Chapter 504: Nice to Meet You, Im Lysdia

Chapter 504: Nice to Meet You, I'm Lysdia

Ashe still retained a sliver of his consciousness.

It was a peculiar experience. Frankly, he suspected that in the days since his transmigration, he had spent far less time in normalcy than in the bizarre. He could not move, speak, or do anything at all. Yet, he felt no discomfort whatsoever.

He felt as if he were sitting in a movie theater, watching a film that would never end. Naturally, he had no way to interfere with the plot. Thinking about it, he felt a bit of regret. He had assumed that after becoming Aine, he might be able to use divine authority to cancel Annan's wanted status, perhaps by exploiting that fleeting window before his consciousness was overtaken.

Unfortunately, no such loophole existed. The moment Ashe became Aine, he completely lost himself. Or rather, only by fully relinquishing his identity and allowing Aine to ascend could he obtain divine authority. That authority had always belonged to Aine, so he could not even touch it. He could only hope Annan and the others were safe.

Only now did Ashe truly understand the fundamental difference between Divine Spirits and standard spirits, alongside why mortals could never contain Divine Spirits. Divine Spirits possess an overwhelmingly strong sense of self.

Standard spirits had a sense of self as well. Back in the Shattered Lake Prison, Ashe and the others could induce spirits to work for free through knowledge resonance. In a sense, they were pleasing them. Compared to spirits, sorcerers were simply too powerful, so powerful that they did not need to care about the spirits' feelings, merely forcing them into labor with raw mana.

The reason sorcerers could not contain Divine Spirits essentially came down to a clash between two powerful personalities. One of them had to completely shatter for the struggle to end. In that process, the sorcerer was usually the fragile egg, while the Divine Spirit was the unyielding stone.

The relationship between a Divine Lord and a Divine Spirit was certainly not as simple as housing a spirit within one's soul. If standard spirits were like beneficial bacteria coexisting symbiotically, then Divine Spirits were at least like dogs or cats, and highly temperamental ones at that. A Divine Lord could not possibly walk around all day with cats and dogs clinging to them.

With that understanding, Ashe finally grasped why the Gospel's First required the purest, most innocent, kindest, and most wonderful girl. The Gospel Divine Spirit likely possessed such a nature itself. Finding a soul of the same temperament would make integration far easier, like wearing a perfectly tailored garment.

Ashe was far from tailor-made. In fact, he was rather ill-fitting, but his material was durable enough that the Gospel could make do.

At this thought, Ashe felt a sudden surge of admiration for Harvey. How exactly did he manage to subdue a Divine Spirit in the future?

As a Legendary sorcerer, it should still have been impossible. Otherwise, the Gospel's First could simply designate the freshest, newly ascended Legendary sorcerer.

The most reasonable guess would be that Harvey had an extremely high compatibility with that Divine Spirit, allowing him to barely withstand its overwhelming self-awareness like two brothers sharing the same pair of underwear.

For Ashe, whose relationship with Harvey was second only to Harvey's bond with Alice, he held a far bolder suspicion. Is the future Harvey even human anymore?

If Harvey had already transferred his consciousness into a corpse, an urn, a Null Card, or a soul stone, Ashe would not be surprised at all. That way, Harvey could simply let the Divine Spirit inhabit his original residence. He didn't sleep there anymore, using it merely as an office space.

Whether it meant cohabiting harmoniously with a Divine Spirit or vacating his own house for one while squeezing in elsewhere with Alice, it all pointed to one reality. Harvey had gone far further down the path of madness than any ordinary sorcerer.

Ashe could not transfer his consciousness, nor could he share a pair of pants with a pure, innocent, kind, and wonderful girl. So he had been evicted, left to spend his final moments in this theater, waiting until boredom finally lulled him to sleep.

He had thought he would fall asleep quickly. However, he was not alone in the theater. Behind him, three others were watching the film. Worse still, they were incredibly rude, chatting and discussing the plot while watching. Ashe felt no sleepiness at all.

Their voices sounded vaguely familiar. Perhaps because he had lost the right to use his brain, he could not recall where he had heard them before. He could not even retain their conversations.

He named them based on the emotions lingering in their voices: Indifference, Anger, and Madness.

"If this continues, he'll truly become nothing more than a vessel for the Divine Spirit," Anger spat, fists tightly clenched. "Aren't you afraid?"

