Eleanora lifted her head and said to the woman in the golden dress, "I know you're not a shard of the soul of my past life, but the heart devil of my past life."

"Correct and incorrect. I am the heart devil of your past life, however when her soul shattered, I took over one of her soul shards. But, knowing this won't help you in this situation."

"Is this really the end?" Eleanora thought.

Eleanora felt her soul gradually being absorbed and thinning out. The feeling of slowly losing everything and the inability to fight back was incredibly unbearable.

Soon, Eleanora's soul and consciousness were more than ninety percent absorbed by the woman in the golden dress, and only a faint, almost transparent silhouette of Eleanora remained in the Sea of Consciousness.

Eleanora's consciousness was so weak that she could no longer think clearly. Her eyes were closed. The only thought left in Eleanora's mind was the desperate desire for freedom, which she had pursued since childhood but had not come a step closer to all this time.

"Struggle and resistance are useless. Such is the fate of the weak, those who cannot even protect themselves. Just accept your fate," said the woman in the golden dress, looking at the nearly vanished silhouette of Eleanora's soul.

Suddenly, a smile appeared on Eleanora's nearly transparent face.

"Why should the weak accept their fate? Why shouldn't the weak fight? Why can the strong trample on our dignity and kill us whenever they want?"

"Why? Because it is the iron rule of this world. Strength decides everything. The one with the bigger fist is the judge and the king. This law was established at the dawn of time and is followed by all living beings," the woman in the golden dress answered calmly.

"I'm sorry. Even if you are part of my past life, I won't let you consume me. Instead, let me be the one to consume you."

Eleanora grabbed the hand that held her by the throat and then lowered her head and bit it.

The woman in gold felt her soul weaken instantly by more than a third, and she couldn't a moan of pain.

"Wretch," the woman in gold kicked Eleanora in the stomach, sending her flying.

Eleanora flew through the air but landed on her feet. She wiped the corner of her mouth with her hand. In an instant, her translucent body became solid again.

At that moment, Eleanora's eyes, which had been closed all this time, finally opened. However, they were pitch black, with no whites at all. Simultaneously, Eleanora began to emanate a cold and dark aura that sent shivers down the spine.

...

Outside, in the tavern room, Eleanora's right eye changed color from gold to dark, and the right half of her hair also turned from gold to her usual dark color.

Seeing these new changes, which were even more frightening than the previous ones, Evelina tried even harder to pull the crystal from Eleanora's hand. However, the golden crystal was still tightly clenched in Eleanora's left hand.

Evelina began to cry. Crystal tears streamed down her face as she held Eleanora's hand. If something happened to Eleanora, she would never forgive herself for the rest of her life. And if Eleanora died, her life would lose all meaning.

Guilt started to grow in her heart. She shouldn't have allowed the princess to touch this damned crystal, and she shouldn't have let the princess leave the palace.

...

Seeing Eleanora's completely dark eyes, the woman in gold was incredibly shocked.

"Don't make that boring face. If you can exist, why can't I? Besides, my desire was much stronger than yours," said Eleanora.

"I tried to slowly absorb you to avoid damaging this fragile sea of consciousness, but it seems that's no longer possible," sighed the woman in the golden dress.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Fine, I'll leave this sea of consciousness and look for a new body. How about that?" the woman in the golden dress asked.

The woman in the golden dress had attempted to assimilate Eleanora's soul and take over her body only because she was the first person to open the chest and touch the crystal in all these long years. She had been sealed in the chest all this time and couldn't get out. Therefore, her attempt to seize Eleanora's body was merely an instinctive action; she could take over any other body if she wished.

"Since you're already here, why leave?" Eleanora asked.

"You need the Life Crystal, don't you?" the woman in the golden dress replied.

"You're right. However, you've been in this crystal all these years, making separating you from it pointless. You've already merged with this crystal and become its spirit. Without you, the crystal would lose more than half of its magical laws, and without the crystal, you'd be like duckweed without roots."

"Then you want to consume me?" asked the woman in the golden dress.

"Though I said I would earlier, after tasting you, I no longer want to consume you. I realized that you're not as sweet as you look on the outside," Eleanora said with a chuckle.

