Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

“You’re right, but I don’t want to entrust the fate of my destined one to what you reincarnators call side quests. I need a sufficiently effective plan to ensure she can live peacefully and normally in this so-called world of reincarnation. For that, I can offer some extra leverage in this deal.”

"...I don't think you can offer any other bargaining chips." Alice tilted her head, her gaze serious. "You're not a reincarnator, and your destined partner is just an ordinary newcomer. If you intend to offer support in exchange for a share of our upcoming operations, then I can tell you directly that you cannot provide combat power of corresponding value—this world will soon move away from this cautious, shadowy mode where everyone pokes and we touch each other, and your prayer-based abilities won't be of much use on the front lines later on."

"Or are you planning to resort to some irrational tactics?" Alice's serious gaze suddenly deepened. "My body is indeed undeniably a mortal one, and within it resides a fragment of a soul that is quite important to my original self. If you intend to use force to retain this body and the soul fragment and use them to negotiate with my Central Continent Team, then the chances of success will be infinitely close to one hundred percent."

“However, I’m using this body to prove my sincerity. To prove that our Zhongzhou team has no intention of wiping you out. Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant to my team, but if you trample on this sincerity, then you have to be prepared to bear the consequences—and those consequences will not be ones you can afford.”

"I'm not that stupid." The white-haired figure before Alice took a deep breath, her slightly trembling fingers suggesting that this mop-like creature might have considered taking coercive measures earlier—her control and interference with the reincarnators of the Southern Flame Continent team was simply a matter of extracting soul fragments. She had used the same method when attacking Alice in White City, and now a soul fragment, requiring no magical guidance, was right before her eyes.

Unfortunately, she ultimately held back. Alice didn't get the chance to turn hostile and gain a greater advantage, and the conversation could therefore continue.

“I have more to offer.” She took a deep breath, as if making a firm decision. “I need your Central Continent team to ensure that my destined one earns enough reward points in this and subsequent cycles of reincarnation. Enough to get her through this world, and even after she’s gone, to allow her to return to the wealth of her homeland. In return, I can join you—just like you and those two from the East America team did, I will bring my destined one with me. And once my destined one leaves the cycle of reincarnation, I will continue to fight for your team until this debt is settled.”

"It sounds like a very sincere offer." Alice tilted her head slightly, neither confirming nor denying.

"...So, are you willing to accept this sincerity?"

Alice nodded, and just as Altair breathed a sigh of relief, she uttered cruel words.

“I’m sorry, no,” Alice replied. “You cannot keep this promise and cannot join any of the Reincarnation Squads.”

"Why!?"

"Because you are Altair, the constellation Aquila. You are the soul of the planet."

"But the main god does not accept star souls."

..........................................

I recklessly challenged Lilith again, and it took me thirty seconds to draw a single stone...

Section 53. I feel that the negotiations over three sections have been long enough...

There is no power in this world that comes without a price, just as breathing requires the lungs to move and walking requires the feet to lift. Even those convenient powers that are considered free are only so because the price paid is so minor that users subconsciously ignore the cost of using them.

Of all these powers that come at a price, Prayer is undoubtedly the most costly—a black-box operation, an omnipotent domain. Based on Alice's past experiences and knowledge within the God Realm, using Prayer-based powers invariably requires a tremendous sacrifice—life, soul, memories, emotions—these precious things are merely fuel easily consumed before Prayer, this money-devouring behemoth. Even so, the use of this power still faces numerous limitations and difficulties in its execution.

However, Altair encountered no difficulty in wielding these powers, as if her internal energy were inexhaustible, requiring no concern about such minor losses—Alice made this judgment largely based on the crudeness of Altair's operation displayed in her several direct and indirect encounters with this white-haired creature—Alair actually didn't really know how to use her powers, relying solely on talent, instinct, and a small amount of scientific calculation. Otherwise, Alice wouldn't have so quickly found her weakness and brought her out of the world's dark side.

If Alice possessed this power of prayer, and their positions were reversed, she was even confident that she could bury all four reincarnation teams in this world before Chu Xuan could react. Although that was based on the premise that she had prior knowledge of a large amount of information, the fact that someone as timid and cautious as Alice dared to have such an arrogant idea naturally suggests the actual power of this prayer.

Unfortunately, this power is not applicable to the front lines of battle.

Altair possesses such immense and peculiar power, yet she uses it as if it were a counterweight on a high-precision machine tool. This can only mean that Altair's power originates from divine favor or some other source whose value is entirely unquestionable. Furthermore, she likely never encountered any threatening enemies before arriving in this world. Therefore, considering all these factors, it's not difficult to conclude that Altair belongs to a race with extraordinary talent, and that she is actually quite young and inexperienced. And if we use this as a further basis for deduction…

...Okay, actually we don't need to do that much deduction.

