At Deep Forest Manor, Claire watched Felix lead Sonia, Diya, and Daidalos to a second-floor bedroom.
"Incessant," the Catastrophe Messenger suddenly asked, "she should be the 'Princess,' right?"
Before Trozan could answer, Claire answered her own question: "That's right, she must be the 'Princess.' How could someone with that appearance be the 'Queen'? Hmm, she must be the Observer's younger sister—she went so far as to cross kingdoms to find her brother, and the Observer gives her absolute trust, which is why he's willing to discuss power with her..."
"Hmm, it must be. What else could it be?"
Just then, from deep on the second floor, a voice cried out, weeping with joy: "Yaxiu—"
Immediately after came the Sword Seat's furious voice: "Get off him this instant! No touching! No nuzzling!"
The door slammed shut with a bang, and no more sounds could come from inside.
Trozan looked at Claire, who stood frozen beside her, and said calmly, "I don't think the 'Queen' would be so wary of the 'Princess,' nor would the 'Princess' touch and nuzzle a long-lost 'King' like that..."
"Woo..." Claire looked up and heaved a long sigh. "I'm never believing in love again."
...
"Daddy—waaah, Daddy, move a little! How am I supposed to live without Daddy—"
"Lisi, act normal."
"Can we turn him sideways? I want to spank him—he knew we were coming, yet he still had to pull something like this."
"Seconded. Additional suggestion: strip him naked."
"No hitting Daddy!"
In the villa bedroom, Daidalos and Felix watched the white-haired little girl sitting in the lap of the unconscious Yaxiu, now acting spoiled, now wailing loudly, now saying things no good child should hear like a bratty little girl.
Perhaps the Sword Princess had a soft heart, or perhaps the Witch's threat—'I'll take Yaxiu and run right now'—had been too effective. Either way, the Witch still obtained temporary use of Yaxiu.
After acting spoiled for a while, the white-haired little girl finally quieted and buried her head against Yaxiu's chest. Her fingers moved slightly, and Yaxiu's hands rose to hold her tightly, as if the Observer of the End had awakened.
But everyone present was a sorcerer, so they could naturally see the transparent threads extending from the little girl's fingers, reaching precisely into Yaxiu's joints and manipulating his movements like a puppet.
Seeing this, the Chaos Diva and the Villainous Duke formed their first impression of this wild Queen: controlling a puppet and controlling a human body were completely different concepts. A puppet's joints were simple, but the human body had complex muscles for exerting force and countless nerves. If controlling a puppet was like wooing a virtual pretty-girl character, then controlling a human body was as difficult as wooing a real beautiful girl.
Of course, there were shortcuts, but without exception they would violently destroy the body's structure. Yet while the white-haired little girl made Yaxiu perform complex movements, she did not damage his body in the slightest. This technique of exerting force, exquisite to the highest degree... she was at least a Fist-and-Claw Sanctuary who had completely deconstructed the human body!
But beyond her strength, what appalled the two followers of the Four Pillar Gods even more was her character—
Yaxiu was unconscious and couldn't wake, yet just to get a hug from him, she was willing to use threads to control his body and obtain a hollow warmth!
A normal person would never even think of such a thing, let alone do it!
And now, when Yaxiu couldn't move, the Witch still had to force it. If Yaxiu woke up, neither of them dared imagine what the Witch would demand from him.
Ruthless in her methods, deep in her desires, never willing to compromise, and possessing the bold resolve to cross alone from Gospel into Starry...
Someone who combined all these qualities—even if she looked like nothing more than a white-haired little girl—was absolutely an inhuman monster standing above the social food chain, especially since she herself was also a Legendary sorcerer!
But someone nearby couldn't stand it anymore.
"Disgusting." Sonia said coldly. "What's the difference between what you're doing and molesting someone while they're asleep?"
"Are you trying to say you've never done it?" Diya tilted her head slightly and glanced at the village girl.
"Of course not!" Sonia said with perfect confidence. Daidalos and Felix simultaneously turned their heads away.
They actually shouldn't have been here; they should have been outside waiting for the two Queens to calm down. However, both the Sword Princess and the Witch retained some reason. If there truly had been no outsiders, they might have started fighting, and besides, Diya had something to tell the others who also possessed Command Seals.
"How about I ask the Gospel?"
Diya sneered, "Although I only arrived in Starry at six in the evening, the Gospel can at most know information from after six. It's midnight now. If you haven't done anything like that in these six hours, I'll believe you."
