Chapter 1069
The Inverted Throne
As Eivass uttered such arrogant words, the Lord of Scales and Feathers did not mock him, nor did he encourage him.
The Lord of Scales and Feathers merely laughed heartily for some unknown reason, and then vanished again.
At this moment, Eivass had already realized the essence of the Box of Nothingness.
It was not as simple as merely containing Void Power, nor was the Swan King merely close to becoming a Pillar God of the Tenth Origin River. What he was confronting was not just the Void Power within the Box of Nothingness, but a Twilight Seed named “Whisper of the Void.”
According to the Lord of Scales and Feathers, that Twilight Seed was itself an informational entity. Although it was an individual, it had no physical form. If it wished to truly obtain the ability to influence the world, it needed a vessel.
In other words, “Whisper of the Void” had to first possess a corrupted individual to control the power of the Origin River.
—Just like a spider.
After injecting venom and digestive fluids to break down the prey, it still needed to extend its mouthparts to absorb it into its body. The corruption of the Path by the Whisper of the Void was merely the step of “injecting venom and digestive fluids.”
And because of the Hourglass’s severance of the world, gods without physical bodies could not descend into the Material Realm, nor could they directly interfere with it. The Whisper of the Void was neither in the Dream Realm nor the Material Realm. It could contaminate Phantom Demons in the Dream Realm and corrupt the will of gods, but it could not directly possess the souls of gods. While it could possess beings in the Material Realm, it was unable to interfere due to the severance of the world.
This rule completely severed the Whisper of the Void’s ability to possess. It would either need a physical body to enter the Material Realm, or a soul to enter the Dream Realm.
The Candlemaster’s vanguard legion was like antivirus software, killing those corrupted Phantom Demons.
—This was a form of devotion!
However, just as High-Tier Divine Arts could actively allow gods to descend upon Cardinals… if someone willingly accepted the Whisper of the Void, becoming its divine vessel, they could still pull it into the Material Realm through self-sacrifice!
In this way, through the process of death-ascension, the Whisper of the Void could directly contact the Origin River.
The Swan King was not simply close to becoming a Pillar God of the Tenth Origin River.
He was close to becoming the divine vessel for the Whisper of the Void!
“…So, that’s why you guided me to say that sentence.”
In the Basement of the Count’s Mansion, Eivass softly asked the Box of Nothingness, “Because you had already woken up… right?”
Naturally, the Box of Nothingness gave no response.
“Is that… the Box of Nothingness?”
Arsen mumbled in a low voice.
It was no wonder he was astonished.
The Count’s Mansion’s Basement had an almost radiant special landscape. When he first entered, he wondered why there were so many strange crystal pillars on the floor, as well as some gold baskets and hollowed-out high platforms.
As Eivass skillfully flicked a switch on the wall, and the light turned on, he finally understood everything.
—The crystal pillars on the ground and those high platforms were actually lamps!
On the ceiling above them was an incredibly radiant palace, upside down.
Upside-down chairs, upside-down tables, and many upside-down figurines of ministers and nobles. And at the very front… an upside-down throne on the ceiling.
Arsen had entered the Royal Palace before.
Not to steal anything. The truly valuable parts had already been moved, and the rest were replicas. He had merely gone for sightseeing.
With the extinction of the Royal Family, the Iris Flower’s Royal Palace had become a tourist attraction. One could visit by paying for a ticket.
—He remembered very clearly that the decor of the throne room was exactly the same as this Count Orléans’s Basement!
Only here it was completely inverted, with the floor as the ceiling and the ceiling as the floor.
But on the throne suspended in the sky, their King was not seated.
There was a treasure chest placed neatly there.
A very simple, very standard, golden treasure chest that fit all of Arsen’s preconceived notions of a treasure chest.
It was decorated with any ornament Arsen could imagine, so magnificent that it made the throne look mediocre.
It was just that it was also inverted. As if the direction of gravity here pointed towards the sky, it was sucked onto the throne suspended in the sky.
However…
Thinking this, a thought suddenly popped into Arsen’s mind: According to Eivass, their King did indeed seem to be on that throne.
“Box of Nothingness…”
Sherlock murmured in a low voice, “How could it be it…?”
His pupils trembled violently, as if he had seen something incredible.
Eivass, however, said, “I don’t know what you saw, but there’s no need to be nervous or to care at all. Because what you saw must be wrong.
