Chapter 575: 53. “Sorceress” Fisher
“Kill Raphael?”
Fisher was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, and the chill that had been building inside him since he learned about the Pisces identity finally began to seep into his entire being.
But in response to Fisher’s question, Pisces’s words remained fragmented yet remarkably calm,
“Yes.”
“You all know my story. Do you really think I am fighting demons just to protect Raphael? Using my goal as a bargaining chip to create obstacles in front of that goal, don’t you think that’s ridiculous?”
“That’s not the same.”
“What’s different about it?”
“Because you not only have Raphael, and Raphael does not only have herself.”
Pisces’s eyes were bright, and the words were slow,
“You cannot defeat the demon; Raphael, Elizabeth, Valentina, and Alagina will all die. If you cannot defeat the demon, her Dragon Court, her mother, her people, all will die…”
As the mist of the Spirit Realm slightly stirred, a silhouette of Raphael also appeared before Fisher; she curled up, afraid like a child in a cradle, terrified of the demon that had beaten her without any ability to fight back several years ago.
She is the leader of the Dragon Court; she is Fisher’s lover, so she must put on a brave face and cannot reveal her weakness and fear.
But in the eyes of these Chaos Beings, the secrets within her heart were so evident.
“You want to use that chaos to enhance your strength, but you think too much of it. The ranks of the world are predetermined; every climb violates the rules and thus incurs the corresponding cost. It’s just adding fuel to the fire, trading your life for another. Hehe.”
“Selfish people like you wouldn’t care about that, right? All we need is one of your many ladies, and we will do our best to help you fulfill your wishes. We will let you command without needing to sacrifice yourself. She won’t know it was you who dedicated yourself; she will only be taken away in sweet dreams, no longer in fear.”
Fisher had been hovering at the door of chaos for a long time, and he was about to finish reading the last part of the Soul Supplement Handbook, which would also be the first complete handbook he had read.
But at the door, countless people, including himself, had already realized that using the chaotic power would not lead to any good end. If he continued down this path, ending up dead, never to meet those he cared about, would be considered a good outcome.
What terrified him more was that he might become a madman, a monster, unrecognizable to himself, betraying Teresa’s expectations, becoming a scourge.
But Fisher still shook his head and replied to Pisces,
“Even so, if it requires her as a price, I would rather die or be consumed by chaos.”
Pisces remained motionless, and after a long while, he continued,
“Suit yourself. But our proposition is still valid; you can still summon us to continue this proposition to kill her.”
Upon hearing this, Fisher furrowed his brows, unable to help but wonder,
“Why do you need to enter the world and kill Raphael? There’s no corresponding logic; she is just a Fourteenth Rank dragon person, what power does she have to block you outside the crevice?”
Pisces’s star-like compound eyes slightly shook; Fisher seemed to recognize that he was expressing a negative meaning. Then he said,
“Feima Bahar.”
“Feima Baharon (Deity)?”
“Yes.”
“So, you mean Raphael is related to him?”
“Yes.”
“So, the pollution has eased, even Renee cannot suppress it now?”
“Yes and no.”
“What does that mean?”
“Let’s escape and tell you the answer.”
“Is there no safe haven for you in the Spirit Realm?”
“There is, but cannot enter the angels’ haven.”
Angels’ haven?
Could it be that there are still living angels inside?
Are Mikhail, Gabriel, and Michael still alive?
“What you just said ‘yes and no,’ what does it mean? Has Renee encountered some difficulties?”
“Not exactly.”
“What is the state of the pollution now?”
“I don’t know.”
Pisces’s answers grew shorter, seeming to lose interest even more than his previous indifference after Fisher declined his proposal, appearing not to want to speak further.
Fortunately, Fisher had already received a wealth of extremely useful information from this Pisces Chaos Being, including confirmed news that Tang Zeming Asuka was still alive, how to inscribe Mythical Rank magic, and a bit of news related to Raphael.
If Fisher remembered correctly, he had learned that several demigod offspring of Ramastia each had their own responsibilities; they were stationed at very important positions in the world, at least as it was when Fisher traveled back in time.
The Heavenly Lock guarded the boundary of the material realm, the World Tree guarded the pillars within the world, and Feima Bahar guarded the crevice.
Although all three demigods were endowed with corresponding powers by the gods, each demigod additionally gained powers from different deities.
For example, the Heavenly Lock received blessings from the Material God Auren, the World Tree from the God of Destiny Anebatoth, while Feima Bahar received blessings from Dalasgon.
The blessings received by the first two demigods could be seen in the mythological beings they created, such as angels proficient in forging sacred objects and elves skilled in the power of destiny.
