Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 684 The Dead

"Your plan worked. I must admit, it was the most audacious plan I've ever seen."

(Old Theon-style smoke exhalation – blowing directly upwards)

"This forces the gods to the negotiating table."

It felt like we had been separated for a century, but there was still no awkwardness between us when we met again.

Theon was even more lavish in his praise of Milo: "You are the most audacious of all the dead I have ever seen."

Milo glanced at the countless undead faces swaying slowly like seaweed beneath the surface of Lake Hali and gladly accepted the compliment.

Then he held up two fingers and added, "Twice, I'm a man who has died twice."

...

“Indeed, of all the undead gathered at Lake Hali, you are the only one who came, left, and came back again,” old Theon remarked.

……

That's right, Milo has died twice.

Of course, this doesn't include the time he left Earth, since he himself couldn't say for sure whether death had sent him to this fantasy world.

Of the two times he referred to, one was the one in which he perished at the hands of the gods on the battlefield of Nanwei City.

The other time was rather special, even a bit abstract.

To be precise, the one time we understood the whole process was actually the one that was hard to comprehend and illusory.

...

This is the ruins of Kakosa, and the souls of all the dead within the Yellow Shirt's field of vision return to Lake Hali.

This is one of the orders sealed within Aldebaran 5.

Actually, calling them "the dead" isn't accurate; many of the faces in the lake have degenerated into unconscious phantoms.

"wait a second."

Old Theon stubbed out the last bit of his cigarette butt, pulled a net from the pile of debris by the lake, waded into the shallows of Lake Hali, and retrieved one of the "things" that was lurking underwater.

The lifeless face made no struggle whatsoever. After being thrown ashore, it lay flat on its back, its eyes vacant as it stared at the gray sky.

With old Theon stirring things up in the lake, the second lifeless fellow was soon thrown ashore.

Both of them look exactly like Milo.

To be precise, they are exactly how Milo looked when he died.

...

"This is what you look like when the gods shattered you. It's already quite good that you were able to piece together half of your face."

"And this one, the one that was given away for free."

Old Theon crawled back to shore, grabbed two broken undead shadows, and stuffed them back into Milo's body.

In an instant, all the missing details of the memory and all the confusion were explained.

A fleeting moment of bewilderment flashed in Mirona's usually calm eyes, as murky as the waters of Lake Hali.

……

Thus, the blood moon catastrophe was finally presented in Milo's memory in its complete and chronological order. In fact, it should be considered a return, since it was his personal experience.

...

First, we need to rewind the timeline drastically to...

Going back to before we left the abyss, yes, that time we watched through the balcony window as another pair of people in the abyss sparred and fought.

In conclusion, the Valrokan couple, who were also siblings, in the Abyss eventually performed the summoning ritual for Dauros, but it was interrupted by an accident. In the end, Dauros's true form continued to expand, leading to the destruction of the world and ending their journey in the Abyss.

In the real world, the blood moon had already descended the moment the two of them ended their journey through the abyss.

That's right, there was no calm before the storm, no idle chatter downstairs at the fire scene, no twilight party on the nameless island, and no cat stories told by Marshall.

The wind and rain lashed directly at my face.

When Milo returned to Nanwei City from the Pohnpei Peninsula, the Blood Moon was already hanging in the sky, and beneath the Blood Moon lay the chaotic, maddening past.

To put it simply, Mego didn't "drag her feet" at all; this Death Child returned to the world of consciousness at the same time as Milo Emma and the others.

Everything that happened in that battle was too sudden and unexpected for Milo. He managed to protect almost no one or anything.

Milo rushed back to Nanwei City.

But by then the city had already been destroyed.

The black-knife assassins of the Golden Law Temple slaughtered the Star Clock Tower.

Yan also died in front of Milo, and the images of the other faces dissipating and disappearing along with the power of the Night Demon are still vivid in my mind.

Almost everything that could be lost, and everything that couldn't be lost, is gone.

...

Even without the gods' intervention, by merely activating the curse power rooted in the Holy Communion order, Milo could be said to have died very easily in the ancient war.

This was the first death.

That's the time Theon was referring to, the time he gave it away for free.

It was during that death that Milo forgot his real name; it was as if only a part of himself, the part in Nanwei City, had died.

All the gods need to do is level this shattered world after the end of the Old Wars. This is a task they can accomplish simply by sitting in the Dream Realm, and it's something they're already very familiar with.

……

But Milo's death was just part of a plan, yes, it was all planned, at least that's what he can claim now.

It was probably at the moment when they were exhausted and burned out in the old meat grinder.

Milo touched Azati, or rather, it was the unconscious tendrils of Azati's soul that, after a moment of unconscious movement, touched Milo's "body".

Regardless of the reason, whether it was the blood moon that disturbed Azati's slumber or Milo that attracted His attention, the resonance was created.

Thus, the mysterious changes began.

...

The sober world that should have come to an end has gained a second "possibility".

The power that Azati possessed was fundamental to the evolution of the initial world.

He is the primordial son of Azathoth, also known as the Star Core.

The core that was destined for destruction at its very birth reversed this fate, giving rise to the conscious world we see today, and the starry sky around it.

People say the entire universe is just a dream of Azathoth, but the truth is actually not as good as that hypothesis…

……

"The fate of the conscious world is not determined by the gods or destiny. We return from the abyss at different times, so the results we encounter will naturally differ. The gods' way of solving problems is to completely wipe out civilization. If this cannot be changed, even winning the ancient war will be of no use."

These are the words Emma said to Milo when he rushed back to Nanwei City and dug Emma out of the ruins.

The most crucial part of the knowledge contained in the Noscia equation is about "Azati".

Emma didn't know the true purpose of the shadow that had handed her the equation, but she had no choice:

"If we can make contact with Azati, there is a chance to reverse all of this."

...

They are not fighting against the Blood Moon, nor against the old days beneath it, but against the gods.

Because what will ultimately come to an end is the reckoning of the gods, who will turn this world back into its initial wilderness, just as they crushed the Sumerian civilization.

"We don't even have the power to fight against the old, so we can't possibly change the gods' minds by force. We can only seek a more powerful reliance..."

"Don't forget, although the gods are unshakeable to us, in the vastness of space, they are just some kind of individual beings, just like us."

"I think they must also be afraid of the world being destroyed and themselves being exiled, right?"

...

"What do you want to do?"

...

"I'm going to detonate Azadi."

Emma said these words to Milo while holding Finn's body.

(End of this chapter)