Chapter 739: Four
In the Spirit Realm, Sea of Souls.
“These four vortices, right?”
Anebatos’s voice came from the illusory space above, while below, Fisher and Renee crouched down, carefully examining the four empty vortices, which seemed to be quite similar to the one Fisher had departed from.
Fisher nodded, extending his hand to feel the contours of the vortex. In the deep, fluid Sea of Souls, the formed vortex appeared particularly incongruous.
“Alright, let’s get started.”
“Buzz!”
With Anebatos’s voice, a wave of authority spread through the air. Over the dark space of the Spirit Realm, auroras began to cascade down like curtains, slowly covering the scenery in all directions.
The previously stagnant Sea of Souls seemed to start reversing time, with everything moving in the opposite direction to what Fisher had seen. If Fisher hadn’t witnessed Duke of Peach using a similar method earlier, he would likely have been shocked.
“Let me see when these vortices were born… Ah, found one! It’s the most recent.”
Following Anebatos’s guidance, Fisher and Renee’s gazes settled on one of the vortices marked by Anebatos’s aurora. Under that illumination, a translucent, illusory soul was slowly crawling out from the vortex.
“This is the image I replicated from the timeline back then; I learned this trick from that guy Dalasgon. Hmm, wait, that feeling is back.”
Just as Fisher was about to ask Anebatos what the feeling was, the illusory soul crawling out from the Sea of Souls suddenly turned and smiled at him as if it wasn’t an illusion.
“!”
Despite the illusory soul’s features being very indistinct, Fisher was certain that it was looking at him. This feeling of being watched startled both Fisher and Renee, and soon the golden aurora enveloping the area began to flicker, the projected image collapsing into a chaotic mass.
“See? It’s this kind of feeling. We can basically confirm that this recent vortex is the work of the Ocean.”
Renee sighed in relief, stroking her chin as she spoke to Fisher, “But it’s not completely fruitless; at least we can confirm the true identity of this vortex, and we did get a glimpse of its form. That soul just now should be one of the incarnations of the Ocean. I can’t help but feel that this incarnation is rather weak, maybe it’s hiding something?”
Anebatos chuckled and said to Renee, “Because a deity’s incarnation always carries the aura of the deity’s authority. Like us, a deity with a single authority, regardless of how varied the appearance of the incarnation may be, its properties remain fixed. However, the Ocean is different; the number of authorities He possesses is unimaginable, and it’s natural for His incarnations to exhibit different characteristics.
“If this incarnation doesn’t instill a sense of oppression in you, it definitely means there’s something special about Him elsewhere.”
Looking at the dissipating appearance of the incarnation, Fisher pondered for a moment before suddenly asking Anebatos, “When did this incarnation leave?”
“Let me see, probably around two hundred years ago.”
“So close?”
“Yes, as for the others—”
As Anebatos spoke, the surrounding aurora moved once more, covering the other vortices.
And as expected, every time it approached the emergence of this vortex, Anebatos’s authority began to be affected, becoming extremely vague and intermittent. Furthermore, as the vortices grew older, this situation worsened.
“The fourth vortex was born a few hundred years ago, while the third vortex was born about ten thousand years ago.”
“Zzz.”
Golden light reproduced an extremely vague silhouette of a figure wearing a white robe. But within a second, the image vanished due to distortion.
Even so, the moment was enough for Fisher to have a guess; as soon as he saw that silhouette, his pupils contracted, and he said to Renee and Anebatos, “That’s the Heavenly Lock.”
“Heavenly Lock?”
“Exactly. This should be the moment He arrived at the Sea of Souls to select souls to create Angels. Among the Angels, there’s one named Hela, whom I met a thousand years ago, so I know her quite well. I’m certain that He is the incarnation chosen by the Heavenly Lock that infiltrated the Holy Realm.”
“Oh? Just because you met her, you feel you know her well?”
Anebatos’s voice, filled with meaning, came down from the sky. Fisher was momentarily stunned, then turned to look at Renee, just in time to meet her gaze looking back at him.
“Yes, that fraud, going on about the Ocean, yet all she does is hide and deceive everywhere. What a joke, right Anebatos?” Renee scoffed slightly, clearly having a strong opinion of Hela.
She was familiar with most of the women Fisher knew, yet none had ever bothered her as much as Hela.
Perhaps it was because the other women had never been her direct rivals; no one could instill the kind of pressure that Hela had.
“Buzz buzz buzz.”
Anebatos’s golden light flashed again, moving to cover the vortices on both sides. The times of emergence for those two vortices were even older than Hela’s birth, and the timing was relatively close; the earliest one even dated back more than twenty thousand years, very near to when they had just created this world and began life’s crafting.
