Chapter 397: 14. Collapse
“The Holy Realm of the Storm Sea has fallen! Oh no, oh no! The Holy Spawn must still be there, boo hoo!”
At this moment, Emhart, who was floating in mid-air, seemed stunned for a brief moment before collapsing onto the deck, rolling around like a child throwing a tantrum, while yelling with his signature quacking voice:
“What am I going to do? I’ve searched for so long. Why can’t I remember anything, Fisher? Boo hoo!”
Fisher sighed and picked him up from the ground. Looking at the tearful Emhart in front of him, he couldn’t help but feel a bit puzzled.
“Wait, according to logic, artifacts like you with consciousness should be the highest-level items that angels can create and should be kept close by them. How could you not even know when the Holy Realm was destroyed? Didn’t you encounter Pandora’s eye before? Didn’t you ask her?”
“No! She didn’t even greet me; she completely ignored me. How could she answer my questions? But I think I’ve encountered other artifacts similar to me, but they all seem kind of stupid, either giving irrelevant answers or just not knowing what they were talking about. Only that pair of eyes felt like they could communicate normally.”
“Is that so? No matter what, once we enter the Storm Sea, you’ll find out what’s going on with your Holy Spawn.”
“Wait a minute, I want to hide in your arms. That way, if I see something I don’t want to see later, I can just curl up.”
Covers ears and steals a bell, huh?
Fisher watched in silence as Emhart gradually shrank his body and squeezed into the crevice of his suit, revealing one eye to see the chaotic space in front of him.
Fisher then turned to Renee, or rather the purple lightning seaweed she had bought earlier, and asked:
“So, can the purple lightning seaweed take us into the Storm Sea?”
“Well, actually, using high-tier lightning magic can also temporarily render the relic that creates spatial turbulence ineffective, but no one knows this secret. Even if someone uses lightning magic, they wouldn’t know the exact location of that relic. Once we enter, I plan to completely blow that relic up to expose the fallen Holy Realm to everyone. After all, those relics are useless just sitting there, hehe. Captain Alagina probably won’t miss this opportunity.”
“…”
Fisher didn’t respond, but he suddenly recalled something: Muxi and Blake had once reached the Storm Sea. He had thought they were just lucky to stumble in, but it didn’t seem like that now since Muxi had the blessing of manipulating lightning.
Is it possible that Blake wasn’t that lucky one, but Muxi brought him into the Storm Sea?
While Fisher was pondering, Renee picked up all the purple lightning seaweed they had bought before and suddenly let go. In an instant, the bag of purple lightning seaweed vanished from where it was and entered a crevice.
“Zzzzz~”
With a crisp sound of electric current flashing by, the next moment, a massive gap suddenly opened in the chaotic space in front of them. The originally dark and quiet sea surface suddenly sparkled with the sounds of thunder. Before them, on the wide sea surface, a strange scene wrapped in thick clouds abruptly appeared.
Countless relics, more than Fisher had ever seen in his life, glimmered and surged within it. Despite Renee calling it the ruins of the Holy Realm, Fisher saw no traces of man-made buildings; everything here was shrouded in heavy, thunderous black clouds.
“Are those black clouds… also made of relics?”
After peering out, Emhart nearly dared not look any longer. Renee did not respond to Fisher’s question, but he spoke up:
“Most likely. I once saw a human using a relic that could artificially create small clouds to imitate rain while traveling in a small country east of Cardu. Those branches of the Mother Church tricked many followers with it. But it seems that this one in the Holy Realm is complete and is capable of creating a thunderstorm.”
“Let’s go, Fisher. We need to row into it. I sense a human ship nearby, probably only around thirty nautical miles away. They should come over quickly once they notice what’s happening here.”
“Okay.”
Fisher immediately grabbed the oars, exerting the strength of his thirteenth rank to the fullest, moving the wooden oars faster than a steam engine as they quickly entered the rumored Storm Sea through the crevice of spatial turbulence.
Inside the dark space enveloped by swirling clouds, numerous islands made of clouds and thunder seemed to host many indistinct shadows standing still, like sculptures watching Renee and Fisher as they entered. Meanwhile, amidst the not-so-large cluster of clouds, the previously tossed purple lightning seaweed scattered on the ground, surrounding an odd device glowing with a faint blue light.
The device was extremely peculiar, emitting a relic-like glow, but that faint blue light was all too familiar to Fisher, and he murmured:
“Mechanism.”
