Chapter 212: I Am You
In the northwest of the continent, there was an absolutely forbidden zone known to the world as the "Godfall Land."
This was once the world's scar, the place where gods fell, a battlefield where space shattered and divine power raged, and also the site of Godslayer Kurtz's final confrontation with the gods.
The immense divine power that leaked out when the gods died was not a blessing but rather carried the corrosive, destructive properties of defilement, covering a vast expanse of land.
It was not a pure and harmless force like magic, but a viscous, pitch-black mud, as if it possessed life.
It spread rapidly, displacing the initial black mist, becoming the new master of this region.
If, in the time before the decisive battle, the edges of the Godfall Land were dangerous, yet with powerful defensive magic, top-tier mages or warriors possessing special items could briefly approach to observe this perilous area, now that was utterly impossible.
Just approaching it, one could feel the terrifying power contained within this mud-like divine energy.
For a thousand years, any life that dared to approach this place, whether mighty magical beasts or adventurers, was all corrupted by this divine power, transforming into rampaging monsters heading towards destruction.
Its terror had long surpassed physical destruction, escalating to a negation of existence itself.
However, this region, symbolizing death, was quietly undergoing a drastic change, and this change had been ongoing for over a thousand years.
In fact, in recent years, the changes here have become particularly noticeable, even being detected by some daring adventurers.
The mighty power of time was the greatest mage in the world, and in this land, there was also an existence that deliberately interfered.
Under the influence of both, the originally thick, unyielding black mist gradually thinned over the long years, and its corrosive power receded, bit by bit, like a tide.
The absolute darkness that once covered the sight now allowed glimpses of twisted, charred rock formations deep within, and even the suffocating aura of pollution had become faint and intermittent.
One could even see the ancient battlefield left behind from the great war between the Godslayer and the gods; the black mud there was once the densest part, but now it was as thin as mist.
Those adventurers discovered all of this, though the news had not yet fully spread.
Finally, on a seemingly ordinary day, the last wisp of black mist, thin as smoke, completely dissipated.
The shackles that had bound the land for a thousand years were silently undone.
After a millennium, the long-absent sunlight once again fell upon the scorched, cracked earth.
There was no greenery, no life, only a desolate wasteland, so dead it was unsettling.
This was the true face of Godfall Land: a completely barren ruin and a colossal tombstone, recording the brutal battle that ended the Age of Myths.
Right at the very center of this desolate ruin, a subtle ripple appeared in space.
Immediately, a figure emerged as if from water, clearly materializing.
The Demon King, Annalise.
She walked barefoot on this desolate land, yet her feet left no trace, as if her very existence resonated in some mysterious way with the earth.
Her appearance was not much different from before; she still possessed that exquisite face, yet the aura around her had subtly changed.
And now, she carried a heavy, heart-stopping sensation around her.
She was no longer standing on the Godfall Land; she herself was the condensation and manifestation of the Godfall Land's thousand-year corrosive power!
She was what remained after this forbidden zone disappeared—a mobile "core"!
She stopped, not looking back at the barren land that had seen daylight again because of her, but stood still, carefully sensing the complete power within her body.
"A thousand years..." she murmured. "Finally... completely fused."
Her birth itself stemmed from an impossibility.
Annalise was not an original demon.
In the God-Slaying War a thousand years ago, to escape the pervasive corruption of divine power, Kurtz was forced to abandon his old body.
However, that discarded body, which should have been completely corroded and dissolved by divine power, by chance encountered the corrosive divine power that leaked out when the gods fell.
Kurtz's body had once carried the authority of the Life Goddess, containing immense vital potential.
The divine power of the Fertility Goddess, on the other hand, was dark and corroded.
Two opposing forces, in the core of the Godfall Land, like two dying beasts, began a process of mutual devouring and fusion.
This was not a conscious union, but a desperate struggle driven purely by instinct.
