The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 1109

Chapter 1108
Defeat Fate, or Be Defeated by Fate

Even though the Holy Sword that needed to be repaired had changed, and even the identity of the Guardian Spirit within the Holy Sword might have changed… in the end, the one to be sealed was still that Paladin.
Therefore, the preparations Eivass made before coming to the Church had not been wasted and were now proving useful…

Eivass took his stack of Tarot Cards from Isabel.
After opening the card box and looking at the thin stack of paper cards, Eivass couldn’t help but sigh, “They’re almost all used up.”
Out of the full deck of Tarot Cards he had bought half a year ago, only six cards remained unused.
The Magician, The Empress, The Chariot, Justice, The Hermit, and The Tower.
Of course, if the cards needed for the Beast of Sin were occupied, Eivass could overwrite the previous cards and release the unused ones, similar to the Earthbound Spirit card. But if he could avoid repetition, it would be better.

The two Tarot Cards Eivass had chosen for the Paladin were “The Chariot” and “Justice.”
In both the Thoth Tarot and the Waite Tarot, The Chariot card shared the same name and similar meanings—relying on one’s own strong willpower to overcome external difficulties or balance internal conflicts, thereby achieving the foundation for victory. However, the Thoth Tarot card, in addition to “victory,” also possessed the characteristic of “glory.”
The card of Justice was slightly different—the “Justice” card commonly found in the Waite Tarot was replaced by the “Adjustment” card in the Thoth Tarot, which had a completely different meaning.
Both cards depicted a blindfolded goddess, scales, and a sword. They symbolized fairness, rationality, justice, order, and judgment—both cards possessed the “glory” characteristic, and the Adjustment in the Thoth Tarot also had the trait of “victory.”
After Eivass transformed these two cards, they would perfectly blend and become more closely intertwined.
—Constantly Victorious, Bathed in Glory.

As for the materials needed to create the cards, Eivass had already prepared them.
Nothing was more sacred than the antlers on Eivass’s head.
Eivass sawed off half of his antlers, dripped his blood, and ground them into powder.
He then spread his wings and took three feathers—these feathers would quickly dissipate into faint light after leaving his body, but at least they were the freshest materials before they vanished.
Both of these core materials came from Eivass himself. This was nothing to Eivass, and it was even more hassle-free than collecting materials.
After all, he was the kind of person who had once made a medicinal potion from his own soul to save Isabel.
Squeezing his soul into juice and sealing it in a jar as a token of love… this was nowhere near as absurd as that.

