Chapter 610 – 88. Destiny Returns
“You’re a bastard!! What have you done to Fisher?! I’ll kill you!!”
Raphael’s roar in front of her left Ag in a stunned state, having just started to grow half a head and not fully awakened. She gasped and struggled to drag her broken body up, finally seeing the vast muddy sea in front of her, but at that moment, it seemed shrouded in mist, making everything unclear.
Or rather, it wasn’t that she couldn’t see clearly; it felt more like her innate curiosity had sensed fear and refused to observe the existence within it.
“La la, la la la.”
She thought she heard a chilling song from within, which instilled fear in her and brought an ominous premonition rising from within.
She dully lowered her head, her mind blank, but beside her, Raphael was already burning with anger, justifiably believing that the beautiful woman before her was the root cause of Fisher’s current state.
She lifted her gun like a flower, and the scales on her body all stood upright, releasing a continuous stream of steam.
But in the distance, Hela merely held Fisher and looked at her coldly, then smiled and said,
“How ridiculous. The blessing that’s been polluted within you is about to burst out in fear, yet you still have so much spirit.”
“Blessing? What blessing? Stop talking nonsense and let Fisher go!!”
Raphael disregarded everything else, veins bulging on her forehead, gripping her spear, leaping up forcefully. But looking at the boundless black mud, the sense of terror from the depths of her soul made her body uncontrollably slack, causing the spear aimed at Hela to weaken slightly.
The crimson flames blazed fiercely, wrapping around the spear tip as it aimed for Hela’s head, but she merely waved her hand lightly, and Raphael’s body was wrapped and restrained by countless morning lights, making her hover mid-air.
“Ugh!”
Feeling the pull of the morning lights, the long spear formed from blood fell helplessly to the ground, and she grit her teeth, still attempting to tear apart the morning light surrounding her. But the rank difference was evident; she could only glare at Hela, who smiled below.
“Your ancestor, the source of your bloodline, Feimabaha, was granted a blessing by Dalasgon, endowed by his own authority. He could freely open the crevice to the Spirit Realm as its guardian. But thousands of years ago, during the Mythical War, he was killed by the Soul Calamity, and the blessing on him fell away, flowing through his blood, eventually returning to you.”
Hela used the morning light to pinch Raphael closer to the mud below, feeling intense fear. At that moment, a bright crimson flame burned uncontrollably on Raphael’s body, like a dazzling sun, making her soul and dragon horn blindingly bright.
But Hela merely gazed at the flames and continued,
“What Feimabaha doesn’t know is that the blessing that fell from him has been tainted by Chaos, turning into a ticking time bomb that could ignite the crevice at any moment. The moment that blessing falls away from you again, it will take effect, igniting the [Flame of the Soul] and linking the Spirit Realm with reality. Originally, it should have happened five and a half years ago.”
Raphael looked at the blazing red flames on her body, and countless scenes from nightmarish visions seemed to ignite with the flame of the blessing within her at that moment.
She suddenly recalled that when Feilon had tried to capture her soul using soul technology in Feilon City, the same dazzling flames had erupted from within her, flames that came from her soul.
That was a warning bell, but she had treated it as background noise.
Feilon didn’t actually want her soul as fuel; he was influenced by the chaotic soul within himself that wasn’t fully grown, subconsciously pushing to release the tainted blessing of Feimabaha.
At that time, she should have died and burnt the crevice, but someone changed her fate then.
Raphael’s gaze turned red as she looked at Fisher, who had now completely turned to black mud, whispering and recalling everything he had done for her in Feilon City.
“Fisher…”
“Yes, my poor Fisher has no idea that everything he receives has long since been labeled with a price in secret. All the fate you were supposed to bear has been transferred to him by that damn loophole.”
Hela still maintained her smile, but it was clear that her expression bore an undertone of insincerity.
From beneath her feet, a thread of fate spread out from the countless black mud, stretching forward until it reached its end in destruction. On that line, her figure flickered and vanished, as if she had never entered this fate nor been discovered by any existence.
She was Hela, Tch, Baemon, and like countless other beings in this world, nothing particularly special, merely experiencing everything quietly, ultimately reaching their end like characters.
Jahl Uzz once mentioned that the stars are inherently the world’s most devout audience, and the master of souls, evidently, surpasses any Chaos race in this aspect.
Until one day, she saw a being more precious than this world being sent back from a cage in the Holy Realm. From that day on, the peaceful fate began to sprout branches like trees, filled with countless choices.
But perhaps for her, the most important choices were only two.
One was the day she finally pierced through the “hidden” and found that guy.
That ragged figure, face obscured by long hair, finally revealed its true self to her after her long pursuit and appeared out of the hidden cover as if giving up on fleeing. It sat on the ground smilingly, curiously observing the passing subhuman women.
It was a fork in the road; one choice would move forward, while the other would destroy all forks, returning everything to the original simple annihilation.
That day, fate moved forward, and that day, the “loophole” was born.
The second was the death of a nun; only then did she finally find that treasure within fate.
That was shortly after Fisher turned eighteen, having just lost his foster mother and developed a close relationship with the Eldest Princess of the Golden Palace. Like Adam and Eve tasting forbidden fruit, he indulged in young love, continuously connecting and breathing life into this world on the brink of destruction.
That too was a fork; one choice was that Fisher did not obtain the relic of the loophole, and his love with Elizabeth was destroyed by the possessiveness stemming from their feelings. He would not seek the Sorceress in Shivali, nor hunt for the Dragon Race in the Southern Continent. He would be unaware of the Whale Folk infiltrating his school, oblivious to Erwind’s plans, and entirely ignorant of what the Turan Family in the Northern Region had done to find the Base.