Indifference shrugged. "What's the point of being afraid? This wasn't part of my plan. Do you think I can account for every variable, arranging his life perfectly by seizing the greatest treasures, recruiting the most loyal subordinates, bedding the most beautiful women, and creating miracle after miracle? I'm flattered, but I'm no playwright. I can't script something that satisfying. I can't even predict his actions."

"Huh? How is that possible?" Madness cackled. "How could you not predict him? Isn't he like the protagonist of a novel you wrote yourself?"

Indifference sighed. "Leaving aside the fact that protagonists often act beyond an author's control, if you found a notebook you wrote decades ago containing a novel you only started, would you still remember your thoughts from back then?"

Anger growled. "So what are you saying? We just sit here and watch the curtain fall on him?"

"That's exactly what we've been doing," Indifference replied softly, looking away. "If luck isn't on our side, there's nothing we can do. Why do you look so unwilling to accept it? I told you before that this is a desperate gamble, not a leisurely journey down memory lane."

Anger shouted, "Sonya is still waiting for him! She can't live without him!"

Madness snickered. "That's an easy problem to solve. Just let her die with him. What, does she have no experience with suicide? That's a gap in her education."

Wow, they're fighting, Ashe thought to himself as dull thuds and scraping sounds echoed behind him. They're really noisy. Can't they be considerate of other viewers? I'm trying to sleep here.

Indifference snapped. "Enough. If you like fighting so much, go back and fight all you want."

Anger stopped mid-strike, breathing heavily. "Is there even a point in going back? If he meets his end, what purpose do we still have?"

Madness mocked. "Idiot. He means this story hasn't reached its finale yet."

"You little trumpet..." Anger raised a fist, glaring.

Madness sneered, pointing an accusing finger toward Indifference. "Only you would panic like this. I already know the one stepping in to save the day. The person you should really be hitting is him. Saying things like 'not part of the plan' and 'bad luck,' acting as if he's just going with the flow, when in truth, he's already seen how everything ends. After all, he's lived through it once himself."

"It's not the same at all," Indifference murmured. "I genuinely can't guarantee anything this time."

Madness sighed. "How different can it be? Isn't it just swapping Sis Freya for him? Last time you used her to bewitch me, and this time he personally bewitched that stupid girl."

Anger narrowed her eyes. "Is that the... story of your first meeting?"

Madness sneered. "Calling it a meeting is far too friendly. Even calling it a feud feels too mild. I prefer to call it a tragic tale of us misjudging a person. I chased him across kingdoms at all costs just to kill him. That alone shows how unforgettable his great kindness was. Nothing short of chopping him to pieces and feeding him to Lala Fat could quell our rage."

Indifference offered a faint, almost mocking bow. "You flatter me. I shall keep up the effort."

"There is still one thing I never understood," Madness said. "How did you take the Divine Spirit from my soul back then?"

"It's thanks to a blessing I received from the Dramatic Poet," Indifference replied, his voice flat and unbothered. "It allows me to steal a target's spirit through close contact. I did not expect it to work on a Divine Spirit as well."

Anger crossed her arms, her chest heaving with impatience. "So we do nothing and just wait quietly?"

"If you are interested, you can use this chance to brainwash him," Indifference suggested with a calm, nonchalant voice. "He is in a dazed, wandering state right now. One step further and his soul would scatter. This is when he remains most vulnerable to distortion. Whatever you say now can leave a deep anchor in his consciousness and completely reshape his personality."

"What do you mean?" Anger demanded.

"Aren't you concerned about him and Sonya?" Indifference asked, tilting his head slightly. "Whisper in his ear that in this lifetime, he will only love Sonya. He will not feel desire for anyone else. Simply catching her scent will make his blood boil. Not seeing her for a day will throw him into withdrawal... things like that."

Anger glared at him. "Are you mocking me?"

"If you insist on thinking so, I cannot help it," Indifference replied smoothly.

Anger challenged. "If it is truly possible, why do you not brainwash him yourself?"

Indifference looked ahead, his expression blank and devoid of warmth. "Whether for selfish or selfless reasons, wanting to reshape him means you believe the new version would be better than the old one. You want to create a better Ashe. Yet in my eyes, I myself am already the best. My personality, my principles, my desires, my will and thoughts... my soul is perfect."

Madness cackled, clutching her stomach with wild amusement. "Wow, the shameless way this guy praises himself!"

"The facts prove I am not perfect, perhaps quite the opposite," Indifference continued, unaffected by her laughter. "Otherwise, I would not have ended up here with all of you. In that case, I will not interfere with him. Doing so would just prove to be a dull repetition of history. I want to see whether I was wrong, or if the world is wrong."

