Within the peculiar realm shaped by the divine artifact known as the Demon Spirit Pyramid, Elena gazed upon her ghost, her thoughts turning to Ray.
She rembered the flying machine buried in yellow sand, and the sound of a joyful voice filled her ears once more.
"Look!"
"It's light."
Perhaps it was not just light.
It was also hope. It was Ray's expectation for the future.
But now, she could not see anything worth looking forward to, nor could she sense the presence of light.
She turned her head and looked toward the bottom of the temple stairs. Her eyes settled on an overturned box, its contents scattered across the ground.
Among them were rusted tal remains, partially hidden beneath clothes lined with nurous pockets.
She reached out her hand to touch her own ghost.
"Show ! Let
understand what it truly ans to be a ghost."
Clad in the high priest's robe, Elena touched the armored knight ghost.
Her consciousness instantly plunged into another world.
There was nothing there. It was only chaos, confusion, and darkness.
No one knew who they were or where they ca from. They simply wandered instinctively along familiar paths.
It was like being locked in a cramped room, with light occasionally shining through to illuminate the darkness.
In those monts, they would finally rember sothing.
They would recall who they were, their deepest obsessions, and their most excruciating pain.
So might suddenly cry out, "This isn't my ho. Why am I here? I have to get back."
Others might say, "Stop! Do not play with my life! Let
die as a Trilobite Man."
Or perhaps, "You've returned? I have been waiting for you to co ho... I wanted to talk to you."
But monts later, they would forget everything again.
They would return to the endless darkness.
This was because ghosts only retained fragnts of their spirituality, wisdom, and emotions. Much of their desires, personality, and knowledge had been stripped away, leaving them composed primarily of partial mories and lingering feelings.
Occasionally, their personality and emotions would surge, allowing them to recall the past.
But this did not make things much better.
The true desperation was not being thrust into eternal darkness. It was seeing a window opened to an unreachable place just after you were pushed into that darkness.
Perhaps the spirit entities surrounding demigods could break through this wall with the help of a demigod's realm. This would allow the spirits to beco gradually more complete, enabling them to walk out of the darkness whenever they wished.
But the People of the Abyss had no demigod of their own.
They could only repeat this cycle day after day, enduring the long, dark imprisonnt and the occasional resurgence of mory.
Elena experienced only a mont, but in that mont, she understood the misery of ghosts.
Fortunately, this feeling did not linger.
Perhaps this was because the ghost before her was very recently born. Even so, that brief exposure was enough for Elena to understand what ghosts truly were.
Then, the mories surfaced. mories that belonged to Elena alone took her back two hundred and fifty million years, to the heart of the God-Forsaken Era.
At this ti, though the Yinsai Kingdom had declined, the third-generation Sage of Truth, Vivien, was still present.
The Abyss Golden Helt Knight Elena was approaching the latter half of her life. As an apostle, she had a lifespan of a full thousand years, an unimaginable length for mortals.
Yet, asured against civilization and the land itself, even that felt transient and short-lived.
On an island near the Bottomless Abyss
Most of the magic tal workshops and other miracle ritual workshops on the island had closed. The once prosperous island was left with only the remnants of fallen glory.
A woman stood before the entrance of a tall workshop, looking out at the ruined island.
She held a compass in her hand.
The compass spun aimlessly, its lack of direction mirroring the uncertainty in the woman's heart.
Elena had received the God's Form divine technique from Vivien and, long ago, had mastered the ability to freely change her form. In the deep sea, she took the form of the People of the Abyss. On land and on the islands, she used God's Form, which was more practical and convenient.
Although she had entered the latter half of her life, no signs of aging had yet appeared on her.
The wars were over now. The battles between the Trilobite n and the People of the Abyss had ended, as had the conflicts against the Evil God and the priests who served him.
The Abyss Golden Helt Knight had taken off her armor and spent most of her ti either in her ritual workshop or teaching the younger generation of the People of the Abyss.
Even without rituals to communicate with spirits for miraculous power, Elena could still produce magic tal through her own abilities. This allowed her workshop to be one of the few the People of the Abyss could still operate.
