Chapter 363 - 148. Death Rune

Chapter 363: 148. Death RuneAbyss?

Fisher suddenly remembered the enormous fire pillar he had seen through the haze; Elliog seemed to be the essence of that fire pillar, and in the corner of his eye, there were many more similarly bright fire pillars...

"Erwin can’t be killed by ordinary means, his true form has long since died off who knows where, and these countless avatars of his can’t be completely eradicated either. You saw that just now... But there’s a one-shot solution, aow, which is this."

"Is this, the Death Rune?"

Fisher also sat up, remembering Erwin’s mention of her carrying a Death Rune, which was obviously this strange short dagger she had seen earlier.

"Smart, hmm, but how to explain this thing to you... This world is like a doll wrapped in countless threads, with the doll as its appearance and the threads behind it as its essence. Then, hmm, Agares somehow cut off a small part of one of these silken threads from behind, transforming it into this dagger... How about that, do you understand now after this explanation?"

Elliog stroked her chin, paused for a second as if she had thought of a brilliant explanation, and her eyes slightly lit up as she stood proudly with hands on her hips, explaining the principle to Fisher.

Do you even want to hear what you’re saying?

Though Fisher was somewhat confused about the specific workings, he still keenly grasped the concept Elliog wanted to convey, so he tentatively said,

"So, you mean, just need to stab him with this weapon, and no matter whether it hits an avatar or not, he will ultimately die?"

"Ah, you got it, aow, good good."

Elliog patted Fisher’s shoulder admiringly but still held up a finger to add,

"But even Agares couldn’t maintain the stability of this rune, so, this knife can only be drawn once, and it must hit once it’s used..."

"... I understand."

Fisher carefully tucked the small dagger into his pocket and then stood up, looking back at the still quiet treasury,

"I have another partner in the treasury, I need to bring her back."

"Alright, aow, I’ll help you retrieve her and then send you both back to the surface afterwards; after that, I need to leave."

"... No problem."

She had Agares urging her, and even though they hadn’t seen each other for a while, Fisher still tried to detain her but only replied in this manner.

But before Fisher could move, Elliog had already hoisted the unconscious Moli onto her shoulder by herself, looking as if she was carrying some kind of cargo. When Fisher looked over, she was pushing him forward with her tail,

"You’re injured and you still want to carry someone, aow? Go find someone..."

But why did it seem like she just didn’t want to let him carry Moli himself?

Fisher suddenly thought this.

He planned to find Sir Emhardt first, but then he caught sight of the book shrunk in the corner. As he silently approached the small book lying in the corner, he realized it was closed with eyes shut, and it was softly repeating something,

"Oh, Demon Species... oh, monsters... oh, it’s just too terrifying..."

Fisher grabbed the book, startling it nearly out of his grasp,

"Ah! My goodness, Fisher, you’re still alive? Thank heavens, you’re still intact; I thought our deal was going to be canceled."

"If you’re dead, then I’m definitely not... Do you know where Xiayat has gone?"

"Oh, I just heard the sound of hooves in the hall over there; she should be by that side."

Initially, Emhardt was quite excited and circled around Fisher cheerfully twice, but as he flew up into the air, he saw Elliog carrying Moli behind Fisher. Elliog completely ignored him, simply letting out a lazy yawn. As a result, Emhardt thought she was going to eat him and quickly hid in another pocket of Fisher’s.

His pockets were now at full capacity; he definitely couldn’t have fit him if Emhardt couldn’t shrink himself down.

"That little thing is quite interesting. Before, he ran into the Abyss and got caught by ’Paimon,’ who tore off many of his pages before letting him go..."

"Paimon?"

"That’s a Demon with a rather interesting taste in mischief. In ancient times, she loved to make deals with humans and had a good aesthetic sense for art. So, she had a pretty good relationship with the Angel Species. Sometimes, she would disguise herself as an Angel to bestow artistic inspiration on humans, thereby extracting the Fallen Self of the artists. That’s why humans typically call her the ’King of Main Angels’... although the Angels have never acknowledged that title since they don’t get along well with humans."

A Demon disguised as an Angel? And she beat up Emhardt too?

No wonder he was so scared; there actually was a historical background to his fear.

"I didn’t expect there to be any Demons that get along well with Angels, I thought Angels and Demons were always at each other’s throats... at least that’s what the human myths say."

"It’s her that gets along well with Angels, not Demons and Angels in general. The relations among Demon Species are very loose; no one really controls anyone else. The only one who is somewhat in charge is Agares; he’s pretty busy, and other Demons avoid him... If I didn’t owe him a favor, I wouldn’t have awakened from my slumber."

As soon as Agares was mentioned, Elliog impatiently curled her lip, clearly very annoyed by that Demon,

"Moreover, the gap between Demons is quite large. Only seventy-two can truly be considered Demons, the rest are either petty servant demons with some skills or Little Demons with no sense at all, who only know how to eat, drink, and mess around... After all, life is all about balance."

"Is that so..."

If the place inhabited by the Demon Species is the Abyss, could the map Fisher obtained from Elliog’s research progress lead to the entrance to the Abyss?

Considering Elliog’s words, Fisher continued walking forward.

Soon, the entrance to the hall they had entered before came into sight; the place formerly used for treasure storage was now close to being completely destroyed, and the area still stank of the foul odor of Human Worms dissolving. It was at the entrance to the hall that Fisher finally saw the Centaur girl collapsed at the door.

"Xiayat!"

Fisher called out to her, but she showed no response. He reached out to check her neck uneasily, and after confirming her breathing was still steady, Fisher finally breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, Xiayat was still alive.

While Elliog carried Moli on her back, she glanced at Xiayat lying on the ground and then turned to look at the arrows and knife marks filled in the surrounding walls. Her tail twitched slightly, and her eyes showed a hint of admiration,

"She’s exhausted, but it’s nothing serious... Hmm, I quite like the scent of battle on this one. If this were the past, I might have spared some rewards for her."

Elliog’s personality was truly peculiar compared to other Demons, resembling that of a pure warrior. Just a while ago, in the shadows of illusion, Fisher saw many warriors kneeling before the Fire Pillar, pleading for the will to fight from her—such events likely occurred frequently in the ancient past.

Elliog yawned and stretched out a finger towards the Centaur lying before her. Miraculously, the next moment, the Centaur sprung up as if injected with adrenaline. Her blade was already notched, yet she still instinctively assumed a combat stance,

"You vile monsters! Come at me!"

She was panting hard, yet the streams of Human Worms were no longer around. After panting for quite a while, she slowly calmed down,

"Fisher?"

"It’s over, Xiayat. Calm down."

"It’s over? Moli... where’s Anna? And who is this..."

"This is another partner of mine. Anna, she..."

Before Fisher could finish his sentence, the entire cave started to shake. It wasn’t a problem with the treasury itself, but rather a strong quaking coming from the ground below. Anna seemed to be nearing Saint Nali District already.