Chapter 544: 22. News
“Fisher!”
Around the coast, the ritual to summon the demon god was taking place, and the thick, blood-red substance was fading away with Fisher’s movements, as if the branches without roots were wilting, causing the entire earth and sky to quiet down, as if everything that had just happened had never occurred.
As the sky and earth quieted, Fisher’s figure became particularly clear, prompting Raphael and Jasmine to rush to the shore.
At the center of the ritual, they first saw a girl named “Ingrid” unconscious and slumped on the ground, while Fisher knelt before her, as if something was writhing on him, or rather, it seemed more like his own body was moving irregularly.
However, long before the two ladies arrived, he had returned to his original human form.
Hearing the sounds nearby, Fisher instinctively turned his head, but had almost no expression on his face, his gaze somewhat vacant, appearing quite dazed.
“Fisher?”
Seeing this, Raphael spoke first with some concern, but the Fisher before her showed no reaction to her voice. Even Emhart, who was on his shoulder, became anxious; after all, he had been closest to Fisher just before, and of course knew what had happened, making him particularly worried.
“Fisher, are you okay? Please respond!”
But what they didn’t know was that at this moment, before Fisher’s blurry vision, amidst the persistent, piercing tinnitus and murmurs, he seemed to see a gray sky, enveloped in darkness. The sky was filled with continuous rain, cloaking the brilliance of everything, leaving only the sound of a knife-like wind passing by his ears.
Right in the center of that murky sky, Fisher’s vision was filled with an extraordinarily powerful behemoth.
It was a colossal dragon, wrapped in numerous halos, exuding an indescribable divinity!
At that moment, a massive golden sword wound hung on the shoulder of the dragon in the sky, but this horrific injury did not diminish its terror in the slightest. It coldly stared at “itself,” as if gazing at a hated enemy.
Was that Feima Baharon?
“You damned Trans!”
It roared at itself with extreme anger, as if the heavens and earth were about to change color under the pull of his emotions, but “itself” seemed to have no awareness, like a piece of emotionless wood or stone, completely unfazed, only engrossed in its actions.
With the immensely furious roar of that dragon, a crimson breath, powerful enough to pierce the continent, was continuously gathering in its mouth, coalescing into a chilling destructive force.
It was Feima Baharon’s rage that pulled Fisher back from his haze. He paused slightly and looked down at “itself,” but blurred as it was, he saw no human form.
He only saw a constantly bubbling mass of endlessly expanding, indescribable black mud.
Is this himself?
Or…
Just as Fisher froze, the mud on “itself” had already completely lost control, spreading in all directions like a tsunami. The wave-like black mud quickly corroded the exquisite and grand buildings surrounding it, devouring the souls of the dragon race and various subhuman races that were fleeing in panic from the city, like a black hole without intelligence or purpose, greedily consuming everything around.
Seeing the actions of “itself,” the fury of the dragon above intensified greatly!
“Roar!!”
The thunderous roar reignited, and the breath within it could no longer be restrained, and just as the clash between “black mud” and “breath” was about to occur, the illusion before Fisher abruptly stopped. At this moment, what appeared was not the scene of disaster that would collapse the heavens and the earth, but rather Raphael and Jasmine’s worried faces.
“Fisher?!”
“Ha.”
Fisher opened his mouth, gasping for breath, eyes appearing as if they were dissolving into countless little stars, slowly regaining the human gaze reminiscent of a chameleon returning to its original color. That horrifying visage made Raphael catch her breath, not knowing what had happened to Fisher over the years.
She was about to ask, but Fisher took a deep breath, shook his head, interrupting her inquiry, and said, “I’m fine.”
“That’s good to hear, Teacher Fisher!”
Just as Raphael’s face began to light up with relief for a physical contact, Jasmine was the first to rush over and hug Fisher, leaving her expression frozen in place.
She subtly pursed her lips, then turned away, keeping an eye on the surroundings while gently tugging Jasmine’s robe with her claws. When Jasmine finally noticed and turned her head, Raphael had already put on a sour face and stood up to attend to the soldiers behind, who were still unaware of everything.
“We’ll handle the situation here later. Jasmine, please take Fisher and this human back for now. The commotion here is too great; we’ll talk about other matters later.”
“.Hmm, Raphael.”
Jasmine also realized her actions had been somewhat excessive, especially in Raphael’s presence. She could feel that Raphael was not indifferent but was enduring due to the many challenges they must still face.
Accordingly, she too should pay attention to her behavior.
She pursed her lips and stood up, looked at the still semi-conscious Fisher and the unconscious Ingrid lying on the ground behind him. Just as she was about to take action, she noticed something wrong.
