Klein had awakened at some point. He looked around confusedly, and upon seeing Leyton and Azik, he quickly stepped forward and said, "Mr. Azik, here..."
Azik turned to look at Klein, giving him a gentle smile, his expression very firm.
Klein silently withdrew his words of dissuasion. Even if he had a premonition, the things hidden deep within this mausoleum were very dangerous for Mr. Azik, who had already recovered all his memories and returned to his peak state.
The things deep within this mausoleum were clearly deeply connected to Mr. Azik. Even if he left today, Mr. Azik would still arrive here at some point in the future, guided by fate.
As his thoughts turned, he heard Azik's voice: "This is a problem that has troubled me for over a thousand years. Although I already have a vague guess in my heart, I still want to personally see that answer."
As he spoke, his gaze gradually became clear and firm.
Azik raised his hand and pressed the half-top hat on his head, then turned to look at Klein beside him and said, "Remember to close your eyes. The things inside are still too dangerous for you right now."
With that, he stepped forward, walking down layer after layer of stairs into the dark and cold depths of the mausoleum.
The dense black mist around them gradually dispersed, revealing what was entrenched in the deepest part of the mausoleum:
It was a Feathered Serpent so enormous it seemed capable of occupying an entire island!
Its body was covered in huge, dark green scales, with feathers stained with pale yellow grease growing from the gaps between the scales. From each feather, illusory black tubes extended, connecting to the corpses lying in the open coffins in the hall earlier, and even to the Beyonder of the Corpse Collector Pathway radiated by it.
This exaggerated Feathered Serpent was both illusory and true; its more specific form was difficult to describe and impossible to comprehend.
It, no, He was a complete mythological creature!
At the position of His head was a human face, enlarged proportionally, looking exactly like Azik next to him.
When he clearly saw the appearance of this Feathered Serpent, Azik was first startled, then his temple twitched, as if a giant hammer was violently smashing his head, trying to split him in two.
The unbearable pain made Azik collapse onto the stairs, his hands tightly clutching his head, trying to alleviate the pain of his soul being split in two with physical pain.
Heavy gasps echoed in the empty mausoleum, and drops of sweat slid from his forehead, hitting the stone slabs on the ground, staining them with a layer of pale yellow grease, and giving rise to delicate white downy hairs.
"No..." Azik groaned in pain, his hands pressing on his head with increasing force.
At the moment of their encounter, the fractured souls instinctively desired to become whole again.
Silently, stars shimmering with light descended, casting a layer of starlight over the dark and cold mausoleum, and an atmosphere of tranquility and peace permeated the surroundings with the starlight.
"Hoo~" Azik exhaled a long breath. The strong instinct for fusion and unity in his soul was appeased, appearing less restless.
A whistling wind spread outwards from the depths of the mausoleum. The enormous Feathered Serpent, between true and illusory, raised its head. On its face, identical to Azik's, two pale flames burned, making his gaze appear quite cold and full of madness.
As its gaze fell upon them, the descending stars around them began to flicker erratically, and delicate white downy hairs grew from the stars, then fell, and then grew again...
Azik's forehead suddenly split open on its own, revealing a bloody gash from which a golden-yellow light burst forth.
Ho Ho Azik gasped heavily, his mouth wide open. The tearing pain in his soul and the strong urge to merge made him unable to speak a complete sentence.
A layer of delicate dark golden scales appeared on the mechanical glove on Leyton's right hand. His pupils consequently became pale gold and vertical.
Using the Manipulator's characteristics, he released a "Placate" on Azik.
Seeing that Azik had not approached for a long time, the enormous Feathered Serpent entrenched in the depths of the mausoleum finally began to move its body. It actively wanted to approach Azik and retrieve the other half of its split soul.
As it approached, the entire mausoleum began to shake, and the surroundings became transparent, reflecting a world with countless skeletons and phantoms, like a true underworld, gradually eroding the dim starlight that enveloped half of the mausoleum.
In this reflected underworld, bloody arms, dark green vines with infant faces, slippery tentacles with sharp teeth, and enormous bone-piled hands pierced through the boundary between the illusory and the true, reaching out and grasping the stars in their hands, then pressing them tightly to the ground, not daring to move.
Leyton looked down at his left hand. At some point, a visible layer of paleness had covered the back of his hand, and delicate white downy hairs had grown from his pores.
