One night, Walter Tye returned to his store and meditated in human form behind the counter. He sends Laufey's ghost away and even asks Hagen not to disturb him unless McDraw attacks him.
The alchemist thought best alone, and the constant noise distracted him.
Outside, the windows were frozen. Temperatures are dropping at an alarming rate, snow is falling on the streets, and the days are getting shorter. Lady Searle says that these events herald the arrival of Finbulwit, heralding the three-year winter that precedes Ragnarok.
It's just that they don't have a year, not even half a year.
So, with time running out, Tye is currently working on how to answer a very important question: Can a soul really be destroyed by Earthling weapons?
His theory is that they cannot and are instead processed back into Yggd
asil, for the remainder of the cycle. In this case, he worked to create a spell that would separate a soul from the water of life and return it to a vessel. If the soul still exists.
The Necromancer had absolutely no way of checking until he tried.
Part of the reason he took on the project was to bring Hel's victims from his followers into the cywylog living world; but most of all, Tai wanted to find a way to restore life if he suffered the same fate. Caution and preparation allowed him to escape Helheim once; even if Metro had managed to initiate Ragnarok, he would have outlived this world.
Or maybe he just doesn't want to face the possibility that his soul might disappear.
The idea frightened Walter Tee to a fundamental level. After returning from the afterlife, he always thought he could have another chance at life, even if killed; it might take centuries or millennia, but the idea of permanent death...
How does it feel? Absolute void without light? Like a brain injury survivor, bereft of all thought? Or complete nothingness?
Tai shuddered at the thought of his mind and knowledge disappearing with him. This reminded him of asking himself the same question when his parents died. At that time, he had never seen anyone come back to life, so how could anyone be sure that Valhalla or Hell really existed?
The idea of forgetting does have a "good" side; that is, the heli may be destroyed and erased forever. In the end, it all comes down to the cycle and how it works. Will destroying Hel collapse it completely? Or will Yggdrasil assign her role to someone else? Yggd
Is the asil system sentient, or is it just programmed? Will destroying the Yggdrasil system end the cycle, but at the cost of destroying the Nine Kingdoms?
There were so many questions, Tai couldn't answer them all. And those he thought had the answers often had plans of their own. "Catastrophe" becomes morbid at the thought of his reunion with Asclepius and his molding of Ty into his own image.
The sound of footsteps from above made him nervous. "Annie?" he asked as a woman came up the stairs to his apartment.
His mind-reading ability recognized her before she came into his sight.
"Walter," said Gwen Schiffa of Avalon.
The Necromancer froze as the Princess climbed down the stairs, Annie following her. He prepared to vaporize Gwen Zifal on the spot, but his old rival made no attempt to attack; she was unarmed, and in fact, she looked pale and sick.
Why is she there? Anne shouldn't have cast [Nagel's Method]!
Tai glanced at his apprentice. "how?"
"I used a slime machine from your warehouse," Annie admitted, smiling proudly. "If it can assemble matter into living things, why can't it assemble people into living things?" I tried many times and finally built a dwarf container and transferred the soul into it. It worked!"
"It feels weird," Gwen Schiffar said, raising her hand. "I often can't feel my fingers, like a phantom limb. But I think this is the first step."
A White Snake owner had done something similar, but Annie had replicated the feat in a matter of days...her magical talents were truly wasted at the academy.
Gwen suddenly fell to her knees, leaving Ty doubtful of the procedure.
"Gwen?!" Anne immediately came to the princess, but the purple flames engulfed the heir of Avalon, and she had to step back. Within seconds, Gwenhwyvar's body transformed into what she had been in the dungeon; black adamantium armor sprouted from most of her body, and her left eye transformed into a bloody hole. It was soon covered by the blindfold. Her skin turned pale and lost its luster of life.
"His magic has taken control of your soul. It will always restore your vessel to the state of her choosing, no matter how much you resist," Tai said as the princess stood up again with a look on her face Gloomy expression. "Believe me, I feel for you."
"We both know that's a lie," she replied.
