Below the looming dark clouds, swarms of shifting ashes coursed from and toward the horizon. Dancing in a shamble with their mindless neighbours, they formed an interlinking network of cracks, of contracting and expanding veins of the world. Their murky shadow fell unto the ravaged land, upon the shattered earth and sunken hills.

Iris lifted her head and stared at the sky. Against rays of insipid light, which blew through patches of dull smoke, her gaze forced back the blinding radiance until she could glimpse at the flickering stars atop the firmament.

Her realm of consciousness lay devastated. If not for her timely breakthrough Phase, it would’ve scattered, and she would’ve passed. Nevertheless, what remained was merely a ruinous landscape, sustained by the illusory stars above.

Iris leaned on her exquisite black cane. The starlight fell on her face and dispersed away a puff of her fatigue. This place was one of the few where she could rest, but . . . it unnerved her. She should not stay in her mental world for too long.

“Duality, could you hear me?” Iris said.

Cold silence reigned over this world, its tentacles permeating every inch of this suffocating yet empty air. Iris’s voice rang only for her, stayed only around her, and reflected back to her as ghostly whispers. She couldn’t sense Duality, not even a hint of that contradictory majesty.

Although incomplete, Iris’s memory retained fragments of the truth. The image of Duality impaled by the divine spear etched on her mind. Whenever she recalled it, imaginary heat would sear her chest as if struck by that spear.

Despite her newfound power, she remained helpless in front of mere imagery.

Iris lifted her right hand and slowly clenched it. Her dreary mental world trembled under her influence. The stars of power above shone with blazing intensity, their rays penetrating even the thickest ominous clouds.

Divine light briefly illuminated all things, and all smoke lost its opaqueness.

Iris’s right arm trembled. Her face paled. She drew back her hand and swayed to her side. If not for her cane’s anchoring her, she would’ve fallen.

This display of power, coupled with her numbing exhaustion, dizzied her.

“Duality, if you don’t wake up, I’ll have to hasten our plan,” she said. “What I gave you was most of my Faith. If it cannot help you, then I shall force out the transcendental Marks on my body.”

Iris shifted her gaze to the ground and closed her eyes. Her Corruption Power stirred within her body when she sensed a feeble presence. She turned around.

Duality floated above the ground, her demonic wings shattered, divine wings tattered. Her broken horns dimmed to almost black, with her expression paler than death. A flaming spear of light penetrated through her chest. Its flame burned her flesh and fused the blade to her body.

She watched her partner and opened her mouth. Black and white lines seeped out between her lips. They weaved into symbols of arcane knowledge before dispersing as nonsensical scribbles.

Her form was dissipating.

“We’re grateful for your help,” she said. “Unfortunately, we’re in no position to lend our hand. Please forgive our inadequacy.”

“I wouldn’t have survived without you.” Iris focused on the spear, but its radiance burned her eyes. She averted her gaze. “How should I repay you?”

“Dear Iris, you need not worry.” Duality tapped the spear’s handle. Its raging flame bit her fingertips but dimmed upon fusing into her. “This spear contains much Divinity, too much for us to digest.”

“It’s burning you alive, Duality. What can I do to help?”

“You should rest well, Iris. What’s plaguing you isn’t a mere curse of a True Master. It contains a quality transcendental. Such a wonderful power will benefit you greatly.”

“Only if I succeed.” Iris looked at the night sky. The flickering stars dimmed as her Faith faltered. “I . . . lost my memory again. Whatever the Goddess of Seven Virtues did, it erased my recollection; yet this Curse, this price from Nupian, it persisted.”

Duality gripped the spear’s handle. Her hand sizzled as flames seared her flesh. She exerted herself, but the blade refused to budge.

As her black-and-white power emerged from her figure, invisible chains binding her body and soul materialised. Their rusty appearance evoked a desolate aura akin to a prison for an eternal sinner.

The mental world trembled. If she pushed any further, she might break, or the world might shatter. Thus she let go of the spear and blew at her burned hand.

“We could forcefully break free, but such an attempt would destroy your realm of consciousness and injure us significantly.”

“If my soul is fully healed, would it be possible to set you free?”

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“No ordinary mortal could survive our might, but you, Dear Iris, are no ordinary. You may strengthen your realm of consciousness by comprehending secrets of our world.”

“And those secrets must be within the Marks of those Deities.”

“We have high hope for you, Dear Iris. And we know, from both our foresight and the world, that you always exceed expectations.”

Iris chuckled and walked towards Duality. The divine light of the spear basked her, warming her cold, pallid face. Her Corruption Power rose from her body, shining in black light that turned the dull grey surrounding into an intense shade of purple. It crashed with the golden radiance, fused with the Holy Power, and separated in a continuous burst of colours, each resembling a minuscule supernova.

These fractal flowers danced around Iris, painting her melting membrane with lively shades. Although her Corruption Power dwindled as she came near Duality, she remained unwavering.

While Iris slowly dissolved, Duality stayed her hands. She motionlessly watched her partner. A smile manifested on her face, with lights twinkling in her eyes. Iris recklessly discarded parts of her body to glimpse at the moment when Divinity within the spear dispersed.

Like a firefly rushing to the sun, Iris closed her eyes and plunged towards that raging sea of Divinity. The monumental darkness covering her body screamed its most sensual, piercing song before rupturing into infinite spirals of illusory stars.

