"This is because Yaxiu is the sensory feeler of the Four Pillar Gods," Daidalos said calmly. "The Four Pillar Gods are the masters of the Void Realm. It's hardly surprising that the Command Seal they bestowed upon him possesses the power to reach into the Void Realm."
The Sword Princess and the Witch both looked somewhat grim, but neither refuted her. Even if they didn't believe the Four Pillar Gods were the true masters of the Void Realm, the Command Seal was the tool used to govern the Four Pillar Cult and clearly communicated with the Void Realm, making Daidalos's deduction entirely reasonable.
"How do we draw upon the power of a Guardian Spirit?" Sonia asked, cutting straight to the core issue.
"While sinking your consciousness into the Command Seal, you must maintain a specific emotion to draw the Guardian Spirit's attention," Diya revealed without hesitation. "My emotion is remorse, but yours might not be the same."
Sonia immediately followed her instructions, but when she submerged her consciousness into the Command Seal, there was no reaction whatsoever. Maintaining a specific emotion sounded simple enough, but what emotion was she supposed to feel?
Remorse? Love? Curiosity?
Just then, Diya's voice rang in everyone's ears: "Just imagine the single thing you find most impossible to accept. The emotion that surfaces the instant you picture it is the emotion your Guardian Spirit requires."
The thing she found most impossible to accept?
Sonia immediately thought of Operation Sky Light, which had nearly failed tonight; of Yaxiu almost being discovered by the Throne Hall; of Yaxiu dying in the Country of All Stars and never returning... Yet even in the face of those terrible scenarios, all she felt was remorse and anger at her own helplessness.
What was the thing she truly could not accept? Her mother suffering because of her? Yaxiu dying before her very eyes?
Losing all her strength? No. Those were all awful, terrible things, but to her...
Sonia slowly opened her eyes and looked at Diya, who was held in Yaxiu's arms. "Witch," she said calmly, "try changing back to your adult form."
Diya blinked, startled, then quickly realized what she meant. With a solemn expression, she summoned the Chiming Bronze Dragon and reverted to the black-haired maiden.
Seeing Yaxiu and Diya locked together in an intimate embrace like lovers, Sonia closed her eyes. A thread of darkness rose from the deepest recesses of her soul, swelling into a torrential river that swept across the sea of her heart, submerging her reason.
Yes. This was the one thing she found most intolerable.
Yaxiu could die, he could vanish, he could sink into an endless slumber from which he never woke.
Sonia would willingly storm through Hell to resurrect him, willingly search for him to the ends of the earth, willingly scour heaven and earth to find a miracle to awaken him.
The one and only thing the Sword Princess could never accept was Yaxiu choosing someone over her.
Yaxiu had crashed into her life like a shooting star. He was the person who understood her best, who believed in her potential even more than she did herself. He was the first person to view her as his emotional pillar, and the first to genuinely desire from the bottom of his heart to be her soulmate. Sonia could accept anything—except being rejected by Yaxiu!
Neither death, nor fate, nor the Four Pillar Gods could tear them apart. The only thing capable of parting them... was Yaxiu voluntarily abandoning her!
The Command Seal on the back of her hand flared with a purplish-red glow. An endless stream of purple mist billowed behind her, coalescing into a ferocious, armored feline beast. The savage purple cat glared with slit pupils as wide as brass bells, its tail tipped like a scorpion's stinger, poised to tear the entire world to shreds!
At the same moment, Sonia learned the name of her Guardian Spirit: the Extinction Resentful Blazing Dragon.
The emotion that summoned her Guardian Spirit was resentment.
"All right." Diya suddenly clapped her hands, snapping them out of their emotional states.
Sonia turned and saw fading phantoms behind Felix and Daidalos as well. She felt surprised, yet it also made sense—both of them were geniuses, so it was only natural for demigod entities to invest in them.
"Although Guardian Spirits don't require sorcery spirits or sorcery power, we can't borrow their strength without limit. The consumed allowance recovers slowly over time." Diya pointed to her pocket-watch insignia. "My allowance is indicated by the watch hands. Your Command Seals should have a similar function."
Sonia looked down at her hand and noticed that the crossed-swords pattern on her Command Seal had begun to rust. Presumably, once the twin swords were completely rusted over, her summoning allowance for the Extinction Resentful Blazing Dragon would be entirely depleted.
"Different Guardian Spirits produce different effects, and sometimes more than one," Diya explained. "For example, one effect of the Chiming Bronze Dragon is allowing me to freely alter my physical time."
Everyone had realized as much by now. The white-haired little girl was Diya's present, while the black-haired maiden was clearly her past.
