338. The Immortal and the Mortal (7)
Fernandez thought the pain he felt in his legs was a hallucination. The pain that started at his toes quickly spread throughout his body. A corner of his head rang loudly, and his vision began to distort.
Am I dying? Fernandez frowned in excruciating pain, slowly spreading and closing his fingers one by one.
* * *
[Neural connection complete. Spirit form beginning to anchor to the body!]
[Not a single mistake can be allowed. Any issues now could lead to fatal complications later!]
* * *
Though it was a void as dark as ink, there was no problem moving his body. A sticky pain clung to his entire body, tormenting him, but he still calmly observed his condition.
There were no signs of mental collapse. Only a sudden, sharp pain. Fernandez felt that this pain was familiar.
Some time ago, not too far in the past, he had experienced this kind of pain. It was a sensation he knew well. He slowly tried to recall the most similar experience to this pain.
It was close to phantom limb pain. A pain as if thousands of ants were gnawing at his nerves. A pain that started from the extremities of limbs that shouldn’t exist after losing a body part. The most similar experience was…
‘The King’s Audience Hall of King Dane.’
When he was forcibly transferred by the Conclave in Altberth’s underground tomb. The side effects of spatial movement had torn his body apart and then stitched it back together, which was most similar to what he was feeling now. It was the kind of pain where the body’s functions slowly come back to life, and the flesh is being reestablished.
‘Reestablishment of the body?’
This was during the time of the blessing of immortality. His soul was so strongly bound to his body, and the Stigma of Vaitas that remained in his body was the kind that constantly reshaped the body in a form most similar to the soul.
Even if he lost his body, the Stigma would act to reunite the soul and body. Considering the mechanism at the time, if we were to speculate on this situation with a bold hypothesis…
‘Is the body being reestablished?’
Does it mean that someone has retrieved his soul and is assembling a body based on that soul? There are no clues, only the sensation of pain. He couldn’t cling to such a slim hope with such a bold guess.
But he couldn’t just give up. It was the only clue given in this dry, aimless wandering. Fernandez thought coldly, even amidst the excruciating pain that tangled his mind.
Vaitas? No, the Temple of the Gods is sealed, and only extremely rare ancient relics like the Keyblade can break that seal. There’s no reason for someone with such a relic to break the seal of the Temple of the Gods just to request his resurrection in the heavens.
‘If so, that’s a big problem.’
To dismantle the seal of the Temple of the Gods from the outside, a powerful relic on the level of a divine sword is needed. If they were willing to sacrifice that much in such a desperate situation, it would mean that his preparations and plans had already failed.
That hypothesis should be abandoned. Then…?
‘An external relic with a mechanism similar to the Stigma of Immortality.’
The Stigma of Immortality is the most powerful blessing Vaitas can bestow. It is a power that surpasses the rights of a mere mortal, and in fact, Fernandez had to constantly consume his lifespan when he bore the Stigma of Immortality.
A relic with that level of power. If such a thing exists, who, and why would they want to resurrect him?
‘There might be a battle as soon as I wake up.’
Fernandez sharpened his gaze as his surroundings gradually brightened, steeling his mind. It wasn’t his style to lose his composure and give up his life in the face of sudden changes.
Analyzing the situation and thinking coldly. That was the basic quality of the Wildcast. He quietly steadied his breathing, preparing for the impending confusion of information.
* * *
[The soul has perfectly bonded! A flawless success!]
[It’s as if you’ve experienced resurrection before, settling in so skillfully. Truly remarkable. You’ve been through a lot.]
[Congratulations, great sun of Ibalis!]
Lavirata looked down at the Vessel of Creation with a trembling voice. Soon, he would open his eyes. With a body identical to his former self, or perhaps even superior in some ways.
They hadn’t resurrected the dead. Strictly speaking, this was akin to creating a god in the Material World.
The Vessel of Creation is a relic that fixes the form of a soul in the Material World and overlays a body on top of it. The reason most attempts before this had failed was likely because the soul couldn’t withstand the dissonance between the form it remembered and the actual body.
