Free Web NovelChapter 1737: Chapter 1285: Disintegration
Today Felix specially dressed up; on top she wore a white sleeveless short dress patterned with blue burning clouds, with a chain-strap jacket that left her shoulders bare, a pair of knight ankle boots, and she even used Miracle to highlight a few strands of hair. She looked both dashing and cool; standing before the floor‑to‑ceiling mirror, she couldn’t help twisting left and right, admiring herself for several minutes.
Although she believed her looks were no worse than anyone else’s—in fact, even without Miracle’s buff, just in terms of appearance there wasn’t much difference among the girls in the team; the only gaps lay in their respective temperaments: the Sword Maiden was seductive, the Witch was cute, the Silver Lamp was gentle, Vishi was alluring, Dedarose oozed all sorts of charm, while she herself was a bit of everything. But given her position as follower/Servant, Felix usually dressed conservatively and plainly, trying her best not to steal the Demigods’ thunder—though she probably couldn’t steal it even if she tried.
Besides, dressing conservatively in daily life while going a bit further in selfies really brings out the fun of contrast.
But if the selfies are only for myself to enjoy, it kind of feels meaningless... So why have I kept at this hobby for months? And who on earth has been secretly rating my selfies—could it be the Gospel Divine Being?
She put on a livelier, more spirited makeup, clenched her fists, and cheered herself on in the mirror. "Felix, you can do it. Right now you’re the only one who can save this team!"
Everyone had seen the heavy atmosphere in the team yesterday. Felix really couldn’t bear to just watch their relationship grow distant and deteriorate before her eyes, because every one of them was someone she looked up to.
To Felix, the fact that these four genius Female Mages—with different personalities, from different nations, with clashing values and utterly different resumes—could actually unite and fight side by side, and not as some flimsy alliance of interests but as a close‑knit team built on feelings... in the lonely world of Mages, their existence was like an unbelievable mirage.
Mages are forced to wander the Sea of Knowledge alone from the very start; that is both their good fortune and their misfortune. Anyone who can’t bear Loneliness will accomplish nothing, while those who can get used to Loneliness, even enjoy it, can swim freely in the Void Realm and in reality cut off most meaningless socializing to devote themselves to their own work. The price, however, is that they find it very hard to build normal emotional relationships.
After all, if you can satisfy all your own needs by yourself, why bother seeking emotional value from others? Even if someone approaches them of their own accord, they probably won’t like others stepping into their comfort zone. Any Mage with real ambition neither socializes nor goes out, immersing themselves completely in their own world; only a love that barges in like a home invasion can break into their heart.
So most Mage couples marry in the silver stage. Once you’re still single by the time you become a Golden Mage, there’s basically no such thing as love; at most you look for a partner for the sake of reproduction. And couples of Silver Mages who both advance to the Golden Realm often end up becoming the most familiar of strangers.
Some people might think Void Realm adventures are more or less like going out to work for a few hours every day, but in truth they’re very different, because Void Realm adventures involve experiences of life and Death. When you’re deep in the Despair of dying, no one can help you; if you want to find a way out of a dead end, you must create a Miracle on your own. Whether you make it out alive or die, you will completely give up expecting anything from others—parents, partners, children, friends, all become meaningless. The only one you can rely on is yourself... so Mages are all selfish.
That’s why the little group formed by the Sword Maiden and the other three is so precious. They are neither lord and vassal nor master and servant, but friends of equal standing... Felix truly hoped she could watch them walk all the way to the end of the road; even just as a witness, she would feel deeply honored.
With the mood so stiff yesterday, they’d definitely be too embarrassed to break the stalemate today, so she, an outsider, would give them a way out!
Anytime, anywhere, the moe girl launches a full‑power attack!
Felix had prepared several conversation‑starting ideas. Brimming with confidence, she opened the door to head to the restaurant for breakfast. Passing by Vishi’s door, she found it ajar and thought, Vishi‑sis is actually this careless today? She casually pushed it open and saw that everyone was already inside.
Eh? Could they have made up last night and held a developer conference in Vishi‑sis’s room?
But the room was dead silent. Felix noticed that everyone’s expressions were off. Dedarose looked grave, Weiser leaned casually against the wall by the door, and Diya was sitting in a chair, lost in thought.
Noticing her arrival, Sonia, who was by the window, turned and looked over, greeting her calmly. "Good morning, Felix."
"Good morning." Felix asked, "Did something happen? Where’s Vishi‑sis?"
"She’s gone."
"Where did she go?"
"Don’t know." Sonia shrugged. "She probably won’t be coming back."
Felix froze, then suddenly realized something and stammered, "N‑not necessarily gone. Let’s think on the bright side—maybe Vishi‑sis just snuck out to kill someone for Soul Refining? After all, you all vetoed her proposal yesterday, so she might want to prove herself to you—"
"She removed the ruby chains. Right now I can’t sense her location, and I can’t give her orders anymore." Sonia opened the window; the fresh summer breeze lifted her hair. "From the beginning, the only reason she stayed with this team was because I had control of her chains, which made this Cruelty‑filled, violent Ghost Prophet obediently cooperate with us... Now that she’s finally gained freedom, why would she come back?"
"But," Felix racked her brains to find excuses for Vishi, "you still have a shared志愿—"
"Right now the question isn’t whether she’ll come back, but whether we can still trust her." Weiser pressed down on Felix’s shoulder and said gently, "Even though we’ve Shared Life and Shared Death many times, our teammate was Vishi with the chains, not the Ghost Prophet without them. Vishi only wore the chains for half a year, but for the past several thousand years, she has always been the Ghost Prophet."
"And besides, the very fact that she left means she believes the team can no longer fulfill her志愿."
Diya’s eyebrows twitched slightly, but she said nothing.
"Let’s go have breakfast." Sonia said. "As planned, today is the last day of Blood Moon cultivation. We’ll wait for her for one day. If she doesn’t come back, we still have to open the Sky Gate to Senluo tomorrow."
"We can’t go look for her ourselves?" Felix pressed her lips together. "If we could just sit down and talk properly—"
"We already used the Gospel Divine Being to search for her, but Vishi truly lives up to being the Prophetic Demigod most skilled at hiding; the Gospel couldn’t find a trace of her." Sonia spread her hands helplessly. "All we can do is wait for her to come to us. Waiting here is pointless, let’s go to the restaurant."
Felix hurried to Sonia’s side, following along and trying hard to offer suggestions. "Maybe we can find a way to send her a message, like putting up an ad to convey that we want to talk—"
"Felix."
Sonia stopped and looked at her, speaking seriously. "Right now she’s the one refusing to talk; she’s the one leaving us; she’s the one who doesn’t trust us. Why are you making it sound like I’m the one begging for forgiveness?"
Her voice was very calm, her tone neither light nor heavy, but the boiling, flowing crimson in her eyes shocked Felix so much that her face turned pale and cold sweat soaked her back. That’s right—silence is the greatest contempt. Vishi had unlocked the ruby chains and left without a word, not a single explanation, not even an insult—she hadn’t even bothered to explain to Sonia why she wanted to leave.
"But," the mental pressure that could have crushed a Holy Domain Mage suddenly dispersed. Sonia tilted her head and said lightly, "it’s also possible that Vishi is already waiting for us at the cultivation site, just to watch us get all upset over her, a brutal revenge for my rudeness last night."
Felix let out a breath of relief and nodded quickly. "Exactly, that must be it! Vishi‑sis is just that petty!"
Full of anticipation, Felix rode the Floating Car to the cultivation site and spent the entire day watching Demigods cultivate. Yet even as the Blood Moon rose and night fell, the fourth Demigod never appeared.
