The villain's way to tame the protagonist

In the blink of an eye, Marina emerged from the Wild Flame Tower and stood in the wind and snow. She covered her chest and breathed unnaturally.

"It's... not good."

While releasing the greedy Devouring Head to devour the endless ether around her, the witch unconsciously touched her face which seemed to be getting hot.

She originally thought that her feelings for Anser were deep enough, so deep that they wouldn't fluctuate easily, but she found that she seemed to be wrong.

"Mr. Anser... It's really bad for you to be like this."

On the other side, Ansor, who was filled with a large amount of ether, speeded up the progress a little. He was still not in a hurry. Instead, Ji, who was completely at a loss, spoke first.

"Your Highness, what do you want?"

Ji has asked this question several times, but he is not simply repeating it. It is because he has a deeper understanding of Ansher every time...especially after Xin said those words.

He couldn't believe at all that the man Xin described was Anser, the cruel and dangerous Hydra, the uncrowned king of the empire today.

"What do I want?"

This time, Ansel actually answered Ji seriously, and even showed an expression of serious thinking.

"If it was before, I probably wouldn't be in the mood to answer you, but now..."

He held Gleipnir tightly. To Anser in the past, this was the strength that Flamel brought him, but to him now, this was the last comfort that a father could bring to his child when he was on the verge of despair and madness.

He asked Anther to kill all the enemies, but in fact... he just wanted Anther to protect himself.

"A perfect ending, that's what I want."

Anser Hydra looked down at the ring on his hand.

"A perfect ending that no one will regret, including...myself."

A crisp cracking sound was heard, and a passage leading to a deep space opened up in front of Anser. The young man turned his head and glanced at Ji, who seemed a little dazed and absent-minded, and said with a chuckle:

"Don't worry, this includes you, but before that don't forget..."

Ji still couldn't understand Ansher, but just from seeing this smile, he knew that the saint seemed to have succeeded.

Such pure self-confidence, and undisguised evil intentions...but this kind of malice is different from the nearly insane and violent malice he had revealed before. It is so frank that it is even inappropriate to describe it with words - it is so...clean.

——I am a bad person, so now, I am going to take away your most precious thing.

There is no deeper hatred or resentment, no vicious or cruel malice, it is just to express this meaning, nothing more.

"Don't forget, Xin, these are mine."

*

Stepping through the folded space channel, Ansor came to a huge dark space.

The passage was a bit narrow. There seemed to be some large equipment on both sides of the road, and there were complicated cables everywhere. At the end of the passage, one could see a very dazzling white light in this dark environment.

"It really is at the bottom of the Wild Flame Tower... Is this because I am confident or I have no choice?"

Anser walked along the passage. It was not surprising that Xin's "real body" would eventually be moved to this tower, but it was quite surprising that they moved in so early. After all, if Anser found out, they would be doomed.

But the church had expected that things should not develop like this - first, the persuasion of Xitana failed again and again, and then the plan to use Xin to coerce Anser also went bankrupt... Several preparations were made each time, but in the end each preparation failed. It was not easy for Bishop Ji to still muster up his willpower to act with Anser and delay time. It was obviously not in vain. These one hundred years were obviously not lived in vain.

"But if I don't move here, I won't be able to come and confront her, right? Your Excellency Fate?"

Anser's leisurely voice echoed in the empty passage: "Do you think this will be the last time you and I fight? Well... it shouldn't be. After all, you still have at least three cards to play, right?"

Effisandr who is sleeping in the Lost Sea, the still unknown brave Issa, and the mastermind who killed her mother.

However, can these three trump cards really work?

Hitana, Mingfroy, Marina, and Xin... If he can overcome this obstacle, can the disabled emperor, the brave man who has not yet grown up, and the Abyss Caller who may be living in the emperor's remains and lingering on, defeat Hydra who possesses them and has been reborn?

"I'll assume you still have some tricks up your sleeve, but before that..."

The light in front of him became more and more dazzling. As Anser got closer to the end of the road, he could already vaguely see a huge transparent cylindrical device with a strange sphere floating inside.

Anser took a step forward and in the blink of an eye he was under the cylindrical vessel. He looked up at the sphere in the vessel and murmured in a low voice:

"I'll...win this round first."

"Your Highness, the Regent."

