Chapter 1294
If I can hear the Tao in the morning, I can die in the evening.
Compared to the true form of the Abyss Heavenly Envoy, Eivass now appeared both sacred and bizarre.
As the giant’s body gradually cooled in the torrential rain mixed with mud, Eivass’s skin slowly faded to the bloodless white of marble. After being covered in grayish-white mud, his muscles were no longer as ferocious as they were at the beginning, but instead possessed a special aesthetic beauty, like a marble statue.
Ink-black Sin Thorns spread and grew all over Eivass’s body, like tender shoots of plants scattered on barren stone.
The purest of Sin Thorns continuously emerged from the neck of the headless giant, forming a vertical ring like a black hole. Above this vertical ring lay a horizontal, dark crown—it was not purely composed of Sin Thorns, but was based on intertwined “Chains of Friendship,” with Sin Thorns wrapped around the outside.
Above the black hole ring, two Sin Thorns extended and changed color, transforming into a pair of giant, white jade-colored antlers.
Once the antlers were fully grown, the uniform black hole suddenly collapsed, transforming into a messy ball of yarn.
They then melted into a black, tar-like substance that formed a dark-colored deer head helmet. The helmet had no openings for the eyes, so it was still impossible to see what lay within, or if there was a real head.
Behind Eivass, six enormous, pure white wings also emerged.
Large swathes of white feathers drifted down like falling cherry blossoms.
They were quickly entangled by the rapidly growing and spreading Sin Thorns, like stakes bound by iron wire, or like a grape trellis covered by vines. The black Sin Thorns gradually enveloped these wings until the white wings were completely submerged, leaving only six large, tattered thorn wings, like maple leaves.
This transformation process was quite lengthy.
However, neither the Grey Heavenly Envoy nor the Geometric Heavenly Envoy interrupted Eivass’s rebirth; they waited patiently at the side.
A deer-headed human body, a dark crown, thorn wings, a giant existence like marble—
“Rather than saying this is Eivass, it’s more like ‘The Forbidden’,” the Grey Heavenly Envoy murmured. “So perfect, and so beautiful… Yes, this is also a miracle.”
He gazed at Eivass with admiration. In a sense, Eivass in this form had been created by the Grey Heavenly Envoy himself.
“—I am still myself.”
A somewhat muffled voice echoed in the void. It was Eivass’s response, his voice sounding as if he were speaking with his head buried in an iron helmet.
From behind him, Sin Thorns continued to surge outwards. The Sin Thorns transformed from the Great Abyss were vastly more numerous than those of his foster father. These Sin Thorns were still constantly being generated and spreading.
“…Grey Heavenly Envoy, and Geometric Heavenly Envoy.” Eivass’s voice sounded. “Thank you for your help. I will remember you both.”
“It’s nothing.” The Grey Heavenly Envoy smiled, transforming back into his youthful form, hands clasped in front of him, fearless of his own end. “Then let us return to the Origin River… or do you need our help to defeat Calamity Red?”
“…I thought you would want to survive.” Eivass was somewhat surprised. After all, it was a fact that the Grey Heavenly Envoy had saved the Geometric Heavenly Envoy. If the Grey Heavenly Envoy hadn’t intervened, the Geometric Heavenly Envoy, a fragile mage, would have been taken by the Abyss Heavenly Envoy’s final attack. He had even prepared himself to counter the Analysis Cannon, which was why he had deployed his white wings early.
“I just didn’t want him to die at the hands of the Abyss Heavenly Envoy. That would have made me look incompetent.” The girl atop the spider clasped her hands and said with a smile, “I had to show some ability, didn’t I? Simply using the characteristics of the Grey Hole to help everyone dodge a few attacks from the Abyss Heavenly Envoy might have seemed rather ordinary. I had to put on a little show, otherwise, who would remember me in the end?”
Eivass paid no mind to the Grey Heavenly Envoy’s half-serious, half-mad ramblings. The Grey Heavenly Envoy was a Heavenly Envoy who controlled the Authority of Lies. Anyone who believed the Grey Heavenly Envoy’s words was bound to be unlucky in life.
However, Eivass understood the Grey Heavenly Envoy’s meaning. “So, if your ‘talent show’ is over, you’re retiring? Or are you planning to have another round with me?”
“Although I’d love to say another fight would make me seem rather tactless… being unwilling to leave the stage when my role is over. The Heavenly Envoy Actor would surely detest such a tactless supporting character,” the Grey Heavenly Envoy said with a smile, reaching out to the Geometric Heavenly Envoy beside him. “But—how can you be sure the Geometric Heavenly Envoy isn’t dead? Did you see it with your own eyes?”