Anger paused, her gaze softening slightly before hardening again. "Then why allow me to influence him?"

"Because I am also curious what your version of a perfect Ashe looks like."

"Sounds fun! Let me try—" Madness squealed, stepping forward with a manic grin.

"Stay away from him!" Anger roared, shoving her back.

They started fighting again. Their endless squabbling felt completely exhausting. Ashe watched the chaotic scene with utter boredom. Suddenly, every person in the banquet hall saw their Book of Gospels pop open on its own.

"Looks like the play has not reached its curtain call yet," Indifference noted, his eyes scanning the open pages with quiet curiosity.

"She really got bewitched, and to think she would go this far..." Madness muttered, her playful grin fading into a bitter grimace. "So stupid. Just as stupid as us."

Anger whipped around to face Indifference, her eyes ablaze. "No wonder you were not worried at all! You calculated everything, yet pretended to know nothing just to toy with me!"

"I only thought of it as a possible scenario," Indifference replied. "The person calculating everything and constantly manipulating others is the Omniscient Weaver, not me."

A sudden realization hit her, and Anger said, "Wait, this means that Ashe escaped disaster—"

Indifference interrupted calmly, "Relax. The Omniscient Weaver already accounted for everything. That spider is never satisfied with earning ninety-nine percent while the other side gets one percent. She wants to earn two hundred percent while the other side ends up owing her a hundred percent."

Madness fell completely silent, staring blankly ahead.

Ashe could no longer hear their rude chatter. He felt as if he had walked out of a sealed cinema into the open. Light, air, and scent rushed forward to welcome him back into reality. Once again, he became the protagonist of his story.

Waking as if from a drunken haze, Ashe realized a long stretch of time had passed. It felt as though those missing hours did not belong to him at all, leaving him with no idea of what had happened.

Amid the surrounding crowd's exclamations, Ashe looked down at his Book of Gospel and spotted an unfamiliar name right at the top.

Gospel Ranking Number One, Dine. Dine? Is the name not supposed to be Aine?

Suddenly, focusing became impossible for Ashe. His consciousness began to collapse beneath a heavy haze.

The Divine Spirit had not fully taken over him, but its attempt to leave his soul placed an immense burden on his body. Combined with everything he had done tonight, from stealthy disguises to escapes and fierce battles, his soul had reached total exhaustion. The repeated entering and leaving of the Divine Spirit finally broke his remaining strength. His eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the spot.

***

No one knew how much time had passed. A stray ray of sunlight finally pried open his eyelids and danced across his lenses. Ashe let out a long-missed, lazy groan, trying to shift his position to fall back asleep, until a heavy weight pressing down on his chest stopped him completely.

Ashe opened his eyes and found himself still seated on the throne in the banquet hall. All the guests had vanished. The vast hall stood empty, save for a white-haired little girl sleeping soundly on top of him.

Overjoyed, Ashe cupped her arms, examining her carefully as if she were a fragile piece of art. "Lys! Are you okay? I clearly saw... well, forget it. You are okay. Thank goodness, you are really okay!"

The white-haired girl smiled softly, looking up at Ashe as his eyes turned red with relief.

She whispered gently, "Not just me. Annan, Iger, Harvey, and Pankey are all alive too. They suffered various degrees of injuries, but they survived. I have already canceled the wanted order on Annan."

"Thank you," Ashe replied instinctively, before freezing mid-breath. "Wait... You canceled it?"

"Yes."

"Does that mean the imperial family finally acknowledged you as the princess, so you can issue commands—"

"No," the white-haired girl interrupted. She ignored his tense, almost pleading expression and shattered his naive guess without hesitation. "I am now the Gospel's First, Dine. My command dictates the fate of all beings. The Sacred Realm sorcerers obeying the Gospel stopped hunting Annan and the others because I willed it."

Unconvinced, Ashe hastily summoned his Book of Gospel. He stared tightly at the name ranked first, reading the letters over and over as if seeing words for the very first time. "But your name does not even contain the letter D[1]!"

The white-haired girl jumped off his lap effortlessly. She wore the exact same pink wool coat and plaid skirt from the previous day. Her skin was pale as fresh snow, and her lips were red as blood. A gentle smile rested on her face, yet her pale green eyes flickered with a cold, distant gaze completely unfamiliar to Ashe. She said, "Hello, I am Lysdia."

1. Nice to meet you, I am Lys . D . Ia! Get the One Piece reference? ☜