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Chapter 510.1: Our Ancestors’ Conclusion (1)

Assimilating the Crown’s Stones had never been easy. The process remained torturous even with the System’s help.

Glacier Creator nearly froze him to death.

Tempest Caller dilated his perception of time to the point where every minute felt like a year to him. The mental strain was so severe that it affected his biological function, causing his hair to grow longer.

Those two experiences lowered Roel’s expectations regarding the assimilation of the Crown’s Stones. All he hoped was for nothing to go wrong.

To his relief, the assimilation of Flooding Death started out peaceful, possibly due to the lack of organized resistance from the deceased calamity. Halfway through, however, foreign memories suddenly flooded his mind.

These memories were severely fragmented and disordered, and it swiftly induced an intense migraine in him. His mana pulsations also became erratic.

Charlotte noticed the pained frown on his face and grew anxious.

“Darling, what’s wrong?”

“There’s… a bit of a problem. Don’t worry… I can handle it,” Roel assured her through gritted teeth.

He turned his attention back to the inflow of memories and quickly figured out that they belonged to Flooding Death. He had no idea how an ancient monster made out of curses could have the capacity to store memories, but he instinctively understood their value.

The Six Calamities were destroyers who had decimated countless civilizations over the course of history. Innumerable intelligent races had utilized everything at their disposal to investigate those terrifying monsters but to no avail. The only thing they uncovered were legends stating that they had originated from a being transcending the gods—the Mother Goddess.

How did those calamities come about? How do they mature? What are their unique traits?

No one had concrete answers to those questions, but these were information Roel needed to know in order to deal with the Six Calamities.

Knowing that Flooding Death’s memories potentially contained information about the Six Calamities’ weaknesses, Roel dived into its memories and began browsing through them.

This process was hardly pleasant at all—it felt like things were being stuffed into his brain. Nevertheless, due to Flooding Death’s lack of consciousness, he was able to smoothly acquire its memories.

Much to Roel’s surprise, Flooding Death’s memories were more boring than he had expected.

Flooding Death spent the majority of its time either drifting across the air, gazing upon the earth from above, or lying in wait in an unknown mountain valley. It showed no signs of hunting behavior whatsoever, leaving many doubts about how it grew.

Roel was leaning toward the theory that it fed on the mana in the environment, which was also the main viewpoint held by academics.

The Six Calamities were intangible beings without a digestive system, which meant that they couldn’t absorb any nutrients even if they did hunt down prey. There also wasn’t anything in the world that could supply them with an endless supply of energy to grow other than mana.

Of course, the severe fragmentation of the memories meant that the information Roel received wasn’t fully accurate. It was also possible that Flooding Death did hunt prey to grow, just that it wasn’t reflected in the memories.

Other than that, Roel noticed that Flooding Death had a peculiar quirk.

That fellow likes the moon?

Looking at the silvery moon from Flooding Death’s perspective, several theories emerged in Roel’s mind.

There was no question that the moon was a special existence to the Six Calamities, given how the Mother Goddess had previously gazed upon him through the moon. Even so, the frequency of which Flooding Death looked at the moon was oddly high.

Is it waiting for orders? Or does moonlight become nutrients for these calamities too?

Roel tried expanding on that line of thought, only to let out a deep sigh moments later.

Putting aside whether his conjecture was right or not, the moonlight was a natural phenomenon that humans didn’t have the power to interfere with. Even if it did provide nutrients to the Six Calamities, he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

Roel shook his head and continued browsing through Flooding Death’s memories.

At some point, the memories began transiting from sceneries of the ground and the moon to silent darkness.

What’s going on? Do the Six Calamities get grounded too?

Roel frowned. He considered the situation and soon deduced a possibility.

While Flooding Death’s memories were highly disordered, they seemed to be mainly played in a reverse chronological order. This silent darkness could be its memories prior to leaving the ancient remnant.

Having figured out a plausible reason, Roel patiently waited for the silent darkness to fade away, but to his bewilderment, the darkness continued for far longer than he had expected.

The pitch-black environment reminiscent of an incarceration dungeon was suffocating to him, slowly dousing whatever motivation he had. Stress was accumulating in him, but he was unable to stop the flow of memories as he was in the midst of assimilating the Crown’s Stone.

This stifling memories of silent darkness continued for an entire hour. By then, Roel’s attention was already waning, and he even felt a little sleepy.

The only information he could deduce from this was that Flooding Death had gone into a long period of hibernation. The location was probably the ancient remnant Bruce and Andrew had explored back when they were still adventurers.

It was just that these pieces of information were disappointingly not of much value to Roel.

As he lamented the lack of useful information, there was a sudden change in the memories.

The abrupt change in the scenery from darkness piqued Roel’s attention, and he soon found himself faced with an unexpected figure.

…

Black curses whirled furiously above a blighted land, stirring up an even stronger vortex. Charlotte’s face paled at that sight.

Her instincts were telling her to flee, but when she looked at the black-haired man standing in the eye of the storm, her erratic heartbeat slowly calmed down. The glow she emanated also intensified in resonation to her feelings.

It was torture to her to be standing at the heart of the curses, but it was a different story if her lover was here with her. It wasn’t just because he could distract her from the surroundings, but that she didn’t want him to face this ordeal all alone too.

Roel’s observation was on point—she was indeed frightened of this land of death left in the wake of Flooding Death. How could she not be afraid of those curses when she knew better than anyone else what they were capable of?

But contrary to what Roel thought, she hadn’t stepped onto the land because she had found the courage to confront her fear. Rather, it had been outshadowed by a greater fear.

The memories of her suffering and despair from being constantly in a near-death state sent shivers down her spine, but that was nothing compared to the terror she felt when she thought she was going to lose Roel.

In the nights after she had saved Roel, her dreams would always bring her back to the moment she saw him collapsed in the darkness, his face pale and his body bleeding out. That horrifying sight was more than enough to jolt her awake, where she would find herself drenched in cold sweat and her heart palpitating in fear.

That was why she refused to allow Roel to enter this accursed land that had nearly taken his life all alone, even when just the sight of the curses sent goosebumps up her arms.

She hated how Roel was often getting injured while trying to protect others, only to lack self-awareness about his health and safety. Yet, that might have been why she fell in love with him in the first place. This left her increasingly protective of him.

It calmed her heart just to see Roel safe and sound. She knew that she had made the right choice accompanying him here.

But at some point in time, the atmosphere around Roel started to change.

He had a nervous expression when he first started absorbing Flooding Death, but excitement soon shone on his face as if he had noticed something. His excitement slowly died out to boredom, and now, he was looking awfully severe.

Did something happen?

Charlotte’s heart pounded in unease.

Something seemed to be happening to Roel, but there weren’t any fluctuations in the mana. She was both confused and worried about the situation, but after a long moment of hesitation, she firmly held herself back from talking or approaching him.

Those curses are dangerous, but they weren’t able to curb darling back when they were alive—they probably stand less of a chance now that they are dead. But what does darling’s reactions mean…