But this time, it was perfect. Fernandez’s soul remembered his body more accurately than anyone else. The body of a warrior who had pushed his physical limits to the extreme, and the mind of a mage who had anatomically understood the body’s composition perfectly. It could be seen as a collaboration of the two.
Lavirata looked down at the body lying quietly in the vessel, eyes closed. This man still lay there, quietly, breathing faintly.
[Awaken, Fernandez.]
Lavirata whispered in a trembling voice. At the same time, Fernandez’s eyes slowly opened.
* * *
-Thump, thump, thump.
A slow but heavy pulse. Fernandez, with his eyes closed, focused on the sound resonating within his body.
‘Is this the sound of a heartbeat?’
Before opening his eyes, he was checking his condition. The sensations of touch, hearing, and smell sharply pierced his mind. For someone who had wandered without a body for so long, the sudden sensations were nothing but pain.
Enduring the pain, he unraveled the tangled threads of information one by one, analyzing them. Fernandez was adapting to his body with surprising speed.
[Awaken, Fernandez.]
When the voice reached his ears, where tinnitus had been ringing loudly, he finally regained full control of his body. The information became clear, and the sensations no longer felt like pain.
At the same time, he intuitively realized that the Wraith Dynasty of Ibalis had resurrected him. Anchoring a soul to a body wasn’t impossible if the Empire of Ashit’s mystical capabilities were fully mobilized, and Lavirata had a debt to him, so her motivation to help was sufficient.
“Ha…”
His joints were stiff, and even moving his jaw felt sore. Fernandez opened his eyes and let out a low sigh. At the same time—
-Clang!
The surrounding wraiths simultaneously drew their weapons and aimed them at him. As Lavirata approached him, the wraiths shouted threateningly.
[Oh eternal leader of Ibalis, you have just awakened from the Vessel of Creation! We must confirm that your mind is unharmed!]
The Vessel of Creation was a relic that had been activated no more than five times in the long history of the Empire of Ashit. Every individual resurrected through this artifact had been consumed by madness and attacked everyone around them. You might not be any different. The wraiths hastily shielded the queen and kept an eye on Fernandez.
An old spear and a gleaming blade menacingly swung toward Fernandez’s head. They had no intention of attacking, so the strike would likely stop before reaching his body.
-Clang!
But Fernandez instinctively moved his arm and grabbed the nearest blade. He deftly twisted the tip of the blade, then pulled it toward him, snatching the sword hilt.
In an instant, Fernandez gripped the guard’s sword and struck the spear shaft rushing toward him. Metal clashed against metal, sparks flying, and the guards staggered back in unison.
After a brief clash, Fernandez knelt inside the Vessel of Creation, scanning his surroundings, and spoke.
“My physical condition is near perfect. How long has it been since I died?”
[Six months, Fernandez.]
“Six months…? I thought at least three hundred years had passed.”
The wraiths lived in a time that stood still. Just because Lavirata before him looked the same as the last time he remembered her didn’t mean time hadn’t passed.
Moreover, he had been drifting in the void. A place without the concept of time or space, where only illusions kept him company. That horrifying, endless time felt more like torture to him. And yet, only six months had passed…?
“I want to hear the situation.”
[You have just been resurrected. We need to examine your condition, so lie down for a moment.]
Lavirata tried to stop him urgently, but Fernandez was already getting up. Slowly, he stretched his body, starting with each finger, and spoke calmly.
“The examination is already over. Bring me my equipment.”
[Are you leaving?]
“I have unfinished business.”
The last thing he remembered was the death of Karadskar and the desperate struggle of Yekaset. The time since then was too short for his plans to have progressed meaningfully.
Since he started this, he should be the one to finish it. Fernandez shrugged his shoulders one last time and stood up.
[……I’ll bring you some clothes first. Once you’re ready, come out to the Sun Plaza.]
* * *
Fernandez walked through a dark corridor, adjusting the intricate robes adorned with dangling ornaments. The wraith priests watched him with a mix of reverence and vigilance, leading the way.
