Chapter 459: 76. Peach
Watching Fisher’s body gradually fall towards the head of G, Peach’s pink eyes suddenly sharpened. Perhaps she didn’t expect that the few minor Trans people in front of her would be so bold, daring to risk everything to destroy G’s corpse.
In fact, the recent actions taken by Duke of Peach against Fisher and the others had already been quite lenient; even so, their attacks were far more focused on control than on actual damage. Just as Fisher accurately deduced, she had to protect G’s corpse; otherwise, he could not be reborn. As someone who once received blessings from her mother, G’s death would surely provoke the wrath of the World Tree mother, perhaps even worse than losing the fate loom granted by the True God.
The Duke of Peach was the elf most clear about the past among the three children, yet she did not know that the past would hide secrets from the observer. When she thoughtlessly treated the few Trans persons as nothing more than minor players in a barrel, she did not anticipate their reckless audacity to use her brother’s head as a bargaining chip against her.
It was just like an annoying mosquito buzzing around the head of a frail infant, and although you as an adult have the weight of the world behind you, you hold back, fearing to harm the baby.
But for the Duke of Peach, it was merely just that.
“Enough.”
After fully understanding what these humans intended to do, she had already accepted their actions as the last desperate gasp of the deluded. Even facing her, it would not matter if they were all Mythical Beings of the Fifteenth Rank; they couldn’t escape.
Considering this, the Duke of Peach spoke indifferently, and with a slight flick of her finger, G’s head, which was lying on the ground, suddenly hesitated for a moment. Then, numerous strong peach tree branches grew from the ground, wrapping tightly around G’s head and rendering Fisher’s plan to collide with it completely futile.
Fisher, whose right arm and back were covered in bloodied peach branches, found his body entangled in the peach blossom cage with no effect. Yet he seemed undeterred, gripping the Fluid Sword in his left hand as if to split open the cage and strike G’s head inside.
But the Duke of Peach gave Fisher no chance whatsoever. With a slight tug of her finger, the peach blossom cage encasing G surged towards Fisher with a violent tremor, and with a painful “crack” sound, Fisher was sent flying away.
“Boom!”
“Teacher Fisher!”
The surrounding winds were still tumultuous, and Fisher’s body flew away like a kite with a broken string. Tang Zeming Asuka screamed in distress, while the Duke of Peach, who had safely reclaimed G’s body, felt no worry behind her.
It was over.
The Duke of Peach coldly placed G’s head on his body, glancing up towards the increasingly distant Fisher. But then, she seemed to see a faint smile on Fisher’s face, as if signifying a certain joy in the success of a scheme.
The Duke of Peach furrowed her brows slightly, but in the next moment, she saw Fisher’s hidden agenda.
The spike of the Fluid Sword extended outward was not aimed at G’s head protected by the peach blossoms. Rather, it seemed Fisher’s original intention was never to shatter G’s head; he simply used it as a decoy to attract the Duke of Peach’s attention. His true aim from start to finish was only one: to escape.
Even heavily injured, Fisher used the power of the raging wind to propel himself towards the rift in space, rapidly heading for the sea where the shadow of the illusory World Tree danced. At the same time, the extending Fluid Sword quickly wrapped around the body of Mikhail and Tang Zeming Asuka, pulling them away from their original position, fleeing with Fisher towards the seas beyond the World Tree.
Though Fisher’s back and right hand pained terribly, his eyes remained fixed on the distant sea. He had to reach the shoreline; this was the second step of the plan.
With the wind magic acceleration from Tang Zeming Asuka, their speed was astonishing. Harnessing the wind’s power, they were almost instantaneously about to cross the edge of Jianmu Palace and reach the coastline. The Duke of Peach seemed to fall further behind, as if they were completely shedding her presence.
“Do you feel as if this insignificant fish has underestimated you? Time and again playing with your schemes, thinking this way you could escape? But this fish miscalculated one thing, which is that there was absolutely no need to return G’s head to me.”
But at that moment, the mature and rich-toned cold voice of the Duke of Peach suddenly echoed from afar, as if each word felt like an unstoppable meteor crashing into Fisher’s soul. Just hearing her words made him feel dizzy.
But how could Fisher not know the risks of returning G’s head to the Duke of Peach?
If he no longer had G’s head, it meant that the Nineteenth Rank Duke of Peach would unleash her full power upon them without restraint. Fisher had never fought a being of true rationality at the Mythical Rank, much less someone like the Duke of Peach, who was among the best of the Nineteenth Rank.
Yet Fisher had no other choice; if he did not return the head, there would be no opportunity to distance himself from the Duke of Peach and reach the sea. If they could not reach the coastline, they would surely die.
This was a gamble, with Fisher’s life as the wager.
Hearing the Duke of Peach’s voice behind him, Fisher’s vision nearly darkened, but he dared not look back; he simply continued to run desperately towards the shoreline, hoping to reach the ocean’s edge.
Even if… only one person could escape.
Fisher thought to himself.
But soon, he would realize that he had underestimated the Mythical Beings and the existence of the Nineteenth Rank far too much.
“Ding ding ding~”
In the sky, as if coming from the sun, a crisp ringing sound suddenly echoed, and then, everywhere Fisher’s gaze fell, walls, buildings, and the ground sprouted endless peach blossoms.
The deadly pink surrounding seemed to envelop the entire world, as if to replace everything completely.
Items were peach blossoms, lives were peach blossoms, space was peach blossoms, time was peach blossoms.
Everything was peach blossoms; peach blossoms were everything.
As Fisher dashed forward, he suddenly noticed that the howling magical winds around him seemed to come to a halt, but he still refused to stop, desperately running towards the ocean.