But Feima Bahar’s offspring, the dragon people, were not mythological beings; that extra growing soul dragon horn on them, though impressive, should not be a manifestation of the divine blessing from the Dragon God. It was hard to say whether it had any relationship with the Dragon God’s blessing.
So what exactly was the blessing that Feima Bahar himself received from Dalasgon, Fisher still did not know.
However, at this moment, Fisher suddenly remembered something that seemed related.
He recalled long ago when he first encountered Raphael in the Southern Continent after the battle with Feilon City, ultimately defeating him and obtaining the Soul Supplement Handbook. The avatar of Dalasgon once appeared and told him, “I owe myself a favor.”
For a long time, Fisher had believed that it was because he obtained the Soul Supplement Handbook and stopped Feilon’s atrocities that this hidden “God of the Door” appeared to thank him.
But now, after the conversation with Pisces, Fisher suddenly had another guess.
Could it be that at that time, Dalasgon was thanking him for saving Raphael? After all, had it not been for him, if she had indeed been taken to Feilon by that buyer Auren, given his obsession with soul experiments, it was hard to say what might happen.
And because Raphael’s death would have consequences, as Pisces said, they Chaos Beings could enter reality, which was the real reason Dalasgon said he owed him a favor?
Fisher’s guess might be correct or not, but from the fact that he took Erwind’s Life Completion Manual afterward but received no further thanks from any deity, this guess, in conjunction with Pisces’s words, was still quite convincing.
By the way, did Dalasgon’s favor count as repaid? During the battle in the Northern Region, it seemed that he hadn’t intervened much, though Fisher knew that was because he was also collaborating with Renee from the Spirit Realm to stop the pollution from entering reality. But the favor of a True God likely shouldn’t just be about sending them back to reality, right?
Thinking about this and that, this meeting with the Chaos Being was nearing its end; Fisher had gotten what he wanted.
He exchanged one last indifferent glance with the Pisces before him. Although this Chaos Being had hardly said anything good, including disparaging remarks about himself and the proposal to use Raphael’s life as a bargaining chip, Fisher felt that all of Pisces’s words and actions were devoid of any emotion; they were purely stating their needs and the benefits they could offer Fisher.
This emotionless, indifferent race was precisely the impression Fisher had of the Chaos Beings from their first meeting.
It was neither love nor hate; Fisher merely expressed his gratitude for sharing so much information with him,
“Thank you for telling me all this. However, I am still a bit curious about how five of you entered reality thousands of years ago, and if it was to escape, why would you engage in war with the beings of the Northern Region?”
Pisces’s words remained orderly as he answered Fisher’s questions one by one,
“You’re welcome.”
“Feima Bahar neglected his duties.”
“We are also chaos.”
So that’s how it is.
He had forgotten that being a product of the Sea of Souls also belonged to a kind of chaos, and their destruction of the rules of reality was self-evident.
Let alone those five from a thousand years ago; even just the present Pisces entering the reality would likely disrupt the rules of reality no less than an almost complete Supplement Handbook. Besides Raphael being a primary reason, this was also something Fisher had to consider.
But what about himself?
Hadn’t he also entered the Mythical Rank through chaos and was reading the Supplement Handbook? Was he also gradually becoming an intolerable scourge to this world?
After receiving the answer, Fisher fell silent for a moment and then again expressed his thanks to Pisces. He was just about to leave when he noticed one of Pisces’s appendages slowly extending towards him.
Everything in front of him was illusory, merely the appearance of the Spirit Realm seen through star magic, but in front of Pisces, who contained unfathomable mysterious power, everything began to be forcibly compressed.
At that moment, Fisher felt the distance between Pisces and himself growing closer until that feeling reached its peak, yet there remained an indescribable sense of separation.
Her appendage slowly, through magic, rested on Fisher’s head, and in that instant, he felt his soul warm slightly. The soul connected to his body began to feel lighter, as if some power from deep within the world was being infused from afar.
He suddenly felt that his already twisted soul had become even lighter, richly filled with abundant magic. That extra magic illuminated under the magic and stood as a reflection of Pisces far in the Spirit Realm, morphing into a swirling connecting symbol.
“Pisces.”
He.
No, it should be her voice echoed like a song within Fisher’s heart, coldly repeating her title.
She is the Pisces Chaos from the stars, having chosen Fisher just like the Mother Gods did thousands of years ago.
And this kind of ability was generally possessed only by a certain type of Subhuman Race unique to the Western Continent.
Sorceress.
