Rainbow

"Yinzhi, I thought you were a smart person." Shielding the Witch behind him, Yaxiu glared coldly at the pinkish-purple-haired demon. "Oh my, do you really think I'm causing trouble?" Yinzhi said indignantly. "If I truly wanted to drive a wedge between you two, do you think I'd resort to such crude methods? You can question my morals, but you cannot question my IQ! Well, actually, you can't question my morals either—I am a flawless, beautiful girl! "I only gave her a little reminder seeing that she's also a pretty girl who shares a fraction of my charm. When it comes to feelings, you must first recognize your own true heart before you can know what you really want. For instance, if you don't realize you actually like men, you won't be happy no matter how many women you find..." Yaxiu said, "Could you please stick to making jokes about Igola and Harvey? As long as you leave me out of it, I really don't care what you say about them." "You think I'm joking?" Yinzhi popped a fried chicken wing into her mouth and stripped the bone clean in a single bite. "The ones who've stayed by your side the longest—are they your men or your women?" Yaxiu was left speechless. He jabbed a finger in the air at her a few times and snapped angrily, "Right now I'm talking about you messing with the Witch!" "Fine, I won't say another word, alright?" Yinzhi curled her lips. "It's not like I said harboring strange or even twisted feelings is wrong. Who knows how many perverts there are among sorcerers? As long as one recognizes their true heart and desires, even the strangest feelings can lead to happiness. On the flip side, if you can't even sort out your own feelings, then even the most normal relationship will bring nothing but pain..." Yaxiu snatched a squid skewer from Diya's hand and struck toward her. Yinzhi tilted her head, accurately caught the skewer in her teeth, and skipped merrily off toward the food street ahead. "That girl is basically an ultra-wicked, genderbent version of Igola..." Yaxiu muttered, then turned to look at Diya. "Are you alright?" "I'm fine." "You don't need to take a demon's words to heart. Besides, talking about weird feelings, whose feelings could be weirder than Harvey's necrophilia?" Yaxiu shrugged and offered a hand to Diya. "Let's go." Diya looked at Yaxiu's open hand for quite a while. She pressed her lips together, shook her head, and chuckled softly. "I'm not a child anymore." With that, she walked past him. She knew Yaxiu's expression was bound to be baffled, unable to understand why she had begun distancing herself again. Yet Diya couldn't explain it either; in truth, she didn't know what her feelings really were. Back when she was competing with the Sword Princess, she hadn't needed to dwell on it, because that was a matter of "having" versus "not having." If she couldn't win him, whatever feelings she harbored would be useless anyway. But now that she had the chance to spend time alone with Yaxiu, she could no longer run from the true desires deep within her heart. Because the Sword Princess had actually been right. The one Diya loved was not the Observer of the Void Realm, but the Yaxiu who protected her like a knight, the Yaxiu who accompanied her like an older brother, the Yaxiu who cherished her like a father. She loved Yaxiu from Lisi's perspective, so what she yearned for was also Lisi's treatment. She had tried her best to rebuild a normal romantic relationship with Yaxiu, but she also had to admit that as a lover, she probably could never match the Sword Princess. If she resigned herself to merely being a romantic partner, she would forever remain Yaxiu's second lover. More importantly, she didn't just want to be Yaxiu's lover. During their time in the Faraway Airspace, Diya had occasionally found opportunities for intimacy with Yaxiu. When they whispered close and brushed against each other, Diya was indeed very happy, yet deep down she felt a faint sense of emptiness. She wanted to lie across Yaxiu's lap and act spoiled. She wanted Yaxiu to lift her high into the air. She wanted Yaxiu to spank her bottom. She wanted to be Yaxiu's lover, she wanted to be Yaxiu's princess, and she also wanted to be Yaxiu's daughter. But Diya knew this side of herself was bizarre, so she had never dared show it before Yaxiu. She wasn't afraid of Yaxiu hating her; she was afraid of Yaxiu truly treating her like his daughter. Although confessing back then that "the Witch is Lisdia" had been forced by circumstances, and the truth would have had to come out sooner or later anyway, Diya still felt deep regret afterward. Now, the thing she feared most seemed to have happened. Yaxiu appeared to have transferred his feelings for Lisi onto Diya. Once he saw Diya as family, as a daughter, he naturally would not see her as a lover. And this process was irreversible. Even if Yaxiu understood rationally that the "Witch" and "Lisi" could be separated, once he knew the Witch was "Lisdia," how could he possibly not project his feelings for Lisi onto the Witch? Not to mention that if he merely recalled things carefully, he would surely realize when the "white-haired little girl" had been the Lisi personality, and when she had been the Diya personality. Yaxiu merely cherished her; he wasn't stupid. By now, he certainly recognized that the girl he had jumped from a high tower to save, the girl he had