Chapter 755: 55. Your Role
“Uwaah! Save me, Teacher Fisher! Uuugh!”
Above the sky, Renee’s desperate cries echoed, seemingly contrasting sharply with Asuka’s merciless actions before her.
Fisher couldn’t help but look up into the half sky, but could only see the enormous buildings suspended over Tokyo, completely unable to spot Renee and Hela.
“Teacher Fisher!”
At the same time, Asuka, with her long black hair hanging down, slowly raised her head. Her loose and ancient robe couldn’t conceal her slightly emaciated body. At this moment, her movements were somewhat stiff, as if she were a rusty part not quite fitting together.
Yet, even so, she reached out her hand, step by step moving closer to Fisher.
“The Ocean… intentionally brought the Moon here. She knows you would save the Moon, so she bound herself to her, forcing you to save the Ocean.”
Listening to Asuka’s now-raspy voice, Fisher was momentarily stunned. He turned to look at Asuka, just as he was about to say something, Asuka’s stiff body had already arrived before him.
He saw her gently raise a finger to his heart, as if she could foresee the future, and spoke,
“‘First put Renee down, she has nothing to do with this.’ You want to say this, right, Teacher Fisher? But in reality, perhaps even the Ocean doesn’t know that you still have a bit of concern for her in your heart, right?”
“Asuka, you…”
Asuka’s face, concealed beneath her black hair, revealed only her nose and the unsettlingly smiling lips below. Her crimson eyes shone bright amongst the strands of black hair as she continued,
“In these ten thousand years, I have invented many forms of magic that you, Teacher Fisher, do not know of. But these are not important. Do you know what I am thinking right now, Teacher?
“Actually, I don’t want to save either of them. I want you, Teacher Fisher, to stay here alone. As for everyone else involved, I want them to die. If they die in the dream, they will truly die.”
“Boom!”
As soon as Asuka finished speaking, Fisher felt her hand, which was pressed against his heart, suddenly become soft.
He glanced down and noticed Asuka’s right hand melting away, slowly seeping into his clothes.
In an instant, an extreme chill and a terrifying sensation surged through Fisher’s heart.
But this reaction didn’t last long, as the next moment, Asuka’s right hand recoiled as if it had touched something as hot as the sun. She gasped and looked down only to find that her right hand had completely vanished as if it had never existed.
Meanwhile, the countless upside-down buildings outside also came to a halt in mid-air due to this sudden change, clearly indicating that this intrusion into Fisher’s body had significantly harmed Asuka.
“Ugh!”
“Asuka!”
Just as Asuka bowed her head, covering her hand, Fisher, concerned, wanted to step forward to check on her. However, he suddenly heard Jasmine’s cry coming from the mirror still standing in front of him.
“Run! Teacher Fisher!!”
Jasmine?
Fisher turned his head and saw Jasmine anxiously pressed against the mirror, as if that mirror represented a chasm separating two worlds, preventing her from coming through, leaving only her voice for him to hear.
“She’s not—she is…”
“Crack, crack!”
As Jasmine spoke, the entire mirror suddenly shattered, reflecting countless anxious faces of Jasmine in the fragments. She pounded on the mirror desperately, but it seemed she could see nothing, not even her own more urgent cries.
Fisher’s pupils dilated and turned back, while Asuka’s right hand was magically covered in crimson mist. When the mist faded, her hand was restored to its original state.
No.
What is she?
Isn’t she Asuka?
“Teacher Fisher, it has already been ten thousand years. I thought our fates would never cross again, so I entrusted everything to the Moon, hoping it could take my place to protect humanity and witness when you, Teacher Fisher, arrived in this world. But I am still not willing.
Asuka lowered her head, her black hair swaying slightly with the motion, trembling just like her tone.
“I truly feel so unwilling. I’ve waited so long, and it seemed I was about to meet you, yet it is all going to waste. I have done so much for you, Teacher Fisher, whether it be teaching humans magic, protecting them before the Moon, or regulating the Trans. But everything I have sacrificed only serves to lay a beautiful foundation for you and others, as if I were born to be a stepping stone for others.
“Is my birth merely an obstacle in my mother’s pursuit of wealth? Is my coming merely a mistake in my father’s quest for enlightenment? Is my wait only to provide rich nourishment for you and others to grow beautifully?”
