True Lies

—She had just done something that was beyond anything he had ever done before, something he had never even attempted.

—Her power, her ability to explore other worlds, has been overused; she is now... unable to maintain her consciousness!

That's why she subconsciously wanted to replenish herself, to recover. Because she didn't realize her heart was failing, she was just instinctively replenishing herself with food that was completely useless to her!

With a sudden realization, all the causes and consequences, the big and small details, were pieced together and reassembled in Persephone's mind. A conclusion, at least mostly correct, was constructed in her mind—she breathed a soft sigh of relief and removed her hand from her belt. She slowly moved forward, taking a step. The girl on the chair remained silent.

She found Miss Surtr fast asleep.

It wasn't just ordinary ripeness; it was excessive ripeness—no longer breathing, not even blood flowing. She could sense the vast, boundless energy tide within the girl's body, like an abyss. But she couldn't detect any fluctuations of life within the girl's shell.

Something's not right.

No, not just some, it's very bad!

Because Persephone understood how the human body functions. He knew that most of the glands and organs within the body—the heart, liver, spleen, kidneys, and lungs—rely on the brain, that is, the deep consciousness, for operation. And if the consciousness were to completely cease functioning, the human body would be nothing more than a skeleton!

A skeleton!

So, what if a body is alive, yet functions like a corpse? When the cells within it fail due to dysfunction, will this supernatural being, no longer under control, begin to function autonomously out of necessity for survival?

Or to put it more directly, when her body feels 'insecure' due to the lack of a ruler, does this husk, this extraordinary divine body, recognize that it is under attack?

To be dealt with by this world, by everything of substance in this world?

—It's too late.

She gently closed her eyes.

"Activate emergency protocols. All Rhodes Island employees are to be forcibly transported to Safe Point Four," she said.

The moment she opened her eyes, she saw the girl's body on the chair dissolving, her shell shattering. Then, endless, scorching flames surged forth, engulfing her!

Destruction has come.

In the instant the destructive tide engulfed her, the crimson and black greatsword Miss Surtr always carried blocked the Maiden Doctor's path, allowing her to seize the opportunity to escape— Originium Arts activated, and the girl's form appeared high in the sky outside the research center via spatial teleportation. At the same moment, the entire research building was reduced to boiling, molten lava!

The earth trembled, and alarms blared throughout Chernobog. From the research center, everything within a one-kilometer radius melted under the extreme heat. With a roar and explosion, a blazing red volcano burst forth, its perimeter extending into countless streams of fiery, fluid flesh, resembling roots!

—It is defending itself.

It believes that it has a need to defend itself.

Is there anything that can stop it?

Persephone dodged the first wave of impact, using her versatile Originium Arts to soar higher. She gazed down at the city below, watching as the snow-white northern city was engulfed in a deadly crimson.

There was no need to count the dead or injured. The instant this molten mountain was born, all living things within a three-kilometer radius, except for Persephone, were instantly annihilated—no one escaped, friend or foe alike. Fluid roots pierced the ground, melting metal into their own structure. It devoured buildings; all building materials were vaporized and absorbed. As for sentient individuals, whether they resisted or not, their flesh and blood were drained in an instant, while their spirit was plundered like sucking in fog.

No one can survive.

In the core urban area, some people resisted, erecting barriers of psychic or Originium Arts, but they were instantly swallowed up and submerged by endless molten fire.

Chernobog was destroyed. The mobile city became a walking volcano. Rooted in Terra, it was like a festering, ever-expanding sore on the earth's surface. Its expanding size did not hinder its growth; instead, it accelerated the invasion. The sky turned crimson and black, and tides of fire hundreds of meters high tore through the earth, surging wildly in every direction!

A city has been destroyed. Perhaps soon a country will be destroyed as well. And then, the Twilight of the world will fall.

No one can stop it, no one can resist it. Perhaps the black ocean can curb its expansion, but even if the deep sea truly becomes an ally of intelligent life, there will be no more living things on the land.

But Persephone watched.

They watched closely, observing every single change.

She saw something crucial.

The initial direction of expansion was the Core City.

—The Core City doesn't have many resources or a large population... The only two important things are the Chernobog reactor and the Sarcophagus's location.

—Its path followed the convergence zone of the energy conduits I designed. After devouring the Core City, it paused briefly... It felt safe in the high-energy zone—no, the high-energy environment misled its body. But by then, its size had expanded too much to tolerate such a small habitat.

"I have about twenty-five seconds to correct my mistake."

She said this, and then took her dagger from her belt.

He suddenly stabbed into his right eye.

Time rewound to the early hours of the morning, just moments before the interdimensional exploration experiment began— Persephone had deliberately chosen this time to ensure her ability to rewind time was a safeguard. When she opened her eyes, she saw Miss Surtr, her eyes vacant, lying on the modified bedside table, just as she had before the experiment began.

"As I expected, my spacetime reset could not interfere with her state. This ability to explore other worlds is superior to my influence on the spacetime architecture of Terra."

She reached out, wanting to touch Surtr lying beside her. But as before, every nerve in her body screamed alarm bells as she got close.

Sure enough, touching it was impossible.

The idea of getting intimate with this red-haired thing while it was immobilized was clearly just wishful thinking.

So she had no choice but to reach out and press her hand against the bed beneath her. The ever-reliable Originium Arts immediately activated, resetting the conceptual grappling hook mechanism that connected directly to the Sarcophagus. The vast energy—enough to power a Mobile City —was poured entirely into this not-so-large experimental area.

She always felt like she was missing something.

She did indeed overlook some things.

Just as the entire laboratory was being reconstructed under her will and gaining new functions.

On the other side of Chernobog, in the medical center near the Core City, Liz, or rather, the operator Nightingale, who was responsible for looking after Kal'tsit at night, tilted her head slightly.

Liz felt like something was off.

She turned her gaze to Kal'tsit's side, to the sleeping Miss Lynx, and at that moment, the presence of something suddenly became extremely prominent.

Her eyes widened suddenly.

This... this is!

"A severed hand?"

The next moment, that cleanly severed, smooth-looking, and even beautiful hand melted in her eyes!

Chapter 178 A True Lie

Death, death, death, death, death.

The moment Miss Liz saw the severed hand begin to melt, she felt as if the world had died five times over.