Chapter 79: The Awakening and the Truth

Eve finally understood Anna’s actions.

She saw Anna clutching the ring in her hand, her shoulders trembling slightly.

This wasn’t the girl being foolish again; she was choosing to escape reality!

Anna knew the Eve before her wasn’t Yulim Wilivia, but she refused to accept this truth. She was choosing to flee from it.

Eve sighed, stepping forward to pat Anna’s shoulder.

The girl’s body jolted, and Eve’s cool voice spoke.

“Anna, it’s time to wake from this dream.”

As her words fell, Anna’s eyes widened instantly.

In a daze, Anna felt as though she had plunged back into a dream.

She was in the fortune teller’s shop, seated across from the witch-hatted diviner, who now frowned and declared, [My scrying crystal cannot be wrong.]

[The Miss Yulim Wilivia you speak of does not exist in this world.]

[She must merely be someone your subconscious conjured, a fantasy born of profound loneliness.]

‘Profound loneliness… a fantasy…?’

‘No!’

‘That wasn’t a fantasy!’

‘Every day I spent with Yulim Wilivia felt so real!’

‘It was absolutely not a fantasy!’

‘No! It wasn’t!’

‘She’s the one lying to me!’

‘That fortune teller is a liar!’

‘Yulim Wilivia is clearly right here with me!’

‘This is just a nightmare… right?’

Just as Anna desperately tried to cling to the belief that this was merely a nightmare, a bizarre scene unfolded.

The woman in the witch hat did not, as she had in the previous dream, shake her head regretfully and dismiss her.

Instead, a smile suddenly curved her lips, and her eyes transformed into a chilling grey-white.

A gaze filled with hatred clearly reflected Anna’s face.

Though her lips remained sealed, the woman’s voice resonated directly within Anna’s soul.

[Foolish Godslayer, it is time for you to open your eyes and see reality for what it truly is.]

Hearing that familiar epithet, Anna’s heart clenched, and a chilling dread crept up her spine.

Staring at the woman whose aura had drastically shifted, Anna clenched her fists.

“It’s you… Goddess of Finality…”

[Heh heh~ Do not look at me with the eyes you reserve for an enemy.]

The woman rested her chin on her hand, tilting her head slightly, her eyes twinkling with amusement. [You know very well that it was the High Heavens who slew your ancestors. I am merely an ordinary deity who claimed the authority of freedom.]

Anna, however, acted as if she hadn’t heard. Blue streams of magic surged around her, her long blue hair billowed, and her eyes instantly deepened to a profound sapphire, as she entered her Judgment Form.

Her hand transformed into a blade, pointing directly at the woman before her.

Anna stared at the woman with an expressionless face, her voice chilling to the bone.

“I have no desire to hear your nonsense. What do you want with me this time?”

Even with a blade pointed at her, the woman remained unconcerned, maintaining her enigmatic smile.

[Nothing much. I merely do not wish to see one of my adorable apostles vanish from this world, alone and desolate, all because of some foolish individual.]

[Take care, Godslayer.]

The next moment, the woman closed her eyes, and the surrounding scene shattered like fractured glass.

Anna found herself back in the stables, with Eve silently watching her.

Eve, at this moment, was utterly bewildered.

She had only intended to pat Anna’s shoulder to help her regain clarity, yet Anna had inexplicably ‘burst forth’ with power, transforming into a state Eve had never witnessed.

Her face was utterly devoid of emotion, as if frozen, and her entire being emanated the frigid aura of an ice longsword. She exuded an aloofness that pushed people away, while simultaneously radiating an intensely dangerous presence.

The blue magical energy swirling around her was so sharp that its edge could be felt even without proximity, threatening to cleave and shred anything that dared to touch it.

Concurrently, Eve received two system notifications.

[You have received a gaze from the Goddess of Finality.]

[The Goddess of Finality’s favor towards you has increased.]

Eve: ???

‘Wait… what just happened?’

‘And where did *this* Goddess of Finality suddenly appear from?’

‘Hold on, why did her favor towards me inexplicably increase by one?!’

‘This supervillain BOSS, who sounds like she’s about to destroy the world, why is she suddenly paying attention to me?’

‘I didn’t do anything!’

‘If anything, all I did was pat Anna’s shoulder!’

In that moment, Eve felt her limbs turn icy cold… though they were already cold to begin with…

‘But I’m still really scared!’

In her Judgment Form, Anna’s senses were infinitely sharper than those of an ordinary person, and she immediately detected something unusual about Eve.

She perceived no trace of the vitality a living being should possess from the girl before her.

There was no body temperature, no heartbeat.

It was as if a cold, walking corpse stood before her.

“Luosha…”

Anna struggled to force the name from her lips.

The truth lay before her; the Goddess of Finality had been right, and Luosha had been right. Even if she wished to escape it now, she simply could not.

The crystalline blue blade in her hand dissolved into shimmering motes of light. Anna’s eyes regained their clarity, and she stumbled, only to be caught by a recovering Eve just before she fell.

Leaning against the girl’s embrace, Anna’s eyes welled with tears. She feebly thumped Eve’s chest repeatedly with her small fists.

“Luosha… why… why did you lie to me…?”

Since leaving home to adventure, she had endured countless deceptions, but this one…

‘It hurts so much…’

‘My heart aches…’

Eve found herself unable to bear Anna’s vulnerable state, and a profound sense of guilt overshadowed her previous shock.

Taking a deep breath, Eve held Anna closer, her voice softening into a gentle comfort.

“…I’m sorry, Anna.”

“That wasn’t Yulim Wilivia’s or my true intention.”

“Yulim Wilivia wanted to prepare a birthday surprise for you, to repay your constant care.”

“That’s why I helped her deceive you. Please, can you forgive our well-intentioned lie?”

At the mention of Yulim Wilivia, Anna’s entire body trembled, and the hand thumping Eve’s chest stilled.

With tear-filled eyes, she looked up, gazing at Eve with eager anticipation.

“…”

“Really?”

“Yulim Wilivia truly just went to prepare a birthday present for me?”

Eve nodded. “Yes, it’s the absolute truth.”

A soft chuckle escaped her.

The girl, who had been crying moments before, suddenly broke into a tearful smile. “What was all that for… So it was just this…”

“That silly Yulim Wilivia, really. Why bother with a big surprise for a birthday… couldn’t we just share a cake…?”

Her strength returned in an instant. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she pulled away from Eve’s embrace and looked at her again, her gaze full of expectation. “Then, Luosha, where did Yulim Wilivia go? What kind of gift requires such secrecy from me?”

Though Eve was reluctant to dampen Anna’s newfound spirits, having decided to reveal her identity, it was even more imperative not to conceal anything further.

“Yulim Wilivia, she went to the Elf Forest to retrieve the Godslayer Sword.”

The girl, who had just begun to smile, felt her expression freeze once more.

Anna wondered if her ears were playing tricks on her. She reached up to rub them, then asked again, her voice stiff. “Luosha, where did you say she went?”

“The Elf Forest.”

“…”

The next moment, Eve once again witnessed the surging blue magical energy.