"The World-Ending Prophecy—this is my first ti hearing about it. Did you know about this whatever World-Ending Prophecy all along, Fisher?"
Standing on his shoulder, Eimhart appeared quite curious, wanting to get an answer from him.
In reality, Fisher rarely spoke of the World-Ending Prophecy to others. He only told Valentiina and Raphaela about this matter. Jasmine brought it up herself, so that didn't count.
When he told Valentiina, it was that night in the Northern Border when she wanted to commit suicide to fulfill everyone else; at that ti, Eimhart was sleeping. When he told Raphaela, he was temporarily left with Faxir and Kexir by Fisher. When he told Jasmine about this matter, he was at Mill's place taking care of Ingrid.
In short, he basically managed to miss it every single ti, so only now was this his first ti hearing of such a World-Ending Prophecy.
Of course, he didn't know if it was an illusion, but he always felt he had heard this term sowhere before, a feeling of extrely unfamiliar familiarity.
"Ah, I indeed knew about this World-Ending Prophecy very early on, and it was exactly because of this that I embarked on the journey and t Raphaela and the others."
"So that's how it is. It's just a pity I couldn't see that Chaotic Knowledge, otherwise I could have even provided a little help for you... Then what do you think about the words Renee just said? Surprisingly, just like Baimon, she also wants you to let go. Although I very much dislike Baimon, this ti I feel what she said is right. Reading that knowledge is way too dangerous; it's very likely to put you in a perilous situation, just like right now."
Fisher of course knew this. After hesitating for a mont, he let out a long sigh. Afterward, he looked at these Completion Handbooks following him like shadows on his body and couldn't help but say,
"I know, of course... but, even if the World-Ending Prophecy in my hands is false, these won who have a close relationship with are inevitably drawn into the destruction of the annihilation. Even if Renee says she and those deities have a way to resolve the World-Ending Prophecy, what are the specifics? Could this prophecy possibly be resolved easily without any cost? If a price must be paid, I'd rather it be paying it, rather than them."
"...Damn Baimon!"
Perhaps in this context, it had nothing to do with Helaire at all, but after all, this sentence had almost beco Eimhart's interjection. Whenever he was emotionally agitated, using this sentence never seed abrupt.
Fisher smiled helplessly, shook his head, and said,
"And even if I want to continue reading the Completion Handbooks to help Raphaela and the others, looking at it now, it's not easy either."
"What do you an? Did you see sothing from that Chaotic Knowledge just now?"
"Yeah, actually, I didn't completely lose control just now. I haven't even co into contact with the true essence of this Completion Handbook yet, let alone fully read it. To fully read this Completion Handbook requires finding [Life's Greatest Treasure]... Rember when we were in Saint-Nazareth, Erwind manipulated Blake behind the scenes to use the [Project Fleshgraft] technique to transform [Anna] into a monster. According to Erwind, that was a failed Treasure."
"Which ans..."
Fisher's gaze darkened for a mont, confirming Eimhart's hesitant guess.
"Which ans, if I want to finish reading this handbook, I must use the Project Fleshgraft technique to ravage life forms similar to Anna, just like Erwind did... 'If you want a Treasure, then discard kindness; if you want to climb against the Rules, then you must blasphe Life', these were Erwind's exact words..."
Eimhart pursed his lips in fear, unable to stop himself from chasing the question,
"Then what do you plan to do now? You're not really going to do that, are you? This might be the Chaotic Knowledge bewildering you; you absolutely mustn't fall for it."
Fisher glanced at Eimhart and asked expressionlessly,
"Aside from those ladies being considered my sin, do I look like soone who would do those things? It's just that the problem now is, I only have two usable Completion Handbooks in my hands. If the Life Completion Manual cannot be read by , then I must seek other Completion Handbooks. Otherwise, no matter what, I can only reach the Sixteenth Tier, far from enough for the Eighteenth Tier..."
This was the predicant Fisher was facing right now. Although both Renee and Helaire advised him not to read the Completion Handbooks and not to participate in the World-Ending Prophecy anymore, Fisher couldn't possibly let go like this and let the situation and destruction descend upon the people he cared about.
