The evil intent possessed a monotonous and shallow consciousness. Its awareness was used for only one thing: to trigger the host’s negative emotions and push them toward the tragic path destined for destruction.
However, if its host possessed a sufficiently powerful will and a state of mind that could no longer be influenced, then the evil intent’s consciousness could no longer affect them.
One drop of ink could indeed blacken a cup of clear water, but when facing a cup already full of ink, it would have no effect at all.
This was exactly how Luo Shuangyue was now. A deep killing intent churned within her heart. This killing intent would not be influenced by the evil intent because it was targeted at the evil intent itself.
The sharp blade tore through the black tide, forcing the once-arrogant evil intent to retreat.
A vast amount of evil intent escaped the control of its central consciousness and was taken into Luo Shuangyue’s hands. These treacherous strands of malice, after turning their weapons against their original master, quickly and ruthlessly surrounded it.
This was a space of consciousness; the evil intent had nowhere to run.
The black-red tide was the manifestation of its consciousness. As these hues were gradually brought under Luo Shuangyue’s control, it meant the evil intent’s consciousness was stepping toward its demise.
Step by step, Luo Shuangyue cleared all the evil intent from the mindspace, cornering the final core consciousness into a corner.
This mass of consciousness had no form. It was merely a glob of shapeless sludge. Even in this desperate situation, it continued to emit the purest malice.
It did not think, nor did it require intelligence. Such was the nature of the evil intent’s consciousness.
“Die!”
Luo Shuangyue reached out, and the mass of sludge was seized by a giant hand of the same color.
Then, *bang!*
The sludge was ruthlessly crushed. Its fragments were pierced by beams of dark purple light, leaving no trace behind in this space.
The consciousness belonging to the evil intent was completely eradicated. Luo Shuangyue clearly felt herself regaining full dominance over her body.
At that moment, her Consciousness Kingdom was fully rebuilt.
However, compared to the somewhat lively ruins of the manor from not long ago, the Consciousness Kingdom this time appeared much lonelier.
Phantom Thorn was a pseudo-personality Luo Shuangyue had used to share her memories, and she had been reabsorbed into the body at the very beginning.
The Butterfly of Netherworld had returned to where she belonged.
The Little Butterfly… would never appear again.
*Whoosh!* A small cloud of black mist appeared in this desolate kingdom. Phantom Scythe happily pounced onto Luo Shuangyue’s head.
Only this little one remained.
Phantom Scythe could not be considered a part of Luo Shuangyue, but her consciousness was indeed rooted in Luo Shuangyue’s Consciousness Kingdom. Once Luo Shuangyue rebuilt the kingdom, she naturally woke from her slumber.
“Hmm?” Waking from her long dream, Phantom Scythe sensed that Luo Shuangyue was feeling down. The smile on her face immediately vanished, and her movements were no longer careless. Instead, she sat on Luo Shuangyue’s shoulder with a well-behaved, serious expression.
“Let’s go. It’s time to go outside.” Gently stroking the child who had become sensible, Luo Shuangyue took a soft breath.
She had indeed destroyed the evil intent’s consciousness, but she did not know if it was something that could be killed forever.
That enemy could return at any moment, so she had to resolve this matter perfectly while she could!
***
The maiden bathed in white light opened her eyes.
The crimson hue faded from her pupils, letting her eyes return to a deep, dark red.
The red lines that sat like cracks upon her body also gradually dimmed, eventually hiding within her skin.
She turned around and spread her arms as if bathing in the sun, completely abandoning her defenses to accept the radiance of the white light.
The black-red aura was stripped from her body, turning into wisps of thin smoke under the sun-like brilliance.
This purification was by no means comfortable. The relationship between this body and the evil intent was far too deep. Stripping the evil intent from her body was like Luo Shuangyue using a small knife to carve her own flesh.
In the past, this would have been called Dismemberment Torture, and now Luo Shuangyue was performing it on herself.
However, she said nothing. She simply gritted her teeth and stood silently in the white light, cutting away at her own body like an emotionless doll.
