Mystery: When the Fool Meets the Masked Fool

Chapter 419 Drag him out and feed him to Commander Black

At this moment, He felt the call and longing of the other half of the soul. The two "selves" that had been separated for more than a thousand years were eager to reunite and return to wholeness.

Upon seeing the feathered serpent coiled deep within the black mist, and its face atop its mountain-like body, Azik was first taken aback, then his forehead twitched as if a wedge had been driven into his temple, splitting his head in two.

Compiling shaders...

Loading cutscene...

Then, amidst this intense pain, a series of disjointed images suddenly flashed through His mind.

A face identical to His own grew on a feathered serpent; countless pale corpses littered the silent earth; clouds made of skulls of different races floated in the sky; and black, segmented tentacles emerged from the ground, waving incessantly…

Azik covered his head with one hand, letting out a series of low, inhuman growls. Beads of sweat slid down his forehead, landing on the stone slab in front of him, staining it with a thin layer of yellowish-brown dirt, which sprouted fine white down.

But He quickly calmed down.

In His consciousness, those disjointed scenes shattered.

A giant, jet-black wolf descended from the sky, tearing apart the face that resembled Him, revealing a faceless feathered serpent screaming below.

The desolate earth was littered with corpses, and their shadows suddenly boiled and surged, turning into a black tide that swallowed them up.

A jet-black eagle appeared in the sky, scattering clouds made of piled-up skulls, followed by a shower of raindrops as dark as ink.

The ground was dyed black, like a silent sea. Tentacles extending from the ground were bitten off one by one, and a shark leaped out of the "sea".

"Huff...huff..." Azik gasped for breath.

Pain, it hurts.

However, Azik's lips were no longer taut, but slightly upturned.

As expected, His guess was correct.

Or rather, Serres was telling the truth from beginning to end.

After these flickering images, He saw a pair of pale, dying eyes looking over, and a white feather stained with pale yellow oil fell, cutting Azik's transparent spirit body in two.

One part of it suddenly flew up and entered the "cloud of skulls" that had not yet been dispersed, while the rest merged with a golden ornament that had suddenly appeared out of thin air, and returned to its flesh and blood body amidst the scorching of pale flames.

This seems to be a memory of His past, a memory of His soul being divided.

However, none of that matters anymore.

Azik relaxed, no longer resisting the instinctive attraction, and instead took a step forward, walking towards the feathered serpent.

His neck rose uncontrollably, little by little, and patches of dark, cold scales sprouted from it. Suddenly, as if it came into being, a bulge appeared on his forehead, split open, and a bloody gash appeared.

A golden light then emerged from nothingness and took shape within flesh and blood.

This is an ancient ornament made of gold, shaped like a slender bird with wings made of pale flames surrounding it. Inside its bronze eyes, layers of light overlap, forming a mysterious and illusory door.

The illusory and mysterious gate left the eyes of the golden ornament, the two doors merging together, becoming enormous, and opening in both directions. It appeared in reality, reflected in Azik's eyes.

Bloody arms, bluish-black vines with baby-faced features, and slippery tentacles with dead fish eyes or rows of sharp teeth emerged from the doorway, piercing the boundary between reality and illusion, reaching into the mausoleum, and seizing the feathered serpent.

The feathered serpent didn't struggle; it just stared at Azik without moving, letting the arms, vines, and tentacles pull it toward the bronze gate.

Then, the arms, vines, and tentacles slowly dimmed and became transparent, moving towards the door until they pulled the feathered serpent inside.

The door closed silently again.

The two doors that Azik had in mind were also closed.

The real-life feathered serpent also disappeared, imprisoned in Azik's "portable underworld".

The two torn souls merged into one, making up for the flaw left by the "Grim Reaper".

The feathered serpent with Azik's face appeared within the spirit of Azik Eggers, the "Death Archon".

But He has no fear, for He is also a Sequence Two angel, the “Death Archon”.

He saw Azik's spirit.

Within every drop of Azik's blood and every muscle, a small amount of spirit intertwines to form a transparent soul.

This soul appears complete and without any defects, yet it is filled with discordant contradictions, because half of it is golden yellow, from its eyebrows and eyes to its torso and limbs, carrying an ancient and rustic beauty.

The feathered serpent unfurled, attempting to entangle Azik's spirit.

But soon, He found Himself unable to move, and His spirit began to fade, slowly turning grayish-white. The ethereal outline enveloped Him, irresistible.

Whether you struggle or accept it, it all eventually fades away in the written storybook.

The feathered serpent let out a roar, and its feathers stood on end.

Azik Eggers appeared before Him, gazing at Him calmly.

In Azik's eyes, the soul of this feathered serpent was a mixture of many parts.

Besides half of his soul belonging to Him, the other half belonged to a being who had long since died.

Death, Salinger.

“Father…” Azik uttered the word calmly.

He didn't feel disappointed or anything was wrong; He knew very well what kind of person his father was.

The feathered serpent flicked its tongue, its eyes burning with pale flames as it stared at Azik, filled with death and madness—a "concept" beyond human comprehension, brimming with unparalleled corruption.

But none of this matters.

"Long time no see, and then... farewell, Father."

The colorless gray and white hues converged in Azik's hands, transforming into a scythe.

As the "Chaos Physician," He is about to perform a small spiritual dissection on the "self" before Him.

With a flick of the wrist, the sickle traced a beautiful arc.

The spirit before Him was split in two. The spirit of Death Salinger, now powerless to resist, was severed, but it still maintained a close connection with Azik's spirit. If left unattended, it would re-merge in just a few minutes.

Madness, death, slaughter, pollution...

These concepts haunt Salinger's lingering soul.

They are superior to Azik, and even Azik at his peak could not defeat them.

But Azik saw no need to deal with them personally.

A phantom, hazy, and illusory path emerged from around Salinger's spirit.

That was the path of [nothingness] that Azik embarked on.

So what if it's a strong binding?
What are you mumbling about?
Drag them out and feed them to Black Commander.

Let me speak to my fate of [emptiness].

Salinger's remnant soul was enveloped by the "nothingness" and drawn into it by the black hole-like gravity.

This even affected Azik's part of his spirit.

But that's exactly what Azik needs.

Madness and pollution faded into obscurity under the shadow of nothingness, and even the "divinity" that constantly struggled within the spirits fell into deathly silence.

Azik withdrew his gaze and stopped paying attention to this part of his spirit.

They didn't care that Salinger had crawled out of the "nothingness".

If that remnant soul could truly accomplish that, then Azik would have no reason to resist.

Just wash it clean and wait to die.

He planned to wait until he had fully mastered the unstable "Savior" potion and "Chaos Healer" potion before attempting to absorb it.

There's no rush.

The two pale flames in Azik's eyes went out, the white feathers and black scales that had grown on his body disappeared, and the distortion in his expression eased, making him less ferocious.

He let out a long breath and opened his eyes again.

Azik was suddenly startled to find a hooded figure had appeared not far from him.

He stood there quietly, without a sound, like a dream.

(End of this chapter)