Mage Manual

Double Hell, Deep Blue Hell, a hand suddenly appeared at the edge of the cliff. Just by using the strength of her fingers to leave imprints on the soft sea mud, Youmo climbed up with only one hand, while her other hand held Ash’s waist, as if a chef was carrying a weak Lala Fat.

Ash glanced back down, at this moment the cracks of the world were no longer visible, the entire Desolate Hell was overflowing with gray-white paste, and moreover, this paste was still creeping upwards, like the colors of Hell had fallen, turning into piles of dismal gray.

Not only Desolate Hell, now the entirety of Level Six of Hell has lost color, black and white interwoven, gray becomes the sole hue. Only Ash and others still maintain their original colors, but with a glance, one can find the surface of Ash and Youmo constantly emitting phantasmal glow, this seemingly splendid special effect is actually a signal of their constant weakening, and they fade each minute, second.

When they lose all colors, they will be forever imprisoned in this gray-white Hell.

"Static Domain?" Ash suddenly asked.

Given the current situation, it indeed resembled the Static Domain phenomenon on Time Continent, because failing to catch up with Flowing Gold River, all things in the stagnant world would lose all colors.

"Static Domain only fades colors from the time dimension, yet most view the world through the time dimension, thus in their eyes, everything in Static Domain loses color, but in reality, things inside haven’t faded, just needing Flowing Gold River’s irrigation to regain vibrancy." Mirror Demon followed beside them and said: "But now Hell is fading in essence, and there’s no chance for recovery."

"Fading in essence?"

"Soul, knowledge, properties... All things in the world have colors, even a wisp of wind, a stone, they too have colors. If essence fades, it means they’re nothing."

Mirror Demon pointed at the gray-white world below: "That place doesn’t count as Hell anymore, nor anywhere, it’s an undefined ’Void.’"

"Let’s hurry." Death Mad lifted her head, her gaze pierced through the Abyss spanning Level Six of Hell, staring at Hell’s summit: "There’s still a long way to go."

"Why am I the one lugging this guy..."

Youmo grumbled unwillingly, carrying Ash through Deep Blue Hell. Although named Deep Blue Hell, the seawater inside had long dried up, leaving only moist sea mud. Youmo seemed to be walking but her speed was swift, not leaving footprints in the sea mud; she traveled a kilometer in merely seconds, reaching a cliff connecting to Third Hell, climbing up single-handedly.

Ash, having just slain the World Snake with eight-winged fierce might, even when Miracle wanted to claim ’everyone here is trash’, had to ask him to stand; Youmo, a Supreme soul from the end, buried 63 civilizations of worlds as a Convergence Master. These two mages, unparalleled in history’s river, at this moment seemed like mortals climbing Hell, as if escaping Hell like demons.

"If possible, I wish to walk myself too." Ash said helplessly: "Do you really have to carry me like this?"

"Cost-effectiveness gap is too vast." Mirror Demon reached out, pinched light particles scattered from Ash’s hair, pressing gently to sound earth-shattering rumblings: "Just maintaining your life signs, every second consumes over ten thousand units of Source Crystal; even at just this brief moment, the energy you expended equaled all Source Crystals of a world line, if you were to recover to a level for normal action, the consumption could be at least more than ten times... Comparatively, activating fragments of Youmo in your psyche to manifest and carry you is more cost-effective."

The fragments of Youmo in my psyche... means the share they occupy in my psyche after I sold it to them? That means they can manifest by my side anytime, possessing full power of their prime... if they were to follow me back to reality...

Thoughts ceased here, merely operating his mind slightly caused Ash’s face to flush sickly, his head felt hazy as if he might faint any moment. Mirror Demon wasn’t jesting, they were sincerely just maintaining the basic life signs of Ash, needless to say, movement; even thinking became exceedingly difficult, now even a weak Lala Fat could easily thrash him.

He asked, panting: "Why have I suddenly weakened like this?"

"Of course it’s due to our last resort." Black Demon floated below, meeting Ash’s drooping head with a mocking curve at his mouth: "Now Uroboros is dead, you hold no further value, not turning you into Lala Fat, do we give you the chance to counter us? This is your fate, you can alter everyone’s ending, yet can’t change your own ending, you sacrificed everything to save the world, but all of you will belong to us!"