The residual will in the Fertility Goddess's divine power did not want to die like this; it hoped to use Kurtz's old body for a resurrection.
And the Life Goddess's divine power was its natural enemy; the two were like fire and water, completely incompatible.
But the will Kurtz had abandoned in his body still contained a strong instinct for survival, an instinct that even transcended these two divine powers.
Eventually, a deformed balance was achieved.
Kurtz's body provided a stable container for the raging divine power, while the powers of the two gods endowed this container with unimaginable strength and the characteristic of eternal life.
A new yet twisted consciousness was born within this body; she was Annalise.
She was Kurtz's discarded past, the residual corrosion of the gods, a special existence born from both at the brink of destruction.
These thousand years were not a slumber for her, but a long fusion.
Using herself as a vessel and magic as a guide, she gradually integrated the corrosive divine power, left behind after the gods fell and capable of polluting the entire world, into herself, drop by drop.
For ordinary people, this was impossible.
But she did it.
What sustained her was not some noble ideal, but an extreme obsession with life itself, stemming from the dual imprints of Kurtz's body and the Fertility divine power; she did not want to die!
And the residual Fertility divine power here was the best antidote to keep her body from descending into chaos and destruction.
Now, she had succeeded, and the price was that she had become a walking collection of pollution.
Within her now was highly concentrated corrosive divine power, accumulated from the leakage when the gods fell a thousand years ago.
This power was like a miniature Godfall Land opened within her body; it was her source of power, the symbol of her authority, and a Sword of Damocles hanging over the entire world.
Once she died, this power would instantly lose control and erupt, with its scope and pollution intensity far exceeding those of the original Godfall Land, enough to plunge the entire continent into eternal darkness.
This was the fundamental reason Kurtz chose to spare her at that time.
Kill her?
Then the price would be the destruction of the world.
Once this vessel, which had fused the Godslayer's body and corrosive divine power, collapsed, the corrosive divine power within it would instantly erupt and spread at an unimaginable speed.
The extent and intensity of its pollution would far exceed the forbidden zone formed by natural leakage back then, enough to plunge the entire continent into eternal darkness in a very short time, with all life twisted and assimilated.
That would be a true world-ending disaster.
Seal her?
Something that couldn't be done a thousand years ago, only allowing time to slowly dissipate the divine power of the Godfall Land; now, attempting such a thing would only be more challenging.
Kurtz's scruples were well understood by Annalise.
This was her greatest protective charm, and also the confidence with which she dared to appear before him.
She slowly raised her hand, palm facing upwards.
A wisp of energy thread, as black as ink, coiled around her fingertips.
The air touched by this energy thread emitted a faint "sizzling" sound, as if space itself were slowly corroding.
"It's still not stable enough..." Annalise murmured to herself, a little displeased.
Although the fusion was complete, it would still take time to fully adapt to and control this powerful force at will.
She slowly lowered her hand, and the dangerous energy thread silently retracted into her body.
Her gaze pierced through space, directed towards a point on the continent, the direction Kurtz and Serie were heading.
"They are there?" This was the news Rivale reported to her not long ago. "Didn't go to find that guy Balzert?"
Balzert's secret elimination of elf villages, attempting to wipe out the elf race slowly, naturally couldn't be hidden from her.
But she didn't care about it at all.
The only thing she looked forward to was Kurtz and Serie stopping Balzert, then killing him, which would be a nice aftershow.
However, Kurtz once again deviated from her script.
He did not, as she had guessed, go to stop Balzert's plan, but instead leisurely traveled the world with Serie.
Did he not know about this? Or did he have other arrangements?
Annalise didn't know either.
From the moment she awoke in the Godfall Land a thousand years ago and gained self-awareness, to her first meeting with Kurtz in the Demon King's City, every choice Kurtz made seemed to deviate from the trajectory she had deduced based on their "common origin" perception.
Actively leaving that forest, traveling the continent like an ordinary traveler, was far removed from the "Godslayer Kurtz" of a thousand years ago, who had a clear goal and would stop at nothing to kill the gods.