And as expected, the images of these two vortices were completely indistinguishable, lacking any useful information.
But now, they had already confirmed that the births of these four vortices were all related to the Ocean.
Indeed, the Ocean had not just cast aside its treasures into the universe and left them unattended; from the very beginning, He had left incarnations in the Sea of Souls, and after the Sea of Souls was stolen and taken into the barriers, the incarnation hidden in the Sea of Souls finally awakened completely.
“It’s clear now; all four of these incarnations are still alive. According to the information you’ve gathered, Fisher, our next task is to eliminate the pollution of Dream and the four incarnations of the Ocean.”
However, Fisher hesitated, “Hold on, Anebatos.”
“What is it?”
“I had a lingering question earlier: Are these four the only incarnations the Ocean left in the Sea of Souls? Is it possible there are others hidden in here?”
After all, they had not discovered any traces of the Ocean when they had brought the Sea of Souls. It was prudent to be more cautious. What if, after overcoming countless hardships, they discovered a minor oversight led to a major failure? He would surely die without peace.
“Hey, it should just be these four. As you can see, those mythical beings were chosen from powerful souls that came here when they were created. So do you not have questions about where those souls go after they die?”
“…Soul and body together.”
Fisher was slightly stunned, remembering something, murmuring. Anebatos responded with appreciation in His tone, continuing,
“Exactly. Because mythical beings are a union of body and soul, their death truly entails complete death, where they dissipate along with their souls. The reason we previously didn’t discover the Ocean’s incarnations was simply that there were too many powerful souls in the Sea of Souls, allowing His incarnations to hide amongst them very well. But now—
“This world has gone through so many wars, the mythical beings have all vanished, and the more powerful Chaos Races have also left the Sea of Souls. This sea no longer has any places for Him to hide. As for those Chaos Races, we know their thoughts and grievances from when they previously believed in the Mother; we understood them well, and the Ocean should not hide among them.”
As Anebatos finished speaking, He suddenly shifted the conversation, saying in a low tone,
“However, if you want to ensure safety, you could eliminate them all.”
“What?”
Renee’s pupils contracted. Just as she was about to speak, Fisher shook his head, realizing that Anebatos wasn’t being serious about wanting to eliminate all the Chaos Races. He had to reassure Renee, saying, “He’s joking, Renee.”
“…”
Renee glanced up at the sky, ignoring the annoying squirrel deity. She suddenly remembered something and told Fisher, “By the way, don’t forget that besides the four incarnations of the Ocean and the Dream, there’s chaos in another area inside the barriers.”
“Oh?”
“The Demon Dynasty sealed by my predecessor. The death authority that erupted ten thousand years ago was suppressed by chaos. If we want to expel all outer chaos, what about the chaos over there? My intuition tells me that the chaos there is somehow related to the Ocean.”
“Yes, you’re right, but not much.”
Anebatos gradually retracted the golden light, contemplating for a moment before addressing Renee, “We have reviewed the Demon Dynasty multiple times. The chaos caused by that Trans, Margaret, essentially stems from Heow. In a sense, she is the true first holder of the Death Completion Manual; that’s why the chaos she caused could seamlessly seal the death authority.
“Heow’s power and Heya’s originate from the same source; Heow’s chaos sealed Heya, and at the time, the only one capable of sealing the chaos of Heow was the Ocean.”
Fisher squinted his eyes; when it came to things that could seal the Demon Dynasty, something suddenly came to mind.
“The Competitive Gate.”
He recalled that he had entered the Demon Dynasty through the Competitive Gate, during which he had seen a gender-swapped version of himself and Emhart.
Anebatos confirmed his thought, stating, “The power of those ten gates came from the Ocean. At that time, we had no idea where such immense power stemmed from. But considering what you just said, the barriers were broken from within, I have some thoughts.”
Anebatos’s aurora fell again, pointing toward the two vortices that had emerged first.
“The power of those ten gates and the force that pierced through the barriers are the same; they come from one of these four incarnations, and it’s most likely from one of the two that were born first because their chaos response was the most intense.”
Fisher understood Anebatos’s meaning, analyzing, “So, the chaos of the Demon Dynasty is essentially the chaos of these four oceanic incarnations. As long as we kill the source of this power, all the incarnations will be left with only the Heow power that is related to Heya. Moreover, Heow is already dead.”
“Exactly. That’s good news and bad news. The good news, as you mentioned, is that it can be a clean break. But the bad news is that one or more of these four incarnations possess powerful forces capable of breaching the barriers.”
“Pandora and Remiel.”
Fisher suddenly uttered the names that had been buried in the dust of history for a thousand years.
