Volume 8, Chapter 49 – The Conflict Between Two Generations of Queens of Death

A world of pure white.

The light was dazzling yet not blinding. Even with eyes open, one didn’t feel the eye-stinging pain like looking directly at the midday sun. The air held neither the faint foul odor of the kingdom of the dead nor the various floral fragrances of the living world—it wasn’t particularly pleasant or unpleasant. The shining light, logically speaking, should make one feel sacred, yet there was no sacred aura here either. It could be called an absolutely neutral zone.

Much better than last time.

The first to enter the immortal sanctuary, Fia breathed a light sigh. Last time she’d come, she could only feel an eerie strangeness, and her visible range was less than two meters. This time, she could see the Venexes hovering more than ten meters away.

“How does it feel, Claire?”

Fia turned back to look at Claire behind her. According to Lucitine, Claire should feel massive pressure. Worried Claire might be putting on a brave face, Fia watched her beautiful face closely, not missing any emotional change.

Claire first slightly raised an eyebrow, feeling the pressure, then her brow relaxed and she smiled.

“There is a bit of pressure, but not enough to noticeably affect me. However, I can’t see my surroundings clearly. Is that normal too?”

“Yes, at first you can’t see clearly, but it gets much better after a while.”

Fia answered. It seemed Claire’s situation was similar to hers.

Then, she looked towards the Venexes still hovering in the distance. Last time, these Venexes had sensed her and Lucitine immediately. Now they were motionless, like the Venexes in the deeper parts of the immortal sanctuary. A sense of foreboding arose in her. She remembered that when they left last time, the peripheral Venexes, infected by the first Venex’s emotions, had all lost their minds and floated in the air like puppets. She began to suspect that during her absence, these Venexes might never have moved.

Frowning, she lowered her voice as if afraid to disturb them.

“Lucitine, can you sense the Venexes’ thoughts?”

“…No.”

Lucitine’s voice also held suspicion. She too sensed the abnormality of her “selves,” and vigilance gradually appeared on her face.

“They were floating here when we left.”

“Even Lucitine thinks so. My feeling was right, then. I also feel they haven’t moved. Logically, you are all Venexes. The memory entities should be equal to each other. How does it feel like the first Venex can manipulate your emotions?”

“Impossible. We are her, she is us. There’s no possibility of one manipulating the other. I think it must be related to emotional intensity. Our memories and emotions are interconnected. The stronger emotions more easily infect others. Usually, their indifferent emotions make me indifferent too. But last time, my passion overwhelmed all of them. So them being dazed is probably because the first Venex’s obsession was too strong, and they were infected by it.”

“…That’s also possible.”

Fia didn’t deny it. Worried that Claire might have trouble walking due to the pressure, she reached out her hand to Claire behind her.

“Can you walk, Claire?”

“I’m not so feeble that I need Little Fia to hold my hand like a child.”

Claire curved her lips, then, led by Fia, they advanced towards the first Venex.

After a few steps, Fia encountered the viper-like Venex she remembered vividly. Although Fia wanted to wake her up and ask what had happened, the memory of the deeper Venexes, infected by the first Venex’s hatred, turning red-eyed and attacking them was still fresh. She worried that awakening the viper-like Venex might cause her to turn red and attack too, leading to a situation where she had to kill an acquaintance. Even though this was the immortal sanctuary, she didn’t want things to escalate like that.

In the end, she just shook her head and left.

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The surroundings were eerily quiet.

An environment with only footsteps was already incredibly eerie, coupled with the pink souls occasionally floating a few feet off the ground along the path, the scene became even more hair-raising. If not for Fia’s trio being powerful, anyone else would have been scared out of their wits.

Throughout the journey, Fia maintained an expressionless face, quietly counting the number of Venexes. Including the thirty-plus peripheral ones, she had already seen fifty-five Venexes.

“Lucitine, how many Venexes are in the immortal sanctuary?”

“Counting me?”

“No.”

“One hundred and four. Why?”

