It is a wonderful experience to have the same tune with different genres.

When he was in tune with the ghost demon, Ash felt like he was on a rough sea, with dark clouds and a violent storm. He was drifting with the waves, floating up and down, feeling as uncomfortable as a doll thrown into a washing machine.

When he was in tune with the Mirror Demon, Ash felt himself sinking into a quiet ocean. He didn't know if it was the moonlight or the sunlight shining into the ocean, but the light took on a soft shape and gently covered Ash. Ash sank little by little in this gentle embrace and allowed himself to fall into the dark seabed.

But Ash never lost consciousness, and he clearly knew what his 'real body' was doing in reality. It was like he was having a lucid dream, he couldn't change the direction of the dream, couldn't interfere with his own actions, and didn't even have the idea of ​​'interference'. His thinking speed was reduced to the level of a Lala Fat, and he could only record the whole process of selling himself like a camera.

So this time he was not awakened by his own atrocities, but by the turbid currents of the deep sea.

It was dark everywhere, with no light coming in. He couldn't even tell which side was up and which was down. The undercurrents carrying mud and sand pushed him around. He felt like he had fallen into the deepest trench, a place abandoned by the whole world. Not even the hottest light could get in, and even the most tenacious life could not survive. There was nothing but mudstone on the seabed left by volcanic eruptions... It was more terrifying than death, and deeper than despair.

Ash opened his eyes and saw a black-haired girl sitting on the ground with her legs crossed in the distance.

He swam hard, and the sea water mixed with mud and sand around him was as sticky as black mud.

When he finally approached the girl and was about to extend his hand to say hello, he saw the girl slowly turn her head. An exaggerated smile appeared on her calm and peaceful little face. The corners of her mouth grew wider and wider, and there was almost no white in her eyes.

The muddy current suddenly became turbulent, and the hysterical malice hit Ash hard.

But Ash was not slapped away, because the silk thread entangled him, fixing him in the center, like a cross in the void. The girl slowly stood up, walked over to Ash, and used her fingers hooked on the wire to gently stroke Ash's chin, mouth, nose, face, eyes...

Then, thrust hard.

In the excruciating pain, Ash heard her voice whispering in his ear, but her tone was filled with a viciousness that had been fermenting for decades and had completely rotted:

"You've finally fallen into my hands, Viewer."

…

“Wow—”

The reborn Ash knelt on the bottom of the sea, opened his mouth and retched as if he wanted to vomit out his internal organs. It took him a long time to stand up, his limbs trembling constantly, and he lay on the ground like a dog with its spine pulled out, the aftermath of severe pain slowly spreading through his nerves.

The only thing he could be thankful for was that this was not reality and he did not have complete physiological functions so he would not reveal any more ugly aspects.

“It hurts.”

The dead maniac sat next to him, hugging her legs together, not minding at all that her skirt would be seen, but the only person in this dark deep sea was Ash.

She took a slow puff of her cigarette, and half of it turned to ashes and was carried away by the muddy current.

"The Black Demon likes to torture others the most. She knows the nerve pain points of all species. She will help creatures that don't feel pain to feel pain so that they know what it means to be unable to live or die. Even among us, who destroy lives as easily as breathing and kill people as casually as eating and sleeping, the Black Demon is the most extreme one... Her nature is not to 'kill', but to 'play'."

"We kill for the result, but she kills for the sake of killing."

It took Ash several dozen seconds to regain control of his body functions. During the time he was bound by the Black Demon—Ash couldn't even tell how long it was, the severe pain completely destroyed his perception of time—he was tortured by the Black Demon in various ways. Even if he just recalled the steel wire in her hand, Ash couldn't help but tremble all over.

If his body hadn't completely collapsed, who knows how long this long torture would have lasted. He had been wounded in battle many times, and had been tortured to the point of boiling soul by the shadow sword, but those pains were far less than the torture given by the black magic... The black magic was not simply sadistic, but used pleasure, itching, coolness, warmth and other sensations to amplify the pain, not giving Ash a chance to adapt or become numb.

The Dark Devil's sadism is no longer a brutal vent, but a cruel art. The threads connecting Ash's nerves are like strings, and she plays an extremely vicious suite on Ash's body.

"Outside……"

"This is your spiritual world. The time flow rate here is about 10,000:1 compared to the outside world. You still have time to lie on the ground and rest." said Si Kuang.

"Why did she..." Ash forced himself to recall the appearance of the Black Demon, trying to dispel the fear in his heart: "Didn't I ask her for help? Why did she go berserk?"