And even if he made up his mind to do so, among the Completion Handbooks on him, he could still only read one Soul Completion Handbook.
Under the gaze of the dark ocean beside them, one person and one book both fell into brief thought at this mont. But exactly at this ti, Eimhart suddenly rembered sothing. Looking at Fisher beside him with a brightened solitary eye, he said to him,
"...Hey, Fisher, do you rember when we were in the Northern Border... um, exactly at that ti, you had just been chased by Death, and then we ca down from the snowy mountain and returned to that Moon Rabbit-kin Ilos' Defiled Church. You t soone there very similar to that Erwind. He seed to belong to the sa organization as Erwind, called... um..."
Hearing his words, Fisher also seed to recall that person, raising an eyebrow to finish his incomplete sentence,
"The Death Inquisitor, Holland Dionisio, that Carduan who cannot die."
"Right, exactly, he's called that! If Erwind is also from that organization, then there's a high probability every person in this organization has a handbook docunting forbidden knowledge, right?"
"You're right, that's a huge help, Eimhart. If that's the case, this handbook of Erwind's can be temporarily set aside for a period of ti, and I can focus my attention on another one, on that handbook of the Death Inquisitor first..."
"Of course, I am the great Eimhart!"
"...But you cannot tell Renee about this matter, absolutely not."
"Ah?"
Just a mont ago, Eimhart proudly raised his head ready to receive praise, but in the next mont, hearing Fisher's words, he froze again. He looked at Fisher, then at the incomparably quiet coast beside them, his voice involuntarily lowering a bit,
"Oh right, Renee won't let you read these... oh my sky, I foolishly helped figure out a way for you. I truly am a sinner! But even if I don't say anything, it's no use. She's the reincarnation of the Mother Goddess, even more ridiculous than Demigods like the Chain of Heaven. Perhaps she already knows what we're talking about here."
Fisher scanned the surroundings in a full circle, then shook his head, saying,
"She won't. To know our situation here, she must use the Heart Birds, but right now there's not a single Heart Bird nearby..."
"Heart Birds? Al... alright, since it's like this, I will keep it a secret."
Saying this, however, looking at the quiet sea surface, Fisher also felt sowhat puzzled as he spoke.
There really wasn't a single Heart Bird here. Generally speaking, every ti Renee appeared, a huge flock of Heart Birds would follow by her side; it was like this when she suddenly appeared in the Northern Border last ti too.
Every ti he saw the Heart Birds appear, Fisher would know her gaze and figure might be nearby. Following the flight of those Heart Birds, you could always find a faint fragrance, and tracing that faint fragrance to its end would be Renee.
Perhaps because she was entirely too busy this ti, or perhaps because her disguise as a Witch was no longer necessary to continue in front of Fisher, so she didn't even bother bringing those purple buntings?
However, getting back to the topic, Eimhart indeed provided Fisher with a feasible line of thought. That Death Inquisitor, Holland, didn't need the Death Completion Manual at all and wouldn't read it. If he wanted it, Holland would definitely give it. It's just a pity that Completion Handbooks didn't have the concept of free gifting; he had to wait for the previous owner to die for the Completion Handbook to transfer.
Looking at it now, Fisher had two prerequisites to obtain the Death Completion Manual. The first was to find the Death Inquisitor; the second was to provide a path to Death for an "immortal" like him.
For the forr, Fisher possessed a certain degree of confidence. First of all, this fellow left him a telephone number. He didn't know where it was from, but it could be considered a clue. At worst, the Lord of Fate asking him to find the missing Asuka Karasawa would inevitably have her pay attention to him. And with her capability as the acting President of the Creator's Society, finding him shouldn't be difficult, so prerequisite one wasn't a problem.
The problem lay in the second point. He had to provide the Death Inquisitor with the missing Death. How could this be achieved?
Fisher pondered for a mont, recalling the unforeseen event in the Ideal State. He seed to grasp a sowhat ethereal clue...
But before he could think deeper, a faint, delicate fragrance lingered at the tip of his nose again.
