Cursed Immortality

Constant Baron-0 looked at Jacob deeply before she calmly asked, "I've heard you can 'END' or, simply put, 'kill' a Constant."

Jacob looked at Constant Baron-0 meaningfully and nodded, "Indeed. I was given this power by the Lord to punish those who interfere in the Lord's plans." He calmly admitted.

"But can you kill a Noble Constant because there can't be room for error in this, and this might be helpful to the Lord?" Constant Baron-0 inquired again with a hint of agitation.

"Before answering that, I need to know the difference between a Constant and a Noble Constant. Forgive my lack of information, but I wasn't allowed to interact with a Constant before, and you are the first one whom the 'Lord' appointed as my aid." Jacob responded ambiguously as he found this the right opportunity to learn about these 'Constants' and why others can't kill them.

After encountering and killing them, even he could tell they weren't afraid of death until he devoured the 'hourglasses' after their death. So, it was pretty clear that they might have a way to revive somehow, and that's what he wanted to know the most.

Furthermore, Jacob had his own method for reviving after awakening the second universal godly ability of Cursed Immortality. Still, he was curious about the secret of these Constants' fearlessness of death.

Constant Baron-0 didn't find Jacob's response strange since this information was only known to the Constants. But she needed to know if Jacob could truly 'END' a Noble Constant because she was a Noble Constant as well.

Most importantly, she wanted to confirm if Jacob can kill on his own free will without Furcas's permission.

'He's too curious and clearly didn't know how to behave. He is the Lord's tool! A tool should never ask questions, nor should it have a conscience. But what if a tool starts asking questions and grows a conscience?

'Maybe, the whole reason I was 'selected' to 'help' him was to monitor him and judge whether he's useful or not. After all, he had been growing stronger with the Lord's grace and might've become arrogant.

'Now, he's already a Legendary King. Although he achieved this terrifying progressive speed only with the Lord's grace, he seems distracted…'

Constant Baron-0 was a shrewd and ambitious person, or without such qualifications, she wouldn't be where she is today. However, someone overthinking can be fatal, and she was exactly doing that.

Furthermore, she had no idea that slowly, she was revealing everything to Jacob with the prejudice of 'testing' him, while the truth was far more profound and out of her imagination.

"In ATLAS, we 'Constants' called ourselves the Timeless Wanderers because for us, Time is scariest and main component of the END, so our purpose is to become 'Timeless' and the Wanderers because we wander in different times.

"Simply put, a Constant occurs continuously over a period of time, and to become a Constant, we need to discard our 'time' and become a Wanderer without any ties to time.

"The Constants you have encountered in the Lesser Plains have ranks, the lowest is Iron Constant, then Bronze Constant, Silver Constant, and finally the Golden Constant, which is the rank below the Noble Constant.

"To be called an Iron Constant, we need to sacrifice our 'time' to the Timeless Hourglass and then become a part of it. From then on, we'll be reborn as Iron Constants and start to refine our time with the help of our Timeless Hourglass.

"The refinement of time means our lives, we need to experience life, the more we experience, and based on the rank of experience, our Timeless Hourglasses will be filled.

"Once an Iron Timeless Hourglass is filled, we'll repeat the same process and forfeit the Timeless Hourglass, which is now filled with 'Timeless Sand', to the ATLAS and then reborn as Bronze Constant.

"However, this time, we have an 'extra life'. This means that if we die during the Bronze Constant life experience before filling the bronze hourglass with timeless sand, we'll be reborn as Iron Constant and repeat the whole process.

"But if we died as an Iron Constant, we'll meet with our true 'END'. Now, you should understand that a Golden Constant will have 'three extra lives'.

"Yet, the constants below the rank of Noble Constant can meet their 'END' if they encountered a Legendary King because the Soul Sense of a Legendary King can detect the Timeless Hourglass within those who are not Noble Constant, and then they will be destroyed with a Law Attack.

"That's why the ATLAS only allowed those who are qualified to promote to a Noble Constant into the Legendary Plains so their 'END' won't be in vain. Furthermore, the slots of a Constant, especially a Noble Constant, are minimal. There can never be an ultimate number of constants.

"In ATLAS, at a time, there are 1 million Iron Constants, 500,000 Bronze Constants, 250,000 Silver Constants, and 100,000 Golden Constants scattered throughout the Lesser Plains.

"While in Legendary Plains, there are 10,000 Constant Nobles (with 4 lives), and 5,000 Constant Barons (with five lives). A new slot will only open when a Constant promotes or demotes, and our identity numbers change through this process.

"However, Noble Constants have 'Noble Timeless Hourglasses' that only a Lesser God can detect. Even then, the Lesser God can't 'END' them. A Higher God might have such a power.

"Furthermore, the higher you are in the hierarchy of ATLAS, the more impossible it is for you to meet your 'END'. Like a Constant Viscount can't be 'ENDed' by even a Higher God!

"The only danger to ourselves is the Zodiac Plains Enforcers. This is the gist of it, and that's why I'm asking you if you can really END a Noble Constant, which should be difficult even for a Lesser God." Constant Baron-0 gave Jacob a 'general' overview of the ATLAS.

Jacob was astounded to finally learn the secret of the ATLAS and Constants today, despite Constant Baron-0 omitting many deeper details.

Like how this 'rebirth' works? What will happen to the last number within the ranks if a higher rank constant suddenly drops in the lower rankings of the constant? How long will it take them to revive again? Would they have the same race and gender after rebirth? Why can the Zodiac Plains Enforcer easily kill them? What is the purpose of Star Hackers? How did they replenish their numbers?

So many details were missing, and this was even after Jacob had taken precautions against Constant Baron-0's vigilance against him. Nonetheless, now he at least knows the difference between the Constants and why it was so hard to kill them even for the Gods!