But these workshops could not solve the problem.
The magic tal they produced, along with the few remaining products of transcendent power, could not transform this barren and desolate world. It could not alter an era that was never ant to harbor intelligent species.
Elena looked at the compass in her hand.
After the spirits had departed, it was perhaps one of the few creations still shining with a miraculous light.
"God has left."
"The Trilobite n are moving forward with their plan. Vivien has received Stuen's Ruhe Imprint and intends to use the power of Life Ability to ensure the continuation of the Trilobite n's bloodline and future."
"And what about us?"
"Do we still have a future?"
Elena had recently heard about the preparations of the Trilobite n, making her worry about the future of the People of the Abyss.
If even the Trilobite n had to prepare such a retreat, what were the People of the Abyss to do, with their even weaker foundation?
Inside the workshop behind Elena, several young people were at work.
One of them was nad Ray.
Ray was tinkering with sothing strange.
The second-generation Sage of Truth had created the Wings of Wind Control, and from it, produced beings called Wing Demons.
Ray wanted to modify them, to create tools that would allow ordinary people to fly.
He wanted to see the horizon, to see places neither the People of the Abyss nor the Trilobite n had ever reached.
He hoped to find a new paradise waiting to be discovered.
In such an era, Ray stood out as an anomaly. While most people were consud by pessimism and despair, he consistently held on to hope.
Ray had made progress on his flying machine and wanted to consult his teacher Elena. As he approached, he overheard her speaking these words.
He had never seen such an expression on Teacher Elena's face before.
Elena saw Ray approach from behind. "Ray? Did you need sothing?"
Ray replied, "Lady Elena, I believe that as long as we try, there is always hope."
Elena looked at this energetic young man, and her sowhat dejected expression finally relaxed.
She did not speak, simply turning and walking away alone.
The next ti Ray saw her was several years later.
Elena explored countless secret techniques and delved into various records, myths, and legends. Eventually, she uncovered what seed to be the most plausible thod for the People of the Abyss to preserve their heritage.
She believed she could build a ship to cross ti into the next era.
If this era still held hope, the People of the Abyss could explore it.
And if this era had no future, her thod could at least preserve their heritage.
Elena brought together her students, the king of the Abyss Kingdom, the queen, and nurous priests.
"I have discovered sothing special about monsters. After one generation dies, a new monster consciousness can sotis be born from the remaining carcass."
"If we transform into long-lived monsters, then create an artifact that can reignite the light of our consciousness after death, could we not cross ti and exist forever?"
"Couldn't we survive this God-Forsaken Era and endure this long night?"
Elena described the divine artifact she imagined.
"It could be a ship, one to carry us into the next era."
"Or it could be a pyramid, for that will be our eternal paradise."
Soone raised a question. "But will the newly born still be us?"
Elena replied, "I have already figured out a way to ensure the inheritance of will."
Elena took out sothing.
It was a fragnt of the Bottle of Original Sin.
The Bottle of Original Sin was originally a flask used by the fire demon Haru to create fire demons.
Later, Anhofus used it to create the mythological life known as the Little Person in the Bottle. It eventually shattered into pieces with the demise of the Little Person in the Bottle.
"The divine artifact we build will hold ghosts created from our mories. Our divine blood will be forged into transcendent humanoid bodies. These ghost bodies, ford from mories, will serve as the roots of our will, acting as the candles that ignite the light of our consciousness."
"They will no longer be exactly who we once were, but entirely new versions of ourselves. Even so, they will carry those unforgettable mories."
"Because their most important parts, their mories and spirits, will remain in this world, they are bound to be shaped by the past."
"They will possess the transcendent bodies of monsters and the undying spirits of ghosts."
"Even the long years cannot wear them down."
When the plan was first proposed, everyone considered it perfect.
Those present felt the sa way.
Elena announced to everyone, "The Trilobite n chose to continue through bloodline. We will choose to inherit through will."
