Chapter 175: Mystery
It possessed the outline of a human, yet it had no face, no features, and no identifiable appearance. Its entire body was smooth and featureless, making it impossible to determine its age, gender.
The faceless figure simply stood there, quietly looking at the dragon.
The faceless figure was Asher himself—the manifestation of his consciousness within this world.
Asher looked at the dragon before saying,
"You can even use mind magic? Is there even a type of magic that exists in this world which you can’t use?"
The dragon replied in a calm voice,
"I can use every element that exists. When you live for thousands of years, you have more than enough time to learn them all."
After a brief pause, his gaze swept across the endless grassland before returning to the faceless figure.
"But what about you?"
He looked directly at Asher’s featureless avatar.
"Is there anything about you that’s even normal? Your consciousness is unlike anything I’ve ever seen... and so is the avatar you’re using right now."
Asher looked at the dragon before replying in a calm voice.
"My avatar? It looks perfectly fine to me."
He glanced at his own faceless body before looking across the endless grassland stretching toward the horizon.
"And the same goes for this place. It’s simply reflecting what I truly want."
His gaze wandered across the vast field, where there were no walls, no mountains blocking the view, and nothing confining him. Only an endless plain beneath an equally endless sky.
"It’s peaceful, quiet, and completely open. There are no cages, no boundaries, and no one standing above you. You can walk in any direction you want without anything stopping you."
He looked back at the dragon.
"To me... this is freedom. So I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either my avatar or my consciousness."
The dragon looked at Asher for a moment before asking, "What about your memories from your previous life? Where are they?"
Asher slowly raised his head and looked toward the endless sky. The next moment, the clear heavens began to darken as an endless ocean of black fog gradually spread across the sky, swallowing every trace of blue until nothing else remained. It hung there like a boundless sea above the grassland, completely still, yet its mere presence filled the entire consciousness with an unsettling feeling.
Asher quietly looked at the black fog before replying, "There they are... my memories from my previous life, or at least what’s left of them." After a brief pause, he looked back at the dragon and added, "Though I wouldn’t recommend going there... unless you’re willing to lose some of your own memories as well."
The dragon looked at the endless dark sky. Even for him, its presence was unsettling. The boundless ocean of black fog hanging above them radiated a sense of danger that instinctively warned him not to approach it.
He turned his gaze back to Asher and asked,
"If your memories are still there, why haven’t you tried to access them? Aren’t you curious about your previous life?"
Asher was just about to answer.
His mouth opened slightly, but then he suddenly stopped.
A faint look of confusion appeared on his face.
He looked directly at the dragon before asking,"Did you ask something?"
The dragon frowned. "I asked why you haven’t tried to recover your memories."
Asher stared at him blankly for a moment before slowly shaking his head. "I... didn’t hear anything."
The dragon’s expression gradually became serious. He had clearly spoken, yet Asher had heard nothing. Before he could think further, he noticed something strange. The endless ocean of black fog above them had shifted ever so slightly. It hadn’t descended, nor had it spread any further. It had simply moved, as though it had reacted the moment their conversation turned toward Asher’s previous life.
At that moment, the dragon finally understood.
The black fog wasn’t merely eroding Asher’s memories.
It was also constantly suppressing any thought related to them, ensuring that Asher would never dwell on his previous life for long enough to attempt recovering those memories. The moment such thoughts surfaced, they were quietly erased before they could fully form.
The dragon instinctively looked back at the endless dark sky. For the first time in thousands of years, he felt a faint sense of danger—not toward his body, but toward his very consciousness. He finally understood why Asher had warned him not to approach it. That place wasn’t merely storing his memories...
It was burying them.
The dragon became even more confused.
Just what kind of being was standing before him?
Everything about Asher seemed to be bound by restrictions that shouldn’t even exist. His will was constantly occupied resisting death, his memories were buried beneath an endless sea of black fog, and even the thought of recalling his previous life was quietly erased before it could fully form.
Then another thought suddenly crossed the dragon’s mind.
’Is this truly only his second life...?’
His golden eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Asher.
For the first time in thousands of years, the dragon realized that the greatest mystery wasn’t how Asher had escaped death.
It was how many times he might have done so already.
The dragon wanted to leave Asher’s consciousness immediately.
Every instinct he possessed was warning him that remaining here any longer was a terrible idea.
Yet his curiosity refused to let him leave.
After living for thousands of years, he had encountered countless mysteries, but none of them had ever been as incomprehensible as the being standing before him.
After a brief moment of hesitation, the dragon made a decision.
One that every instinct within him screamed was wrong.
Without saying another word, he spread his wings and shot straight toward the endless sky covered by the ocean of black fog.
The closer he flew, the heavier the pressure on his consciousness became, yet he didn’t stop.
He continued ascending, heading directly toward the boundless sea of black fog that concealed Asher’s forgotten past.