VAP - Chapter 188
Chapter 188: The Ruler in the Endless Deep Darkness (21)
Einser, still unaware that her main body's cover had been blown, was examining the half-finished "gift."
A sprawling city floated in the void, its edges blurred like a mirage. In the endless deep darkness, even such a behemoth seemed utterly minuscule, unworthy of the Deep Darkness Ruler's notice.
But since Yue Du had said it was enough, this would have to do.
Einser turned to the Fantasy Spirit Witch, her gaze signaling that it was time for it to leave.
Having successfully completed its mission, the Fantasy Spirit Witch immediately dove into a spatial vortex and vanished. It also decided to lie low for a while and avoid leaving its territory if possible.
Now, only the two of them were left, facing each other alone in the silent void.
Having confirmed that the System and the Deep Darkness Ruler were one and the same, Yue Du said with a complex feeling, "Let me show you around. We can walk and talk."
They landed in the imagined city. To Yue Du's surprise, the streets were not empty but bustling with traffic and clamoring with voices. The people brushing past them had vivid expressions, walking and talking just like real humans. No one could have imagined that they had been created only minutes before.
Yue Du asked, "These people are all..."
"It's the Fantasy Spirit Witch's ability," Einser said. "As long as the ability is active, the beings it imagines are no different from natural creations." They also possess souls and thoughts.
Einser didn't say the last part aloud. She frowned. There were far too many people on the street, and a passerby had inadvertently brushed against Yue Du's arm.
Why did that Witch create so many people? To be third wheels?
She subtly moved her fingers, and an invisible barrier separated them from the others, ensuring no more physical contact would occur.
In truth, the Fantasy Spirit Witch's reason for creating so many people was simple. The evil god, who was prone to overthinking, assumed Yue Du was a poor soul who had been snatched from a human settlement by her supreme boss, locked away in isolation, and separated from her friends, family, and home. Considering that humans are social creatures and that solitude can easily lead to psychological problems, it had diligently created a crowd of companions to prevent the fragile human from falling into depression.
Yue Du observed the surrounding crowd and was suddenly reminded of the NPCs in the game. "Were the characters in the game also creations of the Fantasy Spirit Witch?" she asked.
Einser replied, "Partially. There were also inhabitants of small worlds who had wandered in by mistake."
So that's how it was. Li Wei, Fang Panpan, those students, the Red Copper Bird cultists led by Mr. Geng—they had all originated from an evil god's imagination. You could say they were real, or you could say they were fake, but those people and events had undeniably existed.
Yue Du couldn't quite describe her feelings. She sighed softly, then suddenly remembered someone.
"What about Aiona? Was she..."
Einser turned her head and covered her mouth. "Ahem."
Yue Du keenly sensed the Deep Darkness Ruler's awkwardness. In a flash, a thought struck her. Her eyes widened slightly as she blurted out, "She was you, too?"
Einser didn't try to hide it. "I saw you on the cruise ship and wanted to get close to you, so..." she admitted.
Yue Du said weakly, "Alright, you don't have to say any more. I understand."
She recalled Aiona's eyes, as black as the abyss; her face, which was almost identical to Einser's, only younger; and the way she acted cute and spoiled without any of the self-awareness of a deity. The details she had previously overlooked now connected, culminating in the peerlessly beautiful face of the Deep Darkness Ruler.
So why did you have to create a separate persona just to get close to me?
What kind of logic is behind creating a sister dynamic?
Seeing Yue Du remain silent for a long time, Einser lowered her gaze and took her hand, looking like a large black cat sitting with its tail wrapped around itself.
"..." Yue Du said stiffly. "I want Aiona to keep me company."
The Deep Darkness Ruler's eyes brightened. In the blink of an eye, a little girl in a black, tiered lace dress stood in her place. She reached up, tugged on Yue Du's sleeve, and said in a clear, sweet voice, "Sister."
This is insane.
To think this is actually kind of cute... Maybe Ah Jiu was right. I must really love her.
Doubting her own sanity, Yue Du took Aiona's hand.
The two walked through the crowd. Aside from the passersby who would calmly give them a wide berth, they looked just like a normal pair of sisters out for a stroll.
Yue Du didn't bring up the matter of their relationship again. She felt she needed some time to process everything and sort out her feelings.
