Chapter 617: 95. Death
“Treasure.”
Treasure, this term again, was the final obstacle to completing the Life Completion Manual.
This term was inescapable and unavoidable, much like the “angel guarding the last high mountain” described in the Life Completion Manual, causing him to hesitate.
The current issue was that the Apocalypse Prophecy had already begun, and as the key to destruction, Fisher had to try to gather the completion manuals, attempting to suppress them one by one, just as he did with the chaos within the Soul Supplement Handbook.
At this moment, the lush tree next to the Life Chaos stood completely still. Fisher didn’t know if it was because he had sealed it within himself, but it seemed at least a bit safer than the still-vibrant tree of life chaos.
But to seal it, he had to read it; to read it, he needed to obtain the treasure; to obtain the treasure, he had to replicate Erwind’s actions?
He looked at the manual in his hands, lost in thought, unable to make a decision.
“Are you done yet? Why is changing clothes taking so long?”
At this moment, Eil was still waiting outside for him. Fisher’s mind was finally brought back to reality by her voice. He temporarily put the manual aside, stowing both the Life Completion Manual and the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans in his chest, and walked out.
“Alright, let’s go down and take a look.”
“Okay.”
Behind him, Hela continued to lower her head, looking at the travel journal, merely smiling and waving at Fisher.
Eil yawned, looking displeased at the currently demure Hela, who had just closed her mouth after recently opening it, seemingly mumbling something.
Fisher walked down the stairs with her, and even with his mythical rank hearing, he couldn’t make out what she was saying, or perhaps she hadn’t actually spoken at all, but Fisher still asked,
“What?”
“Nothing, just happy I can rest peacefully again.”
The Apocalypse Prophecy had already arrived, yet this competitive gate’s arch-demon appeared unexpectedly calm, leading Fisher to ask with a slight laugh,
“The consequences this time seem severe, yet you seem not to care at all?”
“Severe? Well, indeed somewhat. I had heard that the demigods fought desperately but couldn’t even ignite the crevice, yet this time, it seems like what looked like a minor scuffle has resulted in such calamity. I checked the base while you were unconscious; it has completely vanished. Baemon took so long to find something that could break the Mother’s seal, and I fear I won’t find anything that can remove the seal anytime soon.”
Fisher pondered for a moment before suggesting,
“What if we let the Mother unseal you?”
“Don’t! Please don’t! That’s not at all realistic.” Eil shook her head and explained, “The power to unseal requires divine levels, and now that the crevice is still burning, letting divine powers affect reality would only hasten our doom. Moreover, the seal placed on us by that faux god is total; once the seal is lifted, we would all run out. Heh, it would be chaos, and we wouldn’t be able to do anything except add to the mess.”
“I see.”
“Well, meeting later is always possible, but it’s a bit more challenging than meeting that cursed Baemon, requiring a bit of soul energy. Me stabilizing the authority over death here should count as helping you, and besides, isn’t Baemon unable to leave either? By that measure, neither of us wins.”
Eil glanced at Fisher, who suddenly looked a bit dejected, and suddenly asked with a smile,
“What’s wrong? Do you want me to go out that badly?”
“Indeed, it feels regrettable if I can’t see you.”
Eil’s long ears and tail twitched, and her chest emitted a bubbling sound like magma, probably delighting her, even causing her to playfully gesture towards Hela on the second floor. However, after digesting Fisher’s words, she said somewhat meaningfully,
“I will remember this.”
Fisher and Eil continued forward until they exited Baemon’s palace but didn’t see Emhart or Holland.
After asking Eil, he learned that Emhart, the coward, was hiding far away because he feared Hela, almost outside the Competitive Gate.
Fisher was speechless and slowly followed Eil to their location.
Perhaps considering that Fisher had just recovered, or perhaps wanting to talk more with Eil, neither of them resorted to flying or teleporting but strolled like it was a leisurely walk through the gradually quieting Demon Dynasty.
Until Eil suddenly remembered something, she mischievously shook her tail behind her and asked,
“By the way, since I’ve helped you so much earlier, shouldn’t you repay me?”
Fisher paused slightly and smiled,
“Sure, I’ll see if I can bring you some precious weapons from outside later?”
