Chapter 75: Western Fantasy Romance (Extra I)

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Chapter 75: Western Fantasy Romance (Extra I)

Caelir Andreas Extra:

Sometimes, the one who sees most clearly is the one who gains nothing at all. Perhaps it is not only in a single human lifetime that ignorance is bliss; even gods are no exception. If he could turn back time, he would wish for a single moment of confusion. Unfortunately, that person had never given anyone even the slightest chance.

The Tomb of the Gods was nothing like the desolate place mortals imagined. If anything, it could be called magnificent. Walking alone through the silent world, towering palaces stood one after another, each representing a fallen god. At the center of the Tomb of the Gods stood a milky-white palace, yet every door and window was black, giving it an unsettling appearance. The power of light permeated the palace, but one could still sense faint traces of hidden darkness. This structure, which served as the core of the entire Tomb of the Gods, enshrined the remains of the lowest-ranked god.

The War of the Gods had begun with the Divine King and the Demon King. As for him, the so-called most mysterious of the ancient gods, he had merely added fuel to the flames. How could the Dragon King and the Dwarf King possibly remain uninvolved? In the end, it became a chaotic battle involving every god. History always remembered only the ending; the process had long since become irrelevant. The gods who perished in that war eventually forgot how it had all begun. All they remembered was drawing their weapons across the bodies of their enemies.

The war among the gods left behind a shattered Kedor Continent and the Tomb of the Gods, which concealed countless secrets. During his years in the Mortal Realm, he had heard innumerable legends. Some claimed that the Tomb of the Gods had been formed by the fusion of the original Divine Realm and Demon Realm, containing the corpses of every fallen god and demon. Others said that those who entered it might inherit a god’s legacy. Yet no one knew how to truly enter the Tomb of the Gods. How could they? It had once been the Divine Realm and Demon Realm themselves, places only those who reached the Divine rank could touch. From the very beginning, they had intended for the gods to gradually fade from humanity’s sight. How could they possibly allow new gods to appear?

Although he could no longer ask for an answer himself, Caelir knew this was the ending Aesop had wished for. That was why they had all done everything within their power to make it happen. The gods had withdrawn from the stage, leaving humanity as the world’s only true protagonist. Once the gods departed, people would treasure the elemental powers they could wield with their own hands. Yet those powers would forever stop at the Saint rank. The Divine Realm and Demon Realm no longer existed. They had all become part of this Tomb of the Gods.

He approached the great doors of the central palace and slowly pushed open the black entrance. Darkness clung to his fingertips. A soft emerald glow flashed, instantly erasing every trace of the dark power. Through the crystal coffin before him, three figures could be seen lying side by side. Two had entered self-imposed slumber, while the one in the middle had permanently lost the breath of life. Through the crystal, Caelir traced the features of the man in the center. Closing his eyes, he could almost still see that familiar smile. Unfortunately, it existed only in memory now.

He had known Aesop might treat him as a chess piece, but he had never imagined Aesop would treat himself as the sacrifice. Truly intelligent people always left themselves a path of retreat. Watching Aesop’s effortless composure, one could easily believe he always stood in a position where he could either advance or withdraw at will. But though he was extraordinarily gifted, he was equally ruthless. He had exploited everything to its fullest, including his own life.

A faint smile touched Caelir’s lips, yet it carried unmistakable sorrow. He had always believed that among all the ancient gods, he was the most detached because he saw everything so clearly. He was neither the embodiment of absolute justice like light, nor absolute evil like darkness, nor the uncompromising sharpness of metal and fire, nor the steadfast tolerance of earth and water. What he inherited were wind and wood, both resilient and gentle. He once heard someone say that true strength lay in the union of strength and gentleness. If that were true, then he was undoubtedly the strongest among the ancient gods.

When the Laws created the ancient gods, they had already defined each of their personalities, and none of them had ever sought to change. As the Elf King, he was destined to wander the world freely. He cherished life but was never indiscriminately compassionate. Even when he chose to save someone, it would only be a life that pleased his eye. In truth, he could hardly be called a good creator. The world, in his eyes, was divided only into things that interested him and things that did not. Because of a passing whim, he could do things no other god would ever attempt, such as sealing away all of his divine power and becoming a human.

The Mante Empire truly deserved its place as one of the Five Great Empires. Its prosperity surpassed even that of the gods in its enjoyment of life. During those few decades on the Kedor Continent, he finally learned what it meant to enjoy living. Because he had sealed away his memories, those years became one of the rare periods he considered meaningful. Then he met Aesop, the mastermind whose schemes he still could not forget.

Aesop—that name inspired reverence throughout the human world. Even stripped of his memories as a god, Caelir had respected him the same way. But alongside that admiration, there had also been calculation. At the time, he was a prince of the Mante Empire, and like every other prince, he coveted the empire’s most exalted throne. It was precisely because of that ambition that, after learning about the divine descent, he took Servius Joy—who was then using the alias Arthur—under his wing.

His divine power returned because of the corruption of darkness. The Dark Marsh indeed contained the power of the Demon Realm. Even a god would eventually be unable to resist its corruption if they remained there too long. But he was no ordinary god. As the Elf King, one of the ancient gods, even living in darkness forever would not change him. And so he became Servius Joy’s guardian while the Demon King recovered his strength. Perhaps only he possessed the honor of having another ancient god serve as his protector.

After that, many things happened, yet he watched them all as nothing more than an observer, just as he had done for countless years. So much so that, at times, both Sathalia and Servius unconsciously overlooked him. Habits could be wonderful things, but sometimes they could also be fatal, especially habits of thought. They had never imagined that a mere human would seek to banish the gods, and so they allowed Aesop to proceed time and again. By the end, they could no longer bring themselves to act against him, nor did they wish to. Instead, they fulfilled his wish and overturned the entire world.