"The Trilobite n preserve their bloodline, hoping to use Vivien's immortal power to rebuild their civilization in the next era. In response, we will create a ship to carry us forward, an eternal paradise that is ours alone."
Elena had once hated Haru so much.
Yet in the end, she chose the sa path he did.
Elena had spent half her life opposing the Evil God, engaging in countless battles with the High Priest who served him, only to end up using the Evil God's power herself.
This revealed the overwhelming despair and pressure the God-Forsaken Era had placed upon Elena.
When faced with the survival of her race and the continuation of their civilization, many other concerns faded from her mind.
At that mont, she thought of little else.
In the end, the Trilobite n failed to continue the bloodline they wanted.
And the People of the Abyss failed to complete the inheritance of will she had envisioned.
...
The plan was set into motion.
Ultimately, the chosen form was the Demon Spirit Pyramid instead of a ship.
Perhaps this was because a pyramid, rather than a ship, aligned more closely with the vision of paradise held by the People of the Abyss and the Trilobite n.
The People of the Abyss built an inverted pyramid in the royal city, planning to create an artifact of unparalleled power. They gathered the strength of the entire Abyss Kingdom to create a realm that could accommodate a large number of "immortal" Demon Spirits.
As the plan progressed, all the priestly groups joined in, and the steps were gradually refined.
However, Elena, who had proposed the plan, began to have second thoughts.
She calculated the price required to build the inverted pyramid. In terms of divine blood content, it was nearly a mythological artifact, lacking only the Four-Part Secret Technique.
As she delved deeper into the mysteries of the Bottle of Original Sin and the nature of ghosts, her understanding of them beca clearer.
As she calculated the amount of divine blood the artifact required, a realization struck her. The fear she had carried of the God-Forsaken Era and the departure of the divine beings suddenly lifted, replaced by a newfound clarity.
On that day, Elena gave a sudden order to halt all construction on the inverted pyramid. She then entered it alone.
A day later, she finally allowed her student Ray to see her.
In the God-Forsaken Era, a Second-Rank priest was already at the peak.
And Ray was the best among the Second-Rank priests, perhaps destined to beco a core figure of the Abyss Kingdom in the future.
Ray entered the temple. His teacher, Elena, stood beneath the left wall.
"I'm here, Lady Elena."
Elena looked at the student who had once given her hope and spoke to him.
"You were right."
"As long as we try, there is always hope."
Then, a helpless expression crossed Elena's face.
"But the price for that hope... it is truly too cruel."
The two walked beneath the inverted pyramid's skeletal fra, inside the Yinsai Temple where only the main hall stood complete.
"Creating such a paradise would demand that generation after generation of our people sacrifice their blood. Only through such a price could an artifact of this magnitude be forged."
"And those who beco ghosts... they will be trapped in eternal darkness."
"Is it truly worth it?"
"To secure a future, is it right to make our people suffer such pain?"
Elena stopped before a wall where the design of the Demon Spirit Pyramid was drawn.
Elena looked at the number she had calculated.
She seed shocked by the massive number, as if seeing it for the first ti.
Each number represented one of the People of the Abyss.
"We don't even have a present, yet we aspire to a future that may not exist."
Elena had spent her life using her sword to protect her country and race.
This plan would completely overturn everything she had once pursued.
"I can sacrifice myself in pursuit of the future."
"I would let a hundred people, a thousand, even ten thousand, follow
to their deaths."
"But to make everyone pay the price... To have generation after generation bear this cost."
"I cannot do it."
"Even if we succeeded," she said, "it would not be a ship to carry us into the next era. It would be a tomb ant to bury us."
Elena looked at Ray, shaking her head.
"I want us to have a future. But at the sa ti, I want to protect the people of the present."
"At the very least, they deserve a chance."
"Perhaps among them, so gifted individuals will erge. Perhaps, even in this barbaric era and this barren world, they will find their own way out."
Elena looked at her student, the young Ray.
He was so young, while she was approaching the end of her life.
"So," she said softly, her voice resolute.
"Let it co to an end."
"If everything is ant to pass away, then let it move toward extinction, just as I am."
