Inside the Huaxia Extraordinary Research Institute, within a simulated ocean one hundred meters underground, experts from various countries have gathered to conduct the 121st observation experiment on Tethys.
Eva suddenly feels a strong sense of unease and can’t help but turn her head to look.
But all she sees are the institute’s alloy walls. She and Xue Ji are separated by thousands of miles, yet that anxiety of losing someone important strongly disturbs the strings of her heart.
【Child, what’s wrong?】
Tethys’s gentle voice comes from within the cylindrical container, where the azure simulated ocean glows faintly, releasing rippling particles outward.
“Mom, I feel that Sister Xue Ji is in danger.”
“No—it’s more like her very existence is about to disappear.”
Having gained a beating heart, Eva is no longer an emotionless puppet. Her emotions are now so acute that they exceed all reason—she can even sense the condition of those close to her.
【You must believe in her. Fate is on her side.】
The seawater coalesces into a beautiful figure, pressing against the glass to touch the child she has claimed as her own.
“But fate can’t control everything. What she’s facing—I don’t even know how to describe it.”
Eva’s voice trembles uncontrollably. This kind of insurmountable gap makes her shudder.
【The fear of the unknown is indeed deep and vast.】
【But that Lady Xue Ji is a sage who explores the unknown.】
【Her courage shines like the stars. Please believe in her, just as she believes in you.】
Before Xue Ji left to retrieve the remaining people, she had instructed Eva to help Tethys recover and then reclaim the oceans of Blue Star.
Xue Ji’s eyes at that time held not a trace of doubt, as if Eva were certain to succeed.
“Why, Sister? No matter how great my ability is, I could never reshape a god. Can I really do it?”
The white-haired girl in her memory smiled and gave her reason.
“I’ve read your father’s notes, so I believe in you. Your ability can’t be judged by the magnitude of power. The authority of Creation has no distinction of size—it depends only on the user’s heart.”
“The user’s heart?”
“Yes. Your father used love to create the greatest miracle in the history of alchemy’s development.”
“Pure creative authority—as long as the user’s heart is pure enough, it can create what is truly in their heart.”
Eva thought for a long time but still didn’t understand. After hundreds of attempts, she still couldn’t restore Tethys’s soul body.
Perhaps she had overlooked something.
The world around her suddenly becomes incredibly slow. Eva enters the high-speed world once more.
Here, her perception becomes even clearer—she can sense even the changes in the microscopic world.
Eva places her right hand over her heart and feels her own heartbeat.
This heart, created by her father and given life by Tethys, beats excitedly.
The concept of time was born before creation. This world was born from darkness, and only then did time begin to flow.
Within the high-speed world, time’s influence approaches zero infinitely.
If she activates her ability here, could she achieve true creation?
But Eva cannot activate this ability here.
Some fundamental logic at the deepest layer of the world obstructs this act.
Her action has already touched the rules of the world itself.
“What do I have to do?”
A strong sense of helplessness surges in her heart. She has ultimately failed to live up to Xue Ji’s expectations.
【Child, why not try again?】
Tethys can still move freely in the accelerated world. She opens her arms to Eva.
【Come to me.】
…
In a place that cannot be perceived, observed, or understood, Xue Ji drifts like a lonely boat lost in the ocean.
After coming into contact with the Great Shadow, she feels her very existence fundamentally disappearing.
“Who am I? Where am I?”
“I? What does that mean?”
“…”
Xue Ji’s human cognition rapidly dissipates, and her consciousness has already collapsed.
This is an irresistible, unreasonable rule.
Merely being covered by His shadow erases everything.
The images flashing through her mind support Xue Ji’s last bit of self-existence.
“Xiao Ji.”
“A-Ji!”
“Small-fry Sage~”
“Sister…”
“Mr. Xue Ji!”
The figures of the girls flash by, their faces anxious, as if worried about someone.
Who is that person?
Thinking is so tiring. I don’t want to think anymore.
【Small-fry Sage, you idiot…】
Lilith takes over control of the body. Xue Ji has used herself to block the Great Shadow’s influence on her.
With inexplicable anger, she fully releases her power. The darkness is completely under her control, all bowing in submission.
Powerful darkness begins to envelop this unknown place from the outside.
The massive scythe condenses in her hand once more. She swings it down at the point where the world connects.
A part of the world is severed by her.
After doing this, the colors on her body begin to fade.
The once-dense darkness is losing its color. She has been judged as a cancer cell by the world’s immunity, and all connections are severed.
All is silent. Only the faded girl remains, holding her unconscious beloved in her arms.
At the very end, all that’s left for Lilith is this brief moment of tranquility.
The world of perception and existence lies just beyond the white light not far away, but Lilith can never return.
“Anyway, you can’t hear me, so I can say whatever I want, right, Small-fry Sage?”
“It’s all your fault, all your fault, all your fault… making me like you so much. How could I bear to leave?”
Lilith’s voice is tearful. At the thought of a true eternal farewell, she can no longer hold back her tears.
But the moment her tears fall, they dissipate into nothingness.
Lilith leans against Xue Ji’s embrace, wanting to savor one last bit of warmth.
But her true body has no human sense of touch and cannot perceive temperature.
Lilith’s body stiffens. Her hands clench tightly, then slowly loosen.
“Really, I almost forgot what I actually am.” She laughs at herself and falls silent.
She hoists Xue Ji onto her back and shuffles step by step toward the white light.
“Your memories, your soul, everything about you—I know it all.”
“You clearly suspected me yet let me act out, let me be spoiled.”
“How could there be someone as foolish as you? You could have just driven me out directly.”
“It’s all your fault for being so gentle with me. How could I ever make you hate me?”
“Xue Ji, you know, I like you the most.”
The girl’s voice carries unconcealable sorrow, but the other cannot know—may never know.
At the boundary between black and white, Lilith’s body is about to dissipate as well.
With complex emotions, she gently kisses Xue Ji’s lips.
Then, the colorless girl gives a gentle push, and Xue Ji disappears into that expanse of white light.
But her hand, as if blocked by a layer of glass, is stopped on this side. At the very end, she smiles as she loses all the colors that belong to her.