It's a little petty to admit it, but the princess's misfortune brought Tai some measure of happiness. "My (Necromancer's Stone) should soften Hel's influence," he said politely. "I can undo the shackles she has placed on you; however, if you wish to return to your original state, I will need to perform a ritual like the one you are trying to prevent."
"No." Gwen Siffa shook her head. "No. The destruction has been too much. You have turned Avalon into a cemetery."
"Because you forced me to—"
"That's enough!" interrupted Anne angrily. "It's only been five minutes and you're already so quarrelsome!"
The two mortal enemies remained silent, glaring and furious. Grudges are hard to get rid of.
"You have to sit down at the table and talk it over," Anne said stubbornly.
Thoughts on "talking to her". "I've already tried it."
"After you murdered a classmate in front of me," Gwen replied coldly. "I'm only here because Annie made me swear before she raised me."
"Annie, she wants to kill me and destroy everything I've built," Tye told his apprentice. "If the gods she worships can't bring her to submission, what can I do?"
"This has nothing to do with your past grudges," Anne said neutrally. "It's about the world. Damn it, Ragnarok starts in a few weeks! You both want to save Midgard, don't you?"
"Yes," Gwenhilfahl replied firmly.
"Yes," Tai replied, albeit less firmly. The princess understood at once and looked at him suspiciously.
"Then we must get along," said Anne. "Just...just talk."
Tai delved deeper into Gwenshelf's mind - unlike Anne or Thrall, she didn't force herself to do so - and to his surprise, though she loathed him for what the Pale Snake had brought to her family Bad luck...but she had no ulterior motive for agreeing to talk to him.
However.
"Do you play "Chessboard and Conquest"? The Necromancer suggested.
"Page 7," Gwen replied, which made Ty's eyes narrow. The eighth was his favorite.
Negotiations hadn't even begun and they were starting off on the wrong foot.
Finally, the princess quickly caught up to the eighth edition and proved herself to be the most annoying player Tai has ever encountered.
"You've played this before," Tai accused her as she trapped his troops between her original army and reinforcements. Anne left them alone to discuss it and went back upstairs to study his necromancy notes.
"I said I mainly played number seven," the princess replied, mobilizing a knight to take out his fire giant bombardier from behind. "It's not that I haven't tried the eighth one."
"Hmm. A clever misdirection." The Dark Elf artillery behind him bombarded her archers while her troops were distracted. She lost 6 of 12 games in total. "It might work better against people who can't read minds."
"You're a liar," she said, trying to cover up her thoughts by running through various plans in her head.
"I play to win," Tye replied. She effortlessly figures out her true intentions and defeats her opponent's counterattacks with ease.
"That every one of my plans is not known in advance is a victory in itself," replied the princess, and then made a pointless move. She removed the archers, sacrificing them while pushing the knights forward.
This made Ty frown. "Do you believe that random actions could throw me off balance?"
"Now that you can see whatever plans I have, I believe I can create opportunities and take them when they come."
"Like when I faked my death and you told me about Medolot?" Tai clasped his hands. "Now that I can read your mind, I'm surprised the royal family could have raised such a cunning animal. You've seen the real me from day one."
"I grew up surrounded by sycophants, which made it difficult for me to distinguish between those I could trust, those who wanted something from me, and those who wished to harm me," Gwen Schiffal responded. "Over time, I developed a sixth sense for judging a person's true character. I saw you in the store that day, and the way you looked at me was like a sea snake peeking out of the water. . Something cold and alien trying to blend in."
"I did appreciate the company, but I never quite felt the raw passion of human beings," Tai admits. "Greed, love, sadness... Intellectually, I can understand why Metro would be angry at the world, but I still don't understand why he would ignore our goals."
"You're not rational either," Gwen Sifhar replied. "You beat me and you want Morgan to kill me."
"As if you didn't break into my house uninvited first and try to kill me."
"By investigating the clues you left behind for unexplained murders" Gwen glared at the Necromancer. "I'm not innocent, but I've never killed someone because they were somewhere they shouldn't be. Do you remember how we met? Our first meeting?"
"How could I forget?" Later, everything in his peaceful life went wrong.