“Something’s been bothering me. Help me keep count too, Lucitine, to see if any are missing. I encountered a little accident in the anthill earlier.”

Fia recounted her encounter in the anthill to Lucitine, while quietly observing the reactions of the surrounding Venexes lost in thought. The result was that none reacted to her words. The one with the strongest reaction was Lucitine herself.

“Horns like the figure on the Wall of Sighs, memories similar to mine, and she asked you to create a body for her and kill a fake?”

“Yes. That’s why I asked Lucitine to help me count the Venexes. I was wondering if a memory entity might have escaped from here, especially since the one who appeared before me claimed to have no soul.”

“…I don’t believe it.” Lucitine’s voice was low, full of thought. “It’s not that I think Fia is lying, but I don’t believe any Venex could escape. Memory entities can only exist in the immortal sanctuary. Besides, they have no magic power; all magic power is preserved in me. How could one suddenly appear beside Fia?”

“It’s just a conjecture. If we find all the Venexes, we can rule it out, right?”

“Understood. When we go back later, I’ll confirm them one by one, starting from the first Venex.”

Lucitine’s expression became extremely serious. She began to look around, noting the positions of the Venexes. During this process, Claire, visiting for the first time, asked softly.

“Why are the Venexes here so still?”

“They’ve lived too long and have no attachment to the world, so they actively severed contact with the outside. It manifests as being motionless—Ah, we’re here.”

Fia’s pace suddenly slowed. In her field of vision, more than ten meters away, stood the first Venex.

Lucitine was right; the immortal sanctuary truly was immortal. The deceased Venex had reappeared before Fia’s eyes. Not only that, she noticed the first Venex was the only one in the entire sanctuary not slumbering. She was aware of the three of them and was looking over with those physical-form-less pink eyes.

More precisely, she was staring at her.

Fia could feel that sharp gaze, as if trying to see through to the bottom of her heart. It was uncomfortable.

She didn’t flinch. Straightening her back, she glared back with equal sharpness.

Even the Absolute Evil would tremble when seeing her, let alone a memory entity. Staring at her so rudely like this—even if it were the first Venex herself in her prime standing before her, she would put her hands on her hips and glare back.

This staring contest lasted two seconds. The first Venex was the first to yield. The sharpness in her eyes gradually diminished, and her gaze quietly shifted to Claire and Lucitine behind Fia.

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“This one is alive? Her temperament is different from the other memory entities.”

Claire’s puzzled voice sounded.

“Yes, this is the first me. Strange… Why is she awake? This is the first time I’ve seen sanity in her eyes.”

“Let’s go over first.”

Fia hadn’t forgotten how the first Venex had stared vacantly into the void last time. This change might be because she was awakened by Lucitine’s sword strike, slowly recalling the memories Lucitine had forcibly poured into her, thus becoming responsive to her. Ironically, the person Lucitine’s memories held the most favorable impression for was herself, which also matched the first Venex’s behavior of staring straight at her from the start.

As they approached, Fia noticed that the first Venex and Lucitine differed only in temperament. The first Venex’s temperament was colder, closer to the Eldest Princess, while Lucitine was much more humanized.

Unexpectedly, the first to speak was the first Venex. Floating in mid-air, she looked down at Fia’s group with indifferent eyes.

“You’re here.” Her voice was filled with a sense of distance, like a cold queen meeting foreign envoys. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

“This is the first time I’ve seen you like this. Why did you stop slumbering?”

Lucitine’s voice held no respect, as if the person before her wasn’t a predecessor, but a contemporary.

This also aligned with Lucitine’s statement that they were all the same person.

“Thanks to your memories, I’ve regained some sanity… It’s been so long. The feeling of living as a living person—I’ve already forgotten what warmth feels like.”

The first Venex’s tone was incomparably soft. Correspondingly, her gaze seemed to travel through time and space, losing focus. But this change lasted only an instant before she returned to normal.

