If one dies before undergoing the stripping of the Witch King's ritual, will the Grand Witch King become a ghost lost to time, forever wandering in the past?

After hearing the truth revealed by the Narration of Nonexistence, Leon's brow subtly lifted. Certain aspects that had previously seemed strange were finally explained rationally at this moment.

If the situation is truly as the Grand Witch King described, and all she needs is to live just a few dozen hours less, then she could have directly discussed it with both myself and the Cat Cat Princess. There was no need to secretly put the Cat Cat Princess to sleep, specifically to avoid this conversation.

Later, when she rambled on with me about her views on the world, reminding me of things yet undone, and hinting that I may not be able to defeat the Narration of Nonexistence, all of it was laying groundwork for this very moment.

And she probably saw something from the future, so she prepared to use voluntary sacrifice as a method to send the Cat Cat Princess and myself out of the Bedtime Story, leading toward the ending she believed to be most perfect.

"So... did Catherine and I actually lose?"

Glancing at the crows perched far atop a tree, then turning back to the Grand Witch King with a helpless expression, Leon contemplatively asked:

"Did we fail to defeat the Narration of Nonexistence and died in the Bedtime Story? Or did we succeed, but only at a great and terrible cost? Or... did we win, but with great loss of life in the Witch Kingdom?"

"..."

It's over.

Seeing Leon immediately discern who between herself and the Narration of Nonexistence spoke truth and directly deducing most reasons, the Grand Witch King unconsciously closed her eyes, giving up any intention to continue fabricating lies.

This newly appointed Aquarius Director of the Purification Bureau has an unusually heavy suspicion; even faced with an absolutely reliable ally like myself, he would not trust me completely. Any little oddity, and he grows instantly suspicious.

Before the Narration of Nonexistence arrived, I could rely on his unfamiliarity with the Witch King's ritual, using my ability to glimpse the future to keep him appeased. But after the Narration came calling, awakening him entirely, he could no longer believe anything I had previously said.

"I can't give too many specifics, but your and Catherine's future... indeed looks grim."

Indirectly admitting that what the Narration of Nonexistence said was true, the Grand Witch King, with her plans having failed, gave a bitter smile looking at Leon, whose expression suggested he'd expected this, and endeavored to persuade:

"Sir Leon, you need not bear any psychological burden. All this was of my own volition. And to lose the time coexisting with the heart of the Garden, returning to the past, truly isn't as painful a matter as it may seem..."

"It indeed isn't painful, because if your time is consumed by the garden heart, even the ability to suffer pain is stripped away."

Interrupting the Grand Witch King's words, the black crow atop the treetop grimly remarked:

"Unable to move, unable to touch, without a body, without a soul, lacking even the qualification to collapse or go mad, forced to remain as an unchangeable observer, eternally wandering in a fixed past... this is absolutely the most terrifying punishment in this world!

Bekinsel, if your daughter knew you chose this future to save her, she would... hmm."

Under Leon's astonished gaze, the tree where the black crow perched seemed to be caught in a turbulent time stream. A vast portion of its canopy was instantly torn apart into dozens of different zones.

Some buds sprouting, others withering and decayed, some lush green, others yellowing and decline... As for the black crow on the treetop, amidst the intense surrounding heartbeat, it was forcibly torn into dozens of different postures from taking flight to standing alone with eyes closed.

With the time no longer stable around it, the once-fluid language of the Narration of Nonexistence was synchronously shredded, completely losing coherence and logic, transforming into a mass of scattered and nonsensical chaotic words.

"Incapable... your daughter... punishment... Food God... so that's it!"

Apparently aware of the temporal anomaly around it, the black crow flapped its wings, departing the treetop and flying back to the sky, escaping the fragmented time around. Glaring down at the clearly irritated Grand Witch King below, it sneered, defiantly declaring:

"Bekinsel, if you had previously agreed to my terms and consented to become the Time God, perhaps you truly could have shattered my time. But now, you're just a mixed-blood human nearing old age, even with the backing of the heart of the Garden..."

"Bang!"

With a gunshot, Leon exploded the circling crow above into a mass of black smoke, then put away the greatly-dusty sniper rifle, turning his gaze towards the Grand Witch King clutching her heart beside him.

"You've temporarily escaped the constraints of Bedtime Story? Is this the power of the heart of the Garden?"

"Yes."

Forcing herself to stabilize her increasingly rapid heartbeat, the Grand Witch King, whose age ranged rapidly from twenty to a hundred fifty, nodded with a pained expression, wheezing:

"Sir Leon, please believe... believe in the future I've seen, I will not harm you and Catherine, so... so do as we previously discussed, it's the best in all possible futures!"

Will doing it as you say lead to the best future?

Gazing at the pained Grand Witch King before him, then looking at the still soundly sleeping Cat Cat Princess, who had fallen to the ground at some point, Leon fell silent.

If someone else had said this, I'd surely scoff, saying the future is just among countless possibilities, how it truly unfolds depends on me.

But the Grand Witch King is different.

Possessing the heart of the Garden and of extraordinary attainment in [Time] power, she's likely the strongest seer in all of humanity. Her judgments on the future exceed merely the domain of "possibility."

If even she believes it's largely possible I will fail...

Furrowing his brow in deep thought for a while, increasingly finding matters troublesome, Leon couldn't help but ask with a deeply knit brow:

"Your Majesty, Grand Witch King, was there absolutely no power for Catherine and me to respond in any of the futures you saw?"

"There is, but it's really, really difficult."

Hearing this, the Grand Witch King offered a bitter smile:

"Like I said before, the Narration of Nonexistence and the Slaughter King Association have already gone all out. Even if you ally all the associations of the Witch Kingdom, they will keep raising the stakes.

Your odds of winning against him are only fifty percent, and the vast majority of those would be pyrrhic victories. The odds of both you and Catherine surviving together are less than one in five.

Moreover, even in those futures where both of you survive, the Secret Magic City would be reduced to ruins, and the Witch Kingdom would suffer countless casualties under their ever increasing stakes. Sacrificing me is already the best outcome."

Raising the stakes... countless casualties...

After hearing the Grand Witch King's words, Leon furrowed his brows even tighter but still asked unwillingly:

"Your Majesty, Grand Witch King, what exactly do you mean by 'raising the stakes'?"

"It means leveraging the Narration of Nonexistence's truth to constantly include [True Gods] into the Bedtime Story."

Recalling those vague futures seen, the Grand Witch King couldn't help but sigh, enduring the immense backlash from time, reluctantly spoiling:

"Although you've done well enough, the more people you draw into the Bedtime Story, the more true gods the Slaughter King Association will draw in, forcibly balancing the Story's shared constraints.

And even if you send signals to bring the Pisces Division guarding outside the Secret Magic City in, the Slaughter King Association and the Narration of Nonexistence will continue raising the stakes. In the end, there could be almost forty incarnate true gods, so..."

"Wait!"

Capturing some key information from the Grand Witch King's words, Leon's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Are you saying that in the future, as many as forty true gods might descend? And not only would they descend physically, but they'd also be trapped in the Bedtime Story, unable to escape before the story concludes?"