"We are just two incompatible extremes. Fully consuming each other would bring no benefit to either of us. Is that what you meant to say?" said the woman in the golden dress.

"I don't want to accept your desires, but I also don't want to let you go. Fine, I have one small condition: outside, there's a little girl. Merge with her," said Eleanora.

"Alright," agreed the woman in the golden dress.

"I mean a genuine merger. You cannot erase her will and take over her body. Understand?" Eleanora asked.

"I cannot agree to those terms," the woman in the golden dress said honestly.

"Then I can only suppress you even further," said Eleanora.

Suddenly, the white sky of the sea of consciousness turned dark, plunging into pitch-black darkness. The figures of Eleanora and the woman in the golden dress were no longer visible.

From the pitch-black darkness, the voice of the woman in the golden dress echoed:

"It's a pity. Then I can only kill you. With you, my reincarnation will also die. I wonder if I'll still exist if my reincarnation perishes?"

In the next moment, countless golden beams of light tore through the pitch-black darkness.

"In this darkness, you cannot find me and you cannot harm me," came Eleanora's voice.

The golden rays of light followed the source of the voice but found nothing.

"Then I will simply destroy this sea of consciousness," said the woman in the golden dress.

All the golden rays transformed into golden spears and flew downward, but nothing happened. The golden spears continued to fly endlessly, unable to reach the surface of the sea of consciousness.

"All this darkness is my absolute domain. In this dark domain, there is no sky, no earth, and no directions. There is no concept of distance. You can fly and walk wherever you want, but in reality, you might just be standing still. You can only stand and wait until my darkness devours all your strength," Eleanora's voice echoed from the darkness.

The woman in the golden dress felt her golden rays of light gradually weaken. Even her soul was becoming feebler. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before she lost all her strength.

"Then I have no choice. If you want to consume all my power, why wait? I'll give you all my strength."

All the golden rays began to converge in one spot. In the next moment, a golden sun appeared in the pitch-black darkness. Inside the golden sun, the woman in the golden dress raised her hand high. The golden sun began to shrink and then vanished. In the pitch-black darkness, only the woman in the golden dress remained, with a golden sword raised high in her hand.

An illusory figure of Eleanora appeared in the dark domain, watching the golden sword in the hand of the woman in the golden dress.

---

Eleanor felt an incredibly sharp and explosive power in this golden sword. She sensed that this sword had gathered almost all of the woman in the golden dress's strength.

This sword could not only tear apart her pitch-black domain but also the entire sea of consciousness. She still depended on this sea of consciousness, so if something happened to this sea of consciousness, only a pitiful end awaited her.

"Do you want to make big bets? All or nothing? Think I have nothing to answer? I accept your challenge, use all your strength," said Eleanor's figure, and the illusory figure dispersed.

"Golden apocalypse," the woman in the golden dress quietly uttered and waved the sword forward.

…

In the tavern room.

Eleanor's face suddenly paled, and her cheeks lost their healthy flush. Her left eye and left half of her hair ceased to shine with golden light and returned to normal. At that moment, only her right eye remained pitch-black.

Eleanor turned and looked to her left. Evelina held her left hand and cried.

"Don't cry," Eleanor said weakly.

Upon hearing Eleanor's voice, unprecedented joy surged in Evelina's heart. She raised her head, looking at Eleanor with eyes swollen from crying and a face covered in tears.

"Don't cry anymore. Know that nothing will ever happen to your older sister," Eleanor said to Evelina.

Evelina could only nod in response to Eleanor's words.

In the next moment, a dark golden light appeared in Eleanor's right hand. Eleanor pressed her right palm against Evelina's forehead and also pressed the crystal in her left hand against Evelina's chest.

"Ah," Evelina only managed to scream before losing consciousness from physical and mental pain.

Moments later, the dark golden light in Eleanor's right hand and the golden crystal in her left hand disappeared. Evelina fell unconscious.

"Damn, it seems I used too much power. Absorbing that last attack from that bitch in gold drained all my strength."

The pitch-black darkness in Eleanor's right eye dissipated the next moment, and Eleanor also lost consciousness next to Evelina.