“You are not female; I cannot bestow upon you my powerful traits, but the connection can enhance the magic of your soul. You can use more powerful magic. But if you still cannot defeat them at night, feel free to contact us if you change your mind.”
Fisher stared at the bright magical circuit on his hands, unsure of what to say.
But Pisces did not want to say more to him; the surrounding star magic energy became dimmer, and the mist obscuring the Spirit Realm and Pisces’s figure became increasingly hazy, about to reveal the colors of the real night.
Just before that magic was about to dissipate, Pisces’s glowing compound eyes remained indifferent, and amid the indifference, her farewell floated through,
“Goodbye, Sorceress Fisher. Hehe.”
“…”
The mist suddenly dissipated, revealing Fisher, who was stunned in place.
Outside, Emhart immediately flew over, looking at him with concern and said,
“Fisher! Are you okay? That weird magic just lit up and swallowed you! There were many spatial disturbances around, and I even saw the light from the crevice. You were gone for so long; did you meet that chaos… huh, what’s wrong with the magical circuit on you?”
As a well-informed being, Sir Book noticed at a glance that Fisher’s magical aura and the one before entering the magic were vastly different. Originally, he thought Fisher had encountered some danger, like being polluted by the consciousness and powers of the Chaos Being, but the longer he looked, the more he felt that Fisher’s magical nature seemed a bit familiar.
His expression slightly paused as he scrutinized Fisher from top to bottom, then mumbled,
“You haven’t changed much. The tools for committing crimes haven’t been confiscated; could it be that your trait is something?”
Fisher scowled and caught the mischief-making Emhart in his palm, saying,
“What do you mean I was gone for so long? I was only in there for a dozen minutes, right?”
“Who says? It’s already been three hours!”
Hearing this, Fisher was slightly taken aback. He looked up and noticed that from when he arrived it was just evening, now the moon was at its zenith, confirming the fact that aligned with what Emhart said.
Are the time rules in reality different from those in the Spirit Realm?
He released Emhart, then turned his head to survey the surroundings but did not see the Death Lord’s figure, and could not help but ask,
“Where’s that guy?”
“Oh, him? He got drunk and randomly found a place to sleep. He didn’t want to go into the Dragon Court anymore; too many people in there, and he’s not used to it. He said to just call him when we are ready to leave, and he will meet up with you.”
As he spoke, Emhart flew back to the tree where the Death Lord had stayed, disdainfully picking up a wooden whistle and bringing it over, which seemed to be used to contact the Death Lord.
Fisher took the nearly polished wooden whistle from him, which had a strange fatty, oily smell, explaining why Emhart was so disdainful of it.
He stashed the whistle in his pocket, then glanced up at the increasingly bright moon in the sky, then turned to slowly head towards the Dragon Court,
“Let’s go.”
“Oh right, did you meet the Chaos Being inside? Did you learn anything from him?”
“I learned quite a bit. I’ll tell you when we get back.”
“Hehe, you better say it now. I don’t want to wait excitedly to get back, only for you not to say a word and then get chased away by a grumpy red-scaled dragon person.”
“…”
Fisher chuckled silently at the nagging Emhart beside him. At this moment, they stood at the southernmost point of the Southern Branch Mountain, overlooking the Dragon Court.
The Red Dragon Court was still ablaze with lights, but what caught Fisher’s attention was the foot of the mountain where they stood.
There, fully armed soldiers, facing the unknown future, began to march into the Southern Branch Mountain in the dark of night with torches, preparing to welcome the incoming Human Allied Forces.
The number of troops was substantial. The Southern Branch Mountain was an impasse for the Human Allied Forces, and similarly posed one for the army of the Red Dragon Court behind, thus they needed to cross the steep mountain in batches to reach the front lines.
This also meant that the time left for Fisher was becoming increasingly limited.
Starting from tonight, he had to begin mastering the remaining content of the Soul Supplement Handbook, then grasp the Mythical Rank magic before heading to the Demon Dynasty.
In the dark and wide Spirit Realm, only an extremely quiet stillness was left.
Before the pollution arrived, the stars would watch the world day by day, but this process was not quiet. Just like the Pisces Fisher had just encountered, the Chaos Beings would use beautiful songs to record the stories that take place in reality.
Each Chaos Being who gazed at different places would see different characters and stories, and the styles and methods of their songs would also differ vastly. Thus, at that time in the Spirit Realm, it was filled with rising and falling, pleasant and mysterious songs.
They echoed each other, weaving around that authority which came from beyond the world, helping it contemplate day by day why it was born and why it entered this world, until one day it encountered the Trans, who bore a long wait.
