Volume 8, Chapter 40 – The Immortal Sanctuary

“This lake is where the memories of the Venexes are stored? Isn’t it just water, nothing else?”

After meeting Lucitine in the gray hall, Fia, dressed in emerald ceremonial attire—a traditional elf garment—was led by Lucitine behind the palace. This was the only lake within the kingdom of the dead. Shrouded in eternal night, the calm, rippleless surface reflected the starry sky, reminiscent of a giant gem embedded in the earth.

As for the purpose of Lucitine bringing Fia here, it was to let her meet the other selves stored within the core—an agreement from the previous night.

“This isn’t water. It’s a physical manifestation of death energy.”

Lucitine answered, maintaining the dignified tone of the Queen of Death. Some of the Thirteen Attendants, maids, followed behind her on the way here; she couldn’t be as carefree as in the living world.

She drew the scales sword from the void and stabbed its tip into the shallow water at the lake’s edge. Fia then witnessed the lake water adhering to the sword’s blade. The water here was extremely viscous, more like asphalt melted by high heat than water. Lucitine infused magic power into the blade and gave it a light flick. Only then did the adhered lake water dissipate into a wisp of black mist.

“Fia can think of the lake water as a protective measure. The core that preserving memories is at the bottom. If you set foot on the lake without being acknowledged, with death energy condensed to this degree, even a dragon would instantly turn into a pool of blood. Although I don’t think it would affect you.”

Lucitine slightly turned her head to glance at the attendants.

“I’m taking Fia to the lake bottom. You stay here.”

“Yes.”

With that, Lucitine walked across the lake surface towards the center. The viscous lake water under her feet was like solid ground. With each step forward, a patch of condensed ice would form beneath her. A few minutes later, reaching the lake’s center, Lucitine raised the scales sword. Instantly, the asphalt-like viscous lake surface began to churn. It spun rapidly, finally exposing a dark crimson gate at the bottom.

Like the Wall of Sighs, the dark crimson gate was inscribed with the demon language Claire used and reliefs of two maidens. They gazed at each other, one on the left and one on the right. Although they were inanimate, Fia subtly felt a sense of presence, as if the two carved on the gate were still alive.

The Wall of Sighs had existed on the World Tree Continent since the world’s inception. This lake, and even the entire underground world, should be the same.

During the age of gods, the World Tree Continent was regarded as barren, a place for exiling criminals. Who exactly left miracles comparable to divine acts here? Fia couldn’t help but be quite curious. This star-strewn land of eternal night was so vast and beautiful; she didn’t think beings called gods could have created it. As she followed Lucitine descending towards the exposed lake bottom, she asked thoughtfully.

“Lucitine, do you know who the two people carved on the gate are?”

“Two? Isn’t it just one?”

“Huh?”

Lucitine’s words startled Fia. She looked again at the gate at the lake bottom. The result was the same as before: the gate was carved with the image of a woman with demon horns on her head and a maiden whose eyes emitted purple light.

Fia couldn’t help but wonder if the surrounding gurgling viscous lake water was causing auditory hallucinations. She confirmed again.

“On one side is a woman with horns on her head, on the other is a human maiden depicted with luminous purple paint in her eyes. Exactly the same as the pattern on the Wall of Sighs. Lucitine doesn’t see it?”

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“No… it’s always just the woman with horns on her head. And on the Wall of Sighs too. Fia, are you seeing things because of something you ate? From what I’ve heard from the other Venexes, this woman with horns is the creator of this eternal night world. I and the other Venexes are merely later comers who made use of this eternal night world. Honestly, the more I understand this world, the more I can’t help but feel that the Ninth Tier isn’t the limit. The Wall of Sighs should be something like a teleportation gate, connecting to this space that is clearly too large to be underground. To create such a miracle, one’s strength would have to be above the Ninth Tier.”

Lucitine smiled charmingly at Fia.

“The creator probably grew tired of this world and left through a rift in the world to another world. After all, being Tenth Tier, nothing they do would be surprising.”

“Lucitine doesn’t think this could have been created by the gods? The gods are also Tenth Tier, right?”

“I don’t think so.” Lucitine shook her head and sighed. “I remember the scene of the verbal agreement with the gods back then. Although the gods were powerful, they didn’t give me a sense of transcendence. If I went all out, I could still fight them. But this eternal night world is different. I can’t imagine a way to create it. It’s beyond my understanding.”

