Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

[If it's not a clone, then... a parallel world...?]

From the moment Alice came into contact with the world of the Supreme God's reincarnation, she had already prepared herself mentally—there must be two similar leaves in the infinite world, with almost identical ages and civilizations.

And this is a parallel world, so there must be a parallel Alice Margotrovid in a parallel world.

This conjecture was confirmed after she came across the Touhou Project floppy disk in the Ju-on world and consulted the corresponding Touhou Project setting book after returning to the Main God Space—undoubtedly, there are endless Gensokyo in this endless sea of ​​worlds. Each Gensokyo has its own unique setting, and the Gensokyo she inhabited might not be the original. After comparing them, it's more likely that her world is a secondary derivative influenced by these differences.

After all, not every outsider to Gensokyo is that ridiculously strong. The fact that the Touhou Project artbook can be exchanged in the Main God Space but doesn't offer any enhancements for 'Information Magician' speaks volumes.

If the other party isn't our enemy, then everything is fine. It's just an intelligence leak; playing dead wouldn't be a problem. Making an enemy of such a powerful entity is inherently foolish. We should avoid it whenever possible.

However, if the other party is our enemy, and their ability to think and plan is above average, then there are only two possibilities.

First, the enemy's combat strength isn't as strong as I initially thought. They simply obtained our intelligence through some channel, then created a disguise, attempting to mislead us with deception. Their real purpose is to buy time to accomplish something, or simply to disrupt our internal trust—after all, I'm already suspecting Saito Hajime is behind this. Based on that previous note, I'm certain there's some kind of deal between Saito Hajime and 'Angel.' Perhaps he's the one who leaked our information.

[Secondly, the other party is an acquaintance from a parallel world who knows "me." Like me, they have made contact with the Main God Space, which is why they are speaking to me in this way. And the purpose of this dialogue—perhaps—is to issue a challenge, a so-called "teaching and then punishing"...?]

She sincerely hoped it was the first possibility rather than the second. Because the former only required a little more effort, while the latter... was very troublesome.

If the other party matches the second conjecture, then based on the way the angel uses their power and their behavior, Alice has already deduced the most likely candidate in her mind. It is someone she did not expect, but after careful consideration, she finds that the possibility of that person embarking on the path of reincarnation is quite high.

But this wouldn't make much of a difference. The overwhelming power meant that this level of intelligence gathering was practically useless—she knew perfectly well that her parallel world self and her present self were two completely different individuals. And her parallel world friend, who understood the concept of reincarnation, wouldn't place any extra emotions on her, a reincarnated being—just as she loved Patchouli, she wouldn't show mercy to an enemy with Patchouli's face. Clearly, the other side wouldn't hesitate to act when the time came.

Therefore, the task at hand becomes quite simple. Since the other party's stance is uncertain, the solution is to probe and find out. The original strategy of proceeding cautiously, accumulating strength for a sudden, overwhelming push must be revised. Instead, a more aggressive strategy with a far greater impact will be adopted.

She let out a soft breath, watching the halo of light sink completely below the horizon at the edge of her vision, and gently tapped her forehead before dusk and nightfall. Then, she reconnected with Patchouli.

Patchouli, some complicated things have happened, and the plan needs to be slightly changed.

【……………………？】

No, the general plan remains the same. There are just some new preparations. We'll discuss the details when we meet; this is just a brief overview.

【……………………。】

[Hmm, an unexpected enemy has appeared. To deal with this guy, we need to try and build a star extraction tower on this planet.]

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

Patchouli frowned slightly as she disconnected the communication that had been interrupted and turned her attention back to the battlefield in the town.

Five minutes ago, she and her group finally reunited with the mechanical legion, and the ordinary people in the town had mostly left. Communication with the church was also re-established, and she could even see Zhan Lan and Xiao Honglu standing behind the glass on the second floor through the church windows.

Everything is ready; now it's time for the final test.

Zheng Zha, with the thickest and toughest skin, naturally became the triggerer of the spell. After Patchouli temporarily gave him seventeen or eighteen layers of passive protection to deal with various situations, he walked without hesitation towards the seemingly empty square in front of the church.

Then, the technique is activated.

Just as the witches had predicted, when the outsiders who attempted to enter the 'Lost Eden' appeared, a solid beam of light appeared in the empty square in front of the church. And that beam of light rapidly expanded in a very short time, becoming a real, tangible entity.

Angels, with wings of light, harnessed the tides of energy to annihilate any enemy who dared to invade the 'Lost Eden'. They showed no mercy, no compassion. Zheng Zha, the one who triggered the spell and walked alone at the forefront, naturally bore the brunt of it. But in the instant of contact, more than two-thirds of the seventeen or eighteen layers of protective barriers meant to safeguard Zheng Zha shattered.

