Chapter 410: 27. The Sin of Reproduction (5.5k)
“Is it madness for a wish?”
Gouwen stroked his chin, Tang Zeming Asuka was startled, and Fisher then spoke to Hela,
“What wish did she make? Is it related to forbidden knowledge?”
Upon hearing Hela’s words, the first thing Fisher thought of was the forbidden knowledge listed in the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans. This knowledge granted significant abilities to its owner but also drove them to madness. Could it be possible that Gabriel had sought forbidden knowledge from the Holy Grail that caused her to go insane?
Hela’s beautiful eyes flashed a barely perceptible meaning upon hearing Fisher’s mention of “forbidden knowledge.” Then, her smile deepened as she shook her head and said,
“Forbidden knowledge, while I’m not sure what you mean, you should know that all beings in this world are Followers of Order, including Archangel Gabriel, and she certainly wouldn’t engage in such dangerous activities. We all roughly know the details and process of the wish she made to Archangel Salie.”
Fisher felt a hint of doubt and thought that Hela seemed to emphasize the term “Followers of Order,” but before he could delve deeper, Hela continued,
“She asked the Holy Grail for a child.”
“A child?”
“Yes, didn’t I mention to everyone before? Angels don’t have genders, but our personalities certainly lean in specific directions. Archangel Gabriel is one such angel who naturally leans towards femininity. She probably wanted to be a mother for a long time; who knows? In any case, the wish she made to the Holy Grail was indeed such.”
Fisher opened his mouth, even Tang Zeming Asuka didn’t understand the difference between her wish and her madness, but Gouwen raised an eyebrow, seemingly recalling something.
Fisher, somewhat confused, asked,
“I don’t understand. Why would one need a wish to have a child? Or did she never consider uniting with another?”
Hela smiled and did not answer. She looked at Gouwen behind Fisher and said to him,
“This Whale Folk isn’t a doctor? He should understand these matters better than I do. Why don’t you let him explain it to you?”
Fisher and Tang Zeming Asuka turned to Gouwen, who gave a helpless smile and shrugged,
“Ah, no problem, Mr. Fisher. In that case, I don’t know if you’re aware of the concepts of life rank and reproduction rank proposed by humans.”
“I know.”
Tang Zeming Asuka tilted her head in confusion, not understanding any of the terms they mentioned, but she didn’t interrupt Gouwen’s speech.
“That’s good, but what we’re about to discuss is something humans probably know nothing about because the gap between human levels and mythical rank is far too great. The existing mythical beings are few, and there are rarely opportunities to summarize; therefore, the patterns they summarize are generally applicable, except for mythical beings.”
“As long as it’s a mythical being, their reproduction becomes extremely difficult, even if their reproduction ranks are very close and they belong to the same race. You see, mythical beings can twist the existing rules to a degree, but ultimately, having a child is highly probable. The real bottleneck in the reproduction of mythical beings is the process where the Spirit Realm locks onto the mother body and injects the soul.”
“The process of a new life coming into being has three stages. First, a ‘Base’ must be formed in reality, which is the fertilized egg in the mother’s womb; secondly, the consciousness of the Spirit Realm locks onto this base and injects the soul; lastly, the base and the soul are bound together, allowing them to grow as a new life.”
“Mythical beings’ problems lie in the fact that their bodies and souls are intertwined, which means it’s challenging for the Spirit Realm to lock onto the base and inject the soul into the fertilized egg. Naturally, this makes the birth of life impossible. No matter how the parents nurture what is supposed to be the base, the result can only be a ‘stillborn.'”
Upon hearing this, Fisher’s pupils mildly contracted as he suddenly recalled something he had heard.
As a mythical being, the Moon Princess once had a child with her husband, but it was a stillborn without a soul. Fortunately, she knew a contributor to the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans at that time, and the contributor brought a Whale Folk doctor from the ocean, and that stillborn…
Hmm?
Lost in thought, Fisher suddenly looked up at the warm smile on Gouwen’s face in disbelief.
It seemed that this guy in front of him was also a Whale Folk, and also a doctor.
Could it be that the Whale Folk doctor, who was sworn to the contributor of the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans, is Gouwen?
By the way, the contributor to the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans was a woman; according to Gouwen’s submissive personality, wouldn’t his wife have something to say about the contributor?
“Mr. Fisher? What’s wrong?”
Fisher regained his senses, shook his head, and said,
“Nothing, just suddenly thought of an experience related to this matter. I’ve seen examples of mythical beings failing to give birth before, and combined with what you’ve said, I finally understand the reason.”
Gouwen offered an understanding glance to Fisher, followed by looking at Hela beside him, saying,
“It’s okay; I only discovered the specific principles of this matter after studying it for a long time. Not to mention you didn’t know, but most mythical beings also have no clue about this until they experience reproduction failure.”
Hela nodded with a smile, spreading her hands in agreement,
“I only learned this today; after all, angels and elves basically have no desire for reproduction. But a smart one like Lord Gabriel would surely know about this, or she wouldn’t have gone directly to seek a wish from Lord Salie, instead of arbitrarily finding another angel to reproduce with. But unfortunately, even someone as smart as her overlooked something.”