“I see…”

Fia replied verbally, but kept glancing at the maiden with purple-depicted eyes on the gate at the lake bottom. Lucitine couldn’t see her, but she could. And she wasn’t using [See Through] to resist illusions. The result was either that the gate itself had a mental attack effect, or her magic power was far higher than Lucitine’s, allowing her to see what was hidden on the gate.

Even the Ninth-Tier Queen of Death couldn’t see it. Who could it possibly be…

If Fia hadn’t sensed any aggressiveness, she would definitely want to take it apart and study it.

Finally, the two reached the damp lake bottom. Although the surrounding soil was soft and viscous, the dark crimson gate, about five meters in length and width, wasn’t stained with any black lake water. Fia couldn’t even find corrosion marks. Instinct told her that unless she used magic of the level of [Overload] or [Orbital Beacon Bombardment], she couldn’t damage this gate.

“If Fia didn’t want to see, I would never go behind the door to meet the former me. I have to warn you, Fia, prepare yourself mentally. They’re either crazy or mute. If anyone tries to hurt you, don’t show mercy. Crush them on the spot. Behind the door is the immortal sanctuary. They’ll recover on their own after a while.”

“Immortal sanctuary? Meaning they never die?”

“Yes. No matter what method you use, once you step onto the land behind the door, you’ll never die… Rather than not dying, I think it’s more like being recorded in the state you were upon entry. For example, put someone about to die of old age in there. Although that person will die from exhausting their lifespan, after a while, they’ll recover to the state they were in when they just stepped in, continuing to wait for death. I don’t know why this happens. When I took over, it was already here.”

“I understand.”

After all, it was a world of magic. Strange, inexplicable phenomena appearing wasn’t surprising.

“Well then…”

Lucitine paused, a sense of ritual emanating from her. Then, she leaned towards Fia, who was much shorter than her, to kiss her. However, Fia was no longer the elf princess stunned by Lucitine upon their first meeting. Sensing Lucitine’s attempt to suddenly attack, she pressed her palm against Lucitine’s cheek, stopping her.

“Hey, this is your territory. If your subordinates saw you suddenly attacking me, wouldn’t it affect that image you always care about?”

“They can’t see us anyway. Besides, I’m handling serious business. Only those marked by the Queen of Death’s aura can enter the sanctuary. The requirements for entering this door are much more stringent than entering the Wall of Sighs. Fia’s aura isn’t concentrated enough; you definitely won’t get in.”

Lucitine feigned composure, but Fia instantly spotted the flaw.

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“It’s just an aura. You don’t need to kiss my face for that, right?”

“Guh… I just wanted to be closer to Fia.”

There was a hint of aggrieved disappointment in Lucitine’s voice.

Did you turn into Liti or something… ¹ pfft-

Muttering internally, Fia extended the back of her hand to Lucitine, looking helpless.

“When you act like an adult, I’ll consider your request. Now, what’s the incantation for entering this door? Don’t let it be like last time where the teleport failed and my magic power was exhausted.”

In response, Lucitine neither chanted an incantation nor kissed Fia’s outstretched hand. Instead, she crouched down and placed her hand on the dark crimson gate.

Then, Lucitine pushed the dark crimson gate open inward. A radiant white world appeared beneath Fia’s feet—actually, the door just needed Lucitine to push it open; there was no need for any so-called aura.

“Hehe.”

As if to ease the embarrassment, Lucitine turned back, winked at Fia with a silly grin, then restored her queenly seriousness and stepped into the dazzling white world, disappearing from Fia’s sight.

This girl has her own little schemes too.

Likewise restoring seriousness, Fia followed Lucitine in.

There was a feeling of passing through something.

The cold kingdom of the dead vanished, replaced by a comforting sensation like soaking in warm water after a long day of exhaustion. A sense of warmth and refreshment invaded every pore of her skin from all directions, enveloping Fia completely. Combined with the exceptionally sweet air, although it wasn’t enough to make Fia moan with pleasure, it still involuntarily lowered her level of vigilance. On an instinctive level, her thinking pattern concluded that this was an absolutely safe zone.

Somewhat similar to the radiance Laplace emitted, Fia silently assessed. This pure white world was filled with light, yet she could open her eyes normally. Her feet also felt a solid sensation of stepping on real ground. She alternately used [See Through], [Wind of Exploration], and [Mana Vision], but found no abnormalities.