Alice was certain that Altair was a Star Soul not because of any particularly brilliant reasoning or meticulous logic—she was certain because she had dealt with Star Souls on numerous occasions. Leaving aside the timeline in Gensokyo, in the world of Final Destination, she had witnessed the transformation of Earth's true god from a stellar memory into a Star Soul. Patchouli and she herself had even nearly become Gaia in that world at the very end—she was only one step away from the complete form of a Star Soul. Therefore, she naturally knew the characteristics and essence of a Star Soul.

This was originally a crucial piece of intelligence, and that was part of the reason she had come here in her mortal avatar. She had initially planned to use this intelligence in a more appropriate way—for example, to exploit the overlap in certain traits between star souls to devour this white-haired creature as easily as eating a chocolate chip cookie when things turned sour. But now—she had changed her mind.

“The Supreme God does not accept Star Souls; to be precise, the Supreme God does not accept any race that was not mortal from its origin.” Alice repeated, looking at Altair, who was truly stunned by this explosive news. “I have had firsthand experience with this in previous worlds—and I have no reason to deceive you here.”

"You cannot be of any help to us—even if you were to force yourself to, you could only offer some assistance that is no longer of great importance in this world. Your power actually originates from your massive star soul essence—the power of prayer. If you lose the source of your prayers, you will naturally become worthless. And the object of your prayers is clearly yourself, which is why you can still be so powerful after crossing worlds. But this power is limited to this one world at most... at most two more worlds."

Alice stared at her, her voice low and unreadable, her words carrying neither goodwill nor malice.

"I can smell the aura of the Star Soul on you. You are Aquila, and like your name suggests, you are the Altair, which is often referred to as the Cowherd Star in the East. After leaving your universe and the massive star that could endlessly support you, the sheer size you possess is actually diminishing every moment—you cannot join the Reincarnation Team. Even if you manage to form an alliance, you can only travel between worlds on your own when the reincarnators go to another world—of course, you can draw energy from the corresponding Aquila in each world. But not every world the Reincarnation Team goes to has a universe and starry sky."

“You can’t help us. You can’t even…” Alice’s gaze went over her shoulder and looked behind her.

"I can't help her."

She was startled and terrified. Despite being a superhuman being capable of sensing every minute change within a radius of kilometers, she was too frightened to turn around—of course, there was no one behind her; the tightly closed door remained unopened. But her actions genuinely revealed her concern for the person behind her who needed protection.

The glint in Alice's eyes softened slightly.

[Before we entered Gensokyo, Patchouli and I were like this too... Ah, am I being a bit too sentimental? The part that controls this body is the self responsible for judgment among the three selves. But now I'm revealing some of my true self's traits... This meeting shouldn't have even happened. I should have lured her into a trap without her noticing, squeezed every last drop of value out of her, and then disposed of her, at most ending her in a sweet dream. But instead...]

[Is it because I've become weak...? No. Is it because I'm moved by the feelings between them...? Not entirely. So be it... Never mind, now's not the time to think about that.] She shook her head inwardly. [Anyway, I've given her the chance. Let's see if she can find a glimmer of hope in my words to protect those destined to be together. If she doesn't even have that level of understanding and judgment, then let them fend for themselves here.]

Alice was thinking, counting down the five seconds as she pondered. Just as she counted down to two, about to lift her foot again and leave Bag End without hesitation, she finally heard that voice calling her name.

"Please wait a moment!"

Alice tilted her head and waited as instructed.

"You just said that the Supreme God does not accept Star Souls, nor does it accept any race that is not mortal, right?"

“Yes, that’s what I said.” Alice nodded slightly and looked at her. “So?”

She then witnessed the white-haired man before her making his decision for the second time since their meeting.

"Then, if my destiny... no, there's no longer any need to keep this a secret. The person I cherish—Shimazaki Setsuna. If I transform her into a non-human being, will the Supreme God abandon her status as a reincarnator and leave her in this world?"

“You’re right, but it’s difficult.” Alice raised an eyebrow. “Simply transforming a mortal into a werewolf or vampire won’t have much effect. In the judgment of the Supreme God, even if a mortal reincarnator acquires many strange bloodlines, wields the strangest and most bizarre powers, or suffers the most bizarre and complex injuries or curses—even if their body becomes a lump of mud and their soul is deformed into the shape of a slime—as long as they still retain even a trace of their mortal consciousness deep within their heart, they are still human. They are still a reincarnator recognized by the Supreme God.”

