Red Apostle

There was nowhere left to run; step by step, the Black Knight closed in. Lisi was completely out of options. Paying no heed to being discovered by the Black Knight, she hurriedly pulled the small mirror from her bosom and engaged in rapid mental communication with her elder sisters: "I'm sorry. I messed up." "It's all right," White Queen comforted her instead. "The other party was already predisposed to believe you are Lisdia; confirming your identity was only a matter of time. You've already done very well, Lisi." Lisi: "But what do we do now? We're going to be taken away." Silence fell over the mirror for a moment. Then White Queen suddenly asked, "Lisi, do you blame us for keeping secrets from you?" Lisi: "What do you mean?" Diya: "Do you blame us for hiding the fact that you're a sorcery spirit?" Lisi tilted her head. "A little, I guess. But no matter what I am, aren't I still your favorite little sister?" White Queen: "That goes without saying—as long as you don't make me angry." Red Apostle: "Besides, as long as we are still here, you never needed to know you were a sorcery spirit, Lisi." Lisi was a very sharp child. "Sister Red, what do you mean by that? Are you saying you won't be around anymore?" Red Apostle did not answer Lisi's question. "Lisi, listen to White more often from now on. Black, don't bottle things up inside when something is bothering you. White, don't try to think through everything on your own; trust others more. Diya, you must hold onto yourself." Lisi: "Sister Red, what are you talking about?!" Black Butler, who had remained silent all this while, suddenly spoke up: "Let me do it instead. Red, you're more useful than me." Red Apostle: "No, Black, you're more useful than I am. I can no longer be of any help in the Void Realm. I was born for battle in the first place, and now that Diya can fight on her own and has comrades she can trust, my continued existence will only be a burden to her." Diya: "How could that be! I... Sister Red, you're my sister, not some combat booster, and you'd never be a burden to me!" Lisi nearly crushed the mirror in her grip. "What on earth are you all talking about?! Why don't I understand anything?!" "The Bronze Dragon's trial erased our past in reality and sealed our sorcery power in reality; that's why Annan never suspected us," White Queen said in a low voice. "Without sorcery power, we naturally cannot activate sorcery spirits, so we have no power to resist in reality and can only rely on the protection of others. "Yet there is an exception to everything—if a sorcery spirit takes effect of its own volition, it doesn't need to consume sorcery power." Lisi faintly understood something, but she still clung to hope: "So Sister Red is going to beat this bad guy up and come back?" Red Apostle: "I won't be coming back." "Why?!" "Lisi, do you know what kind of sorcery spirits we are?" "Elder sister sorcery spirits, little sister sorcery spirits, cute sorcery spirits?" "No. We are all derived sorcery spirits from the Mask sorcery spirit," Red Apostle said. "I am the Red Apostle Mask, she is the White Queen Mask, and you are the Little Witch Mask. "When used on ourselves, we can naturally switch at will and use them permanently. But to use one on someone else means I must enter their soul in order to put the Red Apostle Mask on them." Lisi: "So... Sister Red, you're going to take over this bad guy's body?!" "I can't take it over," Red Apostle shook her head. "A mask is, in the end, only a mask." "Then what will you do?" "Simple: make it so that when it removes the mask, it rips off its own face along with it. I will actively merge into its soul to disrupt it, throw its memories into chaos, and shred its worldview. By the time it manages to tear me off completely, it might not even remember who it is." A chill crept into Lisi's heart. "Then Sister Red... what about you?" "The only way to forcefully remove the mask is to destroy the sorcery spirit," Red Apostle said. "No!" Lisi immediately cried out. "I don't want Sister Red to die! We... that's right, there's still Dad, Annan, Aunt Bogin, Uncle Harvey, Sister Qinna—they'll save us! Sister Red doesn't need to die!" "The white mist cleared so long ago, and we've been running for so long," Black Butler said suddenly. "Who has come to save us?" The image in the mirror froze. "They would save Annan, save Banjie, save Yaxiu, save Igola, even save Harvey—but no one will save us. Annan and Banjie are master and servant, Yaxiu and the other two are companions, but we are outsiders whom no one cares about. "In ordinary times it might not matter, but when danger strikes, the weight of life becomes clear," Black Butler said. "Besides, they couldn't save us even if they tried. Just now, this Black Knight said it itself—it's a Secret Guard. Diya, you still remember that name, don't you?" Diya: "I heard it once in a bedtime story. The Secret Guards are the royal family's sharpest blade, the representatives