Chapter 581 59. Femininity
“How could I have such an ugly version of myself?”
Emhart stared blankly at the pink book cover in the doorway that blinked with its phoenix-like eyes. Surprised, he couldn’t help but give his own evaluation.
“Hmph, what vulgar language! It’s as ugly and crude as a piece of dirty avocado toast dropped on the ground. Listening to your unpleasant voice and coarse words is simply a pollution to the noble Book Princess’s ears.”
At that moment, the ‘female version of Fisher’ clasped a book in her arms that flew out disdainfully and said so.
Each of her words felt like a steel knife piercing Emhart’s heart, making him furious.
“What?! You dare insult the great Sir Book! You’re killing me! I’m going to get you!”
“Hehe, you’re getting anxious.”
“Your mother!”
The pink ‘Book Princess’ was not to be outdone and stepped forward, getting closer to the transparent doorway like Emhart. Fisher, worried that there might be danger behind the door, quickly called out to Emhart to stop.
However, to his surprise, the female version behind the door also spoke up at the same time.
“Emhart!”
“Emelira!”
The two opposing books stopped at the same time and glanced harshly at each other before flying back onto their respective partners’ shoulders.
The woman opposite the door scrutinized Fisher outside the door with a blank expression, pondering for a moment, then said to the Book Princess on her shoulder,
“This is the test of the ‘Competitive Gate,’ creating a transformed version of myself from within the door?”
“Probably so, Fisher, but I advise you to double-check. After all, they seem to think, rather than being simple illusions. Fisher, wait!”
But in the next moment, the Fisher behind the door twisted her neck, suddenly bursting forth a long, mercury-like sword from her right hand, as her chaotic energy of Mythical Rank erupted, transmitted through the doorway, giving Fisher a feeling of intense tremors.
She looked coldly at the Fisher in front of her, then abruptly threw the Book Princess Emelira aside, rushing through the doorway and materializing toward Fisher.
Wait, why was her Fluid Sword still intact, while his was limp?
“Fisher!”
“Fisher!”
Fisher’s expression darkened slightly, then he did the same, shaking off Emhart from his shoulder. The Book Princess behind the door anxiously followed, mustering her courage to cross the door toward this side.
“Boom!”
As Fisher’s body constantly twisted, his eyes suddenly locked onto the direction of the opponent’s Fluid Sword’s movement. Recalling how he usually used the Fluid Sword, he predicted a direction and dodged in the opposite one.
Yet unexpectedly, contrary to his usual habits, the Fluid Sword in Fisher’s hand instantly transformed into a heavy giant hammer. She pivoted her body, rapidly sweeping through the air with a loud explosive sound aimed at the direction Fisher was jumping to avoid.
Caught off guard, Fisher quickly reacted. The chaotic power of the Life Completion Manual surged within him, and from behind, numerous tentacle-like appendages resembling slimes emerged, pulling against the wall beside to leap into the air, throwing a punch toward her face.
“Boom!”
Her hammer swung empty, but the terrifying power of the Mythical Rank created a storm in the vast cavern, causing the ground to shake. The overhead stones began to collapse rapidly, completely blocking Fisher’s path.
Fisher was knocked back to before the doorway, clutching his reddening face from the blow, twisting his neck with a crackle.
But the collapse didn’t stop. Fisher furrowed her brows and jumped around the cave, dodging the falling debris.
“Fisher! Are you crazy?! I told you not to act impulsively and you just passed through this doorway! What if we can’t get back?!”
“Pah!”
Fisher coldly spat, standing up, then looked toward Fisher in front of her and said softly,
“I must seize the time; Hela is still waiting for me to return. Step aside, I’ll resolve this quickly.”
“Hey, you really don’t listen to advice. Just for Baemon? You look so much like him, and you’re both at Mythical Rank fifteen. Haven’t you discovered anything strange?”
Fisher’s initial frown at the cave’s collapsing surroundings deepened when the name “Hela” was mentioned. He turned his head to look at her with confusion.
“Hela?”
“What, can the illusion also read my memories? To tell you the truth, you’d better retreat quickly. For the sake of my wife, I can’t predict what impulsive things I might do.”
“Wife?”
Fisher felt increasingly confused, almost as if she was speaking in Nali Language, while Emhart perched on his shoulder also looked incredulously at him, puzzled.
“Wife? Oh my God, don’t tell me you married that murderous woman. Even if you turned into a woman, I still find this unbelievable and hard to accept.”
Fisher’s expression grew colder, but refuting the Book Sir was not even her; the first to get anxious was the Book Princess floating beside her.
“What? I won’t allow you to speak like this about Baemon! How dare you slander her, you filthy rag!”
“Madness. It’s insane that someone would come to Baemon’s defense.”
At that moment, the Book Princess before him defended Baemon, and the impact on Emhart was so large that he didn’t even register her calling him a rag.
