Mage Manual

"Ash, your Void Wings," she retracted her wings, her expression serene, voice light: "very warm."

Indeed.

It’s not just from the very first glance that Ash recognized her as Filly; even more important is, no one understands better than him what sharing Void Wings signifies, it’s a realm that requires countless life-and-death experiences to reach... even Vishi and the others have just crossed the threshold recently!

"But even so..." Ash’s face was complex: "How can you establish a bond with me?"

The fact that the bond could remain was already beyond Ash’s expectations; he thought that when Aurora’s Mage Manual disappeared along with the End Group, the Bonds System should collapse as well. But after researching for a few days, not only did the bonds not disappear, but they could even continue to grow, just lacking a data interface to view them.

In the past, they might have been unable to figure it out, but with Ash’s deep understanding of supreme authority, he could guess the essence of the Bonds System: a supreme technique that permanently takes effect.

Establishing each bond is like leaving a supreme technique between Ash and the operators, though triggering the supreme technique requires fulfilling several preconditions. Ash even suspects that "Void Realm Teaming" is related to the supreme technique. Although incredibly mysterious, considering it’s an ultimate secret technique developed by the End Group after burying countless worlds, it indeed seems worthy of its origin.

This isn’t mere speculation; over the past few days, at the moments when the Witch, Silver Lamp, and Vishi strengthened their bonds, Ash keenly captured an extremely subtle magical wave. To further research it, the Witch and the others eventually concluded with sore feet that it should be a supreme technique of the Fate Faction, possibly also related to the thought power of the Fifth Pillar God.

Therefore, even if Aurora’s Mage Manual disappears, the bonds won’t disappear but transform permanently into their abilities.

Looking at the present Dazzling Star, Ash had repeatedly questioned Death Mad but kept being avoided. An ever-present doubt hidden deep in his heart resurfaced—

Previously, the ’Bewildering Heart Maiden,’ ’Violet Resentment Shadow Consort,’ ’Blood Hidden Empress,’ ’Ya Sha Jin,’ ’Chaos Songstress’ he saw in "Operator Search"... Can these roles become his bonded operators?

To put it more directly, why couldn’t they become operators who could share bonds with Ash? Was it that they didn’t qualify, or did the End Group restrict the number of operators?

Now, he might finally get an answer.

"From the Kingdom of Allstars, I sensed the marks of fate on you." Dazzling Star’s expression, at this moment, seemed slightly less innocent, more indifferent: "Back then, I thought it was a foreshadowing left by the Gods of Four Pillars, until later when Level Six of Hell disappeared, and you revealed your secret. Only then did I realize that this fate was the blessing that connects you and them."

"And this blessing doesn’t only connect you and them; there are many others involved as well." She pouted slightly with an expression of mild annoyance, arms crossed over her chest, her indifference hiding a subtle childishness: "Though I expected it, Ash you’re so~ unfaithful~"

"Freyja and the others." Ash immediately understood, and another doubt was thereby cleared—no wonder Freyja, Siflin, Hanna, Tamasi could team together because they all have bonds with him, triggering the team function upon logging into the Void Realm!

No wonder Rose brought herself and them into the Thought Domain; although Rose couldn’t sense the nature of the bonds, she could perceive the thought power inside!

Dazzling Star continued: "But back then, I still didn’t see the potential of this blessing until in the battle in Hell—"

"No." Ash identified an issue: "I can’t be sure about others, but my bond with Freyja shouldn’t be inferior to that with the Sword Maiden and others. Yet I didn’t feel her wings even slightly, nor her bond! If she couldn’t, why could you—"

"Because your blessings with the others are sealed."

Ash was startled, incredulity written all over his face: "Sealed?"

"This fate blessing is so profound that even after I’ve elevated my Fate Realm to six-winged, I could only see its shallowest surface."

Dazzling Star covered her left eye with her hand, her right eye’s pupil swirling with runes Ash couldn’t discern: "However, because you recently established a new bond with Felix, I can see a little more... but Ash, you’re really too much, how can you like Felix who looks just like me? I don’t know whether I should complain that you like me so much, or rejoice that you still like me."

Ash’s eyebrows twitched wildly, teeth clenched as he said: "Dazzling Star, knock it off?"

"Ah?" Dazzling Star was surprised, her mood visibly dipping, even the starlight around her dimmed: "Ash, you don’t want to see me?"

"I didn’t... I just... What did you see from Felix?" Ash was unsure how to respond, hastily redirecting to the main topic.

"If it’s said that between you and the Sword Maiden, there’s a thread connecting your fingers, then between you and Felix and the others, the thread might be tied but it’s severed, not connected." Dazzling Star touched her finger, said sourly: "You even gave them rings."

Severed?

Why severed?

Or should the question be, why did only the Sword Maiden’s threads connect?

While Ash’s thoughts raced, Dazzling Star continued leisurely: "In fact, your thread with Felix wasn’t severed initially; it severed only after you entered Hell, then I saw Felix’s bond thread break."

Ash’s first reaction: "Did Hell sever it...no, impossible."

If it was the influence of Level Six of Hell, then Ash’s thread with the Sword Maiden and others should have broken too. Although it’s possible to have "higher bond remains, lower bond breaks," there’s another more suspicious possibility—

The End Group severed his bond thread with the others!

Firstly, the Observer and others created the ultimate secret technique, they naturally knew how to sever!

Secondly, Death Mad had ample reasons to prevent him from establishing close bonds with the others!

Thirdly, the Bonds System is an ace custom-crafted by the End Group using themselves as a template. Even to control variables, they should sever Ash’s bonds with others to avoid unexpected incidents during future integrations.

But if that’s the case, Ash would overturn one of his previous assumptions: their bonds do not require the End Group to repeatedly cast spells but may instead be a supreme technique akin to "bond core" bound to Ash, satisfying conditions allowing everyone to establish bonds with Ash, allowing Dikron to step in! Only in such scenarios would the End Group need to manually sever Ash’s connections with others!

In other words, Ash was originally a bus, forcibly turned into a four-seater private car by the End Group.