The Sword Princess raised an eyebrow. "You brought the Gospel with you too?"
The Witch gave a soft sniff, unable to miss that the Sword Princess was backing down and dodging the question. She felt a surge of anger as well. During these six hours, the Four Pillar Cult had been active for at least four, meaning there were at most two hours of downtime—yet Sonia hadn't spared even those two hours. One could only imagine how much defilement the unconscious Yaxiu had suffered over the past three days. She only wished she could have arrived immediately.
But she didn't press the attack. She nuzzled against Yaxiu and said, "The Gospel has been bound to me from the very beginning. I couldn't get rid of it even if I wanted to, so naturally it goes wherever I go."
"Then there's no effect on the Gospel System?"
"The Gospel System isn't connected through physical space, but through the Void Realm—more precisely, the Spider Tower on the Time Continent helps connect the Gospel System and the Gospel Book. Although I can only bring out the Gospel System's full power in Nabistin, my being elsewhere won't affect its normal operation," the Witch said. "Don't forget, I usually carry the Gospel all over the Void Realm. The Gospel being outside the Gospel Realm is perfectly normal."
"What about the Omniscient Weaver?" Sonia asked. "It just lets you carry a god into a dangerous kingdom?"
"I don't know," Diya said frankly. "But no one stopped me when I left. Maybe the Omniscient Weaver couldn't react in time—I really hadn't expected to leave either."
"It wasn't until the Void Gate opened and the Gospel's power seeped into Starry that I learned Yaxiu was unconscious. So I told Annan on the spot that I was going on an incognito inspection, and then smuggled myself over."
Before the Void Gate opened, Her Majesty the Empress's plan had always been to bring Yaxiu and the others over; she had never considered going to Starry.
After all, Gospel was her home ground, and Starry was the Sword Princess's home ground. Diya would have to be out of her mind to go to Starry.
But when the Void Gate opened, Diya used the Gospel to check Yaxiu's current condition and learned that his soul was trapped on Ruby Mountain and his body had become part of Sonia's private collection. Her Majesty the Empress had wanted to simply steal Yaxiu and take him home, but she couldn't locate him at all. Some miracle was obscuring his position; the fact that she could check his condition at all was because of the special bond between her and Yaxiu!
With no other choice, Diya could only fight her way to Sonia. It just so happened that the Four Pillar Cult's plan hit an unexpected snag—but before the Gospel Empress, "accidents" did not exist.
"Wait, so you came over almost the moment you arrived?"
Sonia was startled. "But how did you know about our connection to the Four Pillar Cult, or tonight's plan, or even that the plan would go wrong?"
Daidalos and Felix also looked over curiously. They were both very curious about this new Queen who had descended like a savior and turned the tide, keeping the Sky Light Plan from falling apart.
"Naturally, through the Gospel."
"But you had no clues at all—how could you gather our intelligence so precisely?"
"I had clues."
Diya raised her right hand and showed the golden pocket-watch Command Seal on the back of it. "When I woke up two days ago, I found this mark on the back of my hand. At the time, I only discovered one of its uses and had no detailed information about its origin, but I vaguely guessed it was Yaxiu's influence. After I entered Starry and checked again, information about Yaxiu, you, and the Starry Four Pillar Cult immediately appeared before my eyes."
"What use?"
Diya snapped her fingers. The huge phantom of the Bronze Dragon appeared behind her once more. In the blink of an eye, she transformed back into a beautiful, lovely black-haired girl and sat with her knees together and feet splayed on Yaxiu's lap, the two embracing like intimate lovers.
She crooked a finger, and Yaxiu pressed his lips to her cheek. She kissed his cheek in return and smiled at Sonia. "Used like this."
Whoosh.
Air surged through the bedroom, rattling the glass windows. The atmosphere was so oppressive it seemed about to explode the next second. Felix was quite certain he saw a bloody glow rise in Sonia's eyes, and her fingers were almost reaching for her sword hilt.
But as the Bronze Dragon phantom dispersed, Diya returned to her little-girl form and rested her small head on Yaxiu's shoulder, wearing a provocative expression that said, 'Not only does he like me, he also says you're a washed-up old hag.'
At this, Sonia instead calmed down. She came closer and patted the little girl's head, smiling. "Oh, right, I forgot to say hello to Lisi. Little Lisi, Yaxiu often talks about you to me."
"What?!"
Lisi immediately took over the main personality, looking at the Paw-Stretching Sword Saint with sparkling eyes. "What did Daddy say?"
