Gathering Wives with a System

Chapter 626: What Lies Within Alice, Missing Wives

It was pure beyond comparison. Too pure.

As Isaac continued observing it, something unexpectedly changed. Whether through coincidence or because he had unknowingly strengthened the skill correctly, his vision pierced even deeper than before. Another hidden layer revealed itself beneath the white flame.

Inside that flawless flame rested absolute darkness.

It wasn’t merely black.

It was pitch-black darkness that seemed capable of swallowing everything around it. The instant Isaac’s eyes met it, every instinct within him screamed in warning, and he flinched without understanding why.

The darkness noticed him.

It moved with startling speed, slithering through the white flame before rushing directly toward Isaac. Before he could react, it wrapped itself around him.

”Alice?” Isaac muttered without thinking.

The darkness didn’t attack him.

Instead, it embraced him tightly, clinging to him with surprising affection. It almost seemed determined to sink into him, yet the invisible barrier surrounding Isaac—the one that every star had—prevented it from entering no matter how hard it tried.

For some reason, Isaac didn’t sense any hostility from it. If anything, it felt strangely lonely. When it failed to pass through the barrier, it became so dejected that Isaac almost felt sorry for it.

”It’s okay. Don’t be sad,” Isaac said gently. He had no idea why he was speaking to the darkness, but he somehow felt that it could understand his words. The feeling came naturally, and he didn’t question it.

He slowly reached out and stroked the darkness with his hand. It immediately leaned into the touch, rubbing against his arm exactly the way Alice often did whenever she quietly wanted attention. The resemblance made Isaac smile before he even realized it.

The darkness suddenly became completely still.

A moment later, it hurriedly detached itself from Isaac and rushed back toward Alice’s star. It disappeared into the pure white flame as quickly as it had emerged, almost as if it were trying to hide from something.

The instant it vanished completely, new notifications appeared before Isaac.

[Preparations have been completed.]

[Weaving will now begin.]

Isaac instinctively turned back toward Alice’s star. He searched for the strange darkness that had embraced him only moments ago, but it had disappeared completely. Whatever it was, it had burrowed so deeply into the white flame that not even his enhanced vision could find it anymore.

The encounter lingered in his mind, but he forced himself to set it aside. Whatever that darkness was, now wasn’t the time to dwell on it. His attention was soon pulled away by something far more astonishing.

High above the endless void, space suddenly split apart. The tear was perfectly straight, as though the fabric of reality itself had been sliced open with impossible precision instead of ripped apart. Nothing about it looked natural.

From within the opening, a giant white mechanical hand slowly emerged. It was so enormous that Isaac couldn’t even estimate its true size, and every finger seemed carved from flawless white metal. Between its thumb and index finger floated a single droplet of golden water.

The droplet remained suspended for a brief moment. Then the hand released it without the slightest hesitation. The tiny sphere of liquid began falling directly toward Isaac.

Just before it reached him, a voice echoed through the void.

[Please, do not dodge.]

Isaac couldn’t tell whether it was merely another system notification or the actual voice of the being controlling the gigantic hand. Either way, he did not resist, since Avery, and Sword Empress had confirmed that choosing the Human Lord Title was not dangerous. He simply remained where he was and watched the golden droplet descend.

The droplet landed against his chest.

Instead of bouncing off the invisible barrier surrounding him, it passed through as though the barrier didn’t exist at all. The liquid disappeared into his body without leaving behind even the slightest ripple.

The mechanical hand immediately withdrew. The tear in the void quietly closed behind it, leaving no trace that it had ever existed. Within moments, the endless sea of stars looked exactly as it had before.

Isaac suddenly felt something changing inside him.

Thin cracks spread across his glowing white body. They expanded rapidly, and brilliant golden light began leaking through them like sunlight escaping from beneath a sealed door. The light wasn’t painful, yet it carried overwhelming power.

Golden beams erupted from the cracks one after another. They stretched outward in every direction until they struck the countless stars surrounding him. Wherever the light reached, the stars slowly gained a faint golden glow.

The weaker stars changed almost immediately. Their colors remained, but a layer of gold spread across them without any resistance. Larger stars were different, and they resisted the change for much longer.

Isaac watched as the golden light steadily spread across those powerful stars as well. Even the enormous crimson star, the black star surrounded by white flames, and the hidden giant eventually became touched by the golden radiance. None of them escaped it.

Soon, countless golden threads extended outward from Isaac.

Every thread connected to a different star. They intertwined with one another until an unimaginably vast network covered the entire void. Looking around, Isaac couldn’t find a single human star that wasn’t connected.

At the same time, he felt something settle deep within his soul.

He could tell he had become connected to countless lives. Every human now shared an invisible bond with him.

The notifications appeared once more.

[Weaving completed.]

[You are now the Human Lord.]

Before the strange space disappeared, Isaac hurriedly looked around one last time. Since he didn’t know whether he would ever return here, he wanted to remember as much as possible.

His eyes quickly searched for several familiar stars.

He couldn’t find Celia’s star.

He couldn’t find Catherine’s either, which wasn’t surprising after thinking about it. Neither of them possessed any human blood, unlike Emily and Alice, whose stars had been easy to recognize.

Selene’s star was missing as well.

Isaac wasn’t particularly surprised by that either. Becoming a Royal Silver Dragon had apparently transformed her into a pure Silver Dragon, removing any human blood from her.

Everything he had noticed made sense.

Then another realization struck him.

”Where’s Sword Empress’s star?”