She felt a warm hand take hers. It was Lucitine’s hand. At the same time, Lucitine’s voice quietly reached Fia’s ears.

“They’ve noticed us. If I start acting unlike myself in a bit, don’t be alarmed. This happens every time I open the door. I’ll recover once we leave the gate.”

As soon as Lucitine finished speaking, Fia felt the sensation of many gazes landing on her. They were detached, scrutinizing looks. The owners of the gazes noticed Fia was an outsider, and their scrutiny and indifference quickly turned to curiosity and puzzlement. Fia could clearly sense several presences approaching her.

Since [Danger Perception] wasn’t triggered, Fia didn’t stop them from approaching. When the presences were less than two meters away, Fia finally saw their faces clearly.

Their appearances were almost identical to Lucitine’s, only their temperaments differed. Some gave Fia an impression of integrity and sternness, some made Fia feel scrutinized by a cunning gaze sizing up prey, but most were detached, seemingly devoid of emotion. Additionally, because each was in a translucent, ghost-like state with a pinkish tint, even when they looked at her with the most detached expressions, Fia didn’t feel contempt. Pink was truly a friendly color.

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“An outsider. Venex, what are you doing, bringing an outsider into the sanctuary?”

A Venex with an upright temperament looked at Lucitine, her words carrying obvious questioning.

Lucitine didn’t back down. She answered casually, as if not sensing the harshness in the words.

“I just have some things to ask. This is a friend I know. You all stay out of it.”

“I sense the aura of a living person. Let me see your memories…”

The one speaking was the Venex that made Fia feel most uncomfortable. The discomfort wasn’t hostility, but a general sense of unease, as if she were being seen as a weak lamb, and this Venex wanted to devour her whole.

The Venex with a viper-like temperament drifted towards Lucitine, then her slender fingers stroked Lucitine’s cheek. In that instant, their memories were shared. Then, the viper-like Venex’s body trembled violently. As if seeing an unbelievable scene, she suddenly cupped her cheeks with both hands and screamed.

“A living person! You’ve become a living person! The taste of sugar… and the warmth of physical intimacy… you… you cheater! Let me! Let me take over the body! You can’t have it all to yourself!!”

Having expected the viper Venex’s reaction, Lucitine puffed out her chest, a hint of pride and complacency clearly on her face, to the point where she looked at her other selves as if they were pitiful creatures.

“No way. I’m the one in control of the body now. You should be grateful I’m willing to share my memories with you.”

“You can’t do this! I gave up the body to you! How can you be so ungrateful!?”

Although her voice was quite maniac, the viper Venex was helpless against Lucitine. Like a starving ghost, she gripped Lucitine’s shoulders tightly with both hands and shook her desperately, even pitifully hugging Lucitine’s calf and begging. But Lucitine remained unmoved. Because sharing memories wasn’t just the Venex reading her memories; she also simultaneously received the Venex’s memories. She knew this predecessor too well. If she gave the body to this Venex with such strong desires and high possessiveness, she’d never get control back.

Seeing her begging fruitless, the viper Venex turned her gaze to Fia nearby. But by then, Fia was already surrounded by another group of Venexes. Lucitine hadn’t told Fia earlier why she became unlike herself upon stepping in here. The reason was that once she stepped into the sanctuary, the emotions of all Venexes would share. And if one Venex made physical contact with her, all the Venexes would receive Lucitine’s memories, with an effect powerful to the point of empathy.

In the past, this effect meant that whenever Lucitine entered, she would always be affected by the emotions of the numerous Venexes, her personality becoming cold and detached. This was why she was unwilling to come here—she feared being subtly assimilated. But today, it was reversed. All the Venexes’ emotions were affected by Lucitine alone. They discovered that Fia could transform the Queen of Death into a living person, and also experienced sensory stimulation they had never felt before.

The sensation of sweetness melting on the taste buds, the touch of a fingertip stroking rough roof tiles, the scent of flowers, the refreshing feeling of sweat evaporating in the evening breeze, and even the racing heartbeat when kissing the food crumbs from the corner of Fia’s mouth—these stimuli they had never experienced hit them simultaneously the moment they received the memories, to the point of overshadowing the entirety of their centuries-long life experiences. It took them several seconds to recover from the shock. Their translucent, ghost-like bodies trembled violently. By the time they reacted, the scene before them was already the viper Venex emitting piercing screams.

