Huff.
Huff.
Huff.
Zayne’s eyes flew open as he sucked in air in ragged gulps, panic still clinging to his gaze.
He was alive.
The despair of being face to face with death had crushed his mind so completely that he had not even been able to think.
At the sa ti, a familiar power surged back into his body.
Zayne felt it clearly. His immortality had returned, and it felt even stronger than before.
He lowered his head and saw Astrachior collapsed on the ground, barely breathing.
Zayne hurried over and helped him up, his expression tangled with conflicting emotions.
"Why?"
He could not understand it.
Astrachior had clearly been able to take his immortality. So why give it back?
Was there really soone in this world who could resist the temptation of eternal life?
And if not that, then what was Astrachior doing all of this for?
Zayne could not wrap his head around it.
If their positions were reversed, he would have killed himself without hesitation and taken immortality for his own.
"Cough. Cough cough."
Astrachior coughed violently, blood spilling from his lips, yet there was a smile on his face.
"What did I do to deserve this much disrespect? You would not even call teacher."
"...Teacher."
Hearing Astrachior joke at a ti like this made Zayne’s emotions even more complicated.
He realized that he truly did not understand this teacher of his at all.
"Relax. You were right. I really was scheming against you from the start."
Astrachior stared at the ceiling calmly, as if death ant nothing to him, and spoke slowly.
"But I was not scheming for your immortality."
"I was scheming for the future of the human race."
"Do you know what I saw when I observed the stars at night?"
"I saw countless possible futures for my daughter, Nia."
"But in every single one of them, she died at the exact sa mont."
"Even when I saw futures where I gained immortality, or even passed immortality to her, she still died at that mont, in different ways."
"In the futures I witnessed, she died 352,197,038 tis."
Astrachior’s voice was calm.
Zayne’s heart, however, lurched violently.
Watching your own daughter die hundreds of millions of tis was a form of torture beyond cruelty.
"Once can be coincidence. But when all 352,197,038 futures end the sa way, it cannot be coincidence."
Astrachior’s eyes filled with heavy concern.
"There is only one explanation."
"At that mont, it is very likely that all of Aurelion, or even the entire human civilization, is completely wiped out."
Zayne’s breathing turned sharp.
What kind of catastrophe could erase the human race so thoroughly that even immortality could not save them?
"Zayne, there is only one future I cannot see clearly."
"The Dao has fifty paths. Heaven unfolds forty nine. One escapes."
"You are very likely that one."
Zayne scratched his head.
"Teacher, maybe say it in plain language. That sounded like ancient philosophy."
Astrachior fell silent.
"The laws governing everything in the universe number fifty."
Astrachior pointed upward.
"Heaven can only manifest forty nine of them."
"The missing one is the variable."
"And you might be the only variable capable of changing the future of humanity."
"In the fragnt of the future I glimpsed, there were six others standing beside you, fighting with you."
"I morized their traits."
"They will co looking for you on their own. Do not reject them."
Astrachior handed Zayne a small brocade pouch.
"I am sorry, Zayne."
"Forgive for placing such a heavy burden on your shoulders."
"From now on, you are going to suffer a lot."
Zayne looked at the pouch, his expression heavy, then spoke.
"Teacher, when catastrophe cos, no one gets to sit it out. Right?"
Astrachior had already shown him through action that immortality was not without flaws.
If soone vastly stronger locked him down, they could forcibly strip away his Origin Relic.
If the entire world collapsed, Zayne did not believe he could survive alone.
He carefully placed the pouch into his Singularity Ring, then asked another question.
"Teacher, what was that thing earlier? The one that claid to be the Origin Relic guardian?"
Astrachior laughed softly and shook his head.
"Guardian my ass."
"That thing was a fragnt incarnation of the Demon Emperor of the Butterfly Race."
"Its goal was to use a fragnt of the Eternal Scales to lure out the half scale inside you."
"Inside the Gate of Apocalypse, Origin Relics can be forcibly stripped."
"If you had really touched that fake Eternal Scales, you would have been finished."
"I was just worrying about where to find proper materials to repair the damaged Eternal Scales inside you."
"So I decided to play along."
"There is nothing better for repairing an Origin Relic than using its own material."
Zayne’s thoughts churned. He could not help asking.
"Teacher, if that is the case, why did you not tell earlier?"
"You are suspicious by nature."
"If I explained it in advance, would you have believed ?"
Astrachior laughed helplessly.
Zayne fell silent.
He wanted to argue, but he knew Astrachior was right.
If he had heard this explanation earlier, he would have assud there was another trap.
Astrachior had accounted not only for the demons, but also for Zayne’s reactions.
Flawless.
That was the only word that fit.
"Cough. Cough cough."
Astrachior coughed again, his already fading presence thinning even further.
"Teacher."
Zayne’s heart clenched. Panic flashed in his eyes as he quickly supported Astrachior’s unsteady body.
"Zayne, can I ask one more thing of you?"
Astrachior spoke softly, sorrow in his gaze.
"If possible, for the sake of helping you repair the Origin Relic, please take care of Nia."
"She is the only thing in this world I cannot let go of."
"I promise."
Zayne nodded, his expression heavy.
"Thank you."
Astrachior smiled. His pupils slowly began to lose focus.
"Strange."
"I clearly calculated the ti of my own death long ago."
"So why does it still feel this hard to leave..."
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