滴滴答答.
As her words flowed like a thunderous bell, drops of crimson liquid flowed down her cheeks, collecting heavily at her chin and falling to the ground.
“If reality’s fate is too cruel for a small existence like me to change, then can my wishes not be fulfilled in dreams? Teacher Fisher, for me, reality is an endless nightmare. Therefore, I want to turn this place into a utopia where I can achieve everything.”
Is she really not Asuka?
The pain and despair that had been waited for so long, the doubts about the meaning of her existence.
Perhaps it wasn’t Fisher who had let her down, for time had played a trick on him. For the long decades since his birth, he never knew this girl’s name and had no idea a fool had been waiting for him to come.
A lifetime of merely a few decades, yet she had waited unknown how many lifetimes.
Perhaps, just as she said, fate had played a trick on her.
She clearly didn’t need the best mother in the world, yet her mother wouldn’t even spare her a smile; she clearly didn’t need the strongest father but her father would rather chant scripture to the Buddha than help her walk out of her mental barrier.
It seemed as though all bad things had befallen her, so when she sought a return at this moment, the entire world couldn’t repay her.
If the dream is not lifted, Hela would take away his attributes here, and the entire dream would corrode reality until the barriers could no longer support it. At that point, everyone outside would die, and the world itself would perish.
Fisher had reasons to leave this dream, with goals opposing hers, thus becoming one opposing Fate.
Clearly hearing her tragic question, Fisher wanted to say something to comfort her, but he couldn’t speak due to his goals.
If she were someone who could be comforted by words to abandon her stubbornness, then she wouldn’t have waited for Fisher for a full ten thousand years without letting go.
“…”
Fisher’s pupils trembled slightly, but silence remained in his mouth.
After a long time, he called her name once more,
“Asuka.”
At the same time, from all directions, or rather, the entire world began to stir, seemingly locking in on the man before her to prevent him from escaping.
But alongside the tremors brought by the raging storm, at this moment, Fisher bizarrely felt his rank beginning to rise, or rather, fluctuate.
And this was the symbol of the entire dream’s instability.
However, the dream did not collapse, which means this place remained closed to the outside Ramastia.
Hela’s plan was about to succeed.
“Ahhh! Fisher, save me!!!”
At that moment, Fisher felt a flutter in his chest, and then a panic-stricken book protruded out, its eyes widened as if time had paused at the moment just before pollution consumed everything.
“Fisher, so you’re here! No, wait, I’m—”
He looked at Fisher and then back at Asuka, who had her head bowed. His mouth dropped open as he murmured,
“Who is this? Which new thing do you know ahhhh!”
“Teacher Fisher!!”
Before he could finish his sentence, it was as if the final straw had broken the camel’s back and ignited Asuka instantly.
Asuka’s crimson eyes sparkled violently, and Fisher hurriedly reached out to grab Emhart, while the entire building began to collapse under Asuka’s will.
Fisher barely relied on the rising rank to maneuver through the debris of the building, his face cold as he gritted his teeth while looking down at Emhart nestled in his arms.
“Emhart, if this wasn’t the first time we met after your awakening, I would really want to dig your tongue out from your book cover. You talk recklessly every day, but the consequences still fall on me.”
Emhart shouted in grievance,
“How was I supposed to know this would lead to a life-or-death situation? Hey, wait, it seems every time it’s similar when you’re with women; it often turns into a life-or-death struggle.”
Fisher patted his spine, the howling wind blew his robe chaotically, and he felt danger creeping up on him. Turning his head to look at Asuka in the distance, he found her already floating in mid-air, staring intently at him, poised to consume him entirely and leave him trapped here forever.
“Tsk, Renee is still in her hands.”
“No, your rank has returned, and I’ve awakened. How could that poor girl still be in her grasp?”
Fisher, slightly stunned by Emhart’s reminder, suddenly asked,
“Did you suddenly become smarter after a nap?”
“Who said that?! The great Sir Book has always been this smart!”
If Renee had already awakened, then his immediate priority was to focus on Asuka before him, seeking to lift the dream as a first step to escape his current predicament.
But why was this precarious dream still holding together when it was so on the verge of collapse? Was there something constantly supporting this dream?
This dream was like the pollution from the Spirit Realm; no wonder the gods had no way to deal with it, only able to watch it rampage through the Spirit Realm for thousands of years.
