novelraw Chapter 572: Gate of Victory
Chapter 572: Gate of Victory
When the Lord of Fate uttered these words, even Holland behind her—who had an absolute lack of interest in anything besides seeking his own death—turned his head to look at Fisher. It seemed he also held a certain degree of interest in that long-missing, legendary President of the Creator's Society.
Even though the Lord of Fate before his eyes didn't have a normal appearance at all—not even possessing anything more than a single mouth—Fisher still keenly picked up on the somewhat protruding excitement in her words.
The Lord of Fate was indeed very concerned about Karasawa Asuka. However, Fisher didn't know the story between them; they must have met a long time after he had left.
Since the Lord of Fate was truly worried about Karasawa Asuka, there was no need for Fisher to hide anything anymore. He prepared to tell her everything he knew.
"I have indeed met her. Previously, I was pursued by death and needed a Demigod profound in that path to help me. Therefore, I returned to the past. There, I met the Magic Lord who had just arrived in this world, which is Karasawa Asuka."
"Travel back to the past?! No... that's impossible..."
But contrary to Fisher's expectations, upon hearing that he went back to the past, the Lord of Fate's reaction was exceptionally agitated.
"How did you return to the past? Are you sure you are not lying?"
"No, I'm serious. Someone helped me shatter the shackles of fate and allowed me to return to the past. There, I borrowed the power of the Chain of Heaven to escape death."
"...If you truly met Asuka who had just transferred here, then you should have returned to the past ten thousand years ago. But how is that possible? How could you withstand the shattering of fate, unless you... unless you could endure the direct devastation of the Fate Authority, but this...""Endure the Fate Authority? What does that mean?"
Fisher seemed a bit confused. He had thought that with the help of True God-level chaos like Renee possessed, shattering fate to return to the past sounded very intimidating, but it should still be reasonable.
For some reason, the Lord of Fate's concern suddenly shifted onto him. She didn't seem to care at all about how Renee destroyed the rules of fate.
Behind her, the Death Minister, who had just taken a sip of alcohol and was now hugging his arms, spoke up,
"Ahem, this thing called fate sounds abstruse, but actually, its fundamental bottlenecks are only two: one is Time, and the other is Space. These two things determine the Dimension of fate and the development of all things. Therefore, fate is divided into past, present, and future... And if you truly shattered fate and returned to the past, it means that the Time and Space on your body would both undergo fundamental changes. Your fate would be brutally embedded into the overall fate, and fate would thus make corrections, making you a part of the entire fate.
"Therefore, your actions would form a closed loop, making your time travel an inevitability. Your actions in the past would all produce corresponding impacts. Thus, throughout this entire process, when you traveled back, you would directly face the True God-level Fate Authority... Even so, you still survived. You jumped around lively in the past like a completely unaffected person and expelled death. The series of chain reactions caused by your time travel also didn't take effect on you...
"Absolutely everything didn't change because of your time travel; instead, it formed a closed loop. This is not the rule by which the Fate Authority operates, because during the process of your intervention, the Authority would constantly resist the impact you bring. Unless... you were completely immune to the impact brought by this Authority, then the closed loop could form without a price... But how is that possible? That is a True God-level Authority. You should know that the reason True Gods can never intervene in the world no matter what is exactly because of their own Authorities. If you can be immune to this kind of impact, then you are simply... I really don't dare to imagine."
Although named the Death Minister, it sounded like Holland understood the matters of fate very well. Even after he said so much, the Lord of Fate beside him hadn't refuted him at all. She merely added a profound sentence to Fisher right after his words fell,
"You are very [special], Fisher."
"..."
Actually, this wasn't the first time Fisher had heard someone say he was special. The last time was Elf Tsuki, and he himself could also roughly realize it a little.
He didn't believe that Karasawa Asuka was truly deceiving others that each person could only read one Completion Handbook, like Erwind said. Therefore, it was truly because he was special that he could read the Life and Soul Completion Handbooks simultaneously and remain completely unharmed.
It was the same when facing Tao Gong in the Tree Continent previously. He took Renee's Sigil exploding head-on. Although it was very painful, compared to the fate of being "Reduced to Ashes and Smoke" that scared Renee terribly, this kind of pain probably couldn't be considered much.
There was also the time when Helaire was swallowed by the Sea of Chaos. He could even jump down and fish up the Helaire who was like a Candle in the Wind entirely intact...
