Chapter 1257
Mahidifran and Isma’i
Undoubtedly.
Inanna was Eivass’s last and strongest Beast of Sin, the strongest Phantom Card Eivass possessed, and arguably the only one that could rival her.
Not only did her true form possessed superior performance, but her entrance effect alone provided unconditional, instant, permanent group control, along with a significant amount of permanent defense and resistance reduction. This control status even had the ability to resist dispelling, requiring two consecutive dispels to remove.
This was a skill that could only be found on extremely high-difficulty BOSSes!
Even in the highest difficulty dungeons, this would be considered a high-crisis mechanic that required special skills to barely resist, and could not be touched. A mistake by even a few people could lead to a total wipe, making it better to restart.
Furthermore, even if Eivass didn’t summon Inanna’s true form, the effect of her card alone was powerful enough.
It was equivalent to a large-area, long-duration group Preservation Technique that could be used for just five mana points. More importantly, the other effect of the card was the real highlight: all areas illuminated by the light were considered “touched.”
This meant that as long as the vision was clear and could be illuminated by this light, Eivass could use powerful Phantom Cards like Star Ice and Charm Aura at a considerable distance, which normally required close-range contact. Or he could directly summon the Butterfly of Paradoxical Flames or the King of the Wild Hunt behind his enemies!
“After all, in a sense, she’s like a young Amber…”
Eivass held the card with immense satisfaction, playing with it lovingly.
Inanna’s true form was level 59—the highest level Eivass had ever seen.
This was the maximum level for the Sixth Tier!
Without the Abyss Heavenly Envoy of the Twilight Path descending, the theoretical limit for the Twilight Path in the Material Realm was only level 50.
This meant that as a Phantom of the Twilight Path, she was nine levels higher than the Abyss Heavenly Envoy, who was about to be pulled down by the Ouroboros Ring!
This power had completely exceeded the limit of the Wall of Balance!
And this was not the actual strength of Amber’s true form; if calculated by her true form, this level would be too low. Many high-level Phantoms possessed Sixth or Seventh Tier strength in the Dream Realm. Before the Fallen Heavenly Envoy died, even a leader-level demon would have been higher than this.
If Amber’s strength were calculated by data, it should be level 99… at least Tenth Tier limit strength would be worthy of her status.
However, measuring the power of Pillar Gods solely by tiers was meaningless in itself.
The unit “tier” referred to the degree to which a soul’s projection, when in the Dream Realm, could delve into a corresponding path and leverage its power. The deeper the descent, the more it could resonate with the corresponding path.
But the Pillar Gods themselves were the creators and guides of these paths. Even if their tier was extremely high, it only meant infinite resonance, and at most, they would be infinitely close to the Pillar God’s true self.
It was impossible to defeat a Pillar God solely with the power of their path—just as Hengwo did not defeat the Beast Lord with the power of the Beast Path; the Silver Crown Dragon did not defeat Supreme Heaven because his Power Path level was higher. This was either power from another path or obtaining a more fundamental interpretation by delving deeper into the Origin River than the contemporary Pillar God.
Therefore, as long as they were Pillar Gods, they theoretically had no concept of tiers. If Pillar Gods had to have a level, it would correspond to “how many levels others would need to excavate all the power within this path.”
For example, the “levels” of the Silver Crown Dragon and Calamity Red would certainly be much lower than other Pillar Gods… possibly more than one tier lower.
However…
Eivass vaguely guessed why Inanna’s level could surpass the Wall of Balance.
Amber was a Pillar God born in the future and died in the past.
Therefore, for Inanna, causality itself might be inverted.
For instance, although the Abyss Heavenly Envoy had not descended yet, Inanna had already obtained the power that would come after the Abyss Heavenly Envoy’s descent. Her level being only 59 probably indicated…
“The Ouroboros Ring will not have a second round.”
Eivass murmured softly.
At least in this cycle, until Amber met her end, the power of the Twilight Path in the Material Realm would only have its upper limit opened once. This was Amber’s own answer.
This meant Eivass either had to win or die—he had no possibility of failing and escaping, then slowly building up to a comeback. He only had one chance.
Eivass became increasingly aware of the approaching doomsday.
This brought him a sense of calm and caution, along with his joy.
He began to consider a special possibility.