Don’t panic. Jasmine must have wanted to tell me something. She is also the one who governs this dream; what she wants to say must be about the key point.
“Bang!”
Fisher landed back on the ground after a few rounds, looking up at the sky, at Asuka floating in mid-air with her hair flowing, and saw her gently raise her hand as layers of Magic Runes appeared out of thin air.
The speed of inscribing magic was beyond human imagination, enough to make any suffering magician at that time jump off a building upon witnessing it.
Fisher glanced over and noticed all of them were medieval versions, with most starting from the dual-ring magic above the fourteenth ring.
“Teacher Fisher, it’s okay. In the dream, you will never die. So, for now, be quiet. Especially that annoying book in your arms.”
“…”
Upon hearing Asuka’s words from above, Emhart trembled further, burrowing deeper into Fisher’s embrace, hurriedly saying,
“Fisher, save me!”
“…”
Fisher suddenly froze, as if he had realized an obvious contradiction.
Just a moment ago, when Asuka said she wanted to kill Renee and Hela, it didn’t sound like this at all.
At this moment, suspended in mid-air, Renee, who was tightly bound by steel bars, was almost crying hoarse. She looked panicked and helpless down at the thousand-foot-high drop, fearing that if the steel bars were unsteady, she would fall.
With tears streaming down her face, she gazed at Hela, who was also tightly bound but still holding a paper bag, and anxiously whispered,
“Hela, what should we do? I’m really scared! What if I fall and die?”
“Don’t be afraid, you won’t die.”
“Really?”
“Yes, because I’m here.”
“That’s great! Hela, you’re really amazing! Uuugh.”
Renee was moved beyond words at this moment, unaware that her current plight was all thanks to the woman before her. Or rather, part of it was.
“Crack, crack, crack!”
“Uwaah! Teacher Hela! It… it… it moved again! I won’t fall, right?”
During the time Fisher and Asuka argued beneath, the steel bars that confined the two of them also began to tremble slightly, causing Renee’s complexion to pale further. Although this brought her a little closer to Hela, just as she got closer, she instinctively clung to Hela, crying out loudly.
The two were bound by steel bars at their waists, which was why they had the strength to make movements with their hands.
Hela smiled slightly and gently patted her head with the hand that wasn’t holding the paper bag, softly saying,
“Alright, alright, stop crying. If it weren’t for you being here, Fisher would probably be too busy with her to care and wouldn’t have given me so much time to prepare and make this dream more precarious.”
“Hey, Teacher Hela, what are you talking about?”
Renee, with snot and tears, lifted her face from Hela’s embrace, only to see Hela smiling and shaking her head, and then she inexplicably produced a camera and raised it towards the tearful Renee.
“Nothing much, look here, Renee, cheese!”
“Huh?”
“Boom!”
“Three, two, one.”
As Hela leisurely counted down and pressed the shutter, amidst the precariousness of the entire dream, Renee’s tear-filled eyes slowly cleared, as if suddenly waking up groggily from a dream at six or seven in the morning.
But after all, she woke up.
And with all the details of the dream.
So, after a brief moment of one or two seconds of thinking, Renee’s tear-streaked face indicated that she suddenly understood everything, recalling the various experiences she had in the dream during this time.
What a complete defeat at Jasmine’s hands, a romantic failure.
What being guided by a romantic rival in dating experience, only to be treated like a pet and almost made to pledge allegiance to her as a godmother.
What about Fisher eloping with Jasmine to Tokyo, while she could only kneel down, furious, shouting, “Don’t do that!” and then being manipulated by Hela to act as a shield in Tokyo.
Thinking of this, Renee’s face instantly flushed.
Not just her face, even her eyes turned red, as if she could kill.
She tremblingly raised her face, looking at Hela, who was leisurely putting away the camera, and checking the photos she had just taken, her resentment surged.
Unexpectedly, Hela seemed unflustered, instead smiling as she gazed at Renee, who was on the brink of a breakdown, and said,
“So, how do you feel about these two months, which uniquely belong to you, Renee~?”
Renee’s lips trembled furiously, and the previous tears still glistened on her face.
Gritting her teeth, the moonlight around her grew ever brighter.
“I’ll kill you! You bastard!”
(End of Chapter)