“Oh, it really is! The light on that thing looks very much like the light on the knights from the Turan Family. Wait, could it be that the Holy Spawn makes such things? I have no recollection of this at all.”
Upon hearing this, Emhart immediately confirmed Fisher’s conclusion. Indeed, the relic that created the spatial turbulence bore a striking resemblance to the mechanisms made by the Mechanism, but it appeared more intricate and felt more bizarre, not as simple as what the Mechanism produced.
Did the true Mechanism learn how to create mechanisms from the angels, or did the angels learn from the Mechanism?
“Fisher, destroy that thing. This way, the Holy Realm will open up in the future.”
“Okay.”
Fisher extended his Fluid Sword towards the mechanism. As the mercury-like blade stretched out, the mechanism-like relic was instantly pierced and destroyed, causing the surrounding spatial turbulence to completely vanish, revealing the home of the angels who had perished in the Mythical War.
However, there was no longer a trace of the beautiful image Emhart had described.
Renee ignored the shadowy figures standing on the shore and gently reached her hand into the seawater beneath the boat again, ripping open a crevice leading to the Spirit Realm and guiding the small boat to traverse once more.
The space before them was gradually torn open, and sitting at the bow of the boat, Renee once again spoke, saying:
“We’re heading to the center of the Storm Sea, where we will prepare briefly.”
“Prepare?”
“Yes, Fisher, what I’m about to say is very important, so listen carefully. It’s about how to escape the pursuit of death.”
This passage through the crevice took much longer than the previous ones. Fisher wasn’t sure if it was due to the surrounding relics’ influence, but during the passage, Renee turned around earnestly to look at Fisher.
“As of now, the last existence that has reached the limits of life is only Xu, but she cannot help you. The gods will not defy the absolute law that forbids them from intervening in the world to aid you. I can’t directly help you, as that would actually harm you; therefore, I can only find a roundabout way to bring you to someone who can help.”
“Fisher, I’m not sure how well you understand the rules laid out by the gods. The rules of life and matter are the most straightforward, always accessible at any moment. As for the rules of crevices and death, you’ve also gained some understanding to some extent, but the rules of fate seem the most abstract. Fate defines the space and time of the world; these two [concepts] have determined what has happened and what will happen in this world, allowing everything to be recorded and predicted.”
“And at this moment, when these beings at the limits of life are perishing, escaping death is absolutely impossible. The only method is to completely destroy the rules of fate measuring time around you and send you back to a time when they still existed. As long as you find the Heavenly Lock or the World Tree in that time to lift the death command on you, you too can escape death.”
Fisher and Emhart were both stunned, looking at Renee, who calmly spoke of “destroying the rules of fate.” They were at a loss for words until several seconds later, Fisher finally stammered:
“I think I understand what you mean… But Renee, allow me to speculate, your ability to fully destroy the rules indicates your origins are not simple, and the reason you haven’t revealed your true identity is not that you don’t want to, but because of what you just mentioned about the [oath with the gods], right?”
Renee nodded helplessly, pointing at her red lips with her finger, and replied:
“Yes, I’m sorry, Fisher.”
“It’s fine, that’s not critical. The key is that since the contents of the oath are secrecy and non-interference with the world, yet you still help me destroy the rules of fate, doesn’t that also violate the oath? Aren’t you worried about it?”
“Don’t worry; as long as no one knows, it will be fine. So we must hurry. When we go to that time, I will do the destroying of the rules, and when it’s time to return, you will have to do it yourself. Do you see that symbol on your chest? That represents my power.”
Renee extended her finger to point at Fisher’s chest, where, beneath his clothing, a purple symbol resembling a “horizontal eight” continued to twist.
“Explode it with your soul’s power like you would with explosive magic, and it will once again collapse the fate around you and catapult you back to the time I’ve marked. But you must only do this after escaping death; otherwise, losing its effect will result in death catching up to you in an instant.”
Fisher glanced at his chest, and countless thoughts and reflections about Renee surged into his mind. He certainly wanted to know everything about her, but merely guessing wouldn’t suffice. Her rank must surpass his imagination. Therefore, he needed to first escape the death on him before he could explore his beloved’s true identity.
“Crack crack!”
In the next moment, the small boat suddenly approached the shore, drifting out from the Spirit Realm and stopping beside a rather abrupt ruin amidst the endless dark clouds.
“We’ve arrived, Fisher.”
Renee surveyed the surroundings and spoke accordingly.
