Volume 6, Chapter 69 – The Will That Bestows Power

“Now then — let’s settle accounts between us, you piece of trash who dared to manipulate my little sister.”

The silver-haired girl spoke with a smile.

The smile was there — but the murderous intent rolling off her in waves was anything but.

Ailiya’s fingertips, charged with Augury Force like red-hot iron pincers, clamped down hard on the now-dim crimson eyeball. While suppressing its power, she was simultaneously subjecting it to a searing agony beyond imagination.

Valerdis thrashed frantically within the golden radiance. The blood-red veins on its surface writhed uselessly, the sizzle of burning flesh audible with each futile spasm. Its furious howls had already gone hoarse:

“ Let go of me! You pathetic, worthless human! If you don’t let go this instant — you’ll regret it!! “

Unfortunately for Valerdis, no amount of struggling freed it from Ailiya’s grip.

The howling, at this point, was nothing more than impotent rage.

Ailiya, for her part, was entirely unmoved. A flicker of cold calculation crossed her cherry-blossom eyes.

Even as she kneaded Valerdis in her hand, the silver-haired girl let her gaze drift into the distance.

In that direction —

Three evil god powers had clashed once more.

Clearly, with Valerdis subdued, Lianyue now had the strength to face Ulutiel and Polarvitan again.

“Going down together, hmm……”

The silver-haired girl murmured softly, those cherry-blossom pupils carrying a complicated swirl of emotions.

Having spent this much time at Lianyue’s side — how could Ailiya not know what was going on in that scatterbrained head of hers?

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She had known for some time. She simply hadn’t brought it up with Bai Lianyue directly.

Because Ailiya understood, deep down, that this particular dope was extraordinarily stubborn…… Talking her out of it directly was probably beyond anyone’s ability.

In that case, Ailiya had chosen a different approach — working around the problem from another angle.

And the approach was simple enough.

With that thought, Ailiya pulled her gaze back from the distance and fixed it coldly on Valerdis — which caused the evil-god-will concentrated into that eyeball to give a sudden, violent shudder.

Ailiya’s fingertips applied just a touch more pressure. Valerdis let out a wretched shriek.

“You — you’re the real thing, aren’t you? The outer god’s will born directly from this world’s resentment. If I use you as a substitute for Lianyue…… you might be just enough to drag those two along with you on the way out.”

Ailiya’s voice was light — but carried a coldness that left no room for argument.

In a certain sense, Ailiya felt she owed her little sister something of an apology.

Because she had noticed Weiya’s peculiar behavior some time ago — and the possible presence lurking within the canyon.

She had simply let Weiya’s private mischief go unchecked on purpose, to draw Valerdis out from where it had been hiding within the miasma.

Which meant, in other words……

She had used her own little sister.

——”Sorry, Weiya. Sister will make it up to you later……”——

“ You despicable wretch!! “

Apparently sensing Ailiya’s intentions, Valerdis erupted into a furious scream.

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Useless, as always — its struggling got it nowhere. Ailiya held its entire will in a vice grip.

“I’ll keep you contained for now. When Lianyue moves in for the kill…… I’ll swap you in then.”

Ailiya said coldly, eyes fixed on the eyeball in her palm.

However —

Just as Ailiya was about to channel her Augury Force and temporarily seal Valerdis’s will, something made her brow snap into a sudden frown.

Not just Ailiya — Luolin, who had taken the form of a rabbit earring, reacted the same way.

——”Mistress!!”——

The instant Luolin’s warning rang out —

“ Hmmmmm—————! “

A sudden surge of overwhelming spiritual force crashed into Ailiya’s mind like an invisible tide. Cold. Viscous. Suffocating in its pressure. It shattered through the Augury Force shielding her body in an instant and drove itself deep into her consciousness.

