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

Chapter 414 Since We're Here

On the river, the battle between the Silver Knights and the army of the dead continues.

The army of the dead had an overwhelming numerical advantage, but most of them were not even extraordinary beings, and were not even good enough to be cannon fodder.

In comparison, while the Silver Knights are outnumbered—they number less than one ten-thousandth of the undead army—each Silver Knight possesses strength equivalent to a demigod, and each has participated in the Dragon Hunt, boasting at least a thousand years of rich combat experience!

This makes it as easy for the Silver Knight to fight against the army of the dead as cutting melons and vegetables.

Admittedly, the army of the dead also contains a large number of shadows left behind by the 'undead' when they died. For example, Azik Eggers alone contributed more than thirty 'shadows,' and each shadow possessed the strength of a demigod.

These "shadows" left behind by the deaths of the "undead" number nearly ten thousand, comparable to the number of Silver Knights.

However, these "shadows" possess the strength of demigods but lack the self-awareness of their original forms. They are merely puppets controlled by the River of Eternal Darkness, mechanically and rigidly using their extraordinary abilities. They are incapable of effectively harming the Silver Knights and their only purpose is to slow down the Silver Knights' advance.

But conversely, isn't this also a case of the River of Eternal Darkness being held back by the Silver Knight?

Hundreds of millions of the dead were forced into a bloody battle against fewer than ten thousand Silver Knights, while "Death" Salinger was also held back by Midil soaring through the skies. This "war" had reached a fever pitch, and no one could extricate themselves in the short term.

In this process, a large number of the dead were mercilessly slaughtered by the Silver Knights.

However, many silver knights were also submerged by the surging waves, swept into the depths of the river, and sank to the bottom.

No one realized anything was wrong, not even the River of Eternal Darkness.

After all, with the army of the dead clearly at a disadvantage, it wouldn't be unreasonable for Him to personally intervene to balance things out, would it?

Regardless of whether the River of Eternal Darkness thought it was excessive, the Ember, who had already been swept to the bottom of the river and was hidden among the Silver Knights, did not think it was excessive.

On the contrary, he felt that the River of Eternal Darkness was very sensible.

She is truly very sensible.

In fact, Ember's initial goal was simple—to use the bird-shaped gold ornament given to him by Irina to collect a drop of water from the River of Eternal Darkness.

For the Goddess of Night, who has already begun to accommodate the uniqueness of the 'Death God' and 'War God' pathways, directly accommodating the source matter at this stage is nothing short of a pipe dream. Therefore, she does not aspire to the entire River of Eternal Darkness, but only needs a single drop of its water.

A single drop of river water is certainly not enough for her to contain the River of Eternal Darkness, but it can serve as a medium to prepare for the containment of the source matter.

In fact, the actions of the Goddess of the Night were somewhat inappropriate.

It's not about the method, but the order.

For sequence 0, there are three paths to accommodate the source matter and become the ancient:

The optimal order is to first become sequence 0 of a pathway, then control and merge the source matter, and finally accommodate another uniqueness.

Becoming a dual-path true god, controlling the fusion source matter, and then accommodating the remaining uniqueness is a sequence that is neither good nor bad.

fusing the source substance only at the very last step is the worst choice.

Now, the Goddess of Night has chosen the third option, which is the worst path.

But if you really want to calculate it, taking any of these three paths makes no difference to the Goddess of Night.

While these three paths aren't exactly wrong, they were nonetheless discovered by the ancient sun god. Theoretically, the ancient sun god's ideas were entirely correct: the optimal order is to first become Sequence 0, then fuse with the source matter, and finally accommodate another unique entity. This maximizes self-awareness, allowing for better countering of the original will and increasing the success rate.

The problem is that this theory is based on the premise of no external interference!

This theory is entirely correct for the native deities, because they cannot change the awakening of the primordial will no matter what method they use, so the order of inclusion is of paramount importance to them.

But the Goddess of Night is not a local.

For her, who possessed the First Flame, there was no essential difference between the two choices, because she did not need to worry about being "possessed" by the Primal One.

In this situation, it is better to accommodate the uniqueness of other approaches first.

