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

Chapter 327 Zarathustra and the Fool

At the summit of the Hornach Mountains stands an ancient palace, shrouded in mist, dilapidated and overgrown with weeds.

Ember appeared at the side front of the palace, glanced at the ancient palace, and then got up and walked towards the main gate.

The demigods of the 'Apprentice' and 'Thief' pathways have been captured, leaving only the demigods of the 'Diviner' pathway.

Unfortunately, while demigods using the 'Diviner' pathway might lack combat skills, their talent for escaping is absolutely top-notch. Even though Klein could briefly pinpoint their location with the help of Arodes, a minute or two wasn't enough time; they would quickly find new identities to hide themselves, making it quite difficult even for the Embers to find them.

The return of Zarathustra, in particular, silenced the sorcerers belonging to the "Secret Order." They were already easily frightened, and without the ability to accurately locate them, capturing them would only become more difficult.

Therefore, Ember didn't waste time searching for these sorcerers, but instead focused his attention directly on the 'Fool'—

Half of the "Fool" of the Antigonus family.

Ember slowly walked to the main gate of the palace, stretched out his hands, and slowly pushed open the heavy stone door.

Amidst the rattling and scraping sounds, the gate slowly opened, revealing a path wide enough for one person to pass through, and also revealing the scene inside.

Before him lay a large hall filled with corpses, each one different, some male, some female, dressed in elaborate or simple clothing.

Behind each of these suspended figures is a transparent, smooth tentacle with intricate patterns, all originating from the depths of the hall, from an ancient stone chair there.

On the enormous stone chair, transparent, twisted worms huddled together, growing wildly and extending outwards with eerie tentacles.

This is the half-fool of the Antigonus family, the half-fool who has gone out of control and become insane!

The One who embodies uniqueness is the undisputed King of Angels, while the half-mad 'Fool' is even more terrifying. Because while 'half-mad' means that this half 'Fool' has lost control and gone insane, it also means that His self-awareness can no longer suppress the will of the 'Lord of Mysteries' within Him. The two spirits are stitched together, manifesting the most primal, instinctive, bloodthirsty, and insane side, making Him far more difficult to deal with than when He is sane.

But for Ember, this half-Fool was actually the easiest to deal with.

After all, He won't run away.

Ember slowly walked through the gate and stepped into the palace.

Upon sensing the door open and the approach of the embers, the worm swarm immediately left the stone chair, violently waving its slippery tentacles and surging wildly towards the doorway, as if drawn by some invisible force.

But all of this was fleeting; in the blink of an eye, the wriggling hand, the enormous throne, and the worm mass vanished simultaneously.

Before Yu Jin's eyes was only a dark scene, which even light could not illuminate.

But soon, the darkness began to ripple, and the surrounding scenery changed.

Buildings appeared all around, figures walked along the streets, and voices rang out, suddenly bringing the entire environment to life with a touch of hustle and bustle.

People ignored the embers standing before them, going off to different places and talking about various things.

They and the buildings were all in muted, almost black-and-white colors, like an old photograph from the depths of history that had suddenly come to life.

Ember had no intention of communicating with them either, and simply continued walking forward along the street that was gradually going uphill.

The higher you go, the more magnificent the building becomes, with huge stone pillars supporting an exaggerated dome.

The people living in this "black and white old photo" are generally tall, and they seem to be studying, working, and resting normally.

The scenes here change continuously, showing the birth of a baby, the growth of a child, the confusion of adolescence, the troubles of adulthood, the pressure of middle age, and the sorrow of old age, and after death, the baby is transformed into a secret doll, confidently heading to the palace at the summit...

This is the land of night.

She belongs to the "Mother of Heaven," and also to half of the "Fool."

The living worship the "Mother of Heaven," while the dead are transformed into puppets to serve the "Fool."

The process was so smooth and efficient that even capitalists praised the way they squeezed the followers dry.

Ember once again embarked on the path up the mountain, entering the magnificent palace that seemed to enshrine deities.

Deep within the palace, on that enormous stone chair, a figure rested his elbows on the armrests, his head leaning against the back of the chair.

