Hell's Handbook

Chapter 415

Su Jin was really speechless. He felt like his house was being treated like a hotel of sorts, since anyone was able to come and stay temporarily before leaving again. So, when Su Jin sat down to talk to Alice and Geppetto, he suddenly felt like he was the owner of an inn or something.

“The two of you… look rather unhappy,” remarked Su Jin when he saw their glum faces.

Alice nodded slightly and said, “You’re a friend of the Mad Hatter, right?”

“Uh… I guess so?” Su Jin wasn’t sure if he and the Mad Hatter were considered friends or not. The Mad Hatter had always insisted that they would eventually have to fight each other, but Su Jin guessed that the Mad Hatter had said that on the assumption that Su Jin would become a god. But now that Su Jin wasn’t going down that path, the Mad Hatter’s predictions weren’t going to come true anymore. And given how the Mad Hatter had helped him previously, it was fair to say that they were friends.

“The Mad Hatter is going to die,” said Alice.

“Wait, what?” Su Jin blinked in surprise.

“I’m afraid… Pinocchio is going to die too,” said Geppetto.

“What?!” Su Jin couldn’t believe it. Were these two cursing their own loved ones now? What were they even saying?!

“What do you mean?” asked Su Jin.

“It was his expression. That’s an expression I see only when he wants to do something completely insane, something that might very well cost him his life,” said Alice grimly. “He can’t fool me. He’s had that expression from the moment he revived me. He’s going to do something that might get him killed.”

“Pinocchio too. I brought him up. I know him too well,” said Geppetto with a sigh.

Su Jin frowned puzzledly. “Since both of you noticed it earlier on, why didn’t you stop them?”

“It’s precisely because we know them too well. The Mad Hatter has the word ‘mad’ in his name for a reason. He wouldn’t give up just because I tried to persuade him otherwise. He’s… he’s a very stubborn person,” said Alice with a heavy sigh.

“So, because you understand them, you gave up? You let them do something they insisted on doing?” thought Su Jin to himself. But he was still a little confused. Why would the Mad Hatter and Pinocchio want to do something that could get them killed? As far as he knew, those two were very good at self-preservation.

Meanwhile, the Mad Hatter and Pinocchio had returned to the temple of the elder gods. The Mad Hatter smiled at the man and said, “O Great One, we can head over now.”

“Good. Lead the way,” the man nodded.

The Mad Hatter threw his hat into the air. The man nodded and said, “You have the rare power of passing through space and you’ve developed it to such a level too. You must have worked really hard at it.”

“This way, please,” the Mad Hatter motioned to the man to enter the hat.

The man leaped into the hat without hesitation. The Mad Hatter then motioned to Phoenix and the rest to enter as well, so the five of them leaped in one after another without giving it much thought.

After everyone had leaped in, the Mad Hatter patted Pinocchio’s shoulder, then leaped in as well. But after he leaped in, the hat didn’t disappear like it normally would.

Pinocchio, the only one left outside the hat, suddenly started swelling up. His body went from the size of a child’s to the size of an adult. He picked up the hat, opened his mouth so wide that it looked like he had dislocated his jaw, then swallowed the hat whole.

“To hell with you, will of the universe! You’ve been had!” cursed Pinocchio. He then suddenly turned to look into the distance as he murmured, “I’m sorry, Babbo… farewell, Babbo!”

With that, Pinocchio’s body suddenly started swelling even more. He did not look like he was in any pain at all, and looked more like he was enjoying this.

Boom!

Pinocchio’s body exploded and became nothing but ash. At the same time, the man frowned slightly before his eyes widened as he looked around him. He said frostily, “Not bad! You actually thought of a plan like this!”

“I’m sorry, O Great One. It’s you we’re dealing with, after all. If I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t be confident of trapping you,” said the Mad Hatter with a grin. His hat had been reduced to ashes along with Pinocchio, and the explosive force from an imploding god like Pinocchio had successfully wiped out this space’s exit.

They were not in a different space at all. They were in the space of the hat itself. As long as the hat was destroyed, this space would be sealed forever and nobody would be able to leave it. Not even a god with the best spatial powers could do anything about it, because this was a space that the Mad Hatter had used thousands of years to create and develop. It was probably the only thing in this cycle other than Su Jin and The Beginning that did not follow the rules of the Handbook.

