The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 1286

Chapter 1284
The Supreme Mainframe, Plato
“…Truly remarkable.”
The handsome knight riding a white horse murmured.
—That was Lancelot.
He had met Eivass once during an Ascension Ritual in the past.
However, Lancelot at that time never imagined—that in a mere six months, upon meeting Eivass again, their positions would be so drastically different.
Guinevere, the golden-haired girl with pointed ears, sat sideways behind him, her arm around his waist.
“Lancelot.”
Hearing his words, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her gaze fixed resolutely on the waves, and whispered, “I will be with you.”
They were a unified Heavenly Envoy—neither could become a Heavenly Envoy alone.
As the leading force behind the conceptual expansion of the Origin River, Lancelot possessed the station and great deeds befitting a Heavenly Envoy. He was the first monarch of the Knight Kingdom, the chief knight of “King Arthur,” the Silver Crown Dragon—the most perfect knight… one could say he was the embodiment of the concept of “Knight,” and even a contributor to its legacy.
On the conceptual foundation of the Origin River of Violence, he held a place in both the Path of Authority and the Path of War.
Many Heavenly Envoys were not inherently powerful… for example, Shang Tian Si, Winter Envoy, or Envoy of Mist. They all possessed unique great deeds, expanded the concepts of the Origin River in the Material Realm, and held the potential to become substitutes for Pillar Gods.
However, in terms of strength, any one of them would be defeated by Candlemaster’s Apostle, Carstenning, let alone Odin or the Banquet Master of yesteryear.
From this perspective, Lancelot becoming the Knight Heavenly Envoy was perhaps the most fitting.
However, there was a problem.
That was his prolonged stay in the Shadow Realm in a near-death state.
As a living being, he had survived for far too long in that “Underworld” filled with shadows. He had, to some extent, been influenced by the Path of Love. And due to the lack of contact with living people for so long, his heart had grown cold, his personality maturing into one of quiet composure, devoid of his former obsessions and fervor.
—Much like the dead, dark, and silent land of the past.
It was then that Guinevere, who had become Candlemaster’s Apostle, ignited her soul, once again dedicating her initial light and fire to him, awakening his knightly memories, resolve, and impulses.
Lancelot, influenced by the power of the Path of Love, resonated with it precisely because he resonated with Guinevere, who also possessed the power of the Path of Love—they had become one soul, connected by “Love.”
From a certain perspective, Lancelot’s story bore some similarities to Eivass’s.
A dense grey fog, reminiscent of Silent Hill, permeated the area around him.
And within the grey fog, floating high above, was the great mage Hassan.
Hassan had not only lost his left arm—he was now limb-less, with his hands and feet crudely fashioned from the geometric forms of Wind, Earth, Water, and Fire. A magic circle composed of constantly shifting geometric patterns was reflected behind him, and a white pentagram adorned his forehead, his pupils glowing with a white radiance.
He continuously analyzed everything before him, his brow furrowed in silence… it seemed to be a rather thorny problem.
“—Aren’t you going to return to your original form, Plato?”
From within the grey fog, a man’s steady voice rang out.
If Eivass could hear it, he would recognize it as the voice of Cardinal Loki.
Just as the Abyss Heavenly Envoy and Eivass had merged, the Grey Heavenly Envoy had also reunited.
The Heavenly Envoy Fragments that the Grey Heavenly Envoy had left with the Lord of Scales and Feathers, along with his lost power, had been given to one of his chosen resurrections, Cardinal Loki.
Cardinal Loki was the only one among his chosen successors who had fully understood what the Grey Heavenly Envoy was attempting to achieve—who had seen through his lies, his “magical tricks.” And the Lord of Scales and Feathers had also entrusted him with a crucial “key.”
—And now, the key and the lock had rejoined.
The Grey Heavenly Envoy’s memories, will, and sacred essence, because he had not truly died, existed throughout the world as lies diffused in the Material Realm. Every liar, every magician, every writer could potentially be his avatar.
It was through this method of countless avatars that he existed in the liminal space between life and death.
As Haibasha had said… the Grey Heavenly Envoy’s interpretation of lies had reached the level of a Pillar God. Even Pillar Gods could not see through his deception.
