Mystery: The Undead Don't Die from Linking the Fire

Chapter 233 Each Gets What They Need

Based on Miss Justice's description, Klein had a basic understanding of what had happened:

Miss Justice had already digested the potion, so after ending her journey and returning to Backlund, she planned to advance to Sequence 6. However, Karula proposed that she could go straight to Sequence 4 and become a demigod.

"Justice" naturally declined, wanting to advance step by step through his own efforts.

Of course, there might also be a reason why "Miss Justice" doesn't quite trust Carula.

However, Miss Justice's polite refusal did not mean that Karula would give up. It seemed that she was thinking, "If you don't want it, I'll give it to you anyway," and when Miss Justice was promoted, she forced a Sequence 5 extraordinary trait on her.

And so, Miss Justice, who originally planned to advance to Sequence 6, unexpectedly became a Sequence 5 Dream Walker.

"In a word, absolutely amazing!"

Klein was speechless. Overall, it wasn't a bad thing. But the experience was somewhat bizarre, which explained why Miss "Justice" didn't want to tell anyone else.

But to be fair, he also wanted this kind of risk-free promotion opportunity!

If he could have the same opportunity as Miss Justice, he wouldn't have to go through the ordeal of searching for the mermaid.

Miss Justice had confirmed that her promotion had no side effects, but she was still somewhat worried. The reason she asked the Fool was that she wanted to find out what Karula's purpose was.

however……

"I don't know!"

Klein muttered to himself, in his understanding there were four Lord Souls in total: one held by the original Neth, one by the Witch of Izaris, one by Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and one by the Dark Soul held by humans.

However, according to Miss Justice's narration, there are a total of nine King Souls.

Furthermore, each King's Soul possesses the ability to purify the contamination within its extraordinary characteristics, transforming it into the purest power core. This allows one to rapidly advance without fear of losing control. No digestion or acting is required, nor are rituals necessary; with sufficient extraordinary characteristics, one can even become a god in a single day!

This was undoubtedly beyond Klein's comprehension, but it wasn't entirely unbelievable.

After all, the power of the King's Soul is beyond the imagination of ordinary people, so it's not surprising that he could do all this.

The only question is, why Jiufen?

"Dividing the hard-won royal souls back into nine parts is something that Ember could definitely do, given his personality."

"But who has all nine portions of the King's Soul?"

"Kalula is already confirmed to possess a King's Soul, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, Krana will definitely have one as well..."

"So, what about the remaining seven portions?"

"In the world of Dark Souls 3 alone, there are six characters: the Fire Keeper, Anri of Astra, Julia of Londor, Yorshka, the leader of the Darkmoon Knights, Silith of the Twilight Kingdom, and Irina of Kalim."

"If we include the DLC, we should at least add Sister Friede, and even the Sun King's youngest daughter, Felene, and her knight, Sheila, will 'not escape' either. We might even have to include Liliane, the youngest of the three Londor sisters who only appears in the CG. This is already seriously excessive..."

"And if we include 'Dark Souls 1,' then the sisters of Krana, the White Spider and the Red Spider, are definitely not out of the question, in addition to Saintess Lia and multiple Fire Keepers..."

"And Dark Souls 2..."

Klein clicked his tongue; there were too many people to count.

But if you had to pick nine from them, it's hard to say from his perspective.

What?

You ask why we don't count male NPCs? Of course, we can't just assign them to the universally disliked Patch, can we?

"However, is the Ember's memory loss related to the separated King's Soul?"

Klein pondered for a moment. In the Dark Souls universe, none of the original four Lord Soul holders possessed a Lord Soul exclusively.

Nitocris, the Gravelord, governs the death of all the living, dedicating almost all his power to death, and slumbering with death in the deepest part of the Tomb of the Giants, where the gods sleep; Gwyn, the Sun Lord, distributed most of his power to the gods before he set out to link the First Flame; while the game doesn't directly show whether the Old Witch distributed her Royal Soul, it's generally believed that she shared power with her daughters, which is why Clarna was able to create a complete system of sorcery...