“The Lord God Ramastia not only restricted our reproductive abilities, but also limited the total number of mythical beings while granting part of the power to create life to the Lord of the Heavenly Lock, the World Tree, and the Dragon God. Currently, there are 94 angels and 106 elves. It seems the Lord God originally intended for the three to share these quotas, but Feima Baharon was too haughty and unwilling to create life, so all the quotas went to the Lord of the Heavenly Lock and the World Tree.”
“So, don’t say that the Dragon God isn’t interested in creating life; even if he has the most life powers among the three, no matter how hard he tries, it won’t produce a third mythical being. Therefore, even though Lord Gabriel bypassed the first step of our reproductive capacity blockage and used life powers to create her child, she still could not escape the rules set by Lord God Ramastia.”
Hela sighed and continued,
“Her child was indeed born, possessing a healthy soul and body, and was the only naturally born little angel flowing with her blood. All the angels in the Holy Realm loved her child. Until her child passed away months later due to the rules, the pain of losing her child drove her into madness. In fact, strictly speaking, Lord Gabriel isn’t truly mad; she just hasn’t come to terms with the loss of her child, even though nearly a hundred years have passed.”
“At that time, the crystal she held in her arms on the high platform was the relic of her deceased child.”
Hearing Hela’s words, Tang Zeming Asuka behind Fisher bit her lip and tightly clenched her fists, stopping just before her fingertips turned white.
“Is that so?”
Fisher sighed as well, but since he had no personal connection with Gabriel, he didn’t feel much grief, only realizing for the first time the knowledge about the reproduction of mythical beings.
“Do you want to know more little secrets about other angels? I know quite a few.”
Upon hearing this, Fisher was not modest at all, moving directly towards the information about Pandora.
“Can you tell me more about Archangel Salie?”
Hela maintained her smile, then suddenly raised her index finger and playfully shook it at Fisher,
“Zero points, zero points.”
Fisher, not being a dull man, especially after gaining a little understanding of Hela’s temperament, especially in this regard, replied,
“You wouldn’t actually just want me to ask for your little secrets, would you?”
“Guess.”
“…”
Hela waved her hand, leaped toward the cylindrical passage ahead, quickly disappearing as a streak of light, leaving the three of them staring blankly at the empty Seventh Day.
Time slowly passed, shifting focus from the Seventh Day down to the unique and cold Sixth Day in the cosmos.
The Sixth Day of the Holy Realm did not feature a large number of beautiful and complex buildings; unlike other days that had various functions or forging places, after Archangel Gabriel took over the Sixth Day, it only had one purpose, which was to store wisdom.
As Gabriel’s territory, the Sixth Day had never housed other angels. Before, when Gabriel was still lucid, many angels or archangels would come to ask her questions. However, since the loss of her child, this place had become as empty and cold as her heart.
The so-called “Wisdom Vortex” was, in fact, a place where Gabriel stored thoughts and wisdom through words over centuries. In a general sense, it was somewhat similar to a library and also had means to observe the earth; otherwise, Gabriel wouldn’t be able to sit in the Wisdom Vortex and still know so much about matters on the ground.
In the center of the Wisdom Vortex, stacks of scattered books were piled. Tall and wide stone bookshelves held countless square, heavy books, and in the midst of those tiered bookshelves floated an angel with hollow eyes, a weak figure, yet still graceful.
She had no wings behind her, only a set of ethereal, seemingly trembling and crying eyes. Her main body curled weakly in midair, tightly clutching an oval crystal in her arms,
“Sleep, sleep… good, baby.”
“…”
The ethereal lullaby echoed through the library, making the square silhouette standing alone on the windowsill in the Wisdom Vortex appear quite desolate, that figure trembling as it watched the scene outside the windows, mumbling something with a quacking voice,
“Wuwuwu, Fisher, you must be okay… Mom, I have a lunatic here who won’t sleep and keeps singing; it’s scaring the great Sir Book to death. You have to come rescue me quickly.”
The speaker was the great Sir Book, Emhart.
He shook his body pitifully, as if afraid of the cold, standing on the windowsill, and when he could no longer endure it, he flew up, heading toward a bookshelf.
In that room, Gabriel had reached the peak of the Nineteen Rank, and any simple motion exerted a strong sense of pressure on Emhart. He found a spot to curl up and hoped that Fisher would come save him soon.
But as he flew, his eyes constantly glanced at the books on the surrounding shelves as if a hungry person had a plate of delicacies placed before them, making it impossible to resist swallowing.
These books… why do they smell so good? I’ve never seen them before.
What could these books possibly be about?
Emhart floated in midair, struggling to glance at those books and tentatively flew to the side of the bookshelf, looking at the floating, softly murmuring, and crying Archangel Gabriel and blinking. He could no longer control himself and flew towards the books on the shelf.
“Anyway, I’m stuck here, so as long as I don’t go out, it should be fine. Might as well take a look.”
Emhart deceitfully thought to himself, then delightedly took a book off the shelf and placed it on the ground, ready to dive in and read thoroughly.