“Don’t want it.”
“Armor?”
“Don’t want it.”
“Mattress or pillow? Fine wine? Delicacies?”
“Don’t want it.”
“…”
Fisher raised an eyebrow and turned to look at her, only to find her slightly tilting her head, somewhat possessively meeting his gaze, and then asked,
“Didn’t that cursed Baemon call you ‘dear’?”
“Ah?”
“What ‘ah’? Isn’t that what you are, little dog?”
Fisher hadn’t expected that Hela’s earlier way of addressing him would be seized by Eil. He thought she didn’t care; he simply didn’t realize she was waiting to bring it up here.
Faced with Eil’s questioning, he helplessly replied,
“Well, it should still be my call.”
“And what do you call her?”
“Hela?”
“Hmph.”
Eil crossed her arms, her fiery aura becoming sharper out of displeasure. Her tiger teeth rubbed inside her lips, and her eyes involuntarily rolled up as if pondering something.
Then, after thinking for a few seconds, she yawned as if the previous activity had exhausted her brain and energy.
So, she gave up and directly turned to Fisher, asking for an answer,
“In your human language, what is the angelic term that’s even more powerful than ‘dear’?”
“?”
Fisher was momentarily unable to answer Eil, freezing in place. She thought there was no term more potent than that, her expression turning distressed as she fell into another round of pondering.
After a second or two, she shot a glance at Fisher, grumbling in annoyance,
“Then it’s settled; ‘dear’ is what she calls you, and as a return for my help, you’ll call me ‘dear.’ Yes, just like that.”
It seemed she gained a strange victory in some peculiar way, noticeably boosting her spirits, causing her to stop yawning and instead smile joyfully. However, just as she wondered why Fisher hadn’t called her that yet, he suddenly leaned down and captured her cute lips, seeking the burning warmth within,
“*Kiss*”
She blinked, yet didn’t resist, and a comfortable “gurgle” sound emerged from deep in her throat.
After several seconds, Fisher finally let her go, watching her struggle to suppress a smile,
“Thank you, dear.”
“…”
Eil said nothing but crossed her arms, subconsciously licking her tiger teeth as if they suddenly itched.
Just then, her gaze suddenly flickered, and in contrast to her swaying tail behind her, her wheat-colored skin gradually flushed with a nearly imperceptible redness, and even its temperature began to rise uncontrollably.
Quickly, she resumed walking and said somewhat absentmindedly,
“Uh-huh. Alright, let’s head out!”
“…”
It seemed there was still a distance before Eil, the archdemon, could conquer her competitive nature.
“Fisher!! Great! You’re okay! I thought for sure that cursed Baemon had beaten you up and locked you in his castle for… Ahwo!”
Soon, just outside the Competitive Gate, Fisher saw Holland and Emhart resting there.
Holland had changed into a new set of clothing, looking rather rudimentary and somewhat wild. The lamenting Sir Book nearby seemed to sense something and quickly flew over, speaking words that were quite “touching.”
However, before he could finish, Fisher, with a face full of black lines, interrupted him.
Holland also turned to look at Fisher, and the moment their eyes met, Fisher felt that something had changed about this person before him, but he couldn’t quite articulate this feeling.
It was like a vibrant bud suddenly sprouting amidst the ruins; at that moment, the blossoming emerald would seize all of one’s vision.
“It’s good you’re fine. That priestess was worried about your condition before leaving, and if it weren’t for Eil the archdemon…”
“Sorry for making you help me so much.”
Fisher placed Emhart on his shoulder, and seeing them start to converse, Eil seemed bored, her gaze wandering until she quickly found a relatively flat boulder, deftly leapt onto it, and comfortably lay down so that those below couldn’t see her.
Fisher reached Holland’s side, while Emhart excitedly spoke to Fisher about all the changes that had occurred after he left.
For example, when they discovered the base didn’t have the power to release those two demons, and Holland went to stop Solomon from opening the Ten Gates.
When Fisher heard about this for the second time, he still felt puzzled. After all, a person like him, eager for death, would actually stop Solomon at that time? Fisher couldn’t believe Holland didn’t know Solomon’s intentions; the two immortals should have understood each other’s shared fate upon seeing one another.