It was worth mentioning that the first Venex no longer looked at Lucitine, but firmly fixed her gaze on Fia.

“You want to know my story. I’ll tell you. But before that, I need to confirm: this one called Claire, she’s not human, is she?”

“My true form is not human.”

As she spoke, the air around Claire’s palms vibrated violently, rippling with layers of gray and red. In less than a second, two completely different one-handed swords appeared in Claire’s hands. Simultaneously, as Claire consumed magic power by casting enhancement spells on herself, a pair of gorgeous black horns emerged on her head, and a slender, long tail appeared behind her.

The first Venex showed no emotional fluctuation, just nodded lightly.

“A fellow countryman. We are both descendants of the Demon Lord Tartaros.”

The three present widened their eyes simultaneously. For Fia and Claire, this was a major step in searching for Claire’s origins. For Lucitine, it meant she had never imagined she too was a foreign soul.

No one interrupted the first Venex. She began to narrate in a slow, vicissitude-filled tone.

The first Venex was not originally an undead. Before the Primordial Continent was occupied by Chaos, she came to the World Tree Continent through a rift in the world, much like the Holy Sons descend into the world.

After arriving in this world, she didn’t miss her homeland like other Holy Sons. Instead, she greatly enjoyed life here. In her world, beings like the Demon Lord were far more powerful than her, so she wasn’t very prominent. But in the World Tree Continent, she became as powerful as the gods. Moreover, because she resided there, the gods and Darkborn were afraid of offending her. Not only did they dare not come to the World Tree Continent, but they even named it the Land of Exile, forbidding ordinary people from coming.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t ultimately a life blessed by the World Tree Continent. Without divine protection, after a life of unbounded glory, she died of old age. And because her soul didn’t belong to this world, it could only drift endlessly here. Eventually, during this drifting, she gradually turned into an undead, becoming the most powerful undying one.

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That was the first Venex’s life.

Although logical, it was too simple, hard to believe.

The first Venex pointed at Claire, her tone still cool and clear.

“You must be a life like me, from the world of the Demon Lord Tartaros, also a descendant of the Demon Lord Tartaros. This is why we can both use demon language magic.”

It should be noted that when the first Venex said “descendant,” she didn’t mean having blood relations in the ordinary sense, but simply that her race was the same as the Demon Lord Tartaros.

Fia felt the first Venex was hiding something. She frowned slightly and pressed further.

“Then who is the figure carved on the Wall of Sighs? Why do you loathe Chaos? And why did you become the Queen of Death, the ruler of this world?”

Hearing the word “Chaos,” the first Venex’s eyes sharpened, but the sharpness lasted only a moment. She then patiently answered Fia’s questions.

“I only know that the figure on the Wall of Sighs should come from the same world as me. She created this kingdom of the dead. As for why I became the Queen of Death—I am the most powerful undead in the world. Is it strange for the most powerful undead to become the ruler of the undead? I rule here by inheriting the legacy of my predecessor. It’s only natural.”

“You still haven’t answered why you loathe Chaos.”

“Hating Chaos is only natural. Don’t you also want to eliminate Chaos?”

The first Venex’s answer didn’t leave Fia speechless. The latter frowned even deeper.

“The hatred you show towards Chaos isn’t like eliminating Chaos just for the sake of eliminating it. With no prior enmity, how could Chaos make you hate it for tens of thousands of years, to the point where you go mad just hearing its name?”

After Fia finished speaking, the first Venex fell silent. As if trying to discern Fia’s purpose, her gaze became even sharper, drilling into Fia’s face.

Hostility could already be felt.

Whether it was impatience with Fia’s questioning, or the repeated mention of Chaos stirring her hatred.

Fia entered a state ready to counter with magic at any moment. Claire and Lucitine on the other side also tensed up, ready to act instantly if the first Venex made a move.

This nerve-racking tension lasted a full ten seconds before the first Venex finally answered.

“I don’t want to tell you the reason. Is that answer enough?”

