2196 - The Irony of Fate
"My Mistress..." Serafina, kneeling beside the coffin, hesitantly reached out her hand and began to stroke Helen's hair with a slight tremor, weeping.
She had followed her mistress for over ten thousand years. Through good times and bad, poverty and wealth, conflict and glory, she had walked through everything with her...
Indeed... most of the time, it was bad times, poverty, and conflict.
Yet it was a beautiful time, enough that she was with her.
Seeing her in this state, only...
At that moment, the hall door was pushed open, and the Shadow Sword returned, accompanied by the Royal Spirit Master Ziegler, who was dragging the Silent Emperor behind him.
Ziegler Burton took a quick glance toward the coffin, then toward the Silent Emperor, and chuckled, "Hehe, now we have two."
"What are you trying to do to him?!" Serafina stood up quickly, frightened and on guard.
The Silent Emperor stood quietly, his sister lying half-dead before him, yet he stared at the ground with his mouth shut and unfocused eyes, completely detached from the world as usual.
"Calm down. Do you think I kept him safe for all those centuries just to harm him now?" Caesar waved his hand, then took two steps toward the Silent Emperor. "...Shadow Sword's words about the Six Greats noticing something in Helen that I couldn't see piqued my curiosity, that's all."
"What does that have to do with this?" Serafina asked, wary.
"...What if we have something here that I've never seen before as well?" Caesar furrowed his brows slightly.
His father had never seen the Silent Emperor. He was only told that they had someone suspected to be Hydras, son of Helmur, who was rumored to be dead. But he didn't seem well, so they were told to do as they pleased with him, and he never asked to meet him.
Compared to all the matters occupying his mind, Hydras and his illness were utterly insignificant.
The doctors and the Royal Spirit Masters all said his Soul Domain was intact and his Life Artery was in good condition, especially since the Syndicate forced him to refine one of their dwarf planets... they forced the Planet Spirit to accept him.
So everyone said it was likely psychological trauma, and they believed it.
But what if that wasn't the truth?
"...." Caesar continued to gaze at the Silent Emperor from top to bottom, then spoke, "Lily, Ziegler... I'm going to try something now. Fall back a bit and take cover, and strike me hard enough to knock me unconscious if you sense anything getting out of control."
"..?" Ziegler furrowed his brows.
"Are you planning to experiment with what happened on the battlefield again?" But Lily understood and looked tense, "That's extremely dangerous. What if you suffer permanent damage this time?!"
"No need to worry, it won't be exactly the same. I'll only use the Eye of Passage." Caesar began to prepare.
"..?" Lily and Ziegler exchanged glances, suspicious looks, as they didn't even know what the Eye of Passage was, but they started following the instructions.
Lily persuaded Serafina to retreat, while Ziegler began setting up a light array to activate in the blink of an eye in case of disaster, then he also stepped back.
As for Caesar... the air around him began to grow heavy, his eye became heavier, and dark veins started to appear beneath his skin.
Then...
He closed his eye.
The scene shifted.
First, Helen, lying in the crystal coffin with no flame in her chest, while in her head, the lamp was still lit, but it was surrounded by something else—a vast number of inscriptions that looked like seals.
Then, he slowly turned his head...
The handsome Silent Emperor's form shifted in his eyes, becoming merely a bundle of threads forming his outer body, a flame slowly burning between his ribs, and a fully lit lamp within his head.
Caesar sighed; he found nothing suspicious once again. There was no flaw in any of the conditions of life. Perhaps it was indeed just psychological shock.
"Hmm?" But he suddenly noticed something.
The light of the lamp was not stable.
It was moving, rapidly. The light inside the lamp seemed to be trying to escape, attempting to break free!
Caesar had activated the power of the Eye of Passage multiple times, the last time on a battlefield with millions of soldiers, but he had never seen anything like this.
"What exactly is happening to you..." Caesar leaned forward slightly, increasing his use of the Law of Death, seeking greater penetration for his eyes.
Disturbance.
Caesar's body began to emit black smoke.
"Something is happening!" Outside, Ziegler furrowed his brows and tightened his grip on the array's reins, then struck the ground.
Several ropes made of Spirit Power emerged and bound Caesar, and a small hammer appeared above his head, ready to send him to the Dream World.
"Wait!!" Caesar quickly opened his eyes, "I am still conscious, stop!"
Whoosh.
Everything rapidly disintegrated, both the negative black aura and the spirit array.
"You want to hit me that badly?!" Caesar shouted at the young man as he saw him approaching from afar.
"I was only following orders, Marshal." Ziegler raised both hands in surrender. "Do you want to try again? This time I'll hold back before using the hammer..."
"No need..." Caesar straightened his clothes, which had been affected by the ropes. "I've seen enough..."
Those fractions of a second were enough to penetrate deeper and see more clearly.
"What did you see?" Serafina landed with a frantic look. "What's wrong with him?"
"..." Caesar waited a moment to organize his thoughts. "His primordial soul is still inside his Soul Domain, but it's no longer connected to him. It's desperately trying to escape, but the carefully preserved domain won't allow it."
"...?!" Serafina's eyes widened. "His primordial soul is no longer connected? Does that mean..."
"He is dead by natural standards. His body is still normal, and his Soul Domain is intact, but it now only functions as a prison." Caesar nodded. "It's clear that his last battle was against a very powerful Spirit Master for him to end up in such a state." Then he shrugged. "Perhaps the Syndicate members were trying to exploit the fact that he is alive for negotiation or blackmail, but they failed, so they got rid of him by selling him to us for that enormous sum."
Then he chuckled, looking toward Serafina. "Don't you find it amusing? The brother and sister are both dead, but in opposite ways—her body is dead, yet her spirit lives... and still, they cling to our world in different ways... How stubborn."
"...That's not funny!" Serafina began to look at the two of them with great weakness.
"Perhaps." Caesar nodded, then turned his entire body toward Serafina. "I'll make you an offer and give you a chance." He continued calmly, "Give me the Empire of the Pit of Destruction, and I'll allow you to stay here with Helen and Hydras to care for and protect them. What do you say?"
"Agreed!" Serafina replied without a moment's hesitation.
The Empire of the Pit of Destruction belonged to her mistress, and she had been taking care of it until her return. Even if it had now grown to nearly thirty planets, it was nothing compared to staying by her mistress's side here.
"Good..." Caesar nodded, then swept his gaze over Helen and Hydras. "And perhaps I'll come to visit you every other day..." With an imperceptible smile, he murmured, "...They are very important guests indeed."