"Welcome, my junior! You've worked hard!" Spirit Immortal Dream laughed as she welcomed Shin into the white-coloured World.
"Spirit Immortal… Dream?"
"Ah, they do add titles after one ascends right? That's a bummer." The gorgeous woman frowned, not really thrilled about the title that Shin addressed her with. "Looks like no one got the clues that I'd left behind! Are the people back home that dense? I'd thought that at least Akumu would get it!"
The woman continued on at her pace, not caring about Shin's apparent shock. "Hey, what's your name? I've been stuck here for quite a long time, so I've been longing for human company! Tell me everything about your life! What happened to you from birth and how you ascended! Quick, tell me everything!"
"Wait, wait, wait! Hold on for just one second!" Shin took a few moments to recollect himself. "If you're Spirit Immortal Dream… Does that mean that I'm in the Immortal Realm?"
"Ah… you really don't know anything, do you?" Spirit Immortal Dream frowned. "Well no, you're not in the Immortal Realm."
"What do you mean?" Shin was dumbfounded. Breaking through to Rank 100, that was the way to attain Immortality. It was common knowledge for any cultivator. In fact, it was one of the main reasons why cultivators advanced their Ranks in the first place, to come closer to Rank 100 and hopefully become one of the select few to enter the Immortal Realm. Shin had done that, so why wasn't he in the Immortal Realm?
Spirit Immortal Dream sighed: "Hah… The Immortal Realm doesn't exist."
"Huh?"
"Immortality doesn't exist!" Spirit Immortal Dream dropped the bombshell upon Shin's lap. "This white space… It's a place between the Mortal Realm and the World Spirit."
"W-What?"
The Immortal Realm didn't exist? Doesn't that run counter to everything the World had been told? What about Yggdrasil, the well of souls that housed all of the dead? The twenty-one Spirit Immortals that ascended before Shin? What about those guys? Was everything about the Immortal Realm just… a lie?
"What about the Mystery of the Dream?! The final words that you left us before you ascended? Dexsoit Teninost? Wasn't that your clue on how to get to the Immortal Realm?!"
"Ah, Dexsoit Teinost? That's just simple wordplay! See?" Spirit Immortal Dream stuck her finger out and wrong the words that Shin muttered out with light. The letters stuck in the air for a while before Spirit Immortal Dream swiped at them, restructuring them into a new sentence altogether. And that sentence was...
"It does not exist?"
"Yeap! It does not exist!" Spirit Immortal Dream replied.
"..." Shin was rendered absolutely speechless. The Mystery of the Dream, the World's greatest unsolved mystery… was actually just a scrambling of a sentence?
Seeing Shin's confusion, Spirit Immortal Dream decided to bring his thoughts back on track: "Let me ask you a question, Junior. What do you think Immortality is?"
"Immortality is..." Shin turned tongue-tied at the question. Humanity had imagined Immortals as beings that broke free from their fleshy bodies, living a life of eternity drinking wine while spreading the virtuous words of Immortals. However, Shin himself had never thought about what Immortality was really like.
"Let me help you out there," Spirit Immortal Dream chuckled. "The literal definition of Immortality is… to cease to be mortal."
"Huh?"
"Junior. In our texts, Immortals are beings that live free of time and age itself. They will never die, never hunger, never reproduce and simply… exist till the end of time. They would wander the Immortal Realm, having epic adventures slaying Demons and Gods. They would drink the finest of wines while being served by a million servants. It really was a fantasy, humanity's thoughts about how eternity would look like." Spirit Immortal Dream couldn't help but smile.
"However, one day, at the peak of my research into the Immortal Realm… I began to ponder. Does Immortality really exist in the way that we all thought it would? Is Immortality really all that beautiful and is the Immortal Realm really worth chasing?"
"..." Shin silently listened to Spirit Immortal Dream's thoughts.
"Immortal… Immortal… When you really think about it… To become Immortal is to cease one's mortality. What makes us mortal? To hunger is mortal, to love is mortal, to lust is mortal, to rest is mortal, to greed is mortal, to anger is mortal, to fear is mortal. If we became Immortal… won't all those things cease as well?"
"..."
"Because we hunger, we go out and procure food. Because we love and lust, we procreate to build our future generations. Because we anger, we become stronger to protect ourselves. Because we fear, we continue to live on adapting to things that could harm us… All of these are evolutionary traits wired into all mortals. From cells to humans. From ants to whales… All mortals are adapted to survive, and should we rid ourselves of that mortality..."
Spirit Immortal Dream formed a miniature human with her mana. Mana filled it up at a rapid pace, and the human began glowing with vibrant intensity. However, the human body behaved just like a balloon. When the power flowing in was too much to bear… the body just… popped.
"This is..."
"The true nature of Spirit Immortals." Spirit Immortal Dream said with a sigh. "When a cultivator reaches Rank 100, they do not open the Gate to the Immortal Realm… They turn into pure energy that feeds the World Spirit and nourishes it for future generations. Why do you think that each time a Spirit Immortal ascends, a wave of elements surges through the continent?"