She had always been more rational than emotional, a person who remained calm in any situation. Perhaps it was the influence of her mother's tragic life, but before entering the game, Yue Du had never fallen for anyone, nor had she ever considered romance or marriage. She was a complete workaholic.
But falling for an otherworldly evil god was something her former self would never have even imagined. Their shared gender wasn't even the issue; it was their species, status, and worldviews. There were too many things standing between them.
Yue Du thought she would have reservations, but she had none whatsoever.
Hesitation, disbelief in love—none of the things she expected to agonize over ever entered her mind. She accepted her feelings without any obstacle and felt a sense of peace because of it.
It felt as if things had returned to their proper course—natural, inevitable, and right.
Perhaps, in the memories Yue Du couldn't currently access, these issues had long ceased to be of any concern to her.
What happened between us before?
Yue Du wondered.
There was no sun in the city replicated by the Fantasy Spirit Witch, but light from an unknown source still shone down. As the clocks ticked toward evening, this light gradually faded, replaced by the city's vibrant neon glow, which illuminated the path at their feet.
Yue Du led Aiona in the direction of home.
Though she called it home, here it was merely a house. Before entering, Yue Du worried she might see Yue Hao waiting with the orange cat, but thankfully, the room was empty.
"This is your home," Aiona said, looking around curiously. She knew that "home" held a profound meaning for humans. Though she couldn't yet grasp what that meaning was, she had already designated this place as important territory.
But this territory held traces of another person's life. Yue Du had lived here with someone else.
Was it my main body? Unlikely.
Aiona's fingers tightened slightly. She lifted her lashes and asked in a low voice, "Do you live with someone else, Sister?"
Yue Du answered frankly, "Yes, with my younger sister."
"Younger sister?"
"My sister's name is Yue Hao, and she's still in school." Yue Du leaned back on the sofa and sighed. "I wonder how she's doing now."
A thought flickered through Aiona's mind, and she happily established a new understanding. "I see. Your sister is my sister. That's how it works for humans."
Yue Du laughed. "Shouldn't you be calling her 'older sister,' little Aiona?"
The words had barely left her mouth when the little girl on the other side of the sofa elongated. Black threads wove into a human shape, transforming her back into the stunningly beautiful woman. She smiled and added, "My only sister is you."
"I wouldn't dare. I hear the Deep Darkness Ruler has existed for hundreds of millions of years, and I'm only twenty-five," Yue Du said calmly.
Einser pouted. "You won't let me call you sister, but Aiona can. You really do like her more."
Hearing this, Yue Du asked cautiously, "Let me just confirm—all you Deep Darkness fragments share a single consciousness, right?"
"That's right," Einser confirmed.
Yue Du was speechless.
Getting this genuinely jealous while sharing a consciousness... The Deep Darkness Ruler is a true drama queen.
By now, any trace of polite distance had vanished from Yue Du's tone. Using honorifics would feel awkward even to her. This shift had occurred in less than a day.
It was incredible.
Yue Du took out the silk pouch Xuan Jiu had given her. She first took out a scarlet horn from one of the evil god's kin to brew some tea before taking out the large, honey-colored gemstone.
Einser recognized it. "The first moment I saw it, I thought it would suit you perfectly."
Yue Du held the gemstone in her hands. "It's beautiful," she said, "but it's a shame it can't be made into an earring."
"Why not?"
"It's too big. A human ear would protest."
"Hmm." Einser picked up the honey-colored gemstone and, with a mere thought, compressed it to the size of a fingernail. "How about this?"
"That's much more suitable."
Encouraged, the Deep Darkness Ruler immediately fashioned the gemstone into an earring stud right then and there. Metal twisted around the honey-colored crystal, creating a dazzling and captivating piece.
"Well then, could you help me put it on?" Yue Du said with a smile.
Einser fell silent for a moment. "Although we aren't of the Luerta race, for other cosmic species, the meaning of accepting this kind of earring is the same. Are you sure?"
"And if I said I wasn't?"
Einser immediately replied, "It's too late to back out now." She moved closer to Yue Du and placed the stud on her right earlobe, subconsciously softening her breath.
The stud shimmered with a faint light. Einser couldn't resist touching the fair, flushed earlobe. Just as she was about to pull her hand away, Yue Du caught her by the wrist.