She looked over her shoulder at Ingrid and suddenly realized that the two headless corpses, seemingly demons, had completely disappeared, not knowing if they had been consumed during the earlier ritual.
“Teacher Fisher, you should rest here for a moment. I’ll go arrange other matters.”
Since the previous incident on the shore, the entire Red Dragon Court had become restless. Raphael had sealed the news, with only a few people knowing exactly what had transpired. But this did not prevent the populace from speculating about the reason for the loud noise.
Some said it was an attack from the pseudo-court; others claimed that a soldier from the coastal defense had tried to defect to the north but was discovered by the queen. There were even those who believed it to be divine retribution, a herald of war from the gods.
In short, the entire Red Dragon Court had temporarily become busy, with Raphael, as queen, and Jasmine, as priestess, bearing the brunt.
Fisher was temporarily placed in a room within the royal palace by Jasmine, while Ingrid went to receive treatment. Fisher could ensure that he had merely consumed Barbatos’s mark, and his soul had not been damaged, leaving the other wounds to the court’s doctors.
Once things quieted down, the room was left with only Fisher, who was resting with his eyes closed, and Emhart.
Emhart flew around him for a moment, realizing that Fisher hadn’t mentioned Jasmine’s presence to him for quite a while, indicating that something was amiss.
He hurriedly circled back to Fisher and asked,
“Fisher, what happened to your body? With this level of chaos, your soul also…”
Hearing this, Fisher opened his eyes. He glanced at Emhart, who was watching him with concern, and explained.
“Do you remember when we were in the Northern Region and I showed you some knowledge?”
“Are you talking about that forbidden chaotic knowledge?”
Prompted by Fisher, Emhart quickly recalled the painful memory of being left in a daze after trying to read a few characters. He shook his head, quickly exclaiming,
“No wonder your mythical rank is so strange. Didn’t I tell you not to read those again? Otherwise, you would either go mad or mutate into a monster one day!”
Fisher suddenly recalled the illusion brought on by using the Soul Supplement Handbook’s power to devour Ingrid’s soul mark. That mass that absorbed souls might be his future fate.
He shook his head, smiling as he said,
“I had originally planned to stop reading them. Part of the reason I entered the mythical rank was to resolve the debts I owe properly, but now it seems I can’t just stop. You mentioned that Barbatos is a demon duke, meaning his body should have eighteen ranks, while I’ve only just entered the mythical rank, which is fifteen ranks. If he strikes against the Dragon Court, what will Raphael and Jasmine do?”
Emhart paused slightly, and Fisher continued,
“And their forces in the Holy Realm, I don’t believe Elizabeth has the power to command those destructive demons. They must have demands from Nali and Elizabeth as well. To protect them, I have to keep climbing the ranks.
“But after all, I’m merely a human of zero rank in this world where all ranks are fixed. I entered the mythical rank and will continue moving only by relying on chaos that cannot be controlled by rules. I know its side effects, but I have no other option.”
Emhart opened his mouth, and after a long while, he finally ground out through gritted teeth,
“This is all Baemon’s fault!!”
Fisher couldn’t help but laugh, asking,
“What does Hela have to do with this?”
“Don’t you remember? She’s also a demon and the only one free in centuries. She must have done a lot of bad things during our four and a half years away, including allowing those demons to escape!”
“Then what could her goals be?”
Emhart’s righteous indignation suddenly faltered. He knew that Baemon was very, very bad, but when it came to her specific goals, he had no idea, only certain that her intentions were not pure!
Fortunately, Fisher didn’t expect Emhart to provide the answer, as it was a question he wanted to explore as well. However, the current clues were too scarce to draw any meaningful conclusions, so he focused on the problems at hand.
“Regardless of whether this group of demons’ release is related to Hela, the problem with the demons is still very real, and I have to face it. Who told me to be so greedy and ask for too much before? It’s time to repay.”
“.I’m just worried that you might mean well but do harm. Using such dangerous things like chaotic knowledge, I fear that in the end, you won’t achieve your goals and will cause harm to those women instead. You hope to help them, but conversely, they also wish for your safety, unless they discover each other’s existence.”
Fisher smiled and shook his head but felt a weight in his heart.
“I’ll be careful, Emhart.”
Although in the past, during his time in the Holy Realm, the reminder from the mysterious elf “Ch” indicated he seemed to possess something special against chaos, Fisher certainly wouldn’t become complacent because of it.