"Whenever you have free time, communicate with your Guardian Spirits as much as possible. Their greatest advantage is that they require neither sorcery spirits nor sorcery power. Even if you're stripped of everything, you can still summon them."
Diya looked toward Daidalos and Felix. "The only reason I shared the secrets of Guardian Spirits with you is that one of you can advance Operation Sky Light, and the other can protect Yaxiu. I hope you won't disappoint me."
Even though she was sitting in Yaxiu's lap with the appearance of a little girl, the imperial dignity ingrained in Diya's bones still compelled both of them to kneel submissively. "Understood. By... the Queen's command."
Naturally, Diya didn't care about bolstering the strength of the Four Pillar Cult. It was the Starry Kingdom's cult, after all, and had nothing to do with the Gospel.
Sonia, on the other hand, was rather astonished to hear this. "You don't plan to take Yaxiu back with you?"
Diya couldn't help shooting a glance at the Claw-Stretching Swordmaster. "Would you let me take him?"
Of course Sonia wouldn't want that in a million years, yet she was also helpless. "The Starry Kingdom is too dangerous for Yaxiu."
"At first, I did intend to bring him straight back, but the Gospel stopped me." Diya sighed. "Yaxiu's soul is trapped in the Country of All Stars. The Stars and the Starry Kingdom mirror each other. If I take his physical body away, the Gospel told me the most likely outcome is... he will never return, remaining trapped in the Stars forever."
"Take good care of Aunt Bogin's and Uncle Harvey's bodies as well." Diya looked at Felix. "I know both their bodies are in your custody. I'm counting on you. Especially Uncle Harvey's coffin... does it still smell that bad?"
"I didn't expect the basement to fail at containing the stench either," Felix said with a shrug. "Though after a while, it's fine."
Daidalos chimed in, "The smell dissipated?"
"No, my nose just got used to it."
"Now then, to save Yaxiu, I want to join you in advancing Operation Sky Light," Diya continued. "I possess the prophecy-type god, the 'Gospel God,' which allows me to obtain the vast majority of intelligence in the Starry Kingdom, and I personally have the combat power of a time-element Legend. You shouldn't mind, right?"
"From the very beginning, you have been our 'Queen,'" Daidalos replied respectfully. "This is not joining us, but returning."
Sonia had to pinch her nose and accept it as well. After all, strictly in terms of utility, Diya's possession of the 'Gospel God' alone made her vastly more capable. Had Diya not arrived, they wouldn't even know their Command Seals could summon Guardian Spirits; she truly couldn't tell whether the Four Pillar Gods were deliberately concealing it or just brainless.
From the moment Diya appeared, she had helped salvage Operation Sky Light. Her prophetic capabilities would ensure that the Four Pillar Cult's subsequent actions went smoothly. Furthermore, her legendary combat strength was barely inferior to Sonia's, and could perhaps be employed to even better effect—the Claw-Stretching Swordmaster served primarily as a burst damage dealer, whereas Her Imperial Majesty excelled at crowd control.
"Good. Do you have any other questions?" Diya clapped her hands. "If not, I'll go out to meet my new subordinates. Besides, I'd like to get a look at the golden apple."
"I have one," Sonia couldn't help asking. "Don't you have a Reverse Year sorcery spirit? Why must you keep walking around in the skin of a little girl?"
This was a question the Chaos Diva and the Vicious Duke wanted to ask as well. While neither dared voice any objection, having a young woman as their new leader felt slightly better than a little girl...
"Before, I wanted to wait for Yaxiu to return. Now, it's because of the Chiming Bronze Dragon." Diya looked somewhat helpless. "I don't know if your Guardian Spirits have taboos, but as the host of the Chiming Bronze Dragon, permanent time-type sorcery spirits are my taboo."
"If I use a permanent time-type sorcery spirit on myself, it becomes very difficult for the Chiming Bronze Dragon to alter my physical time."
"You can think of time as a blank sheet of paper. Non-permanent time sorcery spirits are like erasable pencil marks, while permanent time sorcery spirits are like indelible ink. I previously used the 'Reverse Second' sorcery spirit, which already caused some interference for the Chiming Bronze Dragon. If I were to use 'Reverse Year,' the Chiming Bronze Dragon might lose the ability to affect me entirely."
"Compared to growing up, the Chiming Bronze Dragon is obviously far more important," Sonia said, nodding thoughtfully.
Diya glanced at Sonia. "However, the Chiming Bronze Dragon's temporal washing over me is like moistening the paper with water; it gradually washes away the effects of 'Reverse Second.' So I won't stay a little girl forever. You can rest easy."
*The Sword Seat would only rest easy if you stayed a little girl forever...* the other two in the room thought.