He imdiately snapped out of it, and even Eimhart on his shoulder coughed, seemingly sowhat nervous, having to hurriedly quiet down.
"Here, brought you your clothes."
Sure enough, in the next second, bathed in the clear, bright moonlight, that Witch wearing a black gauze long dress appeared before Fisher again. She tilted her head, not looking at Fisher, but her lips carried a faint wicked smile. Her left and right hands each held several articles of clothing.
The instant Fisher saw that clothing, Renee tossed those clothes onto him, covering his body, and only then did she turn her head back.
"What is this?"
Fisher was slightly stunned, sequentially picking up the several colorful clothes piled on him with disbelief. Checking them out, they were all female garnts, and moreover from demi-human races, looking quite weird.
"Hmph hmph, I couldn't find any other clothes, make do with these. Anyway, there are no outsiders here, just us. Even if you wear them, we won't say anything."
Fisher's face was covered in black lines, but seeing that sly wicked smile on Renee's face, he knew this girl was throwing a petty tantrum.
He sighed, then tossed these clothes into the sea one by one. While tossing, he also stood up, incidentally saying,
"Even if I wanted to wear these, they are truly too small. Since there's no way, I can only make do without wearing anything first."
"You... you... you... you, what did you say, not wear?!"
Renee's expression, which was imnsely triumphant just a mont ago, grew chaotic the instant she saw Fisher slowly stand up. Her gaze seed to lose control, looking away one mont and back the next, not knowing whether to look or not. She was as conflicted as a brain and a body fighting for control.
Her face instantly flushed completely red. She also raised her hands to block her face and the front of her body, speaking to Fisher,
"What... what exactly did you experience in the past? I rember... rember the Angels wear clothes... Who... exactly who did you pick up bad habits from?!"
"What bad habits? Didn't you say it yourself, there are no outsiders here and we're all our own people, so if I don't wear anything, it's also—"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up you!"
Renee was truly blushing to the extre. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, seemingly performing a magic trick as she summoned another set of male robes from her hands and subsequently flung them in front of Fisher. He hurriedly reached out to catch it, discovering this robe was roughly his size, looking quite fitting.
Just as he expected, Renee had actually prepared suitable clothes all along. Bringing these won's clothes over was solely to tease him, but she didn't expect Fisher to see through her trick, breaking her defenses just by standing up.
He turned around and pulled the robe onto his body, while Renee had already turned her head to hide and not look at him.
Eimhart also hadn't expected Lady Renee to be surprisingly innocent like this. He blankly shot a glance at Fisher beside him. Fisher wasn't surprised in the least; he just walked toward Renee and said,
"Alright, I've put them on."
"Really?"
Renee turned her head, and only after seeing him honestly and securely putting on the clothes did she slowly turn her head back completely with a blushing face. At this mont, Fisher had completely reverted to humanoid form. This was Renee's first ti properly checking out the him she had parted from for four and a half years.
He stood properly in place, openly letting Renee check him out, and at the sa ti, wasn't he also checking her out.
In the past, he had several tis followed the delicate fragrance to find that Elf who looked exactly like Renee in every way except for her ears. He knew very well that Gui and Renee were different, but that feeling of difference was difficult to articulate clearly. It was only right now, truly seeing Renee, that he felt, everywhere was different; even with the sa face, he felt everywhere was different.
He looked at the other, unconsciously speaking openly,
"Welco back, Renee."
"...You're the one who ca back, dummy."
Renee looked toward Fisher who suddenly said this solemnly before her. She smiled slightly and approached him, intimately pinching his lower abdon, speaking thus.
"That's true indeed. Oh right... as you ntioned earlier, what is the thod for you and the deities to resolve the World-Ending Prophecy?"
"Can't tell you."
"Why?"
Hearing this, Renee murmured for a mont, only replying afterward,
"Because destiny... the threads of destiny are very sensitive. Who knows what you would think or what actions you would take after learning the specific thod. If telling you disrupts the threads of destiny it will shatter our plan... rest assured, just leave this matter to us True Gods."
