Mystery: Good Witch

Chapter 1371 I'll Escape, You'll Chase?
"I never expected to see you here."

Bethel Abraham emerged from the shadows and approached Antigonus, whose face, though hooded, still revealed his coarse, dark hair, and responded in a flat tone.

Two former friends stood beside the crumbling castle, speechless.

Two thousand years ago, they were all great nobles and angel kings of the "Thudor Empire". One of them had fully mastered the "Gate" pathway and could become a god when the remaining consciousness of the "Celestial Venerable" weakened. He was given the name of the highest sequence of this pathway. The other had mastered a sequence 1 characteristic and uniqueness of the relatively most dangerous "Fool" pathway and was called "Half Fool".

They even formed an "Old Days Research Group" with Amon, who was also a high-ranking nobleman of the empire and the King of Angels at the time. They set aside their prejudices and hatred between adjacent pathways and studied the secrets buried in history together, exploring how to prevent the "Celestial Venerable" from being resurrected. In the Fourth Age, when the residual consciousness of the Creator and the Great Being was still strong, they achieved a delicate balance and did not launch a protracted war within the pathways related to the "Source Castle".

Bethel even helped Antigonus hunt Zarathustra, the "Mysterious Servant," during the war, helping Him obtain and contain the second Sequence 1 property.

But everything changed in the later stages of the "Battle of the Four Emperors".

Amon, seemingly receiving instructions from his brother hiding in the shadows, suddenly vanished without a trace. Mr. "Door" Bethel encountered the Goddess of Night, who wielded the power of "secrets" and "calamities," and the Lord of Storms, whose speed rivaled that of the most agile angel king. Under the combined attack of the two deities, he was banished and sealed in the gap between reality and darkness, between storms and darkness.

As for Antigonus, the "half-fool," his state became increasingly unstable due to the inclusion of the second Sequence 1 characteristic. After the destruction of the Tudor Empire at the end of the war, he lost most of his faith anchors and finally destroyed the Night Kingdom he and his sister had established in a moment of loss of control, turning most of the surviving citizens into Mythical Puppets, including even his sister.

Fortunately, at the last moment, Antigonus was sealed by the night and fell into a deep sleep, preventing the worst from happening. However, his sister was taken away by the goddess of night, and the Kingdom of Night became a ruin, existing only in some historical studies and folk legends of the Fifth Age.

The few remaining citizens of the Night Kingdom became the puppets suspended from the ceiling in Antigonus's sleeping castle, until they were broken into and destroyed... Of course, Antigonus did not blame them; the moment they became puppets, they were essentially dead, with no possibility of being saved.

He was only thankful that his sister Philaneias had not met such a fate. Although she was still imprisoned in the underground cathedral in the darkness and was used by Amanisis from time to time, she was still alive and had hope.

Thinking of this, Antigonus looked again at the castle where he had once ruled the City of the Dead for a thousand years as its palace, and where he had slept for a thousand years. It had been completely destroyed by the familiar aura of the "Blood Emperor," leaving only parts of the walls and half a gate. The interior buildings had long since turned to dust, clearly the work of a goddess who wielded the power of "chaos," leaving him furious but unable to speak out. He could only turn his gaze to Bethel, who was also watching, and said:

"You didn't come here to reminisce about my past, did you?"

He knew that the other party had escaped the storm and darkness for less than two years and should be trying to make the Abraham family great again and to cultivate a new generation of saints. It was unlikely that he would come to his old friend's territory to "inspect".

Sure enough, Bethel shook his head and said:
“I have been searching for an archangel from the Outer Gods lately, and divination and spirituality tell me that I will meet Him here.”

Antigonus smiled upon hearing this:
"What a coincidence, so am I."

After helping the followers of the "Goddess of Calamity" to divine the whereabouts of Giddas's torn body, Antigonus received another commission: to find the archangel Theripolus, who had placed the "Ring of Fate" inside the barrier and whose whereabouts remained unknown.

This Sequence 1 "Redemption Angel" of the "Destiny" pathway was blocked and attacked by the gods within the barrier before landing, and is said to have been severely injured, and has been hiding his whereabouts ever since.

For Antigonus, dealing with a Sequence 1 is not too difficult. Although he is now just a "Miracleist," he was once the Angel King known as "Half Fool." He can recreate this power through the mists of history. Although he cannot reproduce uniqueness, he is still stronger than an ordinary Sequence 1.

Moreover, Theripolus was not the only angel pursuing him; angels from all the major churches must have received similar orders, including powerful beings like Bethel who were not directly members of the church but belonged to a certain deity.

