Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

Chapter 563  Meaning of death 

[Eon's POV: ]

Death. It was a familiar word to me.

"Death, people say it is the opposite of life, but truthfully, death is an entirely separate phenomenon or, how I like to address it, a separate entity altogether."

I have died, so it would seem easy to tell I knew how death actually felt.

"But to die means much more than the eternal separation of the ultimate soul from the mortal body."

I have died and reborn, but, at that time, I did not understand what death actually meant.

At least, my interpretation of death was only confined to the bordered point of view of one's eternal rest, or simply put, the end of one's life by natural or external means.

"To die and to receive the gift of death, according to the change of context, the meaning of both of these sentences might change so drastically that the contrast they create might feel like the snow-covered mountains in a volcanic region or, a sandstorm in the middle of the ocean."

The first time I started thinking what death would actually mean, I was roaming the ferocious woods of the forbidden great forest with a little butterfly that had just been on the verge of death.

"To lay down a motionless body in the ground, to burn the body that has used all the fuel it could, to complete the lifespan that we were blessed with and become one with nature at the end, or to become undead and live longer than our mortal limits. Are all of these things called death? Or can we call a being that has only lost the power to control its physical body a dead being?"

There are many interpretations of death, but then again, the resurrection also exists and is possible by different means so defining true death, is more complicated than understanding the complex magic of the past.

"If a person is dead but we still remember them, their work, their life, and their names, can we really say they have died and left this world?"

There is a lovely saying that a person truly only dies when everyone in the world forgets about them. And truthfully, it is true to some extent.

"Death is complicated to understand but one can simply express it as one's importance to this world and the elements of this world.

So, as long as there exists someone that remembers the one that has lost their physical body long ago and even their soul has gone to the realms of the afterlife, it isn't proper to say that they have 'died' in true meaning."

There are many kinds of deaths that one can receive, but ultimately, there is only one death.

Everyone, in their purest form, is a product of the energies and all the energy originates from the 'origin true energy'.

When someone dies, the significant half of their consciousness, the mental body that we call the Soul, escapes the body knowingly or unknowingly and tries returning to the place it had ultimately originated from.

And this unique process is the reason when someone with deep relation with nature dies, the people or beings that have either used all their lifespan or the total energy they were made of, they turn into particles of light, the visible form of their own energies, and become one with nature.

This fundamental process is also the reason the strengthening of the very soul is considered the true enlightenment and ultimate process of becoming stronger, and the stronger people who know about the importance of the soul spent their lifetimes amassing enough 'strength' to strengthen their soul.

"Be it west where people are more interested in magic, be it east where people are more interested in the internal energies and the swords, or be it the north where people pursue all the fields of arts with equal interest. Everywhere one can see, the word 'death' is closely related to our 'soul' and 'body'.

And yes it is also true that they are inseparable from each other. But… the true meaning of death is the decay of all memories related to a being, person, or thing; their achievement, and any kind of legacies they have left behind."

One can be forgotten but as long as these elements that in some way belonged to them exist in nature, we cannot say that they have died.

"If the existence remains, then so do the fragments of the soul. And if the fragments of the soul remain, then it simply means the person or being in question had only shifted their plane of existence and live on as either a thread of energy circling the 'void', or a fog that is about to be reborn as a new elemental spirit, or a consciousness spending their remaining time in higher plains like heaven and hell, waiting to start their 'afterlife'."

The ones that are called [Lords] in today's time, the people that had achieved godhood, or status on par with them, have achieved enough soul strength to exist without a physical body, have obtained divinity on their own, and have gained achievements and enough recognition that they could exist in the higher planes of existence on their own, and live almost eternally.

And the same is true for those we call [Transcendents], but even after having that much power and perhaps divinity too, these people tend to have lesser recognition, their achievements tend to be known by small masses, and the true extent of their powers known by only a few fortunate ones that survive after witnessing it.

They are people, similar to the ones that obtain lichhood, people that go beyond the mortal limits and obtain powers, permissions, and authorities, that go beyond even the confines of the world they live in.

They redefine death in their own way, but even they would agree that the meaning of death, remains eternally the same for every existence in this nature.

"So, if you had tried using that ritual, not only would you have sacrificed your own body to open the gate of hell and summon a hoard of demonic creatures, but your soul would become a slave to the 'master' that hears your calling and you would also have to experience hell until your soul crumbles down and there's nothing left, and a part of that unimaginable pain would be shared by the person you have the deepest connection with, the person you tried bringing back, your late father and the merchant that died protecting his hometown from the sudden invasion of Rakshasas, the wizards of earnest winds, Sir Notus Extengia."

I looked at her with a look that was enough for this smart person to know that I knew a great lot about her than she had imagined and though she didn't know how I knew all that she was certain that I knew it.

And she also understood death a little more after my explanation so she knew what she did, was actually all futile.

The last resort of this forbidden ritual wouldn't work, she would never have the power to ask three people with the stigmas of high gods, or original gods as I called them, to bring him back to her, and there was no way for her to know if the wand of true resurrection mentioned in the ancient texts is even something real or not.

Her father was a wizard and he just vanished in the particles of light in his last moments according to some people that were present there at that time.

He stood against hundreds of those bastards and only fell to the ground when the very last one of them had been obliterated completely.

He stood tall and took everything they threw at him, and in the last moments, he even burned his own life to keep his people alive.

He was a great figure, a hero that saved many people. But… her thoughts were different.

'Why did he do that?!'

'He had no obligation to save some people of the same town that he grew up in, he had no reason to save a bunch that had looked down on him and shunned him in the past for being a 'dark wizard'.'

'They feared him so the people of that place chased him out, and when he grew up and became a little famous, they called him back, apologized for their 'mistakes', and asked him to look after their little town.'

'And that good person actually accepted their apology and developed the town into a better place than it could have ever wished it be.'

'And then… those selfish, greedy fucking bustards even pushed him to death.'

'Why did he do it? Why did he leave her alone in the capital of their kingdom and lived in some small cottage of a shitty town?'

'Why did he use all his wealth for people that had nothing to do with him and why was he so devoted to a place that should mean nothing to him?'

She didn't know, but she wanted to ask him all that, and much, much more.

He was probably the best person in the entire world for her. He was the best, there was no one like him in this world. But, he left her and this world, and she would never accept it.

Still, she had tried her best, and… there was nothing else left in this world anymore.

"Death isn't the answer, Miss Monnem. You could still choose the first method and come with me.

And if you do, I swear upon my Aura that I will let you meet your late father. However, only for a brief moment."

Every emotion and expression she had were too easy to read for both of us, so we were just observing her while she drowned in remorse and the dark past she must have never wanted to remember again.

But her thoughts of death weren't something I could allow, so, I told her about the only thing that could attract her right now, and as soon as my words fell on her ears, she looked up at me, her eyes wider than ever before and the thoughts that couldn't leave her mouth in the form of a shout, also clearly audible to both us…