Chapter 762: 62. Everything
“Buzz”
Just before the Ultimate, which flickered with points of light beyond the barrier, the Fluid Sword blade that “Renee” saw when she turned her head reflected her current expression of astonishment clearly on its smooth, mirror-like surface.
Beyond her astonished expression, behind the blade, were Fischer’s dark-haired eyes with a hint of melancholy.
In an instant, the Fluid Sword blade plunged straight into “Renee’s” back, the blade, embodying Fischer’s last strength, suddenly pierced through her chest and forcefully pressed against her abdomen, preventing her from moving, while the blade buried itself deeper within her body, bringing her closer to Fischer.
“Puchi!”
Fischer lowered his head, gasping for breath, pressing the sword blade tightly against her back, and fissures suddenly appeared on the pierced body before him, leaking drops of darkness.
As she tilted her head back, that expression of astonishment gradually faded, until a faint smile began to form on her lips, sketching out the familiar smile of Fischer on Renee’s face.
Unfortunately, at that moment, Fischer had his head bowed behind her, unable to fully see her expression; he could only hear her voice echo softly,
“Are you so certain? If you’re wrong, you’ll have to personally slay that child.”
“…”
Fischer, exhausted from gasping for breath, did not respond, but his inhales were more numerous than his exhales.
His eyes, hidden beneath his dark hair, were dim. After a long silence, feeling the dwindling essence of power before him, he seemed to scrape together the strength from within to speak,
“If I hadn’t returned to the past, if I hadn’t appeared before you… After breaking down the barrier, you would have always hidden in the shadows, quietly observing this world like those stars, as if watching a play until the curtain falls. There would be no Apocalypse Prophecy, no arrival of the Mother, and the gods would not have detected the hidden nature within the Sea of Souls. They would merely battle old enemies.”
Before he returned to the past, the identity of the ocean had been well hidden; everyone believed it to be an angel.
The stars, quietly observing this world day and night, were born from the Sea of Souls; in other words, they were truly creations born from the ocean’s power, possessing qualities similar to that of the ocean.
“The deities beyond the barrier, whether as powerful as Dream or Ramastia, have never heard of your revered name. The reason is simple: you have only ever ‘watched,’ never intervened, which left those who are extremely weak in your eyes unable to discover your existence. Only the more powerful Azanros could sense something amiss, but even he never discovered the hidden nature within the Sea of Souls from the start, otherwise he wouldn’t have imposed the barrier on Ramastia.
“But such a you, on a certain day in the past, suddenly emerged from the shadows and directly acted; you used transformation to kill two Archangels, instigating the chaos of the Ideal Nation and the birth of the Demon Dynasty; it was you who brought forth the Apocalypse Prophecy and infinite authority. From that day, you suddenly walked onto the world stage, and the only variable was… me.”
The woman with dark hair and a face resembling Renee smiled and turned to look at the bowed head of Fischer, listening to his voice that seemed to come from the depths of his soul.
In that moment, he had already understood everything.
“I had always thought that the creator of the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans made me, that she placed the precious nature within me and sent me back to a thousand years ago to appear before you, forcing you into the spotlight.
“But along the way, I saw many contradictions. From the beginning, you knew that there was authority of ‘nothingness’ within the Sea of Souls; even if it was wrapped in a soul before you, it should not have changed at all, as long as it could be extracted later. Yet, the way you looked at me back then still showed surprise.
“Either it was because that nature, once hidden in my body, could not be extracted; or you were not surprised because of the nature that appeared within me.
“I cannot see my past lives; I thought my soul was created by the contributor of the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans, but the truth is, she did not possess such great power. When she discovered me, that nature had already been wrapped in a soul. That soul was innate, not created by her.”
Fischer recalled the moment when the Subhuman Girl Enthusiast gasped while kneeling on the Sea of Souls, exhausting all her strength to extract the glowing nature.
When she saw that nature, all the small Chaos Races that seemed to protect it were scared away.
But in reality, they were not afraid of seeing that nature. From the beginning, those little creatures knew that something was hidden within the Sea of Souls; what they truly feared was that the soul wrapping the nature.
Fischer slowly lifted his head and looked at the woman before him, speaking each word firmly,
“Everyone was mistaken; you did not emerge for that nature, or rather, you did not emerge solely for that nature. You came for my soul. When you saw me back then, a thousand years ago, it was not the departure of the nature from the Sea of Souls that surprised you; it was the birth of the soul that wrapped the nature.
