You and I Are Different

Isaiah transformed into the sun.

The most scorching light tore his body apart, melting any creature caught within its radiance.

No, not just creatures, but everything.

The first to vanish was sound; the air ceased to flow, and sound waves were swallowed by absolute silence.

Then came matter.

Humans, monsters, buildings – everything was equal in this light and heat. They annihilated equally, turning into the most ancient nothingness.

Some tried to struggle. Luo Qi, closest to the light, instinctively tried to flee, but before he could even move, he was vaporized into gas. Those slightly farther away, the Guardian legions rushing to the scene, the Abyss beasts surging from underground, the remains of the Gods – all turned to ash the moment they saw the light, and the ash was further decomposed into nothingness.

The blast wave advanced silently, like the most violent tide, restoring the ancient structure, unchanged for a thousand years, to its original state.

That was "darkness," the "darkness" of all things being absent, the most extreme and pure "nothingness."

Everything was about to end.

As if a long time had passed, a colossal roar finally arrived, belatedly.

BOOM!!!!

The world trembled.

Several minutes later, it returned to peace.

Am I... dead?

I must be dead. My heart has stopped beating.

Thump, thump.

Underground, a charred corpse, whose heart had stopped beating for a long time, began to pulse.

Then, seven golden notes emerged from beneath the carbonized skin, and driven by a bone that was completely unaffected, they gradually revived the corpse that should have been thoroughly charred.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

After a long while, He Wei Ni Ya could finally make a sound. She coughed violently, vomiting carbonized internal organs from her mouth.

Although she had died many times before, this death... was certainly novel.

He Wei Ni Ya thought this.

But she couldn't move. This level of rebirth had completely depleted the power of the seven notes. Even with the bone's assistance, it was useless. If someone capable of killing her appeared now, she would truly be beyond help.

So, what exactly was going on?

He Wei Ni Ya was in darkness, unable to see anything. But she couldn't afford to worry about that now. She casually cast a light spell.

The light from the spell was faint, just like her at the moment, but it was enough for He Wei Ni Ya to see her surroundings.

Simply put, it was a mess.

He Wei Ni Ya remembered that before she lost consciousness, she was in the passage leading back to the surface from underground, about a few hundred meters from the ground.

And now she should still be underground, but the passage was gone. Everything had been destroyed in the recent explosion.

Even the demon-sealing gargoyles and the monsters that had been climbing up were nowhere to be seen.

No...

He Wei Ni Ya grabbed a handful of rubble and watched it slowly slip through her fingers.

They were all here.

Creatures hundreds of meters from the surface couldn't survive. The one who could achieve this must be that guy named Isaiah.

He Wei Ni Ya couldn't imagine what the surface looked like now.

Even now, was all of this still within Bai Wei's plan?

He Wei Ni Ya didn't know. Anyway, she could do nothing more. She could only wait quietly.

But just then, a rustling sound came from the darkness.

It was from underground.

He Wei Ni Ya immediately became alert, but before she could react, she heard faint sobbing.

"It hurts... I hurt so much..."

"Mama... save me..."

"I... don't want to die..."

He Wei Ni Ya's eyes widened gradually.

The surface.

The Abyss Prison, which had stood for a thousand years, had vanished, leaving only the most extreme nothingness and a ground covered in charred black sand, which scattered with a gentle breeze.

And within this monotonous sand, there were three distinct items.

It was two fingers and one eye.

They landed abruptly on the ground, like pearls in a sandy beach, or like silent dead bodies.

It wasn't until a long while later that the eye, like a sea of stars, finally moved.

"Swish, swish, swish."

The power known as [Eternity] reactivated.

Soon, Isaiah, with his eyes closed, stood tall on the earth once more.

Then he slowly opened his eyes, looking at the world he had personally destroyed, and at the other person brought back by [Eternity].

"Oh?" Isaiah spoke, "It's you."

In front of him, Luo Qi, the owner of one of the three corpse pieces, lay dazed in the sand, and his thumb had also grown back on his hand.

Luo Qi didn't move, just stared blankly at the sky. After a long moment, he slowly spoke, "Why did you bring me back?"

"It wasn't me," Isaiah said calmly. "It was this eye."

"Isn't this eye controlled by you?"

"I can't control it under all circumstances."

"I see," Luo Qi chuckled. "So the spell just now exhausted you to the point where you couldn't control this eye, which is why you brought me back."

"This eye brought you back," Isaiah said. "Perhaps because you still have corpse pieces on you, it instinctively felt you were a compatriot."

"Heh... compatriot." Luo Qi let out a mocking laugh. "So, after all your effort, you personally killed all your students, and not only did you fail to bring even one of them back, but you brought back me, the one you shouldn't have."

"You are not the one who shouldn't have been brought back," Isaiah said. "It's the ring finger. If she hadn't died, that would have been the real trouble."

"So that's the point?"

Isaiah looked down at Luo Qi. "I know what you want to say. I'm sorry to my students."

"Is a simple 'sorry' enough?"

"Of course not," Isaiah said. "That's why I will go to the very end."

"You're still going to continue even after all this?"

"Now that it's come to this, there's no turning back."

Luo Qi let out another mocking laugh. "Heh, whatever you say."

Isaiah looked at Luo Qi. "Aren't you going to stop me? You can tell I'm very weak right now. Aren't you going to try to fight me one last time?"

"It's pointless," Luo Qi murmured. "Thanks to you, I now know what death feels like. Now, I just want to live. The rest doesn't matter."

