Secret: The undead do not die in the fire

"Where's my father?"

The lady's deep blue eyes revealed deep confusion and puzzlement. Although she said nothing, what she was thinking was obvious to everyone.

This is her father's mausoleum, suppressed by the power of the 'Black Emperor'. All of this indicates that Roselle is in this mausoleum.

But there is nothing here, no Black Emperor, no Roselle...

But if he wasn't here, what was the point of all she was doing?

No! This is his mausoleum. He must be here, but she hasn't discovered it yet!
Bernadette's eyes swept across every inch of the mausoleum, and finally stopped at the gate of the mausoleum.

In front of the two heavy stone doors that were opened, there was a black shadow wrapped in flames. The black shadow curled up into a ball, and from time to time, it let out painful and shrill screams. The voice seemed to be male, and sometimes it seemed to be female, making it difficult to tell its gender.

And since this is Roselle's mausoleum, who could this black shadow be?
Bernadette's eyes darkened, and she suddenly sensed something. She opened her mouth slightly and pronounced a Chinese word in a standard accent:
"home……"

This is the protective spell her father left her, so that she can remember it forever. If He is really him, he will definitely react to this amulet!
The black shadow that was twitching wildly under the scorching flames suddenly stopped. It struggled to raise its upper body and looked at Bernadette.

A dry, hoarse voice then echoed in the hidden space:
"home……"

The voice carried a hint of hesitation, confusion, and a sense of seeking confirmation, as if it came from another world.

Bernadette pursed her lips. His reaction confirmed her guess, but she felt even sadder in her heart.

She subconsciously looked towards the embers, with a hint of hope and pleading in her eyes.

I don't know whether he hopes that the ember can take back the flame and ease his pain, or that he hopes that the ember can save him and help him escape from his suffering.

Whatever she thought, the ember did not retract the flames that were wrapped around the shadow.

He just waved his finger at the black shadow, and the next moment, the black shadow immediately disappeared.

Bernadette turned around subconsciously, and a dark shadow appeared on the high platform in the center, sitting on the huge iron-black high-back chair.

Two cracks immediately appeared on its face, as if it had grown two asymmetrical eyes.

However, that 'eye' had no pupil, and the flames wrapped around the body were reflected in the blood-red color.

Then, another crack appeared below the two "eyes", which was also filled with pure blood-red light. This made the black figure finally have a "mouth".

It raised its head, with scarlet light in its eyes, and looked at Bernadette who was dozens of meters away. It laughed in a dry and hoarse voice:
“You really have become a big shot in the mysterious world, to be able to come here by yourself.

Come here, let me see what my little princess looks like now."

Bernadette's eyes suddenly turned red, but she didn't take a step.

Suddenly, Emperor Roselle's body twitched. The pain made him bury his head even lower. He said very forcefully:
"Stop!"

"No, come closer!"

“I am contaminated…”

His voice was filled with indescribable pain.

Bernadette stood there, staring blankly at the central platform, at the black figure, with indescribable sadness in her eyes.

She could sense it, and she was certain that the black figure was her father, the man who called himself "Caesar", Roselle Gustav.

Emperor Roselle tightly grasped the armrest beside him with one hand, lowered his voice, and said in great pain:

"Get out of here! Don't come back!"

As he spoke, the scarlet light once again took the upper hand.

More cracks appeared on the black figure, starting from the head and going down, and blood-red flowers bloomed in different parts of the body. This made Roselle look like only a layer of shadow was left, and inside it was a blood-red thing that emitted pure brilliance.

At this moment, Roselle seemed to be turning into a shadow, trying to cover the red moon, but it was torn open one after another, allowing more and more moonlight to shine into reality.

When these cuts are connected together, the black shadow will completely split apart, giving birth to a new red moon.

But soon, the flames covering Roselle's body became more violent. The flames followed the torn hole, penetrated into the black shadow's body, and quickly swept towards the red moon!

Bernadette looked at the embers beside her and prayed in a low voice:

"Sir, please, please save him."

Yu Jin glanced at Bernadette, waved his hand and drew a 'door' emitting azure light in front of her, and replied calmly:

"Wait outside for a moment."

Bernadette glanced at the shadow on the platform, and seemed to want to say something. But in the end, she could not make a sound and silently passed through the "door".