“But… if you don’t even believe my words, why would you believe your own eyes?”
The next moment, the “Geometric Heavenly Envoy” suddenly melted away. It transformed into four-colored crystals, coalescing into a peculiar sword. It was less a short sword and more like a cudgel. From any angle, its four faces were different colors, constantly shifting as the angle changed.
The deer-headed giant fell silent for a moment. He truly could not tell if the Geometric Heavenly Envoy was dead or alive.
“…It’s like magic,” Eivass murmured, marveling. “The power to alter reality, am I right?” It was like holding a crumpled piece of paper in your palm, fidgeting with it a few times, and then asking where the paper was. If you chose your left hand, it was in your right; if you chose your right, it was in your left. If you grabbed both hands simultaneously, it ended up in neither.
Although the Grey Heavenly Envoy’s words were a mixture of truth and falsehood, Eivass had a general idea of his intentions—the Grey Heavenly Envoy bore no specific animosity towards him. Perhaps he was itching for a fight, perhaps he was unwilling to leave like this, or perhaps he had a grand ambition he wished to achieve, and the mission required him not to commit suicide. That was why he had waited for Eivass to hatch from the Abyss Egg and regain a physical form.
Strictly speaking, this headless giant’s body, standing some tens of meters tall, was still not Eivass’s true body… Eivass was merely using the Authority of the Sin Eater Beast to control Sin Thorns, creating a temporary head for himself. Inside the deer-head helmet was a dense mass of Sin Thorns, almost compressed together.
However, in terms of sheer power, this body was far more effective than Eivass’s own. Although the residual Pillar God power from The Forbidden had been largely depleted in the confrontation with Calamity Red, a portion of The Forbidden’s power still remained within Eivass. Moreover, this body was the lingering remnant of the past Forbidden. In a sense, this could be considered a form of necromancy—if the Amber Heavenly Envoy had obtained this body, they might have had a chance to piece together a significant part of the true “Forbidden.”
“Although I don’t know whether the Geometric Heavenly Envoy is alive or dead…” the giant slowly raised his hand, aiming it at the much smaller spider before him. Behind Eivass, an enormous magic circle materialized. Three nested rings of platinum, bright gold, and dark gold formed, spinning at high speed as they appeared— Unlike when Eivass had used his own body to activate Paradise Lost. The power contained within this borrowed body was exceptionally abundant, allowing Paradise Lost to manifest without a lengthy accumulation of mana. The three rings accelerated their rotation and overlapped the moment they appeared.
“—But I imagine Plato would want to witness true Paradise Lost.” Eivass’s voice faded. Countless bright golden rays of light transformed into falling blades of light, sweeping towards the Grey Heavenly Envoy!
The Grey Heavenly Envoy simply gripped the four-sided crystal cudgel transformed from the Geometric Heavenly Envoy and looked sternly at the deer-headed giant. At some point, his appearance had changed. The Grey Heavenly Envoy was no longer the spider-woman he had been, but had transformed into a winged being wearing a white robe. There were men and women, old and young. Some had lost gazes, others were resolute. Some laughed wildly, while others wept with sorrow. Some exclaimed in wonder, others were moved to tears. As the Grey Heavenly Envoy gradually raised the crystal cudgel, his appearance kept changing, and the frequency of these changes accelerated. By the end, he would manifest four or five faces in the span of an inch.
And by the time the Grey Heavenly Envoy had fully raised the crystal cudgel, the onslaught of Paradise Lost had arrived! A spherical barrier of colorful rainbow light condensed, enveloping the Grey Heavenly Envoy at the last moment! The four-colored rainbow light canceled out the golden onslaught, and ripples appeared on the bubble-like barrier, threatening to shatter it almost immediately. It looked precarious. Yet, even so, the rainbow light constricted with all its might, forming an extremely slender beam of light. That was the Analysis Cannon!
Of course, the accumulated power at this moment was far from sufficient. Unlike Paradise Lost, the Analysis Cannon required a long time to accumulate power… The Grey Heavenly Envoy had actually used the power of lies to barely wrench a sliver of past reality and manifest it in the present. Since this strike had previously been used against the Abyss Heavenly Envoy, and the current deer-headed giant was, in a sense, an extension of the Abyss Heavenly Envoy, the Grey Heavenly Envoy had confused the two facts, thereby pilfering a portion of Truth’s power.
