Chapter 158: Join , and Plunge into the Abyss
At the end of the Sky-Piercing Tower, the figure of the young boy stood tall amidst the Solidified Twilight, his silhouette like a stone sculpture etched against a black backdrop.
The Phantom Ocean of the illusory Nether Abyss surged like tides, crashing against the colossal tower, shattering into waves of dusky yellow.
Ka-cha, ka-cha—
Those were truly the brittle cracks of stone splitting, emanating from within Rast’s body, reverberating throughout the vast summit of the tower.
Fissures of dusky yellow split across his surface, rendering his body shattered and tattered, yet those very cracks would then silently heal—only to reopen again...
In a matter of minutes, this cycle of breaking and healing had already repeated hundreds, even thousands of tis.
Rast's body was not like Akxia's—hers flowed inherently with the God-Blood of the Death God... That shared divine blood allowed her to perfectly house all the Divine Authority and power of the Old Death God, without any side effects.
He was but the most ordinary of humans. And the cracks repeatedly surfacing on his body... were the inevitable backlash from a humble human body attempting to contain the supre will of an Old God. Each instance of breaking and healing marked a phase of transformation.
Like a flawed porcelain vessel shattering under the strain of excess, only to be forcibly reassembled by so grand force, stitching the shards together and restoring it to a human form.
What remained were those seams, as though fused with inferior glue—cracks that bore testant to a shattered ideal called the “Shoreguard,” still persisting in the ntal Image World of the crimson wilderness, just as mories faded faster with ti in Deep Blue Port.
anwhile, those fractured dusky halos were also the manifestation of the battle in Rast’s Spiritual World, a war of mutual devouring and slaughter between mortal soul and the Old God.
Until twilight completely overtook the shell of this body, no one knew how the war in that Spiritual World would end.
...
Though an intense and perilous spiritual battle raged within the ntal Image World, atop the Sky-Piercing Tower in reality, a temporary silence fell.
Only the sound of twisted, madly growing fertile branches remained, and the cracking of that stone sculpture-like figure... mixed with the chaos of wind and tides, forming the world’s main lody.
No one knew how much ti had passed when the sound of growth from the Bounty flora quietly ceased.
All the rooted and sprouting plants, the lush branches forming a miniature forest, instantly retracted and returned to a unified form.
The Cascading Ritual of flesh mutation and infinite cell division was forcibly severed... leaving only the old man who stepped forth from the prosperous forest, like a gardener.
On the face of the Incarnation of Bounty, Noah's complexion had clearly paled.
That chain of flesh mutations and divisions caused by Radiation... even with his insight as a Gravekeeper, he had never witnessed such thods.
In the end, like a cancer patient excising a tumor, he forcibly purged all Bounty power infected and mutated—those polluted by “cancer cells.”
Only then did he barely suppress the out-of-control chain of cell divisions.
But Noah paid a great price. The remaining power within this Incarnation of Bounty was now less than half.
However—even so—
Even with the great cost of suppressing the mutated contamination, with only a fraction of the Bounty power left, and even struggling to maintain his Legendary Realm—
It was still enough to kill Rast, who had not only suffered the Flesh Blooming’s heavy blow earlier, but whose mind had also been corroded by the Remnant of the Death God.
Lush branches surged as the green, life-filled Domain of Bounty quietly expanded.
Noah stepped forward, one step at a ti.
Until he reached the end of the tower, staring at the black-haired boy whose body, trapped in Solidified Twilight, kept cracking open.
“Rast.”
Noah spoke calmly, uttering the na of the boy before him.
It was the first ti he addressed him in such a tone—not as a lofty Legendary Realm overlooking an ordinary extraordinary being, but as an equal.
“I must admit, your actions have greatly exceeded my expectations.”
“To orchestrate both and the Remnant of the Death God with but a Fourth-Tier human body... and force even half of my Legendary Realm incarnation into such a sorry state.”
“I must retract my earlier judgnt of you—”
“Sisel choosing you as his Successor, and passing the Spark to you... was not a foolish decision.”
“Your disposition and initiative indeed befit the title of his heir.”
“However—”
Noah paused briefly.
“You are ultimately still too arrogant—just like your predecessor Sisel, and every Shoreguard before you.”
