(Lian Li POV)
My whole life was a lie…
No, that's not it, it was more like I can't believe that what we have now was actually all thanks to this stalker bitch…
"If you hadn't turned back time for Master… That would have been my life? As some kind of avenger in the other Plane and lived a life not knowing the touch of Master?"
She nodded without any judgement, "It seems like it. You never got over that thing attempting to rape you in that timeline. And because no one accepted you, you rejected the World as well, leading you on that path."
Honestly, it was a really sad life, one that I would most definitely not wish to have now that I know about this life with Master. That me did not even get to ascend to Godhood either and would eventually die alongside Guiying when the two of us met a foe we could not defeat.
Why would I even want that kind of life?
That made me feel a little conflicted with how I should view Iris now.
On one hand, she's still the bitch who made all these problems for us and forced us to fix all of it because of her meddling. On the other hand, had she not done her meddling, none of us would be here today either.
That dilemma was solved when she smiled at me, "Ara, ara? I did not do what I did for you, so you don't need to feel any form of gratitude to me. In fact, all of you being with Master was part of my plan from the start."
In that case, I will still settle on annoyance for your existence then.
"Ufufufu~ The feeling is still mutual," She giggled after reading my mind.
I tilted my head at her, "I thought yours was one of jealousy?"
"Ara? I suppose that is true. Is this what jealousy feels like? Where I really, really wish that all of you never existed and Master looked only at me?"
"That sounds about right."
"Ufufufu~ Then indeed, I am exceptionally jealous of all of you."
I couldn't help but grin at her, feeling a weird sense of camaraderie from our shared distaste of each other.
That was when a voice came from the side of the room that caught our attention immediately, "We found Master!!"
I turned to see Brendan gesturing excitedly in the air, pointing at a rainbow coloured ball that was floating above him.
Almost all the monsters seemed to have passed out after concentrating on their soul link for so long, the ones still conscious were also collapsed on the floor and unable to move.
Iris narrowed her eyes at it before letting out a sigh, "Master is indeed there but it seems like the little dragon really does not want us to take Him back."
Tsuki turned to glare at her, "What do you mean?"
Instead of answering, Iris lifted her hand and the rainbow coloured ball expanded to show us a view that was similar to the castle town we had first found Cai Hong in. The only difference was that this one was way more fortified with layers upon layers of what looked like translucent shields that covered not only the city, but the entire World too. Not to mention the town had expanded into a giant city fortress.
That wasn't all…
"Is that… Lilith?" I asked.
"Indeed it is," Iris affirmed with an emotionless stare. "It seems that Master's 'children' were in on the plan all along."
We were completely and utterly played…
I had found it weird that Lilith didn't seem like she was doing much in the fight against those Great Ones. How could someone who had experience fighting against those things do worse than us who were fighting them for the first time?
And the excuse of why she couldn't get more higher ranked Gods help us… That was a lie wasn't it? We were all set up to fail from the start.
My assumption was that Cai Hong most likely convinced all of them to join in on her plan to create some kind of utopia with Master treating them like His children.
I would very much like to get angry at the loli dragon for doing such a thing but I can't because if one of us were to approach me with an idea similar to this, I would have jumped aboard immediately too.
"You can do something about this, right?" Tsuki asked Iris.
She tilted her head, "I could End all of them including the little dragon if that's what you wish for me to do?"
"What? Why can't you just stop them from resisting and make them give Aniue back?"
"The little dragon knows me better than Master does. She has tied everyone's existence together with the World itself. Which means if I were to End something there, all of them would End together."
Elaria crossed her arms, "Then just do it? Onii-sama can just bring them back later on, right?"
"Ufufufu~ And you would have me take the fall for Ending the little dragon, wouldn't you? I am not stupid enough to set myself up for that. Master may not get angry but He can still be upset with me. If I were to do something to upset Him again right now, I would rather just End myself in that case~"
Indeed… As magnanimous as Master is, He would definitely not be happy if anything happened to Cai Hong, even if she was scheming against Him.
Manami tilted her head, "In that case… Perhaps we could ask Cai Hong to come out for a chat?"
Eris raised an eyebrow, "What could we even offer to make her come out from there? She's practically in heaven inside there."
"Maybe cookies perhaps?" Brendan suggested.
Bait bellowed out in laughter, "Wahahaha! You mean Master's cookies? Why would she come out to get some when Master is literally in there with her? She could ask Master for as many cookies as she wants in there!"
Elaria tapped her chin thoughtfully, "Then is it possible for us to create a tunnel through the shield? I believe my ships can get us in there if that is a possibility."
Iris nodded, "We can, but those 'children' of Master's would definitely attack us the moment we are seen. What's more, nothing is stopping the little dragon from taking Master away and creating another World like this one."
Kiyomi bit her thumb, "Tch… So what we need to do is get close to Master without alerting Cai Hong… Is that it?"
But how could we do that? Everyone there is a child of Master, if we appear there we would be spotted straight away…
"Ara…? Ara, ara? That gives me the perfect idea!" Iris chuckled.
We looked at her questioningly but seemed to have already done what she wanted to before we could ask her what it was.
Why does she suddenly look so big? Wait… Why does everything all look so big now?
No… It's not that everything got bigger, we got smaller!!
All of us are in our child forms!!
What are you doing?!!
