Chapter 362: The Weak Fate (Part 2)

  "You're still the same as before..." Inham shook his head slightly, the tenderness in his eyes fading as he turned and walked toward the distant place where the gargoyles were kept. This was his last gentle glance toward the past, a final farewell to all the tenderness of twenty years ago.

  No matter how beautiful, what has passed is gone. Similarly, no matter how cruel, the future will come. Both are equally unchangeable, and what must be faced still must be faced.

  "Stop." Vedenina's voice suddenly rose in pitch. "Where are you going?"

  "I'm sorry. I have something very important to do. I'll be your audience again if there's a chance... if there's still a chance... Goodbye..." Inham didn't turn back, his footsteps growing faster.

  "I said stop." Vedenina waved her hand, and a wall of green flames suddenly shot up from the ground, almost grazing Inham's toes.

  Inham frowned and stopped.

  Sandro neither spoke nor moved. He didn't even seem to intend to stop Inham from leaving. His face remained as gloomy as before, but the fierce killing intent was gone. He just watched the two of them coldly from the side.

  "What, do my words make you uncomfortable, so you don't want to listen and want to escape?"

  "It's not escape, I just have something to do."

  "What can you still do? Don't you understand yet that all of this is fate, and everything you do is futile?"

  "Since you know I'm futile, why do you stop me?"

  "Do you think there's hope?"

  "Perhaps one in ten thousand."

  "To not let go of such a small possibility, you remind me of a mad gambler."

  "You know I never gamble. I only do what I think should be done. No matter how small the opportunity, it's still an opportunity. If I don't do it, even that one in ten thousand chance will be gone."

  After a moment of silence, Vedenina said slowly, "There are just some things I must say to you now. Because there may be no chance later."

  "Oh?" Inham was slightly surprised. "Go on."

  "Do you know? You are weak. From the past until now, you have always been like this. In terms of talent and intelligence, you are inferior to no one, but in the end, you are still a failure because you are weak."

  Inham sighed softly and shook his head slightly.

  "Don't deny it. Think for yourself, what have you put your heart into in these twenty years? Traveling everywhere to enjoy the scenery? Messing around with your countless lovers scattered across the continent? If you could concentrate all your energy on one thing, you would not be in this state now. Whether focusing on studying magic or striving for greater power and status, you could have had greater strength to deal with what happened later, and even a tiny hope to delay the gears of fate. But you didn't. From the moment you refused to face fate, it was destined that you could only escape weakly for your whole life, waiting to be crushed by the gears of fate and the times. Not submitting to fate, yet lacking the determination and perseverance to resist fate - from the moment you chose to escape fate, your ending was already determined."

  "Is this supposed to be a lesson to me? Thank you." Inham smiled bitterly, reaching out to face the wall of green flames and gestured several times in the air. A path then opened in the middle of the flames. But just as he was about to continue stepping forward, more violent flames shot up again, instantly filling the gap.

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  "I'm not finished speaking. Don't you understand respect?" The flames in the Lich's eye sockets burned much more intensely.

  "I know what you're saying, there's no need to say more," Inham said flatly.

  "What I can't stand the most is your attitude. You're clearly wrong but unwilling to admit it, pretending to understand everything."

  "You can't stand what I'm pretending, you can't stand your own weakness." Inham turned to look at Vedenina. There was no longer a trace of confusion or haziness in his eyes, only clarity. "Don't force me to say these things. These are actually what I've always wanted to say to you, but I knew you wouldn't like to hear them."

  "Me, weak?" The sound in the Lich's throat suddenly changed, like a thousand broken gongs being struck violently and suddenly cracking together. The flames in her eye sockets burned so intensely they almost burst out, but her face remained that of a skeleton, so only her extreme agitation could be seen, not whether she was amused or something else. "I abandoned such a beautiful body, so many things that countless people dreamed of, and accomplished magical feats that even Archibald couldn't complete, transforming into a Lich. And you say I'm weak? I stood on the wheel of fate and pushed it forward. Even the power of the entire continent couldn't stop me. I'm weak?"

  "Weakness is a woman's right... of course, stubbornness is too." Inham smiled faintly.

  "Give me a break." Vedenina was probably sneering. "You're just a failure. Since the Magic Academy, in what aspect could you surpass me? Until now, compared to me, where have you won?"

