The villain's way to tame the protagonist

It stopped jumping and turned to look at the entrance to the courtyard: "Well, now that we are here, we should stop talking about the girl."

The blond boy with a cane walked calmly into the courtyard. Behind him, the girl, who was four or five centimeters taller than him, was trying hard to look calm and natural, but she looked stiff and nervous.

"Good morning, father."

Ansher bowed his head and saluted Flamel from a distance.

Xitana also followed suit in a panic and quickly bent down: "Good morning, Mr. Flamel."

In fact, Flamel had already arrived in the imperial capital a few days ago, and Hitana had met him many times, but she still couldn't help getting nervous whenever they met.

It’s not because of how strong Flamel is, nor because of how great Flamel is, and it has nothing to do with Hydra’s identity, it’s simply because... he is Ansher’s father.

Just like she still often feels at a loss about the enthusiasm of Ansel's mother, Miss Sitana always feels dizzy and at a loss in front of the parents of the person she loves.

"Come and sit."

Flamel waved at Anser with a smile: "Since I came back, you haven't sat down and talked with me for a few times. Are you so busy?"

Anser walked to sit opposite Flamel, and Hitana followed closely, standing behind Anser like the two contracted leaders behind Flamel.

The girl couldn't help but secretly look at the three-meter-tall, muscular man behind Flamel, and suddenly she felt guilty - it wasn't that she was afraid of him, but she was worried... would she become so horrible in the future?

Now, it's already tall enough, any higher would be wrong! Not to mention all those muscles... so ugly!

"You should know that we were organizing a game for His Majesty before." Anser smiled and took a sip of the wine poured by Savile.

"Oh... Effisand has gone crazy again." Flamel nodded. "Did those messes affect you?"

"No, I'm fine." Ansel answered very calmly.

"That's good." The mature Hydra laughed heartily, "Otherwise Tianxin City wouldn't be big enough for me to demolish, hahahaha——"

One was calm and polite, the other was quite enthusiastic. The atmosphere between the father and son was really weird, but when Hitana looked at the other clan leaders, they were obviously used to it, so she could only remain silent.

From some of the memories that Anther showed her, even a fool like Hitana could deduce some scattered factors. Thinking back to what Anther had experienced, her heart couldn't help but ache.

"Effisand won't be able to hold out for long. At the slowest, it will take two years, at the fastest, half a year, before he joins the Source Flame."

Flamel sighed, "But she doesn't look like the kind of person who would just wait for death. I'm a little worried that she will do anything to survive. The dragon clan's path is the only path that can be taken by the dragon clan. If she is really desperate... she will most likely throw herself into the Lost Sea to look for a ray of hope."

"But before that—"

The man smiled and said, "I'll help you kill her, Arthur, don't worry."

Xitana's mind was confused and she couldn't recover.

Flamel saw Xitana's expression at a glance, and then cast a slightly surprised look at Anser: "Arthur, didn't you tell little Xitana anything?"

"... said a little." Anser lowered his eyes slightly, "There is no need for Xitana to know too much now. She just needs to be pure enough and not worry about meaningless things."

"Arthur, Arthur... Qishou is here to help and share the pressure between us, not the other way around."

The man gently spun the teacup and said with a half-smile, "Why do you seem to be protecting little Xitana when you took her as your vassal?"

The young Hydra raised his head slightly and said calmly: "This is not protection, it is a reasonable choice."

"You didn't ask her opinion?"

"I don't have to ask her opinion."

"Really?"

"..."

Anser was silent for a moment, then sighed and said:

"Xitana, you should have understood the responsibilities and requirements of a bonded leader the moment you and I formed a relationship. But I didn't tell you about Hydra, Flame Eater, and the four Old Gods, because I don't think you need to worry about something so far away now."

"But father is right." He tilted his head slightly and stared into the girl's dark red eyes. "I should know your thoughts. Do you want to know? About those secrets."

"I……"

When she met the pair of intoxicating sea-blue eyes, Xitana gritted her teeth and said firmly:

"I need to know... because I am Anser's contracted leader. Mr. Flamel is right. I am here to share Anser's pressure. I am not someone who needs Anser's protection."

She mustered up her courage, and under the gaze of Flamel and the four heads of the clan, she placed her hand on Anser's shoulder and said in a sonorous and powerful voice: "Anser, I must be your strongest head of clan, right!"

"...There's really nothing I can do about you."

Anser shook his head and smiled, then gently patted the back of Xitana's hand: "Now that you've said that, what else can I do?"

"Let's start with... the most basic things."

