Chapter 1544
Chapter 1544: Section 1545: Serial Memories Chapter 1544: Section 1545: Serial Memories Nail Granny finished recounting the entire story, and many things finally connected.
For instance, why the Water Pattern Witch said the person in question was Nail Granny, because Nail Granny had indeed participated in the refinement of the Reincarnation Casket.
There was also the reason Nail Granny warned him not to use the Scroll of Fortune, because of the precedent set by Ivor Schubert.
Angel even speculated, recalling what Portia once mentioned, that Nail Granny seldom practiced Alchemy anymore and rarely visited the Research and Development Institute; this had been the case for a thousand years. The time frame of a thousand years was too coincidental, perhaps the cause of Nail Granny's change was also due to this matter.
However, behind all these events, there was one doubt Angel had yet to clarify.
“Alex, what does he have to do with this story?”
Nail Granny sighed softly: “Alex is actually the name Ivor used when he was still a mortal.”
Not only that, but Nail Granny also highlighted the similarities between Ivor and the Alex from the Cage of Shadows, such as the identical pure white hair, similar intonation, and so on.
After listening, Angel fell into deep thought.
Endless snippets of memory surfaced in his mind, events that transpired after his arrival in Gust Town: the brutal serial murders, the boy gazing at the moon, the Undead Hunter, the imprisoned cage, and the Priest who defied the creator, the Nun who cleared away outsiders…
And the matters related by Nail Granny, Ivor's former alias, the refiner of the Reincarnation Casket, the nightmares that besieged them upon the arrival of the Mysterious Object… and so on.
These emerging fragments of memory, in the quiet stream of thought, seemed to solidify into pearls.
These “pearls” floated in the Mind Space, emitting a faint glow, bobbing uncertainly.
Angel felt that these rising memories seemed to lack a piece of the puzzle, a piece that would eventually become a chain, linking together those floating pearls.
To lift the final veil of obscurity over this enigmatic event.
Angel was constantly searching for that final piece of the puzzle, the Box of Memories, gradually being unveiled, trying to find the threads that would connect these fragments of memories.
Nail Granny did not disturb Angel, sitting quietly to the side, her mind conjuring up the last time she parted with Ivor.
By then, the Mysterious Object had been successfully refined, but nightmares followed.
Ivor was ecstatic one moment and stunned the next. Facing the world as it continued to collapse before his eyes, he stood frozen in place.
After what felt like ages, he seemed to understand something, his body stiffly turning to look at Nail Granny, who wore a face of despair.
A hint of regret flickered in Ivor's eyes: “I'm sorry.”
For the sake of breaking through the mystic realm, he acted recklessly and chose this path. Not only did he harm himself, but he also brought the person he loved most to such a dire fate.
Nail Granny had felt resentful in her heart, but as she looked into Ivor's eyes filled with deep, unresolved regret, and his heartbreakingly earnest apologies, her throat choked up, her voice slightly hoarse, unable to utter complaints, her lips trembling: “At least, you have succeeded.”
Ivor shook his head; he didn't speak again but held Nail Granny's hand. The him who had never expressed his feelings was holding Nail Granny's hand for the first time, and it might be, the last.
His gaze was sorrowful, as if feeling the warmth coming from the palm.
The warmth of the end.
Suddenly, Ivor seemed to make a decision, his eyes slowly returning from sorrow to normalcy.
Nail Granny looked at Ivor, his expression calm, but she could see the stubbornness… and the decisiveness beyond the calm.
A sudden panic rose in Nail Granny's heart; she didn't know what Ivor was about to do, only instinctively tightening her grip on his hand.
“What are you going to do?” Nail Granny asked in alarm, looking at Ivor.
Ivor released his hand, and as she tried to hold on, she was repelled by a powerful force of spiritual power. At the same time, a transparent barrier emerged between her and Ivor.
That moment, Nail Granny would never forget.
The piercing wind howled by the ears. The backdrop was a crumbling world, where daytime was eroded by the dark and profound darkness, and invisible spatial vortices tore apart all things and life.
Ivor's white hair was raging in the hurricane.
His gaze was fixed on the massive void ahead of him, and at the heart of that void, the cause of it all–the Reincarnation Casket.
A ghostly light flickered in Ivor's eyes. Beneath his Wizard's robe, his hand unconsciously clenched into a fist due to the resolve in his heart.
Nail Granny kept knocking and calling out from behind an invisible barrier.
Her nails shattered as they tapped on the barrier, yet she felt nothing.
But no matter how she screamed, Ivor seemed deaf to it, still quietly watching the Reincarnation Casket.
When she finally collapsed onto the barrier in despair, tears mixing with blood, Ivor slowly turned his head: “This is not the outcome I wanted.”
“But since things have come to this, I will attempt to change it.”
“I'm sorry, I can't continue to keep you company.”
His voice carried an unusual tenderness and lingering affection. It was the first time she heard Ivor speak so gently, but it did not please her, so elusive it was, illuminating no beautiful dreams, penetrating no reality.
The next moment, Ivor took steps towards the dark void.
Nail Granny tried to follow, but she was blocked by the barrier he had set up, and could only watch helplessly as Ivor was swallowed by the endless darkness.
The barrier before her eyes completely separated her from Ivor, as if cutting off two vastly different times, one stayed in the past, the other stepped towards the future.
The collapse of the world and the folding of space meant that energy could no longer be tranquil.
Under these circumstances, even using the Plane Corridor to escape was impossible. She had already prepared for death, but Ivor had done something unknowable, and when he walked into that dark void, the world froze for an instant.
Then, a warm and familiar energy burst forth from the void, propelling Nail Granny towards the Void.
Because of this, Nail Granny was saved.
But from that moment on, she never saw Ivor again.
As Nail Granny's recollection ended, Angel finally found the missing memories on his side.
Deep within memory, an image leaped forward–
A man wearing a metal gear mask was explaining to Angel about a Mysterious Object that had gone out of control.
“I actually just came out from a Mysterious Object that lost control, which is the 'Reincarnation Casket of the Undead,'” he said, then curled his lips and muttered in a low voice: “Samsara, that name really makes me feel uncomfortable.”
Angel looked at the image in memory. The man was Frost, a powerful Wizard who called himself the Mystic Hunter.
The “Reincarnation Casket of the Undead” that Frost had once mentioned to Angel was the string of crystalline “pearls” in the Mind Space, the “thread” connecting all fragments of memory, the core.
When Angel put Frost's words into context with this series of events, he finally connected all these things together.
Angel didn't know whether what he saw was the truth.
Maybe it was just an unreliable guess of his.
But based on the realities behind this speculation, it could give relatively plausible answers to most of the questions Angel currently had.
And the key note of this speculation was–
The Reincarnation Casket refined by Ivor might very well be the 'Reincarnation Casket of the Undead' as mentioned by Frost.