The image of the Fate Giant towered like a mountain, rising all the way to the roof of the sky.
Never mind the pressure and the laws that made all living things bow — it was hard even to look up at. Its sheer height alone made it impossible to take in the whole form with the eye. All anyone could do was sense it faintly with the heart, in silent awe, and let that eighteen-thousand-meter image fill the whole of their inner world.
Guided by Her Majesty’s special ability, every family member and friend who had heard Fourth Mother’s voice, and every friend who stood behind Yue Yang and joined the great undertaking of taking on fate together, could in that instant “see” clearly — without even closing their eyes — the height of the Fate Giant they were about to bear together. Eighteen thousand meters: the supreme height required to become a Sacred Sovereign and more… Could Yue Yang, the Yue family’s third young master, really bear a height so hopeless, turn the war around, lead the Sky Tower to rise again and return to its glory?
Even his most loyal friends, who stood behind Yue Yang with all their hearts — Sea Fatty, Ye Kong, Xue Tanglang — could not help feeling a flicker of doubt.
Because the eighteen-thousand-meter Fate Giant before them was simply too overwhelming. Beneath its gaze, even a god would feel humbled, as small and weak as an ant. Any power in the world looked pale and feeble beside it.
This was the power that commanded fate! It could command even fate, and reverse even fate.
Faced with divine might like that, how could anyone not feel awe? How could anyone not be shaken? How could anyone not be struck with terror to the very core of their soul?
“Maybe I’ll die. But death can’t scare me. I, Hai Dafu, fear nothing in heaven or on earth. I’m the best boss in the world, and I — I’m willing to give everything, everything I have… The happiness that never came my way before. The honors that only shamed me before. The abilities that kept me from ever holding my head up. The miserable life that beat me to pieces, and the tiny life I scraped by on in front of my family, my relatives, my friends, my classmates and the whole world. Right up to today, the happiness I’m just about to have and to hold. Right up to today, the glory of standing proud among the powers of the Sky Tower. Right up from the day I met that kid, when my whole life turned around and everything about it got better — the luck everyone envies, even longs for, and the pride of having what it takes, the ability and the guts, to stand up and roar at the enemy, and shout to the sky in front of the teammates I protect that I’m the boss… Ancient gods, if you really exist, take everything, everything I have. If I can, I want to trade all of me for his tomorrow, for his future! The Sky Tower can do without one idiot fatso, but it can’t do without him… Without him, there’s no way I’d have become who I am today — the Young Master Hai the whole world is lining up to praise! Take everything I have. I don’t even need my life. Just let me hold up, even for a moment, as much of the power of fate as I possibly can. Please — I’m begging you. This is the one thing I, his boss, can do for him, and the one thing in my whole life I truly, really want to do my very best at!”
Sea Fatty murmured to himself.
The resolve in his eyes was something he had never had in his life.
His body seemed suddenly to grow taller and greater. His spirit and his form fused, until he was like a mountain peak that had just thrust up from the ground, standing tall between heaven and earth.
The vajra rhinoceros, the white hippo and every war beast he had ever contracted came out, one after another, each lending him its power.
At some point the Wind-Breath Seabird had contracted with him of her own accord. First, in her seabird form, she landed on Sea Fatty’s messy head and gave him a light little peck with her beak. Then she spread her wings and glided slowly down, circling him three times, before landing on the ground in her evolved human form with wings. She reached out her jade-white hand and pressed it lightly against Sea Fatty’s back, supporting him with everything she had.
“I might be smashed to pieces any second now. You’re really okay with that?” Sea Fatty very much wanted to turn around and look at her — the one engraved deep in his heart.
“Who’d have thought someone as smart as me would end up dying alongside a stupid pig!” The Wind-Breath Seabird did not mince words.
“That’s called being smart about everything and dumb just this once.” Sea Fatty laughed when he heard it — laughed with real happiness.
“Too bad it’s too late to break the contract…” The Wind-Breath Seabird gave a soft sigh. Then she poured all her strength, and everything her inner world could bear, into sharing with Sea Fatty, her master, the power of fate pressing down on them, the power that towered over everything in the world.
“If — if there’s a next life, I’ll let you beat me again. Even if it’s for a whole lifetime, that’s fine!” Sea Fatty gritted his teeth, straining with all he had to hold up the colossal power of fate that might collapse at any moment and smash him to pieces. His voice was quiet, but loud enough for the Wind-Breath Seabird behind him to hear. The Wind-Breath Seabird felt, too, that her life could be snuffed out by the power of fate at any moment. Under that suffocating pressure, she spent the last of her strength to curse him: “You — you pig-head! How many lifetimes are you going to owe me? You haven’t even paid me back for this one! Go — go get lost, you!”
“…” Sea Fatty felt his throat close up and his eyes burn. His heart flooded like a mountain torrent bursting its banks all at once.
Before he knew it, tears were streaming down his face.
He wanted so badly to turn around and hold her, to tell her he was willing to owe her forever, for countless lifetimes.
But emotion had sealed his throat, and he could not make a single sound. All he could do was weep, tears pouring down like rain, silently lost in a tenderness that melted his heart. There was no other way to pour out the happiness he felt right then.
Suddenly Sea Fatty’s whole body began to shake, and his hands clenched into fists.
The tears of emotion slowly turned into boundless fighting spirit. He threw his head back and roared like a primeval monster.
