When he saw the feathered serpent lurking in the depths of the black fog and the face on top of its mountain-like body, Azik was stunned at first, and then his forehead twitched, as if someone had driven a wedge into his temple, splitting his head in two.
Amidst this intense pain, a series of incoherent images suddenly popped up in his mind:
A feathered serpent face that looked exactly like him, even the smallest details were identical;
A silent land, countless pale corpses;
Floating in the air, a cloud made of skulls of different races;
Black, segmented tentacles emerged from the ground, with dead fish-like eyes at the tips;
He was a transparent spirit that was forcibly pulled out of his body.
After these flickering images, a pair of pale eyes with dying flames looked over, and a white feather stained with pale yellow oil fell, cutting Azik's transparent spirit into two parts.
Part of it suddenly flew up and entered the "Cloud of Skulls", while the remaining part merged with a golden ornament that jumped out of thin air, and returned to flesh and blood under the burning of pale flames.
This scene was like Thor's hammer, striking Azik's mind again and again, making it impossible for him to endure the pain any longer. He raised his hands to cover his head, his knees gradually weakened, and he collapsed to his knees on the stairs.
He finally recalled everything and understood why he kept dying and coming back to life, and why he kept losing his memory and regaining it again and again:
His soul is not complete!
Similarly, Azik also understood why the feathered serpent that oppressed the entire space in the depths of the black fog had a face exactly like his:
That's him!
That's another "Azik Eggers"!
And all this originated from a hidden attempt before the death of the god of death.
If there is "soul stitching", there will naturally be "soul splitting". At that moment, the crazy and powerful god of death seemed to foresee his own end. He was unwilling to die like that, so he quietly split the soul of his child, the "Archon of Death" of the Balam Empire, took away half of it, and used a certain object as a substitute to stitch it together with Azik's soul.
It was not known whether it was due to the deliberate arrangement of the God of Death, or the unintentional influence of the Spirit Cult's plan to create the God of Death, but the half of Azik's soul that was taken away merged with the goal of the artificial God of Death - the "uniqueness" of this path, allowing the latter to gain certain instincts and begin to actively influence the high-sequence strongmen of the "Corpse Collector" path who failed to be promoted.
Although the other half has a replacement and is no longer incomplete, due to the incompleteness of the soul, it can only die and be resurrected again and again, just like the Sequence 4 "Undead". Under the influence of the "golden ornament" in the body and the call of the other half of the soul, each time Azik starts a new life, he will gradually regain his past memories as time goes by.
In the past, Azik had tried to figure out the reason, but by the time most of his memories had recovered naturally, he was already very close to death again, so he had no time to do any exploration. In addition, the Spirit Cult's plan to create an artificial god of death had only been proposed a few hundred years ago, and it was only recently that initial results were achieved, so he was never able to find the answer.
Ho, ho, ho!
Azik's hands had left his head at some point and were resting on the stairs below, and a sound that was not human came out of his throat.
Drops of sweat slid down his forehead and hit the stone slab in front of him, staining it with a layer of light yellow oil and giving rise to fine white hairs.
At this moment, he felt the call and desire of the other half of his soul. The two "selves" that had been separated for more than a thousand years were eager to merge into one and become whole again.
"No..." Azik whispered painfully, not wanting to raise his head and stretch out his right hand.
He saw it very clearly just now. The "self" who transformed into Quetzalcoatl did not have a trace of rationality, but was filled with extremely cold and madness. If he were to reunite with the other party, he would probably immediately return to his original state of "Archon of Death", or even become a pseudo-god of death with only divinity but no humanity!
Then he will forget everything, forget everyone he once cherished.
"No..." A word burst out from Azik's throat again, and his neck rose up uncontrollably, with dark and cold scales appearing on it.
His forehead suddenly bulged out on its own as if it had life, and then split open, leaving a bloody cut.
A golden light then emerged from nothingness and took shape in flesh and blood.
This is an ancient ornament made of gold. It looks like a slender bird, with wings made of pale flames all around it. Inside its bronze eyes, layers of light form a mysterious and illusory door.
As soon as it appeared, Azik growled in pain and raised his head completely. Two balls of pale flames suddenly ignited in his weathered eyes.
The feathered serpent, which was both illusory and real, deep in the black fog straightened its body and stuck out its head. Two faces, identical but of different sizes, stared at each other silently. There was silence.