Or was it that her perception had been wrong all along?
"Why?" Annalise lowered her head, looking at her fair palms, her voice tinged with a confusion that came from the depths of her soul. "We were originally one existence."
She raised her hand, gently pressing it against her cold chest, feeling the heartbeat beneath the body that originated from Kurtz but was now completely unrecognizable.
"Your choices, your path, are all of the same origin as mine."
"After all, my birth stemmed from your abandonment! My body was your past vessel! Even the source of my power is an existence you once fought against and came into contact with."
"I am your discarded past, the shadow of your power, the other side of your existence!" Her voice gradually rose, carrying a certainty that was almost frenzied.
"I am you!"
Now, she couldn't understand Kurtz's leisure.
Just as this corrosive divine power could drive one to madness, Annalise, under a thousand years of solitude and power fusion, was also gradually heading down a path of obsession and madness.
However, she overlooked one fact.
She was merely the product of the Fertility Goddess's instinctive corrosive divine power, unwilling to die, coincidentally encountering the discarded body, and thus mutually devouring and fusing.
But, in her subconscious perception, that man and she were originally the same person.
And that man was forced to abandon his body to save the world, which made her stubbornly believe that he would once again be obsessed with saving the world.
But she completely overlooked one thing: she and the other person were two individuals with completely different souls.
Kurtz's soul had long since left that body, taking with it his will and emotions, spending a thousand years in that forest with Serie.
And she, Annalise, was a twisted anomaly born in that contaminated husk, from the gods' corrosive will and the body's residual instincts, in the chaos of mutual devouring.
She was not Kurtz's clone, nor was she another Kurtz.
She was merely a pathetic and terrifying monster, born out of misfortune in the conflict between Kurtz's discarded body and the powers of two gods!
"Kurtz, what exactly are you looking for? Or rather, what exactly do you want to do?" Annalise's figure gradually faded in place until it disappeared.
Whatever Kurtz did, it didn't matter.
She could wait.
Waiting for the day he would decipher the formula of life.
Waiting for him to appear before her again, thus heading towards that fated end, and then to save this world once more.
And now, let him roam freely across this continent.
He would eventually come to her, and they would reenact that final battle from a thousand years ago.
...
On the other side, beneath the library's dome, Kurtz walked slowly outwards, holding Serie's hand.
However, this leisure did not last long.
Just as they had not completely left this magical area, a slightly sharp voice abruptly interjected. "Wait!"
Kurtz and Serie stopped, looking towards the sound.
They saw a male mage, wearing glasses, a wrinkled white robe, and messy hair, hurrying over, clutching an incredibly thick parchment notebook.
His eyes, magnified by thick lenses, were fixed on Kurtz.
Akafu, attracted by the commotion, walked over with a frown. "Karlo, shouting is forbidden in the library! What are you doing?"
The scholar, called Karlo, seemed not to hear Akafu's reprimand; his entire attention was focused on Kurtz.
He rushed to a few steps in front of Kurtz and stopped, his chest heaving violently, pointing at the towering origin codex not far away, his voice trembling with excitement:
"You... what did you just say? It's outdated?"
Karlo's voice was particularly jarring in the quiet area, drawing curious glances from several mages in the distance.
Serie's eyes instantly turned cold, a hint of displeasure surfacing.
This human not only eavesdropped on their conversation but also questioned Kurtz with such an arrogant tone.
Who did he think he was? What an arrogant fellow!
Serie's fingertip moved slightly; she already had the idea of teaching this human a lesson.
Kurtz noticed her movement and gently squeezed her hand, signaling her to calm down.
He calmly looked at the excited, flushed young scholar in front of him. "Is there a problem?"
[End of Chapter]
Check out more than 30+ chapters right now! 🔥
👉 patreon.com/cw/Mr_UmU
https://www.patreon.com/Mr_UmU