Just want to live.

Luo Qi had said this before, but this time, it carried a completely different feeling.

Isaiah understood why, so he nodded slightly, then stepped forward and took Luo Qi's thumb.

During this time, Luo Qi's expression remained unchanged. He continued to stare blankly at the sky, his thoughts unknown.

"Snap."

In front of Luo Qi, Isaiah attached the thumb to his own hand.

Thus, he finally obtained the third corpse piece.

Next, it was time for the ring finger.

Isaiah raised his head and looked into the distance.

For a normal person, finding a finger buried somewhere in such a vast wilderness would be almost impossible.

But Isaiah was different. His right eye could see very, very far.

However...

"Urk."

An intense stabbing pain surged through Isaiah's nerves. He instinctively covered his right eye, but blood still uncontrollably spilled from the socket, dripping down through the gaps between his fingers.

Isaiah's condition was much worse than it appeared.

To ensure the death of the ring finger, Isaiah had used the maximum potency of "Darkness" and then used [Eternity] twice to reset.

And stretching the timeline further, this was his fourth use of [Eternity] within a week. One of those times was used by Hand Eye, but it was counted towards him.

As one of the most powerful rules among Visas's corpse pieces, [Eternity]'s price was fatal. Even someone like Isaiah, the foremost figure beneath the gods, with the knowledge of the entire Star Relic as his backing, could not use [Eternity] so consecutively.

So he also clearly perceived that his life was like a candle in the wind, with at most half a year left.

This was also why he couldn't bring more people back from [Eternity]; he couldn't hold out any longer.

"Is this really worth it?" Luo Qi's voice rang out again.

Isaiah lowered his head and looked at him.

"Can you tell me?" Luo Qi stared straight at Isaiah. "What can that corpse piece in the Abyss Prison do?"

Isaiah was silent for a moment, then said, "I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Yes, I don't know," Isaiah said. "Or rather, I'm not sure what he can bring me. Maybe everything, maybe nothing."

"And for this uncertainty, you've caused all this?"

"Are you mocking me?"

"No, I'm just mocking myself," Luo Qi said with a laugh. "Only now do I realize this whole thing is a joke. Me, you, even Ring Finger. We've all given everything for something unknown. But it's very possible we'll get nothing in the end... Yes, nothing at all."

Luo Qi shifted his gaze from Isaiah to the sky. This would be the real sky.

He murmured in a low voice, "We're all fighting desperately for the remains of a dead person, just to gain a little more so-called power. But what is the end of power? What are we aiming for at the end of it all? Ring Finger is dead. She died protecting this prison, but the Gods who created this prison haven't even glanced this way. What are they doing? What is the meaning of this prison's existence, and what are we fighting for?"

Luo Qi threw out a string of questions, and Isaiah just listened quietly without interrupting. Only after Luo Qi finished did he smile, "As expected, people who have brushed past death often gain more insight and thought."

"I wasn't brushing past death," Luo Qi said. "I actually died. You killed me."

"Then you should thank me. I'm the one who brought about your change."

Luo Qi looked at Isaiah again, "Do you think I should thank you?"

"That's your business."

"Then thank you," Luo Qi said. "As a token of my gratitude, I advise you to turn back. We really don't need to risk everything for that unknown thing."

"I told you, I won't turn back."

"Heh... I know," Luo Qi said. "Your sunk cost is too high. Too many people have sacrificed for you. If you turn back now, you'll be letting them down."

"It's not because of that."

"Then what is it because of?"

Isaiah didn't answer Luo Qi's question immediately. Instead, he said, "You seem to think that after experiencing death, you've seen through the truth of the world. But that's not the case. You haven't seen through the truth at all; death has simply made you more afraid of death. That's why you feel that nothing is more important than life. Ultimately, you were an arrogant coward, and now you've just become a plain coward."

Luo Qi's eyes widened gradually. "You..."

"You keep asking me what the point of all this is, but deep down, you just want to see me become like you, so you can comfort yourself," Isaiah said calmly. "But I am different from you. Death doesn't change me. You asked me before why I was doing this, and I've already answered you. The answer remains the same."

"If the God of Star Relics blinds my eyes, then He should move aside."

"I came because of this, and I might die because of it, but I will not change or retreat because of it."

"And you seem to have misunderstood something. I'm willing to listen to you here not because I agree with you, but purely because I want to rest for a bit," Isaiah said. "I stop to keep moving forward, while you stop to cease moving forward."

With that, Isaiah didn't wait for Luo Qi's response. He raised his newly reattached Thumb – Disturbance!

Under the enhancement of Disturbance, Isaiah's weakened body rapidly recovered.

Of course, this wasn't true recovery. Healing the wounds of rules with rules was merely drinking poison to quench thirst.

But it was enough to quench his thirst before he completely collapsed.

"You're not worthy of this finger," Isaiah left his last words, then stood up and moved forward.

Luo Qi's breathing grew heavier, and his originally pale face turned flushed, clearly due to anger.

"Who do you think you are?!" he roared. "A God? Or Visas? You're neither! Everything you've done is meaningless! Your fate will be the same as ours... No, you'll be worse off than us! You will receive the punishment of the Gods, your soul will be annihilated, you will suffer eternal damnation, you, you..."

But no matter how he cursed, Isaiah didn't look back.

He simply walked straight towards the night sky without a hint of hesitation.

Then he stopped under the most brilliant starlight.

"Time for the next one," he said calmly.