The Legendary Mechanic

Inside the Land of Dead Silence, the two of them looked at the orange-gold spirit that suddenly appeared.

Han Xiao held onto the revive token, felt its vibration, and asked curiously, "What are you?"

"I'm the consciousness entity of the Underworld. Simply put, I'm the butler of this secondary dimension. You can call me by my name, Onicelu."

Dimensional consciousness entity… I thought that even if a near shattered secondary dimension had a consciousness entity, it would have already perished… Han Xiao was surprised.

A dimensional consciousness could only be born in extremely few secondary dimensions. Having one was equivalent to the secondary dimension turning from a lifeless dimension to a type of life form. For example, the Evil Convergence.

Dimensional consciousness entities were at an even higher level. It meant that the secondary dimension had ignited the sparks of intelligence. In comparison, the Evil Convergence was merely a beast.

Dimensional consciousness entities could control all the energy in the secondary dimension. In the eyes of some, they were basically like gods. Some religions even made sculptures in the image of dimensional consciousness entities and worshipped them as gods, which was one of the mainstream religions in the main universe.

No wonder they could not sense its existence. Despite this secondary dimension being close to perishing, it was still its territory. The dimensional consciousness entity was this dimension itself. If it was not willing to appear, no one would be able to sense it.

"Then, what is the Underworld?" Han Xiao had a rough guess.

As expected, this dimensional consciousness entity that called itself Onicelu looked down at the black island below it and calmly said, "As you can see, this secondary dimension that's heading toward its end is the Underworld."

Han Xiao understood.

The Land of Dead Silence was what that Void Duke Kirkmond called it. It seemed that the Underworld was the formal name of this secondary dimension.

He raised the revive token in his hands and said, "You should have noticed us long ago since you responded to the energy inside this coin. Why have you only appeared now?"

"I just wanted to be certain of your intentions." Onicelu's telepathic message was very gentle.

As soon as Han Xiao and Ames entered the Underworld, Onicelu had noticed them. She had been silently observing them. When the two of them helped her fix the environment earlier, only then did she confirm that they had no hostile intentions, so she decided to appear.

Onicelu also had to judge whether these two guys were friends or foes with the creator of these two revive tokens. This was extremely important to her.

Han Xiao wanted to continue asking questions but was interrupted by Onicelu. "I know you have a lot of questions, but I've answered enough of your questions. Before you tell me your relationship with the creator of these two coins, I won't answer any more questions."

Hearing this, Han Xiao stayed silent and started calculating the pros and cons.

The Hila sisters being related to this secondary dimension was strange. To begin with, now that this dimension had a consciousness entity, it was an even more sensitive matter.

This was because, according to Hila, this dimension was the obstruction between her link with Aurora and had always been silently absorbing the energy they were transferring. Therefore, this consciousness entity's goal was unknown, and he did not know if he should tell the truth.

However, since there was a dimensional consciousness entity, she would certainly know all the background stories, which meant that Hila would not have to investigate it herself. The only problem was, they had to be sure that she was not lying.

As Han Xiao was pondering, Ames, who was initially just listening, suddenly spoke.

"She's my student."

Onicelu turned to look at her and said, "Can you prove it?"

Ames looked at Han Xiao and gave him an eye signal.

"Oh well, since you've already told her, I don't have to think about it anymore…" Han Xiao shook his head with resignation and displayed part of Hila's information with virtual technology.

"It really is the Power of the Dead…" Onicelu looked like she was relieved. She smiled and said, "She should have an older or younger blood-related sister who has the Vital Energy Esper Ability."

"… That's right." Han Xiao's eyes sparkled, and he nodded.

Onicelu gave the two of them a deep look, placed her palms against each other, and said with a suddenly very serious tone, "I have a request. I hope you guys can bring them here as early as possible… The Underworld needs new inheritors!"

Inheritors?

Han Xiao and Ames exchanged looks of confusion.

"What does that mean? Tell me everything you know, and I'll relay it to them, but if you don't, I'll have no choice but to suspect what your goals are and stop them from coming here," Han Xiao said with a deep voice.

The term inheritors sounded good, but the Great Mechanic Han was wary this might be a trap, and he would end up putting Hila in danger, so he had to know everything.