Ten steps, nine steps, eight steps, seven steps, seven steps, seven steps, seven steps.
Fisher continued to run with Mikhail and Tang Zeming Asuka in this pink world, seeing that the ocean was only a hair’s breadth away, yet no matter how he ran, he was unable to step forward even an inch.
“Haha… ha.”
He kept running, but he seemed to sense something, looking back in disbelief, and thus witnessed a scene that would be hard to forget.
His running motion continued, but his figure had already frozen in place. Yet from behind him, another Fisher began to run backward.
This Fisher seemed to be the one from a second ago, the one looking ahead, trying to lead his companions to escape.
He was also running, and in the next second, another Fisher ran out behind that “Fisher,” seemingly the previous one from a second prior, also still running.
Thus, in this sea of peach blossoms, the desperately forward-running Fisher was constantly “running backward,” as if all the “Fishers” were linked together, forming a line of countless Fishers queuing together, a chain, continuously retreating in the direction of the Duke of Peach from where Fisher had halted, merely seven steps away from the ocean.
Subsequently, among the long line of Fishers, different versions began to appear.
The one who just came through, wearing the suit that Renee bought him; the one in Northern Region attire who had worked beside Valentina; the one dressed in the sailor uniform of the Sardinia Kingdom, next to Captain Alagina.
Each backward-running Fisher seemed like a long river, presenting every moment of Fisher throughout the past, continuously running as if in a chain of passing through the endless sea of peach blossoms, returning to the beginning.
The gentleman in black suit, in a carriage on the Southern Continent; the one in Shivali attire, constantly traveling by the Cardu border; the one in formal wear, effortlessly charming at the birthday banquet by Nali Lake.
But the backward-flowing figures refused to stop. Next came Fisher in scholar robes, followed by him in church attire, and then him as a child in the church orphanage.
As Fisher’s figure continued to recede into the past, he became younger with each step, his height also gradually diminishing.
He transformed from a cold-faced gentleman back into an innocent face, from calmness to embarrassment in love, from a robust adult back to a youth, from reliable to weak.
“Wow! Wow! Wow!”
Until the backward-running figures in the long line slowly turned back into the crying, newly born mixed-race infant, born naked from whom of the Cardu and Nali couples, did he finally cease running, stopping in front of the most terrifying entity in the world at that moment, the Duke of Peach.
Her expression was indifferent, watching the infant floating in mid-air, finally stopping its run, while also gazing at the other side of the long “Fisher line,” extending toward Fisher. She slowly extended her palm.
“Die, insignificant fish.”
Yet the advancing Fisher did not stop his action. He could not move his body even an inch, but he still exerted all his strength to fling the Fluid Sword in his hand, aiming to toss Mikhail and Tang Zeming Asuka out as far as possible, trying to launch them away from the ocean.
As long as they got out of the Tree Continent.
But in the next second, a nearly despairing event occurred.
The Tang Zeming Asuka and Mikhail that he had flung with all his might abruptly halted in mid-air, then, like Fisher, their thrown-out kinetic energy miraculously affected time, linking out countless identical “Tang Zeming Asuka lines” and “Mikhail lines” leading back to the Duke of Peach.
Tang Zeming Asuka, clad in bear pajamas, extended backwards, followed by her in the white robe, then in a girl’s high school uniform, in a kimono, in a patient gown, and finally, in ragged childhood clothing, looking gaunt.
The life-death-unknown Mikhail also extended slightly, appearing whole and unharmed, in strange aggregate clothing, in Siberian worker attire, in worn-out linen farming clothes, as the long line continued expanding back, until the miraculous implants slowly vanished, replaced by his original form from childhood.
But the Duke of Peach didn’t want to wait until their two lines turned back into weak infants. She realized that out of all these people, only the one called “Fisher” in front of her needed to be concerned about.
She had to completely erase this guy from existence.
At this moment, even if the opponent was merely a Fourteenth Rank being, the Duke of Peach launched an all-out attack.
From her slightly raised palm erupted an overwhelming fear, and in Fisher’s astonished eyes, his pupils shrinking, it seemed everything around him began to fade, as if the surrounding time had come to a standstill.
The profusion of falling peach blossoms suddenly began to retract towards the Duke of Peach, and in Fisher’s eyes, it seemed the only thing maintaining color was the Duke of Peach raising her right hand.
In that moment, he was entirely sluggish as everything seemed to become clear; the Duke of Peach’s merciless attack aimed to erase everything about him—his life, his soul, even his fate. However, of course, Fisher would likely find it impossible to describe the specifics of this difference, after all.
Death!
“Buzz buzz buzz!”
Everything had come to a complete halt. Everything seemed to transform into black and white, like a prisoner waiting helplessly beneath the tiger’s blade for the executioner’s strike.
Perhaps in this second, thinking about the person he loved might be the right choice?
Just as he mockingly watched the Duke of Peach lightly raise her hand, seemingly just a wave, in this black-and-white, dead silence world, a faint light suddenly flickered against Fisher’s cheek.
Like the morning sun around eight or nine o’clock, the newborn morning light crossed over the endless firmament, appearing far off on the horizon.
The surrounding black-and-white remained, but now there was an angel wrapped in morning light, with ethereal wings on her back and a halo tilted atop her head, fiercely blocking the weeping Fisher infant in mid-air.
The angel’s usual mischievous smile was now absent, her stunning face focused, her blue-gold scattered pupils intensely fixated on the Duke of Peach, who appeared as indifferent as a chasm before her.
Her power had reached its peak, radiating out like a warm sun against the boundless sea of peach blossoms.
“Crack crack crack!”
And in the next second, the Duke of Peach’s strike arrived.
