Chapter 1783 - 1319: The Truth (Part 2)

"Vishi!"

"Here."

Behind Vishi, the phantom of the Soul-locking God appeared, and the All-knowing Weaver instantly understood their intent—Level Six of Hell was a resting place for souls. Although they couldn’t make the five-winged Soul Divine Being act alone, they could send Soul Divine Trace into Hell!

Vishi bumped fists with Sonia, and with the sound of ticking water, the powers of the Vermilion Blood Lake gathered upon Vishi, dyeing the chain in her hand the color of ruby. Vishi stared at the ruby chain in her hand, feeling momentarily disoriented, many doubts melting away like winter snow in the blazing sun.

"Sword Maiden," she sighed. "I’ve really been terribly affected by you."

Sonia glanced at her, looking puzzled, "You’re the one who insisted on liking the same person as me."

"That’s not what I meant, but... that matter was indeed your fault."

Vishi smiled gently, then resolutely focused her mind and cast the soul chain into Level Six of Hell!

...

...

Won’t let me die?

Ash looked perplexed at Death Mad, understanding each word but not the meaning when combined.

Not to mention that he was cursed by the World Snake, the key point was... he was the vessel for the revival of the Final Five. Ever since he obtained the "Aurora’s Mage Manual," his fate was clearly set by them.

Perhaps purifying his curse wasn’t without other methods—after all, they had buried 63 worlds with Supreme of Magic—but they would only choose to shatter his mind—so Ash would obediently accept fate, willingly assist them in revival.

Only his death could bring about their rebirth.

Conversely, if he didn’t die then...

Bzzzzzz——

A piercingly loud sound beyond limits instantly blanked Ash’s mind; by the time he recovered, the whole world started melting. The walls, the earth, the rock layer, things originally only invaded by grayish white, now melted away like ice cream, drawn down by tremendous gravity.

Even his vision was pulled downward.

Bzz——

In the bottom of Hell, within the gray-white chaos dense as paste, a colossal white snake capable of filling the Abyss was writhing continuously, consuming all gray-white chaos into its mouth, climbing upward with slow yet exceptionally rapid speed.

Its body was pure white, except for the eyes shining brightly; when Ash looked down and met its gaze, the colors within its eyes boiled wildly, bellowing through Hell!

"World Snake... Uroboros!"

Ash appeared to lose color, turning pale. "Isn’t it completely dead? Its Death Curse has already erupted... why is it reviving again? It could still revive!?"

"Just as expected..." Death Mad glanced down, not showing any surprise as she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why it—"

"Hold on tight."

Before Ash could react, the wall Death Mad was climbing turned into white mud and fell away. He suddenly felt an inexplicable regret—having come to Level Six of Hell, he hadn’t even seen Fifth Level’s Hell, and yet Hell collapsed first. Like preparing to visit a famous landmark only for it to become ruins before arrival.

Simultaneously, Death Mad gave a powerful kick off the white mud, leaping into the air and releasing Ash. Ash instinctively held tightly around Death Mad’s neck, the two soaring like sea birds leaping amid raging waves, but awaiting them was only the gray-white Abyss and the snake kiss of the Final Snake.

Swoosh!

A ruby chain descended from above, blasting through the gray-white cloud waves, tumbling down into Hell. Although it faded gray-white within a breath upon descending, at least it didn’t melt like Hell; Death Mad grabbed the gray-white chain as if she had anticipated it, swinging continuously in Hell.

"Climb up."

Upon hearing Death Mad’s words, Ash suddenly felt clarity, a surge of strength rising in his feeble soul body. He desperately clung to the gray-white chain, climbing upwards, narrowly avoiding colliding with the falling gray-white chaos, like a spider scrambling for a strand leading to Heaven trying to escape Hell.

"Even if we escape, it’s useless!" Ash clung tightly to the chain, regulating his breath to squeeze out the last bit of strength, loudly saying, "We’ve exhausted all possibilities, you can’t synchronize with me for power beyond Eight-winged... this world is doomed..."

"It’s okay, the current World Snake is weak; Seven-winged strength alone can eradicate it." Death Mad followed beneath Ash, speaking casually: "As for why it can revive... it’s because we’re still alive."

"What?"

"Have you noticed that Mirror Demon and others are manufacturing a scenario?" Death Mad said: "If you die, the curse ends, the faded calamity stops at Hell, everything ends... but it’s all a lie."

"They’re all avoiding the possibility revealed by the Observer, a possibility we cannot accept."

"World Snake was born from the Mage’s Concept," Death Mad stated seriously: "Mage’s Concept spawns the World Snake. Ash, do you understand?"

It’s simply rearranging the structure of the same sentence, why wouldn’t I understand... Ash originally felt puzzled, but suddenly trembled, freezing in realization. Until Death Mad patted his rear, he came back and resumed climbing.

"We’ve already slain the World Snake for real now."

"Yes, as dead as can be."

"Therefore, it didn’t revive," Ash looked down at the giant white snake still writhing upward. "This World Snake is new. As long as Mages exist, the Mage’s Concept remains, creating new World Snakes."

The climb became increasingly numerous, more forceful each time, but Ash felt his body growing colder inch by inch, frost gathering inside his veins. Great sorrow gnawed at his heart, hopeless despair clogging his throat, unable to breathe, heart failing to beat.

All efforts futile, every light would extinguish. From the start, victory was impossible... because their enemy was themselves.

As long as Mages persist, apocalypse will not die.

"Climb faster, I allocated so many resources to boost your life signs, yet you climb so slowly?"

Death Mad still found time to urge Ash on, continuing: "Your guesses were mostly correct, only one detail was wrong."

"The reason World Snake wishes to reverse time and devour all world lines is because it aims to complete the Mage’s Concept, blend all Mages into one, form a sole and complete Mage’s existence. Observer calls this Mage’s Concept throughout history the ’Final Concept.’

But every world line holds its own Mage’s Concept, naturally birthing its own World Snake; Observer calls every world’s Mage’s Concept the ’Primal Concept.’ Each primal concept corresponds to a World Snake, so Mages of other worlds won’t revive our world’s Snake."

Ash realized something, freezing up, looking down at Death Mad.

Death Mad remained unaffected, casually like speaking of tomorrow’s weather, saying:

"Do you remember our reluctance to interfere with reality excessively, fearing attracting the World Snake—but why is the World Snake so fixated on us Mages, how does it manage to track us?"

"There’s one truth," Death Mad met Ash’s gaze, inexplicably still able to smile, brow arching, corners of the mouth lifting, like shedding a heavy mask, no longer pretending to be strong: "We are fragments of the World Snake’s Concept, it must devour us to complete its Primal Concept. Conversely, because of our existence, even if it died, the Mage’s Concept remains, hence no matter how many times it’s killed, as long as we’re alive, new World Snakes will arise."

"We are the source of the catastrophe," she said. "All this began because of us."