The material used to reconcile the two was candle tears, obtained from the Candlemaster Church.
After mixing these three components, a faint purple radiance ignited in Eivass’s pupils.
As the ritual began, a divine flame ignited out of nowhere, consuming and devouring these materials—
It was a bright golden flame, neither fierce nor harmful. It ignited from Eivass’s palm, like a torch illuminating everything around it.
“With antlers as my crown, wings as my oath, and candle flames as my witness—”
Eivass raised the flame high, slowly lifting it above his head: “I beseech the Silver Crown Dragon, the God of Sacred Number Seven!
“Unquestionable God! God who wears the crown and wields the sword!
“—Grant me a crown, hear my oath, and bear witness for me!”
As Eivass chanted, a cold wind howled out of nowhere, swirling within the room.
Frost visibly coated the floor and walls, and even Sherlock staggered, needing Isabel to grab him to prevent him from being blown away.
In an instant, this forest-themed café and bookstore, belonging to Haibasha, turned into ruins sealed by a blizzard. The windows were sealed, preventing even outside light from entering.
Even the cluster of soul light pulsating in Haibasha’s hand ceased its movement, turning into a pale golden ice ball, like frozen jelly… becoming a semi-transparent jeweled egg.
Yet, the candle flame in Eivass’s hand remained vigorous.
The flame in his hand was the only light in this world of ice and snow.
Like the sun in winter—
Haibasha followed the procedure Eivass had taught her, placing the cluster of light from her hand into the flame in Eivass’s hand.
After summoning the power of the Silver Crown Dragon, Eivass calmed his mind and prepared to summon the power of the Fallen Heavenly Envoy.
With the fall of the Fallen Heavenly Envoy, the power of the Sin Scholar was completely unsealed.
He no longer had to worry about the Fallen Heavenly Envoy noticing when creating the Beast of Sin… The drawback was that the previously fully automated process had now become manual. It was like handing a document to a leader who would casually sign it without looking; now, he had to go through the process himself, which was more troublesome but would not be rejected.
After all, creating the Beast of Sin also required a Mark of Sin, and the Fallen Heavenly Envoy held a limited number of Marks of Sin.
His lack of attention did not mean it could not be discovered; discrepancies in accounts would always raise questions.
But now, as the most overwhelmingly powerful existence on the Transcendent Path, the Ring Heavenly Envoy had naturally stolen the Fallen Heavenly Envoy’s remaining power.
The overall power of a Heavenly Envoy consisted of divinity bestowed by Heavenly Envoy Fragments, the depth of their cultivated Path, and the authority granted by the Heavenly Envoy Position. A powerful individual might not possess Heavenly Envoy Fragments and authority, like Queen Titania; conversely, a Heavenly Envoy might not be powerful, such as the Winter Maiden, who possessed nothing but perfectly fit the authority of the Heavenly Envoy position and could act as its spokesperson.
If one’s own strength was insufficient, it was less like a mortal wielding Heavenly Envoy Fragments and more like the Heavenly Envoy Fragments having their own “mecha”—with the Heavenly Envoy Fragments holding the initiative.
Just like the Fallen Heavenly Envoy back then… when he was Lucifer, no matter how angry he was at being betrayed, he was far from the fallen state he was in now.
This state of possessing the Seven Great Sins was a reflection of gradually being eroded by authority after accepting the Heavenly Envoy Fragment and incarnating as a Heavenly Envoy.
And even though Viness now possessed the Fallen Heavenly Envoy’s Heavenly Envoy Fragment, she could not perform the actions a Heavenly Envoy could in the Dream Realm—this aspect of authority was closer to “power” in the traditional sense. It could be taken and borrowed.
Before a new Fallen Heavenly Envoy was born, the Pillar God of this Path and stronger Heavenly Envoys could act on this authority. The relationship between Amber and the Amber Heavenly Envoy was similar, just in reverse. The Amber Heavenly Envoy and Hourglass shared Amber’s authority, but it was Amber’s Heavenly Envoy Fragment that was activated when the ability was used.
With Father Snake unwilling to bother with such trivial matters, the Ring Heavenly Envoy naturally took over this part of the authority… in the original timeline, he used this very authority to transform demons into elemental spirits.
“—In the name of the Mark of Arrogance, I command the power of the Fallen Heavenly Envoy!”
After carefully completing the Path connection and requesting a Mark of Sin from the unresponsive realm of sin, Eivass’s eyes instantly snapped open—
Without hesitation, Eivass loudly declared, “Heavenly Envoy of Great Sin, Fallen Heavenly Envoy—hear my summons!
“I have clarified my sins, grant me the Mark of Greed!”
There was only a pause of about five seconds between the incantations of the Silver Crown Dragon and the Fallen Heavenly Envoy.
The two distinctly different powers merged, slowly drawing the two Tarot Cards floating in the air towards them.
A six-layered magic circle floated in the center of the two cards, three on the left and three on the right. And the golden flame in Eivass’s hand was at the very center.
The outer shell of the flame gradually condensed into a layer of ice.
The outside was transparent ice, and the inside was fire. It looked like an ice lantern, refracting rainbow-colored radiance outwards.
Bathed in that radiance, Eivass found himself lost in an illusion.
In his trance, amidst a vague, background-less darkness, he seemed to see an Elf man who resembled Sherlock.
His face was thinner than Sherlock’s, and his temperament was more composed. Or rather, that appearance was the impression Eivass had of Sherlock—the spiritual body had completely forgotten Hermes’s face.
Hermes’s pupils flickered with azure runes, and in his hand, he held a radiant and sacred Long Sword.
Unlike Hermes’s vague features, the image of this sword was exceptionally clear. Even the forging patterns, accurate to the millimeter, were clearly visible.
“Are you ready, Hercules?”
Hermes’s gaze was deep and solemn: “This sword is what you seek, the embodiment of supreme, pure, sacred, and ultimate power. It can pierce all armor and sever all spells. But if you wield this sword, you might go mad… and kill your beloved family.”
“Hahahahaha!”
A hearty laugh rang out as a strong, powerful arm took the greatsword, which seemed somewhat disproportionate for Hermes, and easily twirled it.
“There’s no need to worry about such things!”
Hercules’s words were filled with undisguised satisfaction and madness: “I only need power!
“Hermes, great orator! You are too intelligent and cunning, having never faced true hardship, so it’s no wonder you don’t understand the truth of this world!
“Listen, intelligent Hermes! Let a fool like me teach a clever person like you a lesson—there is no such thing as an irreversible ‘destiny’ in this world! All ill fate is essentially a curse! To be trapped in it and unable to escape is to be cursed!
“How should one deal with being cursed? Break the curse? No, no, no, that is the act of the weak! When cursed, one should smash the curse-giver’s head! The blood and death of the caster can end all evil curses!
“There is no insurmountable destiny in this world! It is merely a lack of power—if I were impervious to weapons, immune to all poisons, able to go without food or drink, and spells and curses could not harm me in the slightest, then even if destiny commanded me to die, it absolutely could not.
“Power—if I had the power of Supreme Heaven, I could shatter all ‘destiny’ in the world! This is precisely why power can become the Pillar of the World, hahahahahaha!”
Hercules dismissed Hermes’s warning.
He was confident that his great power could shatter all conspiracies and extinguish all curses.
Absolute power brought absolute confidence.
In a daze, the illusion belonging to “Hercules” completely dissipated.
This was the last trace of Hercules left in the world.
Apart from this fleeting, vague memory, Eivass could not see any other trace of the past.
However…
The history he studied in Avalon could tell him what happened next—
Hercules contracted a violent madness—he fell into a state of uncontrollable insanity. In his hallucinations, he believed he was fighting giants, but in reality, he killed his wife and two children; or he mistook his closest friend for an irreconcilable enemy, suddenly became enraged, and killed him…
Clearly.
Hercules did not defeat his destiny.
He was defeated by his own destiny.