Chapter 511: Timeline
Time unknowingly passed for several days, and Fisher, who remained in the human settlement, appeared increasingly anxious. Although his primary goal of ending death had been achieved, the significant events that had transpired—particularly regarding Tang Zeming Asuka, Gouwen, and Mikhail—left him worried about their whereabouts, along with Emhart still being in the Holy Realm.
In his view, after such a major incident occurred on Dragon Tail Island, even though he was unsure how the two demigods handled the situation, their vigilance regarding Trans and the chaos would certainly heighten to an extreme. This could bring trouble for Fisher and for Tang Zeming Asuka…
Sitting outside his home, he watched the humans in front of him, who had acquired food, singing and dancing. He had no expression on his face, and finding no leads to expound on, he shifted his focus elsewhere.
Before him, there were currently two “unfinished matters.”
His gaze flickered slightly, and suddenly illusory golden subtitles appeared in his field of vision—it was his Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans.
In this era, he had bound two existing mythical beings: one was the elf Ch, and the other was the angel Hela.
He had no opportunity to study the elf Ch and was not familiar with her at all. However, from previous fragmentary comments, he suspected that she might have close ties to chaos.
G mentioned before dying that Ch was suspicious, but at the time, Fisher acted too hastily and mercilessly took his head off in front of the Duke of Peach.
Now it seemed her appearance on Dragon Tail Island was likely not just due to her uniqueness wanting to assist him in attaining a mythical rank…
Was there a possibility that the chaos in Ideal Nation was related to her?
Or, further speculating, could it be that Ch had become a follower of chaos?
This elf, shrouded in doubt and identical in appearance to Renee, inevitably reminded Fisher of the future Renee. Their resemblance was too uncanny for Fisher to believe it was mere coincidence separating them by such time. Furthermore, Renee happened to be closely related to chaos.
Could it be that the future Renee was actually Ch transformed?
The moment this thought crossed his mind, he was startled.
But he didn’t dare to be certain. However, coincidentally, he had an item among his “unfinished matters” relating to Renee… or rather, to Renee’s past.
Fisher hesitated for a moment and took out an ancient-looking, thin book from his bosom, faintly shimmering with a light purple hue on the cover, seemingly flowing with the secrets of the world and time.
This was the material reward he received from studying “The Gift of Fate”: the “Source Grimoire (Part One).” Compared to its second part, this one was significantly thicker, suggesting it contained much more content.
Ever since Fisher discovered that the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans could automatically store its rewards, he had begun to tuck anything into it. Whether it was the protruding entity from the World Tree’s tears or items like the Source Grimoire, as long as he stuffed them inside and closed the Supplement Handbook, they seemed to vanish, and upon reopening, they would still be inside.
Fisher raised his eyebrows, retrieving this incomplete “Source Grimoire.” Like the second part he acquired earlier, the contents were written in ancient human language, but it had an additional page that was clearly the “cover” with several lines of text in strange colors, which read:
“Source Grimoire”
“—At the request of my friend, I gift this precious method to her beloved race. In the long and lonely years of the past, we have been the most loyal friends to one another.”
“May this serve as a memorial and grant, hoping you will remember forever.”
Hmm?
Fisher furrowed his brow and flipped the page, suddenly struck by a significant doubt.
According to the widely recognized myths, human magic originated from the Mother, so logically, this Source Grimoire that granted magical tools to humanity should also be authored by the Mother… but from the cover of the Source Grimoire, it seemed the true source of magic was not the Mother but a friend of hers.
She left information about that friend on the original cover, but perhaps because that friend did not leave a name, the only “deity” present in the material world was the Mother, leading humanity to only remember her and confuse her with the true bestower of magic…
So the question is, who is the real bestower of magic?
Fisher opened his mouth, but suddenly a black-haired girl flashed through his mind…
“Is it… Tang Zeming?”
This hypothesis genuinely shocked Fisher, but he did not think it was entirely due to his crossing over.
Tang Zeming’s talent was inevitable; even without his presence, Fisher felt there would come a day when she might randomly scribble some scribbles on the ground, and then “boom”…
Ha! Magic, possessing miraculous power, would be born!
Hmm, Fisher thought there did indeed seem to be a possibility.
The birth of magic was a very ancient matter, roughly estimated by Fisher to have occurred about five to six thousand years ago (relative to his era), at least before the time of the “Mythical War.”
The “fighting” that Eil referred to was indeed the Mythical War; the Holy Realm and Tree Continent sank during that war, and the Dragon God and Heavenly Lock perished in that war, leaving only Xu as a twenty-rank demigod.
The World Tree’s demise occurred even earlier, as it disappeared during the First Life War when its roots were stolen by the Dragon God. The Phoenix Race fled to the Northern Region around seven thousand years ago.
Why did Fisher estimate the time of magic’s origin to be five thousand years ago? This was inferred from the Supplement Handbook for Souls of the original Soul Lord Jahl Uzz, along with clues he obtained in the Northern Region.
Compared to other Trans, Jahl Uzz was a Trans man who crossed over later, and Fisher did not know the specific reason for that.
