**Seven.
Only One Path**
Only a god could withstand the will of a god.
That much was true.
Hippolyta had just tried it herself—she found herself unable to speak a lie.
Yet that mysterious Duke could do it, which made her deeply suspicious.
*Send her daughter?*
*Of course not!*
She sensed keenly that Diana was the only one on all of Paradise Island who could defeat Duke.
If he truly was a Fallen Angel, if he truly harbored hostile intentions…
Even fully armed, she wasn’t certain she could defeat him.
At best, it would be a fifty-fifty chance.
That was why she had assigned the mission to Diana.
If she went to test him herself, she would likely arouse Duke’s suspicions.
But Diana wouldn’t.
For even a god… would struggle to resist Diana’s beauty.
After all, her beauty, which even the gods themselves admired, was a gift from Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Beauty.
*Thank goodness Zeus is dead,* she thought, *otherwise he probably wouldn’t have let Diana off.
He was quite the philanderer.*
What was Duke doing at this moment?
He was studying the “Dark Script.” He had discovered that there was no upper limit to its development, and that different arrangements of the script produced completely different effects.
For example, “Darkness” and “Dark.”
**Dark:** Forbidden Magic.
It transforms one’s body into a demonic form, possessing a physical substance.
*Darkness*, on the other hand, turns one into a shadow-like entity—intangible, without a physical form, similar to the Dark-Dark Fruit’s ability to elementalize.
Furthermore, because it is *Dark Script*, he cannot write the word “Light.” For example, writing “Light” on his body would not transform him into an angel.
In short, Darkness-affiliated scripts are usable, as are neutral ones that aren’t strictly categorized as Light or Dark.
For instance: *Flame*.
Additionally, *Arts* are also written using Dark Script.
Different arrangements yield different effects.
Moreover, they aren’t just for setting traps before a battle; if your writing speed is fast enough, you can even write them on the fly during combat to restrict an enemy’s abilities.
However, this requires an incredibly fast writing speed.
Generally speaking, they are best used for traps.
After a long period of research, Duke collapsed onto the bed—a hard wooden board…
It had been a long time since he’d felt this sensation.
Judging by the room’s decor, this was clearly a female warrior’s room.
Could it be Du Chen Carlos’s?
“1918, huh.”
He began to plot his escape.
Obviously, as a man, he couldn’t stay on Paradise Island, a place populated entirely by female warriors.
The Amazons certainly wouldn’t allow it, and the Amazon Queen would be even more opposed.
Besides, what would he do on this isolated island?
Just eat and wait for death?
Watch the sun rise and set, then die of old age?
He had finally been reincarnated—shouldn’t he strive for something?
Though he didn’t know what to strive for or how to go about it yet, at the very least, he wanted to experience the Earth of a century ago.
*Am I really going to follow the Heroine to the battlefields of World War I?*
Without a doubt, the Heroine wouldn’t abandon her mission to the front lines just because of his arrival.
Steve, Captain America’s namesake, was a key figure who couldn’t be ignored.
Her righteous heart wouldn’t allow her to bury her head in the sand.
After weighing his options, it seemed his only path was to leave with the Heroine.
Because he didn’t speak English, Diana was the only one who could communicate with him.
The Amazons wouldn’t let him live on Paradise Island, and he had no desire to waste away in idleness.
So, leaving was his only choice.
For now, since Diana was the only person who could speak to him… he was practically deaf.
Even if he managed to extort a considerable sum of money, how would he even get to China?
Without knowing English, he might not even find a translator, let alone a long-distance ship to Xiang Island.
He couldn’t read English, after all.
Besides, this was the era of World War I; there was no guarantee of ships sailing to Xiang Island, even though it had already become a British colony.
Therefore, his only choice was to follow the Heroine.
But the Heroine was about to head to the WWI battlefields.
If he didn’t go with her, wouldn’t that be the same as not going at all?
But World War I…
The artillery fire there would be relentless.
It wouldn’t be like those movies where bullets only hit shields and avoid legs.
Yet, if he didn’t follow the Heroine, he would be left isolated and unable to communicate.
…He was torn.
Just then, the “snail” on the table rang.
“Is this… Mr. Duke?”
“???” Duke didn’t react at first.
He looked around before realizing it was the snail ringing.
*This thing really is a “telephone,”* he thought.
“I—I am. You are… Miss Prince? Asking me out? Alright, I’ll get ready and be right there. Uh… a very obvious giant rock? Okay, I got it!”
Even though he knew it wasn’t a date, his college-student mindset made him feel a surge of excitement.
After all, he had only recently gained his powers and become the protagonist of his own story; he hadn’t yet shed the humble, low-status mentality of an ordinary person.
This was a *real* goddess, not just the kind you see in movies.
After stepping outside, he wrote the word “Wing” on his body, summoning the Dark Archangel Wings once more and taking to the sky.
He first confirmed his direction.
The giant rock was an obvious landmark, and he spotted it instantly.
With a powerful flap of his wings, he shot forward like a meteor.
“Hello, Miss Prince,” he said, slowly descending.
He retracted his wings, trying his best to maintain a gentlemanly demeanor, though he wasn’t entirely sure what a truly elegant “gentleman” looked like.
“Hello, Mr. Duke,” the Heroine nodded, then smiled.
“You can just call me Diana.”
“And you can call me Duke.”
Diana smiled but didn’t reply.
Instead, she walked toward a nearby clearing.
Though Duke didn’t know why she had asked him out, he followed her anyway.
“Have you met that Steve?”
“No, why do you ask?” Diana asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just curious about his identity as a spy.”
Duke breathed a sigh of relief.
*Good.* He didn’t want Wonder Woman to walk into the cave and see that Steve, the one with the same name as Captain America, and that…
*thing*.
And then hear him say, “I… am above average.” *Ugh.*
Well, Duke was insecure.
Easterners were generally shorter than Westerners.
He knew his own “assets” weren’t bad, but compared to those Westerners… he was far from it.
This was a lifelong stain on Wonder Woman’s memory.
Duke’s dislike for the Steve who shared Captain America’s name was based precisely on this point.
*Damn it, the guy got seen, but instead of quickly ducking back into the water or throwing on some clothes, he just stood there, staring right at her, showing off his “assets”!*
“I’m very interested in your abilities,” Diana said, raising an eyebrow.
“Who exactly are you? And… what did you mean by ‘minus eighty years’?”
If the Amazon Queen, Hippolyta, had asked this, Duke would have immediately been on guard.
However, the person before him was Wonder Woman, Diana Prince.
It wasn’t because Duke liked her, but because he knew that at this stage, Diana was a completely blank slate.
As the Queen had said, “There are many things you still don’t understand.” She was a person without a single cunning bone in her body.
“Uh… it’s a kind of magic.”
“Magic…?”