charged out of the Yisu Imperial Palace with, the girl he had promised to make part of his family, was both Lisi and Diya. "I'm sorry," little Lisi apologized meekly in the Witch's mind. Diya said, "You didn't do anything wrong, no need to apologize. If anyone is at fault, it's me—falling for Yaxiu all on my own without him knowing, and selfishly wanting him to love me back." The White Queen comforted her, "There's really no need to worry so much. Even if Xiu truly sees you purely as family, we still have time. Sooner or later, Xiu will be able to distinguish that Lisi is Lisi and Diya is Diya." The Black Butler expressed some concern: "But before then, Ah Xiu might already be devoured whole by the Sword Princess." The Red Dead Disciple had a sudden epiphany: "Does that mean we'll have to call the Sword Princess Mom?" "Absolutely not!" Diya, the White Queen, the Black Butler, and Lisi retorted in unison. Still, the White Queen was right—their lives were still long. Even if Yaxiu truly viewed her as family right now, people change. As long as Diya showed more of the mature, regal demeanor of an Empress, Yaxiu would surely learn the difference between an empress and a daughter, and in turn become the prince-consort beneath her skirt! To take a step back, even if Diya grew impatient, this world had Mind miracles and Hypnosis miracles! While she wouldn't go so far as to permanently alter Yaxiu's consciousness, using them once or twice to spice things up and make Yaxiu realize Diya was not just family but a lover could advance their relationship by leaps and bounds! Diya made up her mind: first persuade him with charm, then tempt him with the prince-consort title, and finally threaten him with miracles! One of them was bound to work on Yaxiu! Even if Yaxiu truly treated her as a daughter, a daughter could still overthrow her superior! Just as Diya made up her mind, a wind suddenly picked up around them. They looked up and saw that the rainbow beam of light piercing through the sky and earth in the distant downtown center was undergoing a change. The outermost layer of the rainbow melted and overflowed like ice cream. Like a tsunami, like a gale, it diffused gently yet rushed violently outward, engulfing the entire metropolis in an instant. Yaxiu and the others didn't hide, because there was nowhere to hide. The rainbow radiance penetrated every building, shell, soul, and tangible thing, coating everything in color. Every manner of color surged across and vied for supremacy; in Yaxiu's eyes, nothing remained but boundless colors. Yet he didn't recognize the vast majority of them. These unknown colors did not linger for him either, passing through his body like fleeting travelers. Only the colors he recognized diffused across him like ink on paper, adding color to his being. Sword color, Mind orange, Time blue, Truth silver, Fist yellow, Space black... Every sorcery faction in which he possessed a realm of mastery, Yaxiu could distinguish from among the myriad hues! He immediately realized this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: his sorcery realms were skyrocketing! The more colors he withstood, the faster his sorcery experience accumulated. If compared to Experience Orbs, he was consuming more than ten of them every second! So charitable organizations really did exist in this world. The Prime Angel was truly living up to "letting the first to prosper bring along the rest"! Yaxiu now cursed the fact that he was a human. If he were a giant, his efficiency in capturing colors would increase at least tenfold! Moreover, the distribution of colors was by no means uniform. Even though Yaxiu already recognized quite a few colors, among those passing through his body, he could probably absorb less than one percent. Right then, Yaxiu noticed that the Decolorized Holy Grail beside him had collected a bit of color. He froze for a second, then immediately realized this might be how the Holy Grail was meant to be used. Whatever color he desired, the grail could preserve that color. He soon discovered that the grail could not hold multiple colors; mixing multiple sorcery colors together resulted in conflict and mutual cancellation. Except within a soul, which could accommodate different colors, sorcery colors in all other circumstances were mutually exclusive and could not coexist. Therefore, he could choose only one sorcery color for the Holy Grail to contain. Yaxiu's heart stirred, and he promptly made his decision. *** Meanwhile, in another scene, Niya, Feili, Tamashi, and Xifulin were following two astral bodies on a slaughterous rampage. Even facing numbers a thousand times greater than their own, they showed no fear. The astral bodies at the front didn't need to hold their holy grails at all times and were able to move freely. "No wonder Violet Grudge vanished~" Xifulin said as she fired her gun. "She suddenly disappeared, and I thought something had happened to her in reality. Now it seems she was summoned and teleported away by someone using the search summon~" "But since it wasn't you two who summoned her, which Holy Grail wielder called her away?" Unable to make sense of it, Xifulin stopped dwelling on it. Turning her gaze toward the astral bodies ahead, she sighed. "Gathering together to summon the holy grails... isn't that a bit... reckless?" Tamashi said, "Freya said bringing all the trouble