Sonia tilted her head. "I said hello to you, so you have to say hello to me too. I'm your Sonia... big sister."
Actually, she had wanted to say "Sonia Mama," but other people were watching, and she was still a young girl after all—she wasn't brazen enough for that.
Lisi hesitated for a moment—clearly the other sisters were badmouthing the village girl in her head—but in the end she said, "Sonia, big sister!"
"Good girl." Sonia rubbed Lisi's little head, her face full of warmth. "Yaxiu often says Lisi is the one he loves most and can't bear to leave behind. No matter where he is, he's always longing to go back to Gospel to see little Lisi."
Lisi was so moved that her eyes brimmed with tears. She hugged Yaxiu and began to sob, her tears soaking his shirt. "Lisi missed Daddy so much too—"
Diya tossed Lisi's personality to the other Witch sisters to look after. Noticing the faint smile at the corner of Sonia's mouth, she felt a wave of discouragement.
How could she not know that her show of force had completely failed? Sonia had already seen through her greatest weakness—
Lisi!
With Lisi present, no matter what Diya did, she had to stay within the bounds of familial affection!
No matter how ruthless she was, she still had to consider Lisi's upbringing and education; she couldn't set a bad example for Lisi. Until Diya officially turned the sister personalities into independent individuals, kissing cheeks was already her limit—she couldn't even kiss lips, for fear of causing an immeasurable impact on a minor!
At that thought, Diya couldn't be bothered to keep up her provocative act with Sonia, but she still refused to get off Yaxiu. "Command Seals let us borrow a Guardian Spirit's power to a limited extent. Didn't you know?"
"Guardian Spirits?"
Not to mention the village girl—even the Most Beautiful Woman Under the Starry Sky and the Second Young Lady of Vosloda looked bewildered.
"It's normal that you don't know. Even Legendary sorcerers know little about it—it seems to be a concept only demigods can access. It's only because I have a Command Seal that the Gospel unlocked this knowledge for me."
Diya explained, "Guardian Spirits are Void Realm creatures. In essence, they're no different from Fishcleaver Dragons, Ragecleaver Dragons, or Shadow Evil Dragons. The biggest difference between Guardian Spirits and other Void Realm creatures is that they live on or above the fifth layer of the Void Realm."
Daidalos: "The Domain of Gods? Demigod creatures?"
Diya nodded. "That's right. All Guardian Spirits are demigod creatures, but they differ from demigod sorcerers: demigod sorcerers find it extremely difficult to travel back and forth to the lower layers of the Void Realm, while Guardian Spirits can freely roam the lower layers."
"The place they appear most often is the Knowledge Sea, which is filled with white mist. They observe talented sorcerers and choose to become their Guardian Spirits. This Bronze Dragon of mine has been my Guardian Spirit ever since the Knowledge Sea."
"Wait, wait, wait..."
Sonia could barely digest it all. "Why would these demigod creatures become the Guardian Spirits of one-wing sorcerers? And what effect do Guardian Spirits have on sorcerers?"
"There are two reasons."
Diya crooked a finger, making Yaxiu hold up two fingers. "First, although they are born as demigod creatures of the fifth layer of the Void Realm, they are also incomplete. Simply put, they don't have silver, gold, seven-colored, or colorless void wings, and these wings are extremely important to Void Realm creatures."
"According to the Gospel, native demigod creatures are far inferior to Void Realm creatures that have climbed all the way from the bottom layers of the Void Realm to the Domain of Gods. For example, a Fishcleaver Dragon is at its strongest on the fifth layer of the Void Realm."
"To make up for their missing wings, the method the demigod creatures developed was to become sorcerers' Guardian Spirits."
"Becoming a Guardian Spirit means entrusting part of themselves to the sorcerer's soul. The sorcerer gains talent beyond mortal limits and can even summon the Guardian Spirit for various benefits. In return, as the sorcerer climbs through the Void Realm, the Guardian Spirit can make up for its missing wings and become a complete demigod creature—though it still can't beat a demigod Fishcleaver Dragon."
"But a demigod creature can only choose one sorcerer to be its Guardian Spirit at a time, and the number of times it can choose is limited. After all, splitting one's soul causes great harm to any creature."
"The price is so high, and it often takes a sorcerer decades to go from one wing to Legendary, so every time a Guardian Spirit chooses a host, it's a long gamble."
"Obviously." Diya looked at Sonia. "Our Guardian Spirits all chose right."
