1337 The truth: Sadness of the failures (Part 5)
They lost their families, they saw their friends fall, they couldn't stop those they loved from being taken advantage of by others... They were even abandoned by the very entity that turned their lives upside down in the first place.
To say that the hearts of Lilith and the other universe's Bai Zemin were filled with hatred was a great understatement of their feelings.
"Although I can't say this is the reason with 100% confidence, if I'm not mistaken I think the reason why he practically lost his sanity almost completely is due to the fact that he spent years in battle mode practically without rest. The resentment of his enemies was absorbed along with many other records, which inadvertently caused his aura of death and murderous intent to reach levels that even he himself failed to control." Lilith's voice was like a distant dream, and just like her lost eyes, her head was submerged in sad and painful memories.
"Even I that am his only friend alive was attacked recently. Had it not been for Fire Sorrow and I escaping as soon as the God of Heaven and Uriel fled after being defeated we probably could have been entangled in a fierce battle against him."
She turned her head gently and said in an almost pleading voice, "Zemin, now that for some reason you can't go back to normal, I hope you'll be careful. Although your battle power will probably increase greatly every time you run into an enemy, the price you will have to pay will be losing your sanity to the point where you will attack your own allies."
Bai Zemin did not know what to say regarding this matter so he just nodded. However, he felt that something was wrong inside.
Previously he used to be terrified of the last two levels/triggers of Blood Berserker's Wrath skill. The very thought that his rationality could end up being devoured to the point of not recognizing his own side and end up involving his people was something that Bai Zemin absolutely did not want to see.
Now, however, for some reason, he did not detest this strange feeling. In fact, he didn't even feel anything strange... It was almost as if this was the way things had to be from the beginning.
Besides, Bai Zemin himself thought that with all his status resistances he should probably be fine. At the very least, he didn't think he would end up attacking his people in a berserk rampage.
"Lilith, can you explain to me what your plan was back then?" he asked softly.
She turned again as she dared not look him in the eyes. With a guilty conscience, she nodded.
"Our intention was... Sigh. I would be sent first as a scout." Lilith sighed and began to tell the whole truth without hiding anything.
The idea of the two of them was that Lilih would come to this side first to gather as much information as possible, as well as set up a foothold. It would be even better if she could join one of the factions of Higher Existences and learn more about the order of this universe, its powers, as well as its current situation.
After establishing herself firmly and without raising any suspicions, Lilith would seek out the alternate version of their home world, Gaia. In this case, Earth.
At some point, however, Lilith deviated slightly from the plan.
Instead of waiting to become firmly established, Lilith came directly to Earth. She thirsted to see her parents, even if deep in her heart she knew they were not them.Unfortunately, she was in for a rude shock when she learned that in this life her parents were not together. In fact, it was a big shock for her to learn that her father was a big scumbag in this alternate world.
Finally, she wanted to see the Bai Zemin from this side.
Even though Lilith's heart was full of hatred and murderous intentions, seeing an immature little boy full of desire towards life with expectations in the future was a great hit to her. It was then that for the first time she questioned if it was right what they were doing.
"In the past I used to think that I was the trigger for the apocalypse on Earth." Lilith said in a low voice, "After all, I began to slowly and gradually release more and more of my mana into the atmosphere. My intention was to bring this world to evolution as quickly as possible, and the sooner the Soul Record got here the better for me."
However, Lilith soon ended up discarding that thought. This was because Earth was so abnormal that it made no sense, and the evidence they found along the journey made it clear that this world was clearly not evolving for the first time but for some reason had decayed from what it once was.
After the Earth began to evolve, Lilith could not help but feel a burst of joy.
The time to start the game had finally come.
She had been waiting a decade for it.
However, man proposes and heaven disposes... That is to say, a person can plan as much as they want but fate will be the final adjudicator.
Bai Zemin's growth speed far exceeded Lilith's expectations to the point that even she hesitated for many days. His strength was insignificant compared to her friend's, but the speed at which he grew was not inferior at all.
More importantly, this Bai Zemin clearly lived a normal life over the years but somehow had an extremely frightening willpower. Even in the face of death he would not hesitate at all and would use his fists to rip apart anything that came his way with the sole goal in mind of finding his loved ones.
"As a favor for guiding you through the first stage, eventually I was supposed to ask you to accompany me to a place by making up any excuse... I would take you to my universe using the power of my second Firmament Fragment and there we would use the World Tree Heart Fragment to lock up your soul." Lilith began to breathe heavily and her body began to tremble as she spoke.
She was on the verge of a panic attack.
Bai Zemin hugged her tightly and said nothing at the same time as a complicated light shone in his eyes.
"After confining my soul, you knew that you would only have two hours of time before the World Tree Heart Fragment forcibly expelled me. But two hours was more than enough time for the Bai Zemin of your universe to put it in his heart, and after my soul was expelled it would end up merging with his, uh." Bai Zemin murmured softly.
Lilith's body shuddered even harder but she didn't deny it. She knew that Bai Zemin was an intelligent man so she shouldn't be surprised that he understood the rest of it based on the first part.
In fact, it had to be said that Lilith and the Bai Zemin of her universe had all the keys to carry out their plan to perfection.
With Bai Zemin's proud personality, he would never want to be indebted, and she would use him to drag him into her universe. There, both Bai Zemin would merge and a new personality would be born half between the two; but the power of the Bai Zemin of Lilith's universe would never fall at all since it was his body to begin with.
Bai Zemin would not die, but it would not be him either.
ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm Later, using his memories as well as his friendship with Shangguan Bing Xue, Lilith could do the same with her. This way, he could "reunite" with his loved ones and Lilith would at least have her mother to keep her company.
Of course, they both knew that all this would be false. However, after so much pain and hatred they really wanted some peace and family affection.
It was just that, again, man proposes and heaven disposes.
The Bai Zemin of the other universe never expected that in less than two years it would all come crashing down. Lilith herself never even dreamed that she would end up falling madly in love with her target along the journey.
"Z-Zemin."
Bai Zemin didn't realize that time passed so it was Lilith's voice in his embrace that brought him out of his inner thoughts. He almost jumped from shock when he found the body in his embrace covered in cold sweat and shivering intensely.
"Y-You... Do you hate me?"
Even though it was only less than ten words in total, a great level 400 soul evolver like Lilith found it nearly impossible. Her voice was completely broken along with the chattering of her teeth.
If Bai Zemin turned around to look at her face he would surely be even more astonished as Lilith did not have a drop of blood on her face. She had turned so, so white that if she were compared to a sheet of paper it would be hard to tell the difference.
It was only then that he realized he had been silent for too long.
"Silly girl..." Bai Zemin hugged her with even greater force and rested his chin on the top of her head, "Regardless of what your plans were in the beginning, did you ever hurt me?"
"I- But..."
"I don't hate you. My feelings for you haven't changed either." Bai Zemin gently shook his head and said, "If you had done me the slightest harm then I would hate you and would have done my best to kill you with my own hands. But why should I hate a person who for your love gave up more than a decade of careful preparation? Why should I hate the woman who suffered in silence but still chose me?"
In reality, Lilith was a truly pitiful person.
She literally lost everything and saw with her own eyes as the lives of those she loved were taken away by others helplessly.
A gentle person would end up becoming a demon. Bai Zemin himself did not know what he could do if he had to experience something like that.
And yet Lilith still chose him.
Wasn't this proof of how strong her feelings for him were? Wasn't this evidence that her heart was extremely kind? At the very least, Bai Zemin could not say with confidence that he would be the same.
Therefore, he did not hate her.