Chapter 67: Seizing Justice

Grey-colored mist permeated this space, which felt close to nothingness. The surroundings were utterly silent, the environment damp, and tinged with a chilling, gloomy sensation.

Nalin touched his chest. There was no steady, forceful beating of a heart; he was currently nothing more than a pure stream of mental energy.

His consciousness hovered in a state seven-parts alert and three-parts hazy, his thoughts somewhat sluggish—all of which were side effects of invading another person's spiritual world.

A speck of clear, green fluorescence lit up not far from him. Cerea, holding a flickering lamp in her palm, walked over slowly.

"This speck of fluorescence is the exit. No matter where you are, you can see it. Find Alice, bring her here, and you have thirty minutes."

"Understood!"

He quickly strode away. In this space, there was a faint, lingering sound of weeping; he figured he could find the weakened Alice simply by following the sound.

Hum~

His footsteps paused as a rhombus-shaped crystal fragment materialized before him. The scene playing within the fragment forced him to halt.

A woman wearing a half-face mask, with long grey hair, draped in an oversized feather-knit overcoat. Beyond that, her attire was rather unique—a black side-corset and overly fashionable shorts, revealing the wheat-toned skin typical of Pandemonium natives, and a slender, graceful figure.

What caught the eye even more was the tear stain beneath her left eye—a tear stain that had already materialized into reality, effortlessly adding a touch of sorrow to the woman.

Crying Eye—Hehlte

She seemed to be smiling at him, a smile of startling purity and joy, as if she were gazing at a masterpiece with which she was immensely satisfied...

Nalin understood in an instant. What he was seeing now were events from Alice's past, experienced from Alice's first-person perspective. The perspective he had just witnessed was undoubtedly the moment of Alice's birth.

Continuing forward, he saw a fire-breathing dragon of colossal proportions, ravaging the land beneath a gloomy sky. A continuous downpour of meteoric fire fell like an apocalyptic natural disaster.

This was the scene of Bakal of Pandemonium being besieged...

When he saw the Pandemonium Arena, a youthful, green-haired little girl slashed at him with the imperial crescent moon blade, only to be blocked by the legendary musical instrument, "Sage of Magic—Mariret," causing the little girl to suffer a regretful defeat.

She played a beautiful melody to soothe everyone's mood. The opponent walked over, offered her congratulations, and asked about her training methods. One had to know that although Alice of the Tarakotta was famous for divination, her combat ability was universally acknowledged as being among the worst.

For the first time, Alice was lost. She suddenly realized that she seemed to have no memories of her life prior to meeting Hehlte—neither of her training, nor of her everyday existence...

Then, Hehlte, having perceived Alice's confusion, used the Curse of the Evil Spirit to completely take over her creations.

Scene after scene, Nalin felt as though he were experiencing a reverse flow of time, witnessing many famous historical events: the Dark Crusade, the Plagued Dragon Rebellion, the Transference Experiments. Alice's shadow—or rather, Hehlte's shadow—was present in all of them...

A marionette?

No, marionettes have no emotions; they are inanimate objects. Yet inside this body, a pure soul had been forced to watch her own actions helplessly for over a thousand years...

Finally, beneath a tree with grey leaves, he found Alice, curled up with her arms around her knees. However, her condition at the moment was extremely poor. Black threads were wound tightly around her wrists, ankles, neck, and hair—all over her body—while wisps of black smoke continuously eroded her flesh.

More than half of her body had already turned pitch black...

"Alice, wake up! Come with me, wake up quickly."

He did not rashly attempt to cut those black threads; it would be far better if he could awaken Alice directly.

Alice slowly raised her head, but her condition gave Nalin a start: her formerly magnificent purple eyes were now pitch black!

"Too late? Probably not yet; her body hasn't been completely eroded."

Nalin stood up, shaking his dizzy head. Time was running out; he had to wake her up as soon as possible.

Scooping Alice up in his arms, he dashed rapidly toward Cerea's light. Just as Cerea had said, those black threads were a curse specifically targeted at Alice and had no effect on him.

Heh-heh~

A gloomy laugh echoed from above. The threads extending from Alice's body actually transformed into a terrifying, colossal skull in mid-air, glaring down at the two of them with a sneer as it drew closer and closer.

"A curse that's practically sentient... Well, this curse has existed for nearly a thousand years; even a pig would have turned into a spirit living that long!"

Gently laying the dazed and expressionless Alice down on the ground, Nalin sighed, and a blazing lightsaber materialized in his hand.

All the energy here was generated using Alice's spiritual power; excessive consumption would be detrimental to her condition. But now, it was impossible to advance without severing this skull. No one could have expected that the Curse of the Evil Spirit would actively manifest itself.

"Borrowing Alice's immense spiritual power is the only way to barely pull off a combination of the Ghost Swordsman's Draw Sword and Seghart's Lightsaber technique... Light Draw Sword!"

Before his voice faded, the blazing sun in his hand instantly dissolved. Nalin scooped Alice up and pressed forward.

And right between the eyebrows of that skull, a dazzling fissure abruptly split open!

In the living room, Tana, who had been observing the three of them, paused slightly and said in astonishment, "He severely damaged the curse within her mind? Though the price is that Alice will likely remain weakened for quite a long time..."

A thick wisp of black smoke drifted out from Alice's forehead and tried to escape, but the next instant, it was caught by Tana. Tana rubbed it between her palms, a spark of fire flared up, and the smoke was utterly reduced to ashes...

"All that remains is figuring out how to keep Alice alive. After all, many of those deeds were carried out using her hands."

The Curse of the Evil Spirit did not devour memories. Therefore, once Alice's pure soul recovered and she faced the "sins" she had committed over the past millennium, would she completely break down and commit suicide? This was the most difficult step.

"Still, that shameless fellow should have a way..."

Within the spiritual world, the greyish mist suddenly drifted away significantly, and the dark spots on Alice's body were rapidly fading. Cerea, supporting the point of light, heaved a sigh of relief at the sight.

"Alice? Can you hear me? Wake up, we're here to help you."

After a brief silence, Alice raised her head in a daze, still looking as though she hadn't quite woken up.

"Sins... My sins..."

She murmured to herself as diamond-shaped memory crystals rotated around her. Her newly restored body was rapidly growing dim once more. At this rate, it wouldn't take more than a few breaths for her to completely self-annihilate.

As expected, she couldn't handle that kind of blow. Millennia of accumulated guilt, regret, and sorrow all surfacing at this very moment—anybody would break down under that...

"Cerea, close your eyes!"

Nalin took a stride forward, bracing Alice's back with his right hand, while his left hand grabbed hold of the universe's justice!

Frozen...

The fading process of Alice's body stopped dead in its tracks at that very moment, and even began to solidify once more!

A surge of fury slowly rose from within her, and the entire spiritual space let out a rumbling roar, directed squarely at the hand-happy Nalin.

In truth, her current state was quite easy to understand: after the curse was lifted, Alice was recalling her own actions—guilt, regret, sadness. The emotional buildup of over a thousand years was enough to crush anyone.

Yet Nalin's mischievous hand had instantly yanked her thoughts back to the present, indirectly bypassing those painful memories.

It was much like someone eating a meal, their mind entirely focused on the delicious food, when suddenly someone walked up and slapped them. The food was still there, but could they possibly not be angry?

The hope was to keep someone alive, but anger and hatred could achieve that just as well...