“Whoa, Tapirfolk, is there such a Subhuman? Hmm, sounds a lot like the Elephant People from the Southern Continent, with a long nose.”
“Humanity’s society also has knowledge about ranks. By the way, what era is it now? It should be quite early; if the World Tree is still around, it has to be before the ‘First War of Living Beings.’ Hmm, at least nine thousand years ago, did humans have hierarchies back then?”
Emhart was staring intently at the opened pages before him; the characters displayed were unusual, seemingly a unique efficient language of the angels, the script was golden and irregular, appearing to be written by some angel personally.
As Emhart continued to read, he glanced at a peculiar artifact at the edge of the library, resembling a kind of telescope, pointing directly to the ground while also looking into the starry sea of space. This was presumably Gabriel’s tool to observe the earth.
“Crash.”
Just as Emhart was engrossed in the books, he seemingly lost awareness of a shadowy human-like figure behind him, which expanded continuously. When he finally reacted, the entire book had been lifted by some strange force.
“Ah! Let go of me! If you don’t, I’ll call Fisher. Ah! He’s quite good at dealing with ladies, ah!”
Emhart spun around in midair, saying a bunch of disjointed things that he couldn’t even understand until a few seconds later when he finally settled down, groggily looking around to find he had been dragged to the center of the countless bookshelves. The terrifying angel holding the crystal was gazing down at him expressionlessly.
With a swoosh, the cold sweat dripped from Emhart’s forehead (if he had one), but he likely panicked, instantly collapsing to the floor, becoming a harmless book, feigning death.
“…”
Gabriel stared blankly at the Emhart below, showing no signs of aggression, as if frightened by the moving book in front of her. She hugged the crystal in her arms a bit tighter.
“Don’t be afraid… Don’t be afraid… baby.”
“What?! Who are you calling ugly?!”
The moment the pretending-to-be-dead Sir Book heard this, he protested immediately. No one could call the great Sir Book ugly; he was the creation of the great Holy Spawn. To insult his looks was to insult the dignity of the Holy Spawn, and he would absolutely…
Oh, those insulting him were the Holy Spawn, so it was all right.
Emhart instantly quieted down, but as he looked up at the terrifying angel in front of him, she turned in midair, still clutching the crystal in her arms, almost as if repulsed by him.
“Hmph, the great Sir Book doesn’t bother with minor details with you.”
Emhart quietly muttered something under his breath when he saw that Gabriel seemed to ignore him completely. He cautiously began to inch away, ready to fly back to the book he’d just been reading.
However, behind him, Gabriel floating in midair slowly turned back around, gently gazing at the crystal she embraced warmly, and one could faintly see a small, indistinct shadow curled up in the center of the crystal.
“Good, baby.”
Emhart glanced at Gabriel behind him, waited for two seconds, and then flew toward the book in front of him again.
“Click, click, click!”
Just then, a terrifying sound erupted outside the library, as if the apocalypse was upon them, causing the ether ocean encasing the Holy Realm to boil restlessly, accompanied by the deafening roar of scorching heat from the sun.
“Thud, thud, thud!”
The bookshelves of the Sixth Day began to shake violently, and the surrounding transparent windows were suddenly illuminated so brightly by the sun’s rays that it was impossible to keep one’s eyes open. Emhart also squinted his eyes uncomfortably.
“Ah! How bright!”
The sun ring of the Fifth Day began to operate, but Emhart was unaware of what was happening below. He remained in Gabriel’s library, worrying about Fisher’s situation.
“Don’t be afraid… Don’t be afraid… baby… oh, baby.”
The entire library shook violently, and at that moment, the peak of Nineteen Rank Gabriel was unsettled by the loud noise caused by the sun ring, her face pale, her eyes reddening as she reached out to cover the eyes and ears of the crystal in her embrace, fearing that the blinding light from outside would scare her child. But after searching for a long time, she couldn’t find any eyes or ears on the smooth crystal.
In such agony, Gabriel’s trembling body and fear grew more intense, and the hundreds of floating ethereal eyes behind her all turned white, seemingly indicating her shivering and anxiety.
“Don’t be afraid… it’s okay… don’t cry… don’t cry anymore… baby.”
Emhart looked back at the panic-stricken Gabriel clutching a stone; he couldn’t hear any cries, but seeing the intensely glaring sunlight outside, he sighed and flew to the window of the library, biting the curtains hanging there to draw them all down. Only after covering all the windows did he gasp for breath and lie on a bookshelf to rest.
“Sigh, I really am a suffering soul; not only am I drifting throughout my life, being captured by that terrifying Baemon, but now that I finally have a slightly better life beside Fisher, he has been taken away. I can’t let this happen! The angel next to him is Baemon! I must save him. That guy never brings anything good; you must control your lower half; don’t get involved with her; I beg you.”
At this moment, Emhart lamenting over Fisher was unknown to anyone, but at least now that Gabriel was shielded from the blinding sunlight, she was beginning to calm down a little.
Whether it was an illusion or not, her hollow, sorrowful eyes finally trembled, and her murmurs gradually settled, while the ethereal eyes behind her returned to their original beautiful state.
“Baby… so good.”
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(This chapter is complete)