[Savior, are you truly unharmed in body and soul…?]
“Even if I were, would a madman speak so coherently?”
[That is true. But you must be cautious. In the history of Ibalis, the grand ritual of the Vessel of Creation has never succeeded.]
A wraith priest in splendid attire bowed his head and spoke. Fernandez didn’t respond, instead observing his own condition.
There was no Magic Circuit. But that didn’t mean magic couldn’t gather due to the divine essence flowing through his body, as it had before his death. Literally, there was no circuit.
This was actually a positive thing. A Magic Circuit wasn’t a naturally occurring organ. It was more like an artificial internal organ, inserted into a mage’s body after a lifetime of arduous effort.
The absence of divine essence didn’t mean he couldn’t channel magic. Not a single trace of divinity remained in this body. This meant he could implant a Magic Circuit through his own efforts.
‘Good. Two years should be enough.’
He wasn’t sure if he’d be granted that much time, but in two years, he was confident he could recover more than half of his former magical power. The beginning is always the hardest, and creating a Magic Circuit was just a simple restoration task for him.
-Crunch.
He tore off one of the ornaments from his robe and clenched his fist. The intricate bronze piece crumpled instantly into a sphere. He still retained the strength from his time as Diemonica. Without a shred of divinity.
He stroked his chin, lost in thought. The composition and sensations of his body were no different from a human’s. Both magically and anatomically, he had a human body.
But Diemonica’s body was completed through a baptism that contained divinity. How could a body created without that process still retain Diemonica’s capabilities?
Fernandez rolled the bronze sphere in his hand, deep in thought. How long had it been? The priest ahead stopped walking.
Before them stood a massive stone gate. The priest placed his hand on the gate, paused for a moment, then turned to him.
[Savior. The great stonemasons of Ibalis have spent the past six months building this for you alone.]
Building…? Fernandez frowned at the ominous word.
“Stonemasons? What are you talking about…?”
[Please honor their hard work…]
Without a proper answer, the priest manipulated the gap in the stone gate. With a grinding sound, the gate slid aside, releasing a cloud of dust. Bright sunlight soon began to illuminate the corridor.
Fernandez squinted, shielding his eyes, and looked ahead. His eyes took time to adjust to the sudden light source. But soon, he let his arm drop weakly.
[Ah, our savior has arrived!!]
In the distance, atop an altar at the end of the plaza, Lavirata, dressed in splendid attire, spread her arms and shouted.
[Now, this is your first moment walking under the open sky after resurrection. How do you feel?]
At Lavirata’s words, Fernandez stared blankly at the Sun Plaza. A massive stone structure… It seemed to be a statue standing in the center of the plaza.
Ibalis had many statues. So, a statue in the plaza wasn’t unusual. But the scale of this one was so enormous that it even reached the height of Lavirata’s palace.
The structure was so massive that at first, Fernandez could only perceive its base. But as his gaze slowly rose, his face gradually hardened.
Before him stood the Statue of the Giant, its magnificent Keyblade plunged into the ground, its head held high toward the sky.
Diemonica’s vision allowed him to observe distant objects with precision. For the first time, Fernandez cursed that ability. Above him, a statue bearing his exact likeness stood with a pious and benevolent smile.
He swore he had never made such an expression in his life. So, logically… perhaps that wasn’t his face… right?
As his thoughts stumbled to that point, Lavirata looked at him and burst into a bright laugh.
[Doesn’t it look just like you? This is the result of Ibalis’s millennia of stonecraft!]
If Faijashi were here, he might have tried to kill her on the spot. Fernandez muttered, trying to ignore the spectacle before him.
[Huh? What did you say?]
“Kill me.”
On the first day of his resurrection, Fernandez was seriously considering suicide.
![[TS] Obsessed Gamer: The Ultimate Return](https://i3.wp.com/novelhitam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/TS-Obsessed-Gamer-The-Ultimate-Return2.png?resize=85,105 "[TS] Obsessed Gamer: The Ultimate Return")