Was he really that special?
But why?
Was it because the Demi-Human Completion Handbook was very special? Because that was special, it made him special?
Or was it because he was special that the Demi-Human Completion Handbook chose him?
Fisher narrowed his eyes, momentarily unsure of his own situation either. He could only look at the Death Minister and Lord of Fate beside him, then took out the Demi-Human Completion Handbook he carried.
"Perhaps it's because this Completion Handbook wasn't produced by your Creator's Society that I'm very special?"
"Pfft!"
The Death Minister and Lord of Fate looked simultaneously at the Completion Handbook he took out with a prank-like name written on it. After a long silence, the Death Minister laughed uncontrollably. Afterward, he awkwardly took a sip of wine to try and cover up his smile, but that smile was harder to suppress than an artillery cannon; instead, the corners of his mouth curled up higher and higher.
The Lord of Fate was experienced after all. Even upon seeing that handbook not produced by the Creator's Society, she remained calm. That single mouth examined the Demi-Human Completion Handbook for a long time before she shook her head,
"No, it's not it. The chaotic aura on this Completion Handbook isn't thick enough; there's absolutely no corresponding Chaotic Knowledge recorded inside. On the contrary, there's a strange scent that prevents me from seeing it clearly... It's like it's hiding."
The last sentence was very soft, seemingly as if the Lord of Fate wasn't sure either.
And Fisher also took back the Completion Handbook somewhat disappointedly and told the Lord of Fate,
"Asuka said the contributor who wrote this Completion Handbook is a Transferred Person from... a place called China. Have you met them?"
"...No, completely not. I don't have any impression at all."
"I see..."
Then, could it be that he was special himself?
But he was just an ordinary human. He had pretty good magic talent and could be considered an outstanding individual among the human race, but that was it.
He had a pretty good life. Although he was an orphan, he had a gentle and kind adoptive mother who cared for, nurtured, and educated him, allowing him to grow up strongly. He had many friends with deep ties, juniors who admired him, an idol and a teacher he looked up to... He also had a dazzlingly beautiful first love. Due to some unforeseen events and youthful ignorance, he was separated from her...
From a human's perspective, perhaps he really was very special; his life was very interesting. But looking at it from the macro perspective of the world, when talking about Mythical Species, True Gods, and Authorities, could an existence like him be considered very special?
But why would it be like this? Whether it was the Lord of Fate, Tsuki, or himself, everyone felt there was something wrong with his body.
"Clap, clap, clap!"
Fortunately, the Death Minister clapped his hands and quickly interrupted his train of thought. He glanced at the Lord of Fate next to him and said,
"Alright, stop thinking about you being special. Even if you are very special, we won't be able to figure it out anytime soon. The immortal geezer looked at your fate so many times, yet she only knew of your uniqueness after you told her you traveled back to the past just now. This indicates she absolutely doesn't have the capability to discover your specialness at all right now... Compared to this, weren't you guys just talking about the President? Let's continue. I still have to hurry to my death."
"..."
The Death Minister's words made sense. Fisher could only relate some anecdotes about his acquaintance with Karasawa Asuka to the Lord of Fate.
"So... you are the teacher she's always been waiting for..."
Just as the Lord of Fate finished her somewhat stunned words, the Death Minister laughed foolishly,
"Hey, it's surprisingly you who taught the President magic. Then the President is the Magic Lord, what are you? Magic Ancestor?"
The Lord of Fate kept her mouth open. As the rope knots swayed, her formless gaze was as terrifying as if it was carving out his flesh. However, he heard her say faintly,
"...Even without him teaching, with Asuka's talent, she could have grasped magic by herself."
"That is indeed the case."
Fisher acknowledged Karasawa Asuka's cheat-like magical talent. Him acting as her teacher merely Cast a Brick to Attract Jade. Otherwise, he wouldn't need to seek the Chaos-kin to pursue the mysteries of magic. Oh, how good it would be to be like her, rubbing out multi-ring magic by hand to violently screw Barbatos and Agreas over.
But the problem was, from Fisher's words, aside from learning more about Karasawa Asuka's past and knowing that she was also very clumsy and green when she first transferred over, the Lord of Fate obtained no clues whatsoever.
