freenovelworld Chapter 238 Alicia: (＾－)
Chapter 238 Alicia: (＾－)
"The Herrscher of Corruption! No, no, this feeling is Alicia?"
After realizing that it was not the Herrscher of Corruption, Mei released her hand from the hilt of the sword.
"Wow! I didn't expect Mei to recognize me so quickly after all this time. It seems we're still on the same page!"
As she spoke, Alicia leaned close to Mei's face, grabbed Mei's hands, and placed them on her chest.
Although it was true that the person in front of her was Alicia, Mei was still a little unaccustomed to the way the Herrscher of Corruption imitated Alicia's appearance.
Even though Mei wanted to take a step back to avoid Alicia's enthusiasm, she couldn't separate herself because Alicia was holding her hand.
"Um, could you step back a little, Ellie? I really can't have a proper conversation with you like this."
"Eh~, is Mei shy?"
"Alright, Alicia, stop teasing Mei. If Mei leaves for too long, they'll notice something's wrong."
Kiana stepped forward and interrupted Alicia's attempt to continue teasing Mei, delivering a karate chop to Alicia's head, causing the latter to release her grip on Mei's hands in pain.
"Mei doesn't have much time, so I'll just give a brief overview."
Mei breathed a sigh of relief, and then began to listen to Kiana's plan.
In short, Kiana and Alicia will roughly replicate the plot of the original work in the coming period in order to ensure that the future course of this world can be slightly reversed.
Mei's task is simple: find the right moment to separate from the others, so that they can't get advanced information from her.
The reason doesn't matter, as long as Mei doesn't appear in front of other people until they complete their mission.
In particular, the memories inside Paradise should not show themselves to them at all. As for the outside, there is no need to worry, as Kiana has already spoken with Kevin and Klein.
The former only needs to synchronize their memories with their counterpart in Paradise at the appropriate time, so that Kevin's memory, which understands their plan, will act accordingly.
The latter will also lend a hand at the right time; the only thing that cannot be perfectly replicated now is the storyline related to Velvi.
"It's okay, just let me log off here."
"What does Mei mean?"
"It means I have to pretend that I have been corrupted for a long time, and that the reason I have continued to exist is simply because they need me as a trap to lure others."
"Does Mei mean to trap you in her consciousness space like she did with the extremely evil Velvi back then?" Alicia asked.
“That’s right,” Mei nodded.
“Alright, let’s do it this way!” Kiana said. “Mei, you should leave too. If you don’t leave soon, people will start to suspect you.”
“No.” Mei shook her head and said, “It’s precisely to make them suspicious that I can make my exit more natural.”
Kiana thought about it for a moment and agreed with Mei's statement.
"That's true. So, what are your plans for the future?"
Mei said, "It's not ready yet, after all, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision."
Alicia suggested, "In that case, why don't you come with us to the amusement park?"
"Won't the amusement park... take too long?"
"Indeed, I hadn't thought it through. Shall we go for a walk around then?"
"Well, that's it!"
Led by Alicia, the three strolled through the courtyard of Eternal Paradise, and then parted ways at the main gate leading to Eternal Paradise.
Mei planned to go back to find the others, while Kiana and Alicia concealed themselves once again and headed ahead to the place where Alicia had died to make preparations.
Time passed slowly until nightfall. Just when Kiana was getting bored to the point of utter madness, Alicia Memory finally arrived at their location with Sakura Memory.
"So... Sakura... had already sensed it all along?"
"After all, my memory synchronization was completely severed earlier than most people's. Since then, you've all looked at me with a strange expression. As an assassin, I can tell that you're trying your best to hide something from me, but I've never said anything about it."
"...I'm sorry, Sakura, you know we didn't mean to hide it from you."
"I know...that's why I'm angry. After all, she's my sister, don't I have the right to know the whole truth? Ellie, what you've done seems to me like a sign of distrust...wait, who's there?!"
Just as Sakura was about to say something, Kiana deliberately let her presence out of the way, interrupting her.
Kiana then used her powers to create a ball of light to appear in front of Alicia Memory and Sakura Memory in her place.
"This feeling... Herrscher!"
Sakura's Memory clenched her teeth, her face gradually contorting into a ferocious expression. The third divine key, the Seven Thunders of Purification, which was sealed in the scabbard, revealed a sliver of its blade.
"Wait!" Alicia Memory blocked Sakura Memory's path. "I can sense that this child means no harm, so could Sakura wait a moment?"
That being said, from Sakura's perspective, the sphere of light behind Alicia's Memory suddenly erupted. Several tentacles extended and bound Alicia's Memory, then began frantically absorbing its data.
In just a few seconds, the data of Alicia's Memory was completely absorbed. Before Sakura's Memory could react, she watched helplessly as Alicia's Memory disappeared without a trace before her eyes.
Sakura Memory originally wanted to avenge Alicia Memory, but the next second her intuition told her to run!
Sakura Memory instinctively dodged backward, thus avoiding the attack of the light sphere. The tentacles grazed the hem of Sakura Memory's clothes and hit the ground.
The tentacle completely absorbs the ground data it touches simply by making contact with the ground.
Sakura's Memory knew that the ball of light before her was an opponent she could never defeat. If she died at its hands now, no one would be able to tell the others the truth!
Moreover, even just being brushed against the hem of her clothes, Sakura's Memory felt something eroding her.
Therefore, even though Sakura's Memory was extremely unwilling, she could only do her best to unleash her strongest swordsmanship.
This strike broke through the limitations of space and even time, creating a completely still space.
Here, Sakura's Memory successfully suppressed the erosion, but her own consciousness gradually fell into silence.
Just before her consciousness was about to fall into a deep sleep, Sakura's Memory threw away the mask stained with Alicia's Memory's blood; it was the mask that belonged to her from her time in the Poison Chrysalis Squad.
