Chapter 1591 - 1591: Let Him Live Again

Inside the Void Realm, the Dread-Eyed Lion lay asleep on the ground.

It suddenly sensed something and raised its head toward the entrance. Moments later, a dimensional rift opened, and someone stepped through.

"Huh?"

Surprise crossed the Dread-Eyed Lion's face. With a single step, it appeared directly in front of the entrance.

Ethan had barely emerged from the rift when he found himself staring into a pair of enormous eyes.

"Holy shit! Could you stand a little farther back? You scared the hell out of me."

The Dread-Eyed Lion ignored his complaint and stared at him in disbelief.

"You've reached Stage SSS?"

"Got lucky." Ethan dusted himself off, wearing an unbearably smug grin.

He normally wasn't one to show off, but this opportunity was too good to pass up.

The last time he'd faced the Dread-Eyed Lion, he hadn't been able to resist at all. He'd obediently done whatever it told him to do, which remained one of the more embarrassing moments of his life.

Now he could face it without the slightest pressure.

The Dread-Eyed Lion was at peak Tier 43, but Ethan could handle that level with ease.

Fortunately, it had never actually done anything to him and had treated him reasonably well. Otherwise, he might have settled the score for how it had pushed him around back then.

The Dread-Eyed Lion regarded him with a complicated look. It clearly hadn't expected his strength to increase so quickly.

It had only been a month, yet Ethan had gone from Stage S to Stage SSS. The speed of his advancement was simply unbelievable.

"Come on, little lion. I'll take you outside. You can follow me from now on." Ethan adopted the tone of a condescending elder.

The Dread-Eyed Lion fell silent.

"Boy, reaching Stage SSS doesn't give you the right to speak to me like that. Show some respect, or I'll teach you just how vast the gap between two Stage SSS fighters can be."

"Oh, really? Want to fight, then?" Ethan asked excitedly.

He'd been looking for an excuse to take a swing at it.

The Dread-Eyed Lion might not have mistreated him back then, but remembering how obedient he'd been still irritated him. He had to reclaim some dignity.

The Dread-Eyed Lion stared at him for a long moment, then shook its head.

"No."

"Are you scared?" Ethan looked surprised. "You're a peak Tier 43 Beast, and you're afraid of a weakling who just reached Stage SSS?"

"We aren't enemies. There's no reason to waste time on a pointless fight," the Dread-Eyed Lion replied calmly.

Ethan studied it suspiciously. Its excuse sounded noble enough, but he was pretty sure it was simply afraid.

The lion must have some kind of special ability. Otherwise, why would a peak Tier 43 Beast fear someone who had only just reached Stage SSS?

"Enough. Since you've reached Stage SSS, I assume Abyron's seal has been broken," the Dread-Eyed Lion said.

"How did you know?" Ethan asked in surprise.

"If his seal were still intact, there's no way you could have grown this quickly."

Ethan had no response to that.

"Bring him out."

"No." Ethan refused without hesitation. "You've already seen him before. What else is there to look at?"

Did this lion think things were still the same as before? That Ethan had to obey every order it gave?

He was stronger now. He wasn't doing a damn thing just because it told him to.

"You..." The Dread-Eyed Lion was furious, but there was nothing it could do. The boy was no longer as easy to order around as he had been before.

After thinking for a long moment, it asked with complete seriousness, "If Abyron could be resurrected, would you allow it?"

"What?!"

Ethan nearly jumped.

"You're saying Dopey—no, Abyron—can come back to life?" His eyes went wide. The question completely overturned everything he knew.

He had dug Dopey out from beneath this Void Realm. Dopey might be a thrall, but he was still the corpse of someone who had died countless years ago.

And now the Dread-Eyed Lion was saying he could be resurrected?

Had the lion lost its mind, or had Ethan?

"Whether you believe me isn't the point. Answer the question. If he can be resurrected, will you allow it?" The Dread-Eyed Lion fixed him with an intensely serious stare.

It had never intended to tell Ethan any of this.

Its original plan had been to have Ethan find a way to break Abyron's seal while it remained here, using its gift to nurture what little remained of Abyron's soul.

Once Ethan broke the seal, it would take Abyron away and undo the secret art placed on him, resurrecting him in the process.

There had been no need for Ethan's permission. The Dread-Eyed Lion had planned to act on its own.

But it had never expected Ethan to become so powerful by the time they met again. Now even the Dread-Eyed Lion wasn't sure it could defeat him.

That made its original plan impossible.

If Ethan refused to bring Abyron out, it couldn't do anything. With no other option, it had been forced to tell him the truth.

Ethan stared hard at the Dread-Eyed Lion, searching for any sign that it was joking.

There was none.

"He's been dead for so long," Ethan said, still unconvinced. "How could he possibly be resurrected?"

The Dread-Eyed Lion understood that Ethan would never believe it without a full explanation. Since the secret was already out, there was no longer any reason to hold back.

"Abyron possessed a special ability called Soul Division. It allowed him to separate a fragment of his soul essence from the rest. If he died, that fragment could be used to resurrect him."

"While Abyron was being turned into a thrall, he secretly separated a fragment of his soul essence and hid it below, hoping that he might one day have a chance to return."

"I've already recovered that fragment. As long as you agree, Abyron can be resurrected."

Ethan stared at it in amazement. An ability like that was practically a second life.

Then again, Abyron had been human. Humans could obtain all kinds of abilities, so one like this wasn't entirely out of the question.

Ethan took a deep breath.

"If we resurrect Abyron, I'll have to sever the bond between us, won't I?"

"That is unavoidable," the Dread-Eyed Lion confirmed.

Conflict showed on Ethan's face.

As a thrall, Dopey obeyed his every command without question. He was Ethan's most loyal fighter, and Ethan could store him inside his spatial ring, making him extremely convenient to bring anywhere.

But that was only from Ethan's perspective.

What about Dopey?

Given the choice, of course he would want to live again instead of remaining a thrall.

Ethan knew better than anyone how much Dopey had helped him along the way. Without Dopey, Ethan would never have made it this far.

And in truth, Ethan had rarely thought of Dopey as a mere thrall. He thought of him as one of them.

If he had never learned that resurrection was possible, that would have been one thing. But now that he knew, could he really deny Dopey the chance to live again for his own selfish benefit?

Ethan knew he could be selfish. Most of the time, he was.

But there were some lines even he couldn't bring himself to cross.

He drew another deep breath and looked at the Dread-Eyed Lion.

"What are the chances it'll work?"

"He's never used this ability before, but there shouldn't be any problems. His soul will be extremely weak after his resurrection, though. He'll need a long time to recover."

"All right."

Ethan made his decision.

"Resurrect him."