So fast.
Pedestrians dashed past on both sides, neon signs streaking into ribbons of light as the whistling wind pressed against them. Lisi clung to Yaxiu's shoulder like a little girl holding a plush toy.
The speed was incredible, almost like falling.
Lisi had not actually thought anything through. She had only realized she needed a chance to be alone with Yaxiu, which was why she ordered him to carry her away. But the moment Yaxiu lifted her up, her mind went completely blank, her mood bubbling with delight like a freshly popped soda—a child fond of relying on adults always felt bold, even when causing trouble.
When they finally stopped, she heard Yaxiu say, "Two cones... Oh, great! Lisi, take yours quick!"
Lisi turned her head and found they had run up to an ice cream shop. The clerk had already prepared an original cone and a monster cone piled with original milk, cantaloupe, chocolate, vanilla, and pineapple. She carefully took the loaded cone and nibbled only at the chocolate scoop.
"Do you want to walk on your own?" Yaxiu said, accepting his plain cone. "Honestly, you're not exactly light..."
"No! I walked all day at the theme park, I'm exhausted!"
"All right, then."
Lisi tasted the sweetness of the chocolate scoop, but her spirits quickly sank again—Yaxiu was only being this sweet to her because he planned to send her away.
At any other time, even if he did not refuse, he would at most summon a Substitute to carry her.
Yaxiu did not go far, making his way toward a nearby underground river. Plenty of ordinary citizens were strolling around without any disguises, likely locals who had grown up here. Perhaps they rarely saw the open sky more than a few times a year, but it hardly mattered; not everyone needed to live in the light.
Yaxiu and Lisi sat on a bench facing the subterranean river, eating their cones. Although a river in an underground city sounded like a sewer, this one had no foul odor, not even a fishy smell, and the breeze was so crisp and refreshing it felt like a massage for the nose. While there was no night sky, the phosphorescent fungus coating the ceiling served as an adequate substitute. Glistening luminescence flowed endlessly across the water, the rippling waves reflecting the city as it slowly quieted down, as if everyone's dreams were drifting within the current.
Lisi had originally waited for Yaxiu to speak first, but he kept staring blankly into space, making it difficult for her to break the silence.
Still, they had long since reached the point where they could sit together comfortably without saying a word. While Yaxiu had that kind of relationship with almost everyone, Lisi only felt this natural around him. She pulled her legs up onto the bench, curling up and looking down into her hand mirror.
Her sisters had already been badgering her for a while.
Black Butler: "Would acting cute work? Xiu looks like he's easy to deal with..."
White Queen: "He's innocent, not stupid. Acting cute might make him indulge us in other things, but it will never shake his resolve on crucial matters."
Black Butler: "If we try hard enough, maybe there'll be a miracle. Let me try..."
White Queen: "Forget you; it wouldn't work even if I went. Besides, acting cute is just playing weak to please someone. It's like ice cream... Ah, my vanilla is melting... Usually ice cream can melt his heart, but when facing danger, his first instinct is to protect the ice cream! The more we act cute and play weak, the less he'll let us stay!"
Red Apostle: "Then let's be tough! Let me do it. I'll grab him by the collar and say, 'If you dare leave me behind, I'll hate you forever!'"
White Queen: "Isn't that just acting cute anyway?!"
Diya: "We won't be able to win Yaxiu over. Why not change our angle and target Banjie instead? Banjie definitely doesn't want to watch Annan walk into danger. If we can convince him to go back before the final day, no matter how reluctant Yaxiu and Annan are, they'll have to accept it..."
White Queen: "Wouldn't that make Xiao Xiu angry?"
Red Apostle: "Right, right."
Black Butler: "Besides, Annan could easily order us to stay behind in the underground city. We still wouldn't be able to join the operation."
Diya: "Ugh..."
While the sisters debated and ate their ice cream, Lisi finally could not help voicing her doubt: "Actually, why do we have to follow along on this mission? It's clearly so dangerous. Shouldn't we be trying to find a way to keep Daddy from going instead?"
The discussion abruptly stopped. After a brief silence, Diya finally replied, "Come to think of it, we never told you, Little Witch, why we must take part in the Weaving Ceremony, or why we want the divine wish."
"Because those are stories from before you were 'born'."
...