But Antigonus was still curious: why would an archangel, a chosen one of the Outer Gods with the power of "destiny" and able to rewind to his own state, be in "poor condition"?
Unless Thermippros was merely feigning a lack of full power in order to hunt down the angels who were pursuing him... Antigonus became wary again at this thought.

Of course, it's not that wary. After all, what's here is just a projection of His history, and there's a "firewall" built by another historical projection in between, so as not to be taken away in one go by a chain attack shown by a goddess. And even if He were to encounter such an enemy, He, who has become a "miracle worker" again, would have four chances to revive.

If Bethel, who was beside Him, were to flee with all his might, only a few gods and the King of Angels would be able to catch him...

Just then, a dark figure emerged from behind the half-collapsed, half-closed gate of the ruined castle.

He had black hair and black eyes, and wore a pure black robe. Only his broad forehead showed a bit of white, which belonged to a living creature, in the dim sunlight.

Is it "the blasphemer" Amun?
Even the two angels, who were skilled in divination and prophecy and had foreseen this meeting to some extent, were momentarily stunned. However, they immediately realized that although the person in front of them had a face exactly the same as Amon in their memories, there was no faint sense of convergence from adjacent pathways in their spiritual perception. Instead, it belonged to the "destiny" power that they were tracking.

This "Amon" is Thermibolos, the angel of salvation in the "Ring of Fate"!
The three, who looked the same as when they were still angel kings under the "Blood Emperor," but were actually now serving different masters, exchanged glances. After a moment, Bethel said in a deep voice:
"It seems that the fate and identity of this archangel of the Ring of Destiny have been completely stolen and replaced by you."

“If Fors hadn’t told me beforehand, I might have thought you were an Outer God angel with the appearance of ‘Ammon’.”

So He really was Amun... Antigonus's tense nerves relaxed, but a new question arose: If that's the case, then why did he have to track "Thermippolos"?
To put on a show, to deceive those Outer Gods who can only judge the situation within the barrier by the prayers of believers and vague fate.

Having just made a guess, Amon smiled and said:
"Stealing the power of destiny's path is very dangerous. If I hadn't happened to run into it, I wouldn't have bothered to take over His destiny."

"The 'Ring of Destiny' didn't send in a gift, but a real Sequence 1 property. This shows that His purpose was not to disrupt the situation within the barrier, but rather to anticipate a situation where He might have to intervene."

“I told you long ago that the prophecy of ‘the light of doomsday’ was no good, and yet I’ve become the ‘angel of salvation’…”

The smile on His face faded and eventually disappeared completely. He reached under his robe and pulled out a thick, long object, which he tossed to Antigonus.

Before it could be caught, the severed hand, several sizes larger than a normal person's arm, completely rotten and constantly oozing pus, floated in the air on its own, gradually stretching out.

This is the severed hand of "Giddas," a part of his dismembered body?

Antigonus's spirituality immediately provided the answer.

"I heard you're looking for this? It passed by me when I summoned the messenger, so I just intercepted it."

After adding a casual remark, Amon's face lit up with a smile again. "The game of 'Earth's angels chase, Outer Gods' angels flee' will continue, just like before. Whichever side loses has to grant the other side a request?"

He asked with a mixture of nostalgia and anticipation.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Because of Azik's reminder and her previous attempts, Fors did not use the teleportation method to directly reach the destination in the spirit world. Instead, she used a short-distance "flash" to lead the other two angels through the dark sky of the underworld, drawing lines made of illusory arms and heading towards the "River Styx".

Soon, at Azik's instruction, the three stopped beside a dark and tranquil river.

It's more like an ocean than a river, because even with Fors's eyesight and perception, he couldn't see the opposite bank, and the upstream and downstream directions gently curved into an upward angle, extending to the distant horizon.

"Is this the River Styx that connects every level of the underworld?"

Having gained a head, Renette's actual height surpassed Azik's, forcing Fors to look up at her. She asked in a cool voice, but the curiosity in her words was impossible to hide.

"He still retains a lot of humanity, perhaps because of his experience of being beheaded?" While Fors pondered this, Azik nodded in reply:

"Yes, but not in a physical sense, but conceptually... If you really go downstream, you'll just get lost in the river and eventually become part of it."

"Shall we continue teleporting across the River Styx?" Fors asked.

She felt it couldn't be that simple, otherwise Mr. Azik wouldn't have let her stay on this shore filled with corpses, bones, and unknown flowers.