But now, due to that horrifying pollution, the Chaos Beings could only hide everywhere, quietly watching but no longer daring to sing, for fear of drawing the attention of the crimson pollution.
At this moment, the star magic momentarily linking to reality in the Spirit Realm slowly faded away, in the boundless darkness, Pisces’s bright compound eyes remained still, quietly watching the dissipating brilliance.
“It’s over.”
As Pisces’s song-like voice echoed, beside her, in the unfathomable darkness that was hard for the naked eye to penetrate, pairs of bright, twinkling eyes began to light up one by one.
Only when those eyes brightened could one vaguely see that those immense star-like eyes were merely part of the vast body of these Chaos Beings, with large portions hidden in the shadows of the darkness being their true formidable forms.
At that moment, when the eyes of the other Chaos Beings beside her all lit up, the darkness transformed instantly into a colorful Milky Way, temporarily dispersing the disquieting dark.
This radiance illuminated parts of the surrounding scene, revealing ruined walls and remnants, within which flickered a kind of high-dimensional power that did not belong to this world and could easily withstand attacks from demigods and below.
However, it seemed that this was a broken remnant of a creation from an extraordinarily glorious civilization, now shattered and scattered. Due to the long passage of time and decay, its original splendor had hidden in this dead silence, becoming a temporary refuge for the Chaos Beings.
“He refused; without Feima Bahar’s blessing, the crevice for us is a chasm, and we cannot enter nor escape… either we must listen to the newborn authority’s consciousness and use her methods.”
“No, no, no, no.”
After one of the Chaos Beings spoke, the overwhelming majority of the other Chaos Beings expressed a veto of his proposal, as if it were absolutely unacceptable.
With the boundary’s constraints gone, and this being a conversation among Chaos Beings, they no longer had to speak one word at a time like when they talked to Fisher.
“Or, we escape to the more [outside], away from the [ultimate].”
After a long while, one of the more mournful and somber-voiced Chaos Beings spoke, but Pisces, who had previously conversed with Fisher, shook her large head, sending ripples of light in the darkness, saying,
“Scorpio, the ultimate is closed, like a cage, like an iron wall. Only the strong from the outside can send things inside, but no one has ever escaped. Even His authority once tried to cross the ultimate to leave, only to fail again and return here.”
All the Chaos Beings, some as powerful as demigods, some slightly weaker, at the Nineteenth Rank or Eighteenth Rank, fell silent, seemingly understanding the impossibility of this method.
They weren’t unaware of this fact; they had simply reached a breaking point of impatience, perhaps even a hint of “cast the net and let the fish die” and “self-destructive” idea, which is why the Chaos Being called “Scorpio” suggested that.
However, after a lengthy silence, yet another Chaos Being spoke up,
“There is one person who has escaped.”
But soon, he was interrupted by Pisces.
“Only she managed to escape, Libra.”
“…”
“Let’s wait a bit longer.”
“Wait longer?”
“There will be an opportunity; I can feel it.”
“He won’t give up on that orphan of Feima Bahar; he’s very greedy but does not forsake what he has let down, even if it means his death.”
“No, it’s another opportunity.”
“….”
No Chaos Being answered Pisces’s song. Instead, they all quietly gazed at the outside of the broken wall, struggling to peer through the crevice’s confinement, observing everything in reality.
In this silence, the outer darkness unbeknownst to when had been stained with a layer of extremely bright and terrifying moonlight.
That moonlight was like water, bursting forth bright white within the dark purple, blending together until it quickly illuminated the outer side of the fragmented refuge where the Chaos Beings hid, shining light on the Sea of Souls outside, and illuminating everything that spanned countless ages within this realm beyond the reach of rules.
“Buzzing.”
The terrifying crimson mist in the distance slowly withdrew, yet these Chaos Beings hidden amidst the broken walls did not feel safe at all; rather, they all shut their starry eyes tightly, concealing their powerful bodies born from the Sea of Souls.
At the same time, they all recited the same phrases indifferently,
“Mother God bless.”
“Mother God bless.”
“Mother God bless.”
In that repetitious chanting, the pure white and dark purple moonlight slowly withdrew like a tide, re-melting this world back into a deathly silence.
In the darkness, those star-like eyes no longer opened, and only a fragment of their conversation lingered,
“They’re getting more diligent.”
“… Let’s wait a bit; there will be an opportunity.”
Pisces’s compound eyes suddenly opened wide, horrifyingly revealing the scene of the troops of the Dragon Court marching with torches towards the Southern Branch Mountain in reality.
