Chapter 28 - Impossible Fight Finale: The Closing Curtain

Life is a characteristic that distinguishes physical entities that have biological processes such as signaling and self-sustaining execution from those that do not. Either because if such functions have ceased then they will be classified as dead.

But is it the only thing that separates them both? There were many arguments and consensus about what life truly was, but it has been broken down by one single person in the history of scientific metaphysical matters.

'To live is to have a soul, a center of consciousness strings that utilizes the thoughts to alter reality in a physical sense. But higher beings could also be categorized as alive because they do have a soul or even multiple that could tamper with reality without any medium such as a brain or physical vessel.'

Consciousness Strings, page 189. Author, Ethera Mana.

"Foel, cast more layers, together with a breathing spell," MF said, as she tried to calculate her own capabilities in string manipulation.

"You have a plan?"

In a sharp turn toward the sky. MF used 10 months worth of energy to create another organic rocket engine together with the fuel glands. As the sun from the unknown world shined ever brighter than the glowing ball of fire from Neamh, the humanoid speedster dared to challenge the height limit as she sought out the sole object beyond the sky like a hungry moth.

MF only had around 30 months worth of energy by now but she still hasn't given up, trying to utilize the surplus of the cancer cell perpetual creation and destruction inside her body.

Foel had cast numerous layers, oxygen layer, friction layer, heat layer, protection layer—using almost every mana she had for this sole moment.

The exhilaration tried to dig deep into both rebels' hearts, usurping their imminent death by keeping movement forward to outpace death. "It's the time to be Icarus, but with stronger wings."

Breaking the sound barrier quadrupled the times, the couple held tight onto each other as the world began to shrink and more divine beasts could be seen. Enormous dragon with the length of Saturn's rings, a turtle the size of the entire galaxy, and more wonders could be seen unmoving even though Foel and MF were accelerating in the speed that no normal human's eyes could capture without anticipating.

Until eventually, they soared higher than the Crysaj himself.

"With our speed, we have thirty second before the golden strings can catch up," MF said, glancing Foel's face to see if there were any hidden wounds mentally or physically for the 111th time on this ride. "I know what to do. For now, just look at this scenic universe that no mortal has perceived, ingrain it within your memory."

Foel tightened her grips to MF's shoulder. "You could actually just leave me back then."

"Indeed…"

MF had planned out what she would do in that 30 seconds. In the first three seconds, she explored her own body in the effort to find where the soul was attached to the physical vessel. Her thousands of consciousness strings were sprawling like a net, the ultimate tentacle that were trained to meticulously temper something small like genes in DNA.

'Is it the heart? The lung? The brain? The center?'

The soul of someone has always been referred to as supernatural or metaphysical. Why does reincarnation even exist? What was the factor that determines this complex universe? Every living being could sense and feel what happened to their soul but none of them could detect or locate them without using Artifacts.

It took a second longer than what she had planned to uncover the secret location of the soul.

42.

There were forty two anchors that kept the soul hidden from the physical world, as if it was in another private three-dimensional space located in the living being's center.

Just like a robot tinkered with its own code, MF found the symbols pill orbiting her own soul. All of this time, she didn't know what the look of her soul was like, now she knew. Her mind kept searching for answers every second she was alive.

Most of the soul anchor was found within the brain and the rest were spread evenly throughout the physical vessel. Calamities and animals might have a different soul anchor's position than humans.

A mana cultivator would probably find and feel their soul easily, a physical cultivator could do it when they reach a higher stage but MF was neither of those. MF was the first mortal ever recorded in the book of life to ever locate their own soul without any intervention of outside energy.

'Soul Enlightenment' acquired.

Another second was taken to determine Foel's soul location hastily. When she found the fiery and valiant soul that the tanomobi had, MF needed her partner's consent before tampering with it as it could result in the death of her if not done meticulously.

"Foel… I will take your fate with my palm, could you lend it?"

Foel only replied with a slight giggle, "You buffoon, I'm already yours."

As if she was running out of time, MF uprooted every anchor as she held each of them with her dense consciousness-strings. Foel's physical body had been disconnected by its fundamental controller.

Foel's eyes were lifeless, the kindling was dimming, her grip became weak so MF clenched the tanomobi tight to her body with her arms to keep her from falling. Strangely enough, there were still moving forces that could be felt within her body. She was in a coma, not dead.

The requirements to shake off the Crysaj's pursuit was to separate the soul from its physical vessel, but Foel's soul was not fully separated from the body as if they were still resonating despite not metaphysically connected.

'Why!? Is it because of the presence!?'

MF had only ten seconds before the golden strings could reach her. With no hesitation, she immediately tried to warp Foel's soul using her consciousness strings.

'Shit!'

Even though she had sprawled thousands of her consciousness, it wasn't enough to cover a whole soul using this brute technique. Many cultivators could just use their mana to fuel their convenient spell for this kind of situation, but MF couldn't.

MF head was onto the above, the pain of not being able to use the mana was so crushing in this moment, it was so sour that she couldn't help but grin with tears. "Foel, you have a bright future. I'll promise, you will be alive at the end of the day."

Branching, her soul was branching. It split and branched more than what an arbitrary number could count. She scraped her own soul to thicken her soul strings into a height where even an immortal couldn't reach.

Elongated, tempered, crawling, and spreading. If all of her soul strings were combined into one singular line, it would've become a bridge that can cover the distance between the Neamh and the Moon.

MF meticulously enveloped Foel's soul until there were no fluctuations that could escape to resonate with the physical body, creating a Schrodinger space where the soul's location was perceived as there and not at the same time.

The golden strings were finally at the speed where they reached the two fleeing individuals. They broke the protection layers. At the moment where they touched Foel's body, they immediately changed their target.

Foel was dead.

"So it worked!"

MF took a U-turn to get into the ground again, facing millions of death strings that could mince her into pieces. In the last ditch effort, MF sacrificed her well built tungsten muscles to turn them into a fuel, condensing it to reach six times the speed of light.

Bodily fluids were leaving through all of her holes, her eyes were determined but her body was scraped inch by inch until her forms were badly mangled, as some of the meat was minced by the contacts of the golden strings again and again.

The same as Foel, her skin was also scrapped multiple times but it seems like her Passive Healing could work even without the consciousness controlling it, drying the last bits of mana the tanomobi had.

Until finally, both of them had reached where they all began. While dodging numerous golden strings faster than the speed of sounds, MF perceived that lucky bastard unconscious body that was used as the intersection between worlds.

Although Foel was freed from Crysaj, MF wasn't. To survive, MF must kill herself.

She then put one of her forefinger into the side of her head, before constructing a mini organic cannon at the size of a finger on the tip.

The devil was only smiling. "I'll be back."

The trigger was pulled, destroying her delicate soul anchor on her brain that she couldn't even detach herself, the rest of the soul anchor followed suit. Grabbing onto Foel's enclosed soul, MF strided into the cramped private Schrodinger space she made.

MF was dead.

The golden strings disappeared, the space wasn't stretched anymore.. Both of the dead bodies were crashing into the ground, passing Elon's lifeless vessel.