Before the other party could answer, a tattered black wooden boat appeared on the mirror-like river. It was rowed by a man whose body was so badly decomposed that it was almost indistinguishable from the corpses on the ground. The boat quickly came to the shore and stopped in front of the three people.

The man had empty eye sockets and was mostly naked, with only a few tattered strips of cloth binding him. Yet, he accurately located Azik's position, knelt down facing this "death governor," held a long oar in his hands, and pressed his entire body almost against the edge of the boat.

"We'll take a boat there."

Only then did Azik speak up to explain, before stepping onto the dilapidated wooden boat first, followed by Renette and Fors.

The boat on the River Styx… is it the legendary ferryman who guides the dead to the underworld? Is this the origin of the name of the Death Path Sequence 3 potion, "The Ferryman," or is he truly a Sequence 3 Saint? And who turned him into this half-dead state? I even feel that his body is completely empty, with only a layer of rotting human skin on the outside…

Watching the boatman kneel down at an angle almost kissing the back of Azik's shoes before standing up again and starting to row the boat away from the riverbank to the other side, Fors's questions grew more and more.

She looked at Azik, expecting an answer from this descendant of the Grim Reaper who had clearly been to the underworld.

The latter stood at the bow of the boat, gazing at the dark, unseen river, and muttered to himself:

"The ferrymen who cross the River Styx are indeed Sequence 3 'ferrymen.' Only at this stage can extraordinary beings on the Death Path not fear the power of the Underworld and not quickly die upon entering it. Before my father fell, the descendants of the Aegis family traveled to and from the Underworld, relying on the Golden Mask to resist its power and on the ferrymen to carry them into its depths, until they themselves grew into beings who were not afraid of death."

"But this person doesn't have the kind of power you're talking about; he's just an empty shell, a layer of human skin."

Renette suddenly spoke, her bloodshot eyes fixed on the expressionless man who kept rowing, revealing the man's true nature.

“Because after the fall of Death, the anomalies in the Underworld killed most of the intelligent undead, including these dutiful ferrymen,” Azik glanced at the rotting man and replied, “They still have the ability to cross the River Styx unharmed, but that’s all, and they can’t leave the River Styx. They can only wait for the ferrymen to arrive, try to devour them, and obtain a real body.”

Like the rowers in fairy tales who ask guests if they are willing to take over his work so that he can escape... Fors's thoughts wandered for a moment, and then he wondered why the ferryman did not attack the three of them, but instead went about his work peacefully.

By the way, when the "Death Archon" was present, he was as obedient as a child. Is this the suppression of the lower-ranking by the Death Path...? If Mr. Azik hadn't participated in the exploration, I might not have been able to command him while wearing this mask. Crossing the River Styx via teleportation might have unknown risks. It seems that today's exploration team was carefully selected by Miss "Queen." But if that's the case, what about Ms. Renette's role...?

The small wooden boat quieted down, seemingly moving slowly but actually fast as it glided across the dark, calm river, with only the rhythmic splashing of the ferryman's oars.

After an unknown amount of time, the riverbank appeared in the direction of the bow of the boat. The small boat came to a steady stop on the shore, and the ferryman who had rowed the boat knelt down again, facing Azik, not daring to raise his head.

"Rank can crush you." I remember that "General of Hell" became the puppet of "Mr. World," who wasn't even a demigod at the time, under the instructions of this Death Governor. He was even fictionalized and written into my "Great Adventurer Series"... Fors glanced again at the boatman who was dripping pus and had been ferrying people across the River Styx for who knows how many years, and left the wooden boat.

The three of them were now on the banks of the River Styx, but in a completely different direction from where they had come. The pale sunlight no longer shone from the sky, and there were no piles of bones, corpses, or blood-red flowers on the bank. The entire environment was shrouded in dense darkness, with only scattered pale green flames extending from the riverbank into the distance, like streetlights.

Ignoring the ferryman's farewell, Azik pointed into the distance and said:

"Now we can continue teleporting. There is a church dedicated to the god of death in that direction, which leads directly to the deepest palace in the underworld."

“I have a feeling that if the last part of ‘Giddas’ is in the underworld, it should be in that location.”

"Why?" Fors asked in confusion, gazing into the darkness as he used his "location" ability to plan the next teleportation route to avoid getting lost and being taken to some inexplicable place if he couldn't enter the spirit world.

Azik also looked in that direction and answered in a tone tinged with emotion:
"Because that is where the divine body of Greta Garley, the progenitor of the phoenix, resides."

P.S.: I've been so busy lately... so I'm updating less each day.

(End of this chapter)