"This is how we humans respond," Yue Du said with a small smile. She looked up and kissed the corner of the Deep Darkness Ruler's mouth, her lips lingering and exploring until they met fully.
Once she made a decision, she never hesitated. That had always been Yue Du's way.
After a long moment, they parted slightly. Yue Du realized she felt no shyness or awkwardness at all. Growing bolder, she rested her chin in the crook of Einser's shoulder and whispered into her ear, "Now it's my turn to ask. Did you like it?"
How could she not?
Einser's gaze deepened, her greedy nature urging her to take more. She leaned forward, pressing Yue Du down onto the sofa, turning the tables and capturing her lips.
"The human way is wonderful."
Her nature temporarily sated, Einser concluded after everything had settled down.
Then she remembered something and asked hesitantly, "You already know, don't you?"
"Know what?" Yue Du tilted her head. "That you and Ah Jiu are two sides of the same coin? Or that we were in love before?"
Well, it seems all the covers that could be blown have been.
Einser leaned against her. She thought of her main body, connected to Yue Du through a spiritual medium, and suddenly felt that not merging back together was actually quite nice.
So what if the main body had the medium? The one who got to stay outside with Yue Du was Greed. Who cared what the other six-sevenths of her thought?
The Deep Darkness Ruler felt perfectly justified.
Ah Jiu: "Heh."
You won't be comfortable for long, rest assured.
Being in a relationship in a city that was both real and illusory, with an evil god no less—if someone were to ask what that experience was like, Yue Du could only say...
It was very sweet, but also, unsurprisingly, mentally exhausting.
Yue Du had long known the Deep Darkness Ruler was a drama queen, but she had never expected it to be to this degree.
The morning after they confirmed their relationship, there was a knock on the door.
Yue Du thought it might be someone she knew from reality, created by the Fantasy Spirit Witch. But when she looked through the peephole, she saw a face identical to Einser's, which smiled and gave her a wink.
Yue Du turned her head, speechless. On the sofa, Einser blinked innocently.
Right. I get it.
Yue Du rubbed her temples and opened the door.
This fragment of the Deep Darkness Ruler wasn't purely humanoid. She had pointed black cat ears atop her head and a fluffy cat tail that swished behind her, coiling affectionately around Yue Du's waist.
"I'm back," the cat-eared Ah Jiu murmured, licking the crook of Yue Du's neck with the tip of a tongue that had tiny barbs.
Yue Du asked, "Don't you all have a unified consciousness?"
The cat-eared Ah Jiu and Einser said in unison, "We do, but this is more interesting."
As long as you're having fun.
The cat-eared Ah Jiu only stayed with Yue Du for a few hours before dissolving into black threads and merging back into Einser. According to her, this was to increase Yue Du's resistance to the mental erosion of an evil god, until she could face the true form of the Deep Darkness.
Thus, Yue Du's daily life underwent a fundamental change, shifting from "leisurely time with my lover" to "I wonder what form my partner will take today."
For instance, she would open her window in the morning, and a swarm of black swallowtail butterflies would fly in, dancing around her.
Yue Du asked, "Are the butterflies..."
Einser replied, "Yep."
Or she would fill the bathtub with hot water, step out to grab something, and return to find a black-tailed mermaid in the tub. The scales of her tail, possessing an alien beauty, shimmered with a holographic rainbow under the light—a perfect rendition of iridescent black.
Mermaid Ah Jiu said, "Let's bathe together."
Yue Du replied, "Your tail is already taking up the whole tub."
"Oh, my apologies. I'll get a bigger one."
"No, thank you!"
Or another time, she went out shopping and suddenly heard people shouting about a UFO. An alien spaceship streaked across the sky and landed in an open area in front of her, and an alien Ah Jiu in a high-tech spacesuit emerged.
"I brought a specialty from this cosmic race," said the alien Ah Jiu, who had a jade-like horn on her forehead and hair that fanned out like wings at the tips.
Yue Du was speechless. It was all so absurd.
In addition to these, there was a Black Bird Ah Jiu, a Ghost Ah Jiu, a Slime Jelly Ah Jiu, and so on and so forth. Every day, she unlocked anywhere from one to N new species; she could have compiled a complete encyclopedia of cosmic races.
"Creating the conditions for a split personality even when you don't have one... that's really something else," Yue Du said to Ah Jiu, her feelings complicated. "As expected of you."