The young Hydra took a sip of wine and said, "There are two paths to transcendence in the world. You should know this, Xitana."

"Well, the road to heaven, and... the abyss."

"Then do you know the difference between the road to heaven and the abyss?"

The girl shook her head awkwardly.

"The difference is..." Anser raised the wine glass, staring at a completely different world through the glass wall and the crystal wine. "Only when the soul and the body are combined and sublimated in the first and second stages of the road to heaven can they begin to touch the elements. For those who step into the abyss, their souls will touch the elements from the very beginning."

"...Ah?" Xitana was confused. "Aren't the extraordinary people who take the path of the abyss more powerful?"

"Of course." A faint black mist spread from Ansel's fingertips. Lawrence, who was standing on Xavier's shoulder, shivered and quickly hid on Xavier's other shoulder. Tyr's expression also changed slightly, but Torado, on the contrary, showed an expression of obsession and desire.

Anser stared at his fingertips and said softly, "But the problem is that the abyss gives you power and always takes a price from you."

“It’s a blank slate.”

A piece of paper appeared out of thin air in Flamel's hand. He shook it and said to Xitana: "You can regard it as a human soul, and then..."

A ball of water condensed in his other hand: "This represents transcendence."

"Stepping into the abyss means immersing this blank sheet of paper...directly in water."

Anser said: "You are absorbing the extraordinary, and the extraordinary is also devouring and transforming your soul. If it reaches a certain limit..."

The water ball had absorbed so much water that the paper had become extremely wrinkled and fragile. When Flamel gently pulled it, it broke into pieces.

Flamel gave Xitana a very vivid example and shrugged: "The extraordinary will destroy you completely."

"But...but why is it like this?" Xitana asked in disbelief, "The extraordinary will...destroy the extraordinary? How is this possible? I, I have never felt this way before."

"Because transcendence is essentially... a leap, an extremely violent leap."

Anser whispered, "By understanding the world, you can achieve a leap forward in yourself."

Extraordinary people achieve leaps through understanding the elements, and the essence of the elements is the composition of the world.

"But how can humans, living things, living things...possibly possess the ability to thoroughly analyze the world?"

Flamel nodded his head. "That's not some extraordinary power, but a true analysis of the world from another perspective that can't be described in words."

"Think about it. Countless information flows and countless strange mysteries are constantly impacting and infiltrating your soul and will. Things that you cannot understand, recognize, feel, or even describe are like that ball of water, constantly corroding your soul until it completely collapses and shatters."

Xitana looked at Anser in front of her, her voice trembling slightly: "This... Can't this be stopped?"

Anser reached back and held Sitana's hand, and although he tried to comfort her, his words did not contain any soothing intent.

"The reason why the abyss is called the abyss is because once you are touched by it, there is no turning back."

"From the moment your soul comes into contact with the elements without reservation, you will be eager to understand more mysteries and achieve a leap in life. Even if you don't want to, your soul will pursue it. The more powerful the extraordinary person is, the more he will perceive, until he can no longer bear the increasingly complex, profound, and even mysteries that are beyond your understanding. In the end, in this unknowable and incomprehensible world, his soul will be shattered and he will die of madness."

"The Path to Heaven does not have this hidden danger. In the first and second stages, the body is elevated through extraordinary elements, allowing the soul to first change the body as a container. After the soul is sublimated together with the body, it has a hard shell and can choose to actively filter and accept elements instead of passively accepting infiltration."

Flamel created another stone out of thin air and threw it into the water ball: "People who achieve transcendence through the road to heaven are like this stone. They will be imbued with transcendental power, but they will not be transcendental. They will be corroded by the essence of the world and become riddled with holes. As for the price..."

"Since it is impossible to be completely penetrated like 'paper', the nature of the world that can be understood and perceived is naturally not as detailed as 'paper'. Therefore, the sixth stage of the road to heaven is just a theoretical hypothesis. From the time it was established to the present, no person or creature has reached the sixth stage."

No creature has ever reached the sixth level through the road to heaven, which means...

"All the Old Deus."

Anser stroked Xitana's palm and whispered:

"They are all destined to fall into madness and eventually die under the endless erosion of the world's essence."

The more powerful you become, the more you can access deeper elements and information that represent the essence of the world.

However, the limitations of the levels make it impossible for the powerful abyss transcendents to recognize and understand these elements and information.

This inability to understand makes them more frantically pursue a leap in the level of life.

And if you want to make a leap... you must become stronger and continue to dissect the elements and information that you still cannot understand and recognize from the essence of the world.

