Iris sat alone. A modest lantern on her desk lit up her face, but it failed to illuminate the whole bedroom; she felt not the need to light up her world. The darkness surrounded her, kept her safe, and blocked the rest of things from intruding on her cosy domain.

Her hands held Speculative Divinity while her eyes wandered from sentences to sentences, and occasionally her mind drifted. She found herself inside a familiar cave, where her happiest time lived. It was a house, but not a home, for only the moss and the soft glow of the crystals existed here.

Her family was far away now, and she had no way to reach them, not when her current plan had just fallen apart.

“Must I walk my destined path?” Iris said. “I thought I’d finally escaped their grasps. Is there no other future after all?”

The appearance of Nupian had given Iris a spark of hope that Gulia and Lilith were fallible, stoppable. She came into the Legacy Ground unannounced and uninvited, destroyed everything, and almost collared Iris. That scenic moment almost compelled Iris to surrender, but she would not.

Her life was hers to dictate. She only trusted herself to safeguard her family. Without the strings of Lilith and Gulia, and with little manipulation from the Lord, she would rise by herself, for herself.

Now, it appeared Nupian’s appearance was indeed a random variable, but it mattered not. There was no alternative path. It was logical for Iris to return to her kins, to accept her status as the successor of Lilith, as a Foreign Existence who would overthrow the Divine, as a great calamity.

Never. Iris took a deep breath. I would never walk a path unbelonging. I’m not a calamity to this world; no one can control my Destiny. Even the Lord could not force me to become hers, let alone you, Lilith, Gulia.

I will only become a disaster to those who try to chain me, and I will become a saviour to those bound to me. I am not an ordinary Monster Girl but one with the gift of the Lord, with the investment of Lilith and Gulia.

“If there is no miracle, I shall create it myself.” Iris closed Speculative Divinity.

Its golden rim glimmered under the flickering lantern light. Its cursive title reminded Iris of an unending curve, a repeating pattern which looped back to the beginning, which was in itself an end. By focusing on the design, Iris allowed her mind to fly, her feeling to blossom. Though intangible, she could feel her understanding of the world, the secrets behind all there was, increasing.

“Let’s have another talk, Great One,” Iris whispered while reaching toward the angelic, demonic figure on the cover. “The Divine is our common enemy; we can work together.”

Her fingertips touched the cover. Instead of the rigid, firm sensation, they found a slimy, slippery surface akin to a membrane. Iris gently pushed forward. The barrier between the world and the book collapsed, revealing the endless whiteness, where the half-angel-half-demon floated. Her pair of feathery wings wavered. Her eyes gradually opened.

Iris came under the gaze of the Great One. Her Faith shuddered, screaming according to the rhythm of the world. With her prior experience, she carefully suppressed her Faith. Her eye contact never ceased.

Like before, the Great One resembled both an angel and a demoness. Her vast wings dominated the world under their spans but also comforted the living under their shades. Within her body contained mysteries of the world, and she was revealing it all, though Iris failed to comprehend them.

“Great One, I request your permission to enter your domain.” Iris hovered her hands inside the book. “My current location is unsuited for the upcoming discussion.”

Smiling, the Great One grasped Iris’s hands and tugged gently. Her force dragged Iris inside the book despite their relative size, yet she harmed not a single hair strand of Iris, not even slight discomfort. It was as if the world itself had moved to Iris, not the other way around.

“Iris, we expected not your eagerness,” the Great One said. “You’re indeed a Fateless, but we are more curious about your motivation than your identity. Why is it us whom you decided to trust?”

“Because we’re alike. I cannot negotiate with Lilith and Gulia, and the Divine won’t tolerate my existence. You are my only option.”

“How are you so sure that we can and will go against the Divine and the Foreign Existences?” The Great One leaned forward. Her towering body looked down on Iris, who kept her expression indifferent.

“The knowledge I gleaned from the book is of transcendence, and your presence commanded my Faith, something only the transcendent could achieve.”

“Indeed, We were once Deity. Sadly, even back then, we were no match for the Ancient Deities, even less so the Foreign Existences. However, we have mastered something they could not, and, though it became our downfall, we regretted not our decision.”

The Great One smiled, her gaze alternating between cold and fiery. Her two pairs of wings, one feathery, another demonic, shivered in excitement. In her eyes, her glorious past, her prideful achievement, flashed. Then, an unspeakable terror, an abrupt obliteration, consumed her vision.

“We can give you this method. What can you give us?”

“I can help you regain your power. With my acting as your proxy, the Divine won’t find you. The stronger I become, the more risks I can take, the faster you can recover.”

“Our trust is precious. Why should we not snatch your body?” The Great One smirked as she reached her hands forward. “We do not have faith in the Foreign Existences. You are one of them.”

“Because in me are the arrangements of multiple transcendent.” Iris stepped forward. “Take my body if you dare.”