Under the gaze of both the Grey Heavenly Envoy and Eivass, the beam of Analysis Cannon’s rainbow light collided with one of the beams of Paradise Lost, resulting in a violent explosion! When the explosion occurred, even the Preservation Technique cast by Eivass was severely distorted. The petrified city began to recover, as if slowly thawing. The petrified and preserved Anxi people finally regained consciousness belatedly, seeing the light magic circle behind the terrifying giant and the glorious offensive that resembled divine punishment. This “Infinite” attack, capable of piercing worlds and dissolving all things… had, ironically, resulted in an explosion and mutual cancellation, much like a clash between Eivass’s and a Fallen Heavenly Envoy’s Paradise Lost!
—This meant one thing. Although the Analysis Cannon mimicked Paradise Lost, in its confrontation with Paradise Lost, it had approached the true Paradise Lost infinitely closely!
“…Ah.” At that moment, both Eivass and the Grey Heavenly Envoy seemed to hear a satisfied sigh. It was the sigh of the Geometric Heavenly Envoy.
These mages, in their pursuit of dreams, restoration of glory, and exploration of truth, had recreated the “ultimate spell,” but its meaning was lost the moment it was created. —Because the person capable of using Paradise Lost was no more.
Eivass suddenly fell into a strange illusion— He knew it was an illusion transmitted by the Grey Heavenly Envoy. However, Eivass did not resist but quietly accepted the illusion and became immersed in it.
He saw a flock of young, timid birds hastily fleeing the Tower of Ruin. These winged beings had never left their homeland since birth; they were merely scholars living atop a towering structure. Images flashed before Eivass’s eyes— He saw some mages closely interacting with a taller Lucifer, intimately sensing his emotions and knowledge; He saw some mages curiously approaching a snake wearing a monocle, diligently recording something with their childish words; He saw young mages engaging in heated discussions with each other using words; He saw the tower collapse, and the dust-covered mages walking lost and disheveled across a somewhat barren land, wiping tears, complaining, and then being comforted by elders in the crowd; He saw the mages helping each other, watching them rebuild the tower, watching them rebuild civilization… Watching them encourage each other, watching them quarrel, watching them fail repeatedly, and then picking themselves up from failure. He saw elderly mages passing away, and others mourning them, as if glimpsing their own futures; He saw the once curious boys and girls mature into youths, then into steady middle-aged adults, and then into old age. And among the mages who were already middle-aged or elderly, some had already died. Finally, the mages developed the Analysis Cannon. They were ecstatic! They cheered with joy, hugged each other, spread their wings, and soared into the sky. It was as if they had returned to the moment they first left the Sky-Piercing Tower— However, this intense joy was soon overwhelmed by profound sorrow. —Because they could no longer prove their theories themselves. Lucifer, whom they respected and adored, had failed his ascension. The splinters, the Fallen Heavenly Envoys, had fallen, transforming their kin into hideous demons; The King of Those with scales, whom they also revered, was the mastermind behind this entire conspiracy and had also ascended to godhood, entering the Dream Realm, beyond their reach. The two individuals who had taught them and guided their growth were now gone. The mages who had left the Sky-Piercing Tower all those years ago were still just children. They had proven the great Truth from another perspective, transcending their former kin. They had matured and become powerful. But they could never go back to what they once were. For other races, when they reached middle age, new lives would begin to appear around them; when they grew old, a new generation of youth would emerge. However, the mage race had come to an end. With the fall of Taiyi’s radiance, winged beings could no longer be born. One by one, the old ones departed. The mage tower gradually became desolate. Until the last elderly winged one meticulously cleaned the entire mage tower. They meticulously categorized all knowledge and history, bid farewell to the graves bearing names, and stood before Plato, the Supreme Mainframe. He too died, turning into a skeleton. A long time passed. Elves, as pilgrims, returned to the giant tree and cautiously entered the mage tower, which had long since become desolate ruins. At that time, the elves still wore animal skins and carried bows and arrows. By the time the first group of elves left the mage tower, they had already become the inheritors of the old era. —This was the genesis of elven civilization. The vision of the past, the unprovable truth. To this day, it has finally been fulfilled.
“By analyzing the four great elements, it may be possible to reconstruct a new magical system.” In Eivass’s mind, a young and vibrant voice echoed. “Even manifesting a spell on the scale of Paradise Lost is not impossible!” That was the original reason the winged beings gathered here. —Proof complete. Although this beam of Analysis Cannon was a single shot, a single beam. The other beams fired by Paradise Lost curved on their own like missiles, engulfing and tearing the Grey Heavenly Envoy apart instantly. However, this single, minuscule beam of light, which seemed incapable of achieving anything, had proven… that all their efforts were not in vain. The new magical system had reached the end of the old system. And the path of the new magic was far from over. Therefore, their path was the right one! And now, this world, like their research, was walking on the correct path— —This was the mages’ eternal, fervent, and sincere pursuit of Truth.