  "I admit, in understanding of magic, theological debates, or practical magic combat, I can't match you in any aspect. Looking at it now, you have indeed won. But victory and weakness are not opposites, and powerful ability doesn't equal inner strength. The weaker a person is, the more they desire to prove themselves through victory."

  "Victory is victory, defeat is defeat, where is the need to prove it?"

  "If there's no need to prove it, then why do you need me to stay and listen carefully to your declaration of victory? Aren't you hoping to see my remorse and regret to verify your own success? At least I'm certain that Archibald never hoped to be great, nor did he ever feel so. He didn't transform into a Lich, not because he couldn't, but because he was unwilling. It was because he faced his own life with acceptance. He was a great person because he accepted everything that belonged to him, including death and failure." Inham paused, looking at the unusually intense flames in Vedenina's eye sockets and sighing softly, but continued to speak. "So-called fate, in fact, none of us can grasp it. The only thing we can do is face it. The formation and pulling out of The Black Star is just a cycle of this world's own operation. After The Black Star releases the apocalypse, perhaps even the Lich King himself will disappear. What can you gain? Just an illusion that transcends everything. In fact, no matter what you do, what position you stand in, under the wheel of fate, you are still just a speck of dust. What you pursue is not fate, but the feeling of transcending everything."

  "Don't you feel that everything you do is forced by yourself? Forced by your obsession to transcend everything. Why can't you be stronger? To face and accept properly, instead of escaping in this way? I know, we all have wronged you, but you must also understand that we all have our own positions, our own reasons... In fact, no matter whether you chose to wait for me back then, or chose someone else, you would be better than now..."

  "Shut up—" The angry roar burst from the Lich's body, so loud and fierce that one wondered if it would shatter her tattered, dry body.

  "My words are finished. Goodbye." The expression on Inham's face didn't change at all. The fire wall behind him had extinguished, and he turned to continue walking in the original direction.

  "Go to hell." The flames in Vedenina's eye sockets were as if a hundred pounds of kerosene had been poured into them, burning so intensely that they turned everything except anger into ashes. Her withered hand rose. Dark magical fluctuations surged and condensed on her arm, and a giant green firebird instantly appeared before her.

  There was no hot air wave or any abnormality in the air. The degree of flame condensation had almost reached a physical entity, with all temperature and necromancy contained within without revealing the slightest bit. The firebird spread its wings and, with a flap, transformed into a green afterimage and flew toward Inham, who had his back to her.

  Inham was still walking. Although the firebird was silent, the violent magical fluctuations could be felt even by a goblin who was immortal and had nothing to do with magic, yet he didn't even turn his head.

  In an instant, the firebird transformed into an extremely dense sea of green flames, engulfing Inham's figure. Even the surrounding obsidian ground melted under this high temperature mixed with necromancy. This was a flame comparable to the great magic of a Dark Dragon, and no object could survive under this flame.

  The flames in Vedenina's eyes had diminished a lot. This spell released not only magic but also her anger that had submerged her reason. She seemed to be in a daze, just staring blankly at the sea of fire that had engulfed Inham's figure, her withered hand still maintained in mid-air without putting it down. Once she remained motionless like this, she was indeed no different from a statue.

  The sea of fire dissipated, and that area of ground had become a large pool of lava. The flames in Vedenina's eye sockets, which had originally faded, suddenly flared up again.

  Inham was actually still there. He was still walking in the original direction without turning his head. The only difference from before was that he had turned up the collar of the robe he was wearing, enveloping his entire body under that robe.

  "Robe of the Lich Lord? Master... you..." Vedenina exclaimed in surprise, looking at Sandro.

  Sandro replied flatly, "He stole it from me before."

  "You're not going to stop him?" Vedenina asked in surprise. The Robe of the Lich Lord could resist all magical attacks, but that didn't mean it was truly invincible, at least not in the face of Sandro's corpse control technique.

  "Why should I stop him?" Sandro still stood there motionless, asking in return.

  "He's wearing the Robe of the Lich Lord, he has violated Lord Archibald's last instructions, he is a traitor to Necromancers. And didn't he previously... to you..."

  "That was before." Sandro nodded. "Before just now, he was indeed the person I most wanted to kill. But now I want to see what he actually wants to do, what he can do."

  "He is definitely going to find a way to hinder the arrival of the Lich King. As a Necromancer, this is absolutely not allowed."

  "I already withdrew from Diya Valley long ago, you know that. Go find the others in the guild." Sandro also turned and walked in another direction. "I suddenly remembered, I also have something to do and want to try..."