He stared blankly at Fisher, completely puzzled by what was happening.
Fisher also furrowed his brows and raised his hand to signal the other to stop, and then asked,
“So you married Hela, and came to the Demon Dynasty for her?”
Seeing the ‘illusion’ in front of her suddenly halt and speak up, perhaps the Book Princess’s words reminded her, letting her refrain from being hasty, yet still filled with vigilance.
“What, are you trying to extract information from me?”
“.Then what about Raphael?”
“You know Raphael?”
“Do you think she’s very strange?”
“.No, just didn’t expect the illusion still needed to extract information to confirm my and my friend’s details.”
“Friend?”
“What’s wrong? Is she not your friend? Or is she your enemy?”
Fisher opened their mouth, unable to wrap their head around.
Could it be that the female version of herself was that deluded? Though Fisher thought of it that way, she still assumed they were not friends, while the Fisher before her was unwilling to even provide her a title of friend?
Emhart also rolled his eyes, echoing Fisher’s thoughts,
“Though she’s not you, think about it. Last night, Raphael slept in the same bed as you, and today you only refer to her as a friend. Ugh, she’s definitely going to kill you.”
“Wait, what? You slept with her? No, should I say, what is your relationship with your Raphael?”
“I’m her Suitable Tail Partner.”
“And Hela?”
“.Same.”
“.”
Fisher listened until her expression grew colder, then she silently raised the giant hammer in her hand, pointing it at Fisher before her, saying,
“Indeed, it’s an illusion; I wouldn’t do such a thing. Or rather, he is tempting me to fall, pushing me to commit such despicable acts. Truly the devil’s means, how filthy. It’s just a pity I am loyal to Hela and would never do such things, disappointing you.”
And the Book Princess beside her nodded, looking tormented.
“.”
Fisher and Emhart opened their mouths, unable to speak. After a moment of silence, Emhart turned to Fisher and said,
“Bad, why do I feel you look even more like the kind of illusion that tempts one to fall to the devil?”
“.”
“You should reflect.”
“.”
Fisher didn’t answer, but also discreetly observed Fisher before her. She realized that no matter how one looked at it, the existence before her was real.
She had a soul, had a body, and her aura matched his exactly, being a Mythical Rank obtained through chaos.
But apart from that, Fisher also began to notice a peculiar pattern: this Fisher exhibited completely opposite traits in many aspects, along with the Book Princess beside her sharing such characteristics.
Emhart hated Baemon, while the Book Princess liked Baemon; Emhart spoke eagerly, often swearing without thinking when in a hurry, while the Book Princess was slow and graceful in speech.
Fisher was calm and liked to plan; Fisher, on the contrary, was impulsive, and the Book Princess couldn’t even persuade her to act directly against him.
The crucial point was that he had close relationships with many ladies, while Fisher was loyal solely to Hela, even marrying her (though Fisher didn’t know why Hela was the chosen spouse).
Fisher could probably sense, just as Fisher felt, that this bizarre phenomenon had to do with the Competitive Gate, but how could he escape the other entering the Dynasty?
The method in the scroll was: to defeat the unbeatable. Did that mean he had to defeat the Fisher in front of him to enter the Dynasty?
After a moment of silence, he疑惑道,
“Hela, is a female, right?”
“.Is your Hela male?”
“Do you know Elizabeth?”
“She broke up with me peacefully and is now the Eldest Princess of the Kingdom. We can be called friends, but we haven’t seen each other for a long time.”
“And Renee?”
“My close friend.”
“And Jasmine?”
“She’s only my student.”
“And Valentina?”
“You bastard! You haven’t touched all of them, have you?! You beast!! Demon!!”
Fisher could no longer listen. She quickly raised the giant hammer again, aiming at Fisher and chastising him,
“Are you no longer a Nali? Didn’t Sister Teresa’s teachings mean anything to you? Wait, you weren’t raised by Sister Teresa, were you? But by some Cardu person, which is why you’re so wanton.”
“.”
Perhaps the Nali in her memory and the one he was in weren’t the same place at all, so both concepts of Nali and Cardu were entirely different from what he imagined?
But what about Teresa?
She sounded exactly like his impression, gentle and devout.
Fisher paused momentarily before replying,
“I was raised by Sister Teresa, and now I can’t distinguish whether you are an illusion created by the Competitive Gate or formed for some other reason. You believe we are both real and have the strength of Mythical Rank. Are you certain you want to continue? If we keep going, this place will collapse entirely.”
Both he and Fisher simultaneously looked at the wreckage around. At this time, the ceiling of the cave was full of cracks, looking precarious and on the verge of collapse.