What Fisher knew was that when he crossed over, Dragon Tail Island had already been separated by the Mother to form the Southern Continent, and magic had reached the Southern Continent, giving rise to the unique Dragon Magic of the Dragon Race. Those dragons had even consulted Jahl about human magic, but he knew nothing of it.
The Dragon Court, which was destroyed in the formal Mythical War, still existed at that time, but the Southern Continent had already been detached from the Dragon Heart Continent by the Mother, meaning the Mythical War was not as short as the conflict between the Northern Region and Chaos.
By Jahl Uzz’s crossover point, the Mythical War had already started and lasted a substantial time, and magic reached the location of the Dragon Court before being separated in the Southern Continent.
It should also be noted that, during the war between the Northern Region and Chaos around six thousand years ago, magic, which should have enhanced the combat abilities of many races, did not appear. So at that time, magic had likely not been imparted by the Mother to humanity.
Thus, the time when magic was truly bestowed upon humanity by the Mother might have been after the invasion of Chaos into the Northern Region, even several hundred years after that war, from the foundation formed by the extinguishing of the Phoenix Race to before the long Mythical War began, likely during the period of five to six thousand years ago…
Look, that’s the charm of archaeology.
Though he now knew the specific time magic graced the world, Fisher still had some doubts.
Firstly, weren’t all Trans humans? How could they live for so long?
Fisher was unsure of what exact point in the past he currently occupied, but considering that the Demon Race had yet to be born and several demigods still existed, he estimated he was at least eight thousand, if not nine thousand years ago—a conservative estimate, perhaps even upward of ten thousand years.
If magic was something entrusted by Tang Zeming to the Mother for impartation to humanity, then she would need to live for several thousand years… or perhaps Trans beings are special; they may possess longevity, but it’s just that he only encountered those who recently crossed over, so he was unaware.
Another doubt was, when did the Mother actually come into existence?
In this era, though Fisher had never been to the Spirit Realm and could not confirm whether the Mother had arrived, based on Renee’s relationship with the Mother and her ties to the giant moon in the Spirit Realm, he felt the Mother had definitely not yet appeared in this time.
Otherwise, with the Mother’s close connection to chaos, the demigods would certainly have raised a significant uproar.
With these two questions remaining unclear, Fisher could only bury himself in focusing on the “Source Grimoire” at hand.
Eagerly, he opened the grimoire and began reading the content:
“The tool bestowed upon you by my friend for your protection is a chaotic technique called ‘magic.’ Its essence has already determined it to be a dangerous secret art, intolerable to the world. Its nature is fundamentally to use the ‘soul’ as a base and invoke the shift of rules through powers beyond the world; this shift is called the ‘echo.’ Chaos to the ‘soul’ is akin to the ‘soul’ to ‘magic’; hence, ‘magic’ is a technique of ‘chaos.’”
“I have not fully grasped the essence of magic, but I do understand the principles. Remember, magic is first derived from certainty…”
The long remainder detailed how the Mother instructed on the engraving and utilization of “magic.” The content was thorough, covering various issues encountered during the engraving of magic, which explained why this edition of the Source Grimoire was much thicker than the second part.
Fisher quickly realized that the magic documented within was very… primitive, even more primitive than the “medieval magic” renowned for its “instability” later.
Of course, perhaps from the perspective of a being of the Mother’s caliber, what was recorded here seemed simple, and she didn’t consider whether humanity could actually utilize it, thus detailing the principles fully.
Fisher finally understood why today’s “ancient magic” was so scarce—only one famous instance remains that is still usable to this day: the “Blood Oath Magic.” It seems these magics did not fail to be passed down, but rather there were simply too few magics from that era that could be both created and safely handled.
He flipped through the pages of the Source Grimoire quickly and soon reached the end of the magic introduction. Perhaps even the Mother felt that the magic she taught wasn’t sufficient for humanity, so she provided another method for ensuring their safety: “The Magic of Stars.”
Here, the text came to an abrupt stop; however, having read the second part of the grimoire, Fisher knew she also taught humanity how to create sorceresses.
Fisher was unsure if there was a third Source Grimoire, since unlike the first book, the second chewed to a stop at the end, leaving him unaware of the subsequent contents.
But what truly intrigued Fisher at that moment was at the end of the Source Grimoire; someone else had left a line of text aside from the Mother.
The text was not in ancient human language but in square characters—familiar foreign text to Fisher. This seemed to be the writing used by the contributors of the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans, resembling the origins of the Japanese used by Tang Zeming.
Perhaps due to the blessing of the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans, he could actually understand this line of text, which contained an interesting sentence:
“They do not know where they come from or why they are here; in the long time since their birth, they quietly and peacefully observed this splendid world, like stars.”
“Until one day, someone told them, you are the bright moon born, not the dead and dim stars.”
It seemed the contributor of the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans had substantial knowledge about the Mother, even to the point that such a thing, which should be revered by humanity as a divine object, ultimately found its way into the hands of this contributor, not to mention a multitude of bizarre items also lingering there.
Other completion handbooks maintained formats similar to documenting knowledge in certain areas, while the records in the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans were unusually peculiar, leaving Fisher uncertain of its precise principles.
