Chapter 41: Repeating the Same Mistake
“You…” Elthorp stammered, at a loss for words.
He looked at Bai’s face, at her appearance, and felt a familiar, terrifying aura emanating from her.
A brief contact with her soul power, and his own mind trembled, a series of brilliant silver lights flashing before his eyes.
He quickly broke the connection, no longer daring to probe her soul.
He possessed a similar ability, and from the very beginning of their conversation, he had been secretly observing the changes in her soul.
So, although she had only spoken a few words, he had learned a great deal, including the fact that she was not Ice Lily.
But his soul ability was more “observation” than “control.” He couldn’t interfere with another’s soul, and his own was relatively fragile.
Even so, with this ability, he had accomplished much.
Except for now.
From the very beginning, he had thought he was in control. But now, he felt a sense of… bewilderment.
“Who… are you?”
He had had an answer, but now, everything Bai was showing him had overturned all his previous assumptions. This mysterious young woman… he felt a sense of powerless bewilderment.
“Heh, this feeling of losing control… it’s not pleasant.”
He quickly composed himself, but the feeling of being in control was gone.
“Now, do you have your answer?” Bai asked softly.
“Perhaps, perhaps not… but one thing is certain,” Elthorp said, closing his eyes, a flash of silver in his mind. “You possess the same power as the Abyssal Lord, and not just that power.”
“Where do you stand? I can no longer tell.”
He was now certain of the source of the recent disturbances in the Abyss.
Every time the sealing ritual had weakened, a major battle had erupted on Solor.
And behind every one of these battles was Bai.
Every time she used the Abyssal Lord’s power, she accelerated her awakening, and also the collapse of the sealing ritual.
When he had first met her, he had been certain she wasn’t under the Abyssal Lord’s influence, not like Isabelle or the deceased Azakana.
And she wasn’t the madwoman he had expected, the one who wanted to destroy everything.
She was calm, yet passionate, resolute, unyielding.
The only thing that was wrong was that she possessed the Abyssal Lord’s power.
Her very existence was a harbinger of another disaster, one that couldn’t be stopped.
“Where do you want me to stand?” Bai asked, her voice a low whisper.
“I want you to stand nowhere. The best outcome is for your existence to be completely erased,” Elthorp said, his expression impassive. “Perhaps I now understand what Shaya was trying to do… but she failed. When you came to the Abyss, she had already failed.”
“Miss Bai, you should know, you shouldn’t be here. You should have, as Shaya wished, fallen into a deep slumber with the Abyssal Lord…”
Yes, that had been Shaya’s final choice. To use their blood pact to awaken Bai’s Abyssal Lord form, to temporarily prevent her from switching bloodlines.
And in that moment, Bai’s dark-gold vertical slits had been brighter than ever, her gaze filled with an endless cold, a deep silence. It was as if she had become another “Bai.”
And then, Shaya, through their blood pact, had tried to drag her into a deep slumber, to seal her away.
…A familiar feeling.
“Shaya’s choice was a mistake. What she tried to do, someone else had already tried, a long, long time ago,” Bai said, a memory of a gentle, yet weary, figure in a white lab coat flashing through her mind. “Shaya and her… they’re the same. They both wanted me to escape all this, to escape my fate, a fate destined to end in tragedy.”
“But fate cannot be escaped.”
“No matter what, you’re in the wrong place,” Elthorp said, his gaze fixed on her, as if trying to burn her image into his mind. “I have to put you where you belong.”
“I’m already on the final journey. You can’t make me leave,” Bai said softly, her eyes downcast.
“…I know I can’t force you with words. But I will, in my own way, return everything to its proper course,” he said, his voice firm, resolute. “No matter what you’ve come to the Abyss to do, whether it’s to go to the Place of Divine Advent, or to face the Abyssal Lord.”
“With your identity, with the power you possess, I will do everything in my power to stop you.”
He didn’t want her to get involved. Her power was too closely linked to the Abyssal Lord. A single misstep, and the consequences would be irreversible. The Abyss, and Solor, would become the second Place of Divine Advent.
After all, the Abyss wasn’t ready for the Abyssal Lord’s return.
“I’m just here to meet my fate,” she said, her voice low. “If you want to stop me, then stop me.”
“But if it’s just you, I’m afraid you won’t be able to.”
His earlier impassioned speech now seemed… hollow. Even Shaya couldn’t stop her. What made him think he could?
“Some things, you have to try,” he said, his voice low. “But some things, the consequences of trying… are unbearable.”
“Miss Bai, I can understand you, but I can’t agree with you.”
He had a feeling he knew what she was planning. She possessed the Abyssal Lord’s power, a power that had brought countless disasters, disasters she had personally experienced, tragedies that had befallen her.
If she wanted to end it all, to reach the end of her journey… she had to awaken the Abyssal Lord, to use the same power to finally sever their connection.
It sounded like a good plan, but if she failed, the consequences would be catastrophic. The conjoined world of the Abyss and Solor would suffer the same fate as the Place of Divine Advent.