Those memories appeared before him like fleeting illusions, yet whenever he reached out to touch them, they vanished without a trace. All that remained was the eternal smile upon the face lying within the crystal coffin.

His fingers rested against the edge of the crystal coffin, but in the end, he did not open it. This coffin, large enough for only three people, had no place for him. Whether it was Sathalia or Servius, each would acknowledge only the other as a rival in love. His own feelings had come too slowly, so slowly that even he had failed to notice them. Only after witnessing the countless changes of the world did he realize that somewhere along the way, he had lost a love of his own.

What he felt for Aesop was neither admiration nor longing. It was genuine love. That unnoticed affection had quietly grown within him until this very day, when he finally understood what could fill the emptiness that had always existed in his heart. Unfortunately, he had realized it far too late, so late that he no longer even had the right to grieve. Perhaps Aesop truly was the curse the Laws had placed upon the ancient gods. The name of that curse was unfulfilled love .

He cast one final glance at the three figures within the crystal coffin. Even in slumber, Sathalia and Servius remained protectively at Aesop’s side, each with one hand resting upon his body, so close that they left no room for anyone else to intrude. He was an outsider, a complete outsider. As the sole remaining ancient god, perhaps all he could do was witness the splendor of the world on their behalf.

It was not that he did not wish to sleep. There was simply no place left for him to do so. And so, he willingly chose to spend an eternity looking back upon those brief memories, watching them grow ever clearer with the passage of time, until they became so vivid that he could almost hear that person’s breathing.

Minea Griffin (Shu Guyun) Extra:

When she transmigrated, she had only thought about the beginning. She had never considered the ending.

As Shu Guyun, she had been an assassin—a top-class assassin. She had seen too much darkness for the splendor of the world to ever catch her eye. Treating life like a game was simply her way of passing the endless boredom. Yet there was a kind of accident called irony. Shu Guyun’s death had been absurdly theatrical, so absurd that anyone who heard about it could not help but laugh. If anyone truly embodied the phrase “cursed with bad luck,” it had been her.

But fortune and misfortune always went hand in hand. The end of one life marked the beginning of another.

Another world unfolded before her, revealing a far broader sky. She could become stronger. She could obtain far more than she had ever imagined, perhaps even make everyone in this world bow before her. Those who lived in darkness always longed to stand beneath the sunlight and be worshipped. It was not that she had never desired such a life before, but that it had once been impossible. Once she caught sight of that open door, no one could stop her from walking through it.

The first time she saw him, she mistook him for another transmigrator. He wore a perfectly tailored crimson robe. Although it resembled the clothing of this world, it was not quite the same. A single sash fastened the entire outfit, making it look much closer to the ancient garments of the world she had come from. What made her even more suspicious were the two swords on his back. Taken together, everything made it impossible for her to believe it was merely a coincidence. Yet… coincidences truly did exist, especially when that person was an unparalleled genius.

Everyone acknowledged that Aesop was a genius, but very few realized he was a genius without equal. He had created a cultivation method that resembled her internal energy while perfectly integrating magic with inner cultivation, and later went on to improve magic itself. Had he not died, humanity would undoubtedly have become far stronger than it was now. Even as a mere observer, she could not help but sigh at what a pity it was.

She followed him for an entire month. It was not a long time. She had spent one or even two years on countless missions without feeling the slightest emotion. Yet, around him, she unconsciously lowered her guard. Aesop seemed to possess the ability to captivate people’s hearts. He made the Demon King, Servius Joy, cast aside all his vigilance. He made her unable to resist drawing closer, even unconsciously using her charm technique on him. Yet the ability that had never once failed did fail this time, and without realizing it, she lost her heart instead.

Some said that the more fickle a person was, the more devoted they became once they truly fell in love. She did not know whether that was true for others, but she knew she had nearly gone mad for him. Knowing that he was her fiancé, it was as though she had been lured by the song of a siren. As long as she could have him, she was willing to do anything. She had been certain that the three gods would never make a move against her, but she had completely misjudged the depth of their feelings for him, placing herself directly before the blade.

The Demon King Servius Joy, the Divine King Sathalia Campbell, and even the Elf King, who had always seemed content to remain an observer, had all fallen in love with the same human, a man at that. It was such an unbelievable thing, yet it had truly happened. As the one bearing the title of his fiancée, only one ending awaited her: death.

Only later did she realize that death itself was something to be longed for. She had become an undead, one who retained every memory of her life as a human and was even more powerful than she had been before. An undead so hideous that anyone who looked upon her would instinctively feel disgust.

All because she had fallen in love with one person. Was this the price of love? The man she loved had been far too dazzling, so dazzling that even the sun and moon chased after him. But in the end, no one achieved a happy ending, did they? Of all the gods and demons who had fallen because of him, who realized that it had all been nothing more than a sacrifice—a sacrifice offered for a single human?

Her hatred gradually faded. The agony that had once made life worse than death slowly settled into indifference. No matter what, she was still alive. She could seize any body she pleased, then find someone who resembled him and enjoy a single night of fleeting happiness. As for her enemies, they had imprisoned themselves in eternal slumber. So this was all the gods amounted to.

Looking out at the sunlight beyond the cave, Minea returned to the cavern that had become her home. Vaguely, she could still see the figures from that time, and her own smile from those days. Then she sank into an eternal sleep. An emerald radiance flashed through the cave. A man dressed in green glanced once at the skeleton lying on the ground before disappearing into the depths of the cavern.

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