A long time ago, there were two baby girls. The very first second they opened their eyes inside their culture tanks, they saw each other. There was no need to cultivate their bond; the moment they were separated, they cried, and the moment they held hands, they quieted down. Every smile and frown was identical, their appearances completely mirrored, as close as the last two little monsters of an extinct species.
Originally, there had been many children like them, but the vast majority never had the chance to be born, because the two were already so exceptional that no spares were needed. At the age of three, they firmly etched each other's names into their minds: Lisdia and Niconalu.
On a peaceful afternoon, while they were chasing and playing in the garden as usual, a court maid came over and told them she was taking them to new rooms. And so, in their innocent confusion, they were parted, torn as crisply as a sheet of white paper.
From then on, they never met again.
Lisdia was locked away in a high tower on an island in the middle of a lake, while Niconalu was imprisoned in the imperial palace's most hidden dungeon.
There had been crying, resistance, and tantrums, but the maid caring for Lisdia was the grandmother who loved her most. Thus, no matter what, Lisdia remained obedient, eating her meals and going to sleep. Furthermore, she was inherently a gentle, docile child; when the maid told her that Princess Nina was living well, she harbored no doubts. She would only stand before the window, trying to gaze at the distant garden to see if there was any sign of Nina.
Perhaps monotonous days simply passed quickly, or perhaps it was the power of miracles, but Lisdia soon grew into a graceful princess. Yet to her, parting from Nina felt as if it had happened only yesterday.
It was not until she hid outside the door and overheard the maid's conversation with the Emperor—not until she stayed awake at night and learned the truth of Armored Sanctification through Grandmother's muttering—that the 'Mask' sorcery spirit was born in her heart. Only then did she thoroughly bid farewell to the past and become a Void Realm sorcerer.
Later, when she met the Bronze Dragon on the Time Continent, she did not hesitate to undergo its trial, all for the sake of obtaining a chance to escape the high tower.
...
Lisi: "Why was Sister Nina imprisoned in a dungeon? That sounds so pitiful... But Sister Diya, being locked in a high tower is pitiful too. Luckily, the moment I was born, I met Daddy."
Diya: "Because Armored Sanctification is tied to two lists. One is naturally the Gospel List, and the other is the one you heard about a few days ago... the List of the Unconnected."
"The Isu royal family's Armored Sanctification is actually using the power of the lists to obtain a god."
When Diya had previously explained it to Watcher and Sword Princess, her description had not been wrong; she had merely hidden the most crucial component. After all, this was not just her secret, but an unspeakable pain and hatred.
"As long as someone takes first place on the Gospel List, they gain the qualification to wield the god 'Gospel,' and can even become the Gospel Incarnation. Even if they cannot unleash a hundred percent of 'Gospel's' power, it is already enough to dominate mortals and reverse any situation. That is why every dynasty rebelling against the First Gospel meets with ruin, while dynasties backed by the First Gospel endure."
"And the secret to taking first place on the Gospel List, aside from disposition, lies most importantly in appearance: every Yisu Empress throughout history has looked completely identical to us. In the past, we never understood why. But after seeing the initial Gospel Incarnation on the Time Continent, I realized they were probably exploiting a loophole in the Gospel List—the closer someone looks to the initial Gospel, the easier it is for them to be chosen as the First Gospel."
"Even so, that alone is not enough, because a mortal body cannot wield a god..."
White Queen suddenly interjected, "Let me tell the rest."
"No, only I can say it," Diya insisted. "I must be the one to say it, because this is my... original sin."
"A mortal body cannot wield a god. Every minute and every second, the god corrodes the incarnation's soul. That is why past First Gospels often had lifespans of only ten years, which was also the reason many dynasties ultimately collapsed—forty years is enough for a dynasty to turn from prosperity to decline. If one wishes to establish an eternal kingdom, one must ensure that the First Gospel can hold power for at least fifty years, bridging the gap between two Weaving Ceremonies."
"And then, our ancestors came up with an utterly brilliant idea."
"If the lifespan falls short, why not just add more to it? Not just lifespan, but every other aspect of destiny."
Lisi recalled the characteristics of the List of the Unconnected at once: "So Sister Nina was imprisoned so she would enter the List of the Unconnected, transferring her lifespan and everything else to us?"
Diya: "Exactly."
Lisi: "But one plus one is still only two! If we can only live for ten years after wielding the god 'Gospel', then even adding Sister Nina's lifespan, that's still only twenty years!"
Chapter 451