It's difficult, but difficult means possible. Considering the context of Alice's words, it's not hard to guess the true nature of her new bargaining chip—she possesses the means to turn this 'difficulty' into success. And to acquire this means, naturally, she needs to pay another price.

"It sounds like being a Reincarnator is some kind of precious and remarkable status." Altair forced a bitter smile. "I didn't even do anything. The hatred that spontaneously arose when I saw Setsuna being tortured upon my arrival turned the entire East Blue team into bait for the Ringwraiths. From that moment on, I knew I absolutely couldn't let Setsuna continue to stay alone in this treacherous environment. I originally wanted to become a Reincarnator like her... to help her pay off her negative points in the team battles in this world and survive until the end of the main storyline. Then, based on what I learned from the memories of the Southern Flame Continent team, I would have her exchange for a God's Watch and return here to bring me into her team... I didn't expect it wouldn't work from the very beginning?"

“It was indeed impossible from the very beginning.” Alice looked at her with great pity. “Even if you are a mortal now, the Supreme God will not allow members of the Reincarnation Squad to recruit plot characters who are stronger than the strongest member of the team. And if you even give up your power—not to mention that you can’t do it, even if you could, the Supreme God’s world is not friendly to two girls who know nothing about reincarnation.”

“After all, while being a reincarnator is indeed an extremely precious identity, that’s relative to those who abandon stability and crave self-improvement. The strong and those who desire strength are like in heaven here, while the weak and those who crave stability are practically in hell in the world of reincarnation. And I guess your Miss Setsuna isn’t someone who desires combat. Otherwise, our conversation wouldn’t have continued so peacefully until now,” Alice said. “She seems to be a lady who doesn’t like to make decisions on her own.”

“…She just doesn’t know.” A bitter smile appeared on Altair’s lips. She turned to the side, and the wall behind her became transparent as Alice’s gaze fell upon it—a sleeping, dark-haired beauty, like a princess from a fairy tale, lay quietly on a large bed behind the wall. She wasn’t sleeping well; even in her dream, her brows were slightly furrowed, as if she were having a dream that wasn’t good but wasn’t exactly a nightmare either.

—She was a pure, ordinary person, without any mixed bloodline, and without any entanglements of past life's good fortune or complex karmic threads. Her only two advantages were probably her relatively peaceful sleeping posture, even when she wasn't dreaming, and her pretty face, which barely scored around 85 out of 100.

“I didn’t tell her what happened here. After I arrived, I only learned some initial details before letting her fall into a deep sleep and have a restful dream—those reincarnators from the East Sea Team died too easily. I originally planned to tell her in person when she woke up that I had resolved everything. But I never expected—” She sighed softly.

[But I didn't expect the main god to be on the side of mortals... Tsk, I've fallen into this trap before. Oh well.]

Alice shook her head inwardly countless times.

"You've taken a bit too good care of her. That's not wrong, but arranging everything for your companion as you see fit isn't exactly a good thing. After she wakes up... well, I don't know about your relationship, so I won't pry. I only have one question for you—"

"—Can you make an irreversible decision for her?"

Silence fell over the room.

After a long while, Alice heard a deep voice.

"I can, but what else can I give?"

“It’s good that you’ve made your decision.” The witch’s voice held a hint of lightness. “You may not be able to pay much more, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get more in return… I know you found Melkor Morgoth’s warhammer in some corner of the world and let it somehow end up with the Celestials. We originally planned to use it to force the Celestials to take risks, to make them use Melkor’s power, thereby luring the Valar gods down to the mortal realm and ruthlessly ripping them off. That’s why I said the war that followed would be a battle on the front lines—but now, it seems we have a more profitable plan.”

Alice gently put her fingers together and sat back down at the table.

“There are still many details that need to be discussed and revised. Considering that your determination may affect the efficiency of the plan's execution, I will not hide the finalized plan from you. But before that…” She poured herself a glass of water.

“I’m a little interested in your past, if you don’t mind telling a story. We’ll have about three days—two days and seventeen hours to be exact—to deal with this.”

Chapter 54: The Main Boss is Always Unremarkable

The war between Zheng Zha, Alice, and Sauron lasted for a considerable period of time. For a full day and two nights, the outer perimeter of the Black Gate of Mordor was scorched by the flames of war.

