Samsara Paradise: Dream Weaver of Connections.

As the crowd stepped into the church, a pungent smell of blood immediately filled their nostrils.

Hina frowned slightly. They had experienced enough battles in Kivotos, but the scene before them still made them feel physically uncomfortable.

If an ordinary student were to step into this place, just seeing this scene would probably make their legs go weak and they collapse.

Lin Yi raised his head.

A huge black cross hangs vertically from the ceiling.

On the cross, a girl dressed in combat uniform is bound by chains and hangs in mid-air in a spread-eagle position.

She lowered her head, her long pink hair obscuring her face, but two deep, bone-revealing wounds on her wrists were clearly visible—bright red blood was dripping down her wrists, falling precisely into specific grooves in the magic array below.

“That is…” Ayane’s voice was a little dry, “A member of Arius’s special tactics squad, Azuko Shirai.”

[Hint: The third part of the main quest, 'Beatelice,' has been completed.]

[The task is being settled...]

[Reward: 1 Epic Gem]

Main Quest: Choice (Fourth Stage)

Difficulty level: Lv.51 - Lv.? ? ?

Mission Information: Contractors, please decide whether to allow the colors to descend.

Task deadline: 10 minutes.

Task Reward: Return Permission/Soul Crystal (Complete) ×1.

Mission penalty: None.

The notification sound from the Paradise of Reincarnation rang in Lin Yi's ears, and almost at the same moment the notification appeared, the countdown to the mission deadline began—10:00, 9:59, 9:58…

"Welcome, welcome to the final stage." Beatrice's gaze finally settled on Lin Yi.

“You know what, outsider? I’ve been studying you for a long time. I’ve been observing you since the moment you appeared in Abydos. Your power system, your behavior patterns, you’re out of place in this world.”

Beatrice took two steps forward, her dress leaving charred marks on the ground.

"Kiwatos is a prison. The halo system is a lie. The students think they are growing, getting stronger, and moving towards the future. But what is the truth? The truth is that they are just livestock being raised, waiting to be harvested by 'color' after they have matured."

She raised her hand and pointed to the cross on the cross.

"Just like her."

The rate at which the blood dripped was increasing.

The magic circle began to emit a low hum, and the color of the blood gradually turned transparent, eventually turning into a pale white.

Within that pale light, countless tiny points of light could be faintly seen flowing, each point radiating a faint but pure... divinity.

“You are extracting her divinity,” Lin Yi said calmly.

Beatrice laughed, but the laugh looked extremely distorted.

“Correct! Azuko Shirai is an exception—her aura contains far more fragments of divinity than that of ordinary students. This makes her stronger, but it also makes her the best ‘key’.”

She turned to face the center of the magic circle, where a blurry vortex began to appear.

"Ten years. I spent ten years studying 'color,' and now, the answer is right in front of me."

The vortex gradually became clearer, and through it, one could see the scene on the other side—it was not Kivotos, not any known world, but a pure expanse of color.

The color was indescribable; it was like a mixture of all colors, yet also like there was no color at all.

It exudes a primal hunger, for divinity, for existence itself.

The air inside the church began to feel thick.

There are 8 minutes and 30 seconds left before Lin Yi makes his choice.

“Join me.” Beatrice turned around, her eyes reflecting Lin Yi’s figure. “You and I are the same; we both understand the true nature of this world. But you are different from those hypocrites; you have power, the ability to break the rules.”

“Help me complete the ritual, let ‘color’ fully descend. Then, we can control this power together. Kiwatos, no, the entire void, will become our hunting ground. We can devour those false gods, those ancient gods, those beings who think themselves superior. We can become… new gods.”

"Think about it, outsider. What brought you into this world? Power? Knowledge? Or simply adventure? Whatever you want, 'Color' can give you. It can devour divinity, and it can bestow divinity. As long as you cooperate with me, we can share it all."

Lin Yi remained silent.

He simply looked at Beatrice, at the vortex in the magic circle, and at Azusa, whose life was rapidly slipping away on the cross.

There are 6 minutes left to choose.

“Teacher…” Hoshino lowered her voice, “She’s stalling for time.”

