novelraw Chapter 574: Kill Her
Chapter 574: Kill Her
Fisher didn't expect Pisces to directly outline Karasawa Asuka's image. Within that fog formed by churning tentacles, what stood before Fisher right now was exactly the silhouette of a figure as tall as Karasawa Asuka in his memory. Except for being unable to see her appearance and clothing clearly, it was just as if she was truly standing in front of Fisher.
But she didn't look at Fisher. Instead, holding a Walking Stick, she quietly gazed at the "moon"—the Mother Goddess herself—some distance away from her.
Regarding the three questions Fisher raised, Pisces gave affirmative answers to the first two. And this also verified that Origin Magic was indeed taught to humans by the Mother Goddess at Karasawa Asuka's behest. Moreover, there had been omissions during the transmission process, which was why magic in history showed signs of decline and primitiveness, and had to rely on humans themselves to restore it to its original form over a long period of time.
At this moment, Fisher, who originally set his mind on "Mythical Rank Magic," gradually had his heart occupied by her silhouette after seeing the young girl before him who was No Different from ten thousand years ago.
Yes, the Karasawa Asuka outlined by the Zodiac Pisces before his eyes was still as young as ten thousand years ago. It seemed that the time of this world completely wouldn't leave a single trace on these Transferred Persons.
In appearance, she was still a seventeen-year-old High School Girl about to reach adulthood. Yet for some reason, in Fisher's eyes, Karasawa Asuka's body had accumulated entirely too much flavor that shouldn't belong to a girl of this age.
Merely from this illusory shadow, Fisher nonetheless managed to sense boundless exhaustion and a bit of indescribable sorrow from her body.
Fisher didn't know what she had truly experienced during the four thousand years she was separated from him. And after that final "journey home," where did she go?
Thinking of this, Fisher couldn't help but ask Pisces again,
"This girl who proxy-taught the Mother Goddess's magic, Karasawa Asuka, do you know where she is now?""I don't know..."
"Didn't you see her?"
"Because of the contamination... I don't know where... she went..."
"...Then how exactly did that contamination form?"
"I don't know..."
Know Nothing at All. Fisher knew this powerful Chaos-kin could no longer give him answers. A feeling of disappointment inevitably bred within his heart. But just as he was about to switch topics and enter the topic of magic, Pisces suddenly spoke up again,
"But I... know she is still alive..."
Fisher's eyes lit up slightly, and he hastily raised his head to meet the compound eyes of Pisces. But Pisces remained certain of this answer, looking at Fisher Motionless.
"How do you know she is still alive?"
Hearing the follow-up question, Pisces didn't speak immediately. After brewing for quite a while, the tentacles in the surrounding fog started to whip rapidly again.
At the same time, tones mixed with something Fisher completely couldn't understand began to slowly ring out, just like the prelude to a song...
Following closely, Pisces spoke again. From the illusion, a bizarre yet extremely pleasant ballad, seemingly bursting from the depths of the soul, rang out...
Yet he heard him sing,
"A traveler thousands of miles away from home, a lonely and solitary audience; one bearing an endless wait, one seeking the meaning of existence."
"Two unequal existences, two equal souls, under the gaze of the night sky, forged a friendship they mutually cherished."
"With friendship as their witness, they gifted each other all of their most precious presents."
"He openly exposed the mysteries of his Authority to her, bestowing upon her the power of [Infinity]; she shared the profundities of her secret arts completely with Him, bestowing upon Him the method to interfere with the world."
"The cherished epic is recorded by the audience, yet the actors on stage are nowhere to be found, leaving behind only the gift boxes opened by one another..."
Within this bizarre singing, the meaning Pisces wanted to express became exceptionally clear. Fisher could even effortlessly follow that singing to see a story circulating through a period of years and the emotions within it.
The process of that massive amount of information flooding his head gave Fisher a slight headache, but it was also precisely this headache that made him suddenly remember something...
It felt like he had heard a ballad in the same format somewhere before, only compared to the one Pisces was singing before his eyes, that singing was even more intoxicating and more spectacular, like an ocean aiming to swallow Fisher's consciousness.