Amidst the four leaping pale flames, Azik, with his hands on the ground, had a distorted expression and struggled to stand up little by little, then slowly walked towards the feathered serpent known as the artificial god of death.
As he approached, the entire mausoleum began to shake and the surroundings became transparent, reflecting a world of countless skeletons and shadows.
Bloody arms, dark blue vines with baby faces, and slippery tentacles with dead fish eyes or two rows of fangs penetrated the boundary between reality and illusion and probed into the mausoleum, but they stuck to the ground and dared not move.
…………
East Balam, Gurain Castle.
Daly Simone, who was rushing to the next destination, suddenly stopped and raised her hand to support her head.
"What's wrong?" asked Soster, the captain of the "Red Gloves" team, puzzled.
Daly frowned slightly and answered in a dreamy voice:
"I heard strange noises and felt a call from somewhere unknown... I even wanted to kneel down on the ground..."
"Did you hear that?" Soest asked the other team members carefully.
Leonard Mitchell just shook his head when he heard the slightly old voice in his mind saying:
"Look in the direction of the violent sea."
Leonard subconsciously turned his body and looked towards the port and the raging sea in the distance. He saw only pure darkness there. There was no strong wind, no huge waves, no dark clouds, no lightning, no heavy rain, and no sunshine.
…………
Although Klein had his eyes closed, he was able to sense the movements around him with his extraordinary sensitivity. He heard the painful whispers and roars that seemed to be from Mr. Azik, and felt the tangible silence and breath of death.
What happened? Although the "artificial death god" deep in the mausoleum did not attack Mr. Azik, it had a bad influence on him? Klein's mind was full of thoughts, and he felt anxious and panicked.
His spiritual intuition told him that what was about to happen was definitely not something he would like to see!
However, he couldn't think of anything he could do. He didn't even dare to open his eyes to take a look at Mr. Azik's current condition and experience.
This is not a problem that can be solved by courage alone; it is a gap in the level of personality that cannot be bridged.
In an instant, Klein felt a strong sense of powerlessness again, but he did not give up. He desperately tried to think of what he could use:
"Creeping hunger? No, that's not even close to the same level. It won't have any effect...
"Death knell? Even worse...
"Groselle's Travels? I didn't bring... the 'Black Emperor' card, the 'Tyrant' card, either...
"The Luck Thief's Charm... Yes, the Luck Thief's Charm!"
Klein was delighted and had an idea:
That is to use the "Luck Stealer" spell to temporarily swap the fate of himself and Mr. Azik, and bear the impact of the "artificial death god" on his behalf!
At least, I still have a chance of resurrection, and Mr. Azik's previous deaths were not murders. Who knows if he can wake up again in this situation! Klein didn't consider whether the "Luck Stealer" spell could work on Azik and the artificial death god. He just thought that no matter what, he had to give it a try. He suddenly raised his right hand and reached into his pocket.
Then, his movements hesitated.
He raised his arm up and then dropped it back to its original position.
His whole body froze for a moment, as if he had turned into a stone statue.
Klein's lips moved a few times, his expression twisted slightly, and then he swung his right arm violently and pulled his hand out of his pocket.
In that palm, there was a black crystal card-like talisman tightly grasped.
At the same time, Azik was getting closer and closer to the mountain-like illusory feathered serpent, and his steps were getting faster and faster, as if he was returning to his throne.
However, his eyes under the pale flames were full of pain and his expression was distorted to the extreme.
"No..." Azik whispered again, and white feathers stained with pale yellow oil grew out from the gaps between the dark scales on the exposed part of his body.
The strong cry and desire made him completely unable to control himself, and he was about to soar into the air and leap towards the huge feathered serpent with his face.
The pale flames from the bird-shaped ornament on his forehead suddenly spread out and flowed to other parts of his body.
Klein's spiritual intuition gave him a frantic warning, and he quickly recited a word in ancient Hermetic language:
"destiny!"
Just as he was about to use the spell, the surroundings suddenly became quiet and there was no sound.
A slender, white female hand appeared out of nowhere and pressed on the bird-shaped gold ornament on Azik's forehead.
A figure then appeared between Azik and the mountain-like illusory feathered serpent, interrupting the two's approach.
With the help of external forces, Azik finally resisted the desire to merge into one and the irresistible cry. The pale flames in his eyes "reflected" the figure floating in the air.
She was a beautiful lady, wearing a classical robe and a black hood. Her face was expressionless, and her eyes were dark but lacked spirituality.