together to solve at once would make things simpler~" "That certainly fits a Veela's way of thinking," Xifulin said helplessly. Compared to Xifulin, Niya was far more taciturn, silently cooperating with the astral bodies to carve through the enemies, occasionally lending a hand to Feili behind them. The astral bodies leading the charge were, naturally, Freya and Sonia, who had gathered their holy grail fragments. Because coalescing a holy grail granted two search summon opportunities, Freya had chosen to summon Xifulin, while Sonia had chosen to summon Niya. Although Daidalos and Trozan were combatants with visibly higher prowess than Niya, Sonia remained wary of the Four Pillar Cult and was reluctant to let them get involved in the Holy Grail War. Originally, her first choices had been Yaxiu and the Witch, but neither could be summoned, leaving her no choice but to summon Niya. In a brief lull during the fierce fighting, Xifulin moved close to Tamashi. Pouting toward Niya, she asked, "Is she...?" "No," Tamashi shook her head immediately. "I asked. She firmly denied it, and was angry enough to want to kill me." Firmly denied it? Xifulin felt it was a little strange. She continued asking, "How did you end up joining up with these people? Did you know each other before?" "No." Tamashi explained briefly, "Sonia's lover saved us once before. Afterward, we accompanied Sonia to repay the favor. When it was over, Sonia's lover disappeared, and since our holy grail fragments were almost fully collected, we chose to coalesce them together." "Why would Sonia's lover save you? Do you know him?" "I don't know." Tamashi thought about it. "At that time, her lover was an astral body. We never saw his face." Although it sounded fine on the surface, upon closer thought there were many inconsistencies. In this realm, all sorcerers were competitors. Why would Sonia's lover save Tamashi and Freya? Even if they died, they would merely suffer soul damage, which was practically everyday routine for sorcerers. If they didn't know each other, there was no need to save them at all. Therefore, Sonia's lover certainly knew Freya or Tamashi—or perhaps both. Another point that made even less sense was: if Niya wasn't the Sword Princess, why would she adamantly deny it and even want to kill Tamashi? Tamashi was never foul-mouthed, nor did she easily provoke others like a Veela. Leaving aside her rock-solid moral values, Black Crow was actually a companion who was very easy to get along with. Therefore, Niya might not be the Sword Princess, but she definitely knew the Sword Princess. Xifulin's mind raced. Glancing at the sword-wielding astral body ahead, she asked in a low voice, "What does Sonia look like?" When she had arrived, Sonia was already an astral body, so naturally she didn't know Sonia's appearance. "Very similar to Niya—both are red-haired sword sorcerers." As expected! Enlightenment dawned upon Xifulin, and she looked at Sonia ahead in shock. Wait, if that was the case, then didn't Sonia's lover have to be... "Blood Concealment, Black Crow!?" A purple-haired female gunner leaped down from an adjacent tall building, looking at them in surprise. "Could someone please explain the situation to me?" Once it was confirmed they knew one another, Annan naturally joined the team smoothly. Xifulin asked, "Who summoned you just now?" "Who else could it be besides you guys?" Annan said crossly. "Naturally, it was Li—" Xifulin cut her off sharply: "It's best not to say real names in the Void Realm!" Annan gave her an odd look before continuing, "Her Majesty the Empress summoned me over, but then she suddenly vanished... Now, could you introduce me to what's going on?" Xifulin nodded and leaned in close to whisper in Annan's ear. Annan inhaled a sharp breath of Lalafell, staring in utter shock at Sonia at the very front. Then, she cast a pitiful look at Freya and silently retreated to the very back of the team. The Sword Princess might not know Freya, might not know Tamashi, might not know Xifulin, but she definitely knew Annan. Not only had Annan enslaved Yaxiu for so long, but Annan had also planted a unique achievement on Yaxiu's body. Right at that moment, the sorcerers looked up in unison, watching a rainbow rain fall from the sky. *** "Weren't you with Yinzhi? Why are you here?" In yet another scene, Harvey, who was following an astral body on a slaughterous rampage, ran into Igola on the road and couldn't help asking in surprise. "She vanished." Igola didn't seem inclined to say more. He glanced at the spear-wielding astral body up ahead. "Weixi?" "Yes." "Why is she the one coalescing the Holy Grail?" Igola frowned. "The stronger she becomes, the harder it will be for Yaxiu to keep her suppressed." "I couldn't beat her." Harvey offered a reason that left Igola with nothing to complain about. "Wait, why didn't Weixi summon Yaxiu?" Igola's expression shifted. "Could it be..." Whoosh! The spear whistled through the air, its tip grazing the skin of Igola's throat. The astral body cast a sideways glance at Igola, drew back the spear, and with swift, agile leaps bounded onto the roof of a nearby building, spreading her arms wide to welcome the falling rainbow rain. Harvey asked, "What did she mean?" "She meant that if Yaxiu is dead, she definitely won't spare us," Igola let out a breath. "Or perhaps... she thought I spoke out of turn."