"Like this... then these four and a half years, did you stay in the Spirit World?"
"Then where else could I go? It's just that I always felt you would also return from the Storm Sea, so I paid a bit more attention over there. The rest of the ti I was in the Spirit World. Before knowing you, and after knowing you, it's always been this way; I have my duties to fulfill..."
"What about the Spirit World Contamination? How is His condition?"
Renee looked toward the sea breeze and the moonlight in the sky, smiling as she told Fisher,
"...Still the sa."
"The sa?"
"aning He hasn't moved much... Four and a half years is truly unworthy of ntion for existences like us. The injuries He suffered might take an even longer duration to heal, rest assured. But even so, we cannot lower our guard. Annihilation is soon to arrive; everything should be approached with more caution, and I also need to guard my post without leaving for a single step..."
"...Which ans, you still have to return to the Spirit World afterwards?"
Renee didn't reply to Fisher, rely looking at the sea surface in the distance. She suddenly spread her arms wide, turned her head toward Fisher, and said teasingly,
"This place is too narrow; besides the sea surface, there's nothing else to see. Wanna go with a Witch who couldn't be any prettier to a place further and more beautiful?"
"..."
Fisher raised an eyebrow, turning his head to look at the Dragon Court behind him. But before he fully turned his head around, Renee had already beco ethereal and floated up. Carrying a trace of warm delicate fragrance along with softness, she turned his head back around.
Seeing her upon turning his head back, she puffed up her cheeks and said to Fisher,
"What's wrong? Worried that Dragonewt and Whale-person will co do a room check tonight and find you absent?"
"How could that be? I just worry I'll never co back."
Combining it with Renee previously saying she didn't want him involved in the matter of the World-Ending Prophecy, Fisher worried Renee wanted to roughly take him to a very distant place, far removed from the disputes here, but clearly, this was impossible.
"Sure sure, bad big sister is going to take you away right now, to an unknown place, and then cut out your organs to sell them..."
She maliciously closed the distance to Fisher a bit, saying sothing sensationally alarming.
"Smooch"
But Fisher only raised his eyes to look at her, then unconsciously perford a sudden attack, leaning forward slightly to kiss her side cheek.
"!"
In an instant, the Renee floating mid-air was like a balloon pricked by a needle retreating a long distance with a "whoosh". Blushing, she covered her side cheek; those who didn't know would have thought she was stung by a hornet.
"Fisher, you... you don't do this so sud... suddenly..."
"Sorry, just..."
"Alright, not... not allowed to say it!"
She predicted Fisher was going to say so reckless sweet nothings again, but after all, her cheeks were red enough right now, and her heartbeat was fast enough; she couldn't listen to such words anymore. She rely said,
"Co with first, I'll take you to a pretty place."
Thus, she floated up as if fleeing away, drifting further and further from the Dragon Court following the vast moonlight.
Looking at her increasingly distant back, Eimhart looked at Fisher beside him with dead fish eyes, saying to him,
"Suddenly I don't want to go with you guys. Maybe I should just go back to sleep."
"Can you sleep without ?"
"...I can already predict what will happen next. I don't want to be a third wheel and then, under the moonlight, before the lovely scenery, watch you two hug and gnaw at each other."
Fisher smiled slightly, stuffing him from his shoulder into his embrace, replying,
"I won't do that."
"Hehe, treating it like it's my first day knowing you."
"You don't understand your Lady Renee, nor do you understand in front of her."
Before Eimhart could respond, Fisher took a deep breath. Looking at Renee's increasingly distant back, Erwind's words suddenly flashed through his mind.
He, who originally wanted to just leap up directly, suddenly paused. Following this, from his back, a pair of bizarre, phoenix-like wings slowly grew out. The "cracking" sounds of flesh and bone terrified Eimhart out of his wits; he stuck his head out, gaping in surprise,
"My heavens, did you just learn this?... can only say, Miss Valentiina is wildly joyous."
"This is only a clumsy imitation; I haven't fully thoroughly comprehended Erwind's Completion Handbook yet. Let alone the contents behind the Mythical Gateway, I haven't even fully deciphered the two mountains before it..."
