Luo Shuangyue huffed and continued to absorb the surrounding Evil Intent.
Her Demonic Energy’s ability to absorb Malice was strong, but there was ultimately a limit to that strength.
Soon, Luo Shuangyue found that she had hit that limit.
She was full; she couldn’t take in any more. Under these circumstances, Luo Shuangyue unexpectedly discovered that the harassment from the Evil Intent had weakened.
Perhaps it was because she was now the entity with the highest concentration of Malice in the area, so the lower concentrations could no longer affect her significantly?
‘In that case… can I use this trait to find the exit?’
Thinking this, Luo Shuangyue controlled her Demonic Energy to probe other areas.
Before long, she found a boundary that felt somewhat unusual.
She tried throwing some of her Demonic Energy toward the boundary and quickly received a result that surprised and delighted her.
This should be the path to the outside world.
She immediately pressed her Demonic Energy, which was already saturated with Evil Intent, against this boundary and exerted force to push it outward.
Just as she had managed to send out about half of the Evil Intent, the Malice within the giant Cocoon realized something was wrong.
They quickly adjusted their objective and began to strangle Luo Shuangyue, the thief who dared to chip away at their foundation.
Strands of Evil Intent, several times stronger than before, frantically slammed into Luo Shuangyue’s mind, causing her consciousness to flicker in and out.
In her trance, she felt as if she had truly become a Demon, one whose mind was filled with nothing but the desire to destroy the world.
She felt a very pure hostility directed at the world — a hatred that wished to crush it and make it vanish entirely.
Everything originated from this single surge of hostility, as if this were a battle where only one side could survive, and the other side was the world itself.
Just as her consciousness was being swallowed by the tide of Malice and she was about to lose herself, a small, black-and-red butterfly separated from her mind, drawing the Evil Intent away from the depths of Luo Shuangyue’s consciousness.
The Little Butterfly bore Luo Shuangyue’s Original Sin as a Demon.
Naturally, she could also take away the Evil Intent accumulated in Luo Shuangyue’s mind.
As for the price… the Little Butterfly didn’t think it mattered.
She already considered herself a Demon, so what did it matter if she absorbed a bit more Malice?
And so she drank and drank. Before she knew it, her body had become even larger than Luo Shuangyue’s, and the connection between her and Luo Shuangyue weakened bit by bit with this change.
The Evil Intent took a liking to her.
Therefore, they wanted her to become the host body to carry them.
As for any other consciousness, they would simply crush it and turn it into nourishment for this new master.
The Little Butterfly’s consciousness was already more fragile than Luo Shuangyue’s.
Under the impact of this level of Malice, she lost the ability to resist almost instantly, becoming a doll that could only passively accept the infusion of power.
Meanwhile, Luo Shuangyue’s consciousness had already fallen into silence, drifting slowly in the depths of her shattered mindspace.
Unless something unexpected happened, her consciousness would soon shatter along with this space, returning to total nothingness.
Fragments of her consciousness would be absorbed by the Little Butterfly, completing the fusion they had failed to achieve before.
But an accident occurred after all.
A faint silver light lit up in the depths of Luo Shuangyue’s mindspace.
The silver-haired maiden who had been lying on the White Flower Wilderness slowly opened her eyes.
The white flower vines wrapped around her body ignited without a fire, turning to ash in an instant.
She stood up and gently pulled the sleeping Luo Shuangyue into her embrace.
Gray spots of light slowly drifted from her and surged into Luo Shuangyue’s body, bringing her consciousness back from the brink of collapse.
“Dad…” Luo Shuangyue opened her eyes dizzily and found herself lying in an unfamiliar embrace. The one holding her was the humanoid Butterfly of Netherworld who had been sleeping deep in her consciousness.
“You did very well,” the Butterfly of Netherworld said, looking down at Luo Shuangyue with a smile.
“But I clearly didn’t achieve anything.”
“Did you really think I would let you face an opponent of this level alone?”
Luo Shuangyue didn’t speak. She really had thought that. But thinking about it now, her idea seemed a bit too naive. This massive amount of Evil Intent was not something she could handle. Even though the Malice had only spared a small portion to deal with her, it had nearly caused her consciousness to collapse.
She had been committing suicide!
“Then what should I do? I’ve already run in here by myself…”
“Take me to find me. The mess I caused myself naturally needs to be solved by me.” The Butterfly of Netherworld’s expression was calm.
“Eh?”
“Don’t ask. You don’t have much time. Go quickly!” The Butterfly of Netherworld reached out and lightly flicked Luo Shuangyue’s forehead.