Yes, back then, these two Nineteen Rank Archangels died mysteriously. He had always thought it was the chaos that erupted in the Ideal Nation that claimed their lives. Hela had been present as well; he had simply trusted Hela too much, not realizing her apparent rank was just around sixteen or seventeen, so he hadn’t considered that aspect.
However, it seems that the ones who killed those two Archangels were probably Hela.
And combined with Pandora’s eye—
It was Hela who created that eye.
If that’s the case, then is Elizabeth’s matter related to her?
Fisher took a deep breath, standing up. The image of that smiling, blue-golden-eyed dark angel was becoming increasingly blurred in his mind.
But at this moment, did it even matter whether it was blurred or not?
He had become the last and most terrifying obstacle in this Apocalypse Prophecy, soon to become the grave digger that would bury this world. What right did Fisher have to think of anything else?
“…”
“We must find those four incarnations.”
After a long silence, Fisher calmly stated as he opened his eyes.
“This is a bit troublesome. They’ve been hiding for so long, so they must have fixed aliases, and they seldom use their powers; otherwise, they would have been exposed long ago.”
“Unless there are certain occasions when they will definitely take action and reveal their true identities.”
Fisher narrowed his eyes and said to Anebatos, “The Demon Dynasty. When I sealed the Soul Supplement Handbook, they must have been present. There should also be traces left by them in the Demon Dynasty.”
“But right now you can’t enter reality; you’ll have to rely on your girlfriends who are still in reality.”
“I’m worried they might encounter danger. If possible, please help me find a way to overcome the pursuit of death; I’ll go find them myself.”
“You really have to take everything on yourself, don’t you get tired?”
Anebatos chuckled as He poked fun at him, while Renee pursed her lips, just about to say that her incarnation could go too, but just then, Anebatos’s voice came again,
“Do you have the time and energy for that? Do you think we’re the only ones making progress? The Apocalypse Prophecy is essentially a race between life and death; even if the Ocean was previously caught off guard by the contributors of the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans, He must have reacted by now. Besides, you just revealed the information that that guy couldn’t say, and now… heh, the Ocean has probably already started acting.”
“Empty.”
Anebatos sneered, looking at the now extremely vacant Spirit Realm, and suddenly posed a question to Fisher, “Haven’t you realized that since you left that Angel’s refuge, this Spirit Realm has become eerily quiet as if dead?”
“…”
Fisher frowned, turning to look at the Spirit Realm beyond the Sea of Souls, only to see that the once surging crimson pollution was now utterly still, as if it had solidified.
Like water freezing into ice, like a living being turning into a statue, and like—
The moment of calm before the storm.
In the tranquil crimson mist, the hiding place of Gouwen.
Within that greenish protective shield, the alien concubines had long since rested, even Lady Bojiang had fallen asleep.
But Jasmine couldn’t sleep at all; after getting into bed, she secretly got back up, staring outside with her baby fat cheeks, lost in thought.
The quiet crimson mist outside made Jasmine wonder where Teacher Fisher and her parents had gone.
It had been so long; why hadn’t they returned yet?
“Knock knock knock.”
While Jasmine was in a daze, a soft sound suddenly came from the green shield, light as if knocking on a door, bringing Jasmine back to her senses as she turned her head to search for the source of the sound.
“Who’s there?”
“Whoosh whoosh whoosh.”
But the surroundings were silent, as if time had frozen, leaving only the restless Jasmine unable to make sense of it all.
Is it an illusion?
She should probably go rest; she was thinking too much…
Jasmine patted her cheeks, stood up, and tried to encourage herself.
Jasmine, don’t overthink it. Even if you’re not a mythical being yet, as long as you don’t cause trouble for Teacher Fisher and Mom and Dad, that’s good enough. Don’t overthink it.
“Looks like Fisher has discovered me.”
Just as Jasmine stood up to head back to Gouwen’s laboratory for some rest, a somewhat resigned female voice suddenly sounded from behind her, causing her body to freeze like she had been electrocuted.
“…”
She opened her mouth, her pupils dilating as she turned her head, and there, seated on the wooden structure behind her, was a beautiful woman in a white robe with short golden curls, reminiscent of an angel, casually crossed her legs and supporting her chin with a troubled expression.
“You… you.”
Upon seeing this figure, Jasmine’s mind suddenly ached, as though a familiar, terrifying, and envious silhouette had broken through numerous barriers to appear before her eyes.
But, but… she should be meeting her for the first time, right?
Yet, the name of this figure was one she had repeated countless times, making it so familiar.
She is—
“He…”
“Ah, you still remember me, Jasmine.”
The angel in front of her stared at Jasmine for a moment, then smiled wider, her blue-golden eyes filled with warmth as she said, “Or should I say, long time no see.”
“Tang Zeming Asuka?”