Ailiya’s body locked up. Her cherry-blossom eyes instantly lost focus. The composure on her face was replaced by a pain she hadn’t seen coming. It felt as though countless ice needles were being driven through her skull — chaotic, distorted images flickering before her eyes: a pitch-black abyss. Writhing tentacles. Countless pairs of eyes full of malice……

More terrifying still — in her subconscious, within a void of absolute black, a massive demonic claw suddenly reached out, constructed from black chaotic matter and covered in barbed hooks. It tore through space with overwhelming force, ignoring every barrier — and seized her soul in its grip.

“ Urgh — aaaaah—————! “

Ailiya let out a strangled cry of pain. Her body convulsed beyond her control. The hand clutching Valerdis suddenly went slack.

Her Augury Force fell into disarray from the damage to her consciousness. The golden radiance dimmed drastically, no longer capable of sustaining the pressure it had been applying.

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Biting down hard on her lip, Ailiya’s eyes showed something that had never appeared there before — a flash of terrifying ferocity.

That thing.

That damned thing……

So it’s been watching all along?!!

——”Get…… get out……”——

Even as she snarled under her breath, Ailiya was furiously mobilizing her mental and soul energy within her consciousness, fighting the massive claw head-on.

Meanwhile —

The Valerdis clenched in her palm had not yet worked out what was happening to Ailiya, when a strange, deep voice suddenly resounded in its mind. The voice seemed to come from the depths of eternity — carrying a trace of displeasure, a chill — reverberating through the innermost reaches of its consciousness:

——”Is it ending like this? I would be quite disappointed.”——

“I — is that — is that you ?!”

Valerdis’s pupils contracted instantly. A storm broke loose inside it.

That voice……

It had heard it once before. A thousand years ago. The moment it had been born from resentment…… and been given its name.

And as that strange voice reached it —

An extraordinary and overwhelming power erupted from deep within the eyeball, volcanic in its force.

The blood-red veins across the surface of the crimson eyeball surged and thickened in an instant, as dense and intricate as a spider’s web. Dark-red fluid secreted furiously, radiating a thick pulse of Corruption energy. A layer of pitch-black radiance bloomed across the eyeball’s surface. The burns left by the Augury Force healed over at a visible rate.

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Taking advantage of Ailiya’s entanglement in the mental realm, Valerdis wrenched itself violently free of her slackened hand. The crimson eyeball spun a full rotation in midair. Black radiance expanded outward, forcibly shattering the surrounding Augury Force.

The next instant —

Driven by the shock of impact, Ailiya stumbled two steps back, her chest heaving violently, cherry-blossom eyes filled with pain.

“Damn it……”

She gritted her teeth and tried to push through the interference from the mental realm — to gather her Augury Force again.

But the assault from within her consciousness had slowed her considerably.

And Valerdis, now free of its restraints, didn’t hesitate for a single moment. The entire eyeball transformed into a streak of crimson light and slammed downward into the ground.

“ Spltt! “

Like a drop of water absorbed into the sea, the eyeball sank instantly into the black mud of Robusta Basin. No earth-shaking impact — only a vast and mighty surge of Corruption energy, spreading rapidly through the earth in every direction.

In an instant, the ground that had stopped its churning when Bai Lianyue’s power returned — erupted again with violent force.

Cracks spread and widened. Black mud geysered upward like boiling magma. Countless thick black root systems burst from the earth and thrashed wildly in the air. The entire basin seemed to transform into a great beast awakening from slumber.

Ailiya’s expression shifted drastically. She could feel it clearly — the Corruption energy within the earth was converging at terrifying speed. Valerdis’s presence had merged with the entire body of the earth, growing more vast, more dreadful by the second.

But to her surprise — the Valerdis that had merged into the earth did not turn the earth’s power against her.

That colossal surge of Corruption aura swept one circuit through the basin — then hurtled with purpose toward a single direction: the center of The Veiled Domain, toward the battlefield where Bai Lianyue was fighting……

“ Son of a— ! That thing…… it’s going after Lianyue!”