"Ah... I ssed up again, nya."
"I’m still not strong enough, nya..."
"So this is what death feels like, nya?"
Shumi’s consciousness drifted in a haze. Her body had been flattened into sothing long and ribbon-like, slowly floating through an endless and empty expanse of deep space.
"The strong devour the weak, Father... was I always the weak one, nya?"
"I already tried so hard not to be eaten by the strong, nya."
She wanted to curl up her body.
But her body refused to obey.
She could do nothing at all. Her consciousness rely drifted faintly onward.
So this was probably death.
She had heard that after dying, souls traveled to the Underworld. She wondered who she would reincarnate into...
If possible, she still wanted to be a cat beastkin again.
Thinking back on it now, the place where Roya stayed had really been fun.
If she had known this would happen, she would’ve played a few more gas with him before leaving.
"Shumi."
Suddenly, a clear and vivid voice echoed directly inside Shumi’s mind.
She imdiately snapped awake.
An eyeball shifted across the long strip of flesh, and she saw Kanzaki Rei.
"You died too, nya?"
A helpless smile appeared on Rei’s face.
"Is that really how you greet soone?"
"Then I guess you’re not dead, nya."
Rei walked forward and touched Shumi with one hand.
The long strip of skin slowly began to move, curling back together. It ford Shumi’s nimble little feet once more, then gradually extended upward—
Ankles.
Calves.
Thighs.
And higher still.
Her skin reford itself, redrawing the outline of her body.
"I’m not sure if this will work. If it doesn’t, I’ll have to find another thod."
Rei raised a finger slightly.
Flesh began growing beneath Shumi’s skin. Blood, muscle, and bone rapidly regenerated, filling out her body once more.
This should have been the domain of healing mages.
And yet, the one reconstructing flesh and bone was Rei—a man without the Healer class.
"Can you feel anything?"
Shumi tried moving her ankle. Her tiny toes twitched lightly.
"Mm... I can move, nya."
Thankfully, Elthemis had never intended to kill them from the start.
Otherwise, they would already be completely dead by now.
Still, Rei didn’t actually have any pressing reason to save Shumi.
Saving Elaria made sense, at least. She had freely given him materials before.
Helping her was only natural.
As for Shumi, they had rely crossed paths once ten years ago.
If you really counted things up, he no longer owed her anything.
Saving her had rely been sothing done along the way.
"Completely healing you might take a little ti."
"And... it’ll probably hurt."
As Rei spoke, light flickered faintly in his hand.
Fwoosh—
Black flas instantly ignited across Shumi’s body!
"NYAAAH!"
"What did you do?! It hurts so much, nya!"
Rei calmly glanced at her.
"Nothing much. I’m just burning away that layer of skin covering you."
"The reason Elthemis didn’t kill you was simply because she wanted to keep you as spare vessels."
At the ti, there had only been two people present.
Elthemis hadn’t even known Rei existed.
If Shumi or Elaria truly had been containers prepared by Yogg—
Then killing them prematurely, only to later discover the truth, would have been an irreversible mistake.
That was why Elthemis had never intended to kill them.
To her, the two posed almost no threat.
There was no reason to eliminate them imdiately and risk ruining her greater plans.
Fwoosh—
The old skin burned away.
Fresh new skin regenerated over Shumi’s body.
Gradually, Shumi felt her consciousness returning completely, along with full control over her body.
"That should about do it."
Shumi stood there naked, yet showed no intention whatsoever of covering herself.
"I still haven’t asked."
"What happened to that person, nya?"
Rei replied, "Which one?"
Shumi hesitated for a mont.
"Both of them, I guess..."
Originally, she had only wanted to ask about Elthemis.
But after another thought, Elaria ca to mind as well.
"Elaria’s fine."
"She recovered faster than you did."
Strictly speaking, Elaria’s injuries amounted to only half her body being severed. Under normal circumstances, she would recover naturally on her own.
At this rate, she would probably regenerate completely within half an hour.
"As for Elthemis..."
"I killed her."
Shumi blinked.
"Killed her?"
"So that really was Elthemis, nya... No wonder she looked so familiar."
Even in the Moonsea, Elthemis’ Shedding Rose was infamous.
"Wait... are you saying you killed a god, nya?"
"I suppose so."
"Oh, right. I already rescued Sesha and the others too."
"You all can sort things out among yourselves."
As Rei spoke, he raised his hand—
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Space shifted.
Several streaks of light descended nearby.
Two n and two won appeared around Shumi.
They were precisely the missing people the murloc sage had wanted Rei to bring back.
And after saying those words—
Rei vanished.
Only then did Shumi finally regain her senses and spread out her perception.
But when her awareness swept outward, all she saw was endless emptiness.
Elental energy still drifted through the void, yet with closer observation, it beca obvious that the world they currently occupied differed vastly from reality itself.
It was almost as though—
An entirely new world had just been born.
And there was still no visible exit anywhere.
...
Rei left the Solitary Self World and returned once more to the Space Between Answers.
Huang Minzhi grinned mischievously.
"Brother, you killed Elthemis herself, and you still claim you haven’t shaken the world?"
Rei replied, "Now you rember to call brother?"
"I thought you completely stopped considering a fellow Earthling."
Huang Minzhi ignored Rei’s teasing and instead asked:
"Do you know what Yogg’s goal is?"
Huang Minzhi rarely used honorifics when speaking about Yogg.
Chen Xiyao was the sa.
Yogg’s followers didn’t seem particularly respectful toward him.
"I don’t know. The thoughts of a Moon Sovereign are too far beyond ."
Huang Minzhi nodded.
"But I do."
"Yogg’s goal is actually very simple."
"He wants to understand the things he does not know."
Rei frowned slightly.
"As the Moon Sovereign of Knowledge and Wisdom, what could possibly exist that he doesn’t know?"
Huang Minzhi answered:
"Yogg’s divine authority allows him to know every piece of knowledge that has ever been understood by anyone throughout all of history."
"And through that accumulated knowledge, he can infer and deduce nearly every unknown mystery in existence."
"Most knowledge in this world is interconnected. Through mutual correlation and deduction, almost every answer in existence can eventually be reached."
"So Yogg can practically be called omniscient."
"But there are still certain exceptionally unique forms of knowledge in this world."
"They are known by no one."
"And they possess no connection whatsoever to any other knowledge."
"They are black holes within the world of knowledge."
"In a world approaching omniscience, there still exist a few tiny black holes."
"And those black holes are precisely what Yogg seeks."
Hearing this information, Rei’s mind imdiately ford a hypothesis.
Perhaps Yogg had never managed to unravel his .
But with active, Rei himself likely appeared as a moving black spot within an otherwise fully illuminated world of knowledge.
Like a complete map where every region had been revealed—
Except for one small area of darkness constantly moving across it.
Naturally, that would stand out imnsely.
Rei asked:
"So?"
Huang Minzhi smiled.
"Perhaps Yogg also wants to find answers from you."
Answers again.
Exactly how many people’s answers was he supposed to beco?
The two continued walking beneath the starlight.
Elthemis’ flesh had already completely vanished.
Not even ashes remained behind.
"Still... before that, you’ll first discover your own answer."
Swish—
After passing through an invisible wall of stars—
A massive structure floated silently within the boundless cosmos.
An airport.
A painfully familiar airport.
"Brother... this is the thing you’ve wanted to know most, isn’t it?"
"Your true origin."
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