She slowly fell silent and didn't speak again for a long time. Only after quite a while did she say,
"If you met her ten thousand years ago, then she has waited for you fully for more than four thousand years. Her feelings for you turned into a long wait. She continuously fought against the chaos in her mind, maintaining her sanity, and guided and saved Transferred Persons who arrived in this world one after another, including me... All of us viewed her as a role model, a pillar, as if as long as she was there, we still had hope of returning home, and the confidence to fight against madness and collapse...
"But more than five thousand years ago, her power was also nearing its peak. All of her abilities started approaching a True God, and this didn't even account for the magic she used. She always hid her tracks and only communicated with a few friends... She thought she could wait for your return forever. Yet unfortunately, as her tier climbed to the apex, she unavoidably began gestating Authority and Rules within her body... This put her, who was constantly fighting against madness, in an increasingly dangerous situation. The world's repulsion against her also reached its peak. At the same time, a path that might lead home also opened before her...
"She felt absolutely unprecedented conflict and struggle. But she had no choice. The situation at the time was critical; she was forced to enter the Spirit World, truly entering the frontal vision of the deities, and set foot on the path home. The Mother Goddess within the Spirit World was her friend. Even with the Spirit World's contamination, with the Mother Goddess's help, logically speaking, the probability of her returning home should have been very high... But what followed was no news whatsoever from her. We had agreed that when she successfully crossed the Ultimate and left, she would reply to me. But I didn't receive anything..."
Fisher rubbed his chin and said with a frown,
"Is it possible that she has already left, but due to some unknown reasons, she is unable to reply to you?"
"...There's another matter that made me certain she hasn't left, but rather, some unforeseen event might have occurred. After she went missing, the Mother Goddess, who had peacefully observed this world for thousands of years, underwent a Drastic Change in Temperament. She began violently interfering with the world using Asuka's magic, to the point that she finally directly utilized her Authority to lock away the Demons... At that time, I expended a lot of effort to contact her, wanting to pursue Asuka's whereabouts, but she simply ignored me and didn't tell me anything..."
And Fisher could also roughly understand the situation at the time. Because once something happened to Karasawa Asuka, the Creator's Society, which viewed her as a pillar, would definitely experience unimaginable turmoil.
To put it nicely, under Karasawa Asuka's leadership, the members of the Creator's Society still retained a bit of humanity. To put it bluntly, without Karasawa Asuka, every single member was a monster carrying an unstable bomb on their back, and these bombs could even directly blow a Demigod to death.
Perhaps it was exactly to maintain the stability of the Society that the Lord of Fate went to disguise as Karasawa Asuka. Even so, Caleb Uz still went to the Dragon Court to attempt entering the Spirit World, and it still catalyzed Erwind's betrayal.
The Death Minister rubbed his chin, then spoke up,
"If you ask me, is it possible that the contamination that appeared in the Spirit World is the President? After all, from the sound of it, that contamination that appeared out of thin air seemed to have popped up five or six thousand years ago..."
"Absolutely impossible!"
The Lord of Fate said this while Gnashing One's Teeth, causing the sharp teeth to emit an ear-piercing friction sound within that singular oral cavity,
"That Spirit World Contamination appeared out of nowhere while Asuka was still in front of me preparing the various matters to go home. How could that thing be Asuka!?"
"...Regardless of what, regardless of where she is now and what her situation is, we are not sure, we can only say that everything is possible. She is also my student, of course I won't give up searching for her. I promised you I would find her, so I won't break my word. As it happens, I might attempt to contact the Chaos-kin in the Spirit World tonight; they might know some clues... But no matter what, the top priority right now remains those two Eighteenth Tier Demons."
Fisher felt the Lord of Fate's emotional fluctuations and hurriedly spoke to interrupt her words.
There were already too many matters right now... two Demons, the secret on Elizabeth's side, the World-Ending Prophecy, Karasawa Asuka's whereabouts, handling the relationships with the various ladies, the trade with Helaire and Tsuki...
Everything pressed down on Fisher's shoulders. Even if he needed to deal with them, he had to take them one by one.
He could only make a guarantee to the Lord of Fate first, telling her not to be so anxious,
"The intelligence you shared with me is extremely crucial. Later, if I get any news, I will also contact you immediately."
"That's right, I also think I should be allowed to go to my death first, and then you guys can busy yourselves with other things. Immortal geezer, what do you think?"
"..."
The teeth bitten together by that mouth slowly loosened bit by bit, revealing the strands of rope knots within her oral cavity once again. Only then did she say,
"You guys best remember..."
