"Death?"

"Do you believe in an afterlife after death?"

backdrop twirled a cigar in his hand, blew a smoke ring, and said with a smirk.

A salty sea breeze tousled his short, choppy hair. His sweet smile hid beneath his bangs, akin to a smooth lake shore, shyly concealed beneath its thick willow trees.

His smile feels a lot like Merka's, Turing thought.

"Turing, death doesn't end suffering."

"It merely transfers it to those who mourn you."

"Don't covet death… no matter how painful life may be."

backdrop paused, took another drag of his cigarette.

The charming smile lingered on his cheeks.

"I told you, this is the fourth-dimensional space."

"Throughout history, every deity has been equipped with a quantum computer."

"As long as they have prophecy windows and teleportation gates, deities can roughly predict the future of every person on Earth."

"Naturally, they can also predict everyone's past."

"As someone capable of traversing any spatiotemporal dimension, I can certainly be considered to have entered the fourth-dimensional space."

"Let me show you..."

As backdrop spoke, he raised his fist, countless fleeting shadows faintly emanated from his body, as if on the verge of erupting.

An ominous feeling welled up in Turing's heart, causing her to quickly interrupt him.

"Wait, hold on!"

"Don't start with these vague statements."

"First, explain the current situation to me."

"You claim to be the backdrop controlling all angels, right? I'll give you that."

"But how did I get here, and what about the battle? I know nothing at all!"

Turing felt unease creeping in, even the strap of her swimsuit felt particularly constricting. Her heart raced, one hand involuntarily adjusting the swimsuit strap, even though everything seemed fine there.

"Oh, right. You can't see the cause and effect of things; I forgot about that."

"Don't worry, time is completely suspended here with me."

"Your battle with Beezelbub is still ongoing, but the current situation isn't very optimistic."

With a slight wave of his hand, backdrop conjured a holographic display of Beezelbub and Turing's battle before Turing's eyes.

Their fight frozen at the moment when Beezelbub unleashed the Grand Flame Spiral.

"Each angel has my backdoor installed."

"When their emotions become extremely unstable, I automatically teleport them to my side."

"Then I temporarily take control of their bodies to deal with some situations they can't handle."

"Remember that? At the Meisa bar, I intervened, and directly destroyed the entire bar."

"Otherwise, with your unstable emotions, who knows what you might have done."

【So it was this guy causing the rift between me and Merka.】

Turing's eyelids drooped as she gazed at backdrop resentfully, her small mouth pouting in a way that could hold an oil lamp.

"What are those two lines? Why do I have them too?"

Turing noticed in the holographic projection that Beezelbub had a red and yellow dashed line connected, while she had a red and blue dashed line.

These lines were not visible to Turing during the recent battle.

"I designed these lines initially to control angels."

backdrop's voice was gentle, incredibly captivating. Turing felt that listening to him speak was like hearing Uncle Wednesday tell stories back in the thicket garden.

"The red, yellow, and blue lines were created to prevent angels from going rogue."

"The red line signifies the fire line, also known as the death line. Angels are supposed to be immortal. But with this line, if they suffer a fatal injury or their master dies, I can forcibly recall them."

"The yellow line represents the zero line, also known as the life line. I use this line to dictate angels' codes of conduct. Beezelbub must obey her master because of this line; it's her duty as an angel."

"The blue line stands for the ground line, also known as the despair line. This line can prevent any angel from leaving Acadia. I don't want Acadia to follow the old path of ancient conquests. Therefore, I use this line to restrict angels. Beezelbub doesn't have this line, while you do, which is why you can't perform magic in outer space."

"In theory, every angel should have these three lines."

"But you, being the child of man and machine, have no master, hence no zero line."

"Oedipus used a special method to sever Beezelbub's ground line, leaving only the zero and fire lines."

Glancing at Turing, who looked bewildered, backdrop smiled knowingly, reaching out to pat Turing's head, this time Turing did not resist.

"You might not understand these matters, and that's fine."

"Just know that Oedipus still has a death line left on her."

"The death line is the hardest to remove and the most effective in limiting angels."

"She wants to survive, which is why she has gone to such lengths to eliminate this death line from herself."

"Otherwise, she would soon reach her end."

【...】

Turing felt a mess in her mind, unsure of what to say.

The truth of the whole world seemed to be unfolding before her eyes, yet somehow, she did not feel as elated as she thought she would.