The Fifth Element had long since been stripped from the captured aether's head. It was actually his pineal gland—the two had fused into one.
Eating this pineal gland was equivalent to merging with the Fifth Element, making one's soul immortal on the spot.
Without children, this immortality was terrifying beyond measure. One could not reincarnate, meaning one's mind would experience endless torment in a state of perfect clarity, surpassing the limits of the senses.
The corpse would be completely broken down by colonies of microbes and maggots, then digested by insects, and finally devoured by higher predators, until humanity went extinct, until Earth was destroyed, until the sun vanished, until the universe fell into eternal silence.
Particles from the immortal's corpse would forever transmit every experience from the past thousand years, ten thousand years, and hundred million years to the immortal.
Eternity was a terrifying word. Once any state was given the name eternity, it became an unimaginable experience.
Even merely trying to imagine that despair within the bounds of what could be imagined was enough to crush the strongest human being.
Kelon had mentioned several times that he wanted to try becoming an immortal.
Of course, it was not because he was thick-headed, nor because he wanted eternal life. Having already used the Golden Apple, Kelon was certain to die. Even if he became an immortal, it would be impossible for him to continue living in the material world.
Becoming an immortal just as the Golden Apple was about to erase him was equivalent to directly experiencing the most terrifying consequences of immortality.
Yet he wanted to do this only to extend his Root Perception state forever and break through into the realm of the Heavenly Ghost.
That possibility was too ethereal, and the other Grand Arbiters simply refused