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“He actually fled…”

As all of our attention had been drawn towards Sae killing the clown, we were unsure of when the auction house master Wilkis had run away after regaining our senses.

“Do you need me to capture him back, oh great Lilith?” Sae asked with an eager voice.

“Let it be. He’s already cornered.” I shook my head in reply: “Everyone that we ought to rescue are all present. Let’s leave first.”

There’s definitely some big figure from Theocracy standing behind this auction house. This could be seen from the sudden appearance of that Saint Realm expert. Therefore, there were too many unknown variables present if we were to continue keeping up a hunt for Wilkis. Compared to that, it would be much better to get everyone out of here as fast as possible, right?

Furthermore… with the Twin Stone in my hand, won’t I be able to destroy the auction house at will after leaving here?

“[Fixed Point Transmission]”

I casually used an extremely valuable Fixed Point Transmission Scroll. This was an item that could be considered as a strategic wartime item for a country, as it could drastically speed up the execution of military matters, and had played the role of deal-breaker in several key battles in history. Furthermore, the people who could create it were few and far between. Therefore, one of these could be exchanged for a small city!

In fact, the scroll I had just used could even be exchanged for the entire Holy Theocracy. Naturally, there wasn’t a need for me to save it.

The powerful spatial fluctuations unleashed by the scroll gradually stabilized, before a silvery spatial door appeared before everyone’s eyes.

“You guys go first. There’ll be people on the other side to receive you all.” I said to the crowd of young slave girls. After all, it’s safer for those without combat capability to leave first.

The young girls walked obediently into the spatial door. However, from time to time, they would turn their heads to look towards Sae, with expressions of wanting to say something appearing on their faces, though not a single one of them dared to say anything aloud.

After all of the young girls had entered the spatial door, I mustered the courage to ask Sae: “Speaking of which, is there any chance for Eleanor to return?”

“That’s no longer a possibility.”

“…” looks like my decision to ask after all those young girls are gone was right. If not, there might be some of them that would duke it out with Sae. After all, in their eyes, Sae had taken over Eleanor’s body, and had even caused her death. However, in my eyes, I could tell that Eleanor’s life was already flickering like a waning match that could be extinguished at any given moment when she had appeared. Perhaps, her life had already been extinguished a long time ago. It was only through some invisible power that she had managed to forcibly hold her life together, giving rise to the incomparably injured Eleanor that had appeared right before our eyes.

Without a doubt, the source of that power within Eleanor came from the young girl Artifact Spirit standing right before us.

All of a sudden, Sae twirled her hair around her finger, before letting it go, and proceeded to repeat this set of actions, just like what a shy and embarrassed young girl would do. However, these series of actions were incomparably familiar to my eyes, as those were the actions Eleanor would subconsciously do during my first meeting with her.

“Of course, it’s impossible for Eleanor to return, as she has not left yet.” with a blank look on her face, Sae gave a sigh while giving her reply, completely devoid of the earlier flattery she had hung in her words and actions.

“What do you mean?” I was immediately confused by her reply. What do you mean she hasn’t left yet? Could it be that Sae was Eleanor, and Eleanor was Sae? Or perhaps, the so-called Artifact Spirit, Sae was just something that Eleanor had imagined, a delusion created by her fragile mind and that they were the same person all along?

No no no. If that was the case, Eleanor should have long been dead! After all, the amount of blood that had flowed out of her had already exceeded the amount of blood a grown man could lose without dying!

“Just as I’ve said. Having spent too long of a time drifting in the outside world, I have to constantly rely on some things in order to survive. Having come into contact with too many impurities, I’m unable to return back to my original body. Therefore, in some strict sense, I’m no longer the Artifact Spirit of that sword. As of now, I’m just a lonely wandering ghost. It’s only through the contact with my original body that I’m able to display some of the capabilities I’ve possessed before.”

And that’s why you need the sword to be embedded in your stomach…?

“Nevertheless, Artifact Spirits live by their Artifacts and rely on them for survival. Without an artifact, I’ll gradually dissipate into inexistence. Therefore… I thought of a way to continue living, one without the need for my Artifact.”