After listening, Fisher looked up at Holland with a frown, just in time to catch his matching puzzled expression, and feeling Fisher’s gaze, he didn’t look at him but instead stared at the flowing magma, contemplating.
“Are you surprised why I would do this?”
“.Ah, well, according to my understanding, Heya was about to awaken, and the authority of death was becoming increasingly active. Even if your death were taken away, you should have gone to your demise alongside Solomon at that time.”
“Hmm, that’s true.”
Holland, while thinking, stretched his hand into his chest pocket, but found nothing, only then remembering that his cigarettes and flask had been thrown into the magma.
He felt somewhat regretful but didn’t pull back his hand; instead, he pressed it against his body, explaining,
“Because I promised Sir Book to help you, but honestly, our relationship isn’t close enough for that, or rather, to me, ‘relationship’ is just an illusion. So, at the moment Solomon invited me to die, I was actually swayed. Though I refused him, I gradually had a vague feeling that even if he opened the Ten Gates and faced the authority of death, he wouldn’t die.”
“Wouldn’t die?”
“Ah, perhaps only Heya fully awakening could accomplish that, but even if the Ten Gates opened, Heya herself still refuses to awaken. When we faced her, I sensed this. Our immortality is bestowed by an indifferent authority of death, so facing it is futile.”
Holland shook his head with a smile, explaining his reasoning to Fisher.
Fisher was somewhat dumbfounded.
If in this world, only Heya’s awakening could release them from death, then fundamentally, they would be impossible to die unless the entire world was destroyed by the Apocalypse Prophecy and Heya, who had fallen asleep, awoke, which still held a bit of possibility.
But likely at that time, Heya wouldn’t care about such a minor “accident,” would she?
Was this an unsolvable proposition?
Fisher couldn’t help but think so, but Holland’s perspective seemed inconsistent with Fisher’s thoughts; instead, he smiled and asked,
“Fisher, have you ever wondered how Ag managed to take death from us?”
“…”
“Sounds mysterious, doesn’t it? Even though she’s an eighteenth-level demon god, something capable of killing any living thing coming into being in her hands still seems incredible. Even if she is the demon god of the Curiosity Gate, having such ability, logically, the conditions to form the death rune must be very strict and certainly must conform to the logic of death.”
Holland lowered his head slightly, pressing a hand against his chest, feeling the faint pulse within, and his speech quickened,
“From the logic of death, it should be quite simple. Before I was stripped of death, Ag quietly cast a long-distance spell while triggering certain things, stealing the death I was supposed to receive, thus causing my death logic to go awry. And you should have noticed, what was stolen was not just death but everything following it. My heart can no longer produce any new sensations, and my body remains frozen in the moment before being deprived of death.
“However, Fisher, the authority of death doesn’t grant death in a limited capacity. That is to say, theoretically, a true divine-level authority doesn’t just mean that after the death assigned to that individual is stolen, that person’s death would disappear. So, I have a conjecture. What Ag stole wasn’t really my death; rather, she took away the factors that triggered my death, thus leaving us forever suspended in the moments before death.”
Fisher furrowed his brow, sensing the strangeness in this, and glanced back at the sleeping Eil, saying to Holland,
“Is this your conjecture, or… if unsure, we could awaken Ag and ask her specifically how she stole your death.”
“Don’t think about it. She’s been polluted by your chaos and is currently healing in her original body. You probably won’t see her for hundreds of years.”
From behind the boulder, Eil’s voice came, dispelling Fisher’s thoughts.
Holland, however, smiled, shook his head, and said to Fisher,
“No, Fisher, I just wanted to say, because Ag stole the factors that triggered my death, I should have been unable to remember anything. But just earlier when stopping Solomon from opening the Ten Gates, it felt as if I suddenly found the factor that triggered my death.”
Holland’s pale face smiled slightly, and he also turned to look at Fisher, whispering,
“At that moment, I was forced by Solomon to see Heya’s true form, and suddenly remembered some things I once cherished; in that instant, I actually wanted to live.”
“.Wait, do you mean?”
“Ah, I believe the factor that triggered my death might just be the thought of ‘I want to live’?”
(End of Chapter)
