Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex wasn’t sure if he didn’t understand what Godslayer was saying, or if he simply did not want to understand. Either way, he denied whatever Godslayer had said.

Midnight could not be dead. How could he be dead? How could his sword spirit be gone?

Godslayer had to be wrong. He had to be.

“You’re wrong,” Alex said after a few seconds. “Midnight isn’t dead. I can still sense him.”

“You can sense the thing that used to be Midnight,” Godslayer said. “It is not Midnight itself.”

Alex froze. “What thing are you talking about?” he asked. “What could Midnight have turned into?”

Godslayer took a long pause before answering.

“I don’t know. Even with the memories of the Artifact God that I was, I have never heard of such an incident.”

Alex felt his anger grow at the lack of answers. “Damn you, Godslayer. Answer me properly. What is happening to Midnight? Is he safe or is he dead?”

Godslayer seemed surprised by Alex’s outburst.

“I thought… I thought it really was you. Somehow, I thought you had attempted to kill us all,” Godslayer said. “How did the fog appear in your absence? How did it suddenly turn violent?”

“I don’t know,” Alex said. “I haven’t been in control of anything for nearly 70 years now. The damn Storm God put a seal all around my Soul Space and Spiritual Sea. I finally managed to dig into it to come inside. The seal still exists around me.”

“I see,” Godslayer said. “When the fog came, I first thought you had been forced to kill me by some God out there. But it had been so many years later, that I also thought it had been you. I never knew you had no control over anything.”

“Enough of that. What about Midnight?” Alex urged.

“The fog attacked him,” Godslayer said. “Just as it attacked me. He had already been weak to start with, and then the fog drove him closer to death.”

Alex took a deep breath, hoping and praying for the story to take a good turn.

“I was surrounded by the fog too, so I hadn’t noticed at first. I thought the fog only came after me. When I finally realized it was after everything, I did what I could to save him.”

“But…” Alex asked.

“But it was too late,” Godslayer said. “He had never been a proper spirit, but he had some intelligence. The fog hurt him so much that even that was driven away from him.”

Alex felt his spine go cold when he heard that.

“Midnight… lost his intelligence?” Alex asked.

“He did,” Godslayer said. “And if I had been a step later in saving him, he would have fully died.”

“What… what did you do?” Alex asked.

“Can’t you tell?” Godslayer asked. “I took him into me.”

Alex paused for a moment and then his eyes widened slowly. The white specks in the black wisps. The connection to the black flame.

All of Alex’s confusions were answered at once. Godslayer had taken Midnight into his crystal orb and now kept him right next to him.

Alex didn’t feel relieved, however. Midnight had already been hurt to a point where he wasn’t himself anymore.

This was no different than a person entering a vegetative state. They were alive, but they might as well be dead.

Alex finally understood Godslayer’s words.

Midnight was safe, but he was also dead.

Alex didn’t know how to feel about it. He was sadder than he had thought he would be, and yet somehow not sad enough. He had lost his sword spirit that he had been cultivating since he was a mere Saint.

Midnight was to his cultivation half what Memory was to his Alchemy half. And yet, despite how much Memory had flourished throughout his life, Midnight had failed to do so.

‘I didn’t try my hardest,’ Alex thought. ‘I focused too much on Memory, and not enough on Midnight. I should have attempted to help him from the start. I should have formed him a new body as soon as I could. It’s all my fault.’

There was no one to blame here other than him.

Godslayer had been partly responsible for bringing Midnight to this fate as well, but he had done his part when the Gods attacked him, and he had done his part now.

If there was anyone who did the best they could, it was Godslayer.

Alex had no one else to vent out his anger on aside from himself.

He should have tried harder. He should have attempted to break through the seal earlier. He should have spent every day trying to find a way to break through the seal, instead of hunting beasts for money to buy Elixir.

He spent half a century locked away, and what did he gain out of that? A dead friend.

No, worse than a friend. A dead kin. A dead child.

Midnight was part of Alex’s soul, so losing him was no different from losing his child.

Alex wanted to grieve, but this was not the time. He wanted answers, and as the soul of the Artifact God, Godslayer was the only person to likely hold the answers.

“Is there anything I can do to help Midnight?” Alex asked. “Anything to bring him back to how he was. As you said, he’s not dead. It’s just his intelligence that is gone.”

“It’s the same thing,” Godslayer said with a sad voice. “You can help him grow again to become a full spirit, but it won’t be the same Midnight. Are you okay with that?”

Alex thought for a long moment.

Emotionally, he was against the thought of Midnight being anyone other than who he was. But logically, he understood the need to regrow him. Even if it wouldn’t be the same Midnight as before, Alex had to do it.

The connection was still there. He couldn’t let a part of his soul go to waste like that.

“I am,” Alex said after a long time.

Godslayer remained silent for a few seconds before speaking.

“Then, can I suggest something else?”