A stiff and nervous voice came from the side: "You..."

"Oh, Bishop Mu, long time no see." Anser withdrew his gaze from the sphere, turned his head to look at Mu who was standing not far away with a terrible expression, and greeted him with a smile, "So it's you who is in charge of handling this... Haven't you been in the Empire all along? How do you understand this thing?"

"I haven't been in the Empire as long as Ji, so..."

Mu answered subconsciously, then immediately closed his mouth. He was so shocked that he didn't know why he answered subconsciously.

He only knew... that the boy in front of him, who seemed to have not changed at all, seemed to be a different person from before.

Anser smiled and didn't care. He just continued to look at the huge sphere in the instrument:

"This thing... is the special soul that maintains the divine magic system and serves as the core of the church's existence, right?"

"It's really amazing..." He exclaimed sincerely, "What an amazing masterpiece. Genius is something that will never be lacking."

Even now he is unable to analyze the principle of this thing, how it maintains stability and how it works. Even if Ming Furo comes, she will be shocked by the peculiarity of this soul body.

Led by the legendary genius pioneer who created the Road to Heaven, the church has exhausted its efforts for 800 years...the power of the entire continent should not be underestimated.

"If the emperor is willing to do this, wouldn't it be possible to find a way to solve the curse? What do you think, Bishop Mu?"

Anser said this suddenly.

If the Emperor could bring the entire empire together like the Church did, just to research a way to solve the erosion and suffering suffered by the Old Gods, would there be hope?

But whether this is possible or not, the emperor would never do this.

The gods would not think that mortals could solve problems that they themselves could not solve.

Mu was speechless, and Anser withdrew his gaze and sighed softly:

"Forget it. After all, they are two different things. God will not place hope in man, but it is reasonable for man to place hope in God, right?"

"This place... in my memory, it was originally the pioneer's workshop, right? Including the entire palace outside his workshop, it has all been transformed into a large research base."

Anser's eyes swept across the neatly arranged jars around him, and his eyes raised slightly: "The things in there are... Oh, so that's it."

He can see what's inside the container even if the container is opaque.

"It doesn't seem quite appropriate to describe it as a corpse. It's dead... but still has active flesh?"

Anser tapped Gleipnir with his finger: "Is this the way to maintain the activity and strength of that thing..."

The expression on his face gradually disappeared.

"It's a bit unpleasant, Bishop Mu."

The soul cannot exist without the body. Even as strong as Ming Fuluo was, she was determined to abandon her body. If Anser was a little later, she would have perished in the abyss. A soul without a body is destined to perish, and it seems that... that huge soul body is not simply using the souls of subsequent bishops as nutrients, but is constantly growing. This means that keeping the bishops' bodies intact can maintain its strength to the greatest extent.

"The final fate of every bishop is to dedicate their souls to this thing, and then soak their dying bodies in a jar... Ah, I'm not feeling sorry for your bishops. I respect their choices, Bishop Mu. I'm just unhappy with—"

Hydra's figure instantly appeared in front of Mu's eyes. Gleipnir turned into chain blades and then disintegrated, sticking closely to Mu's skin, able to pierce into his flesh at any time, and even potentially dismembering him directly.

"Did you guys do the same thing to Xin?"

An indifferent whisper sounded in Mu's ears. The bishop looked into those pure sea-blue eyes. There was clearly no uncontrolled brutality or madness in them, but they were just extremely deep.

But Mu felt... fear.

"Did you just create bodies after bodies that could hold that soul, and then put them all in jars, creating, using, and discarding their souls over and over again until you got Xin?"

Seeing Mu finding it increasingly difficult to remain calm, Anser, who had just been questioning him... suddenly started laughing again.

"——It's just a joke, Bishop Mu."

He removed Gleipnir and patted Mu's shoulder: "I just want to know where Xin's body is. If nothing unexpected happens, Bishop Ji should have informed you, right?"

Mu had no idea what to say, because Anser was absolutely right.

Just now, a few seconds before Ansel arrived here, Ji told Mu that they might have one last chance to turn the tables.

"The body of the saint..."

Mu forced himself to calm down, took a deep breath, and raised his hand to point to a row of neatly arranged containers in the center.

"These are all the flesh of the saint."

"……all?"