“You intend to merely trap me?” asked the man.

The Mad Hatter shook his head. He undid the buttons on his sleeve and said calmly, “Nope. I’m also hoping to kill you!”

“Kill me? You know who I am, don’t you?” said the man with a smile, as though he was mocking the Mad Hatter’s ignorance.

The Mad Hatter nodded. “Of course I do. You’re the most respected, most noble, the one above all – the will of the universe. But from the moment you appeared in physical form, all the deities felt it. And the ones who were the most excited and most agitated were us!”

He suddenly stretched his arms wide, causing his white sleeves to roll back slightly. In the darkness behind him, figure after figure began to appear.

“Asrael, the god of foolishness; Teredo, the god of ice and snow; Katoo, the sun god; Xu Hao, the god of the sword; Mirren, the god of speed… you guys…” The Demon Lord stared in disbelief at the figures behind the Mad Hatter, because they were all gods from the same era as herself.

Some of them were powerful, some of them were weak, and some of them were supposed to be dead. She didn’t expect to see them again here, much less form an alliance.

“Aha! My deities! Have you gathered here because you think all of you put together would be strong enough… to kill me?” The man’s tone of voice went from slightly amused to extreme rage.

“That’s right! We started preparing ourselves from the time we noticed that this cycle was about to end. We know that you might come here physically, and you really did! That’s the best part!” said the Mad Hatter with a huge smile.

The man sneered, “Just the few of you? If all of you here were really able to kill me, then I would have died so many times over all the cycles that have passed. The will of the universe is immortal. That’s right, I cannot be destroyed!”

“If you were really indestructible, then why are you angry now?” shouted the Mad Hatter. His eyes were filled with rage as he continued shouting, “For the sake of our world! For the sake of our world!”

“For the sake of our world!” The other gods began shouting the same thing as the Mad Hatter. At the same time, their bodies began to glow brightly.

Each of them glowed brightly in different colors, then merged together to become one. The Mad Hatter stood in front of the bright light and said, “You are the will of the universe, so none of the techniques, weapons, and powers within the system will be able to hurt you. So, we’ve decided to give up on using those things. Instead, we will transform ourselves into the very first beam of light!”

The man had a grim look in his eyes as he said quietly, “That’s a pretty good plan. Using light to create a terrifyingly powerful blast. Are you trying to mimic the big bang?”

“We are! I hope this will be a show that surprises you!” The Mad Hatter bowed slightly, then turned into an orb of light as well.

The Demon Lord’s eyes were filled with horror. She couldn’t imagine the sort of power that would be contained within an explosion like the big bang. This would truly be a power that existed outside of the Handbook.

BOOM!

The light exploded and a terrifying energy blast filled the entire space. The space that the Mad Hatter had spent years developing started to warp, then collapsed on the will of the universe and his companions.

The blast lasted for a long time, and when the dust settled, the entire space was empty and devoid of any signs of life. The sacrifice of the Mad Hatter and the other elder gods seemed to have worked out the way they wanted.

But then all of a sudden, there was a glitch in the space. Part of the space that was destroyed actually mended itself to form a round space. When the round space had stabilized, the face of the will of the universe slowly grew clearer and clearer, and the Demon Lord along with the other four gods reappeared as well.

“That was a pretty good show, alright. But a show’s nothing but a show. Like I said, if these people were enough to kill me, I wouldn’t have survived till today,” the will of the universe chuckled.

“Since you already knew that… why did you get angry?” asked the Demon Lord puzzledly.

“If I didn’t get angry, those fellows wouldn’t have happily sent themselves to their deaths, would they?” The will of the universe burst out laughing. He tapped the air with his finger to leave this place, but his face fell immediately.

“What’s wrong?” asked Jing Hua.

“Damn it. This place is a little more complicated than I had imagined, plus it’s gone through some new changes as a result of the blast. I’m afraid… it’ll take us some time before we can get out,” said the will of the universe with a frown.

“In other words… we’re trapped?” Phoenix scoffed.

“Well… that does seem to be the case!” the will of the universe shook his head with a sigh.