His body grew wildly — two meters, three, five, ten, twenty… Every muscle in his body went black and solid, as if cast in bronze and forged in iron. Fur covered him; claws and fangs burst out savagely from his fingers and his mouth; his eyes turned blood red. Under the crushing weight of the power of fate, a monster as ugly as could be stubbornly straightened its back. Amid its explosive roar, its thick arms seized the power of fate on its shoulders and, inch by inch, bit by bit, lifted it up — over its head, straight up toward the sky.
Again and again the power of fate pressed its arms back down, crushing the weight back onto shoulders that could not bear it. It held firm all the same.
“ROAR! ROAR!” With a roar that shook the earth, the hideous monster, under the crushing weight of the power of fate, impossibly grew to fifty meters tall — and at the same time savagely pushed up a pillar of fate as tall as its own body.
The hideous creature turned its head. Those bloodthirsty red eyes, those huge, terrifying eyes, suddenly, for an instant, turned infinitely tender.
It gave the Wind-Breath Seabird one deep look. Then it turned its head away, resolute.
A huge tail lashed out with a whistle that tore the air and struck the Wind-Breath Seabird’s body — already too fragile to bear any more — knocking her flying, flinging her far outside the range of the power of fate the hideous monster was holding up.
“Pfft!” Coughing blood as she flew, the Wind-Breath Seabird crashed down like a kite with its string cut, more than a thousand meters away.
“ROOOAR!” Its eyes blood-mad and savage once more, the hideous creature scooped up the summoning grimoire floating beneath its feet and slammed it onto the top of its own head. With both hands it held the grimoire steady and pushed upward with everything it had — with its head and neck, with its shoulders, with both arms. Its blood vessels, driven to their limit, bulged over its body like giant pythons; the blood inside them raced, and the muscles beneath its black skin churned like boulders rolling in lava… Amid the Wind-Breath Seabird’s screams, under Ye Kong’s and Xue Tanglang’s stunned gaze, the hideous creature grew wildly once more — sixty meters, seventy — and in the end, under the crushing weight of the power of fate, it had grown into a hideous monster a hundred meters tall.
It was blood red from head to foot. That was not the color of its skin. Under that crushing pressure its blood vessels, driven past their limit, had burst, and its blood was washing over its skin.
As though a waterfall of blood were pouring down it, the hideous monster gritted its teeth and held the summoning grimoire aloft in its palms, holding up a hundred meters of the power of fate — far, far more than it could possibly bear…
“No! No!” the Wind-Breath Seabird screamed, tears streaming down her face.
Only now did she discover that the contract had been dissolved.
That hateful idiot meant to go on alone, to hold up all the pressure in the sky by himself. He was going to leave her all alone, and challenge death and unbeatable fate like a fool!
No! This was not what she wanted most!
He was an idiot, a born fool — any moron was a hundred times smarter than he was. So why couldn’t she, as smart as she was, accept an ending like this?
“Don’t think — it’s that easy — to leave me all alone! Unless I want it myself, you don’t have the right to turn me away, you big idiot!” The Wind-Breath Seabird spread her arms and turned back into a small seabird. Beating her wings, she shot up into the sky and, once again, just as she always had, contracted with him of her own accord, casting the wish of her contract onto that summoning grimoire.
She would make him know that she could not be refused. Right or wrong, it had only ever been her decision that was her final wish. She did not need that kind of protection from him, nor that kind of waiting and promising for the next life, or the life after. Now — only now — was forever!
She did not want to wait, and she was afraid of a future she could not foresee.
Just as she always had, she would contract with him of her own accord — stay a while when she was happy, betray him and break it off the moment she was not. She was the one fully in control.
Of course, this time she had decided: no matter what happened in the future, she would never again betray him and break the contract. She would make him know that some people could not just say they were breaking off a contract whenever they liked; that some people could not just make decisions for her whenever they liked; that some people were worth cherishing for a whole lifetime!
But!
This time she felt no answer at all.
It was utterly different from before. There was no longer a surprised, delighted heart waiting for her. All she had now was emptiness, and a dead, hollow blankness. She watched the summoning grimoire — so tiny beside the hideous monster it was hard to see — twist out of shape and fade, bit by bit. She saw the blood bursting from the countless ruptures in the body of the hideous monster holding up fate, and the two tracks of tears of blood that had run down its face, too ugly to look at. She saw its red pupils slowly dilating, and the soul joined to hers through countless contracts drifting farther and farther away. And at last the Wind-Breath Seabird understood why, though the contract was the same as ever, he was no longer there quietly waiting to answer.
Because he — the one who had always been so patient with her and loved her so — was going away. His soul was drifting farther and farther off.
“No — don’t leave me behind!” Her heart felt as if an awl had pierced it straight through; it dripped blood and trembled in its pain, and despair and panic gushed out of the wound, even more agonizing, filling her whole heart. “I was wrong. I won’t be naughty anymore. Please, come back, contract with me one more time. Don’t do this, don’t leave me behind. Apart from you, nobody pays attention to me, nobody spoils me… I don’t want any next life. I just want now. Please, come back. I’ll never hit you again. I’ll be good, I promise. Please, contract with me one more time. Let me share just a little of it with you. You’re not allowed to do this — you’re not allowed to leave me all alone! Don’t ignore me…”
(End of Chapter 1297)