Lin Yi knew, of course.

Every word and every action of Beatrice was to buy time for the ceremony.

The vortex within the magic circle is stabilizing, and its connection with "color" is strengthening.

Azuko Shirai's blood was almost drained, but her divinity was still being continuously extracted as fuel to maintain the passage.

But this is exactly what Lin Yi was waiting for.

Beyond Kivotos, in the void between world layers.

A constantly changing sphere of light is excitedly "watching" Kiwatos.

It has no eyes, but countless sensory organs extend out, probing into the cracks of the world's barrier.

The channel is stable.

The connection is being strengthened.

Just a little longer, just a little longer, and it will be able to fully enter that world.

There were so many fragments of divinity, so many delicious "fruits." It had been hungry for far too long, so long that it had almost forgotten when it had last had a full meal.

Not far from the sphere of light, two figures were hidden in the void interlayer.

The goddess of fate was dressed in casual vacation clothes, her face under the straw hat filled with confusion and dissatisfaction.

She was enjoying a rare vacation on a coastal planet when Lady Luck pulled her directly to the edge of this remote world.

"You'd better give me an explanation." The voice of the goddess of fate transmitted through divine thought, "That's 'color.' Even if the two of us combined, it wouldn't be enough to fill its teeth."

The goddess of fortune smiled and pointed in the direction of Givotos, her fingers entwined with countless fine, invisible golden threads.

"Don't worry, we didn't do it," the Goddess of Fortune replied with her divine sense. "I just saw a very interesting trajectory of fate, so I brought you here to watch a good show."

"A good show?" The goddess of fate frowned. "You mean we watch 'color' devour a world, and then incidentally eat the two of us as dessert?"

"No, no, no." Lady Luck shook her head. "It's a good show to watch 'color' get hunted down."

The goddess of fate was stunned.

The hunting aesthetic?

She has lived for countless years and has seen countless beings trying to fight against "color".

But what was the result? They were either swallowed up or fled in disarray, with very few managing to harm the "color" itself.

Don't be fooled by Little Red Riding Hood's ability to chase after colors everywhere; it's because she's obsessed with them. She's an exceptionally powerful being, far beyond what ordinary people can compare to.

Hunting? Are you kidding me?

“Look,” the goddess of fortune pointed to a point on the barrier of the Giwatos world, “there, the threads of fate are converging. One of them is particularly interesting; it comes from outside the world and doesn’t belong to any causal system of this world.”

The goddess of fate looked in the direction she pointed.

Indeed, a pure black thread of fate cut into Giwatos's web of destiny like a sharp blade.

At this moment, this line is pointing straight into the world, towards... the location of the Arian underground church.

"The Abyss Healer..." the goddess of fate murmured.

The moment she saw the other person's fate, she realized Lin Yi's identity.

"He's only at level six. Are you sure he's capable of dealing with 'Color'?"

“I don’t know,” Lady Luck said honestly, “but I see a possibility. His fate line is about to intersect with the fate line of ‘color,’ and the result of that intersection… is that he will still be alive.”

The goddess of fate fell silent.

She looked at the "color" that was excitedly changing its shape, and then at the black line of fate inside Kivotos.

Perhaps, there really is going to be a good show.

Inside the church.

There are 3 minutes left before Lin Yi makes his choice.

Beatrice's speech was nearing its end.

She spoke of the world's decay and the lies of its halo, of the greatness of "color" and of the vision for the future.

Her words were highly persuasive; someone with a weak will might actually be convinced by her.

But everyone behind Lin Yi just stared at her coldly.

Hina's heavy machine gun muzzle was slightly raised, Tsurugi's fist was already clenched, Hoshino's index finger was on the trigger guard, and Shirako's submachine gun safety had already been disengaged.

They were waiting for Lin Yi's signal.

Lin Yi, on the other hand, was waiting for the countdown to end.

2 minutes.

The vortex in the magic circle has expanded to a diameter of three meters, and the "colors" seen through it are becoming increasingly clear.

That primal hunger almost materialized, and the temperature inside the church began to drop sharply—not from cold, but from a sense of emptiness where existence was being diluted.

