Chapter 758: 58. Incarnation
“Splutter!”
The “Bodhisattva,” resembling a great sage and wise, looked down with kind eyes at Fisher, whose arm was trembling slightly in his hand. At the same time, countless twisted tentacles sprouted inexplicably from that palm, brushing against Fisher’s face, thirstily savoring his taste, as if already able to appreciate the essence of his nature from the surface of his body.
“Alright. Let me see what kind of secrets are hidden within your body, Fisher.”
Dream smiled, then pulled Fisher closer to its gigantic and beautiful face. However, Fisher felt increasingly uncomfortable as he neared Dream—the chaotic source of its being.
He gritted his teeth, glancing at Ramastia and the other gods suppressed by the crimson power within it.
The gap in the barrier behind him had been widened enough by Ouyun for Dream to pass through. As that outer deity slowly entered, the entire spirit realm began to tremble, giving Fisher the feeling that the whole world was collapsing.
This world was a shaky building, and now it was struggling to accommodate the entering Dream.
“Crack crack crack crack!”
The ever-expanding Ultimate behind Fisher made his consciousness clearer. At this moment, Ouyun shattered the barrier again, sending Dream’s conscious authority into the inside of the barrier.
Indeed, the barrier had not completely shattered and still existed. However, the fundamental nature of the barrier’s collapse meant that the ocean outside the barrier could also send conscious authority inside; even though the ocean itself was more massive than Dream, making it harder to enter the barrier, it was still possible.
The so-called use of the barrier to fend off the ocean was merely a fool’s dream.
So, Dream was…
“You’re betting?”
Fisher narrowed his eyes, looking at the immense “Bodhisattva” before him, suddenly saying, “You’re betting that the nature within me can help you resist the ocean?”
“…”
Dream paused, holding Fisher, suddenly silent.
Meanwhile, at the Ultimate behind him, Dream’s true form accelerated its action of entering the barrier once again. It seemed necessary for its true body to enter the barrier to thoroughly research Fisher’s nature.
However, hearing Fisher’s words, Dream’s expression was playful, and it openly admitted,
“Smart, but you just don’t understand yet. This conflict has already turned into a deadlock for both me and this little world. The ocean doesn’t care about the grievances between us and Ramastia; in its eyes, we are merely ants in its way. When Heow discovers your existence and shares it, we will inevitably be left with no place to bury our bodies. As of now, I have no way out.
“Knowledge can be the curse that deities pay with their lives for this universe. Perhaps the ocean’s destruction of this world isn’t when it steals the Sea of Souls, but when it discovers that you hold that precious nature within yourself.”
“Rumble!”
The barrier behind expanded further, and Dream’s massive body finally squeezed into the shaky barrier.
“We can make a deal.”
Fisher furrowed his brow. After a long contemplation, he looked at Dream, whose momentum was rising yet again, suddenly speaking.
“Oh? A deal?”
Upon hearing this, Dream became interested, kindly picking Fisher up in front of its immense eyes.
“Since you and this world are both trapped in the ocean’s deadlock, becoming prisoners within the barrier, at least for now, we are just grasshoppers on the same rope.”
Dream’s Bodhisattva face grew increasingly kind, but the underlying crimson color in its eyes thickened, and it simply said,
“Continue.”
“I carry the blessing of Azanros; when touching the barrier, He informed me of the method to repair it. You are willing to join Ouyun to break into the barrier and take the risk of the ocean following right behind. Repairing the barrier will provide everyone with a sense of security.”
“Interesting. What do you want?”
Fisher took a deep breath, looking into a dark corner behind him, saying to Dream,
“The ocean has more than one incarnation within the barrier. If you kill all its incarnations to save this world, I will give you the method to repair the barrier and the nature within me. Right now, that nature is within me, and I have a way to keep you from researching it.”
Did Fisher really know how to prevent Dream from researching his nature?
He didn’t, but he bet that Dream also didn’t know how to study the nature within him, especially since Dream had only tried to invade Fisher’s body using power in Jasmine’s dream, but ended up disappearing without a trace.
He bet that the now all-in Dream was actually fearful, so it had to trust him.
Dream smiled and fell silent, seemingly in contemplation.