Because these unique characteristics can be directly transformed into the power of the Goddess of Night, and the process of absorbing them will be smoother than absorbing the source matter. Moreover, once the Goddess of Night fully masters the three paths of Night, Death, and War, the process of absorbing the source matter will be even smoother in the future.

Therefore, the Goddess of Night does not need the entire River of Eternal Darkness for the time being; she can simply wait until later to retrieve it herself.

All she needs now is a drop of river water.

However, this was merely wishful thinking on the part of the goddess of night.

The Goddess of Night felt that she only needed a drop of water from the River of Eternal Darkness, and the River of Eternal Darkness thought so too.

So when Ember reached the end of the stairs, the River of Eternal Darkness deliberately rolled up a wave to submerge him. It seemed like a warning and an attack, but wasn't it also a form of submission? If Ember's goal was merely a drop of water from the River of Eternal Darkness, he could have simply taken a drop from the 'wave' and left gracefully.

As for "Death" Salinger, as long as the embers do not attempt to step into the River of Eternal Darkness, His obstruction is meaningless, because this "Death" is simply unable to escape the River of Eternal Darkness.

Unfortunately, Ember's thoughts were more "pure" and more "greedy" than River of Eternal Darkness had imagined.

In Yu Jin's view, it wasn't easy for him to make such a long trip, so why not just solve all the problems at once?

Since we're already here, and everyone's had a tough time, it's better for everyone to end this sooner! —Don't you think so, River of Eternal Darkness?

With this in mind, Ember deliberately sank to the bottom of the river, venturing into the depths of the River of Eternal Darkness to search for the 'source' of this river.

Every river has a source, and so does its source.

For example, the 'Source Castle' is like this. The gray fog above where the Tarot Conference is held is just the divine kingdom that the 'Source Castle' itself comes with. The strange light gate above the gray-white clouds is the core and the true 'Source Castle'!

The same applies to the River of Eternal Darkness; the 'river' it displays is merely its own divine kingdom, the core of which is hidden deep within the river.

Yu Jin risked his life to sink to the bottom of the river, his goal being to go upstream and find the 'source' of this river!

The River of Eternal Darkness clearly hadn't anticipated the Embers' madness. While its level of activation was already quite high, it still couldn't comprehend overly complex matters, such as this—

For the living, no living being can enter the River of Eternal Darkness; this is the fundamental rule of this world.

Once the dead approach the River of Eternal Darkness, they will automatically become its puppets; this is also a fundamental rule of the world.

Therefore, no matter how you calculate it, the River of Eternal Darkness is actually in an invincible position.

The living cannot enter, and the dead pose no threat.

Either way, He wins.

There are exceptions to everything.

For example, other source materials are at the same level as the River of Eternal Darkness, meaning that these source materials can resist this rule to a certain extent.

Therefore, if Klein or the true creator were here, they could easily enter the River of Eternal Darkness briefly using the power of the 'Source Castle' or the 'Chaos Sea', without being turned into the dead who would forever wander the riverbank.

Ember is also an exception.

He is immortal, he is alive.

He too is embers, the dead.

He is the First Flame, the First Life, the First Death, and also the End of Immortality.

Most importantly, this is a power system completely different from that of this world.

This resulted in two outcomes—

As the dead, he could slip into the River of Eternal Darkness undetected, for to the River of Eternal Darkness he was merely one of the many who were completely dead.

But as a dead being who does not belong to this world, He will not be accepted by the River of Eternal Darkness, and therefore will not be controlled by it.

That's why he was able to continue upstream in this river, searching for its 'source'.

But the River of Eternal Darkness is ultimately a living source, not a completely inanimate object.

So He quickly discovered that the Silver Knights who had been swept to the bottom of the river were still "alive." Although they were struggling painfully at the bottom of the river, they were still alive and had not melted away like the other dead.

Among these silver knights swept to the bottom of the river, there was even an inconspicuous silver knight who was swimming upstream!

Although the River of Eternal Darkness believed that these silver knights were just bumping around like headless flies, the direction that the silver knight was heading made the activated source matter uneasy, because that was where His 'core' was located!

Although He did not believe that an ordinary Silver Knight could threaten Him, He had to stop the other party from advancing!

The illusory river suddenly began to shake violently, waves surged on the surface, one after another, like a rushing river, threatening to wash the silver knight at the bottom of the river to its end.