"Um," Felix spoke up, choosing his words carefully. "You mentioned earlier that your original plan was to take the Observer Seat back to the Gospel. Am I to understand that... you have a way to create a Void Gate leading to the Gospel?"
Hearing this, Sonia didn't look at Felix, but turned instead toward Daidalos. Yet the most beautiful woman under the starry sky kept her head lowered, preventing anyone from reading her expression.
Felix's question seemed like casual curiosity, but in reality, it struck at the Four Pillar Cult's primary objective—from the very beginning, the deepest desire of the Four Pillar believers was to shatter the sky curtain and reach the outside world!
The emergence of Void Gates hadn't shaken their conviction; after all, the success rate of a Void Gate was far too low, and rebelling against the Divine Lord of Stars offered immense psychological gratification.
However, if a safe Void Gate leading to another kingdom truly existed, that would change everything. A faction of them might waver and abandon their resolve to shatter the sky curtain!
"Originally, I could have."
Felix paused. "Originally?"
"The Gospel God can indeed calculate a Void Gate leading to the Gospel," Diya said frankly. "However, it requires energy."
"Back in the Gospel, I accomplished this by mobilizing ninety-five percent of the entire country's computing power, and it took a full seventy-two hours. But in the Starry Kingdom, I can't possibly access such resources, nor do I possess the sorcery power needed to drive a god."
"Yaxiu, however, has source crystals. While I don't know where he gets them from, he does have source crystals capable of powering a god. My original plan was to rendezvous with him and leave immediately."
"It's not entirely impossible now either," the Witch pondered. "However, the Gospel God wouldn't be able to do anything else, and the calculations would take at least three years."
Hearing that, Felix gave up on the idea. They had just seized a golden apple; forget three years, the Divine Lord of Stars might discover them in three months. It was far more practical to continue pressing forward with Operation Sky Light.
Seeing that there were no further questions, Diya said, "You two head outside first. I have a few things to discuss with the Sword Princess."
Once the Chaos Diva and the Vicious Duke departed, Diya sat at the edge of the bed and gestured for Sonia to crouch down, or else she would have to crane her neck to speak.
"I lied just now. I can still draw upon the Gospel's computing power. If necessary, I can create a Void Gate leading to the Gospel in three days. If we encounter a crisis we can't overcome, we can take Yaxiu's body and leave first, then figure out a way to rescue him from the Country of All Stars later."
The village girl blinked in surprise. "Then why did you—" Before she finished, the answer dawned on her.
"If we want to make use of the Four Pillar Cult, we must never give them other options," Diya said. "The two of us alone cannot shatter the sky curtain. The Four Pillar Cult is our sharpest tool."
Sonia nodded. "I understand."
"When you summoned your Guardian Spirit just now, did you want to kill me?" Diya asked out of nowhere.
Sonia looked at her for a long moment before replying slowly, "Not just you."
"I won't ask what you found most unacceptable," Diya said calmly. "You only need to know that the Four Pillar Cult is ultimately just using Yaxiu. The moment he loses his value, they won't show the slightest hesitation."
"Right now, the only people who can save Yaxiu, Aunt Bogin, and Uncle Harvey are the two of us." Although the village girl didn't particularly care about the latter two, she still nodded. "I know."
"So no matter what thoughts you have, wait until Yaxiu and the others wake up." The Witch held out her pinky finger. "During this time, we have to cooperate in good faith, all right?"
The Sword Princess hooked her pinky with hers. "All right."
Taking Sonia's hand, Diya walked out of the bedroom beside her like a sister, descending the staircase toward the main hall. The cultists stood at attention in unison, welcoming their arrival with reverent gazes.
Seeing the two of them behaving like close sisters, Daidalos showed no reaction, Trozan blinked, Felix looked somewhat bewildered, Claire appeared as though her entire worldview had shattered, while many others looked toward the bedroom deep on the second floor, their faces filled with sheer admiration for the Observer Seat.
*He can make two Queens love each other harmoniously even while asleep? He's that incredible?*
"Tonight, not only was the perilous first step of Operation Sky Light accomplished, but another Seat has returned to her loyal Four Pillar Cult." Daidalos knelt on one knee. "We welcome the Queen!"
"We welcome the Queen!" everyone shouted in unison.
Daidalos spoke up, "Your Reverence, please grant us your title."
"Though I'm accustomed to being an Empress..." Diya's adorable child-like voice echoed through the hall, "right now I am opposing the authorities, and I must destroy this country's greatest wonder, creating unimaginable chaos and disaster. For a character like this, there is a unified term where I come from..."
"A witch."
Diya gripped Sonia's hand tightly and said, "My code name shall be the Black and White Witch."
Chapter 815