### Chapter 1077: The God Pillar Succession Plan
The plans previously laid out by the Ring Heavenly Envoy were still somewhat distant for Eivass.
— To this day, Eivass could finally feel the existence of the Ring Heavenly Envoy with unparalleled clarity.
Thinking back carefully, who are the members of the “protagonist group” in the game?
Aside from the player’s own main character, there is Eivass, who possesses both the Path of Devotion and the Power of Transcendence. Next are Isabel and Sherlock.
In the real world, the player’s main character and Eivass are actually the same person— as the “Son of Father Snake” and a “Divine Entity,” Eivass, or rather, the Ring Heavenly Envoy’s Snake Tail, has been there from the beginning.
According to previous accounts, Isabel would become the “Pure Beauty” Queen of Flowers through a series of trials; Sherlock, in a similar ordeal to Isabel, gradually shed his previous adaptability to the Path of Authority and transformed into an Extraordinary of the pure Path of Wisdom.
Let’s consider what the Ring Heavenly Envoy has done before—
Mian was once an Apostle of the Ring Heavenly Envoy, and the power with which Amber restarted the cycle of reincarnation came precisely from the former Ring Heavenly Envoy. With Father Snake about to break through and ascend, the new Pillar God for this path would be the Ring Heavenly Envoy himself.
Candlemaster possesses an irreplaceable characteristic— after all, only Candlemaster can burn the Sin Thorns and lead legions in “disinfection”; the Hourglass is needed to maintain the separation between the divine and mortal realms, ensuring isolation. These two Pillar Gods are like a firewall and antivirus software, respectively, and are clearly immovable.
—So, the remaining ones are essentially Hengwo, Twin, Great Philosopher, and Lord of Scales and Feathers, four in total.
Lord of Scales and Feathers had a good relationship with the Ring Heavenly Envoy when he was Ai Shiping, and his mental state is also very stable. If he can be considered half on the Ring Heavenly Envoy’s side… then the existence of Isabel and Sherlock is clearly the “artificial Pillar Gods” that the Ring Heavenly Envoy intends to create!
The so-called “Pillar Gods” are the very foundation of the world.
Just as air purifiers or water purifiers need their filters replaced after a period of use, the Pillar Gods stand on the front lines against the Void and are bound to suffer wear and tear. Among them, Twin, Great Philosopher, and Father Snake are “less active” Pillar Gods— any of them could quietly fall into the Void, or be worn down and infiltrated. Therefore, the simplest way to counter this “void-ification” is to replace them with someone else before the Origin River is eroded.
Upon thinking of this, Eivass could no longer contain himself:
— The Ring Heavenly Envoy, acting as a Dream Realm HR manager, is planning to fire the board members?
But from this perspective, the Ring Heavenly Envoy seems to still be working… at least he’s not planning to abandon everything and leave.
However…
With this thought, Eivass suddenly connected it to another matter.
There was still another Swamp Dweller that Eivass had encountered before.
— Haina Dane.
Her true father disappeared long ago, and there is ample evidence to prove that he was Jacob’s ritual assistant.
Haina is a Swamp Dweller— but no one knows where her real body is. Or rather, she doesn’t have a so-called real body… her real body is Lancelot. She can wield Arondight’s Dagger, and there are fragments of Lancelot within her… thus, there’s a high probability that Haina is a replicated, gender-bent version of Lancelot!
From this angle, Haina is a failed experiment.
Because not only does she possess traits of Authority and Transcendence within her, but she is also tainted with a portion of Twilight. This part of the Twilight power clearly comes from contamination within the experimental environment.
So, the question arises.
If Jacob created Eivass for the Ring Heavenly Envoy to possess, and cultivated Isabel and Sherlock to replace Twin and Great Philosopher… then what was Haina created for?
Setting aside the fact that Haina was discarded and quickly died in the original history— his actions should have a motive.
This is also a weakness of the Ring Heavenly Envoy… as a genuine “multi-cycle player,” he has long since lost his curiosity, and his actions have become extremely utilitarian. Nearly every action he takes has a purpose. In other words, he wouldn’t do something without meaning.
— Then, there is one possibility.
Haina’s mere existence is value.
Her existence not only invalidated the Shadow of Avalon ritual, thus pointing towards the Shadow Heavenly Envoy… but perhaps there’s another point.
That is the Silver Crown Dragon.