Accompanied by a subtle, stinging pain, Luo Shuangyue’s consciousness suddenly returned to the real world, where she found the Little Butterfly beside her in a very bad state.
She saw the threads connecting herself to the Little Butterfly.
She saw the Evil Intent pouncing on her being guided toward the Little Butterfly through these threads.
Subconsciously, Luo Shuangyue wanted to help her companion, but as soon as the thought appeared, she realized with a sense of powerlessness that she couldn’t help the Little Butterfly at all.
She couldn’t do anything right now.
She couldn’t even control her Nightmare Energy, let alone help the Little Butterfly share the pressure.
‘If I can’t do it, I can only place my hopes on the Butterfly of Netherworld.’
Luo Shuangyue did not hesitate for long.
She had already assessed the current situation and knew she was powerless.
In that case, she would do as the Butterfly of Netherworld had instructed! At the very least, her intuition told her that the Butterfly of Netherworld didn’t intend to harm her.
When Luo Shuangyue tried to distance herself from the Little Butterfly, her consciousness felt an incredibly clear, tearing pain. Her current action was effectively tearing her own consciousness into two halves.
And that was indeed the case. The relationship between Luo Shuangyue and the Little Butterfly was incredibly close. They were two sides of the same inseparable entity; even the Original Magic Power of the Demon was something they shared.
Right now, what Luo Shuangyue was doing was forcibly separating the two of them, forcibly tearing the Original Magic Power apart so that half belonged to her and half to the Little Butterfly.
The pain she felt was equally felt by the Little Butterfly.
This pain, originating from the very source of her consciousness, allowed the Little Butterfly — who had been gradually losing herself — to briefly regain her senses.
Her consciousness seemed to see Luo Xiangyue, seeing her other half holding a small knife, slowly severing the connection between them bit by bit.
This left her feeling helpless. she did not want to separate from Luo Shuangyue; she wanted to be with Luo Xiangyue forever.
‘I’m sorry, I have to do this. This is the only way.’ Luo Xiangyue felt the plea for her to stay coming from Little Butterfly, but she had no choice.
‘I want to live, and you must live too. I want to take you with me and live on.’
But Little Butterfly’s consciousness could no longer support her understanding of the meaning behind these words.
She could only repeat her plea for Luo Shuangyue to stay like a broken machine until Luo Shuangyue truly separated their Original Magic Power completely and carried her own portion of magic power toward the central area of the Black Cocoon.
Then, Little Butterfly could no longer sense Luo Xiangyue’s presence. Her aura had completely vanished into the center of the Black Cocoon, as if she had been devoured by whatever was at the core.
‘She’s gone… she’s vanished…’
A powerful sense of emptiness filled Little Butterfly’s heart. After losing Luo Shuangyue, she did not know what she was supposed to do anymore.
‘I’m all alone.’
At that moment, a seductive, ghost-like voice whispered softly in her ear.
“Why not take her back? Tie her to your side.”
“Go, take her back, and together, let this world reach its end.”
“You can embrace her in the silence of the end until the very end of time.”
‘That’s right, why don’t I just take her back?’
‘She left me, she betrayed me, so I’m going to take her back!!’
‘Take her back and keep her by my side forever — forever and ever!’
Crimson patterns began to glow slowly, and the Evil Intent within the Black Cocoon began to boil. They had received a command from their Master.
“Bring her back!”
Luo Shuangyue did not know that her departure had plunged Little Butterfly into a very precarious situation.
After the agonizing separation from Little Butterfly, she ignored the pain of her soul tearing and rushed almost non-stop into the central area of the Black Cocoon.
There, she saw a mass of liquid flowing slowly like mercury — that was the consciousness of the Holy Sovereign.
Her arrival puzzled the Holy Sovereign. This was the place where the Evil Intent’s attacks were most frenzied. What was Luo Xiangyue doing here?
Before the Holy Sovereign could ask, Luo Shuangyue crashed straight into the mass of mercury. Even the nearby Evil Intent was stunned by her actions.
‘Damn, this companion of ours is too brave! Is she just crashing right into it?’ That was the thought shared by the Evil Intent.
After all, compared to the Holy Sovereign, who was completely different and out of place, Luo Shuangyue seemed more like one of their own.
Seeing how brave their “ally” was, these manifestations of Evil Intent were suddenly emboldened. They launched an even more massive attack against the mercury ball.
“Your consciousness will vanish. Why are you doing this?”
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