"If it is not ant to perish, then fate will give us a future."
The plan was stopped.
In the days that followed, Elena never again left the half-finished inverted pyramid.
Many years passed.
When Ray saw her once more, it was for the final ti.
Though she had not yet reached the end of her life, she was like a lamp running out of oil.
With nothing left to protect, no future in sight, and no hope to chase, she was no longer a knight.
With the divine beings gone from the world, her role as an apostle had also lost its purpose.
Elena had her back to Ray, facing the window.
She wore her armor, holding the Ruhe sword in her hand.
She raised her head, as if trying to see sothing outside, but finally sighed and lowered her head.
She knelt, thrusting the Ruhe sword from her waist into a crack between the floor's bricks with the posture of a knight.
In the end, she still wished to die as a knight inside the sacred hall of the divine.
"Take my God's Grace Stone, and leave this place."
"My body will remain here," she said softly, her voice resolute, "and my divine grace will return to the abyss, to the divine beings."
She lowered her head, her forehead resting on the sword hilt.
The compass hanging from her neck fell forward.
She closed her eyes.
The Elena of the past knelt in the temple, and with that, her journey ended.
Her God's Grace Stone was taken by Ray as he journeyed toward the Bottomless Abyss.
Legend said that the God-given Paradise lay on the other side of the abyss.
Both the Trilobite n and the People of the Abyss originated from that place.
When the Trilobite n faced death, they turned toward the Sacred Mountain. When the People of the Abyss perished, they descended into the abyss.
This had been the way of things since ancient tis, and it had never changed.
In the strange realm
Elena let go of the pillar. The ghost seed to awaken from its confusion, turning to look at her with surprise.
Instantly, the ghost's eyes erupted with a fierce pressure, like a hurricane sweeping through the temple.
"You should not be here! No! You should not exist!"
But just as quickly, she returned to her confusion.
She gazed at her surroundings helplessly, once again wandering around the pillar.
The apostle Elena stared at the ghost Elena in surprise. "You gave up," she whispered. "I gave up. I didn't create this. Then why did it all still happen? Why did the Demon Spirits still appear?"
Elena departed from the strange realm. She needed to revisit the real Demon Spirit Pyramid and uncover the truth of its creation.
Only then could she decide what steps to take next.
At this mont, Elena suddenly understood why she had to return.
"I ca back..."
"Perhaps I ca back to put an end to this tragic fate, to this darkness where hope remains forever out of reach."
She hurried back to the main hall of the Yinsai Temple. Another person had appeared there.
The Demon Spirit King was already in the temple.
Elena had the feeling he was waiting for her.
When Elena saw this king again, her gaze was completely different.
Although she had not yet learned how the Demon Spirit Pyramid was successfully built, she roughly guessed the Demon Spirit King was involved.
She observed the Demon Spirit King in prayer, approached quietly through the side passage, and spoke as she moved closer.
"Demon Spirit. What a true and vivid na."
"We are not the People of the Abyss."
"In fact," she said, "I am not truly Elena, just as you are no longer the king of the abyss you once were."
"We have all beco Demon Spirits, half fleshless monsters, half ghosts eternally condemned to darkness."
The Demon Spirit King rose, this tal puppet turning his head to look at Elena.
He knew she had learned everything.
"You've seen the ghosts of the Ghost Realm?"
Ghost Realm seed to be the na of that strange place.
Elena stared at the Demon Spirit King, at his jewel-inlaid eyes, and suddenly understood. "It seems you have seen it too."
The Demon Spirit King spoke slowly, his voice unhurried, as if nothing mattered. "Every ti I wake, I go there."
"In fact, every Demon Spirit unconsciously rushes to the Ghost Realm upon revival."
"But I have stopped the others from going."
"The ghosts have existed for so long and endured so much. Contact with them would drive anyone mad."
"Yet soone in this city must comprehend the past. Soone must learn how to manage this city and the Demon Spirit Pyramid."
"Do you agree?"
Hearing this, Elena's lips parted involuntarily.