Once Iris disappeared, the value of her family as the hostages would drop. They wouldn’t come under the radar of the transcendent, at least not at the forefront of the stage.

It was almost too perfect.

“Your courage is admirable. We shall see through the end whether it is foolish or miraculous.”

“This much is nothing.” Iris giggled. “So long as our goals stay united, we shall have a cordial relationship, us two the traitors of our kinds.”

The Great One floated backwards, grinning. The spiral horn on her forehead glowed, expressing both black and white radiance, which enveloped Iris, inspecting her body, observing her soul.

Though unexpected, Iris didn’t resist.

“Inside your body are multiple curses, marks of the transcendent,” the Great One said. “We recover by absorbing their Divinity and processing their comprehension of the world.”

Iris frowned. “I cannot and will not seek the transcendent.”

“To become stronger, you will.” The Great One sighed. “We have cleansed from you Curse of the Eye, leaving only its tiniest remnant. Its nature will be beneficial to you.”

Iris regulated her breathing and stared at the Great One. “I cannot envision any scenario where I survive an encounter with the transcendent. Just a True Master is enough to smother my hope.”

“We won’t make an unreasonable request, Iris, but you have to take risks.” The Great One pointed at Iris’s abdomen, where the Shadow Heart Core rested. “Your identity, your implication, they are the harbinger of your doom. You do not have much time.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“We merely spoke the truth which eluded you.” The Great One folded her wings around Iris, blocking her from the world of whiteness. “The world is looking for you; the Divine has already noticed your existence.”

“They will not—” Iris stopped herself as flashes of her misfortunate emerged in her mind. Since she came to the Eastern Continent, her luck had been getting worse and worse. It became apparent when multiple crises almost annihilated her. “But why this method? If they know my presence, they could have obliterated me.”

“It is the power of Fate, the Ancient Goddess of Fate, the Mistress of Arrangement, and the Attendant of the Source.” The Great One’s voice distorted, rumbling the stretch of the white void. “If you were an ordinary mortal, her mere thought would suffice to end you.”

“Have you been protecting me?” Iris shivered.

She couldn’t know the extent of the power of an Ancient Deity, for just a Deity was enough to overwhelm her senses. She couldn’t even know, and would not have guessed, that her misfortunate was an arrangement of the Ancient Goddess of Fate, a byproduct of her sheer will.

“Our condition doesn’t allow us to protect you. Someone, or something else, has been obscuring you from the all-seeing eye of Fate. Still, that power has not yet transcended the world, so misfortunate still befalls you.”

Iris glanced at her Virtual Space Ring, but she denied her conjecture soon after. The tattered Cloak of Destiny Obscurity was not powerful enough to shield her from Fate. Then, who could it be?

Lilith? Gulia? But I’ve betrayed them. Why are they helping me?

More importantly, my plan cannot keep up with my crisis anymore. I must get stronger faster. Otherwise, if the protection suddenly disappears, there will be no chance to save my family. My identity will implicate them.

“How can I verify your words?” Iris narrowed her eyes.

“Only you can convince yourself.” The Great One smiled. “What will you choose?”

The Great One fell silent, and Iris contemplated her future. She endured the suffocating serenity as she exhausted her mind mulling over her past and potential future. She found no solution, no path, no guiding light. There was nothing except the futility of her choices and the oblivion that inexorably followed.

I would rather perish under my hubris than accept the strings controlling me and my family. At least I would die knowing I’ve tried and failed.

“If all roads lead to oblivion, I shall take it upon myself to march toward my doom. I make my Destiny, and I shall be the one who destroys it.”

“We make our Destiny, against Fate, against others.” The Great One covered the right half of her face with her hand. A bright smile emerged. “I admire your ambition, Iris. I hope your endurance will grant you a pretty end, unlike us.”

The Great One drew back her hand, her expression turning aloof, a mix between cold and warmth. “We shan’t ask you to do anything yet. The traces of Divinity inside you are enough to satiate us for a time, but be prepared, when we gain enough power, our deadly voyage will begin.”

“Don’t leave me hanging.” Iris laughed. “I’ll abandon you if you can’t keep up. Our relationship is largely cooperative.”

“Our bond will be unbreakable, for so long as our enemies remain, we will never betray each other.”

“Let’s hope the day we become enemy will arrive swiftly.” Iris closed her eyes and leaned backwards. Though she had only been inside the pocket dimension twice, her instinct allowed her to mimic the gesture of the Great One.

Without any help, her figure turned blurry as the boundary between fiction and reality twisted, and she came out of the cover. Though time had passed, the room remained the same, dim and dreary.

Nevertheless, Iris was no longer a part of the depressing environment. She had a new goal, a new hope.

“I’m looking forward to working with you, Duality,” Iris muttered.