"Heh," Leyton chuckled lightly. He ran his mechanical-gloved right hand over the back of his left hand, and the white downy hairs that hadn't had time to grow fell off, and the paleness on his hand quickly disappeared.
He then looked up at the Feathered Serpent, which was bringing its enormous face closer. Deep brilliance flowed in his eyes, outlining one strange symbol after another, which intertwined to form a radiant Sun pattern.
As he opened his hands in a gesture of embracing the Sun, the stars around him, grasped by arms, tentacles, and vines, suddenly turned golden, erupting with pure and clear light. This light quickly wove into a surging ocean of light, and the majestic aura of the Sun permeated the entire mausoleum.
In the places illuminated by the light, the translucent Wraiths, spirits, Zombies, and skeletons gradually collapsed and dissolved.
The power of the Sun domain caused the Feathered Serpent, which contained the Uniqueness of Death, to react instinctively. The pair of wide, thick white wings on its back, stained with pale yellow grease, fanned out gusts of wind.
As the wailing wind sounded, an indescribable sense of silence and the aura of Death instantly filled the entire mausoleum, dispersing the majestic aura of the Sun that permeated the surroundings.
The surging ocean of light quickly dimmed and shattered inch by inch, as if it was slowly dying, reaching its end, even though it was not a living being, nor even a material existence.
"Mmm... no..." Azik groaned. The change in the surrounding environment caused more obvious abnormalities in his body. Dark scales covered his skin, and white feathers stained with grease grew from the gaps.
At his forehead, golden-yellow light condensed and formed into a bird-shaped golden ornament. White flame-like wings permeated its surroundings, and inside its bronze-colored eyes, light layered upon layer, like overlapping illusory doors.
As this Phoenix-shaped golden ornament appeared, two pale flames also ignited in Azik's eyes. His state began to influence and draw closer to the other half of the soul within that Feathered Serpent.
Klein, standing some distance behind Azik and Leyton, had his head bowed and his eyes tightly shut. The changes in the surrounding environment caused his spiritual intuition to warn him frantically, and large drops of sweat seeped from his forehead.
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, his mind racing, thinking about how to solve the current problem.
Unbeknownst to him, he had already reached into his pocket and felt one of the charms.
Just as he was about to softly utter the ancient hermes words to activate the charm, the surroundings suddenly fell silent, so quiet that not a single sound was heard, not even his own breathing.
A figure quietly appeared in front of Leyton. She wore a black classical robe with a hood, her face expressionless, her eyes dark and lacking spirituality, but her appearance was exceptionally beautiful.
She stood between the enormous Feathered Serpent and Azik, like an insurmountable chasm, easily separating them.
Leyton exchanged a glance with her, then bowed and said, "Good day, Lady Amanises."
The Evernight Goddess, who had descended here through 0-17, looked at Leyton, her expressionless face giving a slight nod in response, as if this divine vessel also had some influence on her personality.
Azik, having just emerged from that state, hesitantly observed the mysterious woman who had suddenly appeared. Only after hearing Leyton greet her did he realize with a slight start, saying in a slightly hoarse voice, "It's you..."
The consciousness of the Evernight Goddess, having descended upon 0-17, did not wait for Azik to finish speaking, directly interrupting him: "You have three choices: continue forward, seek completeness, which will bring Salinger back from within you; or let me extract that half of your soul, and you figure out how to mend it yourself, which can return you to your original appearance, becoming the Death Consul of the former Balam Empire; or, give up everything, leave directly, and you will remain in your current state, dying again and again, and returning again and again from losing all your memories."
"And the price is losing the Uniqueness of the Death Pathway that never belonged to you," Leyton chuckled, completing the Evernight Goddess's unspoken words.
Azik gazed at the Evernight Goddess who had suddenly appeared, the pale flames in his eyes flickering unsteadily.
Before Azik made his choice, Leyton looked at him and said, "Everything has an instinct to complete itself, and a torn soul is not beyond repair."
"There are two methods. One is to retrieve the other half of the soul, cleanse it of all its memories and emotions, and then find a Saint or Angel of the Mother Pathway to help you mend the soul. However, this will still retain some instincts, as well as the divinity it contains."
"The other is to abandon this half of the soul and, with the help of some special items, gradually complete your own soul through repeated deaths and rebirths."