The hand resting on her sword loosened slightly, her eyes filled with confusion.
She could not understand. She could not understand why the Demon Spirit King would do such a thing.
This ant he endured the sa endless darkness his ghost experienced, and that he repeated it with each revival.
He paid such a huge price just to remain in this dark place, a puppet who could never leave.
What he gained was not immortality. It was rely a new consciousness born in his next body, dood to experience the pain all over again.
She truly could not understand.
Elena asked, "Were you the one who built this Demon Spirit Kingdom and the Demon Spirit Pyramid?"
"Was it you who imprisoned your own people, and yourself, in eternal darkness?"
Elena had encountered many madn in her life, including the fervent devotees of the Little Person in the Bottle.
Even the madness of soone like the Little Person in the Bottle was understandable.
But the madness of this Demon Spirit King before her was sothing she could not comprehend.
The Demon Spirit King answered her. "That is right."
"I ordered its reconstruction. But it was the People of the Abyss, generation after generation, who sacrificed everything to build it."
"Countless People of the Abyss are buried beneath this pyramid, along with our civilization."
At this, the Demon Spirit King's voice fluctuated. "This is the paradise they built for us with their own flesh and blood."
Elena looked toward the inverted pyramid, as if trying to see the true essence of the city and the pyramid.
She tried to witness the generations of the People of the Abyss who sacrificed themselves, one after another, for this pyramid in the na of preserving their civilization.
The Demon Spirit King's words interrupted Elena's search.
"You can no longer see them now. Everything has disappeared."
"It has been too long."
"Without the power of divinity, without the power of Ruhe, nothing could possibly remain."
"Mundane objects from the mortal realm cannot cross ti."
Looking at the city now, Elena no longer saw a paradise for her people.
What she saw was a ground covered with the skeletons of countless People of the Abyss. Puppets with no future wandered aimlessly through a city built on these remains, their eyes filled with confusion.
And above them, their ghosts watched in despair.
The anger in Elena's eyes erupted. "I clearly said we should give up."
"I said it should end! Why did you continue?"
The Demon Spirit King looked at Elena. "Lady Elena, do you want to destroy it?"
"Do you want to destroy this city, built by generations of our people who gave everything? Destroy the last trace of our civilization?"
Elena stood before the divine statue and told the Demon Spirit King.
"If it was a mistake from the beginning, then perhaps it is ti for it to end."
"If there was no future from the start, it should never have begun."
"I ca too late."
"Perhaps I should have ended all this long ago."
Elena stared at the Demon Spirit King. "Your ghost has wandered for countless years. Every ti you see his mories, don't you feel his pain? His despair?"
"This is no paradise."
Elena's voice was incredibly sharp as she finally said, word by word,
"This is purgatory."
The Demon Spirit King seed struck by Elena's words, standing there without knowing what to say.
After a long sigh, his tone, which had always seed so detached, beca sad and helpless.
"I know."
"I understand."
"But I just... can't let her go."
"I am tired, too. But no matter how tired I beco, I cannot bear to abandon her."
The tal puppet turned his back, no longer looking at Elena.
He faced the statue of the Yinsai God with a devout posture, kneeling at the god's feet with his head pressed against the stone platform of the divine throne.
"God! Supre Creator Yinsai!"
He seed to be seeking the god's salvation, or perhaps using faith and divinity to fill the irreparable emptiness and pain in his heart.
Elena did not look at the Demon Spirit King again.
She walked toward the exit.
A powerful force and a murderous aura emanated from her, and a transcendent spiritual light shot toward the sky.
The Demon Spirit King sensed the coldness from Elena, but he had no reaction.
He did not try to stop her.
He closed his eyes, speaking in a voice even he could not hear.
"Perhaps this is for the best. Let us enter eternal slumber together."
"Immortality..."
"That belongs to the divine beings."
"It has nothing to do with us mortals, nor is it sothing we can bear."
But at this mont, another figure walked into the temple gate.
It was a puppet wearing armor, holding a silver helt in hand.
She walked slowly.