The unfolding curtain of light resembled a peacock spreading its tail, pure white light refracting into a rainbow of colors in the atmosphere. Beautiful yet dangerous, sacred yet terrifying. Even the aftershocks of the attack possessed immense power. Under that radiant light, centered on Zheng Zha's position, two fan-shaped areas at sixty-degree angles behind him were instantly wiped out by this sacred radiance. Houses, power lines, walls, roads… all man-made structures withered into ashes in an instant. Their material structures were shattered, directly disintegrated into independent molecules at the microscopic level.

The trail of destruction stretched for a hundred meters behind Zheng Zha. If Patchouli hadn't cast a spell to disperse the ordinary people beforehand, at least a hundred lives would have been lost in that single blow.

The church remained unscathed; the spell protecting the 'Lost Eden' had successfully restricted the angel, becoming an invisible shackle binding its actions. And it was precisely for this reason that Patchouli glimpsed some of its true nature.

Are these man-made...divine weapons?

[It lacks independent consciousness, merely acting like a machine according to pre-determined instructions. That's why the process of being bound by the 'Lost Eden' went so smoothly. I thought it could only last for a moment, at most making it manifest before it would cease to function.]

[I never imagined it would last for so long.]

Her thoughts raced, and within a few seconds she arrived at her answer. Meanwhile, Zheng Zha, who had been in a state of combat readiness from the start, brandished his demon-headed broadsword and roared as he engaged the angel in battle. Zhang Heng and Zero Point, along with others, provided long-range support from afar.

The battle quickly reached a stalemate.

While the angel possessed formidable combat power, it was bound by the spell of the 'Lost Eden,' forcing it to divert its strength to protect the 'Eden' behind it from the flames of war while dealing with Zheng Zha and the others. Consequently, its mobility was limited, and aside from occasionally unleashing laser-like beam attacks, it was unable to harm Zhang Heng and Xiao Honglu. Meanwhile, Patchouli's magical support and protective spells proved effective against Zheng Zha.

One shield shattered, another was added; two shattered, two more were added. Ten layers broken… well, that would indeed take some time to repair. But Zheng Zha, as the vessel, was clearly not a passive victim. After confirming that the angel couldn't destroy all the defenses around him at once, he changed his strategy from direct confrontation to hit-and-run tactics emphasizing mobility. He dodged when the shield was damaged, and when Patchouli repaired it, he risked injury to land a couple of blows on the angel—of course, the outcome was predetermined from the start. The angel would be injured, while Zheng, as the one drawing fire, only needed to withstand the shockwave from the partial collapse of the shield.

If the shield doesn't break, he'll be a hero again in a dozen seconds.

Unlike Alice, who fought the angel alone, Patchouli's situation involved multiple people working together to deal with a weakened version bound by magic and deprived of vital mobility. Even though the angel's formidable vitality and robust energy body were difficult to break through in a short time, it was only a matter of time.

This problem was solved much faster after Patchouli's mechanical legion formed its battle formation and switched to artillery mode—once it was confirmed that the angels were divinely created weapons, and their actions were indeed bound by magic, requiring them to protect the church embodying the concept of the 'Lost Eden,' Patchouli used remote communication to instruct the newcomers and veterans within the church to quickly evacuate the designated area where friendly fire might occur, along with the main character. And then—

—A barrage of cannon fire.

Having received the warning, Zheng Zha quickly dodged, but the angel, forcibly given the duty of protection, had no choice but to spread its wings of light to forcefully withstand the oncoming barrage of countless lasers, solid projectiles, and plasma spheres. Violent energy fluctuations instantly filled the entire battlefield. And visibly, the angel's energy was rapidly weakening under the weight of this barrage.

Patchouli isn't afraid of attrition; she has plenty of mechanized infantry to serve as cannon fodder. Once this batch is used up, there's always another, and after that, she can still take up arms herself.

However, the angel, as the enemy, is different—it is trapped in a predicament, and most importantly, it has no intention of escaping it.

[Weapons that don't need to be worn out... Ah, on Earth they're at least elite troops.]

I really hope it's not one of those mass-produced items that can be made several times every five minutes.

Patchouli thought to herself that although she was worried, her mind was filled with joy because of the victory.

—Until she received a communication from Alice.

Happy holidays, and a few words of advice.

In short, happy Children's Day! Those who can't celebrate, you can figure it out yourself.

Then, let me briefly talk about the recent situation.

I've been quite busy with work lately, and also because of the matchmaking service, my time has been rather tight. Well, readers can probably guess what's going on just by looking at my daily update schedule—it's usually after 1 or 2 PM, sometimes even 3 PM if I'm unlucky. It's been a daily grind, and while the writing quality hasn't drastically declined… I certainly feel it's become a bit bland. This is evident from the subscription numbers; although the average daily subscription is still over 3,000, recent chapters are only around 1,000, which is quite dismal. To sum it up, besides the late updates leading to slightly lower quality, another reason is that I've become less consistent with longer chapters after increasing from 2,000 to 4,000 words per chapter, resulting in too much exposition. Naturally, readers are preferring to let it sit for a while.

