"Trust . My victory won’t require sacrifices."
With those words, the countless thoughts swirling through QM Foolishness’s mind were gently soothed.
Her voice ca out rough with emotion.
"Good... that’s really good."
It wasn’t sarcasm.
Nor was it bitterness after having her advice rejected.
The mont she finished speaking, a bright smile spread across her face. It was so genuine that it carried a touch of childishness.
How wonderful...
Not even supre power or absolute authority had stopped her from lowering herself and extending a hand to everyone.
Rita smiled back.
She genuinely found QM Foolishness amusing.
Every ti she saw her, she couldn’t help but be entertained.
That face was identical to Starsea Foolishness’s, yet it displayed an endless variety of expressions.
QM Foolishness clearly tried very hard to remain reserved.
Tried very hard to appear cold and aloof.
She was making a sincere effort to imitate Starsea Foolishness.
She simply failed every ti.
In so ways, the two Foolishnesses were not fundantally different.
Most of the contrast ca from the difference between Starsea and Quiet Mountain themselves.
Which ant that many of QM Foolishness’s reactions looked, in Rita’s eyes, like a glimpse into Starsea Foolishness’s inner thoughts.
After saying her goodbyes, Rita prepared to leave.
She still needed to send mission notifications to all the divine wills inside World Sigh.
Yet after taking a few steps, she paused.
Then she turned back with a hesitant expression.
"You said you all have your own sources of information."
"I have a question."
QM Foolishness straightened, clasped her hands behind her back, and lifted her chin slightly.
"Go ahead."
"Does Quiet Mountain have a Beacon By?"
"Of course."
Rita hesitated.
"Then... where is she now?"
"Starsea By killed her."
QM Foolishness answered matter of factly.
"During the Quiet Mountain Ga, she put all her effort into doing exactly that."
"She said there could only ever be one By."
"Whether it was Starsea Deceitful Bloom or QM Deceitful Bloom, only one By was allowed."
"..."
That actually made perfect sense.
It was exactly the kind of thing that vengeful spirit would do.
The truly strange outco would have been if she hadn’t done it.
Shaking her head, Rita left.
Then she began sending mission windows to the more than one thousand soul fires within World Sigh.
[Epic Quest: A Past That Never Fades]
[Are you willing to allow World Sigh to allocate your soul fire?]
[World Sigh guarantees that every Divine Will will retain no less than 100 soul fire under normal circumstances.]
[During ergencies, soul fire will never fall below 20.]
[This rule will remain permanently active.]
[When soul fire drops below 20, all Divine Wills retain the right to voluntarily seal their own flas.]
[Accept / Decline]
Completely igniting soul fire was extraordinarily difficult.
For a long ti, Rita had wondered how Order Clock could contain so many buried beings.
The explanation she had originally received was simple.
Each ti the bell rang, countless living beings experienced dramatic increases in soul fire.
Then, over the following eras, many gods died in battle.
Add everything together, and the total reached its current number.
Was that really the whole story?
While traveling through tilines, Rita had discovered another possibility.
Every ti the bell rang, tiline pruning gathered the brilliant flas of awakened divine talents from discarded tilines and rged them into the surviving one.
Almost imdiately, nearly every Divine Will accepted.
Almost.
One chose to decline.
Starsea By.
Rita closed World Sigh and let out a cold laugh.
Fine.
If she didn’t want to participate, then she didn’t want to participate.
Who cared?
A few seconds later, Rita silently reopened World Sigh and pressed its spine against her forehead.
No.
She needed to talk to that troubleso spirit.
The rejection was probably intended to lure her into a eting.
By was reading in her study.
Several white flower petals drifted down from above and embedded themselves into her book like blades.
"..."
She had expected her refusal to attract Rita’s attention.
She just hadn’t expected Rita to arrive this quickly.
And wasn’t everyone always saying that BS Rita was polite when entering people’s Graveyards of Bones?
That she always knocked first?
Why was it that when it ca to her, Rita simply kicked down the door?
By didn’t even bother changing her posture.
She tapped the edge of the book against the desk.
The damaged pages imdiately restored themselves.
Pinching a page she had already finished reading, she turned it to the left and said calmly,
"Co in."
The mont the words left her lips, BS Rita appeared directly on top of the desk.
Just like the last ti they had t, she treated the desk as a chair and sat on it while looking down at By from above.
By glanced at her.
Then pretended not to notice such childish behavior.
Rita stretched her neck to look at the perfectly calm Variational Quicksand drifting around the Vineborne.
She looked mildly disappointed.
Still, she didn’t waste ti.
Getting straight to the point, she asked,
"Why didn’t you agree?"
"To make you co see ."
"Confident, aren’t you?"
"Not confidence."
By’s tone remained calm.
"It was inevitable."
"As long as you agree with Deceitful Bloom, you’ll reject ."
"And as long as you reject , seeing everyone agree while I refuse would make you curious."
Rita disliked being analyzed by other people.
She skipped past the observation entirely.
"I ca."
"What did you want to say?"
"I’m willing."
By closed her book and revealed a gentle, harmless smile.
The gentleness wasn’t fake.
Nor was the harmlessness.
For most things, Starsea By genuinely was a warm and gentle person.
That was why Rita hadn’t noticed anything unusual when they first t.
And even now, she didn’t think By was being insincere.
"And?"
"What are your conditions?"
Rita couldn’t honestly claim she didn’t care about the extra ten thousand points of soul fire.
As more prisons fell under her control, consumption would only increase.
Every point mattered.
Ten thousand mattered even more.
"You could hear our conversation on the Bridge of Sighs."
The atmosphere instantly grew cold and heavy.
Rita’s expression hardened.
"So?"
By lowered her gaze.
"I never thought that way."
"I never believed her pain nourished her."
"I never believed she enjoyed it."
Her voice beca strained.
"I only wanted to keep her."
Slowly, she closed her eyes.
A faint crease ford between her brows.
Like ripples spreading across a quiet lake.
Then she spoke.
"Help deliver a ssage."
"To her."
Rita waited.
By’s voice was barely above a whisper.
"I’m sorry."
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