30 seconds.

Beatrice stopped her speech.

She looked at Lin Yi, his calm face reflected in her eyes.

"So, what's your answer?"

Lin Yi did not answer.

He simply raised his hand and took something out of his storage space.

It was a red hood.

The fabric was ordinary, a dull blood red color, with some wear and tear on the edges, making it look like an old item that had been used for a long time.

The inside of the hood was embroidered with intricate patterns in silver thread, which shimmered slightly in the dim light.

Beatrice was stunned.

She had never seen this before and couldn't understand why Lin Yi would take out a hood at this time.

But she instinctively felt uneasy.

10 seconds.

Lin Yi put the hood on his head.

The red hood obscured the upper half of his face, revealing only his chin and lips. The moment the hood was pulled up, the silver patterns suddenly lit up, exuding a cold and ancient aura. Five seconds.

The vortex within the magic circle stopped expanding.

The vortex was forcibly fixed at its current size by some force. The vortex began to tremble violently, as if the "colors" on the other side were struggling frantically.

3 seconds.

2 seconds.

1 seconds.

0 seconds.

[Hint: The main quest choice (fourth stage) has been completed.]

[The task is being settled...]

[Reward: Soul Crystal (Complete) x1]

Main Quest: Eliminate Color (Fifth Ring)

Difficulty level: Lv.?
Task information: Eliminate color.

Task Reward: Return Permission.

Mission penalty: None.

Almost at the same time the warning sound rang out, an anomaly occurred in the sky above Kiwatos.

White Bird District, Sacred Tower.

This tower, which symbolized the authority of the Federal Student Council and coordinated the operation of the entire Kivotos, began to collapse from the top without any warning.

It wasn't an explosion, it wasn't a collapse, it was... annihilation.

The tower's structure resembles a pencil drawing erased by an eraser, disappearing inch by inch starting from the top floor.

Without sound, without flashes of light, without energy fluctuations, it was quietly and completely erased from existence.

In just three seconds, the towering 100-meter-high sacred tower vanished completely.

In its original location, an inverted black tower slowly emerged.

The tower was exactly the same in shape as the Holy Tower, but it was pure black in color and covered with constantly writhing dark red patterns on its surface.

It hangs upside down in the air, its spire pointing towards the ground, exuding a suffocating sense of oppression.

At the same time, the gravity of the entire Kiwatos began to become disordered.

The dust, pebbles, and fallen leaves on the street, all the unfixed objects, slowly floated up towards the sky, towards the direction of that upside-down black tower.

The building groaned under the strain, its foundations crumbled, and cracks appeared in the walls.

The sky's color rapidly changed from Kivotos's characteristic pale purple to a deep blood red.

The clouds twisted into eerie vortexes, as if the light of the entire world was being swallowed up.

Chaos erupted in every school district.

Gohena, Disciplinary Committee Headquarters.

Ayako Tenyu stood in the command center, dozens of screens in front of her simultaneously displaying the chaotic scenes in various school districts.

Alarms blared incessantly, and the communication channels were filled with panicked cries.

"Third School District Report! Gravity Anomaly, Buildings Begin to Float!"

"District 5 reports! The sky has changed color, and students are panicking!"

"The Seventh School District report...wait, what's that?"

On the last screen, the image shook violently.

The photographer was clearly running, the camera panning across the street, across the sky, and finally settling on the distant horizon.

There, a huge shadow is slowly emerging.

It spread across the blood-red sky like ink dripping into water, dimming even the light in its wake.

“That thing is devouring Givotos…” Ayako murmured.

She turned and yelled into the communicator, "Activate all emergency protocols! School district disciplinary officers, maintain order! Evacuate students to the underground shelters! Now!"

Trinity College.

Saintia of Lily Garden sat in her wheelchair, gazing at the blood-red sky outside the window. Her face was paler than usual, and the inverted black tower was reflected in her golden eyes.

"Has it... come?" she said softly.

Kirito Nagisa stood beside her, her communicator constantly transmitting reports from various school districts.