“Since then, you even used the long-lost other incarnation, Ch. If I’m not mistaken, this incarnation, which can see through the future, has the ability to perceive all timelines. And you hid her within the Infinite Authority. I thought Ch united with the Infinite Authority to repair it, but in fact, as long as your other incarnation was present, the Infinite Authority could suffer no damage, right?”
Renee’s appearance was exactly the same as Ch, proving that this incarnation was hidden within the Infinite Authority.
“You hid Ch within the Infinite Authority to influence Renee after reincarnation because you, who can see through time, knew that only she has the ability to send me back to the past in this world. And only I can exist in the timeline of my soul.
“Because only I return to the past, Gouwen emerges in the Ideal Nation, and he and Xu can save the contributor to the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans from a thousand years ago.”
Why did Renee know how to use chaos to disrupt time to send herself back?
Referring to the subtle influence of the Mother’s predecessor on her, the one that impacted her to some extent was the ocean’s last incarnation, Ch.
Fischer gradually realized that the concept of time for the ocean might not be perceived in the same way as other beings and existences.
If she could see through all time and results, then she must have chosen a step that could facilitate the results she wanted.
From a third-party perspective, even with the reminders from Azanros and the Subhuman Girl Enthusiast, no god could excavate the nature hidden within the Sea of Souls no matter how hard they searched.
And the luck of the Subhuman Girl Enthusiast was indeed exceptional; she not only found that nature but also unearthed the true desire of the ocean, the soul that wrapped the nature and was born anew.
In other words, the ocean must have seen that in all of time, only this single attempt by the Subhuman Girl Enthusiast, which exhausted unimaginable luck, led to the birth of that soul, forcing the ocean to comply, following this timeline step by step, leading to Fischer’s birth and sending him back to the past to meet Gouwen, who would then save the Subhuman Girl Enthusiast.
“Similarly, I deliberately prevented the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans from repairing my soul to lure you out. When my soul was repaired, and your other three incarnations had all perished, I knew it was your last incarnation that had appeared.
“Now, tell me. Where is Renee?”
Before him, Hela gradually became ethereal, her body gradually transforming into flickering points of fluorescence due to the fatal wound from Fischer’s sword.
The barrier before him also began the process of gradually closing, seeming to function as infinite authority supplemented, which was also why Fischer was anxious to inquire about Renee’s whereabouts.
“Are you so worried that I’ll eat your girl?”
Hela smiled slightly upon hearing this, and from within the barrier, a weak soul fell out—it was none other than Renee’s soul.
When Fischer realized that fragile soul existed, he remembered that due to being delivered into the barrier, the soul that wielded that authority was not inherently from the authority but was from within the barrier’s soul, so it could stand independently from the authority at that moment.
Seeing the bewildered expression on Fischer’s face, Hela’s incarnation cracked with more and more fissures, and she also looked down with a light smile, only to retort,
“Why do you think your soul is so important to me?”
Fischer looked at Hela in front of him and silently uttered one word,
“…[Feminine].”
“…”
Do you remember the ten doors that sealed the authority of death in the Demon Dynasty?
On the Competitive Gate of “Everything Opposite,” Fischer had seen the words inscribed on that door: “Feminine.”
Those ten doors were formed from the ocean’s power that erupted during the Ideal Nation period; they had now completely merged with the Demon Dynasty, severing all ties with the ocean, yet they indeed belonged to the ocean, symbolizing its power.
“I realized this the moment Hela guessed the name of the authority from my body; why does my authority, which clearly represents ‘nothingness,’ have access to the powers of other authorities? Why is the authority you sent in precisely the ‘Infinite’ authority, which represents ‘immeasurable magnitude?’ Why, during the dream, did you and I both possess the ability unaffected by dreams?”
“Why is our authority so similar, yet so different? If they originated from the same source yet revealed differently, could that explain why my authority is your treasure? I don’t know, Hela, I’m just guessing.”
“Ka Ka Ka”
Fischer shakily raised his head, looking at the face before him that seemed to be becoming less human and more like that of a [God].
At this moment, her last incarnation within the barrier had turned to ash and completely disappeared, and the entire barrier was now devoid of the ocean’s presence.
But faced with the emptiness before him, he tentatively expressed his uncertain speculation,
“I guess that if my authority is merely a vague [nothingness], then maybe your seemingly endless authority represents a completely opposite nature, seemingly connected—[existence].
