Chapter 574: 52. Kill Her
Fisher did not expect Pisces to directly outline the image of Tang Zeming Asuka. In the mist formed by writhing tentacles, the silhouette standing before Fisher resembled Tang Zeming Asuka, the same height as he remembered, except for the indistinct facial features and clothing, as if she truly stood before him.
But she did not look at Fisher; instead, she held a staff, silently gazing at the “moon” that was some distance away, which was the Mother God in her true form.
Regarding the three questions posed by Fisher, Pisces gave affirmative answers to the first two, confirming that the magic was indeed entrusted by Tang Zeming Asuka to the Mother God for teaching to humanity. Moreover, it had gaps in transmission, explaining the decline and primitive signs of magic throughout history, which required humanity to restore it back to its original state over a long period.
At this moment, Fisher, originally concerned with “mythical rank magic,” found himself gradually consumed by the image of the girl before him, identical to how she looked ten thousand years ago.
Indeed, the Tang Zeming Asuka outlined by Pisces appeared as youthful as she did ten thousand years ago; it seemed that time left no marks on these Trans individuals.
Outwardly, she was still a seventeen-year-old soon-to-be adult female high school student, but for some reason, Fisher noticed that Tang Zeming Asuka bore many qualities that should not belong to a girl of her age.
Just from this illusory shadow, Fisher sensed endless weariness and a hint of unspeakable sorrow.
Fisher did not know what she had gone through over the four thousand years they had been apart, and after the final “journey home,” where had she gone?
Thinking of this, Fisher couldn’t help but ask Pisces again:
“Where is the girl who teaches the Mother God’s magic, Tang Zeming Asuka? Do you know?”
“I don’t know.”
“Haven’t you seen her?”
“There’s pollution; I don’t know where she went.”
“.Then how did that pollution come about?”
“I don’t know.”
With an answer that left him more confused, Fisher felt some disappointment in his heart, but just as he was about to change the subject to magic, Pisces suddenly spoke again.
“But I know she is still alive.”
Fisher’s eyes brightened slightly, and he quickly raised his head to meet Pisces’ multifaceted eyes, but Pisces remained steadfast, looking at Fisher without moving.
“How do you know she is still alive?”
Upon hearing the follow-up question, Pisces did not answer immediately, taking a moment to think, while the tentacles in the surrounding mist began writhing rapidly.
Then, voices began to surface, intermingled with tones that Fisher could not comprehend, akin to the prelude of a song.
Following that, Pisces once again opened her mouth and sang a strange yet beautiful melody, a ballad that seemed to pour forth from the depths of the soul:
“A traveler far from home, a lonely spectator;
A being burdened with endless waiting, seeking the meaning of existence.”
“Two unequal entities, two equal souls, under the gaze of the night sky, forged a precious friendship.”
“In witness of their friendship, they exchanged their most treasured gifts.”
“She opened the secrets of her authority to him, granting him the power of [Infinity]; he shared the intricacies of his magic, bestowing upon her a means to interfere with the world.”
“The precious epic was recorded by the audience, while the actors upon the stage disappeared, leaving only the gifts they had exchanged.”
Amidst this odd song, the intent of Pisces became particularly clear; Fisher could easily trace the narrative and emotions flowing through the notes of the melody.
The flood of information into his mind caused Fisher a bit of headache, but it was this headache that suddenly made him recall something.
It seemed he had heard a similar form of ballad somewhere before, but compared to what Pisces sang, that song was far more enchanting, more grandiose, like an ocean threatening to swallow Fisher’s consciousness.
It was as if he had heard it during his breakthrough to the mythical rank; at that time, he had experienced a similar musical resonance.
However, what that song represented still eluded Fisher—perhaps it was the essence of chaos, resonating due to the completion manual he carried with him?
He pondered for a moment, then brought his thoughts back to the information Pisces was providing. He asked, “You mean that the gift the Mother God gave to Asuka, that power of infinite authority, still exists? So, this means she is still alive, right?”
“Yes.”
Fisher felt Pisces’ reply was reasonable, recalling that during his time in the Northern Region, Hela had reminded him to recite the name “Tang Zeming Asuka” to activate the power stored in the ring he had given her.
At that time, the rings he had inscribed had not yet reached the mythical dream magic levels, yet their quantity and quality soared to immeasurable scales, hence “infinity.”
The infinite power clearly came from the gift given to her by the Mother God, and as of four and a half years ago in the Northern Region, this power could still be wielded. It signified that Tang Zeming Asuka was still alive. She had not left this world; she was in some corner of this world.
Fisher surmised that the most likely place was within the spirit realm.
“But I don’t recommend you go looking for her.”
