Chapter 208: In the end, he was just a selfish person.

“Congratulations!”

A cheerful voice of celebration, utterly out of place amidst the surrounding hellscape, suddenly rang out.

Juwaish now sat atop a half-burned blackened tree stump, swinging her legs happily while her cat ears twitched with delight.

“You made the most correct choice — the answer was choosing nothing at all! You jumped out of the little box I drew for you. Amazing, amazing!”

She clapped enthusiastically, her eyes curving into crescents before she muttered with slight regret,

“Though… there’s a tiny little flaw. Originally, nobody had to die, you know.”

As she spoke, her gaze drifted meaningfully toward the rear.

There, Xiaomu lay curled upon the scorching burnt earth like a ruined puppet stripped of all support. Terrifying cracks covered her shattered body, blackened marks intertwining with fractured skin like a clay statue on the verge of crumbling apart.

Having been struck head-on by [Half-Inch Dawn], while [Azure Fury] had completely severed all healing and energy replenishment, and with the World Tree — the source of her power — already reduced to ashes within the flames…

her life was rapidly fading away before their eyes.

Olivia, just as Juwaish had predicted, had not disappeared alongside the destruction of the World Tree. She merely leaned weakly against Perletti.

Behind Perletti, the witches were sprawled in exhaustion, their breaths weak, yet their chests still rose and fell.

But at this moment, Perletti had no time to savor this “victory.”

Every one of her senses had been seized and burned away by the sight before her.

The world-consuming flames danced wildly across her vision, devouring everything that had once belonged to the World Tree and staining the sky an eternal crimson.

The heatwaves lashed against her face and arms like tangible whips, carrying ash and destruction with them. The scorching pain repeatedly reminded her this was no dream.

Fragments of fear long buried deep within her were violently stirred by this terrifyingly familiar environment.

Her body began trembling uncontrollably.

Part of it came from instinctive fear of fire.

But surging even stronger than fear was a fury so intense it nearly burst through her chest.

Her gaze locked firmly upon the white-haired figure in black robes standing before the flames.

“Qingcheng…”

Her teeth ground together audibly. Fingernails dug deeply into her palms. The fragile thread of reason she had barely maintained snapped the instant she recognized the other party.

“QINGCHENG—!! YOU BASTARD!!!”

There was no greeting after a long separation.

No questioning.

The worry, fear, loneliness, and sense of abandonment she had suppressed for who knew how long exploded outward in the rawest and most primitive anger imaginable, like a volcanic eruption!

“Huh?” Olivia, whose eyes had brightened at seeing Qingcheng still alive, was instantly stunned by Perletti’s sudden torrent of furious insults.

She knew Titi probably resented Qingcheng for disappearing without a word, but…

to this extent?

What exactly had happened between them?

“Ohhh! Fight! Fight!!” Juwaish cheered excitedly, wildly waving her hands while her eyes widened with delight, terrified of missing even a single detail.

“The exact same face! The exact same soul aura! Watching someone curse themselves! Incredible! Truly incredible! You might not see a show like this even once in a thousand years!”

“Qingcheng! You complete and utter asshole!!”

Perletti ignored everyone else entirely as she stepped forward. The blazing heat surged against her face, yet she paid it no mind, only staring at the turned figure before her with reddened eyes.

“You could burn the World Tree into this miserable state! You clearly had this kind of power! Then why didn’t you show up sooner?! Do you know what I—”

“You have no idea how I survived all this time! I was scared! I was scared of choosing wrong, scared of watching them die in front of me! Even… even if you’d just spoken to me earlier! Even if you’d only told me you were still here, so I’d know I wasn’t the only one struggling to hold everything together… that would’ve been enough!!!”

By the end, her voice had become choked with sobs impossible to conceal.

Beneath the fury was naked vulnerability.

Amidst the crackling flames, silence briefly descended.

Qingcheng stood there clearly before them, the hem of her black robe fluttering in the scorching wind.

She looked quietly at this “self” standing before her — trembling from anger and emotion, eyes reddened, face filled with feelings she herself had long buried deeply away, though perhaps never truly forgotten.

After a long while, she slowly let out an almost inaudible sigh.

The exhaustion lingering between her brows seemed to fade slightly as she spoke in a calm voice tinged with faint hesitation.

“…Sorry. There were many things I needed to handle. Some necessary preparations also took time.”

No excuses.

No explanations about what those “urgent matters” truly were.

Just a simple statement.

Yet strangely, it was like a basin of ice water poured over Perletti’s raging fury.

All the accusations and grievances she desperately wanted to unleash suddenly crashed against an immovable wall of calmness, lodging painfully in her throat.

Perletti opened her mouth, but in the end merely slumped her shoulders in defeat and turned her face aside.

“…Fine. You win.”

“You… you two… which one is actually which?” Masha finally could not hold back any longer. Her crimson eyes moved repeatedly between Perletti and Qingcheng, filled with genuine confusion.

Two identical faces.

Even the source of their soul fluctuations felt astonishingly similar.

Yet their temperaments were completely different.

One blazed vividly like a living flame.

The other was deep and silent like embers left behind after burning.

“Big sis…” Perletti sniffed and gradually calmed herself before speaking softly.

“Just think of her as… the future version of me.”

She looked toward Qingcheng again, her gaze becoming deep and unreadable.

Perletti said nothing more.

She turned and slowly walked toward the curled figure lying amidst the heatwaves and ashes.

Every step landed upon scorching ground. Heat penetrated through her shoes, yet she seemed unable to feel it.

Her heartbeat thundered heavily in her chest.

The instinctive fear of flames still coursed through her limbs, but an even deeper, more complicated emotion overwhelmed everything else.

It was the exhaustion of surviving catastrophe.

The emptiness left by what had been lost.

And…

an indescribably complicated feeling toward the life now about to fade before her eyes.

There had truly been moments earlier — beneath the resin, when darkness completely swallowed the world — when she had been terrified.

Terrified that Judy would never curse at anyone again.

Terrified that Isabena would close her eyes forever.

Terrified that Olivia’s warm blood would truly stain her own hands.

She hated her selfishness.

Hated the indecisive self who clung to the fantasy of “saving everyone,” nearly causing all of them to die because of that hesitation.

Without Qingcheng’s flames burning everything away, the scene before her now would likely have become a genuine hell.

In the end, deep down, she was still that same “human” who feared, who weakened, who would desperately fight for the people she cared about.

The shell of a witch had ultimately failed to completely envelop the flawed heart belonging to “Perletti.”

“Hahahaha…”

A weak laugh carrying shattered breath escaped Xiaomu’s lips.

Realizing death was now irreversible, her face instead showed a strange calmness.

Even a trace of… relief.

Perletti crouched before her, separated only by the scorching air, and looked at her with a complicated expression.

“Do you… regret it?”

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