Chapter 776: The Truth
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 776: The Truth
She had taken her own life.
It wasn't some convoluted truth, nor was it a detective story that could be padded out for hundreds of pages in a book. It was simple, direct, and perfectly logical. Yet, it was enough to completely overturn the very foundation that had sustained the Demon Race—or rather, Divine Will—for a thousand years.
"When that disaster descended, you tried many ways to stop it, but they all failed."
Muen stared at the girl with the blurred features standing before him, beginning to piece together the deduction based on the images he had seen earlier.
"The current Demon Race, and you all back then... for some reason, you worshipped that Demon God who had yet to descend. You weren't necessarily evil—I have no way of knowing the truth of that era—but what cannot be denied is that your faith, or perhaps certain actions, did facilitate the descent of that Demon God to some extent."
"After He descended, pollution spread rapidly among the believers. You wanted to stop it all, but to that Demon God, your actions were far too feeble and insignificant."
"So, you came up with a plan."
Muen turned his head, his gaze falling upon the ring in the girl's hand.
The Eternal Cycle.
It was a truly formidable Ancient Artifact, more powerful than any Muen currently knew of. It possessed a grand power that almost bordered on the divine.
Muen was curious about its creator, but it certainly wasn't the Demon Race, as they were not adept at magic.
Over a thousand years, such details had long been buried in the depths of time. Even if one wished to investigate, there was no starting point.
"You locked the souls of those people within the Eternal Cycle, removing them from the great reincarnation of the world itself and placing them into the minor reincarnation of the Eternal Cycle."
"I don't know exactly how powerful the effects of the Eternal Cycle are, but this method was undoubtedly effective. The Old Loli said the entire Demon Race was corrupted by the Demon God, which is why they are called the Demon Race... but every person I've known who was corrupted by an Evil God essentially lost their mind and went mad. Yet, a thousand years have passed, and the current Demon Race can still be considered... normal."
"Yes, normal. Physical distortion comes from the shattering of the soul, but even those with shattered souls did not turn into a mass of indescribable, twisted filth."
"Most importantly, the pollution affecting the Demon Race did not spread."
"The corruption from that Demon God was completely contained in this manner, and then slowly purged, bit by bit."
"The Eternal Cycle was both a shackle and a protection."
In that instant, many other things clicked for Muen.
For instance, a doubt he’d previously harbored regarding the Demon Race.
Why would a race that had preserved most of its population during the Great Disaster be confined to this Abyss for an entire millennium?
If they were guilty, why hadn't they been purged and wiped out?
If they were innocent, why hadn't they taken advantage of the vacuum left when human civilization was nearly crushed to escape the Abyss?
Now it seemed the definitions of guilt and innocence weren't so simple. The Demon Race... had already been wiped out.
More than once.
But because the Eternal Cycle bound their souls, they could only be reborn within this Abyss.
Death, rebirth, death, rebirth. From Demon Race to Demon Race. In this cycle, the child you gave birth to in this life might very well have been your mother in the last. This deformed, stagnant reincarnation was endless, unchanging for a thousand years.
This was their immortality, and it was also their curse.
"But such a powerful Ancient Artifact cannot be used without a price. To lead such a massive group, even a thousand years ago, you must have been an incredibly powerful expert."
Muen pondered before voicing the most likely theory: "So the price... was your life?"
"..."
The girl remained quiet, like a doll.
Her face was still blurred; across the span of a thousand years, Muen had no way of knowing her true appearance. But that didn't matter. To be followed so fanatically by so many, her looks must have been her least significant trait.
So, at that time, she chose to sacrifice herself to save the others.
When she made that choice, there must have been pain, hesitation, and struggle... but a person like her would never regret it. She would never cry over such a thing, nor would she humbly beg for the pity and salvation of others.
She would be even less willing to see Divine Will exploit the souls of the entire Demon Race just to bring her back to life.
"The so-called 'resurrecting the Demon King' is nothing more than Divine Will's personal delusion."
The room was sealed and there was no wind, yet the bell on the door chimed softly. A sound drifted from the distance, like a panicked crowd rushing toward them.
