Chapter 1302: The Great Philosopher is Dying
His white hair, his tall and straight back, his right eye shining with electricity… and the new golden wings.
Like an old tree sprouting new buds.
The new wings initially grew extremely slowly, but after the Great Philosopher regained his youth, this growth suddenly accelerated dozens of times—the golden wings became larger and longer, with dark gold runes written on every feather.
Eivass remembered that Supreme Heaven had two pairs of wings. One pair pointed to the sky, and the other pointed to the earth, like butterflies. They symbolized supremacy over heaven and earth.
However, the Great Philosopher only had one black wing—his other wing was already bent and withered, curled up on his back. It was like a cripple’s long-lost leg, no longer functional.
But now, the Great Philosopher had six intact golden wings behind him, three on the left and three on the right!
Undoubtedly.
The Great Philosopher was no longer the old, short, thin, and disabled Keeper.
Although he had only obtained a small part of the Bear Heavenly Envoy’s essence… it was enough for him to reclaim some of the power he once possessed as the Wing Heavenly Envoy!
“No, this is impossible!”
Calamity Red let out an unbelievable roar: “You cheated, Mimir!”
“…Cheated?”
The Knight Heavenly Envoy, protected behind Eivass, murmured in confusion, not understanding why Calamity Red was so shocked.
She was currently rapidly recovering from her injuries and the Silver Crown Dragon’s injuries. This was Lancelot’s healing ability.
Previously, the light shield the Knight Heavenly Envoy had opened had indeed blocked one attack for the Silver Crown Dragon. After she was injured, the part of her that was Guinevere surfaced. The Knight Heavenly Envoy’s initially heroic face became gentle, and her tall, strong body became somewhat slender.
The Knight Heavenly Envoy thus switched from “he” to “she.” Although Guinevere had offered her soul, it was not the Art of Pasturing. She had not sacrificed herself to the Void, but had merely merged with Lancelot.
As Heavenly Envoys of one body and two sides, the Knight Heavenly Envoy possessed two opposing yet similar abilities—protection and combat, as well as healing and blessing. This made her a self-contained entity, with balanced and perfect abilities.
“From his perspective, it is indeed so…”
The one who answered the Knight Heavenly Envoy was none other than the Silver Crown Dragon himself.
As the Knight Heavenly Envoy’s former comrade-in-arms, the white dragon who had once gone by the name “Arthur” slowly stood up, his voice deep and solemn: “After all, the Pillar Gods are all pure and clean gods. Arthur, now a Pillar God, also understands this principle.”
In the past, Hengwo’s ten-fold cutting finally carved out a pure self; the Silver Crown Dragon cut out the frenzied demon dragon before ascending to the position of Crown Lord. It was for this very reason that the Wing Heavenly Envoy of that year split himself into two—the mage and the warrior…
Pillar Gods and Heavenly Envoys were different.
A Heavenly Envoy could potentially occupy multiple Paths simultaneously. This was because, up to the level of Heavenly Envoy, the Origin River did not require them to be extremely pure. After all, Heavenly Envoys, as candidates for Pillar Gods, had the duty of carving out new possibilities for the Origin River.
Therefore, it was not an issue for the Wing Heavenly Envoy to master both spells and power when he ascended. Before the part belonging to the Great Philosopher was cut out by the Hourglass and entered the Truth Origin River, “casting ability” could itself be considered a form of violence—after all, could a powerful enough caster not be considered a strong person?
But now… with magic classified as the Fourth Origin River, it was impossible for the Wing Heavenly Envoy to fuse back.
This was because the Great Philosopher was already a Pillar God of the Fourth Origin River, and Supreme Heaven had become a Pillar God of the Seventh Origin River.
As the Pillar of the Fourth Origin River, how could he possibly absorb the remnants of the Seventh Origin River?
“However…”
The Silver Crown Dragon slowly supported himself, speaking the answer that Calamity Red had already thought of but found unbelievable: “He is no longer a Pillar God now.”