Pisces spoke again, and Fisher frowned, asking, “Why? Is it because it’s dangerous in the spirit realm now, and my rank and strength are too low, so…”
“That’s just one of the reasons.”
Pisces recalled the tentacles from the mist as she continued to regard Fisher with an indifferent gaze, “She is no longer that child from back then. Your promise to her changed her into what she believes is a good version. You are a scum; if she discovers your many partners, you will be in trouble.”
Fisher did not understand what exactly Pisces meant by “trouble,” as all her multifaceted eyes remained indifferent. However, he could sense some schadenfreude beneath it.
Wait a minute.
What does she mean by “what she believes is a good version”?
Could it be…
Fisher suddenly recalled that in the past, she had expressed admiration and envy for Hela more than once, but she seemed not to have grasped the true character of Hela at all, and Fisher also did not know what dazzling image Hela was in her eyes.
But intuition told Fisher that anyone growing up with that guy Hela as a model and goal likely wasn’t onto anything good.
“…”
Fisher fell silent for a moment, suppressing his urge to refute Pisces’ description of him, and silently redirected the topic.
“Then, what about magic? Specifically, what is the method for magic to rival the powers of the mythical rank?”
“Multiple ring heads.”
“Multiple ring head magic—I know about that, but currently, we only know of one such magic, and it can only rival the fifteenth rank. I need a more powerful multi-ring magic, but I don’t have enough time and resources to take on the risks of experimenting with new multi-ring head magic.”
Pisces continued to look at Fisher silently and then stated, “The ring heads of the same deity’s authority can be stacked, but you need the ability to analyze the authority beneath the ring heads.”
Pisces’ words came in fragments, but they felt like a ray of spiritual light cascading down from above the spirit realm, making Fisher feel as if he had received sudden enlightenment.
All the rules of this world are birthed from the authority of several deities, and the magic that alters reality through the resonances of the world operates on this principle, which is also why magic requires a ring head structure.
Therefore, the stability principle of multi-ring head magic is based on these already partitioned authorities. If a multi-ring head spell’s area of effect is governed by rules created by different authorities, then it will produce a corresponding discriminatory reaction from those authorities.
However, even though Fisher understood the principle, he still had some doubts.
For instance, he clearly stood upon Professor Heilson’s shoulders, knowing that the rings representing [Lightning] and [Destruction] could be combined, but he still faced major obstacles while inscribing the magic.
Had he not been within the dream magic realm, where he could conjure spells out of thin air, he really wouldn’t have been able to inscribe them at that time.
Thus, even knowing which ring head magics could combine, Fisher still couldn’t utilize them stably and efficiently, which didn’t seem related to the theoretical level of magic and did not appear to correlate with rank either.
Because Heilson was undeniably a genuine zero-rank human, a centenarian, yet he could still inscribe such multi-ring head magic.
So what truly determines the bottleneck of inscribing multi-ring head magic?
Furthermore, Pisces said Fisher needs the ability to analyze which deity’s authority the ring heads specifically belong to, which Fisher also needed answers to.
Thus, he expressed his confusion, and after a moment of silence, Pisces generously provided an answer, surprisingly revealing both questions were the same answer.
“Chaos.”
Pisces’ words were brief, yet, in his current understanding of magic theory, Fisher only needed a slight hint, and fortunately, that hint was sufficient for him to connect many dots.
First of all, magic is the power of chaos. Fisher had known this long ago, but he overlooked a point: chaotic magic requires chaotic power to drive it, and the more powerful the magic, the greater the chaotic power required.
Before the fourteenth rank, the power of magic was supplied by souls, which are also one of the chaotic powers, as Jahl Uzz had made quite clear.
This is why ordinary magic can only reach the fourteenth rank at most—because the limit of an ordinary soul is the fourteenth rank; the next level is the mythical rank, where body and soul are unified.
At that time, the utilization of souls will change; souls will inevitably mix with portions of the world’s rules, and speaking strictly of the “chaotic quantity” of souls, it actually diminishes rather than increases, thus rendering them unable to bear the burden of more powerful mythical rank magic.
According to this theory, if one wishes to utilize multi-ring head magic above the mythical rank, then one needs chaotic power above the mythical rank.
And at that time, when battling Erwind in the dream world, the complete separation of his soul and body resulted in his soul nearing the mythical rank. That is why he could unleash the “Dragon Slaying Spear” that heavily wounded Erwind.
So, the reason Tang Zeming Asuka could instantly manifest multi-ring head magic became clear to Fisher—her chaotic amount was so abundant that, at that moment, it had even exceeded the limits of the mythical.
Similarly, the more chaos Fisher harbored, the easier he could wield multi-ring head magic and distinguish the authorities corresponding to the ring heads.