Moreover, this fellow was well aware of various subhuman species, nations, deities, along with the founders of the Creation Society, yet he rarely heard accounts of this entity from others.
The only possible suspect of this being was the information he gleaned from the Moon Princess.
One must acknowledge the contributor of the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans was indeed a wondrous being; otherwise, they wouldn’t embellish themselves with so many meaningless reproductive abilities.
Having read through all the clues in hand, Fisher’s mind remained unsettled, so he turned to another page.
Previously, he bound Hela, and theoretically, he should have made considerable progress in studying angels.
[Angel Species Social Research Progress: 40%]
[Angel Species Biological Research Progress: 36%]
[You have unlocked all rewards for the first rank of angel species biology and society (Mythical Rank Special Version)]
[Fertility Ability +3, Soul Attribute +4, Affinity +4]
[Please read: Soul Supplement Handbook]
Just as that line of golden data grew increasingly bright, Fisher suddenly felt the ∞ symbol on him shining even brighter, and the deformities of his body began to fade, becoming more stable and comfortable.
Feeling this subtle change, Fisher let out a breath.
It seemed he wasn’t mistaken; the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans encouraged him to read all remaining completion handbooks.
But why?
Could it be that this, in some way, also belonged to the handbook’s seduction?
As this journey into the past continued, Fisher’s understanding of chaos deepened.
He began to think that the future Magic Lord Tang Zeming Asuka might indeed be correct; one could really only read one completion handbook at most, or else they would lose control and fall into madness.
Yet he alone could read multiple completion handbooks, and the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans knew this, so…
“Fisher, what are you daydreaming about?”
Just as Fisher fell into endless thoughts, he finally broke free due to a gentle sway behind him.
Startled for a moment, he turned to the source of the feeling and saw Hela, clad in white robes, who was smiling and looking at him.
Seeing Fisher finally return to his senses, she unceremoniously leaned forward and lightly hugged him from behind. The soft and pleasant sensation caused Fisher, who had been tense, to gradually relax. He asked,
“How do you feel? Are you feeling better?”
“Hmm, indeed a bit better… it’s just that I always feel something from afar calling to me. It seems the earlier explosion of chaos still affects me…”
Upon hearing this, Fisher suddenly turned to her. Indeed, after these several days, as the chaos’s erosion stabilized, the aura of her original mythical being seemed to have undergone subtle changes in Fisher’s eyes.
If the original Hela felt like the dawn breaking around eight or nine o’clock in the morning, now she felt like the sun at one or two in the afternoon—so intense, like an ascending column of fire, as if she were burning herself away.
After a brief pause, Fisher said,
“…We should go to the Holy Realm. There’s Raphael, who is proficient in healing; he might know about your condition. To remain here in the material world relying solely on your self-healing abilities—frankly, I’m not very reassured.”
Hela smiled and snuggled closer to his back, the slight tickle and the purring sound from her throat made one doubt whether she had become a silly cat due to chaos. It was uncertain if she heard his words; it seemed as though she was drawing energy from something called “Fisher.”
“Hela…”
Fisher reiterated helplessly, but Hela maintained her posture, seemingly as if all she cared about was being together with him, even if the world were to end…
Hmm, it sounded like a naïve promise of self-sacrifice made by a young, passionate couple.
“But after such a great incident, the demigods will definitely be very vigilant regarding Trans beings. Even if we can return, once the others drain the information from us, you would be killed immediately~”
“…You should know, I don’t care. I want to return to ‘that’ place. More than this, your life and safety, and the freedom of my book friend, and the safety of Tang Zeming Asuka, Gouwen, and Mikhail are far more concerning…”
Wait, no.
As he spoke, he suddenly paused because he seemed to realize a minor issue.
He had seemingly forgotten about Neceria.
Others probably remembered this person, right? Mikhail surely wouldn’t have left Dragon Tail Island without this important contributor, right?
Fisher swallowed hard, suddenly feeling somewhat uneasy.
That phoenix wasn’t like the other dazzling phoenixes; her presence was too low and she didn’t like to show off, most of the time, nobody even noticed they had such a person.
Behind him, Hela smiled and leaned forward to kiss his cheek, then said,
“I know, so shall we head back now?”
“Wha…”
Before Fisher’s puzzled words could finish, he suddenly noticed a broad rift unexpectedly splitting open in the clouds above, illuminating a sunlit blue sky.
From that crack in the clouds, two eighteenth-rank presences descended like divine beings.
The two beings were both androgynous, one with pink hair and the other with black hair, seemingly both angels from the Holy Realm.
Their gazes quickly locked onto the human settlement below, kneeling en masse, and they made eye contact with Fisher, who sat in front of a house cuddled with Hela.
From a distance of a kilometer, the voices of the two angels echoed clearly,
“By the decree of Lord Heavenly Lock, Randeer and Youfiele, please return with us to the Holy Realm at once.”
Fisher glanced at the smiling Hela behind him; it seemed she had long been aware that someone was coming to the Holy Realm. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have gotten up from her spot…
He sighed, fearlessly lifting his head to gaze at the radiant sky, then embraced Hela in his arms, replying,
“Okay.”