His face was quite young, but his long hair was already half white, half hidden and half obvious; He was male in appearance, and his eyes were darker than Zarathustra's, containing an indescribable sense of vicissitude; His features were quite good, but tufts of coarse black hair like wolf hair grew on his cheeks, giving people a contradictory feeling of being both old and young, both rational and crazy.

This is the ancestor of the Antigonus family. This time, He did not appear in the form of a mythical creature, but sat on the giant stone chair in His original form.

At this moment, His eyes were half-open, as if He were resting, while inside the hall, hanging were corpses, some dressed simply and others ornately.

They swayed gently in the wind, like a forest growing backwards.

Although this was the second time he had "gone up the mountain," Yu Jin was not surprised by what was happening before his eyes.

He knew he was dreaming, in the dream of the ancestor of the Antigonus family, half a "fool," sitting on the stone chair.

The Kingdom of Night and the City of the Dead that he had just seen, all the scenes he had witnessed, were Antigonus's dream.

A dream that has been absent for over a thousand years.

Even though he was born a superhuman, Antigonus seemed to deeply miss that peaceful and secluded little country he once knew.

For him, that which lingered in his dreams was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful memories of the past.

Unfortunately, all of that is in the past.

This place was once the Kingdom of Night, ruled jointly by the "Mother of Heaven" and half of the "Fool".

Now, this place belongs to 'night'.

The Kingdom of Night has been utterly destroyed, and the Mother of Heaven has become the sealed artifact '0-17,' serving as the vessel for the goddess's descent. The half-Fool, having lost control and gone mad, is forever sealed within this ancient palace.

And the one who started all of this is the goddess of the night.

The moment the embers appeared at the summit and opened the gates of the ancient palace, the Goddess of Night already sensed it.

The reason why Ember entered this dream was undoubtedly due to the guidance of the Goddess of Night.

Because in dreams, the half-Fool, who is in eternal sleep, is much easier to deal with than the half-mad Him.

As for why the "Goddess of Night" chose to seal him instead of killing half of the "Fool" directly, the reason is quite simple:

For a half-fool, death means rebirth.

The Sequence 2 of the 'Diviner' pathway is called 'Miracleist'. What is a miracle?

To come back from the dead is a miracle!

Of course, the essence of this miracle lies in the profound utilization of the power of the past.

Therefore, when a miracle worker dies, the extraordinary properties contained in their destroyed body will unknowingly enter the gaps of history and combine with projections of "spirit worms" from the past, giving them substance so that they can emerge from the mists of history and be resurrected by rebuilding their bodies in the real world.

The only problem is that this "resurrection" is limited in number; a miracle worker can only resurrect a maximum of four times.

If you become a Mysterious Servant, your resurrection count will be reset to four.

Because when a "miracle worker" or "mysterious servant" is driven to the brink of despair, they can also use suicide to cut their losses and survive.

As for such miracles of "resurrection," unless one is an extraordinary being of a higher sequence through the same path, even gods would find it difficult to prevent them.

Therefore, whether it's half of the "Fool" or "Zarathustra," the goddess of night's choice is to seal them away.

And preventing their resurrection is virtually impossible.

Although theoretically, a higher-sequence Extraordinary could stop them, one of them is already a Sequence 1 'Mysterious Servant', and the other is an Angel King who has merged with uniqueness. Unless they can be killed, it is almost impossible for a higher-sequence being to exist—the only exception is the Source Castle.

Klein, who controls the Source Castle, can prevent their resurrection, but only if Klein is at least a Sequence 2 Miracle Master.

Only when his strength is strong enough can he leverage enough power belonging to the Source Castle, and only then can he rely on the suppression of his position to forcibly extract the extraordinary characteristics from their bodies little by little.

Once they lose their extraordinary characteristics, they also lose all the extraordinary abilities they possessed based on those characteristics.

So ultimately, the process of "resurrection" is still irreversible. This forced aggregation is a complete stunt, extinguishing the other party's hope of rebirth before they even die.

However, Klein is currently only a Sequence 5, not even a demigod, and his status is far from being able to suppress a Sequence 1 angel.

But embers can.

Although he is only a Sequence 5 'Traveler', his status as a Primal Flame is above that of a Source Essence.

