Chapter 343: Vikna's Magic Eye Demon Palm (Two‑in‑One)

Boom—!

The castle collapsed, and the underground treasury was exposed on the plain. The quiet, peaceful little world faced a destruction it had never known.

The sky first cracked with fissures, the cloud layers shattered into billions of gray‑white pixels, like a dying flock of swans falling to the earth.

The creations not locked by magical logic began to become insubstantial—castle towers turned into transparent grains of sand, streams hung upside down as spiraling silver threads, even the flapping of birds was deconstructed mid‑flight into intermittent electronic noise.

When the first grain of flowing sand fell from the sun's position, the collapse of the entire world suddenly accelerated.

Trees kept their lush forms while drifting sideways, petals turned into binary code the instant they left the branches. A human still running developed a fracture at the waist; the lower body remained in a running pose, turning to dust, while the upper half's terrified expression froze into a translucent hologram.

The ground began to churn with black ripples, emitting a crisp sound like shattering glass as they swallowed the sand. The air grew viscous, gravity's direction went awry, and the still‑intact stained‑glass windows of the church suddenly multiplied into countless geometric mirrors, each fragment reflecting an apocalyptic scene from a different timeline.

The final collapse occurred in absolute silence. All color, sound, and temperature were simultaneously devoured by void, and the remaining starlight scattered like broken‑string pearls.

In an instant that defied any measurable time unit, the last orange‑red patch symbolizing sunset extinguished, revealing an endlessly extending pure darkness behind.

That darkness was neither a curtain nor an abyss, but the primordial void stripped of all concepts. No spatial ripples, no temporal folds, not even any reference for thought to extend upon.

It was the primal darkness.

The true form of the Night Sky Sealing Technique, a breathtaking artwork crafted by the night‑worshippers to honor Saar.

"Is this it?" Naimi Xisi stood out of nowhere in the void, gazing at the surrounding darkness, a shiver of cold running through his mind.

Is this hopeless scene what those Saar worshippers were hoping for?

Darkness, void, absolute solitude.

Do any beings truly love such a world?

What a bunch of lunatics.

Arthur Leck stood beside him, his eyes holy as he stared toward some direction in the darkness, his whole skeletal frame trembling with excitement: "My lord, great my lord."

Naimi Xisi looked over inexplicably, seeing nothing: "Did you see the one beneath the crown? How come I see nothing?"

Arthur Leck murmured: "The unseen god hovers in the crevice of concepts, its body woven from the blind spots of perception. The ruler of ten thousand hidden and concealed things—no mortal can behold it."

"My lord, I have searched for you three hundred years. At last, I can see you again."

Naimi Xisi silently watched Arthur Leck pray, awaiting Vikna's appearance.

But after more than ten minutes, the surroundings were still silent, and Arthur Leck continued to pray there.

Growing impatient, he whispered, "Where is the holy relic?"

Arthur Leck slowly ceased his prayer and said calmly, "Right before you."

Naimi Xisi frowned; there was nothing in front of him.

"Your naked eye cannot see it; the relic bears my lord's concealment authority. Without my permission, mortals cannot see or even touch it."

After speaking, Arthur Leck expected Naimi Xisi to ask him to grant permission, but instead saw him close his eyes thoughtfully.

Naimi Xisi lingered in the darkness, concentrating all his focus on the void's sixth sense—the divine thought.

He needed neither eyes nor ears nor hands to touch.

Yet in the murky depths, he saw, before him, a black silhouette the size of a human palm stretching across his view.

He did not use his hand to touch, but guided the intangible divine thought toward the shadow; the next moment, he inexplicably felt a sense of Touch.

Arthur Leck, looking as if he'd seen a ghost, said, "How is this possible? How could you breach the veil of concealment to touch the relic?"

"How did you do it?!"

Naimi Xisi opened his eyes and shrugged. He didn't know how he managed it, but it seemed this new talent was a nemesis to all invisibility and illusion.

Even a deity's authority cannot deceive the divine thought; the prestige is undeniably high.

That said, any trait of his linked to the Infinite Gem makes him far from a simple character.

Arthur Leck, seeing him remain silent and unannoyed, marveled, "Your secrets exceed my expectations, but that's fine; only a sufficiently unique genius can be a pawn in a deity's game."

He waved his hand, as if releasing some shackles, and a teal‑gray humanoid broken palm materialized before Naimi Xisi.