Well, that's alright. The groundwork for the plot is almost done, and what follows is more intensive content. I'll probably write another seven or eight chapters and then prepare to divide it into two volumes. In short, the script is finalized beforehand, and there will be absolutely no changes this time. Please look forward to it.

Oh, by the way, in a few days I'll probably change the setting of "Fallen Leaves" and rewrite it, satisfying my imagination while finishing up the parts I didn't cover in the Ju-on arc. It'll probably be considered a side story, but it won't affect the book's updates. I see quite a few readers are interested in that book, so I'll continue it. I'll probably start a new book about it then; those interested can check it out.

Finally, the most important thing—

'Touched it today'

Chapter 59 Where is Conscience?

Stellar Extraction Tower...

Patchouli has yet to decipher how the tower works. In fact, her understanding of this pinnacle of Cybertronian technology is still limited to the most superficial level. Like a monkey with a TV remote, she knows that pressing a few buttons will make the machine work, and with some modifications, she can achieve the desired effect. But its driving principles, its operation, and even some of its internal details—she knows very little about these.

She knew very well that she wasn't smart... perhaps a little better than Alice, but far inferior to those truly gifted geniuses who could easily analyze, decipher, and transform an unfamiliar scientific system into what they needed.

—Take Paracelsus, for example. This famous alchemist created androids with independent souls in the 14th century using outdated theories and a limited research environment. Alice, who inherited his magic and was determined to create a perfectly autonomous humanoid, spent six hundred years only creating the vaguely similar Penglai and Shanghai. Even with Patchouli's help, their collaboration only resulted in a little devil that, while infinitely close to a real person due to its vast information, was essentially just a high-level AI.

Both of them were merely mediocre. Perhaps they were better than ordinary people, but there was an insurmountable gap between them and the pinnacle of those eras. Their survival to the end was nothing more than luck, and had absolutely nothing to do with true strength.

This is precisely why her progress in analyzing Cybertronian technology has always been quite unsatisfactory.

The deeper she delved into her research, the more she understood the unfathomable depths of Cybertronian civilization. To put it bluntly, at its peak, or perhaps before its complete decline, Cybertronian civilization could easily wipe out any number of witches of her caliber. Just as human civilization posed virtually no threat to her, in the eyes of the powerful Cybertronians, she could probably be categorized as a harmless wild animal.

Megatron and Optimus Prime, along with their minions, were merely refugees in the Cybertronian civilization—and she had more than once felt grateful for their good fortune as she browsed the Cybertronians' advanced technology, which was considered bizarre mechanical magic even by the standards of sorcerers like them, through the Mirror One supercomputer she had acquired from the far side of the moon.

The Star Extraction Tower was not a weapon in the hands of the Cybertronians. If a precise description were necessary, it would be a giant machine similar to a mine—simply choosing a planet in a suitable star system as a base, this relatively quick engineering marvel could drain a bright main-sequence star, turning it from a brilliant celestial body into a dull iron ball. Endless light and heat would then condense, compress, and ultimately fill the spark source used to contain this energy, becoming the spark needed for the Cybertronians' daily lives.

[Perhaps to the Cybertronians, it really was just an industrial mine.]

But for a civilization as underdeveloped as ours... that's a powerful weapon capable of extinguishing a star in a very short time.

Patchouli thought to herself that she knew the situation had changed when she received Alice's communication. Undoubtedly, something unexpected had happened on the angels' side; perhaps the quality of individual angels had changed, or perhaps the total number of angels had changed. In any case, Alice must have judged that the current plan was inadequate to cope with the future situation, which was why she made that judgment.

The specific details can only be fully understood after the two meet in person.

[Her unwillingness to explain directly in the communications suggests this is a serious matter, and a leak could have severe consequences. Therefore, I need to be much more cautious in my actions here.]

Patchouli blinked. The aforementioned thoughts hadn't actually taken up much of her time in reality—at least no one else noticed her momentary lapse in concentration. When she regained her composure and refocused her attention on the battlefield, her legions continued to unleash their firepower on the ritual-bound angel, who, with the passage of time, was slowly dying.

The wings of light obscuring the church grew smaller and smaller, and the color of the light became increasingly dim. Patchouli carefully adjusted the landing point and density of the ion cannons and high-energy rays to ensure that her legion would not be caught off guard by the sudden death of the angel and directly blow the church to smithereens—if they had not died from the angel but were accidentally injured by their own people, then some of them would probably not rest in peace even in death.