Muen instinctively looked toward the door, wondering if those people had finally discovered the girl's suicide.
Among those people, the one running at the very front must be Divine Will—the Divine Will of a thousand years ago.
"It wasn't just my life."
To his surprise, the girl spoke.
"It also included my soul."
"What?"
Her soul?
Muen’s pupils shrank as he whipped his head back.
He looked at the girl who had calmly uttered those words, a tempest rising in his chest.
He had deduced so much and learned so much, yet he had completely failed to anticipate this "minor detail" behind the truth.
The shock was so great that even in this dream, he felt the illusion of a racing heart and a dry throat.
Because...
"If even your soul was sacrificed... then what exactly is it that Divine Will wants to resurrect? And... who exactly is An, the supposed half of the Demon King?"
*
"She... she committed suicide?"
Divine Will staggered back. This man, the strongest of the Demon Race for a thousand years, looked as though he couldn't even stand steady.
"No... impossible, that's impossible! You hear it... didn't you hear it? Her crying, her sorrow, her pain... If she committed suicide... then what is it that I've been hearing and seeing?!"
Divine Will suddenly pointed at the throne, his voice thick with uncontrollable rage:
"Mela Domir, open your eyes and look! She is right there! She is there crying, crying for a full thousand years! How could someone like her... someone like her... possibly have committed suicide?"
How could it be?
He had listened to that crying for a thousand years.
He couldn't be wrong. That sound, he could never mistake it...
"I told you, what I hear and see might be different from what you do."
Mela ignored the raving Divine Will and turned her head to look at the skeleton on the Obsidian Throne.
A thousand years had passed, yet that skeleton remained lustrous, without a hint of decay.
However.
Clearly, a thousand years ago when she died, Divine Will had used the fastest speed and the highest-tier magical tools to perfectly preserve her physical body.
So why was she still just a skeleton?
With the magical level of a millennium ago, keeping a corpse from decaying for a thousand years—stopping time at the moment of death—wasn't a difficult task. So why was the figure sitting on the throne nothing but bones?
Unless... what Divine Will preserved back then was a skeleton to begin with.
"The condition for using the Eternal Cycle is for the strongest individual in a certain field to offer up their everything."
Mela said softly, "She was the strongest martial artist of that era, so she was qualified to sacrifice herself. But even so, life alone was not enough. Flesh... life... and then the soul... all these things became the conditions to activate the Eternal Cycle and have been completely integrated into it. There is no possibility of separating them again."
"Divine Will, the thing you have been muttering to yourself about saving for a thousand years... is nothing more than a skeleton that can never be resurrected."
"No!!"
Divine Will let out a sharp roar, interrupting Mela’s narrative.
"Nonsense! If you say the thing I want to save is just a skeleton, if you say her soul is long gone, then she... what is she?!"
Divine Will pointed at An on the other throne and bellowed:
"What is she, the half of the Demon King?!"
"..."
On the Obsidian Throne, a look of surprise appeared on An’s elegant face. Facing Divine Will’s interrogation, she instinctively turned to Mela, seeking an answer.
Indeed, if the soul of the being Divine Will wanted to resurrect was gone, then what was she?
"She has our King's memories, and she can even manipulate the Eternal Cycle to a certain extent! Tell me, is that my delusion as well?"
"No, that isn't a delusion."
Mela shook her head.
"This little girl truly exists. If she didn't, I'm afraid my yellow-haired brat would be suffering from delusions too. However... are you certain she is a portion of that person's soul?"
"What do you mean?"
"It's a simple logic. She has memories, but are those memories complete? She can manipulate the Eternal Cycle, but how much of it can she actually control?"
Mela looked seriously at Divine Will and said, "Divine Will, think carefully. If she were truly a portion of the soul of the person you want to resurrect, do you think the Eternal Cycle would listen to you, or to her?"
"..."
Divine Will fell into a daze once more.
Right. The Eternal Cycle was an Ancient Artifact activated by her at the cost of her own life a thousand years ago. She should have the highest authority. His current control over the Eternal Cycle was only because of the authorization he received from her.
