Chapter 352: United Hearts
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Ding!
[The Constellation: {Trillion-Legged Millipede That Swarms The Cosmos} has offered everything they have to sponsor you!]
[You have become the Avatar of {Trillion-Legged Millipede That Swarms The Cosmos}!]
[Your Cosmic Heart is absorbing their power, rapidly regenerating all damage, and infusing you with more Cosmic Energy!]
FLUOSH!
I felt countless threads rush into my Cosmic Heart, sewing it together.
My Cosmic Energy grew larger as the machine started working even faster than before.
“Two million five hundred thousand nanomachines extracted! W-We’re doing it! Please hang in there!”
“Are you sure this is okay?” I asked Sepa.
Sepa nodded as she quickly flew back to my Cosmic Core.
“Of course! We’re going to throw the entire Realm Beyond upside down, right?!” she asked. “Bastet, you too! Come on!”
“Okay, fine…” Bastet appeared by my side, now resembling a small black cat with golden accessories and bright golden eyes. “I also sponsor you, Anna… With whatever little power I have. You’re my last investment… So you better be worth it!”
Ding!
[The Constellation: {The Black Cat That Inherited The Sun} has offered what little they have to sponsor you!]
[You have become the Avatar of {The Black Cat That Inherited The Sun}!]
FLAAASH!
Two sponsorships at the same time… And it felt like I could take many more.
It was strange; I always rejected them because I didn’t want to get involved with these two-faced Constellations.
But this is… different.
More deep and intrinsic than just being given gifts from some guy I’ve never known.
Sepa and Bastet, I’ve seen their past, and I know them.
It truly feels like we’re friends sharing our power with one another.
“Two million seven hundred thousand!” Zero One said. “How are you handling it—Ah!”
As I was able to finally resist the destruction of my Cosmic Heart, however, I saw my masters struggling.
“Uughh… Hahhh… Hahhh…”
“Ahhh… Hahh… Hahh…”
They were no longer screaming; they had no stamina or energy to scream; they were gasping for air, barely clinging to life.
Mother…
Father…
“Hue Xian…” the Heavenly Demon said, extending his hand towards her.
“Han Zhenye…” the Heavenly Empress said, extending her hand towards him.
Their hands touched as they tightly held one another.
“Whatever… happens now…” he muttered. “I want to tell you that I’ll always… I’ll always love you…”
“Me too…” she nodded. “I… I’ll always love you…”
I wanted to do something, but this is all I could do now.
If I interfered right now, the entire process might be interrupted, and all the effort would be ruined.
This was… all I could do.
I could only watch…?
I could only watch as I saw the life being drained out of their eyes.
As I saw them cry…
I could only watch?!
Just like back then, when I read this damn novel.
A reader cannot interact with the world they’re experiencing.
It’s not a video game.
You can’t save anybody…
You can’t help anybody…
You can’t talk to them; they’re fictional; the book is already written.
But right now… that’s not the case.
I’m here, right now.
I can do something; I have to.
Something…
There must be something I can do!
“Anna, I have an idea!”
Suddenly, I heard Bastet’s voice.
“The only way to help them without interrupting the process is by infusing them with Vitality, Ki!” she said. “However, touching them is forbidden… I’ll use my own Cosmic Soul to create threads connecting to their Spiritual Bodies, which will then naturally pump Ki into their bodies.”
“W-What?! Is it possible?” I asked.
“Yes! But you’ll pass out afterwards,” she said. “Is it okay with you?”
“Wait, Bastet, aren’t you being too reckless?!” Sepa panicked. “If she gives away all her Ki, there’s a chance she will die!”
“Because my Cosmic Soul is a small Fragment now, I had to assimilate Anna’s Essence,” Bastet said. “My personality might have grown twisted as it has copied hers a bit… Maybe I got that from her.”
“Hahaha…” I couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “Fine! Bring it on!”
“Very well!” Bastet nodded. “Sepa, you help me stabilize her body; once she starts infusing Ki into my body, you’ll pump it like blood. Don’t go overboard, nor do it too slowly!”
“O-Okay! We’re doing this, huh?! Fine! Fineeee!” Sepa was panicking.
I saw Bastet's cat form suddenly turn into countless golden threads connected to my physical body.
Then Sepa appeared in my Spiritual Body, panicking as she tried to connect everything as Bastet told her.
But she was doing it clumsily, this girl…
However.