At the center of the palm was an eye, and the entire hand exuded an indescribable mysterious aura.

Vikna's Magic Eye Demon Palm.

Grade: Holy Relic.

Effect—

Arcane Disintegration: Vikna has infused its broken palm with its boundless magical knowledge, making the palm fully aware of all magical lore; any spell that contacts the palm is weakened by three tiers.

Demon Eye Heaven‑piercing: The eye within the palm incorporates the authority Vikna stole from Abyss Prince Aokas; the eye can command all Undead and grant the Spellcaster the power to consecrate a Lich.

Endless Forgetting: The fusion of the eye and broken palm lets this holy relic break the limits of the Magic Net, allowing access to its deepest forces. The holder may release once per day the most powerful Legendary Enchantment Spell that Vikna possessed before ascension—Endless Forgetting.

Just as Naimi Xisi finished reading, the entire space quivered. Emma's voice echoed from the endless void.

"You win, I concede," a graceful shadow a kilometer tall seemed to emerge from the darkness: "Take me away, Juan Ce Long, I will serve you as lord, but in exchange, you must feed me."

Arthur Leck, enviously, remarked, "A Legendary‑grade revitalizing incantation—truly a rarity."

Naimi Xisi smiled, "I accept your loyalty."

"However, before Vikna is released, I cannot do that. Otherwise the deity's body manifesting in the world could cause severe damage to Earth," Naimi Xisi mused.

First go to the Reverse World to retrieve the Reverse Eye. After awakening Vikna, then take Emma away.

Emma, who had waited a long time, didn't mind waiting longer, and thus agreed.

Arthur Leck, eager to have Naimi Xisi retrieve the Reverse Eye, still had an unanswered question: "Can this holy relic let me deal with the half‑body beneath Vikna's crown?"

He looked skeptically at the Lich; the eye‑broken palm's abilities are indeed formidable. Its first function is a nemesis to all Spellcasters, reducing spell potency by three tiers, essentially dropping a standard Legendary spell out of its own tier.

The second function is even more outrageous, literally powerful. First, it commands all Undead, giving Naimi Xisi absolute advantage over any undead, even the chief of the Red Robe Mage Guild—Lich Sazaz Tan—would likely keep his distance, since the opponent is also a form of Undead.

The second aspect is more subtle—granting the consecration of a Lich.

In the minds of many ordinary people, Liches are high‑intelligence undead created when a mage unwilling to die performs a ritual to forge a soul‑box, thus transforming.

Could this relic simply skip that step, turning a person directly into a Lich?

If you think that, it's too simplistic.

Lich is a very special type of Undead; their power levels vary, and they usually appear as the leaders of Undead.

Few know that the original origin of Lich actually stems from one of the three Abyssal heads — the Undead monarch Okas.

Okas spread the method of becoming a Lich in the mortal world and gave Mages the way to forge a Soul Box.

The so‑called ritual of becoming a Lich points back to its source, which is Okas himself.

The ritual of becoming a Lich can be said to be the most sealed secret knowledge in the world; throughout history, only a handful of Great Mages have possessed a way to become a Lich.

Ordinary people would never know, and whether the ritual of becoming a Lich ultimately succeeds depends on whether Okas consents.

In other words, the overwhelming majority of Lich across the Multiverse transform under Okas's witness and approval.

Rather than saying a Mage turns himself into a Lich, it is more accurate to say Okas grants a Mage the title of Lich.

In this situation, Okas's control over Lich can be imagined to be extremely strong.

The vast majority of Lich — except for those most powerful half‑Lich — are almost entirely subject to Okas's life‑and‑death authority.

The root lies in the Soul Box on which Lich depend for survival.

The Soul Box is a special item crafted by a Lich during the transformation process. When forging the Soul Box, a Lich traps its own soul inside it. Thus, even if the Lich's body is destroyed, as long as the Soul Box remains intact, the Lich's soul can return to the box and, after a period of time, reconstruct a new Undead body.

Such a powerful ability naturally carries a non‑trivial side effect.

As the master of the Soul Box, a Lich must offer the soul of an intelligent being to the box each day, drawing intelligent souls to sustain its own living soul.

"Do you know where those souls go?" Naimi Xisi asked expressionlessly.

"Okas?" Naimi Xisi guessed.