Unlike the viper Venex pleading with Lucitine, the remaining ones adopted the strategy of ingratiating themselves with Fia. They surrounded Fia, constantly asking how she did it, and whether she could help create bodies for them too. Some of the naturally active Venexes, already influenced by Lucitine’s feelings of wanting to be close to Fia, began to get handsy with Fia.

Some seductively breathed on Fia’s earlobe, some used techniques that made skin tingle and sent tingling currents down her spine, lightly tracing Fia’s exposed smooth back and collarbone with their nails. Although because of their ghostly forms, these stimuli weren’t too strong for Fia, the visual of all these older sisters surrounding her, offering goodwill or even love, made Fia’s heart race, unable to breathe. Her body temperature rose significantly, and she hastily distanced herself.

It was truly a honey trap.

She couldn’t understand why all the Venexes suddenly became as clingy as beastmen in heat.

Questions she didn’t understand could wait. Fia felt she should escape first. She tried to withdraw to Lucitine’s side, but the numerous Venexes clung to her like a haunting shadow, maintaining relative stillness with Fia. No matter how fast Fia moved, they always wrapped around her, making Fia feel as if she’d fallen under an illusion, with Venexes’ tempting, obscene seductions constantly in her ears.

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“You! You’ve all disgraced the face of the Queen of Death!”

The viper Venex shouted, her face flushed red. But in reality, she was trying to squeeze through the human wall. And as more and more Venexes, standing frozen in the space, felt the wonder of a living body, the ones gathered around Fia rapidly increased. Twenty, thirty—as long as a new Venex received Lucitine’s memories, their dazed bodies would involuntarily tremble, then their pink eyes would burst with light, and they’d pounce towards Fia like wild dogs. In less than half a minute, the scene descended into chaos, like a dogfight, with biting sounds and shouts deafening, making one wonder if they’d entered a vegetable market.

Until veins bulged on her forehead, her face ashen, Lucitine drew the scales sword. With an invisible ripple vibrating out, all the Venexes stopped their actions one after another. They one by one climbed down from on top of Fia’s head and shoulders, looking embarrassed and looking away.

The magic Lucitine used was called [Forced Calm]. Of course, both for her own sake and for the other Venexes, she would never tell Fia the name of this magic for the rest of her life. Otherwise, if it got out that she needed magic to stay calm, the Queen of Death would lose all dignity.

It was worth mentioning that even after Lucitine used [Forced Calm], quite a few Venexes still secretly glanced at Fia, their expressions full of smiles and charm, their seduction written all over their faces.

“Don’t you have any dignity as the Queen of Death? I’m the one controlling the body now. First of all, there’s no magic that can let me temporarily hand over control to you. More importantly, Fia gave the gift to me, not to you!”

Fuming, Lucitine was on the verge of saying “Have you no shame?”

From Lucitine’s perspective, what just happened was equivalent to clones of herself trying to usurp the original’s position, enjoying the original’s life and lover. She kindly shared the wonderful feelings of being alive with the others, and in return, they tried to put a green hat on her—especially some of the unruly Venexes. If not for Fia’s agility, they would have almost kissed Fia’s lips, which even she hadn’t kissed. Anyone would be furious.

The pure white space was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

But it lasted less than three seconds before an unconvinced voice rang out.

“Hmph, you don’t have any dignity as the Queen of Death either. Not only did you want to commit suicide, you also wanted to become someone’s consort. You’re the one who disgraced the face of the Queen of Death. You might as well hand it over to us.”

Pfft.

The Venexes, who had been feeling guilty moments ago, were instantly amused by this Venex’s words. They no longer blamed themselves, instead turning to laugh mockingly at the serious Lucitine. This time, not only did veins bulge on Lucitine’s forehead, even her facial muscles twitched. She became incoherent, her face red as she was about to draw her sword.

“You bastards!”

Although it was an immortal sanctuary, drawing a sword to kill oneself was too much. For the sake of the fake friendship between Lucitine and the Venexes, Fia quickly stood on tiptoe and raised her hands to block Lucitine.

“Calm down, calm down! We’re here for knowledge, not to fight. If you chop up the first Venex, we’ve come for nothing!”

Fia then turned her head to look at the Venexes who were throwing loving glances her way.

“Which one of you is the original Venex?”