She continued until not a single trace of evil intent remained.
The white light gradually became sparse and dim. After purifying so much evil intent, even this sword had finally exhausted its power.
‘Is it over?’
Luo Shuangyue’s consciousness was somewhat blurry. Her senses had become numb during the purification process, which had lasted for an unknown amount of time. After the white light filling her vision became less blinding, her body swayed. The obsession that had supported her until now finally dissipated.
Her vision grew dark, and her body could no longer squeeze out a single ounce of strength. In a daze, she felt as if the ground were getting closer and closer…
“Shuangyue!”
Just before she hit the ground, a girl rushed over from the side and took her into her arms. Xia Mo held her lover’s limp body tightly, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Thank goodness… it’s so good that you’re okay…”
‘Yes, I’m fine, and you’re fine. Aside from that child no one cared about disappearing forever, this is a perfect ending, right?’
“I wasn’t able to save her,” Luo Shuangyue whispered. “She sacrificed herself for me.”
“Is that so?” Xia Mo’s voice faltered. At that moment, she didn’t know what to say.
Nothing seemed quite right to say.
She had very little contact with the Little Butterfly, so it was hard for her to feel deeply about her departure.
But she could tell that, in a place she couldn’t see, something must have happened between Luo Shuangyue and the Little Butterfly. The final result was that the Little Butterfly sacrificed herself to trade for Luo Shuangyue’s new life.
What could she say? At a time like this, it was probably better to remain silent.
“Am I useless? I promised to live on together with her, but in the end, I couldn’t do anything. I even needed her to sacrifice herself to extend my life.”
“This was her choice. I believe you did everything you could at that time.” Pressing her finger against Luo Shuangyue’s lips, Xia Mo stared at her lover with a firm gaze.
“What you should do now is rest properly. Don’t think about these things anymore.”
“Rest, huh?” Luo Shuangyue’s gaze drifted toward the blue sky. She let out a sigh of resignation. “Then let me have a good sleep.”
The maiden closed her eyes, and her aura gradually withdrew, slowly settling into silence.
Though she was said to be asleep, Xia Mo was inexplicably worried that Luo Shuangyue might have simply ascended to heaven after fulfilling her obsession.
Fortunately, the Holy Sovereign walked over and told Xia Mo not to worry. Luo Shuangyue was truly just exhausted and needed to rest for a while.
“Follow me. Although the original Sanctuary is gone, we can still find a place to live nearby.”
***
When Luo Shuangyue opened her eyes again, she found herself lying in a somewhat simple, single room. The bed board beneath her was very hard, almost like stone.
However, the blanket covering her was quite soft and comfortable, smelling of a faint fragrance.
“You’re awake?” Xia Mo, who had been guarding her, saw her open her eyes and quickly leaned in.
“Yeah… how long was I out?” With Xia Mo’s help, Luo Shuangyue leaned against a cushion. She couldn’t sense the passage of time while she slept.
In her memory, she had just closed her eyes in Xia Mo’s arms a second ago, but the faint sense of fullness in her soul told her she must have slept for a long time.
Long enough for her soul to recover from that heavy blow.
“Not long. Just about one month.”
“One month? That’s not long?”
“The Holy Sovereign originally told me you might have to sleep for half a year to wake up. Now that you’ve woken up in one month, can that really be called long?”
Everything was relative. To Luo Shuangyue, one month might be a long time, but to Xia Mo, who had prepared for her to be asleep for at least six months, it wasn’t long at all.
“Did anything happen during this month?”
“Nothing too urgent. Everyone is working hard to rebuild the Sanctuary. The Holy Sovereign went outside and brought back the Demon Emperors whose evil intent was stripped away.”
“…Huh?”
What did she mean by bringing back the Demon Emperors who had the evil intent stripped away?
“Where did you think that massive clump of evil intent you encountered before came from? The Holy Sovereign of the Demons extracted it from those Demon Emperors.” Xia Mo propped up her chin and explained what the Holy Sovereign had done, like telling a story to a child.
