Mage Manual-Chapter 1464 - 1066: Think Whatever You Want_2

This Sword Blade Storm isn’t merely the mage wielding blades like spinning tops, but rather after the blade pierces the enemy’s body, it triggers a storm of steel, shredding the enemy from within. Indeed, this wonder isn’t quite practical against mages; after all, a mage can survive or be severely wounded with a single slash, but it’s perfectly suited for dealing with large monsters, ensuring their regenerative capabilities are utterly destroyed!

Scarlet blood rains down noisily. Ash releases his demon form, dragon blood streaking his face, making his otherwise unassuming, trash-can-like visage appear somewhat sinister.

He looks to Death Mad, who is smoking against the wall, and asks, "Aren’t you going to help?"

"If I help, the situation would be worse."

"Why did such a foe suddenly appear?" Ash asked, "Wasn’t it said that everyone here had been eaten by Uroboros?"

"Let me ask you a question," Death Mad said, "If we could live in Uroboros’s stomach unscathed, do you think we’d still be escaping along the timeline?"

Ash paused, pondered for a moment, then nodded, "Yes."

"Oh? Why?"

"You are not the sort of people willing to live in fear," Ash said, "Even Youmo wouldn’t wish to live in a hopeless apocalypse. You aim to retaliate against the world’s monstrous beasts, not survive like humble ants."

"However, if you could rest in the devoured world, you wouldn’t feel as though you’re cornered." He said, "The Forgotten is the stomach’s means of dealing with you?"

"One of the means," Death Mad said, "You can think of yourself as a virus invading the human body, The Forgotten are like white blood cells. They are responsible for destroying all named things, preventing any beings from living within Uroboros’s stomach."

"The Forgotten, are they all mages consumed by Uroboros?" Ash sighed, "Seems like Harvey would really appreciate such necromancy wonder..."

"It’s not necromancy faction, all The Forgotten, once they remember their names, can return to their peak power, something necromancy faction cannot achieve." Death Mad shook his head, "If anything, it’s closer to time wonder, calling forth your past self... but is it really fine for you to be so leisurely?"

"What?"

"The emergence of The Forgotten means the ’stomach’ has already noticed you. Killing one will only draw in more of them." Death Mad said, "Until you are thoroughly marked by the ’stomach’, countless ones will emerge to hunt you down each time you appear."

Ash’s heart sank as he quickly scavenged Source Crystal materials at the stronghold, luckily finding a silk box—perhaps the only means of preservation—and inside it, he discovered a tribulation!

Placing the tribulation on the back of his hand, Ash noticed the eye imprint on it transformed into two pupils.

As he left the stronghold, he saw two patches of white foam appear on the ground beside him.

Engaging in battles with The Forgotten is futile, offering neither spoils nor victory but inviting more pursuit, so Ash ignored it, sprinting directly toward the next stronghold, casually asking, "Besides The Forgotten, how else does the stomach drive us away?"

"Drive away? No, no, no, The Forgotten aren’t here to drive you away; they’re here to make you ’join’." Death Mad said, "If they defeat you, you naturally will be digested by Uroboros."

"The stomach’s other means, have little impact on you." She said, "It’s just that you’ll continuously lose memory."

"Oh... what!?"

Ash stared directly at Death Mad in shock, "I’ll lose memory!?"

"To be precise, as long as you spend a second in the stomach, you’ll lose a second’s memory." Death Mad said, "But memory is a very nuanced form of information. Losing even a crucial second can cause an entire memory sequence to gradually fade, hence those who would try to linger in the stomach, whether as demigods, Divine Lords, or Supreme beings, typically forget everything within a year, quietly absorbed by the stomach."

"Isn’t that severe?" Ash’s voice trembled slightly, "How can it have little impact on me?"

"Because of bonds."

Death Mad said, "We once survived for a while in the stomach, researching a wonder called bonds to form links between each other and lock our memories, barely preventing memory loss."

"You have a level four bond with them, allowing you to survive in the stomach for about four years before entirely forgetting the shared memories with them."

Ash paused and asked, "What about my... other memories?"

"Naturally, they’ll be completely forgotten." Death Mad said coolly, "But even if I tell you, you probably won’t realize what you’ve forgotten—"

"No, I know what I’ve forgotten." Ash mumbled, "I forgot Harvey’s joke about the coffin lid... which is why I was guessing for so long."

Harvey once said he engraved Ash’s erratic relationship graph on the coffin lid, infuriating Ash to the point of wanting to hit him. When he found clues on the coffin lid, he should have immediately recalled this, as a demigod mage’s memory shouldn’t be so poor, especially since he hadn’t indulged yet... Clearly, his memory regarding the coffin lid was lost when he first entered Hell.

"Afraid?" Death Mad asked, "Of losing pieces of your past self bit by bit."

"Not afraid." Ash inhaled deeply, "If there’s no future, holding onto the past is of no use; it wouldn’t even count as a lifebuoy."