The next second, she found herself back at the edge of the original island.

The sea water had covered the surface of the island, but she could still see the black mausoleum standing in the center of the island.

She didn't move away, nor did she come closer again.

He just looked at the mausoleum from afar, his eyes full of sadness and worry.
-
Yu Jin waved his hand to dispel the "door", looked at the shadow on the platform, and said with a smile:

"Now, we can have a good talk."

Russell pressed the armrest with one hand, leaned forward slightly and looked at him, and asked with burning eyes:
"Are you an undead? Or an ember?"

Ember replied calmly:

"All."

"That's it."

Roselle chuckled, "Then I won't ask your real name. It doesn't make any sense. Ember is your real name. As for my name, you should already know it, right?"

"really."

Yu Jin nodded slightly and said:
"After all, you wrote it directly in your diary, Luo Ritian."

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Russell coughed violently a few times, his eyes dodging as he said:

"Those were all mistakes I made when I was young. A man who has not been romantic is a waste of his youth, and a hero does not brag about his past achievements."

Although he thought he was quite thick-skinned, especially since he had been consul and "Caesar" for so many years, he was very cunning. But now that his past was dug up unexpectedly, he was really embarrassed.

He wanted to change the subject, but Yu Jin just smiled and looked at him without saying a word.

This made Emperor Roselle very helpless, and he could only hold on to the truth that 'as long as I am not embarrassed, others will be embarrassed', while smiling at Yu Jin. However, in comparison, his smile lacked confidence, because he really did not have any black history with Yu Jin.

Just when Roselle, who hadn't communicated with anyone for more than a hundred years, didn't know how to resolve the embarrassment, a translucent vortex composed of illusory mysterious symbols suddenly appeared beside Yu Jin.

A paper man passed through the vortex and turned into a human being in front of the central platform.

This human with black hair and brown eyes is somewhat similar to Gehrman Sparrow, but his features are not strong enough, his lines are not deep enough, his temperament is not cold enough, and his facial features are also different. There is also a small amount of fat on his chin and stomach caused by society. This is exactly Klein's original image of Zhou Mingrui.

Russell's eyes suddenly lit up, and he said with a serious expression:
"You're here." "I'm here." Klein nodded imperceptibly.

"You shouldn't have come." Russell sighed.

"I'm already here." Klein naturally picked up the joke.

Russell returned to his normal sitting position and chuckled, saying:

"I was originally planning to ask where you are from to see if there is any need for regional discrimination, but after thinking about it, I feel that there is no need. You are all poor people who do not belong to this era and have no hometown."

Klein waited quietly for him to finish, pointed at the red moon in his body and asked:
"Are you planning to talk to us in this state?"

Roselle chuckled, and the shadows around him suddenly dissipated. The flames that had been repelled were like a wolf out of a cage, quickly rushing towards the red moon and devouring it in the blink of an eye.

It was not until this moment that Russell's body finally returned to normal.

The shadow re-condensed into the image of Roselle, the real Roselle——

He had long curly chestnut hair, blue eyes, a high nose bridge, thin lips, a well-groomed mustache, and wore a dark red coat with rusty gold thread, which was exactly how he dressed when he was 'Caesar'.

"This version is still stronger than the original fire."

Russell raised his arms, looked around his body, sighed and said:

"I have sought help from more than one god. Although they have the ability to kill me, they are powerless against the pollution I have suffered. Even the one who possesses the King's Soul is the same. After all, it is only the power of the First Flame..."

Klein made a "tsk" sound:
"You really know a lot."

Russell laughed softly:

“I haven’t lived in vain all these years.”

"really."

Klein nodded in agreement:
"After all, I have never seen many witches in my life, and you have already played with them."

Russell's face turned red and he coughed dryly:
"Can we not mention this?"

Klein shrugged and stopped talking about it, intending to save some face for Roselle. But Yu Jin suddenly smiled and asked:

"Then tell me about Mrs. Alice, and her daughter and granddaughter. Tell me about the story of how you defeated three of them at once."

Russell's eyes went dark all of a sudden, and he simply pretended to be dead, pretending he didn't hear anything.

As long as he is not embarrassed, others will be embarrassed!