He would become the most renowned professor in Saint Nali, rise to be a hot human leader in the entire Western Continent, attracting more women, yet never having anyone truly enter his heart.
Then, like everyone else, he would welcome the coming of annihilation in ignorance.
Of course, he would not return to the past and bring fate back to that quiet line.
Everything would be overturned; Hela would certainly remain unaffected, but everything else in the world would revert to the starting point—returning to the point where he would not be born.
Because he returned to the past, it was that loophole that would create him.
And once he was sent back to the past, that damned loophole’s purpose would be fulfilled, leading him step by step to today.
Each doomsday knot was tied to him by the loophole; once the fate of destruction surged forward, the pain that fell upon the world, all the costs, would fall upon him.
“Baemon! Is it you?! Are you ever going to fulfill your promise!?”
At that moment, Ag finally couldn’t help but call out for confirmation, having seen Raphael enter the mist, and spotting Baemon’s signature morning light within the fog, she shouted immediately.
Raphael also snapped back to her senses, glaring at the smiling woman before her and growled,
“Baemon. It’s you! You orchestrated all of this, forcing Fisher to use this power!”
“Yes, everything here is because of me, but have you thought about it? Soon it won’t just be here but rather the entire world.”
Hela’s smile waned, and countless shadows fell across her expression. That extreme terror far surpassed any living being, making Raphael quickly realize that the existence before her was likely far beyond just a mere demon.
Taking advantage of Raphael’s momentary pause, Hela pointed at the continuously burning flames on her body and said softly,
“Although you might not even be aware of it, ever since you escaped from Feilon City, the explosion of the polluted blessing inside you was only a matter of time. Even without Barbatos and Ag that I sent, one day, it would still erupt within you. Barbatos left you heavily injured, yet you were fine, but what about two and a half years later? After you saw Jasmine rush into his arms, did you not dream of the increasingly unsettling feeling?”
Raphael gasped as the scenes of the dreams that had been taken away began to surface one by one.
She recalled battling amid the sky of black mud and the furious anger and fear that burned fiercely, not stemming from others but from the fluctuations within herself.
“Bang!”
“I…”
Upon realizing this, the raging flames burning within Raphael surged even more intensely, seemingly validating everything that woman said before her.
“Even without me, the blessing within you will eventually erupt, becoming the gospel that opens annihilation. At that moment, he will regret losing you to the fullest. And the other five existences eyeing this world will not spare it either; he too will increasingly fight against that Chaos under the influence of that loophole. How selfish, Raphael. How many more times of this pain do you want him to bear?”
Raphael truly hadn’t expected that the one causing Fisher to suffer such pain now would be the self that survived in Feilon City over five years ago.
She had done all of this to stand by his side equally, wanting to help him, yet had not anticipated that the price for her survival was now entirely borne by Fisher.
She looked at Fisher, who had become this way below, and felt an immense regret rising within her. The blessing of Feimabaha on her became increasingly intense due to her emotional turmoil.
Could it have been better if she had died in Feilon City back then?
“And I merely wanted to create an opportunity. Now, the chaos within him has fully grown, indistinguishable from the chaos that once polluted Feimabaha. It can completely engulf the blessing within you before it explodes, preventing it from igniting the crevice and delaying the arrival of annihilation.”
Raphael’s body, wrapped in morning light, ceased to resist. She merely looked dully at Hela, whose expression was becoming increasingly emotionless, and gently said,
“Then… what is the price?”
Hela smiled slightly, looking at the dragon before her and said,
“The blessing of Feimabaha is bound to your soul. After it erupts, it will completely vanish, causing a deficiency in your soul. If ‘I’ handle it properly, you will survive, but at that time, annihilation will come, and Fisher will face unimaginable trials and torment in the future.
“Conversely, if I allow the chaos to totally swallow it, your soul will completely vanish with it. However, the demons will return to the dynasty, and annihilation will be delayed. Fisher, unable to accept your death, will likely hide away, and that will be the best opportunity for me to take him away.”
“Where will you take him?”
“To a place you cannot imagine, far removed from everything here. He will be very safe and together with me forever.”
“…”
Raphael remained silent for a moment, lowering her head and letting hot tears stream down her cheeks until they fell into the endless black mud, as if to touch Fisher’s body to convey her emotions to him.
But then, her only response to Hela was a simple sentence,
“Then please take him away. Return the fate I should bear back to my beloved.”
“Okay.”
Hela nodded with a smile, then behind her, a black hole unfolded like a gateway into endless darkness.
From that uncontrollable void, beyond the ultimate barrier, an illusory and vaguely significant song resonated in all souls’ hearts. Following that, she released her hand, casting the Raphael wrapped in morning light into the black mud.
Raphael closed her eyes, quietly enveloped by the flames of Feimabaha as she was thrown into the black mud.
“Poof!”
At the moment of contact with the black mud, the flames on her body surged into a powerful blaze, quickly about to transform into a soaring pillar of light. But Hela merely smiled slightly, allowing the infinite black mud to tightly wrap around it, including the pillar of flames.
In the distance, Ag seemed to sense something comparable to the True God’s level bursting forth from that thick mist of black mud. Her expression brightened momentarily, but in an instant, she felt that thing was being devoured and corroded.
She was taken aback, watching the flames dissipating in the black mud, and unwillingly roared at the black mist,
“Baemon!!! You bastard!!”
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(End of Chapter)