Even though she has left the Poison Chrysanthemum Squad, Sakura Memory still carries it with her and never leaves it behind. It's just a pity that she can no longer leave any more information.
Hoping that the information she was conveying would not cause any unnecessary misunderstandings, Sakura's Memory then fell into a deep sleep.
The next day arrived, and in accordance with their promise to Alicia Memory, the group went to the agreed-upon location.
But after waiting for a long time, Alicia Memory still didn't show up, and it was now well past the agreed time.
Finally, unable to wait any longer, the group began to actively search for Alicia Memory. They then saw the heroes gathered together, but the atmosphere between them seemed rather tense.
"Have you seen Alicia?" Kiana Kaslana asked.
The already tense atmosphere among the heroes instantly shifted their attention to Kiana Kaslana, who felt extremely uncomfortable under their scrutinizing gazes.
Raiden Mei also frowned. She seemed to have a vague idea of what was going on, but she couldn't say for sure that her guess was correct until she had sufficient evidence.
Finally, Kiana Kaslana couldn't stand their scrutinizing gazes any longer and asked...
"So what exactly happened? We came to the agreed location with Alicia as promised, but we waited for a long time and didn't see her, so we came here. So did you see Alicia or not?"
The heroes exchanged glances, and finally, after sending Gretsch Memory away, slowly revealed the whereabouts of Alicia Memory.
“To be honest, we don’t know either, or rather, we’re gathered here because we haven’t found Alicia either. When you appeared, we thought you knew something about Alicia,” Kevin Memory said.
"so?"
“Alicia is missing,” Aponia Memory said.
"disappeared?"
"That's right. I haven't been able to sense Alicia's presence since we parted ways yesterday. To be precise, it was around midnight yesterday."
“We would have parted ways with Alicia long ago by midnight,” Raiden Mei said. “The last time we saw Alicia was in the evening. She was fine then, and seemed to be preparing to go to the library again.”
“We’ve already been to the library, but the doors were locked,” Kevin Memory said. “And only Alicia has the key, so we don’t know anything about what’s inside.”
“In any case, let’s gather everyone together,” Bronya suggested. “Only then can we better deduce Alicia’s location and the reason for her disappearance.”
“But that would mean everyone would know about Ellie’s disappearance,” Aponia Memory said worriedly. “I don’t want everyone to become distrustful right now.”
"Now is not the time to consider this. If we drag this out, it will be disadvantageous for us."
"Okay, I'll pass the message on."
Aponia Memory sighed and began issuing a notification to everyone. At that moment, Aponia Memory also lost the ability to sense Sakura Memory's presence.
Aponia Memory keenly sensed that there seemed to be some connection between them, but now was not the time to speak of it.
Before long, everyone gathered in the pavilion near the entrance to Eternal Paradise.
"So what did you call us here for?" Qianjie asked, suppressing his anger. "If you don't have a good enough reason, don't blame me for taking action against you, Aponia!"
Alicia has gone missing.
Kevin Memory stepped forward and simply and clearly informed everyone of the news, and instantly everyone began to discuss it.
Some people think this is just another joke by Alicia Memory, while others think that Alicia Memory has really encountered a problem.
"Mei, Mei, can you tell us what happened?"
Kiana Kaslana quietly approached Mei and asked her a question, but Mei seemed to be acting strangely at the moment. Mei simply responded blankly to Kiana Kaslana's question.
"I do not know."
"How could you not know? Logically speaking, you should have experienced something similar, right?"
"I have indeed experienced a similar incident, but my memory of it is now very hazy. I'm sorry I can't provide any useful information. If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving now."
Watching Mei's departing figure, Kiana Kaslana tilted her head in confusion.
"Do you think Mei is hiding something from us? Something seems off about her."
“It’s definitely very different from the usual Mei,” Bronya agreed. “Besides, Mei has always had a good memory, and she would definitely remember such important events. This does seem a bit off.”
"Speaking of which, where's Sakura? We haven't seen her for so long," Qianjie suddenly asked.
Sue and Aponia exchanged a glance, and finally Sue spoke.
"Just now, Aponia and I searched the entire Paradise together, but we couldn't find Sakura anywhere."
"What do you mean?"
Qianjie, who had been crossing his arms, now lowered them, and his tone became unfriendly.
"You're not suggesting that Sakura was responsible for Alicia's disappearance, are you?"
“Qianjie, you know that’s not what I meant,” Su explained. “It’s just that the timing of Ying’s disappearance is too coincidental, and we can’t help but suspect the connection between them.”
"Isn't that just doubting her? Let me tell you, Sakura would never betray her comrades, not in the past, not now, and certainly not in the future!"
As he spoke, the air around Qianjie's body visibly began to distort, and the surrounding temperature was rapidly rising.
"Qianjie, calm down! I never said that Ying betrayed anyone. It's just that Ying is the only one who is missing, so we have to find her first to uncover the truth!"
“Speaking of traitors, isn’t Alicia the biggest traitor among us?” Mebius added fuel to the fire.
"Dr. Mebius, this is not the time to talk about this. Please watch your words."
"Yes, yes, I understand. But how do you plan to stop Qianjie? Right now, he's a powder keg that could explode at the slightest touch. One wrong move and he'll explode completely!"
"Let's stop this matter!"
In the end, Kevin Memory intervened and stopped the impending battle.
"The most urgent thing now is to find Alicia and Sakura; everything else can be put aside for now."
Just then, countless sheets of paper suddenly floated down from the sky. They were undoubtedly the kind of paper used by printers that could print out everything related to Paradise. Everyone caught the papers in front of them and began to read.
The paper was covered with dense writing, but the writing kept repeating the same sentence until the entire paper was filled.
"Alicia, dead?!"