"Why are you doing this? Do you know who I am?"
"I heard the knight calling your highness, but I didn't pay attention." A side shrugged. "I wanted the knight to die on an unrelated matter, and killing all the witnesses has worked for me so far. I thought, you might be an insignificant noble, and I could get rid of you without causing any trouble. What a response.”
Gwenhwyvar looked at him without saying a word, though he could tell she was trying to analyze him. "No response," she said. "There are no microexpressions on the face, no twitching of the fingers, no change in tone of voice. It's not all undead. You can casually think of murdering two people and feel completely at peace. That's what I find scariest about you."
"Once I discover the resurrection spell, I will be free of my crime."
"This defense is merely a retroactive defense," Gwin said bluntly. "You only tried diplomacy after you failed to kill me six times, and I suspect you sabotaged the Jotunheim Convergence to protect yourself. A man who sees death and violence as his first solution to all problems, I can’t be called a sane person.”
"I have to think about the future," Tai replied calmly. "You have been to Helheim and seen the horrific system that feeds it. Anything will do to end this injustice."
"The future shouldn't blind you to the present." She stared into his eyes. "You don't even know His Highness is of royal blood?"
"What's the use of knowing how to distinguish aristocrats?" Tai replied, arguing that aristocrats were an outdated institution. "That's a waste of time, I've always avoided people like you like the plague after the destruction of Castle Black."
"You killed my classmates. If you had your way, you would kill everyone in the tunnel. You won't let us go." The princess shook her head in disgust. "At the end of the day, it's all about you, Walter; you see better than anything. You don't see people, you see tools and obstacles. With a few exceptions like Anne and Salt, I have to admit."
"It seems like you are the one speaking. Only you can transform Avalon? You keep telling yourself that. Not your brother, not your half-sister. Only you." The princess looked away. "Though I have to admit...you are the only noble who has a chance of reforming Avalon into what I would call a semi-progressive nation."
"The end result was correct, but that doesn't excuse all the mistakes I made during the game," she replied, refocusing her attention on the game. "Maybe I should try harder to talk to Arthur."
"But you didn't. Because it was never about Avalon." Ty closed his hands and used telekinesis to move the pieces on the chessboard toward the princess's command center. "It's about you, Gwenwefar. About your ambition, your glory."
"You're wrong," she said to herself.
"I can read your innermost thoughts," Tai said. "When I dug, I found that there is no altruism. You are surrounded by so many hypocritical people and you want to be truly loved, or rather, worthy of being loved. Do something that will make people respect you unconditionally matter."
"I want to help reform the kingdom," Gwenhayfahl insisted, trying to stay on the defensive with her knights. The accusations threw her off balance.
"Perhaps it was your dissatisfaction with the kingdom's traditions that gave you sympathy for commoners, slaves, and illegitimate children," Tai said. "But in the end, you never accept that Arthur was the one to come up with your social reforms. You have to be that person to earn the honor."
The princess's silence continued, and her gaze turned into a cold gaze.
"Despite your 'sixth sense,' you were blind to the betrayal of Lancelot or Morgan," Tye continued. Morgan makes no bones about it. I'm sure you knew deep down what they were, but you chose to see what you wanted to see. That heroic knight who is obsessed with you, that selfish sister who deep down hopes you love her too. Like you caught Annie because she adored you unconditionally, but you took advantage of your Earthling friend until he was no longer useful. "
"You know nothing," she said, her voice thick with resentment.
"No. That's how you feel about him, and those who fought in the tunnels with you. Nothing." As Tai rushed into Helheim to save his servant. "You never mentioned wanting to save this Takru, but he fought by your side more often than your own brother. If my information is correct, he even took a shot and died for you. You accuse me Don’t care about strangers, but you care more about people you don’t know than those who support you.”
"You don't have the moral high ground there," Gwen Wiffa accused him. "If Anne came between you and your great work, you would kill her without remorse. Maybe you would regret it and call it a 'necessary sacrifice,' but you would kill her anyway."
"If you needed to kill your brother Arthur to prevent the destruction of the world, one life could save millions," the Necromancer said. "Won't you do this?"