Looking me right in the eyes, there was not a trace of happiness or sadness present in her brilliant pupils: “That is to completely rely on an independent living spirit.”

“So that’s why you chose Eleanor?”

“That’s right. However, being an Artifact Spirit, I cannot attach myself to a “living” thing. The basic definition of a living spirit is centered around the word “living”. So a soul that has left its body is still, by certain definition, considered as “living”. This left me trapped in a paradox. After experimenting countless times over, I gave up in defeat.”

“After that, I floated about from hundreds of thousands of years, and pondered throughout this entire period of time, before I finally came up with a method to loop around this paradox. That was to not rely on another soul, but on another’s consciousness. No. It should be a fusion with someone’s consciousness.”

“After all, whether one is conscious or not… does not equate to one’s life or death.”

“You mean that…” my breathing became slightly labored. From what Sae had just said, I knew precisely that she had purposefully created a person with a split personality disorder.

“That’s right. I gave up being a complete Spirit, to the point of even losing the classification of spirit, and fused my consciousness within Eleanor’s. I used my remaining strength to transform her soul, allowing me to have an independent body to inhabit forever despite my lack of any physical body. Therefore, at this moment, I am Eleanor, and Eleanor is me. Of course, I possess the upper ground in the priority of consciousness in this body. After all, I have 300 thousand over years of memories behind me. How can a little girl that had experienced only 2 plus decades of life match up to me.”

Although Sae sounded dissatisfied, all of the hairs on my body were already standing on their roots. The method she had used needed one to stake everything one had to succeed. If she failed, she would sink into a state where she could never, ever recover from, as it caused her entire existence to vanish, without even the slightest chance of coming back from it.

Right at this moment, a powerful jolt suddenly shook through Sae’s body, before she collapsed onto the ground. After a good while, she finally stood up stiffly, akin to a zombie, from the ground.

“Are you alright? Could it be some problems with the fusion?” feeling worried, I helped Sae up, only to discover that her entire body had turned cold and clammy.

“It’s alright.” just like a puppet, Sae shook her head stiffly in response, before replying in a dissatisfied tone: “There’s no major problem, just a slight hiccup in my control over this body.”

“……”

How is this a small problem? Doesn’t this show in some sense that Eleanor had already kicked the bucket? At this moment, the body before me is inhabited by a ghost with a shattered consciousness.

“Don’t worry, oh great Lilith. Eleanor’s soul had been transformed by me, so there’s completely no problem even if I don’t have a physical body to inhabit.” Sae calmly patted my shoulder in response.

“…Speaking of which, did you get Eleanor’s approval before doing this?”

“Nope.”

？？

Woah! She admitted it! She actually had the courage to admit it!

“Don’t you feel ashamed for not having obtained the approval of the original body’s owner before transforming her soul?”

“I don’t,” Sae replied with a look of inevitability on her face. “Due to her albinism, Eleanor’s basically unable to live past the age of 25. Furthermore, it’s her own wish to transform herself into an Artifact Spirit of a Saint Artifact in order to continue living. It was me that prevented her from becoming an inferior Artifact Spirit, and allowed her to become one with me, who was created by the supreme Dragon God! Shouldn’t she be deeply grateful in return?”

That’s not the case! Furthermore, you’re the inferior Artifact Spirit you’re talking about, okay!

Being truly unable to argue with a fellow who believed in racial supremacy, I decided to change the topic.

“You should show some self-reflection at the very least after causing someone’s body to die.”

“Huh?”Sae opened her eyes wide in confusion. “Oh great Lilith, aren’t you the one who had killed this body?”

“Huh? Isn’t the cause of death the two successive stabs you’ve made by pulling out the sword and stabbing it once again?”

“That’s not the cause. In actual fact, Eleanor’s body was already extremely weak. When you stuck the sword into her body, she had definitely died, oh great Lilith. My power’s the only reason why this body is able to continue functioning right now.”

“…” okay, my head…

“However…” all of a sudden, Sae gathered herself, before rubbing her icy cold body against mine, “If you want me to be a scapegoat, oh great Lilith, I’ll not say no to that~, after all, you’re my master, so you can do anything you want to me~”

“……”

Can I have a ￥%$* talk with my own ancestor? I am talking about the one with wings.