Alice looked at Liyakade, who was snuggled against her shoulder, gradually relaxing as her breathing leveled out.
The sense of dissonance and suspicion in her heart finally dissipated bit by bit.
“See? I told you so. Liyakade’s reaction earlier was just a natural instinct for the Demon Race. She’s definitely not afraid of you; she’s just afraid of the Light Element on your body.”
Seeing that Liyakade had fallen asleep, Field leaned in close and whispered to comfort Alice.
“Yeah, Field, you’re right.”
Alice nodded.
Liyakade’s reaction just now had dispelled her doubts, and her mood gradually relaxed.
Come to think of it, it had been a long time since Alice had this kind of slightly intimate physical contact with Liyakade.
Looking at her sleeping face, Alice couldn’t help but look forward to the journey over the next few days.
However… as Liyakade slept, her brow furrowed imperceptibly.
Her nose twitched slightly; she smelled a scorched scent.
She could feel waves of heat coming from around her.
Opening her eyes, a sea of fire greeted her.
Countless fragments of stone and brick walls were crashing heavily onto the ground from above.
Where is this?
Liyakade looked around.
Amidst the ruins, she was surprised to find herself sitting on a throne.
This throne was even more magnificent, majestic, and solemn than Korim’s.
Moreover, it felt strangely familiar to her for some unknown reason.
No! Isn’t this the Demon King Castle!? How could I suddenly appear in the Demon King Castle?
And even be sitting on the Demon King’s throne?
Liyakade was startled.
she had no memory at all of what happened before arriving here.
But according to the plot of the Original, the Demon King Castle being engulfed in flames was the moment of the final battle.
This fire in the Demon King Castle was the masterpiece of Field and Her Highness Sistem joining forces.
No, that’s not right.
Haven’t I already changed the World Line?
This kind of thing where Alice and the others come to attack the Demon King Castle shouldn’t be happening anymore…
No, maybe it wasn’t Alice and the others attacking, but something else caused a fire in the Demon King Castle.
But… why on earth am I appearing here?
Just then, Liyakade suddenly felt a dark and wicked Magic Power surge into her body.
“What is this!”
Liyakade instinctively tried to block the influx of Magic Power, but she found that she couldn’t control her body at all.
What panicked her even more was that this power wasn’t actually surging into her of its own accord.
On the contrary, it was Liyakade who was actively absorbing and plundering it.
She hurriedly looked in the direction from which the Magic Power was being absorbed and discovered a massive corpse in front of her.
It had the head of a bull—the corpse of the Boss from the Original, the Minotauros.
And now, Liyakade was actually absorbing the Magic Power and Bloodline of the dead Minotauros.
This scene, filled with a sense of déjà vu, made Liyakade extremely frantic.
If things continued like this, then next…
Although Liyakade desperately wanted to stop absorbing the power and Bloodline, the feeling of fullness was simply irresistible.
She could feel her power continuously climbing.
Both her mental strength and perception reached an unprecedented level.
Finally, the Minotauros’s body completely shriveled up, and his corpse even began to collapse, dissolving bit by bit into a puddle of flesh.
“Liyakade!”
However, before Liyakade could carefully experience the current feeling, a familiar female voice called out to her with an unprecedentedly strange and cold tone.
It was Alice.
Jolted by Alice’s shout, Liyakade snapped out of her intoxication with power.
“Alice…?”
But as she excitedly turned her head, what she saw was the three of them looking at her as if they were facing a great enemy.
They all seemed to have grown a bit older, but the auras they gave off were so foreign.
“Liyakade… I really misjudged you. What happened to bringing peace to the Kingdom? Is this the peace of your Demon Race?”
The first to speak was Sistem.
Azure Magic Power swirled around her with strong winds.
She stared coldly at Liyakade on the throne, magical energy lingering in her hands as if she would attack at any moment.
“S-Sistem? Your Highness, what are you saying!?”
Liyakade was completely confused by Sistem’s words.
She had no memory of coming here and didn’t know what had happened, but it looked like the three of them were now full of hostility toward her.
“Tch…”
Field, standing nearby, could no longer hold back.
Seeing Liyakade’s innocent act only made her feel enraged.
She bit her lower lip hard, almost squeezing the words through her teeth.
“Didn’t you perform the Blood Sacrifice to revive the Demon King early and lead the other Demon Race members to attack the Royal City!?”
“What? It was… me?”
Liyakade’s pupils shrank as if she had been struck by a bolt from the blue.
She had no memory of such a thing at all.
In her memory, they had defeated Irina Zi and Darkness.
Although she couldn’t remember what happened after that, she could never have helped a semi-hostile force complete a Blood Sacrifice!
“Field! Think about it again! I couldn’t possibly do something like that. Have you forgotten? The time we spent together at the Academy, the plays we performed together, the Dungeons we visited…”
Those memories were so real that they shouldn’t be fake.
At this moment, Liyakade just wanted to confirm the reality of her memories.
According to the original path, she should have joined Alice and the others to defeat the Demon King and let Korim inherit the throne.
How could she lead the Demon Race to attack the Kingdom?
Something must have gone wrong.
Either she was under an illusion or she had traveled to a different World Line.
In any case… the current situation was very wrong.
“Enough!”
But before Liyakade could finish, Field cut her off.
“Of course I remember. Alice remembers too. It’s because we remember those things that we find you even more disgusting now!”
Infuriated, Field held her Sword with both hands.
Flames wrapped around the Sword, extending continuously from the tip.
Roaring, Field gripped the flaming Giant Sword and swung it heavily down toward Liyakade.
This power was much stronger than the maximum Level for Field that Liyakade had seen before she crossed over.
However, such power was clearly not enough to face the current Liyakade.
“Wait—”
Liyakade instinctively flapped her wings slightly, protecting herself with her black wings, and easily blocked Field’s attack.
Tongues of fire surged, but Liyakade gently waved her wings, brushing the flames away.
“Wait a minute, what happened? All of you, calm down!”
“At this point, why are you still acting like a good person? If you have the ability, then attack us already!”