Ah Jiu said with some difficulty, "While we are the same existence, we do have our differences. Believe me, she's the only one with such a peculiar train of thought."
Yue Du retorted, "Is that so? Then why did the two of you split in the first place?"
Ah Jiu replied, "That's a complicated question..."
"It's the pot calling the kettle black."
Ah Jiu had no response and fell silent.
Several months passed in this manner. Yue Du almost felt as if she had familiarized herself with every cosmic race in existence, but that wasn't actually the case.
There were countless cosmic races, and eight or nine out of ten were bizarre creatures that did not conform to human aesthetics. Einser never allowed those fragments to appear, absorbing them directly instead, thus successfully preserving her image of peerless beauty in her lover's eyes.
Yue Du remained completely oblivious to this.
Finally, Einser announced with great seriousness, "There is only one step left before the spiritual conversion is complete."
Yue Du nodded. "Alright."
The completion of the spiritual conversion meant Yue Du's mental state would no longer be affected by the Deep Darkness Ruler's true form. After all, when you're dating an evil god, you can't even see their true self without some kind of special protection.
Yue Du had fully expected this final step to be some grand magic spell or alchemy circle, or at the very least, a body-tempering ritual involving potions.
That is, until Einser's smile grew gradually more unsettling. Black threads extended from her fingertips, twisting and condensing into vine-like appendages, some as thick as a little finger, others as thick as a wrist. They were entirely jet-black with smooth, rounded ends.
"..." Yue Du took half a step back.
These threads appeared often enough. They were obedient and useful, sometimes helping her fetch a cup or the like. Perhaps it was their harmless appearance that had made Yue Du overlook the fact that nearly all the evil gods of the Deep Darkness Pantheon were of the tentacled variety.
Einser's tone was gentle. "Don't run away."
Yue Du subtly drew her foot back. "Of course not. I wasn't planning to run."
"That's good," Einser smiled. "Don't worry, it won't hurt."
A black tentacle slowly coiled around Yue Du's slender, pale wrist. It felt soft and springy, moist and slightly sticky. It bound both her wrists together, pulling tight.
It was indeed painless. Even if there had been a hint of pain, it would have been completely overwhelmed by the pleasure it brought.
Yue Du was like a sacrifice to a god, thoroughly and unreservedly savored. And this deity, much like the original sin she represented, was insatiably greedy, never to be satisfied.
When Yue Du awoke, she found herself in the endless void. Looking down, she could see the distant outline of the replicated city.
"You're awake. Are you feeling alright?"
Einser summoned a glass of warm water and brought it to Yue Du's lips.
"I'm fine. Where is this?"
"The place where my true form slumbers. The depths of the universe, the edge of the world."
A premonition suddenly struck Yue Du. She asked in her mind, "It's today, isn't it?"
Ah Jiu replied softly, "That's right."
In the distance, the endless deep darkness churned. Yue Du strained her eyes, but she could only see darkness pressing against darkness, with no sign of the Deep Darkness Ruler's true form.
Seeing Yue Du's bewildered expression, Einser chuckled. "Are you looking for me? I'm right here. The deep darkness is a part of me. But I am indeed too large for a human. Let me adjust myself a little."
And so, Yue Du watched as the darkness churned even faster, suddenly realizing that the faintly shifting mass before her was merely the tip of the iceberg of the Deep Darkness Ruler's true form.
The darkness compressed and condensed, shrinking to a critical point where Yue Du could finally encompass the being within her field of vision.
Her upper body was humanoid, but from the waist down, she dissolved into a mass of thick, deep-black, translucent tentacles connected by a gauze-like membrane and interspersed with countless slender tendrils. A substance resembling a dark, heavy curtain or a tattered, gossamer Stygian jellyfish swirled around her.
She was terror, she was annihilation, an alien god beyond human comprehension.
Even compressed to a near-human size, her presence was still suffocating, for she was fundamentally a different kind of being from humanity—she was the natural enemy of all living things.
At that moment, not only was the Deep Darkness Ruler awaiting Yue Du's reaction, but Ah Jiu was as well.
Yue Du raised a hand to caress the evil god's pale face and pressed a light kiss to her lips.
An evil god to a human was as the origin of Destruction to a World Consciousness. The Yue Du of the past had accepted the latter, and the Yue Du of the present accepted the former just the same.
This game could finally come to an end.
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