Half of the Source Castle has now transformed into the shape of the Primordial Flame.

This means that Ember can mobilize the power of the Source Castle by using the First Flame's description.

By being on the same path as the half-Fool, a positional oppression is formed.

Ember shifted his gaze from the man with thick black wolf hair on his face to the side of the huge stone chair, where a tarot card with an image of Roselle and words written in starlight lay.

Clearly, some unlucky soul who obtained the 'Tarot Cards' came to this palace on their own initiative under the influence of the Law of Convergence of Extraordinary Characteristics, becoming one of the corpses hanging upside down at the top.

This tarot card ended up in the hands of half of the "Fool".

Just like half of the Fool card itself, this Fool card also has its own function.

Therefore, Yu Jin put the tarot card away without any psychological burden.

Throughout the process, half of the "Fool" remained asleep, unable to escape the eternal sleep personally imposed by the "Goddess of Night".

Silently, flames began to spread from nowhere, gradually eroding the dream. From a small spark, they quickly spread into a raging inferno that engulfed the entire palace!

The raging inferno came to an abrupt halt in front of the high platform.

Neither the stone chair itself nor the half of the 'Fool' sitting on it was affected in the slightest.

Flames surround it like a pack of wolves, but they will not act rashly before receiving their master's command.

Finally, when the entire dream was engulfed in flames, leaving only half of the 'Fool' on the stone chair...

The surging flames slowly coalesced into a vortex of worms with countless slippery tentacles. The left half of the vortex was covered by the slippery tentacles, while the right half was completely covered by flames. The tentacles, formed from solidified flames, remained motionless and appeared exceptionally quiet.

At the center of that half of the 'flame' vortex was a strange, illusory portal of light.

Even the light gate was covered in flames on one side, making it perfectly symmetrical to the left side!

The portal remained still, but the vortex spun rapidly, its terrifying suction force drawing everything in. Whether it was the flames engulfing the dreamscape or the half-Fool trapped in eternal slumber on the stone chair!

Under the dual suppression of status and eternal slumber, the extraordinary characteristics within half of the 'Fool' began to emerge, at an increasingly rapid pace.

The light formed from the extraordinary properties gathered in the air and eventually transformed into a heart-shaped object. The heart was as transparent as crystal, yet tiny bubbles occasionally emerged from it, each bubble seemingly containing a kind of illusion.

That's the extraordinary characteristic of Sequence 2 'Miracleist'!

This turn of events surprised Ember somewhat, because what he had envisioned most being drawn was the uniqueness of 'The Fool' or the extraordinary trait of Sequence 1 'Mysterious Servant', but what was drawn was the extraordinary trait of Sequence 2 'Miracle Worker'...

Yu Jin frowned slightly, but quickly relaxed.

Because he figured out the reason—this half-Fool had most likely consumed two portions of Sequence 2 extraordinary properties.

One of the Sequence 2 extraordinary traits is tightly integrated with the others, like an indestructible skyscraper. The extra one, however, exists outside this skyscraper, like a security booth.

Therefore, the first thing to be removed was this "security booth".

call out!

As soon as the extraordinary characteristics of the "Miracle Worker" were formed, it quickly flew towards the portal of light.

But before that, Ember suddenly reached out and firmly grasped it in his palm!

The portal is the manifestation of the 'Source Castle' avatar, while the embers merely use its 'avatar' to suppress and forcibly aggregate extraordinary characteristics, without intending for the 'Source Castle' itself to possess any extraordinary characteristics.

Withdrawing its extraordinary characteristics as a 'Miracle Master,' another 'galaxy' was quickly drawn from half of the 'Fool''s' body, slowly converging into a dazzling ball of light.

What has been extracted this time is the uniqueness of the "Fool's" path!

Similar to the extraordinary characteristics of the previously extracted 'Miracle Master', its uniqueness was immediately revealed and it flew towards the portal.

At that moment, in the dream of the eternally sleeping 'Fool', an old man wearing a hooded black robe, with eyes as dark as a lifeless surface of water and a long, thick white beard on his face and mouth, suddenly appeared beside the stone chair and looked at the uniqueness flying towards the light gate with Ember!

(End of this chapter)