"Save a tiline as your own."
What tiline could possibly be more suitable than this one, the tiline of Undead Wildfire?
Not only because this was the only alternate tiline Rita had discovered so far.
More importantly, she had already learned the origin of Undead Wildfire from Mistblade.
Wildfire had been a human retrieved by the undead alchemist Apache from the shattered fragnts of BS after the world’s complete destruction.
The odds of that happening were incredibly small.
Once a world collapses and forms a World Graveyard, the remaining fragnts of that world gradually disperse into the universe. Sotis within days, sotis over several months.
Only soone like Apache, an alchemist obsessed with his craft, would venture into those fading ruins in search of rare materials.
So what exactly had Apache found?
Her corpse from the fall of BS?
Her body before she was reborn?
What a special version of "herself."
Rita had imagined countless tis what would have happened if she had never been reborn.
If soone had simply revived her by chance, would she still have beco this powerful?
Now the answer stood right before her.
She had missed ti.
She had missed the advantage of rebirth and foresight.
She was indeed not as strong as the current Rita.
But she was still dazzling.
There was also a far more important reason.
If Rita did not want to be pruned, she had to preserve at least one tiline.
The exact ssage after the second bell had been:
"Pruning excess tilines created by ti abilities. Only the most brilliant Star Sea tiline will be retained. Current pruning progress: 40 percent."
Until she could locate and compare every remaining tiline, she could not determine which one was truly the most brilliant.
But she could make sure that her own tiline beca even more brilliant.
Was welcoming the bell two years early already brilliant enough?
If not, then she would add another tiline to it.
As for deciding later which tiline truly deserved to survive, or whether she should ask Lightchaser to help explore and compare other tilines, those were matters for later.
Right now she had to seize this opportunity.
What if the bell rang again imdiately after Divine Instruction ended?
She closed her eyes and activated her divine talent.
A prompt appeared.
"Do you wish to select the current tiline as your save file?"
"During the save process, the two tilines will intersect."
"The tiline with faster ga progress will beco the primary tiline. The other will be stored as a backup."
"Friendly reminder: This operation carries risk."
"The backup tiline will exist in the shadow of the primary tiline, running in parallel."
"If the backup tiline ever surpasses the primary tiline in ga progress, the player’s current tiline will beco the backup instead."
So it was a race against another world.
If she still lost to another version of herself even after welcoming the bell two years earlier, then the world might as well end.
Save.
Everything before her beca hazy.
Rita felt sothing being extracted from deep within her soul.
The soul fla that had been nearly one third lit dimd instantly by ten percent.
This was the price of the save.
Ten percent of the soul fla tied to her divine talent would remain permanently consud.
It could never recover.
...
Ever since Undead Wildfire appeared in the arena and both sides realized she ca from another tiline, Lightchaser and the other divine level players had completely forgotten about the match.
Wildfire was curious about this tiline.
And naturally, everyone else was curious about hers.
Even if neither side revealed sensitive information, simply exchanging world related knowledge was fascinating enough.
As for the match itself, Lightchaser was not in any hurry.
The audience certainly was not either.
The only person who should have been anxious had already been sent away.
Besides, Undead Wildfire had an extrely pleasant personality.
She never spoke trash.
She was courteous and composed with everyone.
Gentle and scholarly.
Whenever soone asked a question about any world, she answered imdiately.
Then she would carefully observe their expressions and tone to determine what they truly cared about, offering thoughtful additional explanations.
It was as if she had been personally educated for years by so exceptionally knowledgeable scholar.
Halfway through their conversation, Lightchaser finally could not hold back anymore.
"Did you really beco my student in Card Swap?"
Undead Wildfire’s eyes curved slightly.
She seed to understand why Lightchaser asked that question.
Perhaps her own Lightchaser had asked the sa thing once.
Instead of answering yes or no, she gave the real explanation behind the question.
"In Divine Ga rewards, I repeatedly drew etiquette and culture courses," she said calmly. "In total, it amounted to about two hundred Star Sea years. Every ti, the instructor was Professor Foolishness. She is my etiquette teacher."
Two hundred years learning etiquette?
Was it still etiquette at that point?
No wonder Undead Wildfire carried that strange feeling, as if she had been marinated in sothing peculiar.
Lightchaser nodded in understanding.
Then she asked another question.
"Then who is your cooking teacher?"
"Cooking teacher?"
Undead Wildfire thought for a few seconds, as if scrolling through a long list in her mind.
Then she shook her head.
"I do not have one."
Lightchaser said seriously, "That is unfortunate. You should find one."
Undead Wildfire considered the suggestion carefully.
Her visible sapphire blue eye, brilliant like a priceless jewel, focused intently on Lightchaser.
"Understood, teacher. When I return to Dawn, I will seriously consider it."
Lightchaser paused.
The elf’s hand playing with the dagger stopped for a mont.
She glanced down at the toe of her raised boot, cleared her throat, and said casually,
"Would you like to stay in this tiline a little longer?"
Too long was impossible.
But ten or twenty minutes should be fine.
Maybe even half an hour. An hour at most.
However, the student who usually answered her imdiately fell silent this ti.
The icy floral scent in the air also faded.
In its place ca a much livelier fragrance.
This scent had a strange quality.
It was strong and unforgettable, yet every ti it appeared it was faint and fleeting.
You might catch it in one breath, only for it to vanish in the next.
A scent that tried very hard to hide itself.
Lightchaser raised her eyes.
Just in ti to et her own student’s accusing glare.
"Would you like to stay in this tiline a little longer?"
Rita repeated the sentence in a mockingly sweet tone.
"So if I ca back a little later, would I have heard you inviting her to Isolated Isle to watch the scenery by the lake under the bridge?"
Both Lightchaser and the audience on the stands showed subtle changes in expression.
Yes.
That familiar flavor had returned.
Lightchaser’s brows relaxed slightly, her mood visibly improving.
"You are the only one who dares speak to like that," she said. "So you found your strongest divine talent word?"
"Yes."
Rita gave a fake smile.
"Teacher, are you already starting to miss your Undead Wildfire? Give a mont. I can arrange for you two to et again."
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