"Since I've decided to show up, I never planned to keep secrets from you guys."

Through telepathy, Onicelu shared some of her memories like a grandma telling the story of when she was young.

"It all started as early as the exploration era. In the long war, the first batch of Beyond Grade As was born. History calls them the Primordial Ones. Among the Primordial Ones, there were a pair of sisters whose Esper Abilities synergized with each other perfectly, but they were not related by blood. They were the 'Controller of Death' Nerkese and the 'Mother of All Things' Eros. Using their abilities, they created this Underworld dimension…

"In the beginning, the Underworld dimension was nothing but a prison used to lock up the dead souls Nerkese had collected, as well as the followers of Eros. However, as the abilities of its two creators kept growing, the Underworld dimension obtained a new function—it became a world to the dead life forms where their consciousness could live forever.

"Since you're a Mechanic, in your terms, you can understand it as turning the memories and minds of those whose body died into data and uploading it into the virtual world, achieving a form of eternal life. The Underworld dimension is like the server. It stores the souls of countless life forms. Many powerful individuals in the exploration era chose to sleep in the Underworld. Because of that, Nerkese and Eros created me to manage the Underworld, as the grave keeper.

"The two extremely talented founders didn't stop there. Nerkese's ability made souls not disappear in the Underworld, and Eros used her ability to create temporary body containers, which allowed those souls to regain life. Then, using the special energy formed by fusing their energy together, they could make the targets have the strength they had when they were alive, till the vital energy acting as their fuel finished. Furthermore, even if their body container died again, their souls could still return to the Underworld. Using this ability, the two of them created an extremely powerful army. To them, the Underworld dimension was also an enormous army camp!"

Hearing Onicelu's explanation, Han Xiao's mouth twitched.

Damn, so this is basically Edo Tensei‽

What kind of luck is this‽

Aurora had once mentioned that the Hila sisters' abilities were rather similar to two of the Primordial Ones, so Han Xiao had done some research. He knew that the Mother of All Things was not as weak as Aurora. She had a ton of followers and had some kind of summoning ability. This was the first time Han Xiao had heard about the details of their abilities.

Basically, the souls of countless strong individuals were stored in the Underworld. Through some kind of revival energy fused from vital energy and death energy, they could carry out 'Edo Tensei' and turn them into an enormous army. According to what the dimensional consciousness entity said, it seemed like the Hila sisters could become the inheritors of the Underworld.

Did this not mean that the two of them could take the inheritance of two Primordial Ones? Fortune falling from the sky‽

Spending a lot of time with Feidin indeed led to good things.

While he was being pleasantly surprised, Onicelu's tone became sorrowful.

"Sadly, after the two founders died, the Underworld death energy had lost its energy supply and started to gradually wither. All the souls fell asleep, including me."

"How did they die?"

Han Xiao was curious. The cause of death of the two of them was not recorded. It only said they disappeared.

A ton of conspiracy theories appeared in his mind, but Onicelu's response gave him a big surprise.

"They committed suicide."

Han Xiao was stunned. "What… Why?"

Onicelu sighed. "They kept developing their abilities, and one day, they had a sudden realization. They had been calling themselves the controllers of life and death all this time, but they had never experienced true death and new life. In their eyes, this was the only path that could develop their Esper Abilities to a higher territory. Hence, they decided to walk into demise to search for the true meaning of life and death…

"Before their death, they told me not to grieve, that destruction is only the beginning of new life and that this is where they belonged. On that day, I watched them leave their bodies behind and end their own lives with my own eyes."

Han Xiao was puzzled.

Excuse me, what is there to search for when you're already dead?

Could it be that these two were extremists and never thought of this at all?

Maybe, only those with this kind of mindset could be the first batch of great individuals to break the limit of Beyond Grade As. Maybe this was what it meant to be the Primordial Ones.

As if she understood what Han Xiao's expression meant, Onicelu shook her head and said softly, "I know what you're wondering. Before their consciousness completely perished, there was a short moment where they were alive, dead, and in between. At that moment, I received the last message they had left me. They said they'd found the true meaning of life and death."

"And what's that?" Han Xiao was intrigued again.

"Heritage." Onicelu's tone was soft and gentle. "They said that heritage is the true definition of eternity, forming full circles in the enormous system of life forms."

