Chapter 1298
The Seventh Beast of Sin
“My Lord.”
As Eivass pondered, Don Quixote suddenly spoke, “This is Plato’s parting gift to you.”
The Governor of Light, clad in white moonlight knight armor, knelt on one knee, embedding his holy sword into the ground and slinging his holy shield onto his back. He then presented a beautiful radiance to the deer-headed giant as if offering a treasure.
This scene was witnessed by many Anxi people in the city.
They did not know the cause or the consequence. Due to the distance, they could not hear the conversation clearly, nor could they see the true face of the Grey Heavenly Envoy.
However, this scene was incredibly visually impactful—
Apart from his armor, the radiant knight revealed a handsome face. He held a holy sword and holy shield, with a halo of thorns, like a saint’s, at the back of his head. He knelt before the deer-headed giant, offering a gift.
The colossal deer-headed giant, in turn, wore a black crown formed from thorns on his head, and behind him were six enormous white wings entangled and bound by black thorns. He looked down at the knight and slowly knelt down himself, extending his hand towards the knight below.
The radiant shield and black wings were symmetrical, like a mirror image, as were the halo and the black crown on their heads.
“This, this—!”
Many master painters, renowned for their intricate detail work, felt their pupils constrict.
For their entire lives, they had strived to achieve “divinity on paper” through color and brushstrokes. If they could not reach this level, they would never ascend to the Fifth Tier—just like Yulia in the past. They had to surpass their past selves and touch true beauty to take that step.
However, one cannot concretely depict something beyond one’s imagination.
At their level, the constraint was not technique but rather their knowledge and imagination.
Not all painters could be like Yulia, who could shed everything without restraint and travel the world on foot for inspiration.
In this regard, what held them back from pursuing ultimate beauty were precisely their past lives, their emotions, and their overly conventional worldviews.
—And yet, this scene now deeply moved them all.
Their intuition from the Path of Beauty made them feel that this scene seemed to be a spectacle that could touch the Pillar God-tier—
Disregarding their perilous situation, they each conjured their easels and began to paint the beauty they witnessed.
Some focused on depicting the peculiar divinity and strangeness of the deer-headed giant; some recorded the moment the knight offered his gift while the giant gazed down; some concentrated on portraying the grand offering made by the tiny knight to the divine giant, down to every detail of his moon-white robe; while others emphasized the mirroring between the giant and the knight.
It wasn’t just painters.
Composers, screenwriters, sculptors—other professions on the Path of Beauty also felt a strong surge of inspiration. It was as if this scene had touched upon some underlying logic of the Path of Beauty.
Undoubtedly, after today… many “masters” of the Fifth Tier would be born here.
The artworks they painted would prove from multiple angles what had transpired here.
Eivass, on his end, was unaware that by merely bending down to retrieve an item, he had activated the inspiration of so many Extraordinary beings on the Path of Beauty.
He had simply taken the Heavenly Envoy Fragment of the Geometric Heavenly Envoy from Don Quixote.
The fragment, held in Eivass’s hand, now appeared incredibly small.
—It was not a perfectly cut jewel. It was neither a Fire Tetrahedron, nor an Earth Hexahedron, a Wind Octahedron, or a Water Icosahedron.
It was a special Dodecahedron—composed entirely of curves.
[Heavenly Envoy Fragment—Fragment of Number and Geometry]
[—The laws of numbers and space, remnants of the Geometric Heavenly Envoy’s power. If used correctly, it offers a chance to become a Heavenly Envoy of Number or Geometry.]
“Finally…”
Eivass sighed and manifested the card of Leah, the Butterfly of Contrary Flames, placing it onto the Heavenly Envoy Fragment left by the Geometric Heavenly Envoy.
—But it showed no reaction at all.
Elemental mismatch, conceptual conflict.
Even though the Fire Fragment could resonate with Yulia… the complete fragment of the Geometric Heavenly Envoy could not be used.
“…Huh?”
Eivass blinked in surprise.
But he quickly realized—the Heavenly Envoy Fragment left by the Geometric Heavenly Envoy was different from its in-game version.
He attempted to sense it and felt a massive amount of Mana within the Heavenly Envoy Fragment, existing in a strange, stable state of two opposing attributes: Light and Dark.
In the game, what he left behind was a fragment universally compatible with the four elements.
Whether it was a Lord of Great Beasts leveling up their own Beast of Sin, or other professions using Heavenly Envoy Fragments to enhance a particular skill, it was an excellent, top-tier universal material—its effect was to increase damage of the four elements.
Elemental damage belonged to a rather rare damage multiplier. On purple-tier equipment, it was rare to find elemental damage amplification attributes, so the increase was very significant.
It could be said that focusing on farming the Geometric Heavenly Envoy was a very stable way to improve one’s power. As long as one’s damage composition was primarily based on one of the four elements, one could achieve considerable improvement. Thus, the Heavenly Envoy Fragment of the Geometric Heavenly Envoy was also among the most stable in price during guild auctions.
However, the fragment left by the Geometric Heavenly Envoy for Eivass was not quite the same as in the game.
In-game, the “Aether Dodecahedron” had straight lines.
But this one was curved.
…The difference was likely that the Geometric Heavenly Envoy in the game had not successfully aggregated.