What if he trusted Inanna’s power too much and chose to summon her as his trump card in the battle against the Abyss Heavenly Envoy? But what if, at that time, he discovered that Inanna could not be summoned correctly because her power exceeded the Wall of Balance, or she was instantly dispelled upon successful summoning?
Eivass didn’t believe he couldn’t defeat the Abyss Heavenly Envoy without Inanna’s power. But if he regarded this power as a trump card, he might become careless and miss an opportunity when a real problem arose. In that case, it would be better not to consider this power from the beginning.
“…Hmm?”
At that moment, Eivass suddenly heard a sound and frowned slightly.
He countered and cupped the card in his palm, looking up towards the door.
With Inanna completely sealed, the surging Twilight power within Eivass, which had been like an incoming tide, finally subsided.
The house, which had been completely sealed by the Twilight power and had externally turned completely amber, was finally unsealed.
As the abnormal color faded, the sounds from outside rushed in like a tsunami.
—It was the sound of a fierce argument.
Many people were gathered at the entrance, shouting and cursing something. They seemed to have become more agitated upon seeing the anomaly of the house disappear.
Eivass glanced at Protino with some confusion. “Are they looking for trouble with you? Do you want me to call your guards?”
After all, this was the house Protino had rented, and Eivass had only been here for two days.
Previously, when Eivass was performing the ritual to hatch and seal the Amber Egg, Protino had kept his guards inside to avoid suspicion and maintain secrecy.
Protino clearly didn’t think he had offended anyone.
He scratched his head in confusion and suddenly realized a possibility. “Perhaps… they’re looking for you? And they ignored the instinctive warning and forcibly attacked the house protected by the barrier?”
Inanna’s power, even residual, possessed immense deterrence.
This deterrence was the opposite of dragon might—weak mortals might not feel it, but any Extraordinary would definitely sense something abnormal. And the higher the tier of the Extraordinary, the more they could feel a powerful threat like the might of a god.
Only by enduring this threat and, despite seeing that the house was within some kind of barrier, still forcibly touching it, would they be petrified by the barrier Eivass had set up.
This was a very reasonable, even gentle, defensive measure. It was like when a Ritualist set up a ritual, they would place some curses around it to prevent disruption. If someone tried to approach, the curse would suddenly attack them, causing them to lose the ability to disturb the Ritualist.
In a sense, this protective ritual was more akin to a sign hanging in a public restroom: Occupied.
Although a closed restroom door couldn’t truly protect someone inside… just as these defensive static curses or temporary barriers could easily be broken by hostile Ritualists.
If one truly wanted to enter, they could kick the door open, but considering that the person inside might use enchanted projectiles at any moment, it could ward off a large number of idle individuals. Unless there was a deep-seated mortal enmity, one would not try to sneak in and launch a surprise attack at such a time.
—Of course, this was for normal people.
“On this miraculous land of Anxi, anything is possible,”
Old Ritualist Ibn said sarcastically from the side. “Perhaps some important figure… will see this sense of crisis as a provocation to their status.”
“After all, this is a land where simply seeking human dignity is punishable by death. Those who have already ‘rented’ dignity through various means, with the Lord’s favor, would naturally rather die than lose it for even a moment.”
“Someone has been petrified at the entrance, Young Master.”
At this moment, Lily had gone outside for a circle.
Her clear and pleasant voice came from Eivass’s shadow. “More than one or two. A total of six people have been petrified. One person on a boat was arguing with a woman riding an elephant. Judging by their attire, both parties should be Lords.”
—Isn’t this an opportunity to test the card?
Eivass’s heart stirred, and he rose and walked over.
He stood at the entrance, and Lily manifested, quietly opening the door for him.
This was not like Moriarty’s mansion, with its iron fence gates and gardens for outsiders to admire. This was more like the small house Isabel had given him at school—opening the main door and standing directly on the street.
Haina arrived half a beat later. But instead of appearing outside, she hid far behind Eivass, observing his every move.
“Beautiful Mahidifran! I warn you one last time, get out of my way!”
The male Lord present was already furious.
It was clear that the petrified people were his attendants.
“You dare to attack another Lord’s residence!”
The female Lord on the elephant, however, unhesitatingly supported Eivass, not shying away from confronting another Lord.
And she looked incredibly angry at the moment. “I’ve already said—this is absolutely forbidden, brave Isma’i!”