“Crack crack crack crack!”
At this moment, its enormous crimson twisted form was struggling to penetrate the Ultimate’s gap.
As described by Ramastia, the authority of Dream’s true body was undoubtedly powerful; simply by appearing in the spirit realm, all sounds and every existence seemed to be contaminated by Dream.
Yet the Ultimate gap seemed to have reached its limit; because Dream’s true body was too powerful, even though Ouyun had already expanded the gap, it was still insufficient to support its passage, and there was hesitation about whether it could continue destroying the barrier to expand the Ultimate.
Once the barrier shattered, they would all be doomed.
Unconsciously, a drop of cold sweat rolled down Fisher’s forehead, while Ramastia, heavily suppressed by Dream, gazed at the crimson mist gathering at the Ultimate gate. Using Teresa’s voice, it softly said to Fisher,
“Don’t trust Dream. It is a god without the shadow of civilization; its heart has always only had itself. Thus, its power is the manifestation of its heart’s dreams. Don’t trust Dream; it is just a false god now. We might be able to fight back together.”
“Rumble!”
As Ramastia and Anebatos struggled violently, the crimson mist surrounding them began to thin, but soon it became weighty again, causing Ramastia’s body to topple once more.
Are there any remaining strengths?
At this moment, Dream could simultaneously suppress Ramastia, Anebatos, Dalasgon, along with Fisher at the 20th rank, and how much strength was left within its false deity body remained unclear.
Thus, Fisher proposed killing the ocean’s incarnations as a deal, testing its limits.
Dream didn’t reply, just watching Fisher, or rather looking at the Ultimate that had expanded more than twice after its true body entered.
Outside the barrier, darkness sprinkled with stars was revealed; that was the true universe, that was outside the world.
At this moment, the space outside the barrier was exceptionally silent; the vacuum without a medium seemed this way naturally, but more frightening than silence was a sense of oppressive expectation, as if a presence like the Grim Reaper was quietly watching that gap, waiting to enter and settle scores with Dream for its boldness.
After a long silence, Dream spoke again,
“Hehe. You little brats have suffered from the poison of civilization, which is why you violated our contract, hoarding the opportunity we sought for so long to witness the secret. And that’s not enough—next, you stole the ocean’s treasure. Is this the radiance of civilization?”
Dream smiled at Fisher, who remained silent, and nodded to him, saying,
“Alright, I agree. We’ll make a contract with two requests; I will first fulfill one, and you pay the price; then you fulfill one, and I will pay the price.
“I’ll first kill the ocean’s incarnation, and you will fulfill your promise by providing the method to repair the barrier; afterward, you will give me the nature, and upon successful research, I will fulfill my promise to save this world.”
Without hesitation, Fisher nodded in agreement, then smiled slightly at Dream, raising his gaze to the dark sky, where Renee was entangled with the ocean’s incarnation.
Dream smiled, and thousands of pale arms instantly materialized behind it, some plucking, some lifting, as it carried Fisher soaring toward that direction.
At the same time, in its palm, Fisher seemed to awkwardly extract Emhart from his embrace, watching him panic-stricken as he looked at the immense false deity beside him. Fisher feigned calm and patted the spine of his book, then aimed the book cover at a direction in the darkness below.
Emhart thought he was going to be thrown away, but realized Fisher was gripping his spine tightly, merely directing him to look in that direction.
When his single eye fixed on it, he saw Xu and Gouwen floating nearby in the void of the spirit realm, organized by Dalasgon.
“…”
He widened his eyes, then turned to look at Fisher behind him, the two exchanging a tacit glance.
Then, as Dream dragged Fisher closer to the dark spot in the sky, Fisher’s hand shook, and Emhart was unexpectedly left suspended in mid-air.
About the size of a book, Emhart was nearly as dust before the thousand-foot-tall false deity; it only smiled, focusing all attention on the blackness floating ahead.
That was the most authentic aura of the ocean.
“Ocean!!”
It did not open its mouth, but the thousands of hands behind it grew mouths and eyes, expressing themselves toward the darkness.
The resonating sounds spread throughout the spirit realm, while thick blackness began to sprout red lotus flowers that seemed to come from the other side.
