The "Lich King" and "Ghost Lord" hiding near the Soul Furnace closely monitored the "World of Doors," ready to ambush any wounded fugitives who might escape.
Suddenly, they saw the "Death Servant" dissolve into a cloud of smoke, enveloping the Dragon Lich as it burst out.
"Did the pursuit succeed?" The Lich King materialized from the void. Though it knew full well the Death Servant couldn't kill Douglas and the others, it couldn't help asking anyway.
The Death Servant set down the Dragon Lich — gravely wounded by Rhein — and from within the smoke, two crimson pinpoints of light coalesced. It spoke in an even tone: "It didn't succeed. But we can't stay in there any longer, or that monster will kill us."
It ground its teeth in silent fury. It had originally believed it was going on the offensive, yet once inside, it discovered that every single one of them was terrifyingly ferocious. Even the two young "gentlemen" who looked comparatively weak could slay it with their equipment. If it hadn't had the presence of mind to flee, it would have been utterly annihilated in there. That it hadn't been pursued in turn was solely thanks to the "Lord's" protection.
"We've fulfilled our duty. The Lord won't blame us," the Lich King said, its pale white teeth clacking up and down, reassuring the Death Servant — and itself.
After being enveloped by two diametrically opposed, mutually irreconcilable forces, Lucian felt that his soul, physical body, spiritual power, clothes, ring, badge, pocket watch — everything — sink into a bizarre state.
A sensation arose, reminiscent of the transcendent, all-encompassing detachment Aitenna had experienced during her descent. It drew Lucian toward an inconceivable transformation, as though he too had stepped outside the material world and the spiritual realm, existing in a mysterious state where both coexisted, gazing down at himself from an impossibly elevated vantage point.
It was a scene beyond description. His soul was within the Magic Circle, his physical body was within the Magic Circle, his spiritual power was within the Magic Circle, his consciousness was within the Magic Circle — there was absolutely no way to observe himself from outside. Yet the feeling was undeniably real, strikingly similar to the feedback obtained from perceiving the world: a vast starry sky with someone gazing down from above. The only difference was that this time, his perspective had shifted to that very "person" within the infinite starry sky, coldly observing himself.
His soul and physical body underwent changes so strange they defied imagination. At times they spread like dark clouds permeating the air, omnipresent and diffuse; at other times they condensed into something tangible and solid.
"This is..." From his elevated, detached vantage point, Lucian vaguely grasped what was happening — what the Magic Circle's true capability was, what its relationship to the Soul Furnace truly meant... This was likely something even the Sun King Thanos, who had originally laid down the Magic Circle, had not understood.
"Comparing this transformation with the sensation of the Silver Moon's descent, one can see that while they share a degree of similarity, there are also significant differences. Moreover, both still lack some critical element — hence, only quasi-gods? Which is why Aitenna and the others cannot pass through the Immortal Corridor?" No one in this world had richer experience in this area than Lucian, and he had a wealth of theoretical conjectures to test and verify.
After repeated use, the Magic Circle's patterns had begun showing hairline cracks. It seemed that one or two more activations would shatter it completely. To reconstruct it, only its original master — the Sun King Thanos — could manage. Anyone else would have to spend an enormous amount of time deciphering it.
Suddenly, his body and soul seemed to fuse together, generating a tremendous suction force that wrenched the elevated, detached "Lucian" downward and plunged him back into his physical form.
That transcendent perspective vanished instantly. After a brief moment of mental confusion, Lucian regained clarity and opened his eyes — just in time to meet the monster's downward gaze.
"Excellent. You've 'died.'" A faint smile crossed the monster's gaunt, sinister face. "In truth, I'd been worried you couldn't be transformed by this Magic Circle, because your soul and memories contained far too many things I couldn't sense or probe. It seems you're hiding quite the mystery."
"That's a separate matter," Lucian said with a smile, rising to his feet. He found he had become a strange ghost-like existence — capable of dispersing at will and reforming in an instant. His strength remained at Legendary rank one, his items were still on his person, and he now possessed an intact "Substitute Puppet" in addition.
Rhein had undergone a similar transformation. He gave a soft chuckle. "This Magic Circle gives me a sensation similar to the Ancestor's. It seems to conceal the secret of Thanos's ascension to quasi-godhood. Heh — I rather thought I might become a quasi-god after undergoing the transformation myself."
"Quasi-godhood is never that simple. I am a quasi-god because Vican and I are two faces of the same entity — different manifestations of a single quasi-god. This is also the hidden danger inherent to this path. Thanos was the same, which is why he risked attempting to become a true god. The Heavenly Mountain is nothing more than a fusion of the world's energy and the power of faith — raw power without hierarchy, which only acquired true-god attributes after Thanos's core consciousness merged into it." The monster didn't elaborate too deeply. It seemed that even when facing "dead people," it was bound by restrictions preventing it from revealing the secrets of those years.
Lucian didn't press further, fearing he might trigger the restrictions and be killed. But he could roughly guess at the situation. Before Vican entered the Netherworld, he had already possessed peak-Legendary strength and was exploring the path to becoming a quasi-god. The remnants left in Thanos's laboratory had given him the complete method. Later, during the creation of the monster, he had separated off a portion of his soul along with a virtual personality, merging it into the monster to create his avatar — having the monster deal with McLeod and the others while he seized the opportunity to use the Sun King's relics to advance to quasi-godhood.
During this process, something must have gone wrong. The monster had developed partial autonomous consciousness, while Vican had used this to shed most of his other hidden dangers, leaving only this one problem — becoming a more complete quasi-god than Thanos. Otherwise, there was no way to explain why Thanos was perpetually on the verge of catastrophic failure while Vican had managed to guide the Church of Truth for over a thousand years.
"I wonder whether Vican simply advanced further than Thanos during his own research, and thus took the opportunity to separate the avatar early, eliminating the vast majority of hidden dangers — or whether it was an accidental coincidence?" Regarding the old monster's fate, Lucian leaned toward the former theory. He suspected that Vican had simply never anticipated that after his own ascension to quasi-godhood, the monster would also become a quasi-god, shattering his dream of re-fusion.
The monster had perhaps been holding its tongue for too long. Some things it couldn't say, but others it could grumble about: "To become a quasi-god through this path, you first need an extraordinarily compatible extradimensional space or a world beyond a Gate. Then you need a vast reservoir of faith power. After that, you must find a way to fuse them together. Only then can you leverage the previously condensed emotional force along with those two to effect the transformation. The failure rate is exceedingly high, and the hidden dangers are immense. The power may surpass that of a born quasi-god, but in substance it still falls slightly short."
"Heh. But we can all cast 'Divine Descent.' Maldemos and Aitenna circled around several times but never dared to enter. Only that brainless one from the Abyss charged straight in."