"Who told you that we will obey your orders after you synchronize with us?" Death Maniac pressed the cigarette into the mud. "I just said that you can get power after paying 1/4... but not all power will obey your wishes. It is risky to control power that does not belong to you."

"The risk has always been there, but you just avoided it before: when you synchronized with the Phantom Demon, you were in the Ocean Hell, and the Phantom Demon could only vent its anger on the Forsaken; when you synchronized with the Mirror Demon, you did it to protect the Silver Lantern, and the Mirror Demon was more or less rational, so it followed your orders to fight against the four Advent Gods."

"But your alien this time is the Dark Devil."

Death Maniac said softly:

"She has gone mad and can only rely on despair to warm herself. She wants to drag everyone into hell. How can she listen to your orders to protect this world?"

"But... why?" Ash couldn't understand: "What good will this do for her? Doesn't she want to drive Ouroboros away? Doesn't she want to replace us and live in a stable and beautiful world?"

"No." The dead man tilted his head and looked at him: "She did want to replace Lysdiya, but she didn't do it to survive... She just didn't want Lysdiya to survive."

Ash was startled.

"You don't know how much she hates Lisdiya. She hates it so much that her teeth are gnashing and her lungs are tearing at it." Si Kuang hugged his legs and said faintly, like a ghost telling a ghost story: "The better you treat Lisdiya, the more she hates you. She hates why you love Lisdiya so much, and she hates why Lisdiya is so lucky to meet you."

"She was tortured so badly by the viewers... Every time she finally grasped a little happiness, it turned out to be the viewers' bait. She was played around by the viewers like a doll, but in the end, the viewers did not let her get what she wanted. She was so sad that she split into 17 sisters to accompany her, because she had nothing but her sisters."

Ash was silent for a moment, then said, "But the one who hurt her was the viewer."

"Don't you really understand?"

Death laughed wildly:

"She was afraid... just like you are afraid of her thread now, she was also afraid of the viewer's gaze. You were tortured only once and you remembered it so deeply, but she was given hope and despair by the viewer time and time again. When she was the weakest, the viewer was the person she relied on and trusted the most. Their relationship was like yours and Lisdiya's, but the viewer was not a knight escorting the princess, he was the ultimate evil dragon."

"She tried to assassinate the Viewer countless times, but failed every time. Although the Viewer is indeed stronger than her, in my opinion, the only reason she failed is that she is too afraid of the Viewer. She can't think normally when she is within five steps of the Viewer, and she can't even hide her murderous intentions."

"She is always submissive in front of the viewer, but she dares to strike hard at you. She originally thought that you would become like the viewer sooner or later, and never thought that you would truly like Lisdiya... So every time she saw you and Lisdiya being intimate, it would deeply hurt her heart. You have made her realize how unlucky she is time and time again."

"Why is she the dark devil who sank into the mire, while Lysdiya is the witch who lives in the honeypot? Why did she meet the viewer, while Lysdiya met you? What is the difference between her and Lysdiya? Just because she is in the earliest timeline, does she deserve to suffer?"

"After finally climbing to the top, she encountered Ouroboros, who she could not defeat no matter what. She had no choice but to abandon the world and flee against the timeline... Her mentality had long been broken, and what was left was just a body called the Black Devil."

Death Maniac said: "It's not that she doesn't want to live, she just doesn't think she can live."

"Instead of saving the world, why not drag the whole world into hell and destroy your last bit of happiness? It doesn't matter if she can't survive, but it's important to her that you and Lisdiya can't survive."

Ash sighed softly, "Does that mean she will never change her mind? Can the viewer——"

Si Kuang laughed and took a cigarette out of the cigarette box: "Have you forgotten? If you get closer to the spectator, you will immediately collapse into the only "Ash Hiss". If you are confident that you can defeat the spectator in the resurrection match, it is not impossible."

"Don't you have any after-sales service?" Ash was so angry that he snatched her cigarette. "I paid a quarter of my soul, and in return, the black devil took my body and did whatever he wanted? Why didn't you explain it to me clearly just now... profiteer!"

The dead maniac suddenly turned cold and hooked his finger at him. Ash had no choice but to light the cigarette and put it in her mouth. His expression was aggrieved, just like Lala Fei who bought a house in an unfinished building but could only pray that the developer would have a change of heart: "What should I do now?"

The Death Maniac took a deep puff of his cigarette and pointed behind him. Ash looked over and found that the Black Demon was sitting not far away. However, she didn't seem to notice them. She sat on the ground with her legs hugged like a mushroom, as if she would rot forever in this dark deep sea.

"Suppress her." Death Maniac said, "You can regain control of your body."