Chapter 658: One Step Ahead

"Surprised?" I chuckled when I saw Ysnay's stiffened expression. "It looks like it's my win this time."

"… How? I was sure that there was no trace of you in Alice. How did you appear here then?"

I smiled slightly and extended my hand. On it, a small transparent ball was floating silently.

"That is… A fragment of a soul?" Ysnay was confused, but immediately, an expression of realization appeared on her face. "A fragment of Alice's soul? No, that is impossible. I'm sure that her soul is complete."

"You trust your abilities over fate too much, Ysnay." I shook my head.

Ynsay's ability to control fate makes her a very troublesome opponent. It's almost impossible to lie, fool, or deceive her when she knows almost everything that has happened or is happening.

But there is nothing impossible in this universe, or at least, I have not found anything impossible yet.

I had faced Ysnay's plots and schemes for many years. She has put me in a precarious situation more than once, and the number of times when I cursed her ability over fate was countless.

Due to it, one of my training directions has always been how to counter her abilities.

It's not easy. After all, my talent towards fate laws is very poor. It can't compare to 0.1% of Ysnay's talent.

But thousands of years of research gave me some results.

And one of them is what I call [Fate Forgery].

It consists of changing something in the real world while keeping its data in the dimension of information unchanged. That way, no change would be detected through a superficial use of fate laws.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to use, and my poor talent towards fate laws means that if I try it on a big scale, a powerful Seer like Ysnay will discover it easily.

But if I use this technique appropriately, then even Ysnay would be unable to discover the forgery unless she knows that it exists beforehand.

Like this time.

Before Ysnay arrived at this world, I once took something from Alice. That something was a small fragment of her soul.

However, Alice was a Seer, even if a weak one. Due to it, I decided to use [Fate Forgery] to hide what I took from her.

I did it on a whim. Back then, I did not expect to use it as a trump card against Ysnay.

But when Ysnay appeared in this world, I knew that lady luck was smiling at me.

As I expected, Ysnay took an interest in Alice. Moreover, she did not manage to notice that Alice's soul was not complete. Ysnay was used to relying on fate, so when fate told her that Alice's soul was whole, she believed it.

Thanks to that, I managed to gain an advantage over her.

Alice's soul was not whole, but both parts were still connected. Through the fragment of Alice's soul in my hands, I could know everything that Alice's experienced.

What she heard, what she spoke, what she thought. I knew everything.

I then used the fragment of Alice's soul to listen to the things that Ysnay told her, and that way, get an idea of her plans.

In other words, since the moment that Ysnay accepted Alice as her student, she fell into a trap.

"Do you understand now?" I asked with a smile after I finished explaining everything to her.

Ysnay smiled bitterly and shook her head. "I was not expecting that. Then, the reason why you are here…"

"I got an inkling of your plans through your daily interactions with Alice. Thus, I put a fragment of my soul in place of the fragment that I hold. That way, I could stop you if you tried to possess Alice."

"… I see, it was my total defeat. I was one step behind you the whole time." Ysnay said with a sigh.

I nodded and put the fragment of Alice's soul away. Then, I looked at Ysnay.

"You should leave now. You don't have any chance now that I'm here."

"Really? This is just a small fragment of your soul. I think that I still have a chance of succeeding."

"You don't understand." I shook my head and snapped my fingers. Instantly, the endless white space turned into an endless expanse of darkness.

Then, I grabbed a sword that I materialized in the air and walked towards Ysnay.

"After the contract, Alice is one of my dependents, and her soul is my soul too. Now that you are inside Alice's sea of consciousness, it's the same as being inside my sea of consciousness."

Ysnay's expression immediately changed, but it was too late to escape.

I swung my sword towards her, but Ysnay reacted quickly and teleported away, however, it was useless.

Inside this place, I was virtually omnipotent.

Space trembled as several chains appeared around Ysnay and chased after her. She hurriedly tried to cut them off, but to her surprise, she could not damage them.

Before she could reach far, the chains had trapped her.

Then, I walked towards her calmly while holding the sword in my right hand.

"You lost again, Ysnay."

The witch of fate sighed and nodded with a wry smile.

"I was pretty confident this time, but it looks like this plan failed too."

"Then, are you finally going to give up?"

"It's too early yet, Willian." Ysnay chuckled with a confident gaze. "Even if my fourth plan failed too, the fifth will not fail."

I frowned. "What did you do this time?"

"You will understand when the time comes." Then, her figure started to vanish. "See you soon, my beloved."

Soon, Ysnay's figure had disappeared completely.

She had committed suicide.

I furrowed my brows and heaved a long sigh before leaving Alice's sea of consciousness.

Outside, my true body had arrived at the place where Ysnay had kidnapped Alice, but there were no traces of her left. Alice was the only one there.

"… How troublesome," I murmured and sighed again before walking towards Alice's and caressing her cheek.

The white-haired girl opened her eyes weakly when she felt my hand. She looked at my face and smiled softly.

"… You saved me, my prince."

"I did, beautiful princess."

Alice's lips curved up tenderly. She stared at my face with a loving expression and mouthed two words.

"Thank you."

Then, she closed her eyes, falling unconscious again.

I sighed softly and caressed her beautiful white hair before carrying her in my arms.

Stepping across space, I appeared in my residence on the capital and put her on a bed so she could rest.

After that, I looked in the direction of the Imperial Institute.

"I should go and check how the girls are doing."