A wave of Divinity, an invisible blade of judgement, swung from all directions onto Iris. She opened her eyes. Within her pupils, swirls of foreign energy, of power beyond mortality, flickered into existence.

Hexagonal arrays imprinted themselves on her eyes. Her vision cleared up, her clarity unbound by the ascendant radiances. Fragmented structures, parts of an unseen world, revealed themselves before her.

Time and space became mere lines in a book of change. And scribbles of past-future detailed information inaccessible by beings of fleeting worldview.

Those inaudible whispers, whispers of the world, became a concert of orchestral music. Its crescendo bombarded her with an ocean of knowledge. It forced itself into her soul, engraved itself into her mind, and fused itself with her spirit.

She gritted her teeth as her eyes dulled, her senses waned. The foreign energy within her sank back to its unreachable depth, and that eternity of an instant passed.

Time resumed and, along with it, the crushing Divinity reached Iris. She braced herself. Though she’d already assimilated and endured until her soul could now sustain the Holy Power, she was still far away from its origin, Divinity.

It would be painful, but since when had she ever been afraid of pain?

“Mesmerising, my Dear Iris,” Duality said. “You’ve done enough; any more will only harm you.”

The Divinity halted its claws, whose invisible tips only grazed Iris’s membrane. She shuddered under this unimaginable might. Her body splattered as a fountain of Corruption Power. Though she rose from the puddle as herself, her aura darkened, dullened, with streaks of golden lightning flashing inside her.

She sluggishly lifted her head and stared at Duality. Duality was now a distance away from her, the same distance as when she first appeared.

Her floating beauty, untainted by changes in time and space, charmed Iris.

That power, that eternal stability, it was alluring. How would it feel to defile her?

Iris shook her head. What was she thinking? Had she finally gone mad?

“You could’ve helped me the entire time?” Iris said.

“What you need isn’t my help, Iris. What you need . . . is an opportunity, an opportunity to surpass yourself, to imitate, to mimic, to elevate what you see into your unique accomplishment. Is such not your nature?”

“It appears that is what I do best, imitating my predecessor.” Iris lowered her head and looked at her hands. “Dancing to the tone of yesteryear, that’s all I can do, isn’t it?”

“If what you did is superficial, would everyone in this world seek your talent?”

“What they desire is not me but the vessel in which I inhabit.”

“The vessel forged by you, guarded by you.”

“I am but a mere coincidence.” Iris clenched her fists. “However, I now hold the most desirable treasure within me. It would be regrettable if I do not exploit it.”

Duality giggled. Her voice brightened the atmosphere. “How could you be so melancholy but also so confident?”

“I’m not confident, Duality. My sorrow plagues me always, but my family, my hope and dream, they push me onwards. And I don’t want to lose them.”

“We envy you.”

“Which parts? Is it my talent, my support, my background . . . or my body?” Iris narrowed her eyes. “You spoke my great treasure; do you not want to possess it?”

Churning smokes quietened their flow. Cold breezes crawled throughout the ruin, which shifted its dead air to encircle the imprisoned goddess and the feeble Slime Girl.

Duality covered the left half of her face. A diabolical smile manifested. “If I were to assent, would you fight me to death?”

“Even if you’re scattering, a mere mortal could never defeat you.”

Iris covered her mouth. Her Corruption Power, weakly glowing, covered her frail body. Even under the pressure of the transcendent, her gaze never faltered.

Duality met Iris’s stare. Tension suffocated the area, though the two lacked the need to breathe. Air itself froze, space shivered, and time slowed.

Duality blinked and shifted her hand to cover the right half. She now donned an angelic smile.

“We would never break our agreement, Iris. I’ll ensure it,” she said. “And you, who survived Seven Virtues, aren’t as fragile as you presented yourself.”

Duality stopped covering her face. Her wings waved, generating a powerful gale that rattled the chains restraining her body. Their tails, reaching into the sky, trembled as if an earthquake struck them. The impact faintly shook this mental world.

Iris looked around. The ruin cracked with rifts spewing puffs of milky mists. They dyed this dull world with hints of snow-like whiteness, soothing whiteness which reinvigorated the soul.

“A congratulatory gift for you, Iris,” Duality said. “As you’ve given us this divine spear and the opportunity to meet Seven Virtues, it’s in our agreement that we shall return you with rewards of equal value.”

Iris spoke nothing. Even though she hadn’t done anything, Duality still framed the reward as an equal exchange; Iris would reject it otherwise. Hmph. She wouldn’t mind taking more investment.

“The reward will be in Speculative Divinity. Please read it as soon as possible, for it’ll prove integral to your predicament.”

Iris nodded. She hadn’t been reading that book since she reached the limit of her comprehension. Now that she’d reached the Condensation Phase, she should return to it.

“I’ll eagerly wait for your recover, Duality.”

“And we shall eagerly wait for when you spread your wings, Iris.”

Iris closed her eyes and leaned back. She fell on the ground and through it. Her body traversed the void below, which grew thicker and thicker until the blackness obscured her every perception.

Her sense of self returned when she finally awakened from her dream-like state. The cold splash of water tickled her membrane, and the candlelights illuminated her pupils.

“Mistress!” Lorient held her mistress’s shoulders, tightly hugging her. “Please come back!”