“As the weakest player in this three-sided ga, you should’ve acted cautiously, adapting to circumstances. But instead, you made the most reckless move—declaring war on both and the Old Death God.”
“Had you chosen to feign alliance with either of us... stirring conflict between and the Remnant of the Death God, then surviving in the cracks and reaping the benefits—”
“Perhaps the entire course of this ga, even the final outco, might have been rewritten.”
Noah looked at the boy’s body, like a sculpture constantly cracking and healing, and slowly extended his hand.
Erald Brilliance gathered at his fingertip.
Then, Noah pointed at Rast’s chest, aiming to pierce his broken heart entirely.
But—
Noah’s finger froze mid-air.
Boom—
The previously stagnant dusky halo suddenly went berserk.
It materialized into a giant hand of twilight in the void, tightly grasping Noah’s finger.
Beneath the high cliff, the once-calm Nether Abyss suddenly boiled.
A phantom water curtain shot into the sky, like a dark River of the Underworld suspended upside down from the do above.
Yet faced with such upheaval, Noah’s expression remained calm.
“You’ve reclaid control of your body... and even managed to briefly channel the entire Nether Abyss, turning the divine power lingering on the Divine Husk of the Death God into your own.”
“In other words—”
“You've won the battle against the Remnant of the Death God.”
Noah's voice rang out indifferently.
“With only a few hundred years of human experience, your soul and will... were able to surpass the remnant of an Old God that had survived since the Age of Gods, even after it invaded your ntal Image World.”
“I must say, you’ve surprised once again.”
If one allowed the Remnant of the Death God to invade their ntal Image World, initiating a desperate deathmatch where neither side had any retreat, and only by devouring the other’s soul could victory be attained—
Then even Noah himself would not have absolute confidence in winning.
Though the other party was fragnted by ti and long slumber, he was, after all, a true Old God… While Noah, though a Gravekeeper, possessed a perspective akin to a god overlooking the mortal world, he still could not guarantee that his own soul held not a single weakness or flaw that the Remnant of the Death God might exploit.
Precisely because of that—
Noah grew increasingly curious about the true purpose behind Rast's actions—
Choosing to challenge both the Gravekeepers and the Old Death God simultaneously, actively placing his weakest self in the most perilous and disadvantageous position.
This was undoubtedly a foolish decision. Even if the stance of the Shoreguards was inherently incompatible with the Gravekeepers—there existed no fundantal conflict between the Shoreguards and the Old Death God, and there was no need to tear off the mask so early.
Previously, he believed this was rely Rast’s foolish obstinacy. Yet a purely foolish person could never have driven this Legendary Realm half-body into such a wretched state.
Rast must have had his reasons… Yet no matter how Noah pondered, he could not grasp the motive behind Rast’s choices.
All living beings possessed the instinct to seek benefit and avoid harm.
This instinct, born from the history of evolution, was encoded into the very marrow of every creature—whether it be a humble weed by the roadside or a lofty deity, there was no difference when it ca to this primal urge.
But Rast had defied this law.
Without any visible gain, he abandoned a safe path to Ascension to Godhood… instead placing himself in danger by offending both sides at once.
“So, what did you gain from all this?”
“Did this course of action truly hold any aning for you?”
The aged voice drifted through the air. It was rely Noah’s quiet murmur. He did not expect a response from Rast, who was still locked in battle with the Remnant of the Death God within the ntal Image World.
However, unexpectedly, his question received an answer.
“Of course it held aning… Your Grace, Noah.”
The fragnted syllables echoed at the top of the tower.
It was Rast’s voice. Yet compared to the clarity it once carried, now it was hoarse beyond asure… mixed with the howling winds and crashing tides atop the high cliff, like the wail of a vengeful ghost returned from the Netherrealm.
“To temporarily feign alliance with the Death God, even to retreat a step for negotiation—certainly, that would have been the safer choice… But doing so would also an that all remnants of the Death God—be it Paradise, or the Nether Abyss—would continue to exist.”
“Even if I stopped the Death God’s resurrection in this Ascension ritual today, as long as his remnants remain in the world, then so years later, or in the next era… there will eventually co a second, a third wave of people coveting the Divine Seat of the Death God.”
“By then, everything that happened today will unfold once more.”