Naturally, Patchouli didn't give these guys a chance to die with their eyes wide open. About thirty-five seconds later, the angel's radiance finally weakened to its limit. With a 'bang,' it disintegrated into countless pure white specks of light. The barrage of bullets, whose firepower had already been adjusted to its lowest setting, didn't advance far after breaking through the angel before crashing into the protective spells on the church's inner wall and shattering. The damage... amounted to nothing more than a patch of plaster no bigger than the palm of a hand.

The experiment is over.

The witches' deductions were proven true—these angelic energy beings were indeed bound by the Church's myths and legends. While powerful, they could be defeated through strategic planning using the relevant legends and stories, and even their power could be harnessed for their own use. This was undoubtedly a huge boon, and as the dust settled, Patchouli could feel the joy in the eyes of Zhang Heng and Zero Point, who had been providing support from the start.

However, this joy came to an abrupt end when Zheng Zha emerged from the dust of the shelling and announced a message from inside the church.

"Someone inside died just now. Right when we killed that angel." He said this with a gloomy face and a depressed mood.

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

The dead man was one of the new recruits, named Li Laoshi, the white-collar uncle whose edges had been worn down by society. When the mechanical legion's final artillery barrage pierced through the angel's remains and shattered against the protective spells on the church's inner wall, he happened to be avoiding the area that might be affected by the artillery fire, thanks to Xiao Honglu's arrangement.

He intended to go up a flight of stairs, but slipped and fell on the second step. Another newcomer who was with him caught him in time, but unexpectedly, he lost his balance a second time after being pulled back, and fell forward onto the steps with the momentum of being pulled up.

And then, his neck broke so easily.

Xiao Honglu didn't even have time to react... no, he did react, but only during the initial unexpected event. When Li Laoshi fell backward, he promptly used the power of the Three-Eyed Clan to create a soft energy cushion at the bottom of the stairs. He just hadn't expected... that the truly fatal blow would actually come from another newcomer's help.

"What is this? Have we been wasting our time?" When Zheng Zha and Patchouli rushed back to the church and saw the body lying flat on the ground, its face ashen and its heart no longer beating, the anger in Zheng Zha's eyes almost materialized and flowed out, igniting this refuge that could no longer be considered safe.

Ah, that's right, the true form of Death has been found. Its identity has been confirmed, its weaknesses have been discovered, and the two witches each took down two, demonstrating its strength. Theoretically, all that's needed now is to proceed cautiously, and everything should be fine.

However, fate likes to play tricks on people.

No matter how much preparation, calculation, or planning, what good is it? The one destined to die will still die, and will die 'accidentally' in full view of everyone, under the tight protection of the experienced. Undoubtedly, this is the angels' retaliation, retribution for killing the servant of God; this is the sacrifice the sacred things tell fools must pay!

“He might not be truly dead.” Patchouli frowned, pushing aside the senior members who stood between her and the deceased, and walked to the body. She gently squatted down on one side, raised her hand, and touched the corpse’s forehead. “This is ‘Eden,’ even if it’s just a replica, it’s still an ‘Eden’ where the dead don’t exist. Whether it was an accident or premeditated, I don’t believe his soul could dissipate in just a few dozen seconds.”

She said it calmly, her tone as detached as ever.

"So what if I'm dead? It's just a broken neck, damage to the central nervous system, and the brain stopping working because it's deprived of oxygen. It's not a very serious injury; it's just that this body is too weak to withstand even this little bit of damage."

"Even if you're truly dead, you must come back to life. Because I won't allow it!"

She snorted coldly, and the next moment, a complex magic circle unfolded around her. Pure white light completely enveloped her figure and the dead corpse. The phantom of an apple appeared and disappeared in the light, and then, with Patchouli's movements, the phantom slowly sank towards the corpse's chest, attempting to merge into it.

Zheng Zha heard the sounds of bones returning to their places, the sound of blood flowing, the sounds of flesh reconnecting, and nerves reconnecting. As the pure white light gradually intensified, he could sense a life slowly reviving.

The anger that had just risen in his heart vanished instantly. The next moment, he saw an apple suddenly fall from the two trees in the preaching hall, float in mid-air, fly towards the radiance surrounding the spell, and quickly disappear into the halo.

The Garden of Eden, the apple, the fruit of life.

In the Garden of Eden, eating the fruit of life grants immortality.

“It seems that Sister Alice was prepared all along.” Xiao Honglu’s voice suddenly rang in Zheng Zha’s ears. The voice contained helplessness, as well as a little admiration: “I originally thought that Sister Alice left us here as bait, ignoring our lives and safety in order to complete the experiment. At that time, I was a little resentful, but I found that I was just being a petty person.”

The boy shook his head and chuckled self-deprecatingly. "But I'm only twelve years old anyway, just a kid, so this is pretty much my true nature... so it doesn't really matter."