It seemed to be exactly when he broke through to the Mythical Rank; he had heard a similar singing back then.
But what that singing specifically represented, Fisher still couldn't figure out until now. Perhaps that singing was exactly the body of Chaos, resonating because of the Completion Handbooks on his body?
He pondered for a moment, then brought his thoughts back to the information Pisces provided him, asking in doubt,
"Are you saying... the gift the Mother Goddess gave Asuka, that power of the Infinity Authority, still exists until now, therefore, this proves she is still alive, right?"
"...Yes."
Fisher felt what Pisces said was reasonable. Because he still remembered when he was in the Northern Border, he had been reminded by Helaire to recite "Karasawa Asuka's" name to activate the power stored on the Ring he gave her.
At that time, the Dream Magic he engraved, which originally hadn't even reached the Mythical rank in terms of circles, instantly spiked in number of circles and quality to an immeasurable order of magnitude—that is, "Infinity."
The power of Infinity evidently came from the gift given to her by the Mother Goddess. And up until the Northern Border four and a half years ago, this power could still be used, which proved that Karasawa Asuka was still alive. She hadn't left this world, but was in a certain place in this world...
Fisher felt the most likely place was within the Spirit World.
"But I don't recommend you go looking for... her..."
Pisces suddenly spoke again. And Fisher furrowed his brows, asking,
"Why? Because it's very dangerous within the Spirit World right now, and my tier and strength are too low, so..."
"That's only... one of the... reasons..."
Pisces retracted the tentacles in the fog one by one, continuing to stare at Fisher with an indifferent gaze.
"She is no longer that child from back then... She and your... promise has changed... She has become... the appearance... she thinks is good... You are a scumbag... having many... partners... If she finds out... you will... hehe..."
Fisher didn't know what he was "hehe-ing" about. Even though all of his compound eyes still maintained an indifferent appearance, ultimately, one could hear a meaning of gloating from within them.
Wait...
What did it mean by the appearance she thinks is good?
Could it be...
Fisher suddenly recalled that in the past, she had expressed her admiration and envy towards Helaire more than once. But she didn't seem to have figured out what Helaire's true personality was specifically like, and Fisher also didn't know what kind of dazzling appearance Helaire had in her eyes.
But intuition told Fisher that whoever grew up taking that fellow Helaire as a role model and goal, that was most probably not a good thing.
"..."
Fisher remained silent for a moment, forcefully suppressing the urge to refute this Pisces's address towards him, and silently changed the topic,
"Then, what about magic? Specifically, what is the method to make a magic's might rival the Mythical rank?"
"Multi-Ring Prime Magic..."
"Dual Circle Head Magic, I know this. But currently we only know one such magic, and this magic can only rival the Fifteenth Tier. I need a more powerful Multi-Ring Magic, but I don't have enough time and capital to afford the risks of experimenting with new Multi-Ring Prime Magic."
Pisces still silently looked at Fisher, then continued,
"Circle Heads... under the Authority of the same Deity... can be stacked... But it requires... you to have the ability... to analyze... the Authority beneath the Circle Head..."
Pisces's words were intermittent, yet they were like an inspired light cascading down from above the Spirit World, instantly giving Fisher a feeling of being Empowered with Wisdom.
All the Rules of this world were born from the Authorities of several deities. Magic, which tampered with Reality using the World's Echo, also operated according to this principle. This was also the reason why magic required the Spell Ring Structure.
Therefore, the stability principle of Multi-Ring Prime Magic was based on these already-divided Authority delineations. If a Multi-Ring Prime Magic's area of effect consisted of Rules forged by different Authorities, then it would also produce the repulsion reactions of the corresponding Authorities.
However, although Fisher figured out the principle, he still had some doubts.
For example, earlier, he had clearly already stood on the shoulders of Mentor Helson and knew that the two Circle Heads [Thunder] and [Destruction] could be combined. Yet when he engraved the magic, he still encountered immense obstruction.