But the next moment, the lotus that had just bloomed was as if swallowed whole by the darkness, transforming into a thick black liquid.
Then, it seemed the darkness noticed Dream rushing toward it, clenching Fisher. Although the incarnation of Hela had just been killed and seemed to not have fully restored yet, the instinct of the uninhabited darkness unleashed its inherent powerful force to counterattack.
At the same time and moment, in reality, within the Demon Dynasty.
“Passing through this door leads to it.”
“This door…”
“Ah, you guessed it right; it’s all chaos forged from a thousand years ago. It seems that the power to seal this Demon Dynasty and Heeya comes not from Heow, but from the ocean.”
The Duke of Peach walked expressionlessly in front of Valentina, Alagina, and Raphael, without bringing anyone else along.
This battle involved high ranks, and it would just drag the others down even if they came.
Actually, Alagina shouldn’t be here; she had to personally carry the mechanism engraved with the slime mark into this place, because the ten gates of the Demon Dynasty would cut off the signal of the mechanism. In case of an emergency, she could control the mechanism to take them to escape, after all, others wouldn’t be able to operate such high-tech devices.
Raphael touched her abdomen, watching as the Duke of Peach effortlessly opened the “Competitive Gate,” feeling that having such an ancient creature alive for ten thousand years leading this journey made it much easier, and there was a fast way to open the Competitive Gate.
After all, Raphael had heard Jasmine talk about the difficulties she and Fisher faced when entering the Demon Dynasty.
Thinking of this, she touched her abdomen and raised her gaze at the words on the Competitive Gate that resembled a mirror, unconsciously muttering,
“Fifth Sea.”
“Negative?”
Valentina also looked up at the huge text on the door and quietly asked the Duke of Peach,
“Are these words engraved by demons, Duke?”
“Shouldn’t be.” The Duke of Peach seemed to see words here for the first time, pondering for a moment before choosing to give up on thinking. “I don’t know if it has anything to do with the ocean. Forget it, let’s go; the Lord Divine has said that the ocean’s incarnation is hiding in Baemon’s palace.”
“Rumble!”
Just as they entered the Demon Dynasty, before they could finish speaking, the entire dynasty began to shake.
“What happened? Did she find out we’re here?”
The Duke of Peach frowned, scanning the surrounding magma; her fair nose twitched twice before shaking her head,
“Doesn’t seem like it. More like something’s wrong outside. Moreover, this scent—spirit realm pollution? Wait, how can this place even smell of spirit realm pollution? Unless—”
As she thought, Raphael and Valentina simultaneously spoke to the Duke of Peach,
“Something happened in the spirit realm?!”
“Ah, who knows, it should be.”
“Then why wait? Let’s hurry! If something happened to Fisher—”
The Duke of Peach helplessly scratched the back of her head, glancing at the two agitated ladies, and had to quicken her pace, leading them toward Baemon’s palace.
After experiencing the earlier turmoil, the entire Demon Dynasty appeared exceptionally quiet, all the demon gods like Barbatos had fallen into slumber. Therefore, Raphael did not get the chance to meet Eil again; it was uncertain whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, but they could at least make it to the gate of Baemon’s palace.
At this moment, Baemon’s palace was tightly closed, the mirror-like doors engraved with the riddle Fisher had seen more than once, which read,
“I am me of me, I am thought of thought.”
“I am the song that cannot be listened to; I am the eye that cannot be perceived.”
“May I ask, what am I?”
The Duke of Peach stroked her chin and softly spoke,
“Soul.”
“Crack crack crack crack!”
Like a correct password, the doors gently opened, revealing a dim scene inside.
The Duke of Peach’s nose twitched slightly; snapping her fingers, the peach blossom on her head brightened and flew into the space, beginning to search for the whereabouts of the ocean’s incarnation.
As the main door of Baemon’s palace opened, the lights inside automatically brightened, revealing the spacious interior, and numerous frames hung in front, meticulously decorated with oil paintings.
Each oil painting depicted scenes closely related to Fisher.
“Twelve volumes of oil paintings; each volume has your name.”
Upon seeing this scene, the three ladies standing behind the Duke of Peach simultaneously turned pale, as if these paintings silently mocked and cursed the three who entered.