“Likewise, if you are the master of souls, the great deity possessing all consciousness, conversely, the deity with the authority of [nothingness] might be an existence without consciousness, without a soul?
“I’m just thinking, the reason you’re wrapping the nature within my body in that vast Sea of Souls, besides suppressing its almost instinctive destructive force, could it be that you are waiting for the day when this nature, which shares the same root as you, grows its own consciousness from the ocean of consciousness?
“You might have been waiting for me all along.”
As Fischer uttered these final words, it felt as if all the strength in his body had been drained.
He couldn’t clarify whether he felt joy or sorrow at that moment.
He was perhaps feeling grateful, thankful that it turned out that a thousand years ago, everything she did for him was not a pretense, nor was it a covetous desire for the nature within him.
That emotion, conveyed from consciousness, was real.
“Ha”
Within the barrier, as the last incarnation of the ocean completely vanished, the entire spirit realm became exceptionally silent.
Having lost any external chaotic disturbance, and of course, those beings that once created it had also departed, at this moment, within the great barrier, there were only the citizens it had sheltered for thousands of years.
And at this moment, Fischer had one last hurdle to cross.
Fischer struggled to lift his head, looking at the barrier that was continuously being repaired. After the death of Hela’s incarnation Ch, the true self of Renee, who truly sacrificed herself to repair the barrier, also began to emerge from the gradually dissipating darkness.
What Fischer had to do was to save Renee.
There was only one method; he would temporarily leave the barrier to manipulate the scattered properties of [nothingness] outside, using those properties to replace Renee and repair the barrier.
“Ha”
Fischer tremored as he let the Fluid Sword slip from his grip, then took one step at a time towards the barrier, gently grasping Renee, who was at the edge of the barrier, pulling her back.
As the link with the Infinite Authority and the barrier was severed, the barrier, which had been healing, completely stagnated again, leaving a gap of no significant size.
In his arms, Renee’s complexion was pale; her vision was blurred, unable to see Fischer’s silhouette clearly. She could only feel him gently stroke her cheek before he set her down and walked alone towards the barrier.
“Fischer.”
From behind, Renee’s weak and pitiful call clutched Fischer’s shoulder, but he did not hesitate; he truly arrived at the edge of the barrier, for the first time looking out at the world beyond, the outside universe, without any obstruction or barrier.
He saw that outside the golden glow, those greedy, twisted, and indescribable powerful deities had completely surrounded the glowing nature. Fischer took a deep breath, then gently grasped the edge of the barrier and crossed that threshold.
“…”
“Buzz”
In just an instant, it felt as if all sound gradually faded away. The universe beyond the barrier was so cold compared to the spirit realm, with nothing but dark emptiness remaining in the void.
Fischer, whose soul was already damaged, felt dizzy, but he did not hesitate because upon entering this space, this true world beyond the barrier, he felt the attraction of the power of nothingness once again.
He gently raised his hand, and the authority that the gods had encircled but remained still suddenly began to move again, rushing towards the barrier.
“!!”
In an instant, the gods outside the barrier, those unmatched powerful and bizarre existences that Fischer had never heard of, fixed all their attention on him.
They quickly realized that this nature was closely tied to the existence that had appeared before the barrier.
Capture him!!
“Hey”
Fischer lifted the corner of his mouth slightly, and just as those deities intended to act, the property of nothingness surged forth, breaking through the seal of the soul and crashing into the heads of several deities while diving toward Fischer’s position.
The property of nothingness carried the authority of several deities and descended toward Fischer, who gritted his teeth, linking it to the barrier the moment the nothingness entered his body.
“Buzz”
Within the barrier, the entire space flickered with dazzling golden light.
Renee’s blurry vision gradually became clear under the illumination of the golden light. She looked up in disbelief at the barrier, which began to shrink, then turned to see Fischer, who was rushing back, holding the property of nothingness.
Only then did she realize that Fischer had stepped outside the barrier to ensure that her authority was not devoured.
“No, no, no”
She hurriedly summoned her remaining strength to stand up, wanting to reach out and pull Fischer back from beyond the barrier. Her body staggered as she reached out her hand, looking up, but the barrier before her had completely closed, forming a complete loop.
“Buzz!!”
At that moment, it felt as if the light of creation exploded once more, illuminating this universe brightly.
Fischer dragged his heavy body, but even with all his might, trying to return to the barrier, he could not reach it.