The human ancestor who obtained the Dark Soul did not share its power with others, but instead shattered it, allowing all human descendants to obtain a fragment—that is, humanity. The one who possessed the most Dark Souls was known as the Dwarf King.

What Ember did was not fundamentally different from what they did, except that after collecting all the King Souls, he divided these reassembled King Souls into nine parts...

But what's the point of doing this?

While the King's Soul itself is incredibly powerful, its primary function is actually to link the flame. But if the Ember's goal is to link the flame, how could it possibly willingly divide the King's Soul? And into nine parts at that!

Either Karura is lying, and the King's Soul wasn't given to her voluntarily by Ember; or Ember never intended to link the flame, and his obsession with "linking the flame" is just a delusion caused by memory loss!

Klein naturally prefers the latter, but the possibility of the former cannot be ruled out.

But even if it's the latter, what is the purpose of dividing it into nine parts?

The four initial king souls are theoretically all 'crystallizations of power' from the Primordial Flame, each representing a certain characteristic of the Primordial Flame:

One day, the First Flame was ignited. As the flame rose, the world began to change.

Heat and cold, life and death, light and darkness.

The original four kings' souls are all inextricably linked to this statement.

For example, the "Soul of Death" that NEET possesses corresponds to "death" and "coldness".

Therefore, he became the first to die, possessing power so great that even immortal ancient dragons would perish.

The 'Soul of Chaos' possessed by the old witch corresponds to 'life' and 'heat'.

The "Soul of Light" of the Sun Lord Gwyn and the "Dark Soul" of mankind correspond to the "light" and "darkness" of the First Flame, respectively.

In other words, theoretically, a King's Soul can have a maximum of six characteristics—

Life, death, cold, heat, light, darkness.

So why did the embers divide it into nine parts?

Klein resisted the urge to rub his temples, his brow furrowed.

His understanding of the First Flame was limited to the game, while the real world of Dark Souls was undoubtedly far more complex. His limited knowledge was insufficient to uncover the truth behind the entire event.

He didn't know why the embers had divided the First Flame into nine parts, or which nine people they had given it to.

Do these nine separated "King's Souls" correspond to some characteristic of the King's Soul...?

"etc!"

Klein was suddenly startled, because he realized that the behavior of the Ember splitting the King's Soul seemed extremely similar to the creation legend of this world!

Dark Souls: Fire is the source of everything.

Creation myth: The creator is the source of everything.

Dark Souls: In ancient times, before the world had differentiated, it was shrouded in a great fog. Everywhere were grey rocks, towering trees, and immortal ancient dragons. Then, one day, the First Flame ignited.

Creation myth: The Creator awoke from chaos, broke through the darkness, and created the first ray of light.

Dark Souls: As fire rose, differences began to emerge in the world, and the Primordial Flame also differentiated into King Souls containing its power of rules.

Creation legend: The creator completely merged into the universe, transformed into all things, and evolved into twenty-two paths.

Black Soul: Those who possess the King's Soul have immense power, and can even be called gods.

Legend has it that the 0th of the 22 pathways possesses immense power and is known as the True God.

"Does this count as an argument for Cheng Kun?"

Klein's eye twitched, and he mentally muttered a complaint.

After hesitating for a long time, he decided to keep his guess to himself. Mainly, he felt it was a bit far-fetched and it would be inappropriate to say it out loud. He feared that it might cause the "Fool" to fall from grace. So, he decided to keep it to himself and not let everyone know.

As for the experiences of "Miss Justice," he could neither offer advice nor guess Karula's purpose.

Of course, if Karula's King Soul was indeed given by Ember, and Karula's goal was truly to see Ember, then she certainly wouldn't harm Miss Justice, and this has already been confirmed.

As for the method of confirmation, it was naturally through divination above the gray fog. And according to the results of his divination, Carla would not harm Miss 'Justice,' and Klein had no doubt about this.

After all, his divinations above the gray fog have been almost always successful, even reaching the realm of true gods. Aside from a few instances of failure, his divinations have never been wrong when successful.

Even so, Klein didn't know how to explain it.

I can't exactly tell Miss "Justice" everything about divination, can I?