of Isu. They can freely mobilize the royal family's Gospel points and possess the authority to pray for forbidden miracles... A Secret Guard can even be regarded as a Legendary Sorcerer." Black Butler: "If I'm not mistaken, the white mist of Fanmula was probably dispersed by it spending points. It wasn't even getting serious just now; it was only playing cat-and-mouse with Lisi. Even if someone came to rescue us, who could defeat a Legendary Sorcerer in head-on combat? And who would dare offend a Secret Guard of the Isu royal family?" Lisi: "So all we can do is let Sister Red throw her life away? I don't want that!" "So... why don't we go back?" Black Butler murmured, "As long as we surrender without resistance, Red won't have to sacrifice herself. As long as we go back, we won't have to keep running. White, Red, Lisi, Diya..." By the end, a note of pleading crept into her voice. Diya did not answer. "We can never go back." Red Apostle firmly and unequivocally rejected Black Butler's suggestion. "What the Witch needs is Lisdia—not Red Apostle, not Black Butler, not White Queen, not Secret Princess, and certainly not Little Witch. Even if we obediently return to the high tower, the Witch will purge every single one of us all the same. She will never allow us to continue existing and obstructing the 'true Lisdia' from donning the armor and achieving sainthood. Everyone will die, without exception. "Whether one dies or five die is a math problem even I can solve, Black." "But the problem is that it might not end with just one!" Black Butler roared. "If meeting a Secret Guard this time means sacrificing Red, then whom do we sacrifice when we meet a second Secret Guard? Me? And what about the third time? The fourth time? Will it only end when Diya is the only one left alive?!" White Queen: "Black..." "There are still three months until the Weaving Ceremony ends. As long as we behave obediently, the Witch would probably let us live for three months," Black Butler pleaded. "Diya, are you really going to watch with your own eyes as everyone dies one by one? Can't you let us live out these three months in peace? Do you know what Red likes to eat? Do you know where Red wants to go? Do you know that Red actually loves listening to music?" Diya did not answer. "Stop embarrassing yourself, Black," Red Apostle said. "Don't make it sound like I'm clinging desperately to life. I am the Red Apostle; that's the name I gave myself. "Lisi, without other sorcery spirits to assist me, I can only activate through contact. In a moment, all you need to do is touch the Secret Guard with your hand." Lisi almost wanted to hide her hands away. "I won't!" "Don't be so willful. You're an adult now." "I'm not an adult! I'm the Little Witch! And how is this any different from killing you with my own hands, Sister Red? Absolutely not!" "Diya!" Black Butler's shriek nearly pierced the mirror, but immediately dissolved into a tearful plea: "I beg of you..." White Queen: "Black, don't do this. The person suffering the most here isn't you; it's Diya." Diya still did not answer. No matter how swift mental communication was, it still took time, and the Black Knight had already reached them. Substitute spread its arms wide in front of Lisi, as if seeking to repay Lisi for saving its life moments ago. "No..." *Pop.* With a gentle wave of the Black Knight's hand, the bubble burst. Lisi lifted her head, forced to face this cruel nightmare at close range. "Lisi, look at me." Subconsciously, Lisi glanced at the mirror, and then her mask was removed. Black Butler roared, "Diya!" White Queen: "Diya..." Little Witch: "Sister Diya!" Their cries came to an abrupt halt. *Patter, patter.* Her tear ducts worked more fiercely to cleanse her eyes than at the moment of her birth. Her teeth dug deep into her lip like sinking a well. Heavy tear drops and thick beads of blood fell one after another onto the mirror's surface, forming a fresh coating that obscured the faces of her sisters, reflecting only a girl sobbing uncontrollably. "Diya, you're the strongest among us. Things will be hard on you from now on." Diya haphazardly wiped away her tears. Lifting her head, she saw the Black Knight's outstretched hand. Forcing down the retching in her stomach, she raised her hand and reached out— *Buzz!—* Suddenly, a screech rang out from the ceiling. Diya's mind froze from the piercing sound, and the unprepared Black Knight paused as well. Right at that moment, an inverted Sword Body Barrier suddenly emerged from the ceiling above the Black Knight, carving out a slab of the ceiling that plummeted straight down! *Crash!* Diya stared blankly as the Black Knight took a direct hit from the ceiling bearing the Sword Body Barrier. Amidst the billowing dust and debris, falling along with the ceiling was a high-quality human father clad in a dark red trench coat. "Hm?" Seeing the little hand Diya had reached out toward him, Yaxiu subconsciously reached out and took hold of it.