Chapter 514 - A fate worse than death

“Ah… I also want to apologize…” Sofia told Death while keeping her eyes tightly shut.

“Apologize? What for?” Death answered calmly, sounding more curious than anything else.

“Well… I did turn down your blessing for Sun’s when I had to choose, and there was also the [Avatar of Death] skill, and I put Leverle in a bad position with the paper doll…”

“Is that it?” Death asked, his voice peaceful as ever, “I appreciate the sentiment but you need not apologize. You are free to choose your own path in life; it would be disgraceful of me to take offense to such things. I am happy that Sorrow got to rebuild a family of her own, if anything.”

“I’m glad to hear that… Then, may I ask a few things?” Sofia tried, knowing that no matter what, her time here was limited, as the others were waiting for her outside.

“It would be my pleasure to answer.”

“Thank you very much, then, in continuation of our conversation… Can you tell me a bit more about Sorrow? Despite everything, I feel like I barely got to know her. I have interacted with Sun a lot more at this point…”

Death stifled a weak laugh, “The Sun is hard to avoid, after all, is it not?”

“Not that I mind, Sun has been extremely helpful to me so far,” Sofia started, after a second, thinking back to the sun temple’s quest, she finished, “most of the time.”

“It is not disinterested of her,” Death explained, “Sun is keeping you close because of your relation to the Deep; still, you would be hard pressed to find a more trustworthy ally in this world. She is keeping everyone alive, in more ways than one. But, to answer your question about Sorrow, I am sorry to say, she wants you to learn more by yourself.”

“By myself?”

“Yes,” Death confirmed, “When you open the doors to her old palace, you will learn a lot, and even perhaps earn more of her essence. Be warned, though, it will not be without danger.”

“Business as usual. Thank you for relaying her message, then. I have two more questions if you don’t mind.”

“Only two?” Death repeated, “My Son had a thousand questions for me when we first met.”

“Well… I don’t want to be a bother. Every time I meet someone knowledgeable I end up peppering them with questions for hours on end…”

“That is nothing,” Death reassured her, “those of us who have lived thousands of years certainly can afford to spend a few hours to help raise the new generation, can we not? These last few years in particular, not only around you but all over the world, we have been blessed by great luck. A golden generation of geniuses rising to shake things up in this stale world. I fear your rank in the spire may be at risk.”

“I’ll be glad for anyone else who has what it takes to triumph over Victory. Who knows, Shaily might just get there.”

“She certainly has potential,” Death confirmed, “but she is not the one I would bet on.”

“A blessing from the Deep is hard to beat,” Sofia commented, “Who would that be, then? Someone I know?”

“Ahah, no. They are quite literally on the other side of the world. A hero summoned from a world you have yet to hear about, I believe. A very ambitious young man named Ezerid. But let us not get distracted, what were those two questions you deemed worthy of dismissing the others for, I wonder?”

“Alright… First, and this is perhaps the simpler one,” Sofia started, “Why the eyes on the wheat. And why the eyes everywhere, in general.” 

“Like the one in your head?” Death asked in a light tone, “A good observation, if an obvious one. The field of eyes is a result of the same thing, your reflections on the way were not that far from the truth. But it is a bit hard to explain. These are my own and Sun’s observations, but the prevalence of eyes, especially in the divine realms, is so that there are ‘observers’. It seems, for one reason or another, that for something to truly exist, it must be observed. That is more so true the furthest you go from the mana field.”

“Wait… I think I get it… Kind of. The margin is the furthest place from the ‘mana field’, then?”

“That is so. The ‘Margin’, or the primeval void, as you might also know it, is the great barrier between what is and what is not. It is where everything began and where everything ends. In such a place, something, or someone, without an observer, is liable to simply disappear from existence,” Death explained, his voice still coming from near the window.

“And so the divine realms being far from the mana also need a lot of eyes to make sure things keep existing… I see. I have a hard time understanding how or why this works, but I can wrap my head around the concept… Oh… This is probably what my [Edgewalker] racial skill is, isn’t it? It says ‘You are immune from slipping out of reality.’ I thought it might have something to do with the Deep but I suppose not. Is it because of the eye in my head, then? It’s constantly observing ‘me’ so I cannot disappear?”

“You learn fast,” Death commented without confirming nor denying Sofia’s conclusion, “What about your other question?” he continued curiously.

“Right. It is about the un-life rune from my [False Immortality] skill. I was wondering if it had any link to you, and if not, if you could give me insight on how it works, as I have been completely unable to understand it at all by myself.”

“A good choice of questions,” Death commented, “It is entirely unrelated to my divine influence, but explaining how the magic works should not be outside of my capabilities. Give me an instant to make a system-request, I might as well get a look at the skill blueprint.”

You can do that?

“Hmm. I see,” Death said after a few seconds of silence, “interesting. The history of this skill is quite something. It was originally designed by a Kleptra to facilitate molting, and was then copied and refined by an unnamed Lich, before the current iteration was finalized by another. Someone we both know quite well.”

“Richard?”

“Precisely,” Death confirmed, “although his version then got worked on by the system itself to adapt it to you. So this would be the fourth generation of this skill. Now give me an instant to review how it works… Hmm, that is simple enough. An elegant design, as expected of the High-Scribes.”

“Simple?” Sofia repeated, “Simply looking at the rune for a few minutes is enough to give me a headache even now…”

“Understandable, the function is simple, the magic is not. Do you know about what is traditionally called un-life?” Death asked.

“I get that it is some kind of opposite to undeath, but I’ve not managed to find much more about it.”

“Undeath is a living soul without a living body,” Death simply explained.

“I see… Unlife is a living body without a living soul…”

“Yes. The skill does two things, firstly, it disconnects your soul and your body, maintaining a discreet link through mana only. This allows your soul to survive unscathed even should your body be reduced to ashes. This technically puts your body into a position of unlife, hence the name of the skill, and the healing restrictions. They are a result of the disconnect. Secondly, it keeps a record of your complete physical body, like a secondary blueprint, and a reserve of mana to explosively rebuild it from scratch if needed as soon as it goes from unlife to death.”

“I get it, thank you for the explanation,” Sofia thanked him, “but… There is one thing I still don’t understand, then. Wouldn’t the record be destroyed when the rune itself is destroyed with my body? How can it still work?”

“You would have the paranoid Lich to thank for that. The reason that the rune is so hard to understand is the same reason it outlasts destruction. Not only is it encrypted with the signature of your own mana, meaning that only your mana can decrypt it and use it to rebuild your body, but it also exists in multiple planes at once, in a state of superposition. One would have to destroy the rune in all the planes to prevent it from activating upon your death.”

“Oh… When Erredis said Richard was hard to kill… I am starting to get it…”

Death laughed freely for the first time in the conversation, “You should expect nothing less from the second biggest supplier of my divine essence.”

“Only second?”

“Indeed. This first is… Very special. But let us not stray too far from the goal of your visit. Should we proceed with the essence transfer?” Death offered.