“—Because one’s own heart is deceived. When you firmly believe in a lie, no matter how much evidence or how many flaws you witness, you will never doubt your conviction.
“—The firmer the heart of the Path, the deeper one is trapped in the lie.”
For the name of this lie was “Hope” itself.
Neither black nor white, silent nor spoken—
Yet even without words, essence, or substance, people still believed—hope persisted.
With Loki and the Grey Heavenly Envoy reunited, no one knew what to call Him now. No one knew who was the original entity after their fusion, or how they had merged… but this was precisely a fusion of “snake tail and snake.”
He had inherited everything from Cardinal Loki, and everything from the Grey Heavenly Envoy.
Thus, he knew the secret of the Geometric Heavenly: “This is not the true form of the Geometric Heavenly.”
The Geometric Heavenly calmly replied:
“Answer 1: It is meaningless. Returning to the original form will only increase heat dissipation efficiency by a maximum of 8%, and carries the potential to expose more weaknesses. 29% of opinions agree.
“Answer 2: We are deeply analyzing the individual known as ‘Hassan’s’ cognition of the Material Realm. This will help us understand the current situation and formulate new answers. 48% of opinions agree.
“Question 1: What is the probability that you are the original Grey Heavenly Envoy, Autolycus?”
“Question 2: Have you prepared countermeasures, or do you require me to make arrangements?”
The Geometric Heavenly’s calm voice echoed.
If the Geometric Heavenly were to fully reveal its original form, it would transform into a constantly shifting Construct made of numerous regular polyhedron crystals.
—Because the Geometric Heavenly was, in essence, a Construct.
In a sense, the Geometric Heavenly was a manifested mainframe of a Mage Tower.
The components that constituted it were identical to the technology of the Star Crystal People. Or rather, the manufacturing technology of the Star Crystal People originated from the Geometric Heavenly… it could be considered the “Unit 01” of the Star Crystal People.
When the Sky-Piercing Tower collapsed, many surviving Winged Mage scholars carried the legacy of the Sky-Piercing Tower with them. Some of them went to Anxi, thus reviving the legacy of the Forbidden Mage… but some did not travel too far. On an uninhabited island, they found a colossal tree reaching the sky and built a second Mage Tower within it.
—That land is now the Eternal Church. And that is the “Ruins” that the Church now forbids outsiders from entering, the Sixth and Seventh Rings.
They taught the newly born Elves, just as the Pillar Gods had taught them in the past.
However, the lifespan of Winged Ones was finite.
After Taiyi’s death, no new Winged Ones could be born. They died one by one… transferring their souls, one by one, into the last unhatched crystal, preserving their consciousness, knowledge, and computational abilities, thus creating the “Supreme Mainframe,” Plato.
—In a way, “Plato” itself was the collective condensation of the consciousness of these ancient mages.
Although it was a Construct, it was not a soulless, unfeeling machine. Quite the opposite, it contained a multitude of emotions and souls—male, female, old, and young. And the Geometric Heavenly did not integrate these consciousnesses into a single chaotic entity.
It was precisely because it possessed so many consciousnesses that the Geometric Heavenly’s interior was actually a council. This was why they sent Geometric Fragments to the Material Realm to expand their power and concepts; this was why they controlled the souls of numerous wise individuals through near-slavery to perform calculations for them, thus supplementing their processing power.
These ruthless actions were the “optimal solution.”
“I am waiting for Miss Lily to completely conceal those mortals.”
Loki chuckled lightly, and a deep, magnetic voice sounded from the grey fog: “Before attacking the Great Abyss, It will not go all out against us. At most, it will merely drown us equally with the sea…”
With the descent of Heavenly Envoys came their domains.
And the domain of the Grey Heavenly Envoy was the “Grey Nest.”
It was a functional nest established by the Grey Heavenly Envoy of the past. It could appear anywhere in the Dream Realm, simulating any form.
And now, they existed within these mists. They were countless folded spaces, and Lily, relying on her mastery of the Spider Silk Grimoire, hid those Red to escape this irresistible giant wave.
“Now… it is almost time. The ritual should be ready…”
The voice in the grey fog said, “Let Calamity Red descend first.”