“Let us help.”
“We’re here; don’t ignore us!”
“Hey, let me give you a hand.”
“If it’s for this, then I can help too!”
“Me too! Let me help.”
“Ugh, whatever. Let me help then.”
All my Egos unified for this cause; I even saw a serpent-shaped Ego helping.
Uroboros was helping!
“Don’t get the wrong idea! If you die, I’ll die too, and there’s no way I’m dying now!” he angrily said, hissing at me. “Once I can manifest fully and regain my freedom, I’ll have my revenge!”
FLAAASH!
I let it all out, my Ki.
I had so much…
This was all the Ki they helped me cultivate.
All the power they helped me unleash.
And more…
My Hope Ki.
My Demonic Ki.
And even… My Love Ki.
I gave it all to them.
As their eyes slowly lost their light.
As their hands held tightly but slowly began to lose their strength.
I gave them my all.
To my beloved masters…
To my adoptive parents.
Because…
Because I…
“I love you two as well!”
I cried as I gave them everything I had.
FLAAASH!
Thanks to Bastet, my Ki flowed through their bodies.
Their vitality was rapidly recovered, their stamina as well.
And their bodies regained some of their warmth.
“Hahhh!”
“W-Wha…?!”
They gasped in surprise as they felt the pain once more.
They were about to die; I knew it…
They wouldn’t have made it!
I’m so glad…
I’m so glad I intervened!
But without Bastet and Sepa, or my Egos, it wouldn’t have been possible.
This entirely convoluted solution, it was only thanks to them and their sponsorship that further connected us together.
It was as if they had become an extension of my soul and my body…
“Two million nine hundred thousand!” Zero One started crying. “Please… You need to make it!”
The count continued growing, as I noticed my masters glancing at me, immediately realizing who was saving their lives.
“Anna…”
“My dear…”
They started crying, both of them…
“Thank you for being our daughter…”
Our energies merged; everything became one.
For that very second, it felt like we were truly a family.
Through this connection, something appeared.
Strange visions, memories of a past that never existed.
Memories where I was the last human of a small human village in Bestia.
Where I was abandoned, crying as a baby.
And where I was ultimately found by a couple of bird-kin.
A crow and a crane…
They smiled at me; they loved me despite not being feathered or winged like them.
I always wondered why I wasn’t like them…
Yet I never doubted their love.
Eventually, I had a little brother born with only a single wing.
He was always sad because he couldn’t fly.
But I couldn’t fly either, so he felt comforted by that.
We traveled the world of Bestia.
From dry steppes to grasslands, from jungles to snowy mountains.
They taught us many things: how to cultivate, enlightenment, the heavenly dao.
The dark path of demons and the enlightened path of the orthodox.
These memories, they were so corny…
They weren’t real, but perhaps they were a manifestation of our powers combining and our hearts unifying.
A what if…
If I had been born here, if I had been adopted earlier.
If I could have grown up with them…
I think I would have been really happy too.
But my real family…
Mom and Dad from Earth.
I also loved them.
So, ultimately... I wouldn’t have wanted it to go his way anyway.
FLAAASH!
“T-Three… three million!”
But I’m happy nonetheless, because they became my adoptive parents.
Because they gave me the love I needed so badly…
And because they made me feel welcomed.
“Anna…”
“My daughter!”
They ran to me, completely healed.
And they hugged me so tightly I think I would have broken all my bones if I had been weaker!
“I love you so much!” she said, pecking my face. “We’ll always love you too…”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “We’ll always do.”
I felt happy that they were alive.
“We did it…” I cried. “You’re alive! I was so scared…”
I couldn’t help but cry like a baby, and eventually, as I saw Zero One and Zero Two crying as they hugged one another, the doors opened, and everyone else ran inside.
They screamed in happiness, celebrating, and Song came flying towards us; we hugged him too; he was so happy.
“Mama! Papa!”
The happiest I’ve ever seen him.
This Trial… this world…
It has given me so much.
I don’t know why the Class Change Trial ended up becoming something like this, so life-changing.
But I know that whoever decided it to be this way did it for a reason.
To grow more, I didn’t just need power.
I didn’t just need more stats, or skills, or whatever else…
I needed this.
All of this…
I feel so much stronger with them, with everything.
“Let’s save this world, shall we?”
I was brimming with determination like never before.
Let’s give this world and its people the happy ending they deserve.
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