Ash barely lifted his head, looking at Death Mad: "What is the truth?"

"What I said is the truth!" Black Demon approached Ash’s face, expression twisted, eyes deep with resentment: "Regret, rage, cry, then die, Observer!"

"You’re so coherent, it’s obvious you’re speaking madly, and I’m not an Observer." Ash sighed: "We fought alongside just now as comrades, normally you speak inconsistently, exclamation marks over number periods, you can’t deceive me."

"I’m going to bite you—"

Death Mad held the enraged Black Demon in her embrace, saying: "You’ve likely been cursed."

"Cursed?" Ash looked incredulous: "I’ve slain World Snake 63 times, my power with you all far surpasses it, could its curse still work on me?"

There’s an appropriate villain’s adage here: I killed you, why should I fear you becoming a ghost to harm me? If you turn into a ghost, I’ll just kill you again!

The living World Snake couldn’t defeat the ultimate form of Ash, yet a dead World Snake can utterly ruin Ash? This isn’t a curse, it’s clearly a self-destruct posthumous word!

"It can." Death Mad looked at him, "Do you know what the essence of the World Snake is?"

"Did you mention it before? Perhaps I forgot."

"All things in the world have concepts, sun and moon, space-time, culture, phenomena, races, professions, will generate corresponding concepts." Death Mad didn’t keep secrets, directly said: "As the Observer noted, the essence of the World Snake is Mage."

"What?" Ash was startled.

"Devouring everything, stealing the world, monopolizing the law, this is the desire of Mages, also the instinct of the World Snake. The World Snake is a natural life born of the Mage concept, its destiny is to hunt all mages, to merge all worlds, all powers into one." Death Mad said: "Whether it’s the snake’s ’Pseudo Eight Wings’, or our ’Super Seven Wings’, none have truly reached the Eight-Winged Realm. If the Observers guessed correctly, reaching the ultimate Eight-Winged state is only possible by becoming the singular Mage across all world lines."

"The singular... Mage?" Ash murmured.

"Haven’t you had this thought?" Youmo spoke while climbing: "’If there’s only me as a mage in the world, all things would be mine for the taking, all things would be slaves at my mercy’... Uroboros more than any mage resembles a mage, it’s just aiming to realize all mages’ darkest desires historically."

"Quite ironic, when Mage civilization developed to its limit and condensed into a conceptual entity, it ends up destroying all civilization... When I first heard the Observer say, I couldn’t help but laugh. If I weren’t the protagonist on stage, I’d certainly rejoice at this poetic justice setting: Precisely because mages are selfish, greedy bastards, Mage civilization bred the most selfish, greedy ’Mage’. Destroying itself by one’s hand, not by others, but by mages themselves."

Just accepting this intelligence has left Ash dizzy, yet he quickly pinpointed the key: "Mage concepts will foster the World Snake, then when did our world’s Mage concept emerge?"

"It already emerged." Mirror Demon said: "Why do you think Miracle sticks close to the Seventh Layer of Void Realm?"

A chill penetrated Ash’s spine: "Could it be..."

"From the moment the Source Angel fell, your world entered a countdown too." Youmo seemed to relish decoding time, her climbing speed increased: "Void Realm’s Seventh Layer is the sign of Mage civilization reaching its extreme."

"But this issue isn’t the current priority." Death Mad calmly said: "Since we could kill the first World Snake, we naturally can slay the second one."

Ash instantly felt relieved, but swiftly he recognized the answer to his question: "I’m cursed because...I’m a mage?"

"To be precise, you’re cursed because you slew the World Snake, and the way you’re cursed is by ’fading all your Mage colors’. Born from the Mage concept, the great life, at the moment of death, making all mages die with it seems quite reasonable, right?"

Youmo said: "If you were a mortal, perhaps you could barely survive, but from soul body to soul, from power to life, your very existence is a Mage-created Miracle... Rather than calling it a curse, it’s more like collateral damage; if Mage concept is a building, then you’re a unit within, now the building collapsed, how could you possibly remain unharmed?"