Clearly, Alice's foolish actions couldn't be kept secret. At least not from Zheng Zha, who was fighting alongside her, or Soren, her adversary. After the first wave of attacks, Soren adjusted his Dark March, changing his strategy from 'defeating all the invaders' to 'delaying Zheng Zha and defeating Alice.' The Reincarnators, on the other hand, also made corresponding adjustments. The result was an incredibly long and drawn-out battle, which didn't end until late the next night.

The witches' deductions about the One Ring were correct; Sauron, without it, indeed no longer possessed the formidable qualities unique to fourth-tier beings. Even in his homeland of Mordor, where all the advantages were on his side, his combat power was only at the limit of the early fourth-tier—his manipulation remained at the molecular level, and his accumulated energy was at most equivalent to the reserves of a thousand giant nuclear power plants operating at full capacity for a thousand years. While undeniably vast, Sauron's strength paled in comparison to Exusiai, whom Zheng Zha had witnessed—a being as dynamic as an active star.

So, Sauron was defeated. Not decisively, but with no chance of reversal. His only extraordinary warrior, the Witch-king Angmar, who commanded the Ringwraiths and could resurrect infinitely within Sauron's domain, was slain 136 times by Zheng Zha while tasked with delaying him. Each kill was faster and more swift than the last. The first battle took ten minutes to finish, but by the hundredth, it had only delayed Zheng Zha for a few dozen seconds. And when the battle had dragged on long enough, Sauron, unable to capture Alice while Angmar was delaying Zheng Zha, and having exhausted most of his energy, finally saw Alice hastily and somewhat frantically activate the arrangements she had Zhang Jie prepare. And so, everything ended, not so abruptly.

It's really nothing special; it's just another use of the same old trick—a space-based solar cannon equipped with a stellar extraction tower. The Supreme God didn't issue any high-tech bans during this battle, and even if he did, this solar cannon was a magical creation handcrafted by the witches. The reason for delaying for a day and two nights, besides depleting Sauron's defenses and concentration, was also to slowly absorb sunlight without damaging the world's celestial structure—after all, Mordor is perpetually shrouded in clouds, making it impossible for anyone, whether ordinary or extraordinary, to notice changes in sunlight.

The following steps are then quite simple.

When Sauron was exhausted and his spirit and energy were failing, with most of his energy and all his legions tied up on the battlefield of Mordor, a single solar cannon shot blasted down, turning the entire Mordor into a layer of glass—all the dark creatures, including wraiths, orcs, dragons, mammoths, and all sorts of other things, were reduced to indistinguishable ash within microseconds, or rather, not even ash remained, only scattered particles of matter. And since all of Mordor had been reduced to this state, its master could only meet the same fate.

Although the black tower housing Sauron's eyes remained largely intact, it had completely exhausted its energy under the bombardment of the solar cannon. By the time the reincarnators who had dodged the bombardment returned, the unfortunate Dark Lord was utterly powerless to resist.

And so, the war ended. Without any changes, without any ripples. It was simply a war of attrition, impossible for any external interference. The planners had predetermined the outcome from the very beginning, even though Alice, one of the participants, was a dim-witted witch with limited intelligence. The battle was not altered in the slightest by this.

The Reincarnators emerged victorious, and Mordor was reduced to ashes. The ultimate villain, Sauron, after a desperate battle, became a prisoner, incapable even of suicide. The two remaining elements of Mordor—the Black Tower housing the Eye of Sauron and Mount Doom, constantly monitored by the Black Tower—now serve as a temporary base for the Reincarnators. Although the witch who oversees this base is currently in a state of mental derangement, her engineering and construction abilities remain intact.

So, when Zheng Zha, having accomplished the arduous task of defeating Sauron, slept in the black tower that had become his temporary base, and awoke to find everything around him transformed into working steel and machinery, he felt not surprise, but rather a strange sense of familiarity and peace. This feeling of peace intensified when he emerged from the tower and saw that the entire Mordor Basin, which had been a glass-enclosed landscape just yesterday, had become a massive processing plant and industrial base.

"As expected, this is how Margot Lloyd should be. A witch should focus on logistics and things like industrial production." Zheng Zha rubbed his face, replaying in his mind the unusual commotion Alice had caused during yesterday's tug-of-war.

He had to admit that Alice, despite losing her mind, was actually quite formidable, even though she used mostly nameless, conventional magic like magic cannons and lightning strikes. She managed to withstand Sauron's onslaught throughout the entire battle thanks to the incredible regenerative abilities of her fourth-tier body—whether it was the high-intensity rays hurled from the Black Tower, the unified evil march of magic, or even Sauron's final act of forcibly conjuring a thousand-year-old avatar from the Black Tower and wielding a flail to smash her down, nothing could harm her—of course, she was repeatedly smashed into a pancake, but since she eventually recovered her form without injury, it didn't matter.

