The villain's way to tame the protagonist

I can’t hold on… Is it the space around here?

Yes, those thirty-six cracks that were torn open in this plane with great fanfare were not because Ivora wanted to destroy it, nor was it because she had lost control. It was just a distress signal that she released when she was able to control her own power!

Without any hesitation, Anser rushed directly towards Ivora who was bound by the skeleton.

He raised his hand and summoned the remains of several extraordinary people that had not been completely burned, and threw them directly at the golden skeleton. The golden spine that was originally rooted in Ivora's spine was pulled out instantly, dancing wildly in the blood flames, and pierced all of these extraordinary people in an instant, and absorbed and swallowed them at an extremely terrifying speed, and then pierced towards Anser with the remaining force!

Gleipnir turned into a pitch-black blade and collided with the spine. Amidst the piercing hissing sound, Ansher's pupils flashed across a pitch-black color. The aura of chaotic madness and the abyss surged out and turned into substance, wrapping around it like a cancer, and actually froze it in mid-air.

The power of the abyss is not something you can consume just because you want to.

Anser took this opportunity to come to Ivora and asked expressionlessly:

"Who arrested you? Who are they?"

"help me!"

Although his hands were restrained on the armrests, Ivora still held Ansel's wrists tightly, his face as ferocious as a devil. Even though the situation was so tragic, there was no trace of pleading in his tone, but instead it was full of madness and hatred.

"First...save me!"

"It's too late, idiot!"

Ansher's voice suddenly rose, and a dark beam of light bombarded the bone shackles that bound Ivora's arms, but it only created a faint crack and was still far from breaking her shackles.

"Tell me who they are, what they are, and what powers they have!"

"Enjoy the Flame... Conquer the Sky... The Emperor..."

Ivora uttered these words intermittently. At the same time, the golden spine had actually digested and swallowed the abyss matter that Anther had condensed to the extreme, and stabbed at Anther again!

But Anser didn't even turn his head, still staring at Ivora: "You can obviously say more... What are you hiding!?"

“Heh…heh.” Ivora, who looked like a nobody, pulled the corners of his half-intact face, “You said it’s too late…yes…it’s too late…”

Behind Anser, the golden spine was tightly entangled by dozens of snake-like abyss substances. The dark lines on No. 9's neck went up all the way, almost covering most of her left face, wriggling and twisting like a living thing...even trying to drill into her eye sockets and into her brain.

But she showed no sign of wavering. As long as Ansel didn't plan to leave, she wouldn't stop.

"An…ser!"

Ivola leaned forward and roared at the top of his lungs:

"This is... a deposit! If you want to know... the answer, come again... to save me!"

In an instant, the space seemed to have experienced tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of peeling, twisting, breaking, reorganization, and leaping... The golden skeleton in front of Anser and Ivora imprisoned in the skeleton all disappeared.

"..."

Hydra turned around, and behind him was the rift in the maze that was shrinking and about to close.

Before he completely lost control, Ivora sent him back to the starting point.

And in Anser's ears, Ivora's last crazy words still echoed:

——I will create another chance and I won’t die here.

"...Mr. Anser."

An extremely weak voice sounded beside Ansher.

Number Nine, who was shaky and pale, fell involuntarily into Anther's arms.

"Is it...over?" She murmured, as if she might faint at any moment.

“…Yes, it’s over.”

Anser subconsciously hugged her body that seemed to have lost weight, and after turning back to take a last look at the depths of the blood flame, he whispered, "Thank you for your hard work, Marina."

Number Nine subconsciously grabbed Anser's collar, closed his eyes, and shook his head: "You still have one thing you haven't got. I failed to complete my task. I'm sorry."

"You've done a great job. Without you...it wouldn't have been possible."

Anser stepped out of the rift in the maze and returned to his original plane. Holding Number Nine in his arms, he looked down at the ground below and discovered that the endless blood flames that were burning were actually... flowing backwards!

As the thirty-six cracks gradually shrank, the water flowed back into the cracks!

But Ansher no longer has the heart to pay attention to these things. Ivora, the golden skeleton parasitized by the Abyss Caller, the still unknown mysterious force... There are still many problems he has to face.

After a brief silence, Anser said again: "You are really, amazing—"

Before he could finish his words, he realized that Number Nine had fallen into a deep sleep.

Because of the power that Number Nine dug out from the abyss, Anser knew that her life was not in danger, but her condition was still extremely bad.

Looking at the face that looked even more eerie and enchanting because half of it was covered with dark lines, but which showed a childlike innocent smile when it was sleeping in his arms, Anser subconsciously reached out and touched the profile of No. 9.

It was very cold, as if it had no temperature.

Even Anser had never thought that Xitana and Ming Fuluo would be almost unable to help him in his gamble...

The one who decides everything is actually the person you care about the least, the person you hate the most... the person who is willing to even abandon himself.