Anser saw the number of containers in an instant, no more, no less, exactly... one hundred and twenty-six.

Hydra looked at Mu thoughtfully: "You won't tell me that there was only one Saint from the beginning."

"Of course not. Saint Xin went through one hundred and twenty-six iterations before—"

Anser raised his hand to interrupt Mu's words, with a hint of surprise in his eyes:

"That is to say... Xin actually has no physical body."

A soul that exists beyond the body and does not need a body? The church actually created such a thing?

Those 126 bodies once used by the Saint were just the bodies that were "most suitable" for Xin. From the very beginning... Xin had no body.

I see... What's special is never the spiritual essence [awareness], but Xin himself.

Ze Rui is also the owner of [Awakening]. To be precise, he is the source of this spiritual essence. The Saint is a peculiar "creation" born through the research of the church, and its purpose from the beginning has been to replicate the purest and most perfect [Awakening].

How can one become the hero chosen by fate by simply relying on a spiritual essence that can be replicated?

But Anser didn't care about this at all now: "So, where did she go?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the sphere that had been silent in the huge container suddenly trembled.

And Anser...senses an extremely familiar aura.

"The bodies of the bishops exist to protect the souls led by Bishop Zerui. Your Highness, the Regent, the bodies of the 126 saints... are the same."

"After the iteration was completed, they all merged into this soul body. We have not experienced the collapse and return of the saint's soul, but she just now... also merged into this soul body. It should be because she was born from the saints of the past, so even if she has no body, when she returned, she instinctively merged into a place that is inextricably linked to her soul... But if this is the case, she should have randomly returned to the body of a saint."

Anser looked at the huge soul body that was beginning to change and suddenly laughed:

"You also said that, that's if. Isn't there another if... the if that He wants to see."

He glanced at Mu and said, "That's the if you want to see."

"...I, I don't know what you are talking about-"

"Did Ji tell you that this is your only chance to turn the tables?"

At this moment, Anser's expression was still so natural and relaxed: "That's why I told you not to disturb me. He was able to react in such a short time... He is really amazing."

"This soul body is completely unconscious, right? But Xin... is conscious. Even though he has suffered great damage, he is still conscious."

Anser walked forward step by step, stood under the huge cylindrical vessel that had begun to vibrate, and placed his hand on the wall cover.

"What will happen if you merge a conscious soul that is definitely eager to repair itself into an unconscious soul that has existed for eight hundred years?"

bah—

The shield shattered, and the huge sphere in the container changed its shape with the constant vibration, and gradually turned into... a sleeping woman huddled together.

This soul body is nothing in the first place. It has no consciousness and no self. If it is described in a physical way, it is no different from a pile of flesh. If it is described abstractly at the soul level... in fact, it is no different from the "energy" of the soul.

And when Xin, the only conscious soul, merged into this energy, it was impossible for her to merge into it like other unconscious souls. She would only use these soul nutrients to repair herself and strengthen herself.

"So that's why you brought it with you. Are you planning to use it as food for Xin?"

Ansher's body floated up and landed in front of the head of the huge female soul buried in its knees.

"You've even taken Xin's loss into consideration... Do you really intend to let her fulfill that so-called mission for tens of thousands of years, or even tens or millions of years?"

Anser looked at her who was still sleeping quietly and couldn't help laughing: "She is sleeping so soundly... Let me guess, has her consciousness and thinking returned to the god you hoped for?"

Anser's erosion failed to continue, and Xin's consciousness was obviously traumatized after being cleansed of the erosion of the abyss.

In this case, the bishops might be able to ignore Xin's thoughts and force her mind to restart again.

"...No, no, this is completely out of our control, Your Highness the Regent."

Mu looked at the sleeping soul and bowed his head helplessly: "If it's just a little bit... as you said, just swallow a little at a time as nutrients to repair the soul damage, then there is no problem. However, if it is completely integrated at once, the amount... is too large, so large that it will completely overwhelm the saint's self-consciousness."

"Whether it's the Xin you knew or the God we hoped for... perhaps, they are gone."

"So you also said, it's just maybe."

Faced with this desperate situation, there was no solemn emotion on Ansel's face, because he knew better than anyone that Xin... must still be in there, waiting for him.

"The Regent...Your Highness."