One could only say they were highly insulting.
“Alright, alright.”
“…”
Fortunately, the wise Duke of Peach averted control.
She merely cleared her throat, drawing the attention of the three ladies behind her back to reality, looking at the peach blossom flying back from deep within the palace; her complexion looked a bit unpleasant,
“Nothing? How could that be?”
It was Raphael, still cradling her abdomen, who first snapped back to reality. She looked at the murmuring Duke of Peach and asked,
“Found nothing?”
“Yes, my peach blossom has searched the entire palace—dark passages, hidden rooms… and found nothing at all.”
Valentina surveyed the surroundings, speculating, “Is it possible that it knew it was exposed and moved beforehand?”
“If that were the case, it should have left traces. Lord Ramastia said this incarnation is very weak, but possesses the ability to create countless independent avatars. Small avatars should be very evident moving inside the Demon Dynasty. Yet, throughout the way, we have not seen a single little demon.”
“…”
The entire palace fell silent for a moment, but Alagina suddenly seemed to realize something and turned to look at the great door behind them, then softly said,
“The mechanism’s signal is usable.”
“What?”
Valentina reacted the biggest; she hurried to Alagina’s side, leaving Raphael in a daze.
After all, Raphael was just a dragon from the Southern Continent who had only learned to use a phone not long ago; she saw the mechanism for the first time in Saint Nali. She completely didn’t understand what this meant and had to ask,
“So, does the mechanism having a signal mean anything?”
“Originally, it shouldn’t be possible to receive the mechanism’s signal within the Demon Dynasty due to the隔绝作用 of those ten gates. But now it can be received, which indicates that we might not actually be in the Demon Dynasty right now? No, wait…”
Hearing this, the Duke of Peach narrowed her eyes, looking at the tightly closed, mirror-like doors, then stroking her chin, she tentatively said,
“We should go outside again.”
“Crack crack crack!”
They stepped out of Baemon’s palace once more, returning to within the Demon Dynasty. As they just walked out of the mirror-like door, the light from Alagina’s mechanism disappeared again.
“Just as I thought; it’s this door.”
Looking at Alagina’s mechanism, the Duke of Peach suddenly realized it had to do with the door sealing Baemon’s palace. Then she once again approached the door and faced the riddle that seemed to imply something,
“Was the previous answer wrong?”
The Duke of Peach rubbed her chin, struggling with the answer internally.
Meanwhile, Valentina pressed her lips together, trying to step up to the door, opening her mouth,
“Heidi Lin.”
“…”
No response.
Valentina felt a bit disappointed, while Raphael rubbed her abdomen and thoughtfully said quietly,
“Ocean.”
“Humm.”
This time, it was as though another correct answer had been input; the door gently opened, and the interior looked vastly different from what they had seen before.
The palace’s interior was almost completely empty, engulfed in darkness, as if all light in the universe would be devoured by the dark that covered the entire palace like the ocean, boundless and unfathomable.
Only in the center of the palace hall was there one source of light.
That was a baby carriage flickering with sparkling glow.
Clearly a symbol meant to nurture life, but at this moment it was empty, looking particularly bizarre.
“Baby carriage?”
Valentina murmured, while Raphael subconsciously reached out to touch her abdomen again.
The Duke of Peach, however, was very vigilant, even beginning to suspect whether the ocean’s incarnation would suddenly jump out from the baby carriage. Could it be that each independent incarnation had been birthed from this very baby carriage?
“…Let me see if there are any living creatures inside?”
The Duke of Peach took a deep breath and retrieved the glowing peach blossom on her head, but before she could release it, Raphael summoned the Dragonblood spear from her hand,
“No need, Duchess, it’s here.”
The Duke of Peach slightly startled, raising her gaze forward, discovering a middle-aged woman dressed in the attire of Nali’s Inner Court, with neatly styled black hair and a smile, quietly standing behind the baby carriage, seemingly supporting it as if a baby was sleeping within.
Only there was nothing inside.
“Ocean’s incarnation.”
The Duke of Peach squinted, looking at the smiling Nali Inner Court official.
From behind this Nali Inner Court official, shadows began to emerge from indeterminate times.