“So, I need to harbor more chaos, right?”
“Yes.”
Circle back to the start, he again needed to read more completion manuals because only the chaotic knowledge contained within completion manuals could provide the chaos necessary for mythical rank multi-ring head magic.
But just then, Fisher suddenly discovered a blind spot.
If that was the case, then what about Professor Heilson?
He was merely an ordinary human, entirely unrelated to chaos and completion manuals. How did such an ordinary person inscribe dual-ring head magic?
This question suddenly surfaced and left Fisher utterly perplexed.
However, Pisces had no way of knowing what Fisher was contemplating. Upon seeing Fisher fall into sudden silence, unsure if she thought he was fearful of the consequences of chaos and hesitating, she abruptly asked Fisher:
“You must confront those demons.”
“You know?”
“We all know. About you. Scum.”
Well, this point had been made clear by Pisces when they first met.
It seemed that since the Northern Region, Fisher had frequently glimpsed those beings’ eyes like “stars” from the occasional crevices they revealed.
Could it be that many of them were often watching him, just like Renee had done in the spirit realm, where his deeds appeared as if they were being live-streamed for their eyes?
Even now, Fisher didn’t know if they had witnessed his nights with the ladies, or not.
Renee likely didn’t dare to watch, or else she wouldn’t be so shy even about holding hands and kissing, but those seemingly emotionless “audience members” might not have refrained.
Fisher felt they had plenty of leisure to witness instances of “stacking high.”
However, clearly, Pisces’ brief comment about Fisher’s private life was merely a pretext. She did not continue to evaluate Fisher’s history of emotions but simply stated, “Your magic, even if it’s multi-ring head, is not enough to confront them.”
“…So?”
“We can help you.”
Fisher was slightly taken aback, once again looking into Pisces’ multifaceted eyes. She remained impassive, as though merely stating a fact rather than making a suggestion.
Yet, Fisher keenly sensed the deeper meaning hidden within her words. He did not respond but instead asked in return,
“We?”
“We.”
“Do you mean you, the Pisces of the zodiac, or all the chaos beings?”
“We, the majority.”
“Wait, how many of you chaos beings are there?”
“Twelve in the zodiac, ten in the equator, forty-two in the southern sky, five in the northern sky, nineteen in the northern sky’s polar regions.”
Only now did Fisher realize that the chaos beings were actually numerous, totaling a staggering eighty-eight.
And most terrifyingly, based on the true level of the spirit realm, there were indeed twelve demigods among them, with the Pisces before him being one of them.
The fact that they had sent only five of their relatively weaker members nearly overthrew the Northern Region. If they had all come, let alone Barbatos and Ag, even all the demons combined from the Demon Abyss likely wouldn’t suffice to fight off all twelve demigods.
As Pisces indifferently enumerated these numbers, a cold sweat began to bead on Fisher’s forehead.
If Ramastia, having gathered the blessings of several deities, had only created three demigods, and yet the Sea of Souls, a spiritual entity derived from a certain mysterious deity, was able to birth twelve beings of demigod status…
Then what level of existence does the master of the Sea of Souls, that deity from beyond the world, actually hold?
Thinking of this, Fisher did not show fear; instead, he asked, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch. So, in exchange for your assistance, what do you want?”
“A sanctuary.”
“A sanctuary?”
“Mm.”
Pisces’ tentacles stirred, gently placing themselves at the edge of the magic, where the spirit realm connected with the crevice. The visionary aspect of the crevice was concealed due to the star magic, allowing Fisher only a vague glimpse of the spirit realm and the form of Pisces.
“The pollution is very dangerous. We are in pain and need a refuge.”
“…”
Fisher fell silent. The request sounded reasonable, as the invasion of the Northern Region by chaos beings several thousand years ago had indeed been for this reason.
Based on the ancient grimoire and the current conversation with Pisces, Fisher realized that this group of chaos beings was actually one of the more friendly types of existence; they preferred to silently drift outside the world, observing everything within it.
However, the crimson pollution within the spirit realm made their living environment exceedingly perilous, forcing them to seek refuge within the world.
Yet the problem lay in the fact that if they desired to enter the world for refuge, why not simply let them in? Why did the Phoenix go to war with them? Were they afraid these powerful chaos beings would seize their territory? After all, the Phoenix was not the overlord of the Northern Region at that time, and the concept of territory did not exist.
So there must be other reasons for denying their entry.
“What do I need to do to allow you to enter the reality for refuge?”
“Kill that dragon race.
Pisces’ multifaceted eyes remained bright and utterly indifferent, staring directly at Fisher, as if stating something quite simple.
To be more specific, she added a description:
“Lafa. E. El.”
“Just kill her, and it will suffice.”