Klein smiled unkindly, but still helped him out and asked:

"Can you become a god now?"

"can."

After hearing this, Russell's expression finally eased a little, and he sighed:
"In fact, in the past one hundred years, I could have been resurrected at any time. But even if I was resurrected, I could not get rid of the pollution. Even if I became the 'Black Emperor' again, I would only be a puppet of the Outer Gods. That's why I chose to seal myself and give up resurrection."

"Now that the pollution problem has been solved, the only thing that limits my ascension to the throne of God is my followers."

The resurrection of the 'Black Emperor' is not without precedent.

For example, the Black Emperor Solomon in the Fourth Epoch fell due to the betrayal of Tudor and Trunsoest, and even his Beyonder characteristics were divided up, but he was still resurrected not long after.

Tudor and Trunsoest, who had already integrated and digested the extraordinary characteristics of Sequence 1, fell back to Sequence 2 and had to take risks and turn to other paths.

But there are two major prerequisites for the resurrection of the "Black Emperor" Solomon:

The first is that at least one of His nine tombs must remain, or a certain number of remnants of the order He established must remain.

Secondly, He needs to have enough believers to support Him in becoming the Black Emperor again and fighting against the divinity.

'Black Emperor' Solomon meets both of these conditions.

Firstly, He had just fallen, and there were still many old men and young men in the Solomon Empire, and they all believed in the "Black Emperor" Solomon. Even the Tudor and Trunsoest dynasties still retained the asymmetrical aesthetics of the Black Emperor era, which meant that the order established by Solomon was preserved to the greatest extent.

Under this premise, even if His mausoleum was completely destroyed, He could still be resurrected successfully.

And once he is resurrected, he will immediately accept the beliefs of the remnants of the Solomon Empire.

When Russell is not Solomon, he can't do it.

He was satisfied with the former. Although the Intis Empire had collapsed, his mausoleum was still there and he could ascend to the throne of god at any time.

But for the latter, the believers’ problems are something he cannot solve.

More than a hundred years have passed, and the Intis Republic's belief in 'Roselle' has long since disappeared.

Although the golden words left by Emperor Roselle were widely spread and regarded as classics by many people, these people could not be considered as Roselle's followers.

And if he rashly becomes a god without any believers, the only consequence will be loss of control - the divinity will completely control him and turn him into a perfect body of God, and then the Original will be fully revived in his body.

Upon hearing this, Yu Jin immediately spoke:

"That's not a problem. I will help you suppress the Beyonder characteristics and uniqueness of Sequence 1, so that you can only be resurrected as Sequence 3."

Sequence 3 is the watershed for whether Beyonders need to have faith to fight against divinity.

Of course, the Embers can also be replaced by the First Flame, just like Groselle, allowing Roselle to ascend to the throne of God without the need for faith.

But this was not in his best interest - Roselle was destined to become a god, and he had to ascend to the throne of godhood with the support of faith.

Because the essence of the First Fire's "replacement" is to burn away the divinity in the Beyonder's characteristics, so that the "creator's divinity" becomes the "first fire's divinity". And the First Fire does not need to be revived, so the owner naturally does not have to worry about the problem of divinity overwhelming humanity.

But if you want to further refine the 'source essence' and become the Old One, you can't do this.

Because the "divinity of the Creator" in the Beyonder characteristic is the key, and only with this key can one be successfully accepted by the Source. If the "divinity of the Creator" is replaced by the "divinity of the First Fire", then the owner will be rejected by the "Source".

So far, any being who has the opportunity to ascend to the throne of God will not use this method. They all need the support of faith.

The same goes for Russell.

Klein thought for a moment and said:
"Then I'll have to get you another Sequence 3 'Crazy Mage' Beyonder characteristic."

"Need not."

The corner of Emperor Roselle's mouth slightly raised:
"I can be resurrected directly at the level of Sequence 1. You just need to help me suppress the 'uniqueness'."

Klein frowned:
"What about the believers?"

Without believers, it would not be enough to support Roselle to become Sequence 1.

It was not realistic to take the path of the First Fire, because Roselle was the key to the plan. The Black Emperor path, and even the Judge path, there was no one more suitable to ascend to the throne than him, so he could not take this path.