The system's final verdict completely threw the three of them into a panic.
“No! I want to change to the White Goblet!”
Meng Yinyin tried frantically to pull her hand away, but the Black Goblet seemed to have grown onto her palm, and blackish-red mucus began to crawl up her fingers along the sides of the cup.
Luo Qi screamed hysterically, trying to stand up and flee, but two faceless servants pinned him firmly to his seat.
“Let go! Let me go! Can't I just stop playing?!”
Zheng Chuan tried to make one last desperate struggle, raising his axe to strike the goblet.
But before the blade could even touch the rim, it was enveloped by the blackish-red liquid surging from the cup, dissolving into a puff of white mist.
【The verdict has taken effect.】
【Irrevocable.】
Isolde, who had been resting her chin on her hand, paused slightly.
She had imagined one black and two white, or two black and one white.
She had even thought that, for a split second, these three might have a lapse in judgment and willingly choose the White Goblet together.
But the one thing she hadn't expected was that they would all, without exception, choose the Black Goblet.
After a brief moment of surprise, Isolde suddenly laughed.
It started as a soft chuckle, then grew more distinct, until she could barely hold it back.
“Impressive,” she said, clapping her hands gently. “There was clearly a path to survive together, yet you refused to take it. I guess ‘adversity reveals true friendship’ after all.”
She looked at the three who were about to be consumed, the smile fading from her lips.
“But this is fine, too. Because this is exactly how I remember you.”
The three of them didn't understand her words, nor could they ever.
Isolde had simply confirmed one thing at last.
Her experiences in her past life were not an accident. They hadn't been forced into that behavior by circumstances; they had always been rotten to the core.
And now, what she welcomed most were such ugly souls and filthy human nature.
Dark red array runes lit up beneath their feet, binding them firmly to their seats.
Zheng Chuan was finally terrified, screaming hoarsely.
“Isolde! Spare me! I'll be your dog!”
Luo Qi collapsed onto the table, reaching out desperately toward Isolde.
“I... I know where the other teams' camps are! I can tell you so much information! Don't kill me!”
Meng Yinyin struggled like a madwoman, her eyes filled with nothing but venomous malice.
“You monster, you'll die a horrible death!”
Looking at them, Isolde felt none of the satisfaction she had imagined, only a faint sense of weariness.
It turned out that the people she had hated for so long, once stripped of their pretenses, were only worth this much.
Greedy, cowardly, and selfish. Even their wickedness was stale.
She raised her hand and let it drop gently. The three Black Goblets shattered simultaneously.
A tide of blackish-red liquid surged into their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths.
Their screams erupted in the Banquet Hall, only to be quickly swallowed by the Blood Banquet array runes.
Three turbid souls were forcibly ripped from their physical shells.
They twisted and struggled, like three hooked fish.
【Zheng Chuan's soul has been forfeited.】
【Luo Qi's soul has been forfeited.】
【Meng Yinyin's soul has been forfeited.】
【Blood Banquet Verdict complete.】
The three souls tangled frantically in the center of the long table.
The roars, curses, and screams merged, like a boiling pot of poisonous soup, violently churning the surrounding air and making her eardrums ache.
【You have obtained: Sinful Soul x3】
【Triggered "Home Advantage"】
【You have acquired active skill: Verdict Synthesis】
【Skill Type: Growth / Soul-type】
【Skill Description: Can compress the remnant souls of targets defeated, judged, or marked by you into special fruits based on their quality.】
In the next second, the three souls were squeezed together, condensing into an apple in the final red glow.
A rotten apple.
It was only the size of a fist, its skin a mottled black and red, looking as if it had been soaked in blood or fished out of the mud.
Where the flesh had split, three blurry human faces could faintly be seen.
They were still crying and wailing inside, but their voices were so faint they sounded as if they were trapped at the bottom of a distant well, drifting and unstable.
The apple fell from midair, landing gently on the long table and rolling to a stop right in front of Isolde.
She looked down at it, suddenly lost in thought.
Reason dictated that she should find it disgusting.
Her stomach should be churning, just like when she first saw Valen's pile of rotting flesh.
But strangely, she didn't feel that way.
Perhaps it was because she hated them so deeply, or perhaps because the original host's remnant soul was slowly awakening.
She actually found this rotten apple somewhat... cute.
Like a meticulously crafted work of art, filled with a grotesque aura of death.
The moment this thought arose, Isolde fell silent for a second.
This didn't feel like a thought she would have; it felt more like the residual instinct of this body.
Or perhaps, like the authority of the castle's new master, it was teaching her how to enjoy her spoils of war.
Isolde reached out and picked up the rotten apple.
A cold, sticky sensation spread across her palm, but she didn't feel the disgust she had expected.
She clearly knew this thing was far from normal.
Yet in the next second, as if guided by some unseen force, she opened her mouth and took a gentle bite.
The rotten flesh split between her teeth, and a cold, viscous substance slid down her throat and into her stomach.
Isolde's pupils contracted sharply.
She could feel a chaotic flame trying desperately to burn her.
Soon, another, gentler force welled up from the depths of her soul.
It wrapped around those filthy things bit by bit, dissolving them.
A strange nourishment flowed through her blood, nourishing her body and sinking into the depths of her organs.
【You have devoured the "Verdict Fruit".】
【Filthy remnant souls x3 have been converted.】
【Soul stability increased.】
【Personal attributes significantly increased.】
【Active skill: Verdict Synthesis proficiency increased.】
【Thousand-Faced Witch's Mask: Unknown mutation has occurred.】
Isolde suddenly snapped out of it.
She looked down at her empty hands.
Then—
“Blegh!”
Leaning against the long table, she began to dry-heave frantically.
What did she just eat?
She had actually eaten a rotten apple made from the blended souls of three rotten people?
Was this really not some kind of reverse punishment?
Lia, who was standing quietly nearby, produced a silver basin from out of nowhere and thoughtfully held it out to her.
“Miss, I believe you might need this.”
Isolde: “...”
But just as she took the silver basin to continue dry-heaving, a very faint, soft laugh suddenly echoed in her ear.
She was very familiar with that laugh; it was the same one she had heard when she drove the bone nail into her own heart.
It sounded as if it came from very far away, yet also as if it had been hiding in the deepest depths of her body all along.
The girl's voice was soft and sweet, carrying an almost morbid pleasure as she whispered in her ear:
“Well done.”
“My dear Isolde.”
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