Fisher was silent for a moment. Then the giant hammer morphing from the Fluid Sword gradually reverted to a silver fluid, retracting into the white writhing handle in her hand. She silently surveyed Fisher before her and then said,
“What you said makes sense, but it cannot be denied that you have forsaken Sister Teresa’s teachings and those of the Mother. You should feel ashamed of that.”
Great, she was still a follower of the Mother.
“.Sister Teresa never taught me about matters of men and women. She is a follower of the Mother and has never mentioned it. Rather than that, are you sure you want to focus your energy on judging my private life instead of figuring a way to leave this door?”
Fisher watched as Fisher walked past her to the Competitive Gate. She hesitated for a moment but also walked up in front of the door, though she couldn’t help but add a comment,
“Indeed, but Sister Teresa would not rest easy after seeing you so fallen. Before she passed, she told me she hoped I would align with my inner self in the future, but it seems she didn’t say such things to you.”
“.”
Fisher paused slightly in his actions, then seemed to realize something and couldn’t help but ask,
“On your side, did Teresa also pass away from illness?”
“.Yeah, heart disease.”
“.”
Fisher turned his head, puzzled, wondering what Teresa had died of on Fisher’s side.
Only Fisher knew that she was speaking of Teresa’s true cause of death.
When Teresa was young, she suffered from an incurable chronic heart disease, often feeling heart pain, causing her complexion to pale, but it was not fatal.
Until that summer when Fisher graduated from high school and was about to head to college, her heart disease worsened. In the absence of both medication and magic, the young and impoverished Fisher had no choice but to watch her slowly weaken until the inevitable death separated her from him.
But why? If everything else was the opposite of Fisher, why was Sister Teresa’s cause of death exactly the same?
Or rather, it was still opposite; either she did not die a natural death, and she hadn’t realized it or it was on his side that Sister Teresa did not die naturally, and he hadn’t discovered it?
Fisher was completely frozen in place, the terrifying speculation making his limbs grow particularly cold, and his heart almost ceased beating.
If Teresa had died unnaturally, what reason would lead to her death? Who would want to kill a devout, unassuming Saint Nali nun and deprive her from the young self he once was?
“Hey, why did you suddenly go blank, you jerk?”
“Fisher, are you okay?”
The Book Princess in front and Emhart beside simultaneously called out, pulling Fisher from that horrific speculation.
He took a deep breath, rubbed his brows, and replied,
“.I’m fine.”
To put it bluntly, should he hesitate now due to the strange phenomenon initiated by the gate within the Demon Dynasty?
He needed to focus on the task of saving Raphael ahead of him and forget everything else.
It was just that because Sister Teresa was too special and important to him, that was why he—
that suspicion arose.
Fisher quickly reorganized his expression, looked at the enormous door that was as clear as glass and mirrors before him, and said to Fisher,
“You just came through this door to me, which means this door corresponds to both our worlds?”
“.Yeah, I need to pass through this door to enter the Demon Dynasty; I have to save Hela, who is imprisoned in there. The two demons discovered her true identity and wanted to leverage her for freedom, liberating all demons. When that happens, it would surely be a catastrophe for a world without mythical beings.”
Fisher reached out to touch the door, and his finger seemed to sink into water, passing through it into Fisher’s world.
He could also go to their world?
But going to their side wouldn’t solve the problem, either; she couldn’t open this door to the Dynasty.
Why was there such a difficult door to enter the Dynasty? Did the demons inside the Competitive Gate not want to be disturbed, like Eil, making the conditions for entry so troublesome?
“Do you have a scroll recording the method to enter this door?”
“Yes, but the wording is vague, saying something like ‘Defeat the Unbeatable.’ Do you have any insights?”
It seemed that the method she received was the same as his.
Fisher didn’t know what method could possibly allow entry, looking around to see if there were any clues beside the door, but since Fisher had directly attacked, half of the cave had collapsed, leaving nothing visible.
But perhaps before, Fisher had also glanced around, and apart from stones, there was nothing else.
Seeing that he was looking for clues, Fisher realized her earlier actions of recklessly attacking were inappropriate and felt a little embarrassed, quickly averting her gaze and started searching for possible clues around to ease the tension.
It was this glance that made her suddenly discover something.
“Eh, this is…”
Fisher turned her head hurriedly, noticing she was raising her head to look up at the enormous door, seemingly seeing something.
He looked up as well, and to his sight were the rows of inscriptions in Demon Language and ancient human language that merely read “Competitive Gate.”
“What’s wrong?”
“The things inscribed above seem to be different from before. I saw earlier two lines of ‘Competitive Gate’ in different languages.”
“.I saw the same thing.”
“Seriously?”
Fisher quickly looked at him, then pointed incredulously at the inscription above, saying,
“But what I see now is…”
“Those who enter the Sun Gate, also the Feminine.”
求求投票、打赏和支持，这对我来说十分重要！
万分感谢支持！
(End of Chapter)