“In your perception, the ‘treasure chest’ will appear as it is in your mind. The Box of Nothingness does not have a fixed form, which is why it is called the Box of Nothingness. What the three of us see is definitely different.”
Why was Eivass so certain?
Because in his vision, the treasure chest was even composed of golden-red pixelated blocks, completely out of place with everything around it.
And at this moment.
The treasure chest suddenly creaked and swayed, making a sound. This made Arsen suddenly turn his head to stare at it, his right hand subconsciously gripping his short sword.
It twisted its body with an almost impossible flexibility, as if it were alive.
Suddenly, an invisible power from within caused it to open violently.
Tentacles made of blood made it like a red snake. Then, a wet head with tightly shut eyes suddenly hung down from the sky, even bouncing like it was attached to a bungee cord.
Arsen reacted instantly, turning around to block the blood rain that splattered towards him with the hem of his cloak. Eivass and Sherlock, however, were thoroughly drenched in blood.
Eivass had long since dispelled his Child of the Moon transformation. Sacred white flames ignited on his body, instantly burning it away, leaving only Sherlock silently wiping his cheeks with his sleeve.
【I am curious…】
A young man’s voice, filled with heavy echoes, rang out:
【What did you see that made you so panicked?】
That was the Swan King’s voice.
“…I saw my brother’s storage box.”
Sherlock remained silent for a long time before softly saying, “When I was very young, I was full of curiosity about the world. At that time, my brother would always take out some novel toys to amuse me. For example, clockwork soldiers that could walk on their own, light bulbs that glowed when cupped in one’s hand, music boxes, and phonographs. They were all taken out of my brother’s storage box.
“I occasionally wanted to dismantle them to understand their principles, but I was afraid that if I broke them, my brother would no longer give me toys. So I would think, I’ll pretend I don’t like them anymore, and have my brother put them back into the storage box. Then, when my brother wasn’t around, I would secretly open that box and take out the toys to dismantle them.
“Since I no longer played with that toy, he shouldn’t take it out to check it. Even if I took it apart and couldn’t reassemble it, it shouldn’t be discovered.
“…But to my surprise, when I opened that treasure chest, I couldn’t find that toy at all. It turned out that when I no longer liked them, my brother had already thrown them away.”
Sherlock finished speaking and took a deep breath.
That was why he had been so flustered just now. If his brother’s box was the Box of Nothingness, then…
Eivass thought, the only thing that could make Sherlock Hermes lose his composure was probably anything related to his family.
“As expected of you,” Eivass praised, “You were always full of schemes even as a child, and so awkward from a young age.”
“…How old were you then?”
Arsen couldn’t help but ask.
“About four,” Sherlock said calmly, “I hadn’t started school yet anyway.”
【Childhood joy, family love, not bad, not bad…】
The echoing voice resounded, layered upon itself.
The head still had its eyes closed, but the corners of its mouth turned up slightly, as if it were as comfortable as if it had eaten some delicious food. And the snake-like body “below” it began to writhe and sway joyfully, making it seem even more manic. As the transparent crimson tentacles swung wildly, its head was thrown back and forth like a pendulum swinging at high frequency.
“…It seems you have mastered the Lion Head Secret Codex, Ludwig.”
Eivass sighed as he watched it skillfully operate the blood within the box.
The mad king’s skull, originally imprisoned here, had spontaneously mastered the secret art that sealed it here. And the foolish Count Orléans thought he still held this power in his grasp…
…Wait.
Eivass froze for a moment, realizing something.
【Of course, I am a genius.】
The Swan King said frankly.
It was an unquestionable, irrefutable, and self-evident confidence.
“You hypnotized Count Orléans as well?”
Eivass suddenly understood.
Count Orléans firmly believed that he had completely obtained the power of the “Mad King’s Skull” and had not harbored the slightest suspicion. Wasn’t this the same as when Eivass and Sherlock were manipulated, their thoughts rewritten silently!
【That is not hypnosis, nor is it any illusion.】
The Swan King, somewhat displeased, leaned closer to Eivass.
The bent, slender, transparent crimson tentacles, resembling a snake’s body or an extremely long neck, lifted its head and appeared before Eivass upside down.
It twisted itself 180 degrees, bringing its face to face with Eivass. The distance between them was less than ten centimeters, and Eivass could even smell the earthy scent unique to corpses and the residual bloodstains on it.
The Swan King said with utter seriousness:
【—That is hope.】
