novelraw Afterword (End of Book)
Afterword (End of Book)
Hello everyone, I am Yiweixie.
Up to now, the second-to-last part of the story "Demi-Human Completion Handbook" has been completely written. What remains next is only the final, not-so-long Volume Six. Actually, at this point, almost all the mysteries have been revealed. With Fisher finally grasping Elizabeth's hand, finally saving her once, the end of this story is already in sight.
Let's follow the usual convention of the afterwords from previous volumes and divide it into two parts. One part is regarding the creative level of this volume, and the other part is about the next volume.
This volume touched upon the content of each female lead. The difference between female leads and supporting female characters becomes apparent at this moment. Inevitably, I could only write briefly about the parts concerning Eliog and Alajina. And in the reunion after four and a half years of absence, although the female leads have also undergone some changes, what increased was mostly just a bit of responsibility.
The female leads still have their content in Volume Six, so talking about it later won't be too late. As for Elizabeth, I believe everyone can also see that after experiencing countless things, she will eventually welcome her final ending.
The core meaning of this volume, "Fisher's World-Ending Prophecy," is actually quite clear from its theme. As the protagonist, Fisher will do everything in his power to save this world and save everyone. From Volume One, under the guidance of the world-ending prophecy in the Demi-Human Completion Handbook, he embarked on this journey. Along the way, he saved Raphaela, enlightened Jasmine and Asuka Karasawa, and caused Valentina's recovery...
In truth, this journey wasn't peaceful. One could say Fisher himself wasn't the invincible macho man of legends; he often suffered defeats and setbacks in battles. But even so, he remained proactive in saving and helping any lady he knew. Perhaps it was out of greed, perhaps out of kindness—either is fine...
But from the past up until the end of Volume Five, the only one he failed to save was Elizabeth.
His romance with Elizabeth is a tragedy, but both Elizabeth and Fisher still deeply love each other.
During the decisive battle, many readers were confused: when the situation clearly hadn't reached a dead end, when she still had a Nineteenth-Tier Angel phantom beside her, sacrificing her prosthetic eye in surrender—wasn't that ruining her character setting?Actually, no matter what Elizabeth does, no matter how she schemes, the name "Fisher" will always exist in her underlying logic.
In Volume Two, she clearly calculated everything, yet at the final moment, her heart softened because of Fisher, and she let him go. This was completely illogical. It was entirely because Fisher is one of her few soft spots in this world. Therefore, when the Outer Gods wanted to take Fisher away, she had actually already lost—lost completely—because she couldn't accept Fisher being taken away.
All along, Elizabeth seemed to be fighting against fate. She thought that through her own efforts and schemes, she would definitely win everything and return to the beautiful past with Fisher.
And the same goes for Fisher. Every time she committed a mistake, Fisher was unwilling to let go, willing to bear it together with her.
When I split the final decisive battle into two battlefields, it was actually deeply meaningful. Through this estrangement, neither Fisher nor Elizabeth knew the other's true thoughts about them. Both believed the other had given up on them. Yet when they learned the other was in danger, they selflessly and obscurely wanted to save each other...
This feeling of clearly loving each other deeply yet hurting each other is a tragedy. But everyone, honestly speaking, I don't intend to torment you all with tragedy, nor am I an enemy of Fisher and Elizabeth. I also look forward to them having a good ending after overcoming their setbacks.
The title of the last chapter of this volume is the English word "refrain," meaning "restraint."
In my eyes, "restraint" is the curse causing the tragedy between Fisher and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Gothrin's love was too stubborn, too persistent; she didn't know how to exercise restraint...
In the unseen workings of fate, there were countless godsend opportunities for them to reconcile, yet they were all mistakenly ruined by her. For the sake of winning, for the sake of her own goals, she, alone among those who had Fisher and had also lost him, resorted to unscrupulous means. Yet she could only watch helplessly as she pushed him further and further away, hurting each other deeper and deeper.
Conversely, Fisher Benavides' love was far too restrained.
Perhaps from Volume One, everyone watched him act ruthlessly towards Raphaela, Jasmine, and other ladies, yet treat Elizabeth so carefully and politely. Some might even joke that this was entirely because Elizabeth was human, but that's not true.
