely impossible."
Curious, Yaxiu asked, "What's the possibility?"
"If you had an extremely important treasure that you needed someone to keep safe, who would be your first instinct to give it to among the four of them?"
Dead Frenzy said, "Whenever your first instinct becomes 'any of them,' then perhaps you'll have a Level 5 bond with all of them... Though what's far more likely is that you'll all drop back to Level 4 bonds."
Yaxiu nodded. After pondering for a moment, he couldn't resist asking, "With so much time across world lines, couldn't you have fallen in love and forged bonds—"
Dead Frenzy countered, "If Sonia had never met you, who do you think would be her most beloved?"
Yaxiu immediately realized the biggest hurdle and sighed. "Herself."
Even if the Doomsday Quintet were to fall in love with someone, their most beloved could only ever be themselves. It was utterly impossible for them to value anyone else above their own selves.
"We didn't place much hope in you at the beginning," Dead Frenzy said. "Our highest expectation was merely that you might forge Level 4 bonds, and then we'd find a way to improve upon it. After all, considering how utterly incompatible the five of us are, the fact that you could even unite together is an unimaginable miracle.
"Who could have predicted that you'd actually become lovers with every single one of them... Where on earth did things go wrong...?"
Yaxiu scratched his head in embarrassment. "I'm not really that amazing..."
"Do you think I was praising you?!"
"Still, when we advanced to demigod, didn't you temporarily boost our bonds to Level 5?" Yaxiu asked, somewhat puzzled. "I assumed you already possessed a mature bond-sharing system."
"That was merely a 'pseudo-Level 5' that we could manage," Dead Frenzy said. "Didn't you notice that your Level 5 bond back then could only share virtual wings? But look at you and Sonia now. Not only can you share virtual wings, sorcery spirits, and wonders, even Sonia's sorcery realm can perfectly integrate into you. *That* is the 'true Level 5' we were striving for.
"With the Level 5 bond between you and Sonia as a template, we can now temporarily elevate your bonds with the others to Level 5 as well. Through your bond connections, we will finally have a chance to unify everyone's power, break through the limits of sorcery supreme, and reach Ouroboros's ultimate realm."
"Which means..."
Yaxiu exhaled slowly. "Now that the seed you planted has grown into sweet fruit, you want to replace us and take back your own future?"
Dead Frenzy watched Yaxiu as she leisurely tapped a cigarette out of her pack, placing it between her lips without lighting it.
...
"Yaxiu, have you ever been to an erotic tea café before?!"
Sonia and the others pushed open the door to Yaxiu's room and filed in. Diya wrapped her arms around Yaxiu and hit him with the lethal question, to which Yaxiu delivered a swift triple denial: "I haven't, that's not me, I've never even heard of it!"
"Then let's go hang out at a tea café later!" Diya opened a travel brochure. "Escape rooms, murder mystery games, the Apocalypse of Gambling and Lust... We can book the whole place so it's just us playing!"
"Actually, you don't need to go to a tea café to play those games, right...?"
"A tea café mixes in super fun, naughty interactive segments during the games, though."
"Well, if it's for sightseeing, I guess there's no helping it!"
"Hold on, hold on," Sonia cut in. "Isn't sightseeing supposed to be about checking out the local cultural trends? Let's go browse the mall before dinner!"
"If we're talking about culture, shouldn't we go to a library?" Weise suggested. "Xifulin mentioned that the church library holds rare classics from the previous era."
"Boring. I only want to see rivers of blood." Vichy leaned lazily on her hand, resting her cheek. "The only thing remotely interesting here is the Blood Moon Trial."
Felix piped up timidly, "I heard this hotel's massage service is pretty good..."
Daedalose helped adjust the room's temperature settings.
Watching his teammates slip entirely into vacation mode, Yaxiu felt a slight daze, his conversation with Dead Frenzy echoing in his mind:
*"We don't have to replace them. If you enter Hell and surrender your heart to us completely, we can use your bonds to concentrate the power of sorcery supreme onto you alone."*
*"In the end, I still have to pay with all of my heart? I can't keep even the last piece of it?"*
*"It has nothing to do with how many times you've traded before. Even if you'd never traded once, reaching this step would still require you to surrender your entire heart... Only then can we demon kings, who are only capable of loving ourselves, borrow your bond connections to contribute everything we have."*
*"So this world and everyone else gets to survive, and only I have to die?"*
*"More than just dying. Hell has been thoroughly erased now. Once you enter Hell, your very existence will vanish alongside it. No one will remember you—including them... That's why you must trade your last piece of heart before entering Hell, so that we can lock in your bond connections."*
*"The good news is that after this trade, I won't forget anyone. The bad news is that once the trade is done, it's my turn to be forgotten?"*
*"Nicely summarized. Do you want me to award you a little red flower?"*
*"And after slaying the World-Swallowing Serpent...?"*
*"By then, your body will probably be broken anyway. We will leave this world line, and after that... I don't know where we'll go either. All I can promise is that we won't interfere with this world anymore, nor will we touch the people you care about."*
*"Only Big Sister Dead Frenzy could make a promise like that and have me believe it (wry smile)."*
*"Piss off... We won't force you. You can go whenever you want, or not go at all. We will descend sooner or later anyway. The only thing you can change is everyone else's ending."*
*"The only ending I can't change... is my own?"*
"Yaxiu, let's go."
Having finally finished discussing today's itinerary, Sonia came over to summon the daydreaming Yaxiu, naturally taking his hand.
Pulled out the door by the red-haired Sword Princess, an irresistible urge suddenly welled up in Yaxiu's heart. He wrapped his arms around her tightly from behind, nuzzling against the Sword Princess's cheek with deep attachment.
With everyone watching, Sonia blushed slightly. She wasn't usually the type to flaunt affection in public. Turning her head, she planted a gentle peck on Yaxiu's cheek and murmured, "Be good, stop messing around."
"I love you."
Sonia blinked. Diya wore a sour, lemon-sucking expression. Weise furrowed her brows, Vichy narrowed her eyes, and Felix cupped her hands anxiously. Aside from Lisi Diya, everyone vaguely sensed something off about Yaxiu—
"And everyone else, too."
*Oh, never mind. Yaxiu's completely fine.*
Sonia spun around, wrestled Yaxiu to the floor, and dragged him back into the room, snapping irritably, "You just couldn't wait until tonight, could you? Fine, let's settle accounts right now!"
After Vichy and Weise stepped inside, Weise suddenly reached out and shoved Diya back out, saying, "Witch, you came in dead last in cards earlier. You're not allowed to attend this Developer Conference." Then she slammed the door shut with a snap, leaving behind a bewildered Witch and a rueful Second Young Lady of Vosloda.
"Wait! Did you mean *that* kind of settling accounts?! No, wait, didn't we stop halfway through playing?! I wasn't in last place! Open the door and let me in!"
Chapter 1259