This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 1288: Divine Game: Graveyard of Bones 10

Rita did not respond to Byme’s earlier reflection. Her attention stayed on the battlefield. The match was still unfolding.

After activating her divine talent, Byme’s strength rose sharply. Her pressure on Deceitful Bloom became obvious. Even Rita had to admit it. This was no ordinary gap.

But the shift did not last long.

Deceitful Bloom’s soul fire lit up.

In the next instant, Byme’s Vine lost cohesion. It unraveled, transformed into Sir Camellia, and drifted away with the wind as if it had never belonged to her.

Rita pressed her fingers against her temple.

She still could not grasp Deceitful Bloom’s divine talent. It was too erratic, too fluid. It behaved just like its owner.

In earlier matches, that same flame had produced entirely different effects.

Some opponents lost consciousness on the spot.

Some fell into illusions they could not escape.

Some had their attributes twisted mid-fight.

There had even been a case where the opponent’s divine talent itself was altered.

There was no stable pattern. No single explanation.

Was she changing talents each time?

Or was this all one ability, pushed to extremes through different interpretations?

Rita could not tell.

After a long silence, she spoke.

"Freeze the memory. Right at the moment you used your divine talent."

Byme let out a quiet sigh.

"You’re looking in the wrong place. If you want answers, you should be studying her."

Even so, she complied. Time halted.

Rita stepped onto a strand of golden lightning and descended into the frozen battlefield. She walked straight up to Byme and studied the faint outline of the soul fire at her forehead.

Vineborne liked to describe everything through flowers and vines. Their soul fire reflected that.

But it was only an outline.

There were too many kinds of Vine. Countless variations. Even after studying Beacon’s sigh multiple times, Rita could not identify a Vine from a simple silhouette.

It felt like trying to identify creatures from nothing but shadows.

A thorn-like structure. Small blossoms shaped like birds.

Rita narrowed her eyes.

"Is your soul fire... Song of Avian Cause?"

Byme stood at the edge of the clock arena, arms folded.

"Deceitful Bloom said the same thing."

Rita exhaled slowly.

"It doesn’t suit you."

That answer seemed to pull Byme out of her earlier mood. She tilted her head slightly.

"Why not? Don’t I look like someone who would dedicate herself to an ideal?"

"I can’t explain it," Rita said. "Just a feeling."

Even as she said it, she found it strange. She rarely trusted intuition.

She shifted her thoughts back to something more concrete.

"Deceitful Bloom forced you to invade Tingo over and over. That tells me something."

Byme looked at her.

"What?"

"After she left Midsummer to enter Divine Game, you and Withering Midsummer didn’t invade Tingo."

"...We didn’t."

"Why?"

Rita’s voice dropped as she thought through it again.

Byme wanted to know why she was forced to invade.

But Rita was asking the opposite question.

Why didn’t she invade back then?

That decision did not appear out of nowhere. There had to have been discussion. Debate.

Two possible paths had existed from the start.

Invade. Or wait.

At first, Rita assumed it was hesitation. Maybe Byme didn’t want to risk it and preferred to wait for Deceitful Bloom.

But the matches told a different story.

Byme had the strength. More than enough.

Top hundred in ranking. Multiple war techniques. A complete combat system with no real weaknesses.

And more importantly, Deceitful Bloom had trusted her. Trusted her enough to leave Midsummer and the entire Vineborne under her command.

That was not something you did if someone lacked judgment.

So the reason had to be elsewhere.

Rita circled back to her earlier conclusion.

If failing to invade Tingo led to the destruction of the Vineborne, then there was only one explanation.

The bell.

The Fourth Bell came too soon.

So soon that even after finishing Graveyard of Bones, Deceitful Bloom had no time to launch an invasion.

Rita’s heartbeat quickened. She shut her eyes and forced herself to breathe evenly.

There’s still time.

BS has a five star world skill. There’s still time.

Wither of Lania Kaia and Quex of Dark Reef did not enter Graveyard of Bones.

They must be out there securing fragments, upgrading their worlds.

There was still room to act.

BS would not follow Midsummer’s path.

She opened her eyes again, steady now.

Back to the present.

Back to the real question.

Who refused to invade Tingo?

Byme?

Or Deceitful Bloom?

This memory had been altered. This moment locked and repeated.

Someone’s mistake was being corrected here.

But whose?

Rita did not believe it was Deceitful Bloom.

She was not someone who ran from her own failures.

She manipulated, she deceived, she controlled. But she also faced consequences directly.

If anything, she seemed like someone who feared stagnation more than conflict.

She would rather complicate everything than let things settle into something dull.

"I don’t get it," Byme said suddenly, pulling Rita out of her thoughts. "Why are you so focused on our divine talents? And now even my soul fire?"

"They tell me who you are," Rita replied. Her gaze stayed on that faint outline of flame.

"Your personality. Your instincts. Your way of making decisions."

She paused, then continued more slowly.

"I don’t like judging things as right or wrong based on logic alone. I look at people instead."

"Even if there’s a moment of hesitation... or a wrong turn..."

She gave a faint smile.

"Instinct brings you back. People always return to what they are."

Byme studied her.

"Then what do you think she values most? The Vineborne? Or something else?"

Rita let out a quiet breath.

"You’re interesting. You say I can’t be compared to her, but you still want my answer."

She shook her head.

"You already have one. No matter what I say, you won’t accept it."

"That’s how Variational Quicksand works."

It looked flexible. Soft.

But once it chose a direction, it never changed.

Rita suddenly paused mid-thought.

Something clicked.

She looked at Byme again, more carefully this time.

"Back then, after Divine Game began... did you always follow Deceitful Bloom’s orders?"

"If she was right, yes."

Rita’s eyes sharpened slightly.

"Then tell me this."

She leaned forward just a little.

"When did you think she was wrong?"