“And Akxia will inevitably fall into another cycle, whether as a necessary key to Ascension, or as the hybrid vessel for resurrection—forever unable to escape her fate as a ‘Perfect Vessel.’”
Rast’s once-handso face was now deathly pale, like weathered porcelain, etched with web-like cracks.
Each ti he spoke, fragnts of flesh would flake from his face, falling like pale embers.
“And the aning of my actions… is to bury the Remnant of the Death God, and everything he left behind—be it the Nether Abyss, or Paradise, and the countless dead—completely and utterly.”
“Because only then, can Akxia be freed from the cycle of fate, no longer bound as the ‘Perfect Vessel of the Death God,’ the ‘final key to Ascend the Divine Seat’…”
“But to live on, as a normal, ordinary human girl.”
...
“All this… for such a ridiculous reason?”
“For a woman who isn’t even truly your lover… you placed yourself in such peril?”
Noah looked at the broken human form of the boy before him and gently shook his head.
“Which is why—”
“I really cannot understand the Shoreguards.”
“I cannot understand your incomprehensible, aningless persistence.”
“Nor can I understand that weight you voluntarily shoulder—so illusory and fragile, easily discarded—yet still you bear it. That shackle called ideals and duty.”
Boom—
Before Noah’s words could finish, erald Brilliance burst forth in an instant.
It pierced straight into the broken chest of the boy, then erupted.
This was Noah’s attack, a strike forged from the full power of this Incarnation, the might of Legendary Realm Bounty erupting within Rast’s body, intent on annihilating every last trace of his vitality.
After that brief conversation, Noah understood that he could not comprehend the thoughts of the one before him—just as Rast likewise could not comprehend Noah.
In truth, there was no need for them to understand one another. The positions of the Gravekeepers and the Shoreguards were fundantally irreconcilable, a battle that would only end with death.
Not long ago, Rast had indeed survived the bloom of the Flesh Blooming through ans Noah could not understand.
Thus, this ti, Noah learned from that prior lesson.
If he revived once, then kill him once more. If he revived a hundred tis, then kill him a hundred tis again… until every single cell that composed this human boy, every single extraordinary factor, was reduced to charcoal, so that no resurrection or life-saving technique could ever again take effect.
An erald blade pierced through Rast’s chest, and the might of the Legendary Realm shattered the twilight, bit by bit annihilating the power of the Nether Abyss.
Even though this Incarnation of Noah had consud most of its power suppressing the flesh mutation—even though Rast had inherited the control of the Nether Abyss from the Remnant of the Death God, along with the vast majority of that god’s lingering power—
Noah still held an absolute upper hand, with complete control of the battlefield.
This was the authority of the Legendary Realm, an insurmountable difference that crushed all non-legendary extraordinary beings… only a legend could contend with another legend.
Even if Rast had employed countless ans to weaken Noah, and even used the Nether Abyss to strengthen himself—
The end result was rely that Rast could endure a few seconds longer before him, struggle a few more tis… it would not make the slightest difference to the final outco of the battle.
Yet, as Noah’s blade pierced his body, and as his vitality was slowly extinguished—
Rast did not make a single move in retaliation.
“That’s right…”
The boy’s hoarse voice rang out again, like a vengeful ghost returned from hell.
“It is indeed a aningless and incomprehensible persistence, Your Grace, Noah.”
“The so-called ‘Shoreguards’ are nothing more than a group of fools who, in pursuit of illusion and fantasy, voluntarily don the shackles of ideals and the chains of duty.”
In his pitch-black eyes, as silent as a dead pond, a faint glimr of light suddenly appeared.
“However, precisely because we carry these heavy shackles and chains, heavy enough to crush a person…”
“That is why we cannot afford to lose.”
Boom—
The Nether Abyss roared, and the river of twilight surged upward in reverse.
The river of death transford into crimson-gold chains, materializing in the void as a prison, locking Noah's body firmly in place.
And then—
Noah saw a tiny silver-white rune appear in the black eyes of the boy before him.
It began to spin ever so slowly.
It was sothing Noah had never seen before, a computing rune through which countless bytes of 0s and 1s stread.
The rise and fall of the tides ceased in an instant, leaving only the tallic voice of the boy echoing amidst the wind and waves.
“Join —”
“And plunge into the abyss.”
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