Ed could almost hear his heart pounding against his ribs. He looked at Verona in a daze, there was indeed no trace of blood on his ravine-crisscrossed face, but his eyes were cloudy but still bright, and the look that seemed to be smiling was by no means something that the dead muscles could express...... What's more, he had also touched the old man's skin just now, although it was cold and dry, it was not without a trace of temperature.

But he believed in his friends more than he believed in himself. Since Isis said it, it must be true.

It's incredible, but it's not so hard to accept. He had seen more than one undead who could "move freely"—except that the barbarian, who had disappeared, could not hide the thick, deathly aura that he had not had in the face of the terrible wound on his neck. And Ante Bofford ...... When we last met, I was already as flexible as the old man in front of me at this moment, as flexible as a living person.

Such miracles rely on near-divine power...... But Ed subconsciously felt that Verona would not bow to such a "god".

“...... How did you do that?" he muttered, then gave his own answer, "...... the Book of the Dead?"

"Is it surprising?" asked the exposed old mage calmly.

Ed shook his head.

He should have thought that an aging and powerful mage who had owned the Book of the Dead for an unknown number of years, under the shadow of looming death, how much could he worry about studying necromancy?

"Do you think I made myself like this because I was afraid of death?"

The old mage seemed to be able to read every thought in his head at a glance.

"Isn't it?" asked Iss with a sneer. He's had enough of such immortal monsters...... And how questionable the old monster's purpose in giving the Book of the Dead to Ed was, he really hoped that Ed could see it for himself.

"I don't expect death. Verona frankly admitted, "but will not refuse either." If that's the end of all life, I'm not interested in trapping myself in this ugly and weak body forever. I was just...... It's just a little bad time to die. ”

In Is's view, this understatement is too perfunctory.

"You just haven't been able to find a suitable, young and strong body yet, have you?" he sarcastically and irritatedly.

“...... So guess I'm targeting you, or your soft-hearted and deceitful friend?" Verona burst out laughing, her thin body shaking with laughter, and it was hard to tell if it was just irony.

“...... Do you really want to provoke a dragon?" said Ed reluctantly, "Trust me, that's definitely not a good idea...... Now, the Archmage Tower needs any possible friend, not foe...... Isn't it?"

Iss glanced at him, his clenched fingers slowly loosening.

The old man's low, ugly laughter also fell. He glared at Ed coldly, a sudden hostility that was so fierce and almost murderous that it faded away in the young man's always calm gaze.

Ed secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

It's not the first time he's faced with such a ...... Existence that is neither alive nor dead. Even if it is still in its own body, the soul that should have gone to another world is always more likely to lose control.

Verona leaned back and was silent for a long time, so long that her eyes seemed to drift away...... It was so long that Ed began to wonder if he was still here.

"It was late in the evening when I died. ”

The old man said abruptly: "I stood by the window, looking at the thing that was huddled in the chair—such a small mass, dry and ugly...... It took a while to recognize that it was me. ”

At his age, it's normal for him to suddenly lose his breath. He wasn't saddened, even though he knew that his body might not be found until days later...... Without his permission, his "disciples" did not dare to enter his room at all.

The Tower of the High is his throne, his cage and his tomb. He doesn't have any nostalgia for the world anymore, and the world probably does the same for him.

At that time, he even felt extremely relaxed—a light that he hadn't felt in a long time, as if he could go with the wind in the next moment.

At the turn of day and night, he cast his gaze out the window for the last time, no longer shackled to the soul of the flesh, and saw what he had not seen before.

"It wasn't the starlight that fell with the night," he recalled, "but the fog...... Black fog. ”

A black mist swirled around every tower, tangled into magnificent and strange flowers, which bloomed in every corner he could see, and those who walked in them were unaware, as if they did not perceive his soul walking by them.

"They seem to me to be more like dead people...... His face was pale, his eyes were blank, like the undead wandering in a cemetery......" The old mage looked down at his fingers, and slowly retracted his hand into his sleeve.

And the so-called 'never extinguished', the light created by magic, is as cold and dim as a ghostly fire.

He took a moment to think about whether the world a soul saw was meant to be the way it should be, until he saw the city of Neo outside the Archmage's Tower.

The lights of Neo City were still warm and dim, just like in the memories he was about to forget.

Well, the problematic is the Archmage Tower.

He knew while he was alive that the Archmage's Tower was no longer what it once was—in less than a hundred years, the temple of magic had degenerated into a hotbed of desire, and the young people who came with enthusiasm either rotted into mud to nourish the ambitions of others, or trampled on all that should be cherished and climbed up to the top, blooming brilliant and rancid flowers.

After experiencing deception and betrayal again and again, he has long since died. When he was alive, he made up his mind to watch coldly, but after he died...... When he could have gotten rid of all this, looking at the black mist of the Archmage Tower, he remembered the appearance of it rising from the sun and the sea breeze many, many years ago.

"I'm the only person in the world who has watched it come to life. "I can't watch it fall...... At least, not when you know it has a chance to live. ”

He returned to his already cold body to fulfill his last duty.

He had indeed studied necromancy, and he could make himself look like a living person, even his heart was still beating - it was just that it wasn't blood flowing in his veins.

He could even cast spells, but it would only cost his soul.

He had lived alone in the Supreme for too long, and there was no one he could trust...... But he is, after all, the one who stands on the top. Two months was enough time for him to see where the crisis was hidden, but there was no power to stop it.

.（）