Even though the aftereffects of reading the Supplement Handbooks were considerably better than those of the Creation Society’s members, there were still aftereffects; otherwise, he wouldn’t have experienced such uncontrollable illusions earlier. Reading the Supplement Handbooks for Fisher was like walking on a tightrope; a slight misstep could lead to a fall into a bottomless abyss, so he needed to be cautious.
Another issue was the significant gap between mythical ranks. Even if he were a rank fifteen now against Barbatos’s rank eighteen, he would have no chance of winning.
Moreover, two names of demons had been mentioned by those two demon attendants: “Ag.”
Fisher had heard this name from Eil and Emhart; this demon seemed to have a good relationship with Eil and also possessed rank eighteen abilities.
This meant that conservatively estimated, Fisher would also have to face two rank eighteen demons, while he was currently only at rank fifteen.
This was a nearly desperate gap.
According to the clues provided by the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans, he needed to read the Soul Supplement Handbook completely to advance to rank sixteen. Assuming that reading one Supplement Handbook could only lead to one rank increase, he would need three Supplement Handbooks to reach rank eighteen. Not counting the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans, he was left with only two, which were the Soul and Life, barely allowing him to reach rank seventeen.
He not only needed to find other Supplement Handbooks to reach rank eighteen, but he also needed an ally to fight alongside him.
The line for the Supplement Handbook might allow him to seek help from the Fate Lord, as she hoped he would find the Magic Lord. Although he only found the past version of Tang Zeming Asuka, it at least provided some leads. He should be able to seek some assistance from the Creation Society, which he didn’t know whether had dissolved or collapsed.
As for allies…
His first thought was Renee, as her rank was high enough. If she were to take action, these issues wouldn’t pose much of a problem. If she were a demigod of rank twenty, seeking her help would undoubtedly be wise, but the issue lay in that she might be a true god above rank twenty.
And true gods, under no circumstances, could interfere with the world. Fisher had already heard this ironclad rule more than once, so Renee had virtually never made a move in reality; she dealt with matters through magic and other peculiar tricks.
Now, what about considering other possible allies?
Hela?
Hmm, it’s still unclear whether the appearance of the demons is related to her, and he also didn’t know where she was. That would likely be a bit difficult.
Eil?
She also seemed to be a demon, and it was uncertain whether she had come out of the Demon Dynasty or if she had, she might stand with Ag and Barbatos?
Oh, an intriguing little problem popped up.
Fisher suddenly recalled the mark he had seen earlier on his chest was Hela’s. But when he left the Holy Realm, those two demon attendants in Snakehead Street seemed to have told him that he possessed Duke Eil’s mark?
So, did Hela erase her mark?
Although his relationship with Eil was somewhat ambiguous, he always had a premonition that it would not be good if Eil saw her mark erased.
Okay, after considering everything, he essentially had no feasible allies.
The only remaining mythical beings were demons, and coincidentally, these mythical beings were currently his enemies.
And outside of demons, there seemed to be no one else in the mythical ranks—how was this supposed to be fought?
Fisher felt isolated and helpless but could only push on, knowing that reading the Supplement Handbooks was necessary.
Starting with the Soul Supplement Handbook in his hands, followed by the Life Supplement Handbook, and then he would figure out the rest.
Seeing Fisher’s resolute demeanor, Emhart could no longer dissuade him; he just flew onto Fisher’s shoulder and said,
“Alright, since that’s the case, I’ll accompany you. I’ll keep an eye on you.”
Fisher smiled slightly but suddenly remembered something, looking at him and asking,
“By the way, how come you knew Jasmine was here earlier but didn’t tell me?”
“Uh, this… what? Jasmine is here? I just found out too… Oh, this is surprising.”
As he spoke about it, Emhart’s gaze quickly shifted and he mumbled, just about to fly away, when he was caught by Fisher’s expressionless hold, almost wanting to open his little belly to see what he was hiding inside.
“You traitor, still trying to wriggle out of this.”
“Wah! Who told you to make me sleep outside? It’s not my fault!”
*Knock, knock, knock!*
Just at this moment, the door suddenly knocked, and the bickering between Fisher and Emhart came to an abrupt halt.
Fisher raised an eyebrow, allowing Emhart to fly up while he simultaneously spoke,
“Come in.”
“Fisher.”
The door opened, revealing Mill, who was wearing glasses and cautiously looking around. She examined Fisher, then spoke to him,
“The girl named ‘Ingrid’ has already woken up, but it seems she has been quite disoriented, almost as if she’s been having nightmares.”
“But she said she wants to see you, stating that she learned some news in her dream, concerning someone named… um, Baemon, and she wanted to tell you.”
Fisher opened his mouth but fell silent. Emhart suddenly leaped up, shouting,
“Whoa! Baemon!”