The Demon Emperors who were stripped of their evil intent didn’t die. Having lost their consciousness, they were hidden in a very secluded place by the Holy Sovereign, just like Anxing.
If the Holy Sovereign’s plan had ultimately failed, these Demon Emperors would have faced the end of the world in their slumber. If the plan succeeded, the Holy Sovereign, having restored his memories, would go and bring them back, allowing them to have a new life.
“Without the evil intent, their compatibility with this world isn’t actually that bad. Peaceful coexistence isn’t impossible.”
“I see… what was their reaction when they woke up?”
“A bit dazed, I suppose. After all, the opponent they fought for so long and the Mentor they trusted for so long turned out to be the same person. This matter was quite a shock to them.” Xia Mo let out a soft sigh, her eyes involuntarily drifting toward the window. “I’m wondering if letting them stay here is a good thing.”
During her free time over the past few days, she had visited these Nightmare Sovereigns and seen many familiar faces among them. They were all Full Bloom Class Magical Girls who were recorded in the Magic Department’s history in vivid detail.
They had given their lives for the victory of humanity and the Magical Girls, only to be reborn as Demons in another world. It was truly ironic.
If there was a chance, Xia Mo felt it would be better for these former Mentors to return to the human world.
Their friends and comrades were there. She believed their former friends would surely be pleasantly surprised by their return from the dead.
“But… are they really still themselves?” Luo Shuangyue guessed Xia Mo’s thoughts, but she had a different opinion on the matter.
Were these former Magical Girls who had been reborn as Demons in this world really still the same people?
Would those who believed they were dead comfortably accept their return?
This was not a simple question.
“It’s worth a try. I won’t make the choice for them; I’ll just give them another option.” Xia Mo smiled.
“They are just ordinary girls now that they’re no longer affected by evil intent. I don’t think the Mentors at the Magic Department would refuse their return.”
After all, there were so many Demon Emperors. Even if they weren’t sent to the battlefield and were only used for logistics, it would be a very cost-effective choice.
“Speaking of evil intent… has it really disappeared?”
Xia Mo did not answer this question.
The one who answered Luo Shuangyue was the Holy Sovereign, who pushed the door open and walked in.
“Of course it hasn’t disappeared. We only cleared the largest portion of evil intent in this world, but the Black Calamity will not stop. There will still be a steady stream of evil intent descending upon this land.”
“Dad…”
“I’ve already heard about your situation from Little Mo. You’ve worked hard these past few years.” The Holy Sovereign walked to Luo Shuangyue’s side and gently rubbed her head.
“So, why did the two of you go missing? Do you have any idea how sad Shuang Xing was?” Luo Shuangyue glared at him, starting to settle the score with her parent.
The time and place hadn’t been right before, allowing the Holy Sovereign to escape, but now that things were settled, she wouldn’t let this “good mother” of hers off the hook so easily.
“Uh…” The Holy Sovereign was momentarily speechless by Luo Shuangyue’s sudden attempt to settle old scores. To be honest, it really was his own fault.
But he couldn’t take all the blame. White Night had a part in it too.
“At that time, I was just a wisp of consciousness carrying an obsession, descending into your world in the form of a Demon. You can think of it as me having a countdown in my head. When the countdown was over, I had to come back here.” The Holy Sovereign spread his small hands, indicating that he had no choice.
“At that time, your mother and I were only halfway through our preparations. Neither your body nor your consciousness was strong enough to withstand the power we prepared for you, yet she and I had to leave at that moment…”
“So why did you have to leave?”
“Because I ran out of time, and so did she.” With a light sigh, a hint of melancholy flashed in the Holy Sovereign’s eyes. “The time we spent watching you grow up was indeed very beautiful, but both she and I have responsibilities. You should know where she is now, right?”
“Yes, that gray wasteland, the place you call the Deadland.”
“Yes. She and I made different choices. I chose to fight the final battle with the evil intent within the world, expelling it before it could accumulate enough to destroy everything. She, however, was more… confident. She chose to block the evil intent outside of your world all by herself.”