Ultimately, I’m the one seeking help. Whether the first Venex wants to tell me is her right. I can’t force it. The reason she loathed Chaos doesn’t conflict with my goal of eliminating Chaos. It’s an irrelevant matter.

As if reading Fia’s thoughts, the first Venex lowered her gaze and added.

“When the time is right in the future, I will tell you the answer. But now is not the time. More importantly, Lucitine, there’s something I must warn you about. Give me your hand.”

The first Venex’s tone was aggressive. She extended her hand towards Lucitine. Although displeased, Lucitine understood the first Venex’s intention and clasped her hand.

Then, Lucitine’s memories fed back to the first Venex’s mind. The latter closed her eyes, experiencing for a moment, then opened them, her eyes filled with intense disappointment.

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“You truly have forgotten the rule I established.”

Lucitine frowned.

“What rule?”

“I should have said in the memories I left behind: as the Queen of Death, you should not harbor affection for anyone. Especially now that you have a living body—ruling the dead with a living body, how improper is that! It will only make the undead covet the feeling of being alive and refuse to enter reincarnation. I can understand your mood and feelings, your covetousness for a living body, but don’t forget your duty. After this period passes, you must return to being dead. Even more so, you must not fall in love with an outsider. You have disappointed me greatly. When I established the rule of replacement, I knew this situation would arise.”

Faced with the first Venex’s reprimand, Lucitine didn’t retreat; she advanced. If not for Fia helping her experience the feeling of being alive, she wouldn’t be standing here. Both returning to the painful dead shell and staying away from Fia were things she would not compromise on. She put a hand on her hip and sneered coldly.

“What right do you have to command me? Don’t put on that elder act. You are me, and I am you. You could establish the rule of not harboring affection, and I can modify that rule. I’ll take care of my duties without your reminding. Besides, I don’t think your so-called reincarnation is actual reincarnation. It’s just a trick to deceive the dead.”

The first Venex’s eyes narrowed slightly. A strong, skin-prickling dangerous aura grew more apparent.

“You want to defy my will? For ten thousand years, not a single Venex has violated this rule. Don’t forget who gave you self-awareness. Without my sacrifice, you would be nothing.”

“Then try to take it back. See if you have the ability. You’re already in the past. Don’t try to dictate to me. Ultimately, you only devised the replacement rule to preserve your own soul from going mad. Now you want to put on airs of purity. Now that you see I have a living body and can feel warmth, you’re jealous of me, so you bring out this grand rhetoric. You’re the one who disappoints me. I never thought I could be this vile. I’m ashamed of myself.”

As she finished speaking, Lucitine summoned the scales sword. The slight hum of the blade already predicted that if the first Venex dared to make a move, she would retaliate without mercy.

The first Venex’s voice was incomparably cold.

“Do you really think I can’t restrict you?”

“Feel free to try.” Lucitine glanced at Fia. “Fia is on my side. You’ve seen my memories; you know her strength.”

Very visibly, the first Venex’s eyebrow twitched.

“Hmph.”

With a heavy snort, the Venexes throughout the immortal sanctuary were one by one stained with an ominous dark red. The scene from last time reappeared before Fia’s eyes.

This woman had gone mad.

But this time, Lucitine didn’t give the Venexes a chance to go mad. Before the violent and cruel aura could fill the sanctuary, the moment the Venexes changed color, a gray arc centered on Lucitine spread outwards.

The sharp gray arc rapidly expanded in the air, ultimately colliding with all the Venex memory entities.

With a series of popping sounds, all the reddened Venexes turned to powder, leaving only the first Venex, whom Lucitine had spared. The latter cast a contemptuous glance at the first Venex and said coldly.

“I won’t return here again. Seeing you today is a farewell forever.”

“You will regret this.”

Ignoring the first Venex’s threat, Lucitine snorted coldly and walked straight back the way they came. Fia and Claire, who had found it inconvenient to intervene, could only awkwardly watch the conflict. After a moment’s hesitation, they followed the quickly departing Lucitine.