If it hadn't been within Dream Magic back then, where he could imagine magic out of thin air, perhaps if it truly had to be implemented practically, the Fisher of that time might not have necessarily been able to engrave it.
Therefore, even though he knew which Circle Head magics could be combined, Fisher still couldn't utilize it stably and efficiently. This had nothing to do with theoretical level in magic, and seemingly didn't have much connection to tier either.
Because Mentor Helson was unequivocally a zero-tier human, and an old man who had lived for over a century, yet he could nonetheless engrave such a Multi-Ring Prime Magic.
So, what exactly was the bottleneck that truly determined the engraving of Multi-Ring Prime Magic?
Secondly, Pisces said Fisher needed to have the capability to analyze which deity's Authority those Circle Heads specifically belonged to; Fisher also needed to know the answer to this point.
Thus, he expressed his confusion. Pisces fell silent for a moment, before graciously providing the answer once again. Astonishingly, the answer for both questions was the exact same,
"Chaos..."
Pisces's words were brief, but for Fisher, who had a profound understanding of magic theory, what he needed right now might merely be a tiny hint. And coincidentally, such a hint was already enough for Fisher to figure out many things.
Firstly, magic was the power of Chaos; Fisher knew this early on. But he had overlooked one point: chaos magic required the power of Chaos to drive it, and the more powerful the magic, the more powerful the Chaos power required.
Before the Fourteenth-Tier, the power of magic was supplied by the Soul. The Soul was also one of the powers of Chaos; Caleb Uz had explained this very clearly.
And this was also the reason why ordinary magic could only reach a maximum of the Fourteenth-Tier, because the limit of an ordinary Soul was the Fourteenth-Tier. Going one level higher was the Mythical rank of Body and Soul Unity.
By then, the method of utilizing the Soul would change, and the Soul would be forced to intermix with parts of the world's Rules. Judging the "amount of chaos" of the Soul alone, it actually didn't increase but instead decreased. Thus, it could no longer bear the burden of an even more powerful Mythical Rank Magic.
According to this theory, if one wished to utilize Multi-Ring Prime Magic above the Mythical rank, then one would need a Chaos power above the Mythical rank.
Back then, during the battle against Erwind in the dream world, his Soul had completely separated from his fleshly body, and his Soul was already approaching the Mythical rank, which was why he managed to use the "Killing Dragonspear" to heavily injure Erwind.
Well then, Fisher also knew the reason why Karasawa Asuka back then could instantly conjure Multi-Ring Prime Magic out of thin air—the amount of chaos on her body was too voluminous and abundant, to the point that at that moment, it had even surpassed the limits of the Mythic.
By the same logic, when Fisher possessed more chaos on his body, he would thus be able to effortlessly use Multi-Ring Prime Magic, as well as separate the deity Authorities underlying the Circle Heads.
"So, I need to contain more chaos. Is that right?"
"Yes..."
After going round and round to the end, he still needed to read more Completion Handbooks. Because only the Chaotic Knowledge within the Completion Handbooks could provide the chaos required for Mythical Rank Multi-Ring Prime Magic.
But exactly at this moment, Fisher suddenly discovered a blind spot.
If that was the case, then what about Mentor Helson?
He was just an ordinary human, and had absolutely no connection to things like chaos and Completion Handbooks whatsoever. So how did such a Mentor Helson engrave a Dual Circle Head Magic?
This doubt instantly popped out, rendering Fisher Unable to Understand Despite Much Thought.
However, Pisces had no way of knowing what was going on in his head. Upon seeing Fisher suddenly fall into silence, perhaps he thought Fisher was hesitating due to fearing the impact brought by chaos, so he abruptly asked Fisher,
"You want... to fight against... those Demons..."
"You know?"
"We... all know... your matters... scumbag..."
Fine, Pisces had already stated this right when they first met.
It seemed that ever since the Northern Border, Fisher could often see the "star"-like eyes of these folks from occasional glimpses of the Crevice perspective.