If he were truly standing before a portion of her soul—the so-called half of the Demon King—would he still be able to use the Eternal Cycle to control the souls of the entire Demon Race?
Of course not.
"Is that how it is?"
An also fell into a thoughtful silence as she realized the truth.
Indeed, many memories that didn't belong to her had appeared in her mind, but... they were just fragmented images.
She could hardly find any useful information from those images. Moreover, her perception of herself—her identity as An, the Young Master's personal maid—had not changed at all with the appearance of those memory fragments.
She was viewing those scenes entirely from the perspective of a third party.
This didn't fit the characteristics of an ancient soul awakening at all.
"Then, what exactly am I?" An couldn't help but ask curiously.
"Regarding that question, we have to go back to Divine Will."
Mela smiled. She wasn't mocking anything; she simply found the situation absurdly funny.
"The logic is actually quite simple. This isn't the first time Divine Will has tried to resurrect her. He made attempts long ago."
On the Obsidian Throne, the skeleton draped in feather robes sat still.
It should have been a pure skeleton that had lost all flesh, soul, and power. But at this moment, Mela could clearly feel the massive power contained within it.
It was because of this power that it could operate the Eternal Cycle before—or rather, that Divine Will "believed" it was the one operating it.
But that vast, chaotic, and indescribable power actually came from Divine Will’s attempts over the past thousand years.
Indeed, this was certainly not his first attempt to resurrect her.
Over the long millennium, he had countless times poured soul power squeezed from the entire Demon Race, along with many other things, into this skeleton.
And this soul power, which couldn't achieve resurrection at all, mixed with those strange energies. After brewing within the sealed skeleton for centuries, it was bound to give birth to something new.
Or rather, it was a new consciousness born from the soul fragments of countless people, the memories and aura imprinted in the skeleton, and many other strange things, occurring at an infinitesimal probability.
That consciousness was brand new. She was not bound by the Eternal Cycle, so she successfully escaped the skeleton, escaped the Abyss, escaped that false reincarnation, and entered the great cycle of the world, reincarnating as an ordinary baby girl in a small village on the border of the Empire.
That baby girl merely carried certain marks of her birthplace, which was why Divine Will was able to find her.
But she wasn't some "half of the Demon King."
Nor was she the reincarnation of some powerful entity.
She was just An.
Nothing more.
In the deep space, Mela sighed once again.
"That is why I said this is all just a farce."
There was no Demon King yearning for resurrection.
There was no festival symbolizing rebirth.
There was only a senile old man’s thousand-year-long delusion.
Only a ridiculous farce that could never have a perfect curtain call.
*
"So, that's how it is..."
Muen also suddenly smiled.
It wasn't a smile of regret, but one of immense relief.
Great power, ancient heritage, a prestigious identity full of dramatic flair... none of that mattered to Muen.
What mattered was... his little maid had been free from the very beginning.
This was good, very good. What could be more joyful than knowing this? He wished he could fly to An’s side right now, embrace his little maid, and celebrate this new life that had arrived over a decade late.
"But, there's still one thing I don't understand."
Suppressing his joy for the moment, Muen stared seriously at the girl before him.
"Why me?"
Muen had once thought this consciousness chose him because of An.
But now, the connection between An and her wasn't as close as he had imagined.
This meant that back then, the Eternal Cycle had been entirely under "her" control when it wrapped around his wrist and guided him here. It had nothing to do with An.
Why?
He didn't know this girl at all, and before coming to the Abyss, he had no connection to the Demon Race whatsoever.
"..."
"He used to be a good boy."
After a brief silence, the girl finally spoke.
However, her words seemed to be an answer to a different question.
"A very good, very well-behaved, very obedient boy."
"But now, he has turned bad."
"Very, very bad. Time has corroded him, and..."
The dream suddenly surged. Accompanying the girl's final sentence, a sharp, violent noise—identical to the one he heard when seeing those terrifying images of the world's end—began to ring in Muen’s mind.
"Something is hiding in his shadow."