This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist Chapter 1288: Divine Game: Graveyard of Bones 10

Rita did not respond to By’s earlier reflection. Her attention stayed on the battlefield. The match was still unfolding.

After activating her divine talent, By’s strength rose sharply. Her pressure on Deceitful Bloom beca obvious. Even Rita had to admit it. This was no ordinary gap.

But the shift did not last long.

Deceitful Bloom’s soul fire lit up.

In the next instant, By’s Vine lost cohesion. It unraveled, transford into Sir Callia, and drifted away with the wind as if it had never belonged to her.

Rita pressed her fingers against her temple.

She still could not grasp Deceitful Bloom’s divine talent. It was too erratic, too fluid. It behaved just like its owner.

In earlier matches, that sa fla had produced entirely different effects.

So opponents lost consciousness on the spot.

So fell into illusions they could not escape.

So had their attributes twisted mid-fight.

There had even been a case where the opponent’s divine talent itself was altered.

There was no stable pattern. No single explanation.

Was she changing talents each ti?

Or was this all one ability, pushed to extres through different interpretations?

Rita could not tell.

After a long silence, she spoke.

"Freeze the mory. Right at the mont you used your divine talent."

By let out a quiet sigh.

"You’re looking in the wrong place. If you want answers, you should be studying her."

Even so, she complied. Ti halted.

Rita stepped onto a strand of golden lightning and descended into the frozen battlefield. She walked straight up to By and studied the faint outline of the soul fire at her forehead.

Vineborne liked to describe everything through flowers and vines. Their soul fire reflected that.

But it was only an outline.

There were too many kinds of Vine. Countless variations. Even after studying Beacon’s sigh multiple tis, Rita could not identify a Vine from a simple silhouette.

It felt like trying to identify creatures from nothing but shadows.

A thorn-like structure. Small blossoms shaped like birds.

Rita narrowed her eyes.

"Is your soul fire... Song of Avian Cause?"

By stood at the edge of the clock arena, arms folded.

"Deceitful Bloom said the sa thing."

Rita exhaled slowly.

"It doesn’t suit you."

That answer seed to pull By out of her earlier mood. She tilted her head slightly.

"Why not? Don’t I look like soone who would dedicate herself to an ideal?"

"I can’t explain it," Rita said. "Just a feeling."

Even as she said it, she found it strange. She rarely trusted intuition.

She shifted her thoughts back to sothing more concrete.

"Deceitful Bloom forced you to invade Tingo over and over. That tells sothing."

By looked at her.

"What?"

"After she left Midsumr to enter Divine Ga, you and Withering Midsumr didn’t invade Tingo."

"...We didn’t."

"Why?"

Rita’s voice dropped as she thought through it again.

By wanted to know why she was forced to invade.

But Rita was asking the opposite question.

Why didn’t she invade back then?

That decision did not appear out of nowhere. There had to have been discussion. Debate.

Two possible paths had existed from the start.

Invade. Or wait.

At first, Rita assud it was hesitation. Maybe By didn’t want to risk it and preferred to wait for Deceitful Bloom.

But the matches told a different story.

By had the strength. More than enough.

Top hundred in ranking. Multiple war techniques. A complete combat system with no real weaknesses.

And more importantly, Deceitful Bloom had trusted her. Trusted her enough to leave Midsumr and the entire Vineborne under her command.

That was not sothing you did if soone lacked judgnt.

So the reason had to be elsewhere.

Rita circled back to her earlier conclusion.

If failing to invade Tingo led to the destruction of the Vineborne, then there was only one explanation.

The bell.

The Fourth Bell ca too soon.

So soon that even after finishing Graveyard of Bones, Deceitful Bloom had no ti to launch an invasion.

Rita’s heartbeat quickened. She shut her eyes and forced herself to breathe evenly.

There’s still ti.

BS has a five star world skill. There’s still ti.

Wither of Lania Kaia and Quex of Dark Reef did not enter Graveyard of Bones.

They must be out there securing fragnts, upgrading their worlds.

There was still room to act.

BS would not follow Midsumr’s path.

She opened her eyes again, steady now.

Back to the present.

Back to the real question.

Who refused to invade Tingo?

By?

Or Deceitful Bloom?

This mory had been altered. This mont locked and repeated.

Soone’s mistake was being corrected here.

But whose?

Rita did not believe it was Deceitful Bloom.

She was not soone who ran from her own failures.

She manipulated, she deceived, she controlled. But she also faced consequences directly.

If anything, she seed like soone who feared stagnation more than conflict.

She would rather complicate everything than let things settle into sothing dull.

"I don’t get it," By said suddenly, pulling Rita out of her thoughts. "Why are you so focused on our divine talents? And now even my soul fire?"

"They tell who you are," Rita replied. Her gaze stayed on that faint outline of fla.

"Your personality. Your instincts. Your way of making decisions."

She paused, then continued more slowly.

"I don’t like judging things as right or wrong based on logic alone. I look at people instead."

"Even if there’s a mont of hesitation... or a wrong turn..."

She gave a faint smile.

"Instinct brings you back. People always return to what they are."

By studied her.

"Then what do you think she values most? The Vineborne? Or sothing else?"

Rita let out a quiet breath.

"You’re interesting. You say I can’t be compared to her, but you still want my answer."

She shook her head.

"You already have one. No matter what I say, you won’t accept it."

"That’s how Variational Quicksand works."

It looked flexible. Soft.

But once it chose a direction, it never changed.

Rita suddenly paused mid-thought.

Sothing clicked.

She looked at By again, more carefully this ti.

"Back then, after Divine Ga began... did you always follow Deceitful Bloom’s orders?"

"If she was right, yes."

Rita’s eyes sharpened slightly.

"Then tell this."

She leaned forward just a little.

"When did you think she was wrong?"