The Lich nodded: "Okas is the true master of those Lich Soul Boxes; through the boxes, He endlessly harvests souls from the mortal world. Most Lich in the Multiverse are merely tools for Okas to collect souls."

"In exchange, the cruel Abyss Prince grants them the right to survive."

Naimi Xisi was momentarily stunned; a single Lich must offer 365 souls to its Soul Box each year—how many Great Mages across the Multiverse refuse death, how many have become Lich, and over endless ages how many souls has Okas extracted from them?

Legend says Okas was once an ordinary mortal who started as the lowest worm in the Abyss and gradually rose to become one of the three Abyssal heads; surely those Lich contributed at least half of the power to His ascent.

"My lord was once merely a pawn in Okas's hand, but He, using his own strength and wit, ascended to divinity and, on the day He raised the Divine Kingdom, tore apart Okas's authority."

Ya Se Lie Ke looked at his Law Eye, split palm, eyes blazing with zeal: "Possess it, and you can, like the Abyss Prince, grant Lich their immortality. They will become your most loyal Dependents, for their Soul Boxes are pieces you manipulate. They will also become your tools for reaping souls, because half of each soul offered to the Soul Box will be devoted to you."

Naimi Xisi raised an eyebrow: "Doesn't that mean all of it goes to me?"

Ya Se Lie Ke glanced at him; though his Skeleton face was expressionless, Naimi Xisi somehow read contempt in it: "Can you, like Okas, use your own power to grant those Lich eternal life?"

Naimi Xisi suddenly understood.

Then he turned his gaze to the third ability of the Holy Relic — Endless Forgetting.

This Legendary Spell belongs to the mind‑control category, but after seeing its power, Naimi Xisi couldn't help exclaiming at the creator's extraordinary talent.

【Endless Forgetting】 requires the Spellcaster to select a target and designate one of the target's own existences.

It can be the target's memory, organ, emotion, soul, life, or even the trace of its past existence.

Once a thing is chosen and the Legendary Spell is released, the target will, over the course of a month, unconsciously begin to forget the existence of that thing.

If the Spellcaster chooses the target's memory, the target will forget that memory, but as the pinnacle Legendary Spell created by Vikna, its function is naturally far more complex.

The horror of 【Endless Forgetting】 lies in that—not only the target, but any being that participated with the target in creating that memory will also forget it, as if it never happened.

Likewise, the target's organs, emotions, even life itself, under the spell's effect, will be forgotten, ultimately as if they never existed.

The target will forget its own life, the world will forget its life, and fundamentally all traces of that person's existence in the world will be erased.

"The power of this Legendary Spell is indeed great," Naimi Xisi hesitated, "but it still seems insufficient to deal with that one, right?"

After all, the opponent is a half of a deity; no matter how strong a Legendary Spell is, it cannot slay a god in a single strike.

Ya Se Lie Ke's lower jaw kept colliding, emitting a silent sneer: "Deities are not as invincible as you imagine."

"Mortals cannot harm them simply because they lack the 'qualification'."

"Deities are beings beyond the mortal realm, possessing a divine body that mortals cannot touch."

"And that is all."

"To possess divinity is to have the 'qualification' to touch a deity. The Holy Relic is the embodiment of divinity."

"Reverse Eye's intelligence is extremely low, comparable only to a child's. It cannot wield my lord's true divine power; you, wielding the Holy Relic, are enough to fight it." Ya Se Lie Ke spoke with contempt, even refusing to use the pronoun 'He' for a divine half, opting for 'it' instead.

Naimi Xisi seemed to realize that the condition of Vikna's half was far worse than he had imagined. Giving himself this Holy Relic was merely to obtain the 'qualification' to touch a divine body.

This notion does appear in Naimi Xisi's memory inheritance, though its truth remains uncertain.

Legend says only beings equally divine can harm a deity; any Legendary Spell cast by mortals, however powerful, cannot pose a fatal threat to a deity.

Honestly, in Naimi Xisi's impression, world‑shattering Legendary Spells that can destroy planets are not uncommon; at first he could not imagine how mighty a deity truly is, since such attacks cannot affect them.

Now, hearing Ya Se Lie Ke's words, he harbored a vague speculation.

The so‑called deity likely possesses a body governed by rules entirely different from the material world; without a special medium like 'divinity', mortal attacks cannot even make contact, let alone cause harm.

How truly awe‑inspiring, the deity.

Naimi Xisi sighed.

(End of Chapter)