He turned his head to look behind him at the countless powerful figures obstructing his return with their authority; from the cold and silent universe, he finally heard his own panting.
“Ha”
Fischer’s contracted pupils gradually calmed, but in this final moment, he couldn’t help but look back at the closed barrier, watching as Renee, who was disappearing tearfully within the translucent barrier.
Until that barrier closed completely, enveloping the entire world in a golden light, from the outside, Fischer discovered that several large characters were inscribed with the writing of some deity on the barrier, seemingly put there by Ramastia.
It read,
【New World】
Just looking at that golden glowing line of text, with his body riddled with wounds, Fischer finally couldn’t hold back as his expression trembled.
In a pitch-black and cold setting, he felt a powerful presence behind him, limbs, or perhaps some other entity grasping him, dragging him back into the dark expanse of space.
But he was only thinking, thinking about what the world would be like when everything finally calmed down.
Sometimes, in a moment of tranquility, he might not be able to resist pondering what he would do once everything settled.
He might want to revisit the vast grasslands and jungles of the Southern Continent, to record the creations that predecessors had not discovered, to document the traces left by primitive civilizations and what they have become today.
He might also wish to explore the cold yet strikingly beautiful Northern Region, to see how the once glorious Parasol Trees rose to prominence, and to learn how their merchant ships navigated the icy ocean.
Ah, of course, there are also the beautiful Rainbow Wing Whales that he has never seen.
Of course, most likely, he would stay in Nali, the homeland he once opposed.
He held no disdain for the land; it contained all his memories, and the people he cared about.
A person who lost their eyes, who has not yet met him again, and whom he has yet to speak to, was waiting for him.
Ah.
The world that finally calms down should be a wonderful world.
Unfortunately…
In that world, there would be no self who had sacrificed everything for it.
Yet even so, it should be worth it.
In Fischer’s peripheral vision, enclosed by the barrier, that world inscribed with characters suddenly vanished entirely from the universe.
Even space and time could not detect its presence, disappearing right before Fischer’s eyes.
The hidden great power could transform anything concealed into [nonexistence], so after all this time, if it hadn’t been for the barrier being breached from within, it wouldn’t have provoked the external chaotic assault.
Fischer’s remaining body was dragged back into the cold universe by the deities, and after witnessing that beautiful new world completely vanish, his soul seemed to grow increasingly fatigued, making him indifferent to the countless horrific existences before him.
He simply felt a little tired and wanted to rest for a while.
Fischer thought, as his soul peacefully closed its eyes.
Unbeknownst to him, as the deities poured their power into his body, attempting to extract the nature of [nothing] once again, they suddenly found that the originally radiant and enveloping nature of [nothing] had turned pitch black.
Like an eclipse, layers of impenetrable darkness erupted from that light.
If the original glowing force that devoured everything was called [nothing], then what does this thick, seemingly endless darkness mean?
What is happening?
Watching that property that had completely transformed into a sphere of the deepest black in the universe, the gods, ignorant and curious, were at a loss for a reason.
But perhaps it was not an illusion; the entire universe around them seemed to grow darker, even the shadows of the scattered bright stars began to be consumed, enveloping everything in an incredibly thick darkness.
Amid the unseen, a faint melody rang out, causing the innumerable deities present to suddenly feel a shiver emanating from deep within their authority.
It seemed that something was approaching from the darkness.
“Swish swish.”
The vast universe at this moment transformed into an ocean, stretching across an unknown expanse of time, where the sounds of liquid splashing against the shoreline mixed with that intangible song, echoing in the hearts of thousands of deities.
Then, they simply watched as the closed-eyed Fischer floated uncontrollably, suspended beneath a pair of blurry, reflection-like blue-gold eyes.
“Dear.”
From the darkness, a viscous, indescribable substance gently caressed Fischer’s cheek, causing the slumbering him to frown slightly.
“Hehe. So cute.”
On the fringes, some deities had already realized the gravity of the situation and turned to flee, but every path beyond the stars had been shrouded in darkness; the bolder ones violently summoned the resonances of their powers, attempting to engage in a decisive battle; while more ignorant ones gazed inquisitively into the dark depths, attempting to uncover the truth of that unknown existence.
But regardless of their intentions…
Beyond the original barrier, at this moment, it was all silence and darkness, nothing to be seen, nothing to be heard.
Only a faint, almost imperceptible song echoed in the depths of the universe.
(End of the chapter)