There were shadows of both genders, varying ages, different attire, and races, all blending into the dark background, seemingly just shadows. Except for the almost identical smiles on their faces and those extremely bright blue-golden scattered pupils in the darkness, they were fundamentally distinct.
Yet, Valentina felt a wave of discomfort and covered her mouth because she saw a familiar face in the darkness.
“Heidi Lin.”
“Young miss.”
All incarnations spoke simultaneously to Valentina in unison, like a chorus, making her breath tremble more.
The Duke of Peach in front did not turn around but sighed lightly, then silently raised her hand, showing the increasingly dangerous pink peach blossom in her palm.
At the same time, her expression turned cool as she looked at the shadows standing in the darkness, coldly saying,
“Ocean, the time for your incarnation’s death has come, do you know?”
As soon as she finished speaking, a terrifying beam of light burst from the peach blossom in the Duke of Peach’s hand, piercing through the shadows.
“Rumble!”
The leading Diane was directly smashed in half, and countless dismembered limbs flew about behind her. Just as Lord Ramastia’s intelligence indicated, this incarnation was the weakest.
Yet, unexpectedly for the Duke of Peach, those shattered incarnations, even while lying on the ground, still maintained their smiles. They not only did not die but were also continuously regenerating.
“Oh? It’s a pity, elf; as long as the other incarnation in the spirit realm isn’t dead, our other incarnations will never die, including consciousness.”
The resurrected Diane reattached her severed head and stood again beside the intact baby carriage, smiling meaningfully as she spoke.
In the spirit realm, the ocean’s incarnation, within that darkness.
Renee breathed heavily as she drew back the moonlight spreading from her hands, looking at the slowly resurrecting golden-haired woman emerging from the shadows.
That was the ocean’s incarnation that had been killed by Dream earlier, Hela.
Renee, panting, resigned herself to sitting in the darkness, helplessly looking at Hela who reappeared, and said to her,
“You finally showed up; my strength can’t break your incarnation, and your incarnation can’t deal with me. You only intend to keep me here, preventing me from helping Fisher, right?”
“Sorry, it wasn’t my intention to leave you here because this incarnation had just been killed. As for why you were brought here…”
Hela smiled helplessly, glancing at the cold-faced Renee, then asked with a smile,
“Silly child, you don’t really think that a thousand years ago when I sent you into the barrier, it was just to experiment with the nature of this secret barrier, do you?”
Renee blinked, then frowned,
“Heh, Fisher was right; every word from you is a lie, not to be trusted.”
“Well, whether you believe me doesn’t matter because fundamentally, even before the birth of this barrier… no, even at the moment Azanros was born, I understood him and the things he could do perfectly.”
Hela made a non-committal comment; she only smiled and continued,
“It seems Fisher hasn’t told anyone the method to repair the barrier because he’s essentially kind and wouldn’t do so unless absolutely necessary.
“The method to repair the barrier is singular: to sacrifice the authority of all deities within the barrier, equivalent to the lives of all deities inside the barrier.”
Renee opened her mouth, looking at the smiling Hela, denying,
“Fisher has no feelings for them. Rationally speaking, all this trouble arises from Ramastia and the others.”
Yet as she spoke, her expression suddenly froze.
Yes, Fisher indeed had no recognition of these deities; if that’s the case, he should have stated the method for repairing the barrier outright.
Unless…
Unless…
Hela’s smile deepened as she teasingly approached Renee, softly saying,
“Unless merely the power of Ramastia, Dalasgon, Anebatos, Heeya, and Ouyun isn’t enough, and my offered power needs to be added just to barely suffice.”
“I—”
“And now, Dream is about to enter the barrier. It’s pinning all its hopes on the nature residing within Fisher, for it also knows that upon learning the existence of that nature, there’s no way out. Fisher is a rational being, but this time, he chose to bet everything.”
Hela squatted down in front of Renee, softly saying,
“He wants to use Dream’s power to replace your authority to repair the barrier; for this, he chooses to stake the nature within him as a bet. He may have realized that when that nature leaves him, he will probably die without a grave.
“But in return, you will survive.”
Hela’s eyes held a hint of unspoken meaning as she said this.
(End of chapter)
