“Ahem.”
At that moment, Sylvia turned her gaze to Isabella, organized her thoughts, and then said:
“The extraordinary path you will take in the future—I shall temporarily name it ‘Sinner’.”
“Sinner?”
Isabella repeated the name. A trace of distaste flickered across her face, which had already regained some color, though she quickly concealed it well.
“Gah! What a great name!”
Lakdevo flapped his wings in praise, but Sylvia only cast him a glance before continuing:
“Of course, you are not yet able to truly walk this path.”
“Unless you are already prepared to be forsaken by the world.”
“So, I need to make some arrangements now, and for that, I need your cooperation.”
Isabella spoke obediently:
“Your Highness, please speak.”
Seeing this, Sylvia nodded in satisfaction. Then, she slowly raised her right hand:
“I need you to perform a corresponding ritual to temporarily become an extraordinary being.”
“Hmm?”
“Ah?”
“Gah?”
In an instant, all three present were stunned. Then, without hesitation, Isabella spoke up:
“Alright, Your Highness.”
“You’re not worried about facing danger?”
“I trust you, Your Highness.”
Hearing Isabella’s words, Sylvia nodded slightly:
“Very well.”
Then she extended her right hand and flexed her fingers—
“Shrrrk!”
A bizarre hiss suddenly rang out, drawing everyone’s attention.
At this moment, the massive shadow that had curled up in the corner had, without anyone noticing, stretched its body. The marks constricting its joints deepened, making it seem as if it were a thing assembled from inflated balloons.
One second later—
“Bang!”
Invisible threads sliced through its body, causing it to burst like a balloon.
Simultaneously, dense black mist spurted from its exploded form, but it was instantly absorbed by the black veil that filled the room.
“Not bad.”
Sylvia’s flippant voice rang out. Then, she swiped her outstretched right hand, and a jelly-like black substance appeared in her palm.
Lakdevo glanced at the item in Sylvia’s hand and immediately said:
“Shaped shadow essence, one of the materials required for a Puppeteer’s first metamorphosis ritual.”
“The ritual demands the performer to personally craft a puppet at least one meter tall.”
“One of the materials? It’s enough.”
Then Sylvia turned her gaze to Isabella:
“I do not intend for you to walk another path—this is merely a medium.”
With that, she suddenly clenched her right hand, and the jelly-like shadow essence shattered instantly.
At the same time, dazzling starlight erupted from her eyes:
“The ritual is meant to increase your resonance with this type of extraordinary power, but we have a simpler way that doesn’t require such steps.”
The next second, a black liquid infused with starlight appeared in midair, sketching out a pattern composed of mystical symbols representing manipulation and the transformation of thought.
And on Isabella’s body, stardust gradually began to scatter.
This was Sylvia’s divinity—divinity that now existed within Isabella!
And she was forcefully aggregating the extraordinary by using her own divine rank!
“Get ready. It’s about to begin!”
Before her words even fell, another gleam quietly flashed in Sylvia’s eyes—the Authority of Envy was silently activated.
Target: Isabella!
In that instant, her consciousness directly invaded Isabella’s soul!
The next second, she felt her vision and thoughts begin to blur, and it was as if her soul were gradually detaching from her body.
A few seconds later, her vision and thoughts started to regain clarity, and the scene before her changed—
An illusory and boundless ocean, multicolored lights drifting through it, and ever-rising and sinking landmasses.
This was the Manifest Realm.
Sylvia murmured inwardly.
Then, she felt herself continuing to ascend. After reaching a certain height, her thoughts and vision blurred once more.
When she regained her senses again, what appeared before her was a vast and colorless sky.
Above this sky, countless light dots of various hues hung suspended—some bright, others dim.
But most eye-catching of all was the enormous full moon hanging in the center of the sky. Unlike the moon in the real world, this one was blue.
In addition, the highest point of the sky was pierced by eight beams of light in different colors.
Eight beams of light, plus the blue full moon—did they represent the Nine True Gods?
White symbolized the Lord of Radiance, gray for the All-Knowing God, black for the Primordial Witch, the blue full moon for the God of Spirituality, red for the God of War, yellow for the Earth Mother, green for the God of Industry and Machinery, orange for the God of Law and Order, and purple for the God of Death.
After making this guess in her heart, Sylvia looked disdainfully at the black specks of light gradually gathering toward her, then shattered them with her own surrounding divine rank.
“All right. Time to get down to business.”
Her voice was soft, but the moment it fell, countless dazzling starlights peeled off from Isabella’s spiritual star, stretching their forms across the sky.
This was the divinity that belonged to Sylvia, that belonged to Silquaya the Faceless!
And what she intended to do—was to suspend herself within the Sky of Spirituality!
In her homeland, this act was called smuggling.
And since it was smuggling, it came with corresponding punishment.
The moment her divinity revealed itself, invisible forces began to surge through this sky. Simultaneously, a gaze seemed to fall from that blue full moon.
However, Sylvia was not without countermeasures—
The next instant, a deep purple radiance surged from within the starlight, instantly wrapping the entire mass of divinity!
Disguise!
At the moment of completion, the invisible forces began to dissipate, and the gaze that had been cast merely skimmed over before withdrawing, lingering no further.
Success!
Sylvia felt a flicker of joy in her heart, but she had no intention of lingering here long. She immediately released her “possession” of Isabella’s soul.
At the same time, she let the deep purple covering her own divinity extend slightly onto Isabella’s spiritual star, helping her form the most basic disguise.
After that, her consciousness, along with Isabella’s, plummeted downward, returning to reality.
Opening her eyes, and feeling the nearly depleted spirituality being replenished bit by bit, Sylvia nodded in satisfaction.
However, a few seconds later, her brows began to gradually furrow.
The recovery speed of her spirituality was indeed much faster, but it still fell far short of her expectations.
At best, her current state had gone from “two hours charging, five minutes of talk time” to “two hours charging, one hour of talk time”.
But in the next second, she understood the reason herself—
The divinity of the God of Death had wrapped the outer layer of her own divinity. While it served as a protective disguise, it also impeded the inflow of spirituality into herself.
After all, that divinity did not truly belong to her.
Still, this was not the only gain from this trip.
Once she possessed a spiritual star of her own, everything she did from then on would become more convenient.
It was equivalent to having a legal form of identification in this world—though it wouldn’t withstand close scrutiny.
With a soft sigh in her heart, Sylvia turned her gaze toward Isabella, who now had a line of drool trickling from the corner of her mouth and whose eyes were gradually regaining clarity.
“It’s over.”
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
She reached out her hand but paused midway.
Then, pulling up a piece of cloth from her robe’s hem, she wiped the drool from the dazed blonde girl’s mouth.
…
Dark waters. Grey-white mist.
“It seems a new Apostle has just been born. He possesses divinity from the domain of death.”
A voice spoke. Then another voice followed in agreement:
“I sensed it too, but that one doesn’t belong to us. Could they be someone from the Full Moon Sect?”
The first voice fell silent for a moment before continuing:
“If it’s uncertain, then investigate. And while you’re at it, bring back the traitor who fled from among us.”
“Understood.”