As the Silver Crown Dragon’s voice fell, a sapphire halo composed of runes with a hint of ancient barbarism appeared above the Great Philosopher’s head.
This halo was proof of a perfect resonance with a Path.
Its shape, color, and position varied for each person… for example, some might have it on their heads, some behind their heads, some around their necks, or even covering their eyes.
It was like how an Extraordinary’s pupils or wounds would change color when they were pushing their Extraordinary Power to its limit and perfectly resonating with their Path. This anomaly was essentially the overflow of power extracted from the Origin River by the soul. Then, if one could perfectly control the power of the Origin River, these constantly overflowing forces would condense into a stamp outside the body when exerting full strength.
It was difficult for Heavenly Envoys descending to the world to have such a halo, because their fragile vessels made it difficult for them to exert their full strength.
Pillar Gods also found it difficult to manifest such a halo—Pillar Gods were already one with the Origin River; they were almost equivalent to the Origin River itself.
So, to what extent of excitement would one need to be for a second resonance with the Origin River they had merged with? And what kind of dire battle would it take to truly exert one’s full strength and completely exhaust the last ounce of their stored power?
Yet, the Great Philosopher now effortlessly manifested a halo… This itself proved something without a doubt.
—The Great Philosopher had abandoned his position as a Pillar God.
“But, how is this possible…!”
Calamity Red’s astonishment was, understandably, appropriate.
The succession of a Pillar God should be accompanied by great changes in heaven and earth. He himself was a Pillar God who had seized power and was well aware of this process.
But now, with the Great Philosopher abdicating, not only had he fully returned to the form of a Heavenly Envoy… but the Origin River had not changed its course, nor had there been any alteration to the Professional System, blessings, or curses!
The Path of Wisdom remained the Path of Wisdom, and mages were still mages.
“Because the controller of the Fourth Origin River is still ‘the Great Philosopher’.”
The Wing Heavenly Envoy spoke slowly, his voice gradually becoming young and sonorous: “However, it is no longer Mimir… but ‘Odin’. He possesses characteristics similar to mine, power similar to mine, desires similar to mine… and wisdom similar to mine.
He can bear the name of the Great Philosopher, and he can carry the Path of Wisdom.”
Hearing this, Eivass immediately understood everything.
The existence of “Odin” was, to a certain extent, a secret.
Few people knew of his existence except for the Northern Giants. Eivass was an exception because the Book of Law recorded the ritual of ‘Odin’s Trial.’
This ritual itself was based on the principles of the Ring Heavenly Envoy—
Transforming past existence into present reality through the ‘Forbidden Principle’; transforming present reality into future hope through the ‘Principle of the Ring.’
The essence of this ritual was already half similar to Paradise Lost!
If the value of the sacrificed item was similar to or higher than the value of the prayed-for purpose, then the sacrifice itself would be meaningless. As a Forbidden Principle, the technique of ‘sacrifice,’ which was born from transcendence, was a skill of ‘birth’ that obtained higher value by ‘killing’ lower value items.
For this reason, a ritual that completely sacrificed oneself would inevitably yield something greater than what was obtained at that moment.
So, what if the result of the next second was sacrificed to the second after that?
What if this was not ‘one second,’ but one sixty-fourth of a second, one two hundred fifty-sixth of a second, one thousand and twenty-fourth of a millisecond… or even one two-billionth of a second?
As time was infinitely divided, the power obtained by the ritual would approach ‘infinity.’
And an entity whose substance was ‘infinity’ could serve as a vessel to contain all the truths of this world—
This was what the Great Philosopher obtained after opening the Door of Truth.
And there was only one person who completed this ritual and obtained the Truth.
That was the Giant Odin.
—However, after the Great Philosopher opened the Door of Truth, he obtained the answers to all the questions in this world. He learned of the existence of the Void, and was consequently tainted by it. For this reason, he chose to remain silent… because he did not know which part of his knowledge was correct and which part was distorted.
But, if that were the case…
(End of Chapter)
