Even now, Suellen couldn't fathom how she had believed such nonsense. Was it due to recognizing her own precarious situation, or was it the almost inhuman, monster-like gaze that had cowed her?
Regardless, Suellen only hoped that the woman before her hadn't completely lost her mind, that her words indeed had a possibility of coming true.
Nine cared little for Suellen's opinion. She rely thought Ansel had good reason to dismiss this girl; compared to Evora, Suellen fell far short… But that was of no consequence to Nine. She simply needed a disposable pawn, unsuitable for the spotlight herself.
"Ti."
Nine uttered cryptically.
"..."
Suellen didn't ask for clarification, knowing she wouldn't understand anyway. This woman's erratic, incoherent behavior was nothing new. She often heard Nine muttering incomprehensible things to herself, the only certainty being that they probably related to Ansel.
Nine suddenly turned to Suellen, "Do you know how far the dragon tide has spread?"
Without waiting for a response, Nine continued, "Forty percent of the lesser dragon species have breached the defensive line Mr.Ansel established, scattering throughout the Western Lands to hunt. Although Mr.Ansel slayed another ancient dragon species yesterday, two unscathed fifth-stage dragons flew in from the Celestial Path mountains.
Today, Mr.Ansel didn't use the power known as God from the Machine, but instead manifested his true form to battle them."
"Mr.Ansel... was injured."
Upon hearing these words, Suellen felt a fleeting chill, as if formless evil spirits were coiling around her neck, their icy claws gripping her spine, almost imperceptibly scraping down her back.
"But physical wounds an little to Mr.Ansel," Nine said, her gaze fixed on the distant blood-red rift in the sky.
No one knew what lay beyond that rift, but the most widespread belief in the Western Lands was that although Ansel had killed Evora, the endless fla of the Fla Attendant would still pour forth, incinerating the entire Western Lands.
"Mr.Ansel's heart is on the brink of collapse," Nine continued in an eerily calm voice, causing Suellen's heart to skip a beat.
Suellen quickly realized that Nine was far from calm. Drawing on her experience of navigating between the Emperor and Evora, she sensed that the woman before her was like… a beast crouching in a thorny thicket, bloodied and scarred.
Any movent, any thought would inflict hundreds or thousands of new wounds. Each step forward would not only ravage her body but also lacerate her soul.
Yet, Suellen wondered, from where did such cruel suffering originate? Why did Nine endure such tornt? Who had bestowed these scars upon her?
"Do you know, Lord Suellen?"
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Nine reached her hand to the half of her face beneath the mask, covered in black patterns, feeling the pain that seed to twist around her bones like thorns, clustering and threatening to pierce through her flesh.
Her soul, though uncorrupted at this mont, wailed and cried out in agony from a suffering she had never shared with anyone.
For soone who cared about only one thing, where else could her wounds and pain co from?
"Do you know what the greatest curse in this world is? One that even divine species cannot escape?"
She murmured softly, reaching towards the sun hanging high in the sky.
Nine slowly spread her slender fingers, the sunlight falling through the gaps onto her mask. But what Nine felt first was not the warmth of the sun, but the shadow cast on her mask.
Where light fell, shadow followed.
Though sowhat perplexed, Suellen stiffly replied, "Are you referring to... the corruption of the Abyss?"
"Not sothing even I could overco," Nine responded.
"..." Suellen fell silent, assuming Nine was in a state of delirium.
"It's love, Lord Suellen," Nine said, lowering her hand and speaking in an unprecedentedly calm and gentle tone.
"It can bring such wonderfully happy salvation."
"And it can bring... such cruelly vicious curses."
Suddenly, she turned to Suellen with an almost playful tone, "You might not believe this, Lord Suellen, but the key to my becoming the Head of Devouring lies in 'love'."
What's she talking about? Love? Is she planning to use her love for Ansel to qualify as the Head of Devouring? If loving Ansel was all it took to beco a pact head, this generation's Hydral would have thousands of heads!
Suellen didn't believe Nine was simply infatuated with Ansel... Despite her apparent instability, Nine had always been frighteningly lucid and wise when it ca to decisions regarding Ansel.
It was as if Ansel himself was constantly guiding her next moves.
If it wasn't Nine's love for Ansel, could it be... Ansel's love for her?
… This seed even more implausible.
How could Ansel of Hydral fall in love with such an unstable woman? What made Nine think she could make Ansel love her?
Unable to find answers, Suellen remained silent, regretting her choices but knowing it was too late to turn back.
"I'm going to see Mr.Ansel now, Lord Suellen."
Nine suddenly announced after her cryptic words.
Suellen was pessimistic about the outco, hoping only that Nine wouldn't completely lose her mind if her wishes weren't fulfilled. At the very least, she hoped for a chance to explain herself to Ansel.
Despite her doubts, Suellen forced a smile and said, "Good luck, Lord Nine."
Nine didn't respond. Her wheelchair suddenly lted into a pool of shadows, and she herself rged with it, quickly vanishing.
As Nine, now a shadow, made her way to the teleportation array, her mind was flooded with mories of her ti with the young man.
These mories were like exquisite sculptures preserved in a display case, every minute detail vivid and alive, each facet gleaming brilliantly.
In comparison, all other mories, no matter how bright, seed like nothing more than broken statues and rotting wood.
She had indeed made Ansel her everything, but was she unaware of the consequences of doing so?
Of course not. Nine understood this better than anyone.
What others didn't realize was that Nine had already co to terms with this. They all thought Nine had gone mad, either corrupted by the Abyss to the point of shattered will, or completely engulfed in Ansel's demonic nature.
But Nine knew she was on the right path - the only right path.
A path that was actually quite simple, not complex, but one that no one else dared to tread.
She would use love to exchange for that power, to obtain the position she had yearned for countless tis.
She was going to reclaim her na.
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