"Ding ding dang..."
Subsequently, this single mouth spoke no more words. The entire flesh and blood instantly turned into flying ash, disappearing on the spot.
The room quieted down once again. Fisher glanced at the Death Minister, only to see him shrug his shoulders with an expression of being accustomed to it. Fisher couldn't help but ask,
"Why does it feel like the Lord of Fate is not quite the same as the one you described and the one I imagined?"
"Oh, how are they not the same?"
"Didn't you say she likes to speak in riddles? Wasn't this actually quite straightforward?"
"Hehe, consider yourself lucky. The one that came this time was the [mouth], so she speaks very straightforwardly... Mm, but you noticed, the mouth's emotions are very unstable. She often gets anxious as she speaks, and when she gets really anxious, she likes to curse and spout profanities... This time it was because it involved the President's matters, so she didn't have a chance to display it. Wait for the future, there will be opportunities. If she doesn't scold your ancestors' graves until they smoke, count it as her loss."
The Death Minister sipped the scarce fluid in the Wine Flask; it seemed to be the last gulp. Afterward, he counted on his fingers and said,
"So, this is only a part of her, and there's a very large gap between this part and her other parts, as well as her main body. Moreover, she is an immortal geezer after all. Her capabilities are far scarier than you or I imagine; it just depends on whether she uses them or not. But according to my judgment, after the President left and the Creator's Society fell apart, she already started slacking off... Say, what's our arrangement next? Don't you have that scroll thing? How do we go to the Demon Dynasty?"
Fisher glanced at the scroll in his hand. Following that, he slowly opened it bit by bit, revealing a picture that looked exceptionally quaint and complex. Written on it was:
"Living beings have ten desires; the Dynasty has ten gates."
"Gluttony, Carnal Desire, Knowledge, Possession, Victory, Expression, Curiosity, Fame and Fortune, Indulgence, Power."
Picture after picture told the stories of individual locations, most of them distributed across various corners of the Southern Continent. But the most crucial part was that the method of opening every single gate was different. Fisher was also unclear as to exactly which gate was still intact, and which gate they could still go to...
From opposite him, the Death Minister looked at the scroll. He then extended a finger, pointing to the "Gate of Carnal Desire" within, and said,
"Hey, I just need to follow you to a gate, right? I don't know if it's an illusion, but I always feel this gate should be very easily to deal with for you..."
"..."
Fisher was too lazy to pay attention to him. He merely continued reading the meanings of these gates.
So it turned out that the Dynasty was divided into many regions. Every single region linked with one another, housing many different Demon-kin. And generally speaking, the demons residing in a region behind a certain gate shared similar dispositions and characteristics...
Fisher carefully looked at the demon names inscribed behind each gate, along with the descriptions and summoning methods related to them recorded beside.
For instance, Baimon lived behind the [Gate of Knowledge], Agreas resided behind the [Gate of Curiosity], and Barbatos resided behind the [Gate of Expression].
Carefully recalling Helaire's specific personality, Fisher also didn't know if corresponding the Demon Gods' personalities to these gates was accurate. After all, besides seeking amusement and horniness, that fellow didn't seem to have anything else.
Of course, people in the world commonly believed that the Demon God Baimon grasped many secret arts and knowledge. He had also heard Eliog say that she loved to bestow some baffling and unaccountable knowledge to humans; it could somewhat correspond in this aspect.
It's just he didn't know where Agreas's "Curiosity" and Barbatos's "Expression" were reflected.
Besides Helaire and these two Demon God enemies, there was another name on the scroll that instantly grabbed his sight.
He saw that behind the [Gate of Victory], taking the brunt was rows of scarlet narrative,
"Eliog."
"Duke, First Pillar behind the Gate of Victory."
"Greedy, manic, and restless. Loves violence, fond of war, appeals to Destruction."
What followed was the specific summon method for Eliog,
"Can be ignited by mixing fresh wild catnip with fragrant wood incense, placed around the venue; during which, slaughter ten types of various livestock."
"One hundred sacrificers, all equipped with heavy armor and weapons, shall perform a war dance to please her, in order to summon her body."
Next was another line of small text providing an annotation,
"During times of war, various nations have all used this method to summon her. The dancers stirred up inexplicable disputes, resulting in countless dead and injured."
"However, all received no response..."