Chapter 1977: Chapter 1975: The Promise
When Liliya’s ‘blood bar’ was reduced to zero, Han Dong had been watching the spot where she experienced death.
Though there existed a disparity in levels,
he did not believe that someone as powerful as Liliya, a middle-ranked king among the mother worlds,
moreover, a plant-type being naturally endowed with exceptional vitality… Perhaps the ‘blood bar’ was a manifestation influenced by Goodman’s [True Field].
But Han Dong firmly believed that Liliya would not die just like that.
Even if judged dead at some level of rule, she was certainly still barely alive.
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The crowbar completely shattered Han Dong’s body, even forcibly deactivating the “Borrowing God – Nauseating Shadow”.
The only thing left falling to the ground was his head,
yet Han Dong still kept his gaze fixed on the place where Liliya had died, even faintly detecting a faint rose fragrance in the air.
With every last bit of strength,
he conveyed their “promise” to the place where Liliya had perished.
Goodman was walking towards Han Dong’s head with a briefcase in hand,
halfway there, he suddenly paused… and also cast his gaze towards the place where Liliya, whose blood bar had been emptied and should be dead, once lay.
Unexpectedly, a new flower bud emerged from the ground, slowly growing, with a sense that it would bloom into a mature rose.
“Hmm? Blood bar reduced to zero, according to Black Mountain’s program settings, the individual should ‘absolutely die’… even the individual’s consciousness would self-identify an occurrence of death, making resurrection impossible.
Such peculiar life, I could try to collect it~ nurture it into a decent subordinate.”
Goodman was equally puzzled about why Liliya could ‘resurrect’, though the process was slow, it aroused his great curiosity.
He crouched down, preparing to put this sprout into his briefcase to take back and continue nurturing.
just as he reached out to touch the sprout,
he discovered that from the base of the sprout grew roots tens of meters long~ and one of these roots had already connected to Han Dong’s head.
During the time Goodman was drawn to the sprout…
This root emerged from the soil, quickly sprouting and blooming, forming Liliya’s head~ closely pressed against Han Dong.
Liliya, whose blood bar reached zero and was supposed to be completely dead,
somehow, with an endless will to slaughter, forcibly kept her consciousness from dissipating, continuously denying ‘death’ within herself… If this happened ordinarily, she might have accepted death long ago, without such a strong will to ward off the arrival of death.
in her heart, there was an “obsession”, a compulsion that she must not die and must personally fulfill.
Since the moment she was born into the world of Mandros, Liliya had been {isolated}.
Her unparalleled talent was accompanied by an innate desire to kill,
so much so that no form of plant life could accept her, even her parents who seeded her eventually expelled her from the nursery garden of her birth.
At every stage of growth, she was incomparably lonely.
In this world, there was no one who could understand her.
She once finally found a ‘playmate’, “King of Flowers – Nos. Cavendish,” who possessed almost identical talents to her… Yet, he did not want to befriend her, nor did he desire to settle things directly; their separation grew with her incarceration.
The arrival of a young man brought her feelings she hadn’t experienced in thousands of years,
understanding, recognition, and praise,
Even gave her some recognition at a cognitive level, opening her heart completely in a few minutes, becoming mutual {confidants},
This served as the first real friend she had since her creation.
Liliya’s desire not to die was very simple because she always remembered the “promise” she made with Han Dong.
If destined to die, they must die together.
With endless slaughter will, resisting the death at the level of rules.
Even if all roses and body, soul are disintegrated together.
Yet, Liliya’s consciousness was preserved, and through the ‘seeding reproduction’ ability, a seed was left deep within the soil.
When Han Dong gave everything, drawing Goodman’s attention through a mad laugh that invaded his mind,
Liliya’s consciousness controlled the seed to “take root”, absorbing planetary energy, causing the roots to expand as much as possible.
The death rule from ’empty blood bar’ was still in effect, weakening her consciousness or any flaws meant complete death.
Surviving was already the limit, it was utterly impossible to provide combat assistance.
The only thing she could do now was fulfill the “promise”.
When Han Dong’s head was thrown away, losing all chances of survival, she knew… that was the moment to fulfill the promise.
Using the dispensed roots to capture Han Dong’s head position,
Liliya put all her effort into constructing a perfect humanoid head, pressing together, gazing deeply into Han Dong’s eyes,
At the last moment of life,
Liliya’s face unexpectedly showed an unprecedented genuine smile,
This smile showed no trace of ‘isolation’, filled with a ‘happiness’ she had never experienced before.
Like tender new leaves, her lips gently moved, uttering the final words:
“Let’s die together.”
Han Dong merely gazed at her silently, responding with a smile.
A vine tongue full of thorns slithered into Han Dong’s mouth, cutting the skin, releasing the most potent toxin.
Goodman, tens of meters away, having disabled ‘time influence’, couldn’t halt the process through time freeze… Could only rush at maximum speed, but was already a step late.
Even though he unleashed a speed ignoring conventional physical rules entirely.
He was still a step too late,
a large number of roses were blooming on the surface of Han Dong’s head, the entire head turned into fertilizer, eyes gray with lifelessness, exhibiting no sign of vitality.
“No! You cannot die!”
Goodman clearly understood the gravity of the situation.
Now that Han Dong’s body was destroyed, once the head died~ such a perfect dead spirit vessel would completely vanish, and the remnant pages within Han Dong might forcibly return to S-01.
“Even if you cannot be revived, I must keep the corpse intact! Once the unclaimed remnant pages fly back to S-01, reclaiming them would be exceedingly difficult.”
Restarting Black Mountain Base’s time device,
a hundred-meter-level time field emits hemispherically, this time retrospective cannot affect ‘absolute death’, only affecting Han Dong’s shattered body.
Along with the head rolling back,
the scattered meat chunks also start reassembling, forming a complete body.
Time rewinds to the moment Han Dong was held in midair.
Han Dong in Goodman’s hand looked dead gray, covered with roses, with no sign of vitality… just an almost entire corpse.
Unlike any time before,
This time was a true, undeniable death, with no semblance of epiphany.
Han Dong had pondered countless assumptions and conjectures about ‘what it would be like after a true death collapse’,
assuming endless darkness would descend, consciousness disappearing, unable to think.
Within the embrace of darkness, gradually forgetting time and space, gradually returning to the original material state, fulfilling the ultimate process of “from 1 to 0”.
Han Dong vaguely felt a soft touch in the darkness, and warm liquid flowing over his body… this warm, viscous comforting liquid felt somehow familiar.
It was as if nurtured within some kind of womb.