“Hmph! A bunch of good-for-nothings!”
Isma’i roared with frustration, looking at the petrified attendants, and then noticed Eivass opening the door.
He paused, sneered, and said, “It seems our colleagues from Avalon have finally finished their prayers. Is the evil dragon about to break free from its seal?”
The female Lord Mahidifran did not step forward to support Eivass at this moment. Instead, she glanced at him and then closed her mouth.
Eivass vaguely sensed her subtle attitude.
Rather than him disturbing her, it was more like anger at him for ignoring her warning.
Their titles sounded a bit awkward, but this was actually the special naming method of Lords.
Due to the naming mechanism of Anxi, the probability of their names being the same was quite high.
To distinguish their identities, ordinary people chose a long name.
They would add a title before their name, roughly equivalent to a nickname. And the titles of Lords had a special, meaningless suffix to distinguish them from ordinary people. If this suffix were forcibly translated, it could be called “of,” “belonging to,” or “the.”
Eivass quickly understood the identities of the two:
The female Lord with beautiful long red curly hair was “The Beauty” Mahidifran of Carnival City. The other, a male Lord with bright golden short hair, dark skin, and six visible abs, was “The Brave” Isma’i of Ark City.
These were very famous Lords, whose international status was no less than that of a king of a small country. They were not Lords of peripheral cities like Rock Cell City, but Lords of large oasis cities with sixty to seventy percent of Heaven City’s population.
Eivass had even heard the name of the seemingly frail female Lord at Iris Flower. An artist had adapted her story into an opera—she had killed her bedridden father and married her cowardly brother to seize power. She was a very beautiful and seemingly delicate Lord, yet countless people had died by her hand.
The reason was simple: Carnival City’s business was casinos, circuses, and brothels.
In this desert, there had to be something stimulating to pique people’s nerves. This direct stimulation was the best outlet, and the profession of “Scammer,” or rather “professional gambler,” originated from her.
“The Brave” Isma’i was indeed a brave man. His most famous feat was being thrown into an iron cage by his father at the age of eight and dueling a lion with a dinner knife—and he won.
He remembered this duel for more than twenty years. When he became Lord at the age of thirty-five, he sealed all of his aging father’s mana and threw him into the lion’s cage. This time he gave his father a sword, and he had to face three lions.
But this was by no means simple revenge… because when his father also defeated the lions, he laughed and pulled his bruised father out of the lion’s cage, demanding that a physician treat him, and thus, father and son reconciled. Later, he declared that he had the blood of a Brave and was born powerful, and thus he deserved to be a Lord. However, Eivass knew that “person” could not have been his real father, as his father had already died when he inherited the Lord’s Seal.
He ruled Ark City, inherited from his father, with this bravery and sincerity.
Ark City was different from all other oasis cities—it was a mobile city.
This city was built from the bases of numerous discarded mage towers. It was once a gathering place for ancient mages… It was said that the materials used for most mage towers now originated from here.
Its weight was far lighter than it appeared, so the main job of countless slaves was to drag the giant desert ark through the desert with ropes.
In addition, their slave knights did not just ride camels. They drove floating devices that looked like flying carpets, traveling at high speeds in the desert, plundering the resources of other city-states, and capturing lost travelers and free people in the desert.
This could be considered a form of nomadism.
Except they weren’t raising cattle and sheep, but travelers.
This also came from discarded mage tower bases… just as backward and barbaric regions didn’t fully understand the principles of these technologies, but at least grasped some of their uses, thus forming a faith in technology—those “slaves who pulled the city” were incredibly loyal to their Lords. Because they believed that this inexplicable miracle demonstrated the divine power of their master.
The saying “Without science, math, and physics, myths are everywhere in life” was, in a sense, also reasonable in this world.
Although Eivass had only heard a few sentences, he had a general understanding of the situation:
“The Brave” Isma’i, for some unknown reason, suddenly wanted to “summon” him and sent people to call him. His subordinates realized something was wrong and reported it to Isma’i, who, perhaps out of embarrassment in front of Mahidifran, forcibly demanded that the other party open the door.
The result was naturally death.
And Mahidifran’s opinion was not respected, so she also got angry. Thus, the two sides started arguing in front of his door.
—How laughable.
Eivass felt no anger. He only felt pity.
(End of Chapter)