"The Immortal Realm is fake? Spirit Immortals aren't living in a realm above ours? They don't live eternal lives?"
"No, they do live eternal lives… Just not in the sense that you or I imagined it." Spirit Immortal Dream pointed her finger downwards, gesturing for Shin to follow its direction. And sure enough…
"That's!" Shin couldn't control his excitement. He saw a burning tree, one that mirrored his exact imagination of how Yggdrasil looked like. It was the well of souls that Shin had dreamed for so long about. It was the reason why he chased Immortality in the first place. To reach the Immortal Realm and resurrect Ariel and all those that he loved!
"What do you see?" Spirit Immortal Dream asked.
"Yggdrasil! Does it really exist? Can I resurrect the ones that I've lost?"
Spirit Immortal Dream paused for a moment, not knowing whether to break the news to Shin or not. However, she quickly decided on the former. "No… That's not Yggdrasil. It's not a well of souls, and neither is it a mystical entity that grants all wishes."
"It's not Yggdrasil?" Shin's excitement melted away like ice on a blisteringly hot summer's day. "What is it?"
"It's the World Spirit. The power that holds our planet together and the place where all Spirit Immortals reside." Spirit Immortal Dream looked frustrated as she watched the World Spirit morph yet again into a shape that bewitches those that came near to it. "I told you earlier on, this is the place between the Mortal Realm and the World Spirit. In a bid to escape my fate of becoming like the rest of the Spirit Immortals, I used up all of my spiritual energy and essence to create this space, hoping to prevent the next Spirit Immortal from suffering the eternal fate."
"Suffering the eternal fate?"
"Junior… Immortality doesn't happen in the books that we've been taught. Once you rid yourself of your mortality, you'll cease to hunger because you'll have no reason to eat. You'll cease to love and lust because you'll have no reason to procreate. Since nothing can kill you, you need not be mindful of anything. Even trees adapt so that they can grow, but since Immortals can never grow… they won't have any reason to do anything. And without any reason… Immortals simply become… mindless energy."
Spirit Immortal Dream's reasoning struck Shin like a lightning bolt. It made total sense when one put it that way. The World lived on a cycle. Life and death. Birth and grave. Scholars had theorised many a time that to become Immortal, was to truly break the cycle. However, as it turned out… Immortals simply became fodder for the World to build newer and better lifeforms.
"In a sense, Spirit Immortals do lead eternal lives. As energy that lives within the World Spirit, as long as the World Spirit that doesn't cease to exist, the Immortals that fed their life essence and mana to the World Spirit would continue to live on. As mindless energy, of course."
"So that flaming tree is just..."
"The World Spirit's manifestation of your most cherished dream. To you, it looks like Yggdrasil, in my eyes, it's the Book of Truth, the key toall knowledge in the World. Gnarly isn't it? Since it can't lure us into itself, the World Spirit is trying to charm you into entering its body." Spirit Immortal Dream frowned.
"It can't lure us in?"
"Yeah! I'd told you right? I created this space to await the arrival of the next Spirit Immortal. I didn't do that for fun, you know? I wanted to share the true nature of the World Spirit with you and send you back to the realm below!"
"Then why didn't you tell that to Yume Metropolis? Share that information with your own members and not massacre them!"
"Do you think I didn't try?" Spirit Immortal Dream snorted. "I don't know what you know about what happened in Yume Metropolis that day, but it's probably all fake news. That day, when the executives of my government broke into my lab and found out that the Immortal Realm wasn't real, they all went into a frenzy! They destroyed all of my research, branding me as a heretic. At the same time, my own citizens claimed that I'd lost my way and were demanding my execution!"
"Why would they do that?" Shin asked apprehensively. Based on Akumu's and history's reports, Spirit Immortal Dream was well-liked by her citizens. For them to turn on her that quickly...
"You don't know what the Immortal Realm, the dream of Immortality means to humans! At least in my time, there were still many who were ardent in their beliefs that the Immortal Realm was real and if one cultivated enough, they would become the next Spirit Immortal, breaking the curse of death. So I'd thought to seal myself here and wait for the times to pass. I was hoping that as the years passed, the World would become a much more liberal place where my research and relics would spread across the globe so once the next Spirit Immortal arises, he or she will have a better understanding of my thoughts. That's why I didn't leave a direct message, but a cryptic rearrangement of words. I only wanted people who thought like me to get the words that I'd left behind."
"You..."
"Well, it worked out fine didn't it? You're here now and from the looks of it… You have no issue with the Immortal Realm being a false dream… uh… What was your name again, Junior?"
From the beginning, since Shin got here, Shin hadn't given Spirit Immortal Dream his name, nor did he tell his story.
"It's Shin… Shin Iofiel."
"Aha! Shin Iofiel! The name of the twenty-second human who broke through Rank 100! Hehe, I've told you everything that you need to know about me, so why don't you return the favour? I've been cooped up here for a loooong time, and I really need some stories to keep my Spirit going!"
"Wait! I'm not done asking questions!"
"Hey! I've been talking my throat dry! Also, I'm not going to give out my information for free! I tell you one story, you tell me another. Make it fair!"