Gwenhwyvar froze, holding the figure of a knight in his hand. "I don't know," she admitted, placing the knight on the board. However, she sacrificed Zhulu without hesitation, a thought that tortured her.
"That's why you can never beat me," Tai said. "Victory requires dedication to one's goals. If you allow your personal feelings and principles to interfere with the greater good, you have failed. And I am prepared to sacrifice my peaceful life, my humanity, to win."
"But were you ever free, Walter?" she replied. "I choose to deny the gods, stick to my principles, and fight against fate, but in my opinion, what you do will only bring you further into the embrace of fate. When a person understands the goal that you are willing to sacrifice everything to achieve When you do something, it’s easy to push you in a certain direction.”
"You mean I'm some god's pawn?" Tai said angrily, losing focus. She hit home.
"I believe that Loki, Hel, and Yggdrasil used you to set history back on track," Gwenthivar said. "They know you will do whatever it takes to survive, just like the dragon Nihogg you reincarnated into. You focus entirely on your goal, to the exclusion of everything else, keeping you from seeing the pull that pulls you toward the gods. Strings of Dusk.”
Ty was distracted, and the princess' gaze became unsteady.
What was the Necromancer supposed to believe? That his master, like all others, had tried to set him on a specific path before he was born? Was what Medelot said true? He felt like he was setting Asclepius down Pius was put on a pedestal, only to realize later that this only obscured his true character.
The Great Work... Immortality of all mortals... Is this really the world of ash and immortality envisioned by Asclepius? Is Ragnarok really the easiest option to free humanity from this cycle? To let the old world die and rebuild a better one from its ruins, just as Leonis grew up in Nastrom?
So many forces and voices told Walter Tai that this was inevitable, even his purpose. But deep down, he didn't want to make it happen.
"I'm preventing the destruction of the world," the Necromancer pointed out. Now, he's the only one standing between Root and Metro.
"Your presence hastened all this," the princess pointed out.
"The more undead there are, the more the prophecy will be broken. Eventually, they will be destroyed."
"Is this a good thing?" Vampires, vampires, ghouls, they all feed on other people's lives. Is it really a pleasure to be a walking zombie?"
"Better than death and hell," Tai replied. "I created vampires that can walk in the sun; I found a way to quell my hunger when I was in Ankou; I invented the elixir of life. If you give me time, I can improve the state of the undead. Make vampires unnecessary Suck blood so that there is no difference between zombies and living people. I just need time."
"If you were given time, you could solve all the world's problems?" Gwen Highfall replied sarcastically.
"Someone has to try," Tai replied confidently.
"I noticed that your plans always require others to make sacrifices, while you justify not making any sacrifices yourself." She looked at him strangely, as if she suddenly realized something. "That's why you kept Selt and Anne around. You have no conscience, so you outsourced it."
Tai had no answer for that.
As they debated, the board slowly reached an impasse, with no party able to make any progress. The Necromancer couldn't help but sneer in disappointment. "Looks like a stalemate."
It was as if the entire universe was telling him that he would never be able to get rid of her.
"I would recommend a rematch," she said. "But there can be three parties involved in this game."
"Medrlot," Tai answered. "You tell her yourself that being less evil doesn't mean you're a good person."
"No," said Gwen Sifhar. "The truth is, I can't support your ending."
"I don't understand why you deny human immortality. You have seen the afterlife, and you know how little the gods think of us."
"If life is not worth living, immortality is no reward," replied the princess. "You have seen what he has become."
"We can erase the memories of those who consider eternity a burden."
"But do you want people to live forever trapped in an eternal winter, filled with hungry undead, bugs, and scavengers?"
"We have magic," Tai replied. "We address these issues as they arise."
"There are already solutions, and it could save us centuries of suffering until you find an alternative."
The necromancer's cold gaze turned into a glare. "Do you want me to die that bad?"
"The truth is, you made immortality possible, and this is the honor you deserve." The princess looked directly into his eyes. "But the job is done. If you die, people will remain immortal, but the end of the world will be prevented. You, like Loki, Hel, and their ilk, maintain the cycle."
