Several minutes later, at a corner of a street.

"Ha... ha... ha..."

Qiqimora was gasping for air, reaching out to a nearby lamppost to steady herself, only to find her hand passing right through it.

It was then she abruptly remembered she was still in an "intangible" state, where she had only allowed the ground to interact with her.

Her mind was almost a blank, the recent events felt like a nightmare.

Somehow, she had escaped from that domain, even more disheveled than when she had fled from the encounter with Mr. Bloodcloth in Gistas.

Fog suddenly started to swirl in front of her, and she tensed instinctively before realizing it was Abigail summoning her.

She heeded the summons, and then the figure of Abigail, shrouded in grey mist, appeared before her.

Qiqimora lifted the "invisibility" specifically for Abigail, allowing her to see her own form.

Qiqimora noted that Abigail had wings and talons at this moment, the very form of a Harpy.

"Are you still lucid, Qiqimora?" asked Abigail.

"You... you’ve just escaped too, have you? Thank heavens, that domain only covered the vicinity of the prison," panted Qiqimora. "How did you manage it?"

"Before my consciousness was eroded, I let my instincts entirely take over my body; I turned myself into a beast," explained Abigail. "It was the instinct to survive that enabled me to escape from that domain."

"That was quite a gamble," Qiqimora let out a breath. "What about Lamia? Is she done for?"

Abigail didn’t respond but lifted one of her wings, which quickly transformed into a hand and pointed behind Qiqimora.

Qiqimora turned around to see the projection of Lamia.

Enveloped in thick fog, the silhouette of Lamia was immensely blurred, barely discernible as her by the half-human, half-serpent outline.

"Lamia?" Qiqimora frowned.

"Ah... ah..." Lamia let out a hollow, murmuring sound.

Clearly, she was completely unaware of the other two in the projection space.

"She is unconsciously releasing magic power, which is why I was able to summon her here with the token," said Abigail. "But that’s as far as it goes; she has lost her own consciousness."

"Did she use ’Chaos’ on herself?" Qiqimora said.

Clearly, Lamia had employed the "Chaos" ability of the "Chaos" authority on herself, scrambling her spirit, turning herself into a completely senseless fool, incapable even of understanding concepts such as love and hate.

That enabled her to escape the indiscriminate attack of the "Desire" authority.

"Without it, she would be totally controlled by now," said Abigail.

"In this state, all she can hope for is that the warden will restore her mind later on," said Qiqimora.

"Lamia can only bet on him now, and so do we," said Abigail. "We agreed to help him fight the Sovereign, but in the face of the Sovereign’s power, saints are utterly helpless."

"The Sovereign is such an entity, and yet you’re still thinking of taking us to challenge the Wilderness King?" Qiqimora laughed wryly at herself. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"At least the Wilderness King has long lost his normal consciousness, but this Sovereign... hmph, we’re just lucky we fled quickly," said Abigail. "Did that man succeed in his ascension? I called out to him, but he did not respond to me."

This was the matter she cared about the most, and to some extent, they had fulfilled their promise to assist Aiden. If Aiden could successfully ascend to a dominator and keep his word, he would become a significant aid for them in seizing power in the future.

"Things might be more complicated than we thought." Qiqimora lowered her eyes, and in that moment, she remembered the last smile that had appeared on Aiden’s face, which clearly wasn’t an expression Aiden would normally show.

Aiden had once told them that the dominator possessed the ability to assimilate others, and when they had mentioned the possibility of Aiden being influenced or manipulated, he had visibly hesitated.

Perhaps, the prison warden had already—

With that thought, Qiqimora felt her heart sink.

At least... don’t lose, prison warden.

Now, all she and Abigail could do was pray.

...

Rose Iron Prison.

Melissa had arrived at the prison warden’s office, where the controlled jail guard courteously opened the door for her.

After entering Aiden’s office, she confidently found the key, performed a series of operations, and opened the secret door leading to the underground.

Having read Aiden’s memories, she naturally knew Melifilia’s location of confinement and the method to unlock the tunnels.

She descended the steps with poise, arriving at the great door of the Mithril Dungeon.

The runes on the door emitted a warning red glow; this cell was fundamentally allowed only for Aiden, the watcher, to approach.

If Melissa didn’t provide the correct blood sample, the traps and magic traps attached to the door would be activated immediately.

She softly chanted a divine word, the "wish" power of the "Desire" authority.

A realm opened around her as the center, and she made a "wish" to unlock the door; her desire began to distort reality within the realm.

Within the realm of "wish," everything became idealistic, evolving in the direction she desired. Even if the probability of an event was extremely slight, as long as the order was under the authority, the probability could be manipulated and significantly amplified by the power.

Highly improbable malfunctions occurred consecutively on this door, the magic runes failed, and the mechanical traps jammed as soon as they activated. Melissa smeared her blood on the door, and amidst the malfunction, the door misidentified and unlocked.

The great door thundered open, and Melissa stepped into the dungeon where no sunlight penetrated.

The halo of her lantern illuminated the space inside, and Melissa saw the person she had been expecting.

"You indeed came here first," Aiden said with his hands behind his back, standing beside the table where he usually played chess with Melifilia.

Behind him, Melifilia, nailed to the execution frame by the holy stakes, had her eyes closed, as if still asleep.

"Did you know I would come here?" Melissa asked.

"You’re someone who can manipulate the dice, so for you, the game’s rules exist only to please you," Aiden replied calmly. "Since you have the ability to free your own ’Wisdom’ authority, you would consider it an option for yourself."

"Two dominators against two dominators, I find that quite fair, not really breaking the game rules," Melissa said, smiling and spreading her hands. "Let her attach herself to you."

"You already know everything," Aiden exhaled.

"So you’ve still chosen this identity. I gave you the chance to leave the chessboard and become a player like me, but to think you would choose to continue as a chess piece. Too engrossed in the role-playing, perhaps?" Melissa’s face bore her signature enigmatic smile. "Was it another ’me’ who helped you achieve this?"

"You’re thinking the same as I am..." Aiden nodded. "The Goddess of Vengeance, she was once a part of you too, wasn’t she?"