Shin looked at the woman for a moment before relenting a sigh. Where was the dignified Spirit Immortal Dream that he heard his master gush about? Where was the super genius that ruled the World five hundred years ago? Where was the peerless beauty that the Allfather was willing to purge the World into the worst war in its history just to meet again? All of Shin's expectations of Spirit Immortal Dream just came plunging down the cliff the moment he met her.
"Fine, I'll talk..."
Shin started his story with his sole spectator glistening from both eyes as she sat obediently like a child waiting for a bedtime story. Shin's account of his life started out lightly. His childhood in the Frie Clan and the happy memories he had as a child. Making friends with Junius, Ariel and the plethora of other orphans. Then, Shin's story took a deeper turn as he revealed the backstory of his past about the Awter and Frie Clan.
The fall of the Frie Clan... Ariel's and Lily's death… Shin told everything to Spirit Immortal Dream. However, he didn't just stop with all the negative in his life. Shin went straight into the other relations he formed with Kanari, Lady Seph, the other important people in his life… His latter years with his children and watching them grow as adults…
But most importantly… Shin told Spirit Immortal Dream all about the Allfather, or Akumu, her long-cherished friend who destroyed the World just to get another shot at meeting her.
Spirit Immortal Dream's face churned. Her smile vanished completely as he heard of all the atrocities that Akumu had committed just to open Heaven's Gate. For the most part, Spirit Immortal Dream couldn't believe that Akumu was capable of such a feat!
"If you had made it clear to him from the start that the Immortal Realm doesn't exist, I doubt the Allfather would have gone to such lengths." Shin chastised Spirit Immortal Dream, blaming her for the long war that the Allfather had waged.
"The Payircis that you made to serve as training grounds, they became breeding grounds for Umbras. The weapons that you've developed, the Allfather used it to destroy cities. The research you had about the Terre Dragon, the Allfather used it to split the Terre Continent. Because you didn't settle it with the Allfather, he destroyed the modern World as we knew it."
"Akumu that brat..." Spirit Immortal Dream scratched the back of her ear, unable to refute a single word. "It was my folly… I should've made it clear to him."
"It doesn't matter now..." Shin sighed as he turned his attention back to the World Spirit. He knew better than anyone that it was impossible to reverse time and resurrect a human being. So, he'd thought that the Immortal Realm would provide the answers. Alas… Immortality doesn't exist.
"What's done can't be undone. The most that the World can do… is look forward and rebuild from the ground up."
Shin's comment may have seemed to have no other implications, but Spirit Immortal Dream caught on to what Shin was insinuating.
"The World… Does it include a World without Shin Iofiel?"
"... You're sharp."
Flabbergasted, Spirit Immortal Dream slammed her fist down in her first outbreak of the day. "Why?! I have the ability to send you back! That's the whole reason why I created this place! To send the next Spirit Immortal back down so that he could spread the news about Immortality! Don't you want to spend more time with your wife and children? Why do you want to throw away three centuries of your life just to become energy?"
"Spirit Immortal Dream… If I don't make this ascension, will the World undergo the same cataclysm it did when you ascended?"
"That..."
Spirit Immortal Dream was tongue-tied. Yes, the main reason why the World didn't dance with bliss sending auroras into the sky while pure energy halos graced all corners of the globe… was because Spirit Immortal Dream hadn't truly ascended. She defied nature and stalled her merger with the World Spirit, which in turn triggered an all-out natural disaster that decimated the planet.
"The World can't handle another disaster like that, Spirit Immortal Dream. Not when it's rebuilding after the arduous war that it just faced."
"But!"
"Also… You misunderstand something about the World Spirit." Shin turned towards the flaming tree. It seemed to be burning for eternity, but eventually, its flame will die out. And at the end of the burning tree's life, an adorable cerulean little Koi will emerge, dancing along with the last embers of the tree.
"It keeps the cycle going. It keeps the order of nature and the balance that holds the planet together. And in the end..." Shin glanced over his shoulder and smiled at the frozen face of Spirit Immortal Dream. "It will always keep the peace. The cycle will continue to spin, on and on until the end of time."
"You really..." Spirit Immortal Dream slapped her hand on her forehead. Her interpretation of the World Spirit went one way, while Shin's ideals of the World Spirit went the other. The two philosophical beliefs clashed and most likely… there was no persuading Shin out of his final decision.
"You know I really waited a long time… I don't want to wait another five centuries for another Rank 100." Spirit Immortal Dream sighed before making her final plea. "Alright! This will be the last time I'm offering you this. Do you want to enter the World Spirit, or take my portal back to the Mortal Realm? What's your choice?"
Shin paused for a moment. The allure of returning home, to a place where his loved ones would be delighted to have him back… was a tempting offer. He couldn't resurrect Ariel, Shizen, Junius or any of his cherished friends that he'd lost in the war anymore. Shin's whole motive for entering the Immortal Realm had melted away, and it was stupid for him to live eternity as a mindless blob of energy.
But ultimately… there was only one choice that Shin could make.
"My choice is..."