Fisher was indeed changing, becoming more proactive. But in front of the flame-like Elizabeth, he still cowered.
When he returned from the Southern Continent in Volume Two, he failed to send the letter. When facing Elizabeth's pursuing troops in the Northern Border, he still had to squeeze Valentina's shoulders to anger Elizabeth. In Volume Four, he had Tlander take Elizabeth to see the letter he left behind, yet didn't dare hand-deliver it to explain the current situation...
Every time I wrote about Elizabeth in each volume, I would hint at Fisher's shrinking back. He was merely continuing to dodge, continuing to retreat, waiting for Elizabeth to concede. And precisely as I said, Elizabeth didn't know how to exercise restraint; she only knew how to press step by step. This forged seemingly irreconcilable, unadjustable conflicts...
But actually, for two people deeply in love with each other, the exit out of the labyrinth of conflicts was clearly right before their eyes, yet like headless flies, they simply couldn't leave.
Clearly, if Elizabeth just took a step back and Fisher took a step forward, they could come together. But throughout the entire story, Fisher kept retreating, and Elizabeth kept pressing forward, resulting in increasingly torturing each other.
Only at the end of this volume's story did Elizabeth, under the duress of reality and fate, retreat in complete despair. She kept retreating until she retreated into death. And Fisher finally took that step forward. He knew he was wrong, he regretted it; thus, he proactively moved forward, continuously chasing, and grabbed the retreating Elizabeth. They finally caught hold of each other.
A woman who didn't know restraint chose restraint and surrendered to fate in the face of her lover's safety; a man who was far too restrained and greedy finally chose to interrogate himself, and chose to recklessly express his feelings for her...
The true world-ending prophecy actually hasn't concluded yet. But at this moment, upon grabbing Elizabeth, what belonged uniquely to "Fisher's World-Ending Prophecy" has actually been resolved. And this is the meaning of this volume.
Just as stated at the beginning of the volume: all gifts of fate have their prices clearly marked. At this moment, he finally faced all his incurred debts and paid them in full.
Next volume, serving as the conclusion of the entire story, the remaining content actually isn't too much.
Too many secrets have already been revealed. Or perhaps there are still some things that haven't been fully written out...
Actually, during the decisive battle, I left some foreshadowing. I also didn't fully explain the outcome of the battlefield. I simply felt that ending Volume Five at the moment Fisher grabbed Elizabeth's hand was the most fitting.
Do you still remember at the end of Volume Two when I said I would "separately introduce Jasmine's character image later"? It seems we've reached the last chapter and still haven't had content exclusively dedicated to her. But actually, I have already fulfilled this promise.
I want to say, the content of Volume Six is primarily about Jasmine and Renee. Other female leads and supporting female characters aside from Elizabeth will also have pivotal roles.
Currently, after safeguarding the shattered Crevice, before the precarious world, the female leads, supporting characters, and Fisher still stand a few obstacles concerning annihilation. They are: the Outer God represented by the missing Cardinal Completion Handbook, the Dream Illusion residing in Asuka, and...
Yes, the ultimate heavyweight contender: the Ocean.
And as for all other content—such as the gods and the past of this world, the situation outside the barrier, the Mother Goddess and Asuka's past, Michael, Mikhail, Demi-Human Girl Con, Gou Wen, the Chaos-kin, the Sea of Souls, etc., which have appeared countless times in past volumes—will all receive their answers in Volume Six...
Next, I will take a day off, then similar to the previous volume, update a few main story side stories to fill in lacking content. One update per day; this can also serve as a break for my consecutive explosive updates over the past few days.
Their contents will respectively concern "Elizabeth," "Raphaela and Jasmine," and "Valentina and Alajina."
Except for Elizabeth's content, all the rest will be the much-anticipated fluff, scenes of fierce conflict, and romantic interactions. Let's consider it a sort of supplement to the main story...
Ah, you ask why there's no fluff for Elizabeth?
Mhm, there will be, in the side story exclusively dedicated to her in the grand finale...
And after finishing these three side stories, the entire book will welcome its concluding final volume:
"The World's Epitaph"