Outside, crystal lamps cast her shadow, making it rotate along the hall floor, mysterious and elegant.
"My king!" she said, her voice firm yet urgent. "I wanted you to stop her. Why are you letting her convince you?"
But when she saw the Demon Spirit King with his head pressed against the divine platform, desperately chanting the Redlichia Covenant in sorrow, her voice softened.
It was the Demon Spirit Queen.
"My king," she said softly, her voice full of concern, "you look tired."
"You should rest. Pray quietly to the divine."
"I will resolve this. I will protect our kingdom and our ho."
As she walked in, she put on the silver helt in her hand.
The Demon Spirit Queen drew the long sword at her waist. The armored tal puppet flicked the sword with a perfectly standard posture, the blade pointing toward the ground.
"Lady Elena!" she called out.
"He was not the one who created the Demon Spirit Pyramid."
"It was !"
"I was the one who insisted on building it."
Elena observed as power surged from the queen's body, a transcendent light that clearly did not originate from her.
She held ultimate authority over the Demon Spirit Pyramid and the entire Demon Spirit Kingdom, and she oversaw the revival of all Demon Spirits.
She was drawing upon the power of this place, a power that was not her own.
Beneath her priest robe, Elena's hand gripped her sword hilt. Though the sword remained sheathed, her will to fight was overwhelming, surpassing even the Demon Spirit Queen, who had already drawn her blade.
The Demon Spirit Queen's gaze t Elena's, not yielding at all.
"Lady Elena, you should not have returned. You chose eternal slumber. You decided to leave us behind."
"You should not have co back to disturb our peace."
"You are our Lady Elena, you are God's apostle, you are the Golden Helt Knight."
"In our eyes, you are God's spokesperson in the mortal realm."
"But even before divinity itself, I will still speak my mind."
"I want the Abyss Kingdom to exist forever."
Elena questioned her. "The peace you speak of... is this it?"
The Demon Spirit Queen replied, "I love this city. I love everything here, and I love the people who live here."
"I cherish them. I cherish everything I have."
"No matter what, I cannot stand by and watch it all fall into ruin."
Elena asked, "Even if the price is so heavy? Even if what you gain is nothing but an endless plunge into darkness?"
"Do you know what it feels like for those ghosts, wandering in darkness again and again?"
The Demon Spirit Queen answered softly, "Of course I know."
The Demon Spirit Queen's silver-helted gaze pierced Elena as she revealed a shocking fact.
"I know everything. I know why I made this choice back then. And I know all about you."
"Because the person I once was grew up by your side."
"Lady Elena, my surna is... Sal!"
Elena fell silent for a mont before she finally asked the Demon Spirit Queen.
"So even if it ans living forever in this dark abyss? Even if your ghost remains trapped in eternal darkness? Even if all of this is nothing more than an unnatural and false dream of paradise."
The Demon Spirit Queen stepped forward, gradually approaching Elena.
"Even so," the Demon Spirit Queen said firmly. "Even if this choice is wrong, I would give everything for it to exist for just one more mont."
She took another step forward, her voice unwavering. "Lady Elena, if you want to destroy all of this, you must destroy
first."
As the Demon Spirit Queen advanced, power spilled in all directions.
The surrounding scene gradually changed, the entire world seeming to flip over.
The strange place known as the Ghost Realm enveloped the area.
Standing before the Abyss Golden Helt Knight Elena, the Demon Spirit Queen appeared uncertain, lacking the resolve to triumph. She decided to strike first.
Her steps quickened, faster and faster, until her body beca a phantom.
An intense red fire light erupted from the long sword in her hand, transforming into a fire dragon that shot toward Elena.
Elena tilted her head slightly. At this critical mont, her gaze grew distant.
It was as if she were appraising the power and swordsmanship of her junior.
She drew her sword only when the queen was upon her.
A beam of light shot skyward. The white glare obscured all sight, and the entire Ghost Realm seed to shake.
The two were strikingly alike in every way.
Their sword-holding posture mirrored each other. Even their battle stances reflected the sa lineage.
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