Chapter 51: There Is No Such Thing as Eternity
That evening, under the pretense of keeping watch, Rhodes went to a spot not far from the camp.
Under the moonlight, he carefully examined the changes in his body. He had always been full of vitality, so it was difficult to notice any increase, but he had prepared for this. He created a magic circle and, using an improved version of his detection spell, observed the changes within his own body.
"So it really works," he murmured, his voice a mixture of complex emotions.
He remembered what Serie had once told him about a special kind of magical beast that could plunder the mana of other races and make it its own, something like the 'Star-Sucking Great Art' from the wuxia novels of his old world. And that had led him to a question: could other things be plundered as well? Things like... lifespan.
He had started with the most basic of experiments, transferring the life force of a healthy blade of grass to a withered one next to it. He had done it all in secret, without even Serie noticing. There were always moments when he was alone on their journey, whether hunting or scouting, and he had plenty of opportunities to conduct his experiments. And he was fortunate that in the world of Frieren, magic was a power of the mind, a power of imagination. With his imagination and his [Creation] talent, he could create such a spell.
After numerous experiments, he had moved from plants to animals. And today, on a whim, he had used the spell on Eirik. Because of the brief contact, Eirik had only shown a slight loss of vitality, nothing serious. But it was proof that his magic worked.
But with it came a price. Just as Serie had said, the demons that could devour mana would eventually have their souls tainted, lose their reason, and in the end, even their bodies would collapse. And Rhodes's spell had a similar corrupting effect. Even with only a brief use, the corruption had already begun. Though it was slight, he could feel it.
He couldn't quite explain the effect. If he had to make a comparison, it was like a certain hero of justice who wanted to eliminate all evil in the world. Not the red-haired one, but the other one. He had held onto a righteous ideal, but over a long time, his body and soul had become corrupted, and in the end, he had become a mere collection of obsessions. And if he were to use this spell to achieve immortality, his end would be the same.
And that was not the kind of immortality he wanted.
Sigh. He suddenly envied Serie and her near-eternal life, her freedom from the worries of a finite lifespan. But her immortality had come at the cost of her emotions, a trade-off he wasn't sure he could make. It was like that age-old question: if an immortal being, after countless eons, loses all emotion, is that immortality truly worth having? The answer was probably as subjective as whether or not you put sugar in your scrambled eggs. Everyone had a different opinion.
Crack.
The sound of a twig snapping made him quickly school his features and turn around.
An elf stood before him in the moonlight.
"What's wrong? Can't sleep?" he asked with a forced smile.
"What are you doing?"
Serie had been about to tell him to get some rest. She could just cast a few more alarm spells; as long as they didn't run into a beast that could mask its presence, it would be fine. But he hadn't been by the fire. She had used a little magic to find him and saw him standing here alone, lost in thought.
"Just bored. Training my mana a bit," Rhodes said, offering an irrefutable excuse.
Serie found it a little strange, but she didn't press the matter. She walked over and stood beside him. The moonlight on her face gave her a kind of ethereal beauty, and he couldn't help but look at her a little longer. She looked up at the stars and, remembering their previous conversation, said softly, "Do all you humans like to stare off into space at night? I always see you doing that."
"Maybe I'm a special case," Rhodes said with a smile.
He used his magic to conjure an ice crystal rose. While the flower had a special meaning in his old world, here, he had just made it because he thought it was beautiful.
Seeing the flower, a kind she had never seen before, Serie reached out and took it. "It's beautiful."
"Is it? In my homeland, it has a special meaning."
"What meaning?" she asked, tilting her head as she felt the cold of the rose in her palm.
"A kind of eternal, unchanging feeling."
He didn't elaborate. People who tried to talk to elves about love usually didn't have a good end, and he had no desire to have his name become an epoch.
"Eternal?" Serie chuckled. "Look."
A wisp of mana appeared in her hand, and the ice rose began to melt, water dripping through her fingers. "Just as ice melts into water, there is no such thing as eternity in this world."
What she meant was that no race, neither human nor elf, could exist forever. Even the elves, with their near-infinite lifespans, could still die from various causes. In the Great Elven Forest, there were only a handful of elves who had survived from before the Age of Myth.
But in Rhodes's eyes, her action was a cold and unfeeling commentary on his own fleeting existence.
A strange emotion, one he had never felt before, rose up in him. It took him a long time to suppress it. "Your words are quite hurtful, Serie. I'm a little hurt, you know," he said, his tone light and teasing. It was a little sentimental, but it was the only way he could keep that strange emotion from creeping into his voice.
His words seemed to fluster her. "That's not what I meant," she said. She did want to spend more time with him, to learn more magic from him. Had he misunderstood her?
Her small face was a picture of conflict. "I'm sorry?" she said tentatively.
"Why is it a question? And where I come from, when you apologize, you have to show..." Rhodes stopped himself. If he finished that sentence and she took him seriously, things would get complicated.
"Show what?" Serie asked, looking at him with a puzzled expression. She rarely apologized to anyone and didn't know what one was supposed to do.
"Nothing." Rhodes smiled and ruffled her hair until it was a complete mess.
"Don't touch my head, you mere..." Serie mumbled, but she didn't resist.
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