"Eternal life for all, including me," Tai pointed out. "I suffered greatly in order to create the elixir and the Nagel Law. Shouldn't I also enjoy the fruits of my labor?"
"Look, this is our real problem," Gwen Schiffal said. "I am not opposed to immortality for all people. Like you, I understand the nature of God and I want human beings to be free. But your existence has brought destruction and chaos to the Nine Kingdoms. If half of what Haier said is true, Your continued survival will ultimately destroy the World Tree, Midgard, and everything we know."
"If we destroy the gods and the disasters, there will be no Ragnarok," Tye said. "We have a way to do it."
"If we eliminate all disasters, there will be one. You."
“I could always find another world to settle in,” Tai points out. “The universe is vast and I still have a lot to learn.”
"Can we leave the Nine Kingdoms?" Earthlings can enter, but no god can escape back to their home planet. "Gwen Shifa shook his head. "There is only one feasible solution at hand. "
"You want me to succumb to the weapons of the Earthlings?" the Necromancer snapped. "Because you lack imagination?"
"I would even die with you if necessary," said the princess. "You yourself said that victory requires full devotion. If this can bring you happiness and satisfaction, I am willing to follow you into the darkness. If you really value human immortality and freedom, if this is your true goal , then you shouldn’t be afraid to make the ultimate sacrifice.”
die.
If he had accepted death after preventing Ragnarok and eliminating the natural disasters, then yes, the great cause would have been secured. Humans could live forever without fear of cosmic extinction.
But it means accepting death. Accept this poor ending, accept the flaws of this universe, and never try to fix it.
"You're boring me."
Tai's face turned into a bitter shade and he let his guard down. His feelings surged out like water, and no dam could stop them.
"You, Hel, Odin, Loki...even Asclepius. You all want to force me to satisfy your petty needs, but I just want to cure death and live a peaceful life." He glanced with disgust. A glance at the frozen window. "The catastrophe that destroyed my home... shaped me into a lich with a destiny older than the world... a mad goddess who mistook love for cruelty... You, who constantly try to kill me in order to fulfill your heroic fantasies … I would be happy if you left me alone.” Instead, you tortured me before I was born. "
The princess listened silently, with a look of sympathy on her face. "I'm very sorry."
It sounds like she means it.
"There's only one thing, one dream, that I know is mine and no one else's." Tai's eyes flashed red. "I will never die. I will find another way, but not yours."
"What if not?" Gwen Sifhar replied in the same tone.
"I must find one, even if it takes another ten centuries of torture. As long as there is life, there is hope."
Life shouldn't be a crime.
A sad smile appeared on Gwenifa's lips. "I still have those levels."
"(Paladin of Tire)?" The princess nodded and he asked. "They don't care about us at all."
"No, I don't think so," she replied. "I have no faith in Tire. I believe in law and justice. The afterlife system is wrong and I will work to change it. If you admit your mistakes, if you are sorry for killing Morgan, Larmore and so many others …If you regret not destroying Lyonesse’s opposition to the convergence…if I saw a crack in that icy lake you call the heart, we could be allies.”
If nothing else matters after that.
"But you have no remorse for the atrocities you committed," Gwen Schiffal said. This means you will pay more in the future. Like I told Hale, no matter what tragedy drove you to this point, being a less evil person doesn't make you better, Walter. "
Two mortal enemies face each other, one standing on opposite ends of the chessboard. The distance between them is an invisible barrier that no one can cross.
"I wish to stop Ragnarok and rescue my brother from the clutches of Hel," Gwenshifal said, then added, "And Takru. So if you let me go, I will rally the Avalons The remaining troops assist you in defending the roots. No matter what the cost, Medelot will never get there."
"But then, if we win, we'll go back to business as usual."
"It seems so," replied the princess. Their conflict will only end when one side completely destroys the other. “But we would have made a good team.”
"We will," Tai admitted. "But I'm still going to kill you."
"You'll try."
The necromancer chuckled. "A rematch then, Your Highness?"
"Rematch".