Could it be that many of them were frequently watching him, just like what Renee did in the Spirit World, presenting his actions like a live broadcast before their eyes?
Even now, Fisher didn't know whether they watched or didn't watch when he spent the night with the ladies.
Renee probably didn't dare to look, otherwise she wouldn't have been so shy over even holding hands and kissing. But this group of "audience" seemingly devoid of emotions wasn't necessarily the same.
Fisher felt they still had quite a lot of leisure to watch things like "stacking high."
But evidently, Pisces Stop After a Brief Attempt regarding the discussion of Fisher's private life. He didn't continue evaluating Fisher's romantic history, merely stating,
"Your... magic, even if it is... Multi-Ring... is still not enough to fight them..."
"...So?"
"We... can help you..."
Fisher froze slightly, meeting Pisces's numerous compound eyes again. He remained unperturbed, as if he wasn't proposing but stating a fact.
But Fisher sharply realized some other meanings beneath his words. He didn't answer, but instead asked in return,
"We?"
"We..."
"Are you referring to you, Pisces of the Zodiac, or all the Chaos-kin?"
"Most... of us..."
"Wait, how many Chaos-kin are there in total?"
"Zodiac... twelve; Equatorial... ten; Southern Sky... forty-two; Northern Circumpolar... five; Northern Sky... nineteen..."
Only now did Fisher realize the number of Chaos-kin was actually very large, totaling a full eighty-eight.
And the most terrifying part was, calculating based on the true level of the Spirit World, they had a full twelve Demigods, with the Pisces before him being one of them.
Just the five of them who came, and relatively weaker ones within their species at that, nearly leveled the Northern Border. If all of them were allowed to come, let alone Barbatos and Agreas, even if all the demons in the Demon Abyss were added up together, it probably wouldn't be enough for their twelve Demigods to fight.
Hearing Pisces indifferently stating the numbers one by one, a layer of cold sweat unconsciously began to pop out on Fisher's forehead.
If Ramastia congregating the Blessings of multiple deities still only created three Demigods, while the Sea of Souls in the Spirit World, acting as a derivative of a certain mysterious deity, could pop out a full twelve existences at the Demigod level on its own...
Then, what level of existence was the Master of the Sea of Souls, that deity himself who came from outside the world?
Thinking up to this point, Fisher didn't show any timidity. Instead, he asked,
"There is No Free Lunch. So, as remuneration for helping me, what do you guys want?"
"A Shelter..."
"A Shelter?"
"Yes..."
Pisces's tentacles flipped, gently resting on the position at the edge of the magic. That was where the Spirit World and the Crevice connected, only because of the star magic, the vision of the Crevice was hidden, thus allowing Fisher to vaguely see the Spirit World and Pisces's appearance.
"The contamination... is very dangerous... We are in great... pain, need... shelter..."
"..."
Fisher fell silent. The other party's request sounded very normal, because several millennia ago in the Northern Border, the Chaos-kin invading the Northern Border back then was also due to this very reason.
According to the Source Magic Book's descriptions and the current face-to-face conversation with Pisces, Fisher discovered this group of Chaos-kin actually counted as relatively friendly existences. Compared to doing anything, they preferred drifting silently outside the world to watch all the matters inside the world.
However, that scarlet contamination within the Spirit World made their living environment extremely perilous, leaving them with no choice but to flee into the inner world for shelter.
But the problem was, if they only wanted to enter the world for shelter, wouldn't letting them in be fine? Then why did the Phoenix wage war against them? Were they afraid these powerful Chaos-kin would snatch their territory? At that time, the Phoenix wasn't the overlord of the Northern Border either, and there was absolutely no such thing as territory...
Then, there had to be another reason that compelled them to refuse their entry.
"For letting you guys enter reality for shelter, what do I need to do?"
"Kill... that Dragon-kin..."
Pisces's compound eyes remained bright and exceptionally indifferent, just staring straight at Fisher, as if stating something couldn't be simpler.
Only to be specific, he added a description,
"Raphael... ael..."
"Kill... her... and that will do..."