It wasn’t as spectacular as Deceitful Bloom’s matches.
But anyone who made it this far, anyone who reached the final stage, couldn’t be weak.
Deceitful Bloom’s offense and setups flowed seamlessly. Every skill linked into the next. Centered around Flower of Deceit, her combat style was overwhelmingly aggressive, built on control and damage.
By was different.
She was slightly weaker in raw output, but her Variational Quicksand followed a defense plus damage route. Her fights weren’t flashy. The pace wasn’t fast.
But facing her was exhausting.
Variational Quicksand could defend, attack, and even drain life. It covered everything. Damage, sustain, durability. None of it was the strongest individually, but she had no weaknesses.
Tingo Roar was already incredibly strong.
Based on By’s own data, he ranked second in Starsea. By was outside the top eighty.
And yet this match lasted a full hour.
It ended in a draw.
When it was over, Rita and Nivalis looked at By very differently.
The image of her standing on top of a wind whale, sleeves rolled up, grinning as she poured black quicksand into its blowhole, refused to leave their minds.
By tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled.
"Is there a problem? That’s how you deal with a wind whale."
Rita and Nivalis both looked away at the sa ti.
"No problem!"
By asked, "Did you figure out my divine talent?"
Rita shook her head.
By had only used her ability for a few seconds when Tingo Roar unleashed his ultimate. The battlefield had been filled with waves and whale phantoms.
Rita couldn’t see anything clearly.
All she knew was that By had survived what should have been a fatal attack.
"Continue," Rita said.
One match after another.
Rita focused entirely on By.
From ti to ti, she glanced at the pocket watch map hanging around Nivalis’s neck.
She was starting to realize how important it was.
When watching mories, ti didn’t flow normally. There were slow monts and fast-forward segnts. Even though she kept track ntally, discrepancies were inevitable.
A few seconds. Maybe over ten seconds.
Not enough to matter yet.
Because if you knew a god’s burial ti, every entry and exit was a recalibration point.
She had been pulled into By’s tiline imdiately upon entering Graveyard of Bones. All chat channels were offline.
She didn’t know if they would reconnect after leaving.
If they did, communication between players could also help correct timing.
Now the question was whether there would be any clear signal when By’s burial window opened.
Or if outsiders had to judge it themselves.
And whether they could leave freely at all.
If not, players could easily get trapped inside a god’s Graveyard of Bones.
Instead of just thinking about it, Rita acted.
Her eyes stayed on the battlefield, but a gold coin appeared in her right hand.
She flipped it into the air. It spun, then landed back in her palm.
Heads.
Truth or Dare, Truth.
If the next person she spoke to told the truth, she would receive a reward.
Rita looked at By.
"When your burial point connects to reality, is there any clear signal? Or do players have to track the ti themselves? And can I leave freely?"
By didn’t look at her. Her gaze remained on the battlefield, where she was currently fighting Deceitful Bloom.
"I’ve been waiting for you to ask that," she said. "I thought you wouldn’t. But not only did you ask, you even used a lie detector."
Rita answered calmly,
"Yes. Because you’re different from Deceitful Bloom and Foolishness. You prefer direct answers over guessing gas."
If she was willing to answer, she would.
If not, she wouldn’t compromise.
By smiled, clearly pleased.
"I was buried between 10:17:29 PM and 10:22:35 PM.
"You can only leave my Graveyard of Bones during that window.
"If you don’t have a map, you’ll need to track the ti yourself.
"To leave, return to the point where you entered and call my na."
A faint glow flashed across the coin.
A reward appeared.
"One Call: Use this to anonymously send a ssage to any player, regardless of distance."
The coin vanished between Rita’s fingers. She tucked it away.
On the battlefield, Deceitful Bloom’s vines had taken root.
In an instant, they grew into massive flowering trees.
A gust of wind scattered countless petals into the air. Each one glowed with a clear, pure light under Starsea.
By knew how dangerous they were.
She was retreating, visibly pressured.
Deceitful Bloom showed no restraint, even against a fellow Vineborne.
If there was any difference, it was that her expression wasn’t as cold as when facing others.
When the storm of petals swallowed By completely, her soul fire flared.
Through the gaps between petals, Rita saw it.
By’s Variational Quicksand began to shrink. The vines ford of black sand were reduced by half.
But her condition improved.
Just like in previous matches.
Every ti she used her divine talent, her vines decreased, but her stats surged.
Only her health remained unchanged due to the rules of Divine Instruction.
Without that restriction, even her health would likely increase.
By the end of Divine Instruction, her talent had stalled at this stage.
This was her only ability.
Rita asked,
"So your divine talent sacrifices part of your Vine to boost your stats? Is the boost permanent or temporary? And can your Vine recover?"
By frowned and corrected her seriously.
"It’s not sacrifice. It’s pruning."
"Fine. Pruning..." Rita didn’t press further on the details. Instead, she asked,
"So your first ability is called Pruning?"
"...Yes."
18:05.
Nearly twenty hours had passed since Rita entered By’s Graveyard of Bones.
If she didn’t want to stay another full day, she had four hours left to find the answer.
By noticed her checking the ti again.
"Isn’t the information about Cat’s Ideal’s creator worth staying one more day?"
"It is," Rita said. "But there’s no point."
She didn’t waste ti complaining about By’s lack of cooperation.
"Instead, tell this. Among the people who studied with Deceitful Bloom, is anyone else buried here?
"Once I find Lynx Duke, I can check their mories, see her classes from another angle, then co back and compare notes."
"I don’t know," By said quietly. "I died too early. The wills I’ve t here don’t know either."
Her tone dimd slightly.
"That might be the price of being preserved after death.
"We can’t actively search for answers.
"We can only wander inside limited... sotis even false... mories."
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