Han Xiao was a little bit speechless. Doesn't everyone know that? You guys killed yourselves just to figure that out? You probably died for nothing!

However, although he really wanted to say that, he knew that knowing something was one thing and experiencing it was another completely different thing.

On many occasions, the key to a higher territory was that kind of sudden flash of insight. This was especially true the stronger the person was.

"Their deaths did not go to waste," Onicelu said. "They'll pass down this deepest understanding to the next generation."

Han Xiao was shocked. With disbelief, he said, "Are Hila and Aurora really the reincarnations of those two Primordial Ones?"

Ames looked surprised hearing this too.

However, Onicelu shook her head.

"Reincarnations? Not at all. They died completely. Their souls perished, and their bodies were also dissolved by me to supply energy to the dimension. Other than this Underworld, they left nothing. They put all of their experience in their Esper Abilities. The Esper Abilities are what's inherited."

"I still don't understand…" Ames was lost.

"After they died, they left the seeds of the Vital Energy Esper Ability and the Death Energy Esper Ability," Onicelu explained patiently. "These are neither physical nor energy-formed objects but of a higher dimensional data form. I don't know why that happened, but I know that if I had kept those seeds, no one in the entire universe would have awoken those two Esper Abilities ever.

"Therefore, to complete the dying wish of the two founders and to save myself, I sent these seeds back to the main universe. I knew that one day in the future, they would blossom on two new lives…"

Onicelu paused, smiled, and said, "Do you guys really think it's a coincidence that there is only one pair of blood-related sisters with Vital Energy Esper Ability and Death Energy Esper Ability in the entire universe?"

Having heard of such a secret, the Great Mechanic Han felt like his fragile heart was shocked.

This meant that Hila and Aurora had no direct connections with those two Primordial Ones at all; they were only chosen by the data-form Esper Ability seeds and became the Vital Energy Esper Ability and Death Energy Esper Ability owners of this generation.

The two Primordial Ones fused their understanding into the data-form Esper Ability seeds so that those who were chosen by them would slowly receive the information and experience within. This was basically indirectly increasing the talents of their inheritors.

No wonder it was so easy for Hila to acquire new abilities and talents!

"Data form…" Han Xiao could not help but have even more speculations.

He still remembers that during one of his Racial Evolutions, there was a [Multi-Dimensional Shadow] option that seemed to be related to data forms.

Before he could think further, Onicelu spoke again softly. "That's all I know. After the two founders died, the Underworld started to gradually wither and could no longer keep itself sealed from the outside world. Its size started to shrink, its space wall started to break, and souls fell asleep one after another. I had no choice but to store them all in the dimension core to prevent them from perishing. However, I've become weaker and weaker. I fell asleep as well. When the Underworld shatters completely, these souls will disappear.

"The energy source of the Underworld is the energy of the Vital Energy Esper Ability and the Death Energy Esper Ability. Not long ago, I finally obtained some of it when I subconsciously absorbed the energy from the sisters of this generation, which barely woke me from my long sleep. Only then did I stop absorbing their energy."

Han Xiao thought about it. "Not long ago… it should be when Hila and Aurora were studying their life link. No wonder the energy they transferred was absorbed. That makes sense. This means that the Underworld dimension is actually the medium of the life link between them…"

This time, Onicelu shook her head and said calmly, "The bodies of the two Primordial Ones helped me to last a very long time, but that depleted long ago. The Underworld needs stable, long-term energy suppliers. Please bring them here as soon as possible. I don't know how much longer I can last."

As soon as she said that, Han Xiao received a notification in the interface.

_____________________

You have triggered the mission [Inheritors of The Underworld].

Mission Introduction: The Underworld is the heritage of the previous owners of the Vital Energy Esper Ability and the Death Energy Esper Ability. The dimensional consciousness entity Onicelu has realized that she is getting weaker every day. She hopes that Hila and Aurora can become the new inheritors.

Mission Requirements: Help Hila and Aurora inherit the Underworld dimension.

Reward: 50 Million EXP, +20 Onicelu Favorability, 1 Character Summon Card.

Bonus Mission Requirement: Help the Underworld return to its peak state.

Bonus Reward: +40 Onicelu Favorability, [Mark of The Underworld].