Marina Lancemalos, she did not awaken her spiritual essence to reach heaven overnight, nor did she break through the boundaries to ascend to extraordinary talents. The power she most desired and longed for that she found in the abyss did not improve her own strength... at all.

This power is - no matter how much power Anser instills in her, no matter what kind of power, she can bear it perfectly without any side effects, just like Anser's incarnation.

At the same time, she can directly bear any negative impact on Anser, including actual damage and erosion from the abyss.

Finally, she was able to give all the power she had obtained to Anser without any loss or restriction, allowing Anser to use her power as easily and naturally as using his own power.

Yes, this is Marina, this is Nine's heartfelt vision, this is everything she longs for, the gift she finds in the abyss.

——Become an unparalleled...perfect tool that exists only for Anser.

Chapter 8: Tools That Never Begged for Salvation (k)

For Anser, the most important thing that needed to be solved was ended so easily.

Of the thirteen dukes in the empire, three were eliminated due to the rebellion of Iron Blade and Gray Tower in the north and the extermination of the Holy Light in the south. The remaining ten all entered the maze, and the nine dukes headed by Grand Duke Long Yu were either burned to death by the flames of feasting or absorbed and devoured by the spine of the golden skeleton.

Grand Duke Qingjin originally survived, but because he did not meet Anther's standard of "truly caring about the people of the empire" at the last moment, he also died.

At this point... the foundation of the empire, the rulers of all the territories in this vast territory, were all destroyed, leaving only two rebels who were already in name only.

The strongest people in each top extraordinary organization have also fallen. From now on, even if the remaining extraordinary people want to gather together to kill Anser, it is impossible for this group of people to pose a threat to Anser.

If he wanted to be at ease, Anser could even slowly find the remaining fifth-level transcendents one by one and kill them all without leaving a single one.

Although the empire will soon face unprecedented chaos - the families and forces of the grand dukes will fall apart, the organizations without their leaders will have no one to suppress them, and the extraordinary people will turn into hyenas to fight for power...but these are not problems, because the current Anser has almost become the "absolute" he needs.

It was clearly planned that this could only be obtained by forcing Flamel to death and advancing to the sixth level. However, Ming Furo's determination ruined the plan and caused Anser to lose the chance to rule the empire. He had to make various disguises and hide, and act cautiously.

But who could have imagined that this power to truly control the empire would, by some strange combination of circumstances, fall into his hands so absurdly.

And it was so easy... unbelievably so.

In the luxurious room, Anser sat beside the soft big bed that could accommodate more than ten people, silently looking at the sleeping No. 9 with a complicated expression.

The battle in the sea of ​​fire in the maze... no, it couldn't be called a battle at all, but a one-sided crushing.

The conditions for achieving this crushing victory cannot be achieved even with all the calculations. It can be said that it is countless times more difficult and harsh than Anser becoming a sixth-level master.

First of all, there must be an opportunity that can summon all the top extraordinary people and make them decide to take risks - and there should be only two such opportunities in the world, one is to kill Ivora, and the other is to kill Efesandr who is definitely not endowed with divine power.

Ivora, who was captured by the mysterious force and was unwilling to die, created this opportunity for Ansher.

Anser took this opportunity to gather the few fifth-level transcendents in the world who truly cared about the empire and civilians and had extraordinary strength, to fight against the other group of transcendents who were driven by fate and had murderous intentions towards him.

But so far, the outcome is still unknown. Judging from the pure combat power, Anther is even at a disadvantage. If the remaining neutral transcendents find that Anther is in a slump, his situation will be even worse.

In the original plan, Ivora, who was supposed to counterattack, could be used, but he would also attack Anser. So in Anser's view... this would be a big gamble.

But two other crucial factors emerged.

The endless flames of feasting extracted from Ivora created an extremely dangerous environment. One had to bear tremendous pressure before conquering Ivora, and even greater risks during the battle... and Anser naturally had the optimal solution to resist the flames of feasting, so his chances of winning increased a lot.

On this basis, the real deciding factor that even Anser had not expected appeared on the charming girl with black lines on her left face in front of him.

——A puppet that can perfectly receive his power and share the side effects with him.

Using abyss matter to erode the extraordinary beings is neither difficult nor easy, but it is also impossible.

The whole body is covered with abyssal material that can resist the fire of Feast Flame all the time. It is of course impossible not to be affected by the abyss, but the key point is that the extraordinary people who fight against Ivora are all top-notch in the world, and they are fully capable of resisting this erosion - if the intensity of this erosion is in line with their cognition.

If Anser proposed to use the abyss material to help them resist the flames of feasting, then the extraordinary people who originally planned to stab Anser in the back would definitely raise their vigilance to the limit and would not let go of even the slightest bit of the abyss breath that might invade their souls.