But the silver knight remained unaffected, slowly and resolutely going against the surging tide.

Until a huge shadow appeared in front of him.

It was a giant bird that had been completely submerged by the River of Eternal Darkness and was suspended in the water.

The giant bird's body was covered with feathers woven from pale flames and mysterious patterns, but much of it had been melted away by the "River of Eternal Darkness," exposing parts of its dark, rotting skin that oozed pale yellow pus.

The giant bird's eyes seemed to be cast in bronze, concealing layers upon layers of illusory doors.

It was none other than Gareth Baldrone, the creator of Calderon, the ancient god of death who opened up the underworld, and the progenitor of the phoenix!

In Greta's eyes, a bronze light burst forth, instantly enveloping the resolute, defiant Silver Knight, as if to drag him in.

Clearly, the River of Eternal Darkness will not allow anyone to continue approaching its core!

Just as the Silver Knight's figure was about to disappear, a loud dragon roar resounded through the sky.

The dragon coiled in the sky, but its massive body was now covered in wounds.

His wings were broken. Those wings that should have covered the sky and been awe-inspiring were broken and damaged, making people doubt whether he could continue to fly with those broken wings, and whether he would fall from the sky at any moment due to the unbearable weight.

His body was also broken, with countless wounds making his skin look pitted and uneven, without a single smooth spot. Brown and gold marks covered his entire body, whether from his dried blood or from the moss that had grown on his body during countless years of slumber, it was unclear.

His two heads were held high, roaring towards the sky. But since the two heads were on the same side, they looked somewhat unbalanced, extremely discordant, and lacking in beauty.

But upon closer inspection, one can see two shocking scars on the other side—those are His other two heads. He once had four heads and was the undisputed king of the dragon race, until His two heads were cut off by the barbarian king.

His tail was broken, the clean wound at the end indicating that it had been cut off. The barbarian king who cut off his tail did not do so to obtain the dragon's severed tail as a weapon, but merely as a humiliating symbol of the dragon king's defeat.

But no matter what, he is still the Dragon King, the Dragon King 'Platon Sanks' who soars in the sky and controls storms and lightning!

Roar!

Amidst a resounding dragon roar, crimson lightning pierced the sky, instantly penetrating the River of Eternal Darkness, attempting to pierce the phoenix ancestor hidden within its waters.

Although this did not have any practical effect, it successfully diverted the attention of "the progenitor of the phoenix," Greta Garley.

When the "Phoenix Ancestor" Greygardy raised her giant bronze eye, with its layers of illusory gates, to look at the enemy in the sky, she suddenly discovered that the broken dragon king in the sky had already disappeared!

Until the bottom of the River of Eternal Darkness, beneath the calm waters, a sudden ripple appeared!

The broken dragon king had already escaped into the rift of time and space. Suddenly, it rushed out from the bottom of the river and used its claws, which were wrapped in thunderclouds, to hook the head and body of the phoenix. With the dragon king's loud roar, it forcibly pulled the phoenix out of the river!

Beneath the river lies the Eternal Darkness River, the home ground of the Phoenix Ancestor.

But the sky has always been the Dragon King's domain!

Although Platons can't defeat the Barbarian King, kill the gods, destroy the Golden Tree, or overcome the Supreme Will, how could a Dragon King like him be no match for a mere bird?

Platonshamx bit into Greygardy's neck, while his other head opened its massive maw and spewed out a golden dragon breath powerful enough to pierce the sky, completely engulfing the head of the Phoenix Ancestor!

At the bottom of the river, the Silver Knight returned to normal and continued towards his predetermined goal.

Elsewhere, the Silver Knights who had been wandering aimlessly in other directions suddenly changed course—they would follow the Silver Knight upstream until they found the core location.

Roar!

Sensing the threat, the River of Eternal Darkness roared, causing the river's surface to rise rapidly.

The once calm riverbed suddenly became turbulent, and the illusory river became sharper than a knife. He was no longer merely trying to stop the silver knights, but to kill them!

Only by crushing these silver knights can His core be prevented from being threatened!

however.

Just as "Death" Salinger let out a low growl, a giant engulfed in flames descended from the sky and slammed his head down!

(End of this chapter)