A Villain's Way of Taming Heroines

The large machinery in the alchemy workshop began to emit the mournful wails of twisted metal, as an invisible and terrifying force field distorted everything within. The young beast from the abyss breathed more rapidly, his dark eyes occasionally flickering. It took nearly four or five minutes to calm down, and after a deep breath, he reached out towards the glasses.

The data system was something Ravenna had created with her extraordinary talent, a construct so complex that even Ansel could not comprehend its underlying structure—only Flamelle might know, and Ansel merely knew how to use it.

He silently put on the glasses and found the most conspicuous item in the data system left by Ravenna.

It was a diary composed of data, impossible for anyone in this world to spy upon.

If further encrypted, it would become the ultimate secret, never to be known.

The diary was long, but for Ansel, who had an astonishing reading capacity, it was nothing. He read quickly... very quickly...

Soon, his pace slowed down.

"..."

The flowing light on the lenses, the words formed by data, each character, each punctuation mark, pierced Ansel's eyes like swords, cutting into... his soul.

It was... an unfathomable silence.

In this silence, the young Hydral turned into a statue, his eternally deep sea-blue eyes now seemingly frozen, reflecting only the fleeting light, the three years of his friend's loneliness, three years of effort, and... true intentions.

At this moment, as Ansel was nearly frozen, the two Ravenna on the light screen spoke again:

"After returning from the Zero Realm Enigma with Mr. Flamelle, Ravenna left me a remnant of Nidhoggur, marked with a password."

"The rhythm of that password is unique in the world, known only to me. When Ravenna first attacked me, I began to suspect—how could there be someone who understands and controls Nidhoggur better than I do?"

"So, I entered that password into the data system and found that diary."

"I truly saw... myself."

In the light screen, Helen's eyes were no longer dull and lifeless, her calm and indifferent demeanor mirroring Ravenna's beside her.

"Then, through Ravenna's assassination attempt, I pretended to fully awaken my past memories."

"In reality, Ravenna retained a trace of Nidhoggur within me through that assassination, establishing a connection between us."

Under Ravenna's modification, Nidhoggur had been reduced to the smallest etheric unit, undetectable unless in large-scale operation—this was how Ravenna could silently assassinate Helen under Hendrik's nose.

But this feature was never intended for assassination.

But this feature was never intended for assassination.

"I am well aware," Ravenna spoke at this moment. "Even if Helen's eyes are filled with you, you will never fully trust her... Only after she and I have settled our score, only after she can even kill her past self, will you entrust your faith."

"And in this process... the more I hate you, the more you favor Helen's attachment; the more selfish I appear, the more you are reassured by Helen's loyalty."

Thus, in that contest... there was that dialogue, clearly from the same soul, yet almost entirely split in opposition.

That is why Ravenna appeared so stubborn, so hateful towards Ansel, to a degree that Ansel could not comprehend.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"In this contest, the only uncertainty was, I could not confirm how you would help Helen, I could not confirm whether you... wanted me to win."

"So," Helen interjected, "Ravenna and I used Nidhoggur as a self-destruct mechanism, allowing me to claim victory."

Enjoy new adventures from empire

—After three years of painstaking research in the darkness, becoming immensely powerful and capable of modifying Nidhoggur to such an extent in a short time, how could Ravenna not have noticed Helen's manipulation?

It was simply because Helen needed this victory.

"Both Helen and I were worried you would notice this slight inconsistency, but you did not. It shows that both she and I... performed very well."

Both Helen's attachment and Ravenna's resentment were well portrayed.

"But you still did not fully entrust your faith in me," Helen said softly. "Ansel, when I asked you who the enemy was, you only answered, 'Let's assume it's the Empress for now.'"

"You still concealed something... but I have already guessed a possibility from your odd behavior."

"You claimed the threat came from the Empress, yet you had no demands regarding power. Normally, there are only two possibilities: either you are certain the Empress will not act, or Mr. Flamelle will solve this problem for you."

"But I," Ravenna and Helen spoke simultaneously, "thought of a third possibility."

"That is... you obtained the power of ascending to the sixth stage before the Empress could react."

Ansel, like a statue, trembled slightly with the scepter in his hand.

"At first, I did not consider this possibility. I was only thinking about how to find the truth, how to help you, but as that day approached... I arrived at this answer, which I could not believe."

"That day in the theater, you tried to test Helen's faith through that pianist lady, to see if she still retained her true self... You wanted to find that part of Ravenna in her. For this, I am very pleased, Ansel, pleased that you still hope, still yearn for me."

Ravenna sighed softly, "But I cannot feel any joy from the facts I have witnessed."

"Your maid, Marlina, inadvertently revealed that the pianist lady was once an ordinary person."

"There are many ways for ordinary people to become extraordinary beings, but Ansel... the power you revealed to me at that time signifies that the way you transformed her is quite unusual."

"That power... as if the abyss itself had descended."

"And coincidentally."

"Coincidentally, Marlina told you that the Empress intends to harm you."

"Why would the Empress do this? Everything she does is for her own survival, so it is evident that what benefits her survival is what she desires. And the power you displayed, Ansel, makes me wonder... does the Empress covet this power?"

"This power, as if the abyss itself had descended, if it can elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary, can it further enhance the extraordinary itself?"

The sorceress, who once held the wisdom to perceive the truth in the original future, spoke simultaneously with her two identical souls:

"But you are not such a foolish person, Ansel. If your spiritual essence had such an effect, you would surely know that the Empress would covet it, and you would strive to hide it to avoid the Empress's desperate measures against you."

"But you did not do so. Instead, you sent the musician influenced by you openly to the imperial capital, right under the Empress's nose, as if telling her—'I possess this power, I have the potential to make you even greater.'"

"Why did you do this?"

Ravenna stared straight ahead, her gaze seemingly piercing through the light screen to fall on Ansel's face, silently questioning.

"Do you intend to use this method to pressure Mr. Flamelle, your father, forcing him to make a decision?"

"To engage in a decisive battle with the Empress ahead of time? No... he wouldn't, because he knows you abhor destruction, he knows you want to make a change, so he wouldn't leave you... a scorched earth."

"His best choice would be to take his own life, and then..."

"And then... entrust the power to you."

She fell silent for a long time, so long that she closed her eyes, took a moment, and then spoke with difficulty:

"Ansel, you are exploiting your father. You are exploiting... his love for you."

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