The Silver Crown Dragon itself was once a Pillar God who possessed Transcendence and Authority!
And in the original history, the Calamity Demon Dragon, the half-embodiment of the Silver Crown Dragon, only began to leak after Haina’s death.
With the shattering of the mirror images of Haina and Lancelot, the delicate balance between the Silver Crown Dragon and the Calamity Demon Dragon was broken.
However, there is another possibility here— that Haina, as the leader of the “Hyena Gang,” did not die easily. Although she was attacked and died once by the Shadow Heavenly Envoy, perhaps she was saved by someone.
Because as the opposite mirror image of Lancelot, she is truly suitable as a sacrifice, or rather, a vessel for divine descent…
— A vessel for the Calamity Demon Dragon.
Eivass remembers clearly that when the Calamity Demon Dragon first appeared in the storyline, it wasn’t in dragon form— or rather, she had the ability to transform into a human.
At that time, she was a tall beauty dressed in sharp red and black armor, with a helmet covering the upper half of her face. She had a great figure, fair skin on her lower face, and a voice that exuded a cold and mature aura.
Her alias at the time was “Arthur,” and she even joined the protagonist team for investigations. It was only later that she revealed her true form, transforming into the black and red giant dragon.
And “Nameless,” the leader of the Hyena Gang, was also a tall beauty. However, her entire body was covered in scars that she intentionally didn’t heal, in order to strengthen her adaptability to the Twilight Path, to the point that Eivass’s first reaction upon thinking of her was “scar face.”
… But thinking back now, “Nameless” and “Arthur” did have similar builds.
And the Calamity Demon Dragon clearly possesses abilities with a “Void” style. She is the most pure antagonist throughout the entire game, wanting to destroy the world— unlike all other antagonists who have their own demands, the Calamity Demon Dragon has none.
Perhaps the Calamity Demon Dragon was the one being corrupted, or perhaps the Silver Crown Dragon passed on its corrupted parts to the Calamity Demon Dragon.
On that world line, the attack from Edward, who had transplanted the Calamity Demon Dragon’s heart, upon the player, which mistakenly killed Eivass, was an ability of the Void Path.
If that’s the case, then foster father James suddenly obtaining unreasonably powerful strength— perhaps it was partly because he accepted the gift of that Twilight Seed! That is why Jacob opposed James!
“I think I understand…”
Eivass murmured in a low voice, “For Pillar Gods who refuse cooperation, he directly selects replacements; for Pillar Gods who are willing to obey him, like the Silver Crown Dragon, he finds a way to channel out its ‘poisonous blood’ to enable the Silver Crown Dragon to regain a stable state.
“In that case…”
Eivass suddenly looked at Yulia beside him.
Yulia tilted her head in confusion.
Eivass’s expression, however, turned grim.
Because he remembered another matter—
The protagonist group is not limited to Sherlock, Eivass, and Isabel.
Theoretically, there is another one… Yulia.
And Yulia herself was also a Swamp Dweller created by Jacob!
Within her, there is the seed of the superior Phantom Demon, Butterfly, who is of the pure Path of Devotion. And “Butterfly” is a brand-new Phantom Demon that does not exist in the Dream Realm and has no past life. Logically, such a Phantom Demon should appear at the moment the soul transforms into a Phantom Demon in the Origin River, not directly become a Phantom Demon Egg and fall into the Material Realm.
So, could it be that Yulia— or rather, Butterfly, was also someone the Ring Heavenly Envoy originally intended to replace Candlemaster with?
If this is the case, and not counting Hengwo… the three layers of Pillar Gods closest to the Void Path have all been replaced by mortals by the Ring Heavenly Envoy.
There is even a possibility.
— Hengwo might also have been cultivated by the Ring Heavenly Envoy!
This is not impossible, as Hengwo was not even a Heavenly Envoy before becoming a Pillar God, merely an Apostle.
And Yulia— she also has an adaptability to the Path of Devotion, and even a strong one. She endured pain for a long time without complaint, just hoping not to bring negative emotions to others.
Her soul shows talent in Balance, Wisdom, Devotion, and Transcendence. Her current choice to become an Alchemist is to provide some off-field assistance to Eivass, helping him when she’s inconvenient for outdoor adventures, and only later did she gradually become engrossed in alchemy.
So, is there a possibility…
… that Yulia was “destroyed” manually by the Ring Heavenly Envoy?
(End of Chapter)