The thought of Alice's humiliating beating yesterday brought a smile to his lips.

"I wonder what kind of trouble she's going to cause this time." He focused his mind slightly, and Alice's prominent presence immediately became clear in his perception area. Although Zhang Jie wasn't on the main battlefield yesterday, he was still working hard on the sidelines and was quite exhausted. So now, the only one who can still maintain energy is Alice.

He turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the newly forged steel jungle beneath his feet—centered on the black tower and the Doomsday Volcano, a mechanical factory spanning approximately 20,000 square kilometers was intricately connected by various pipelines and passageways. Like an ant colony, countless floating robots flew orderly through the high and low air, transporting and managing all sorts of resources. And when he focused his attention, he sensed faint signs of intelligent life emanating from within those floating robots.

The reactions of intelligent life are not simply a heartbeat or the sound of blood flowing. Rather, they are the brainwaves naturally emitted by low-intelligence beings when they are thinking and processing information, and the subtle particle changes indirectly caused by these waves. Under normal circumstances, Zheng Zha limits his understanding of intelligent life to mortals over one year old. However, in the robot he happened to notice this time, he sensed an intelligence level at least equivalent to that of a ten-year-old mortal.

Machines shouldn't have human thought processes, not even the fastest ones. This is a machine Alice designed, and she's always been reluctant to waste extra time and resources on robots used for engineering tasks. That would only slow down her work. And since she won't waste time doing that, then…

Zheng Zha reached out and made a grasping motion, and a floating robot that was relatively close to him was immediately drawn in front of him by a sudden gravitational wave—this was a simplified application of positive and negative energy that he had comprehended after learning those cultivation techniques. Although it didn't play a significant role in the battle at the moment, it would come in handy sooner or later.

Zheng Zha lowered his eyes.

The instant he drew the robot in front of him, he deciphered its internal structure—a typical metal frame, typical wiring connections, a typical power system, and typical external tools. And connecting all these components was a typical brain.

A living brain, the brain of a living being. A portion of the brain was removed and then fitted with numerous complex neural pathways to provide computational power, and in many places, obvious wear and developmental marks can be seen—this is not an artificially created brain. Rather, it is a brain taken from the skull of a living being, a brain that has had a not-so-short life history.

A surge of anger suddenly erupted within Zheng Zha, a terrifying, almost uncontrollable rage welling up from the depths of his soul, filling his mind. He instinctively decided to tear through space to find the Alice he sensed, then grab her by the neck and give her a good talking-to—

How could she? How dare she! By what right did she inflict such unnecessary harm on a living person...?

"Huh, this looks like an orc's brain?"

Zheng Zha's anger subsided as quickly and decisively as it had appeared. He casually dismantled the pitiful machine shell before him, pinched off a piece of living tissue from the bioprocessor inside, and used a genetic analysis method to determine its composition—undoubtedly, it was a genuine orc brain. In yesterday's battle, the aftershocks alone had killed no fewer than a million orcs, and given the abundance of organic resources, it wasn't particularly remarkable that Alice had taken a portion to accelerate the project.

"Ugh... I almost wronged her. Luckily I didn't go over..." Zheng Zha pounded his chest, letting out a small breath of relief. However, before he could even exhale halfway, his back was covered in cold sweat!

What's wrong with me?! Why am I having these thoughts?!

[To turn against my cherished companions and draw swords for a group of mortals I may not even know? God, how could I do such a thing?]

He pressed his hand to his chest, feeling a wave of nausea at the very thought that had just crossed his mind. It was true that he, Zheng, disliked harming the innocent, and he was indeed happy to help innocent civilians in distress when it was safe and not urgent. But that didn't mean he would place the safety of a group of strangers above his own companions. It made him feel… like he wasn't himself anymore.

"An inner demon." Zheng Zha made a hasty judgment of himself. "I need to find Margot Royd for help. But she's clearly not in a normal state right now... Damn it! I'll try anything!"

He shifted his body's orientation and took a step forward, rapidly approaching Alice's location. He easily bypassed the massive, sophisticated machines, heavy processing plants, giant mechs, and other chaotic structures along the way. The distance between him and Alice drastically decreased.

A terrible idea suddenly popped into his mind, and the instant the idea appeared, he immediately tried to deduce it clearly by simulating Xiao Honglu's thoughts.

Wait a minute, Margot Lloyd... is she hinting at something? Some of her actions these past few days have been strange... no, not just her sudden irrationality. It's what she did after she acted irrationally...

A quote from Alice came to mind.