Part 2: Sustained Inhibition Is Forbidden

"Existence..."

Hearing Auroria's words, Su Youzi froze slightly.

Su Youzi had already known that "Forced Ascension" came at a price after equipping the "God Slayer" armor.

But Su Youzi had never imagined—

The fuel that "Forced Ascension" needed to burn was actually something as abstruse and mysterious as "existence."

"Once your 'existence' has been completely burned away... you'll end up like you and I are now—" Auroria shrugged. "Forgotten by the world—"

"Or rather..."

"Your and my 'existence' has already vanished from this world."

Auroria picked up the girl's underwear from the table beside her.

Then—

As the nuns helped Xinas change her underwear again and picked up Xinas's discarded underwear, the underwear in Auroria's hand vanished as well.

"Just like what you're seeing now—"

"We... can't interfere with this world in any way."

"Because we're now 'spirits' wandering this world, having vanished from everyone's sight..."

"The Forgotten Ones."

Although Auroria wore a relieved smile, Su Youzi saw helpless bitterness and sorrow in it.

Su Youzi understood—

She was different from herself.

Auroria was a third generation Rule-based Ability User.

And the fourth generation Rule-based Ability User—

The history of the "Quincy Sword Master" could be traced back nearly seven hundred years.

In other words... the girl before her had been wandering across this land for at least seven hundred years.

She was a "spirit" who had wandered for seven hundred years.

Su Youzi couldn't imagine how someone could wander this world in solitude for seven hundred years.

Without even being able to leave behind the slightest trace of herself.

Su Youzi gently took Auroria's hand.

What she received in return was the girl's astonished, bewildered expression. "H-Hey..."

"What are you doing—"

"I'm not like those stupid girls you've met before, you know."

"Even if you and I were the