But...what if it was Faust, who was at the same fifth level as them, and even if he had a certain talent for controlling the abyss, he could never be compared with Hydra?

Even though the Grand Duke of Dragon Language had already believed that Faust was Ansher's pawnbroker, and even though he had immediately dispelled the abyss matter that was entangled around him, he could not have imagined that Faust was not Hydra's pawnbroker, but in a sense, something even more incredible than the pawnbroker.

After all, even if it was Qi Shou, he could not be the same as Anser himself.

As long as they have this idea, and relax their vigilance even a little bit towards the abyss matter controlled by Faust, and there is a slight error in their understanding of Anther himself and Faust, it will be enough for Anther... or to be more precise, Faust who is borrowing Anther's power, to be eroded unnoticed because of that deviation... and penetrate into the souls of the extraordinary people.

This accumulates every minute and every second, and even if it is extremely small, when it explodes, it is enough to make them lose control for a few minutes.

In a normal environment, these few minutes might not necessarily cost one's life. Losing control is equivalent to going berserk, which does not mean being at the mercy of others. But in the endless sea of ​​​​flames... wasting ether and going berserk is equivalent to courting death.

The combination of so many extremely harsh factors led to such an easy and ridiculous victory.

If there hadn't been the environment of the Sea of ​​Flames, if more people had sided with the Grand Duke of Dragon Language so that Anther wouldn't have had time to fight back, if Ivora hadn't tried to save himself from the beginning, if No. 9 hadn't been able to abandon himself and only pursued the determination to become Anther's tool to seek power in the abyss...

Then everything is unknown, regardless of the outcome. Even if Ansher can really win this game, he will definitely have to pay a huge price.

Preaching in the abyss...the first person to be preached was Ansher himself.

In order to take back his mother's life from the predetermined future, Anser preached to himself at the age of ten, and gained from the abyss the terrifying power that could crush five fifth-level transcendents in an instant... no, even fifty or five hundred of them could be easily crushed into powder.

And Anelsa, who possessed a powerful soul, eliminated the negative impact of Anser's sermon at the cost of her entire soul - an erosion from the abyss that was almost impossible to reverse.

From then on, Anser almost stopped preaching to himself. He didn't want to experience that... dark despair again.

And if there was no Number Nine, Anther would definitely draw out this trump card that he was unwilling to use, and the tentacles of the abyss would spread further in his soul, and this time... no one would use their own soul to offset the erosion.

Even in the maze, No. 9, who was able to bear all the negative effects for Anther, including the erosion of the abyss, had already shared the burden for Anther, otherwise he would not have fallen into a deep sleep now.

Number Nine can bear power without any burden, but using it and bearing it are two different things.

Continuously maintaining the consumption of large amounts of abyssal materials, and at the same time eroding the souls of other extraordinary beings with extremely sophisticated methods... The abyss is never generous, and even charges the same price to those who are closest to it.

In this process, Anther and No. 9 were also eroded by the abyss. Although No. 9 could bear the burden for Anther, she had never thought about how to improve herself during her preaching, and she remained mediocre and fragile.

She had only borne a tiny part of the burden for Anser, but the abyss's erosion of her had become so serious that it had external manifestations.

Anser gently placed his hand on her forehead, and the girl, who seemed to be still suffering from the torture of the abyss even in her deep sleep, gradually relaxed.

"…Are you prepared to be abandoned this time and not care about it?"

Number Nine is the first person that Anser doesn't know how to face so far, and is willing to give up his own existence for him.

Anser would not accept anyone like that, but the help that Number Nine brought him was truly enormous.

Because of this achievement and because of Xitana, Anser actually planned to make an exception and not abandon No. 9, but No. 9's current situation...

"...Mr. Anser?"

A weak voice sounded in the room, and Number Nine, who was being taken care of by Ansher, slowly opened his eyes. His creepy dark eyes stared at the face that was so close to him.

Anser said softly, "Don't you need to rest for a while?"

Number Nine shook his head slightly and smiled softly: "That's enough."

...She didn't look like someone whose mind was confused by the abyss, nor did she look like someone who was completely addicted to Anser and lost herself in fanaticism.

"Marina..."

"I am number nine now, Mr. Anser," Number Nine reminded.

Such a clear self-awareness and loyalty would satisfy any superior, but Anser was not happy at all.

If he could have more autonomy, if he could have more ambition, if even one thing among the things that Nine pursued had nothing to do with him, Anser would be happy from the bottom of his heart.

But why...she is already hopeless.

"Okay, No. 9." After a brief silence, Anser withdrew his hand and said calmly, "This time, the help you gave me and the contribution you made are far beyond your imagination."

"So, I will do my best to meet all your needs, just ask me."

"Is this so..."

Number Nine tilted his head slightly and blinked:

"I want your ring."

"..."