It was only then that Miri Dreamwell realized that the girl she was embracing in her arms had not made a single sound so far.
Miri quickly let go and lifted the girl’s body to face her.
At this moment, Miri noticed that the girl before her, with her wine-red pupils, had long lost the starlike glimmer in her eyes.
Like a doll stripped of its soul, devoid of any emotion.
The girl’s vacant eyes shifted slightly, gazing at Miri standing before her.
“Why apologize? You didn’t do anything wrong.”
The girl’s tone was eerily hollow, like a black hole devouring everything, threatening to swallow Miri whole in the next moment.
“Mentor…”
Miri suddenly felt afraid. Apart from her hair color, this girl was no different from the Eve Nightburn she knew.
Yet now, she could no longer see the radiant aura that once surrounded her.
“Hmm, what’s wrong?”
The girl responded in the same empty voice, as if confirming her identity.
“Are you… okay, Mentor?”
“I’m fine. Aren’t I alive and well?”
Eve swung her arms slightly, as if to prove she was unharmed.
But anyone could see that something was terribly wrong with her.
Mentor…
Miri couldn’t bring herself to speak. The Eve before her now was terrifying, and she knew all too well that she herself was the reason Eve had become this way.
Just then, Eve suddenly spoke in a weak voice.
“Sis, I want to ask you something.”
“What is it? You can tell me anything!”
Miri hadn’t expected Eve to still acknowledge her as “sis.” The word now felt like a cruel joke, stabbing at her nerves.
“I want to know… am I still alive?”
Miri pulled Eve into her embrace, hoping to make her feel her presence.
“You’re alive. You really are. Sis won’t lie to you this time. Isn’t my being here the best proof?”
“I… am alive?”
Eve seemed unconvinced. “Sis is lying to me again, haha.”
“I’m already dead, aren’t I? This is my hell, right?”
“Just like my life—everyone pushed me away. So now, this world made me push everyone away.”
“Giggle~”
Eve suddenly burst into laughter, a laugh both manic and stifled.
“But why… do both feel exactly the same?”
Eve stopped laughing abruptly, tears streaming down her face and soaking Miri’s shoulder.
“Sis… I want to bite something. Wait, no—I’m already dead. Dead people don’t eat.”
“Sorry, sis. I’m being difficult. You should go back. Uncle Hui and Aunt Xiang must be worried sick. It’d be bad if they’re upset.”
Even now… you’re still worried about others, not yourself?
Miri felt her throat tighten, words stuck behind a suffocating lump.
“I don’t know what sins I committed in my past life to make the world hate me so much.”
“Don’t be like me, sis. Or you’ll end up suffering karma every day in your next life too, okay?”
Miri immediately hugged Eve tighter, shaking her head desperately before forcing out a few words: “No… It’s not like that!”
“You want to bite something? Then bite me.”
Eve hesitated. “Bite you? That doesn’t seem right…”
Miri: “It’s fine. As long as it makes you happy, that’s all that matters.”
Eve: “Then… I’ll really bite you.”
“Go ahead.”
After saying this, Miri took off her coat, rolled up her sleeve, and exposed the fair skin beneath.
“Grr—!”
Without hesitation, Eve sank her teeth into Miri’s shoulder.
Sharp fangs pierced through skin, drawing blood into Eve’s mouth.
“Ngh… Ah…!”
Miri endured the pain, letting Eve bite down as hard as she wanted.
A long time passed before Eve finally released her grip, leaving four deep tooth marks on Miri’s arm.
Wiping her lips, Eve smeared the remaining blood on them before kissing Miri lightly.
“Mwah~ Thanks, sis. I really am alive.”
But the next moment, as if driven by instinct, Eve uttered something horrifying.
“Bloodthirsty, flesh-devouring, marrow-sucking, bone-crushing—I am the corrupter of morals.”
“Secret words: The me lifted by strings, the you in the mirror pulling them—together, we build The Parallel Nation!”
As soon as she finished speaking, the crimson rose on Eve’s left ring finger faded to white. Countless ice thorns erupted from beneath her feet, freezing and shattering everything around them.
After spreading a hundred meters, the thorns flattened into pure, endlessly expanding ice.
Eve clung tightly to Miri, refusing to let the biting frost harm the only tangible reality she could still touch.
“This time… I won’t let go.”
The ice spread beyond the barrier, freezing and shattering it completely.
At that moment, alarms blared in the observation room, jolting the exhausted Magical Girls awake from their high-stress surveillance. By the time they reacted, the screens had already turned pitch black.
“What the hell just—?!”
Before Ivory could finish her complaint, her body froze mid-motion.
At the center of Cloudsea Lake, strings appeared around Eve’s body, while the massive mirror behind her reflected Miri’s figure.
The strings lifted Eve’s left hand—and in the next instant, the lake’s ice surged upward, carrying Eve and the mirror high into the sky.
Once the ascent stopped, the ice transformed into a magnificent palace.
Eve phased through the rooftop beneath her, landing in a bedroom inside. The strings gently laid her on the bed, where she drifted into peaceful slumber.
The moon hung motionless above the lake, as if compensating for its master’s long solitude.
Atop the city’s broadcast tower, a girl with closed eyes gazed toward Cloudsea Lake.
The thermometer in her hand had shattered.
“The Divine’s mercy is ever so boundless.”
“Even a heart of absolute zero refuses to let you freeze.”
She looked up at the Frozen Frontier that now enveloped the entire city. Then, it became an opaque black wall before vanishing entirely, revealing a sky full of glittering stars.
“A new nation has been born. Welcome to the land of happiness.”
“Become string-pulled puppets free of pain. Let us greet each other with smiles every day.”
As she spoke, she produced another thermometer. The temperature on it settled at: -36.2°C.
“It seems the borders are set.”
The rising temperature marked the establishment of the new order’s laws.
If absolute zero had heralded the old world’s end, then -36.2°C signaled the dawn of the new.
She knew that from this moment on, all rules had been rewritten. Here, every law was but Her Highness’s decree.
“Now then, welcome as citizens of our Lady’s realm. May you all find joy here—and remember, never let sorrow take hold.”