It's an unsolvable, desperate cycle.

The curse from the world hangs over the heads of every spirit.

After becoming Anther's heir, Hitana instinctively understood her responsibilities - that is, to share the chaos and madness that eroded Hydra.

But Hitana actually didn't understand what this so-called "chaos" and "madness" were. She thought that this was just a problem of Hydra, the monster that symbolized the abyss.

"Among all the Old Gods, Hydra should be the most unfortunate one."

Anser couldn't help but laugh, not knowing whether he was laughing at the so-called gods who were destined to be insane, or at his own... absurd fate.

"Because of the complexity and breadth of our power, we have suffered the most severe information erosion. It is so severe that we are the only one among the four gods that cannot even possess wisdom. It is precisely because of the breadth of our power that we are regarded as the embodiment of the abyss."

At this point, Anther has completely revealed the nature of Hydra to Hitana.

The crazy blood flowing in the body of this End Monster is actually due to the power that almost completely permeated the abyss, and it has attracted endless information that has even torn and wiped out their wisdom, turning them into mad monsters that have power but pursue power until they are destroyed and die.

Hitana clenched Anther's hand. She now knew why Anther was unwilling to tell her about Hydra. Even his own memories were not revealed to her much at that time. Only those tragic experiences.

Because of this fact... this destined destruction, destined to be destroyed in the most tragic way, Shitana could not accept it.

"Why are you feeling so bad?" Anser chuckled. "Becoming my sworn brother means that you are destined to sink into the abyss with me."

"I am not alone, Sitana, and neither are you."

"Anser..."

Xitana's voice was a little hoarse: "Is there really no solution? I don't believe it... Can't the emperor help you?"

“That’s just a delay, not a solution.”

Anser shook his head: "Each God species is fighting against this erosion in its own way... Why do you think the emperor wants to help Hydra burn that madness? Is it just because of the need to build an empire?"

"No, that's because the Feast Flames can more clearly understand the essence of the world from the madness of burning Hydra. Each generation of them intends to use this... to reach the seventh level that no one knows whether it exists. At the same time, they use the empire to anchor their own humanity. This is how they fight against erosion."

As the only extraordinary being born with sixth-order strength as a human being, the Feasting Flame Royal Family... has a crazy ambition to surpass the other three species of gods.

They do not choose to waste time or escape, but choose to look for a glimmer of opportunity to leap forward in the endless madness and completely break free from the shackles of this madness.

It's just that the erosion that Hydra suffered in the beginning was too huge and terrifying. The benefits of bearing and burning this madness for Hydra were not proportional to the risks. Therefore, the founding emperor of the empire let Hydra cut off eight heads of itself, leaving only the most important original leader.

"So I won't let Effisand get away like that."

Flamel said with a smile: "If her daughter hadn't inherited the power of the sixth level, she wouldn't have been able to help Arthur burn the erosion from the world. How could I let her... leave such a mess behind?"

Anser turned around and looked at Xitana, who looked miserable, and said helplessly, "I knew you would become like this. You will have such a thorn in your heart and will never be happy. That's why I didn't want to tell you."

"But it's so important—"

"It's not important now." Anser interrupted Xitana, "We still have a lot of time, Xitana. I'm not yet at the point where I'm tortured by endless factors and information every moment. It's still a long way to go, so your worrying is meaningless now. It's just making yourself distressed in vain."

"Well, I don't agree with this." Flamel stood up, looked at Xitana who clenched her fists with a smile, and said softly:

"Arthur, little Xitana is your pledge, not the canary in your cage. You should consider how to make her help you better, not how to make her happy."

"... about this." The man touched his head awkwardly, not looking aristocratic at all. "I understand this very well. I can only say that Arthur and I are too much like each other. In this respect, we are... um, exactly the same."

"Don't be too scared, little Xitana. Doesn't Anser's behavior just prove one thing?"

Young Hydra's father winked at the girl:

"He really loves you."

"Father."

"Ahahahahaha, your big boy is shy, little Sitana."

Flamel ignored Anser's warning words, looked at Xitana, whose expression was slightly relaxed and whose face was gradually turning red, and said with an extremely happy smile: "Go hug him and tell him that he doesn't need to worry about you."

"Father."

Anser said in a slightly cold voice: "Enough is enough."

The man raised his hands innocently, indicating that he would not say anything more.

Xitana, who was standing behind Anther, was silent for a while, then bent down without hesitation and hugged Anther's neck.

"Anther..." The girl gently rubbed Anther's cheek, "Just like Mr. Flamel said, don't worry about me."