"Mountain? What mountain?"
"...Nothing."
Not explaining the contents related to the Life Completion Manual to Eimhart, he was lifted by the wings. Following a harsh sonic boom, he instantly leaped up, carried by the frost wings on his back, very quickly crossing the horizon and catching up to Renee who used a Witch physique.
"Fisher, co this way!"
The moon in the sky remained motionless, seemingly completely losing its spirituality aside from its brightness, only casting clear radiance onto the sea surface. Compared to it, the Witch floating mid-air ahead seed more like a moon of the night, being so bright and dazzling.
They went all the way from the ocean south of the Dragon Court further south. Amidst the continuous turbulence and pursuing each other along the way, it was unknown how much ti had passed; feeling only that the moon had already reached the mid-heaven, a faint fluorescence vaguely drifted up from the sea surface ahead.
Renee beside him continuously descended. Fisher, currently unaccustod to flying with phoenix wings, also adjusted his movents to descend.
The originally pitch-black ocean beca clear pale blue here, seemingly proving that this place wasn't deep. Amidst the broad ocean, several sharp tall mountains and small islands jutted out abruptly, lush and green above, concealing uninhabited mystery.
Moonlight descended from the heavens; the cloudless night laid out a starry sky on the uneven sea surface through the clear radiance. Passing through the tall mountains on the islands ahead, the densely scattered archipelago gradually revealed itself behind.
This place was incredibly silent; at this mont, surprisingly, there was only the sound of waves lapping against the reefs.
Inside the oval-shaped small island beneath the tall mountain, a pool of azure water radiated a faint fluorescence, hiding among the greenery ford by eralds like a sapphire upon the ocean.
Fisher was preoccupied admiring the beautiful scenery before his eyes, yet forgot to chase Renee's back. When he raised his head again, he found Renee had disappeared without a trace at so unknown point.
"Renee?"
He couldn't help but speak out, piercing the tranquility of this place.
"I'm right here!"
Just the second after he asked the question, behind him, the etherealizing-then-revealing Renee patted his shoulder, making him look at the beautiful scenery below.
"How is it, pretty?"
"Very nice... oh right, where is this? We seem to have flown out quite far."
"Anyway we ca out purely for fun tonight, do we still need to care about where this is?"
"True..."
"However you should have been to this place before."
"I've been here?"
Fisher looked at this island situated even further away than the Southern Continent, thinking that probably even the most explorationally-enthusiastic explorers of the Western Continent would perhaps have never been here before, which made him feel even more puzzled internally.
"Yeah, didn't you say you went to the Elves' holand when you were in the past?"
"?"
Fisher turned his head to look at her, seemingly in disbelief.
"You an..."
"Ah, that's right, this is the still remaining part of the Tree Continent that sank during the Mythic War, Fisher."
Renee and Fisher's gazes looked toward the sharp tall mountains before their eyes and the sparse archipelago behind them. No matter how he looked at it, the area of this archipelago was no more than several dozen kiloters in radius, and this was the still remaining part of the giant continent—the Tree Continent—that Fisher had once personally gone to and traveled through...
Comparatively, the archipelago before his eyes truly was only a drop in the bucket, an insignificant fraction of the original Tree Continent.
And only at this ti did he genuinely feel the change of ti continuously over ten thousand years.
For so unknown reason, he suddenly thought of Asuka Karasawa, that girl who, ten thousand years ago, said she would wait for their reunion...
Even an entire continent is like this, continuously shrinking amidst tis and wars, going from its original vibrant vitality to its current narrowness and deathly stillness. So, what about these worldly affairs to a person?
"...Did we co here just for the pretty scenery here?"
"Yes, but not entirely..."
Renee floated to Fisher's side, looking at that pool as azure as a gemstone on the island. She tapped her red lips and said,
"Beneath that pool, there are actually still so ruins left by the Elves. I went inside and looked, but I didn't feel much interest at the ti; just took a look and left..."
"But didn't you say earlier, you saw an Elf who looked exactly like in the past..."
"Was she called... Gui?"
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