Chapter 1423: 1423 Adjudicator Game: Game Invasion 28
"Trust me. My victory won’t require sacrifices."
With those words, the countless thoughts swirling through QM Foolishness’s mind were gently soothed.
Her voice came out rough with emotion.
"Good... that’s really good."
It wasn’t sarcasm.
Nor was it bitterness after having her advice rejected.
The moment 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 supreme 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 time 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 time.
In some ways, the two Foolishnesses were not fundamentally different.
Most of the contrast came from the difference between Starsea and Quiet Mountain themselves.
Which meant 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 Byme?"
"Of course."
Rita hesitated.
"Then... where is she now?"
"Starsea Byme killed her."
QM Foolishness answered matter of factly.
"During the Quiet Mountain Game, she put all her effort into doing exactly that."
"She said there could only ever be one Byme."
"Whether it was Starsea Deceitful Bloom or QM Deceitful Bloom, only one Byme was allowed."
"..."
That actually made perfect sense.
It was exactly the kind of thing that vengeful spirit would do.
The truly strange outcome 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 emergencies, 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 flames.]
[Accept / Decline]
Completely igniting soul fire was extraordinarily difficult.
For a long time, Rita had wondered how Order Clock could contain so many buried beings.
The explanation she had originally received was simple.
Each time 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 timelines, Rita had discovered another possibility.
Every time the bell rang, timeline pruning gathered the brilliant flames of awakened divine talents from discarded timelines and merged them into the surviving one.
Almost immediately, nearly every Divine Will accepted.
Almost.
One chose to decline.
Starsea Byme.
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 troublesome spirit.
The rejection was probably intended to lure her into a meeting.
Byme 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 came to her, Rita simply kicked down the door?
Byme didn’t even bother changing her posture.
She tapped the edge of the book against the desk.
The damaged pages immediately restored themselves.
Pinching a page she had already finished reading, she turned it to the left and said calmly,
"Come in."
The moment the words left her lips, BS Rita appeared directly on top of the desk.
Just like the last time they had met, she treated the desk as a chair and sat on it while looking down at Byme from above.
Byme 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 time.
Getting straight to the point, she asked,
"Why didn’t you agree?"
"To make you come see me."
"Confident, aren’t you?"
"Not confidence."
Byme’s tone remained calm.
"It was inevitable."
"As long as you agree with Deceitful Bloom, you’ll reject me."
"And as long as you reject me, seeing everyone agree while I refuse would make you curious."
Rita disliked being analyzed by other people.
She skipped past the observation entirely.
"I came."
"What did you want to say?"
"I’m willing."
Byme closed her book and revealed a gentle, harmless smile.
The gentleness wasn’t fake.
Nor was the harmlessness.
For most things, Starsea Byme genuinely was a warm and gentle person.
That was why Rita hadn’t noticed anything unusual when they first met.
And even now, she didn’t think Byme 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?"
Byme lowered her gaze.
"I never thought that way."
"I never believed her pain nourished her."
"I never believed she enjoyed it."
Her voice became strained.
"I only wanted to keep her."
Slowly, she closed her eyes.
A faint crease formed between her brows.
Like ripples spreading across a quiet lake.
Then she spoke.
"Help me deliver a message."
"To her."
Rita waited.
Byme’s voice was barely above a whisper.
"I’m sorry."