Sonia silently agreed. Other demigod creatures had to invest decades before they might see a return, while they had climbed from the Knowledge Sea to Ruby Mountain within a year. Their Guardian Spirits must be grinning from ear to ear.
"So," Felix suddenly asked, "once the host becomes a Legendary sorcerer, there's no need for the demigod creature to keep being a Guardian Spirit?"
"That brings us to the second reason, and the most important one," Diya said. "The reason demigod creatures developed the Guardian Spirit method was actually to... protect their own kind."
"Huh?" Everyone was startled, but then they realized something.
"Even if a demigod creature completes its void wings, it still can't beat a demigod Fishcleaver Dragon. But then, the strongest demigod Fishcleaver Dragon can't beat a demigod sorcerer either," Diya said. "On the fifth layer of the Void Realm, demigod sorcerers are the most vicious beings. Facing sorcerers, demigod creatures are either slaughtered for materials or enslaved as mounts."
"The only way out for demigod creatures is to attach themselves to a slightly kinder sorcerer. But even the kindest sorcerer will inevitably make extremely harsh demands of demigod creatures."
Diya shrugged. "According to the Gospel's description, the treatment demigod creatures receive on the fifth layer of the Void Realm isn't much better than that of Lalafell."
Sonia murmured, "So the true meaning of Guardian Spirits is..."
"'While you are still mortal, I am your Guardian Spirit. But if you can step into the Domain of Gods, then I remain your Guardian Spirit as an equal.'" Diya said, "Rather than find a master, a demigod creature would rather find a companion."
"There's a loophole here."
Daidalos said thoughtfully, "When a demigod creature looks for a host, it should be able to implant a master-slave contract or similar miracle. Wouldn't finding a slave be better than finding a companion?"
"I'm sure some demigod creatures tried that in the past," the Witch said with a smile. "But you should remember the three great angel inheritances from not long ago, right?"
Felix answered immediately: "The Lake Light Angel, the King of Time, and the Spectre Prophet."
Diya said, "Can you imagine them being enslaved by a bunch of Lalafell? Or dominated by a Fishcleaver Dragon?"
Everyone finally understood—Guardian Spirits were not a compromise by demigod creatures, but a compromise by demigod sorcerers.
If a sorcerer stepped into the Domain of Gods, the meaning of the Guardian Spirit bond was to remind them, 'I hope you'll remember our old bond and treat me well.' But the bond itself could not restrain a demigod sorcerer at all. Or rather, no means existed that could reliably restrain a demigod sorcerer.
And since the sorcerer had received so much care from the Guardian Spirit in the past, and the Guardian Spirit now appeared like a pitiful, long-suffering wife, the sorcerer generally couldn't bear to abandon it. Not only were they willing to shelter it, but the two parties remained equals.
Even if the Guardian Spirit had to bow and play the subordinate in daily life, it was still far better off than those demigod creatures that were skinned and had their tendons pulled out.
Hearing this, everyone felt both proud as sorcerers and a little strange—just how thoroughly had those demigod sorcerers hunted them down, that demigod creatures had to cultivate friendly new generations from elementary school (the Knowledge Sea)?
Sonia asked curiously, "So not all sorcerers have Guardian Spirits?"
"Of course not. Only a very small number of sorcerers have them. But all demigod sorcerers have Guardian Spirits, and they can choose for themselves," Diya replied. "Sometimes a lower-tier sorcerer's Guardian Spirit suddenly disappears—either it was killed by a demigod sorcerer or taken by another demigod sorcerer."
Everyone thought this plot was exactly like a rich, beautiful girl who had set her heart on a poor boy being forced to marry some rich tycoon...
"My Guardian Spirit was originally a Bronze Dragon. Now that it has gathered all its void wings, it has evolved into a Chiming Bronze Dragon." Diya finally got to the point. "Originally, even Legendary sorcerers could only use their Guardian Spirit's power by chance, but the Command Seals Yaxiu gave us have a special effect."
"It can connect to the entire Void Realm."
Diya turned around and lay in Yaxiu's arms in a more comfortable position, raising her right hand to admire her golden pocket-watch Command Seal. Noticing everyone's confusion, she said, "Still don't get it? It can connect to the fifth layer of the Void Realm!"
"We can use the Command Seals to directly borrow our Guardian Spirits' power!" the Witch said slowly. "In a sense..."
"We already possess demigod-level combat strength."
Chapter 814