The Sisters, the Tea Party, the Department for the Realization of Justice—all the forces of Trinity are operating at full capacity in an attempt to control the situation.

But they all knew that this was just the beginning.

"Saint-A," Kirito Nagisa asked softly, "did he succeed?"

Saintia of the Lily Garden closed her eyes, then opened them again a few seconds later.

“Fate… has vanished.” Her voice was filled with deep weariness. “I can’t see a clear future. All the timelines are intertwined, some pointing to destruction, some to rebirth, some to… things I can’t understand.”

She looked up in Arius's direction.

"Now, we have no choice but to trust him."

Abydos Desert.

Under abnormal gravity, the sand and dust drifted into the sky, forming a giant yellow pillar connecting heaven and earth.

In the countermeasures committee's activity room, Aru looked out at the eerie scene outside the window, her hand resting on the hilt of the gun at her waist.

“The adults…” she said softly.

The members of the Chirp Squad beside her gripped their weapons tightly. They had promised to defend this place, no matter what.

In every corner of Kivotos, all the students looked up at the blood-red sky, at the inverted black tower, and at the rubble and dust drifting into the sky.

Fear is spreading.

But within this fear, there is something else.

At the Valkyrie Police Academy, Kanna Ooshita stood on the parade ground and roared at the assembled cadets, "Remember your duties! Maintain order! Protect the students! Now, move out!"

SRT Special Academy's elite squad, fully armed, boarded the transport plane.

Their mission was to travel to key points in each school district and establish defenses.

At the Millennium Science Park, seminar participants gathered in the control center, where countless data points scrolled across the screens.

“Spatial curvature anomaly… Rule-level interference… It is recommended to activate the ‘Ark Protocol’…”

A Hundred Ghosts Parade, the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Gehenna... all academies, all forces, all students.

Kivotos, the sanctuary created by the ancient gods, is facing the greatest crisis since its birth.

The epicenter of the crisis was the underground church of Arios.

The vortex within the magic circle finally stabilized.

It wasn't Beatrice that stabilized it, but rather the presence on the other side that forcibly broke through the final barrier.

The spatial passage is fully open.

Inside the circular passage with a diameter of three meters, that indescribable color began to surge.

Its flow is a state between existence and nothingness.

It landed on the ground and began to take shape.

The sphere of light, originally the sphere of light.

Then, things changed.

The human silhouette gradually became clear—a woman's figure, slender and graceful. Her skin was a sickly pale, as if she had never seen the sun.

Her long, snow-white hair reached her waist and swayed gently in the windless church.

What's most striking about her are her eyes.

Those were golden pupils, but deep within the gold, countless colors were reflected.

Looking into those eyes gives one the illusion that one has seen the essence of the world and the root of existence.

She, or rather it, completed the fixation of its form.

Color has arrived.

Beatrice got up from the ground, her face filled with fanaticism and adoration.

She ran and scrambled toward the white-haired, golden-eyed girl, shouting words of praise.

"Great being! Supreme color! You have finally arrived! I, your most loyal servant, Beatrice, welcome you with open arms—"

She couldn't finish her sentence.

Because color only slightly lowered its head and glanced at her.

Just one glance.

Beatrice's body stiffened.

Her mouth was still open, as if she wanted to say something, but she couldn't make a sound.

Then, her body began to contort.

It is not a distortion in the physical sense, but a distortion at the level of existence.

Her body was stretched and reshaped, and in the process, something was peeled away from her body.

The fragments drifted toward color, merging into the pale skin.

Beatrice's body eventually turned into a dark red, gelatinous mass, wriggling and climbing up Color's ankles before completely merging into it.

Beatrice, a fanatical believer in color and a madwoman who had been plotting for ten years, simply vanished.

It was devoured by the being it summoned.

The church was deathly silent.

Everyone saw what just happened.

That wasn't a battle, that wasn't killing, that was eating.

Just as humans eat fruit, color has consumed Beatrice.

Simple, natural, and self-evident.

Color raised her hand, looking at her pale fingers.

She gently clenched her fist, then relaxed it, seemingly adjusting to the sensations of this body. (End of Chapter)