Klein's thoughts gradually returned to normal. After pondering for a long time, he adopted a profound and inscrutable expression and smiled:

"Don't worry, this may not be a bad thing."

At least the divination results show that this is not a bad thing, and since it is not a bad thing, it doesn't matter.

"Is that so?" Audrey's eyes sparkled as she nodded slightly and said softly:

"I understand, Mr. Fool. Thank you for your guidance. Rest assured, I know what to do."

"What do you mean by 'understanding what' and then knowing what to do'?"

Klein's eyes twitched slightly as he looked at the other man's seemingly enlightened expression.

But with the atmosphere already built up to this point, he didn't want to disturb them any further.

Of course, the most important thing is that if the conversation continues, it might become impossible to salvage the situation...

Klein decisively lifted the shielding against the perception of others, and at the same time manipulated 'The World' to speak in a hoarse voice:

"Miss Magician, I'd like to know if you've been promoted to Sequence 6 'Recorder'?"

"Yes."

"The Magician" Fors hesitated for two seconds before nodding slightly in agreement.

Fors had originally intended to conceal these events, as her advancement was indeed somewhat suspicious. Just two months prior, she was merely a Sequence 8 Trick Master. Although she successfully advanced to Sequence 7 Astrologer before the New Year, only a month had passed since then. In other words, she had completed digesting the potion in just one month!

Even she herself found it somewhat unbelievable when the potion was completely digested.

Although she had been diligently playing her part under pressure from 'Hugh,' methodically digesting the potion, a month was simply too short a time—something she hadn't even managed at Sequence 9!

After much thought, Fors seemed to discover the reason for his rapid promotion—

From promotion to acting, everything proceeded smoothly without any unusual twists or turns. The only variable was the extraordinary trait of the Astrologer she used, which was restored from a magical artifact to an extraordinary trait by Ember using the "Principle of Reversion" back in Connaught City, Dusty County.

This is the only special characteristic that Fors could find. The extraordinary characteristic that has been restored by the "regression principle" seems to have undergone some changes, becoming significantly easier to digest, even easier than the extraordinary characteristic of Sequence 9.

Of course, this is just speculation and has not yet been confirmed.

The way to verify this is simple: try it again!

The extraordinary trait that Fors used to advance to Sequence 6 was also one of the extraordinary trait that was restored by the embers that time. If she can digest it at an extremely fast speed again this time, it means that her guess is correct.

Even if that were true, she didn't intend to reveal it.

The only ones who knew about this were Hugh, who was with her day and night, and Ember, who had already "disappeared." Apart from them, no one else knew her previous sequence and therefore had no way of judging how long it took her to advance.

Of course, this couldn't escape Mr. Fool's notice, but Mr. Fool had no reason to tell anyone else about it.

And now, considering that Miss Justice has suddenly become Sequence 5, Fors is increasingly certain of her guess—

The advancement of "Justice" is also related to the embers.

Of course, this still needs to be confirmed.

The method to confirm is also very simple: just visit Miss Justice and ask her in person.

Having received Fors's direct confirmation, Klein thought to himself, "As expected," and once again manipulated the 'World', saying in a deep voice:

"If possible, I would like to borrow that magic book from you for a while."

"A magic book?" The Hermit's eyes flickered slightly.

"borrow?"

"The Magician" Fors thought for a couple of seconds and wasn't too surprised by the suggestion.

She knew that the magic book Mr. World mentioned was actually "Lemanor's Travel Notes". She had never mentioned this notebook to "outsiders", but Mr. Fool was certainly familiar with it, and as Mr. Fool's servant, it was not surprising that Mr. World would know it.

As for her personally, as an extraordinary person who often stays at home writing and resting, lending out Lemano's travel notes for a period of time would not affect her safety or use of them at all.

Moreover, the abilities of "Lymanor's Travel Notes" overlap with those of the Sequence 6 "Recorder." For Fors, who has already advanced to Sequence 6, Lymanor's Travel Notes is no longer that important.

So, even if it's lent out, it doesn't seem like a big deal...

Fors suddenly felt a little tempted and asked:

"Yes, Mr. 'World,' when do you need to use it?"

(End of this chapter)