The Geometric Heavenly Envoy in the game did not possess the ability to use the Analysis Cannon. It was merely a giant, constantly reorganizing crystal geometric body, which would switch and slice into different attributes as its structure changed.
It was a very simple, yet quite troublesome Heavenly Envoy. Simple because it lacked complex mechanics overall, basically just “dodge what it throws, hit what it projects.” Troublesome because it was immune to most damage.
Every four attacks, the Geometric Heavenly Envoy would change color randomly. It only took 44% physical damage and damage of Light and Dark attributes. It could only deal double damage to a Geometric Heavenly Envoy of a countered element, following the cycle of Wind → Earth → Water → Fire → Wind. Other types of elemental damage would be immune to the Geometric Heavenly Envoy, and damage of the same color and element would heal it fourfold.
Its enrage mechanism was that if it absorbed enough same-elemental energy, it would trigger a very threatening area-of-effect damage—the trigger thresholds were 1/64, 1/32, 1/16, and 1/8 of its total HP. The first three times required significant damage reduction to pass; the fourth time resulted in a guaranteed party wipe.
Therefore, the safest strategy was to only use physical attacks and Light/Dark elemental spells to slowly grind it down, not casting any elemental spells. In that case, it was essentially no difficulty.
If played according to the mechanics, anyone getting careless and making a mistake would lead to immense stress.
—Although Eivass didn’t remember the lore well, judging by its inability to absorb elemental damage of Light and Dark, that Geometric Heavenly Envoy was likely incomplete.
At least it did not possess the Aether form. Otherwise, it should have been able to switch to the Dodecahedron stance that absorbed Light and Dark attributes.
“…Could this be the true Dodecahedron?”
Eivass mused.
The Dodecahedron… in Plato’s theory, it represented Aether.
“Aether element” was a relatively new theory, and spells born from this theory were Aether magic.
This World was composed of six elements: Wind, Earth, Water, Fire, Light, and Dark.
However, whether it was the Geometric Heavenly Envoy or “Endless Knot Ai Shiping,” whom Eivass had seen during the Ascension Ritual, they could only control the four elements of Wind, Earth, Water, and Fire.
The elements of Light and Dark could not be explained by the four-element theory. This was because the four elements could transform into each other and counter each other in a cycle. Light and Dark, however, could transform into each other and counter each other, and they could not participate in the four-element system at all.
From an Alchemy perspective, Light was merely a part of Fire. Therefore, the elemental magic system of the new era established a theory—both Light and Dark elements belonged to “Aether.”
Aether was a special spiritual particle capable of fluctuating between two extreme states. It would randomly transform into Light and Dark attributes, like a diode. Upon contact with other Aether particles, they would exchange the energy they carried, instantly transforming into another state. In its natural state, Light and Dark elements would constantly exchange, thus achieving a macro-level equilibrium.
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Therefore, “corrupting” damage could pollute and demonize originally pure and divine beings, while “divine” damage could purify beings like Undead and curses. This was because these two elements essentially canceled and transformed each other.
This was the legacy left by Plato’s “Tower of Namelessness.” Therefore, Elves were particularly adept at using Aether magic. Part of the ancient technology used by Elves belonged to Rune magic, and the other part belonged to Aether magic.
When Eivass was studying High-Tier Divine Arts, he had assumed the Elves intended to teach him this. Taiyi referred to it as “The Law of Taiji,” but the principle was the same.
The ancient machinery of the Elves was basically powered by Aether magic—Aether elements, capable of instantaneous state changes, served as excellent logic switches.
This was also why the Geometric Heavenly Envoy dispersed the four elements into the Material Realm, while it itself held the “Aether Dodecahedron”…
The Geometric Heavenly Envoy, essentially a supercomputer, had its core driving logic derived from Aether magic.
—If the Butterfly of Contrary Flames could not use this Heavenly Envoy Fragment, why would Plato specifically leave it for Eivass?
At this moment, however, Eivass suddenly realized something—
Currently, the Knight Heavenly Envoy and the Silver Crown Dragon in the Dream Realm were still fighting the Calamity Red.
This meant that the Heavenly Envoy of the War Path had not yet fallen.
Then, the Geometric Heavenly Envoy and the Grey Heavenly Envoy, plus the Fallen Heavenly Envoy, the Blood Heavenly Envoy, and the Flame Heavenly Envoy—that made only five. Why did the Hourglass claim that six Heavenly Envoys were already dead?
Could the Great Abyss be among them?
But Eivass had not heard any announcement of the Abyss Heavenly Envoy’s death… He was certain he had not missed any of the Hourglass’s pronouncements, nor had he lost consciousness in between.
—Then there was only one answer.
The power of the Abyss Heavenly Envoy had been released to the Material Realm, impacting the Veil of Balance… but it had not completely died yet!
Even though Eivass had transformed the remaining soul of the Abyss Heavenly Envoy into Sin Thorns, replenishing his own soul as nourishment; even though the Heavenly Envoy power once occupied by the Abyss Heavenly Envoy had been released to the Material Realm, increasing the Energy Level of the Twilight Path; even though the whale-head and tentacles of the Abyss Heavenly Envoy had been completely pulverized…
…it was still clinging to life!
This giant body he was using still possessed life!
Or rather, this was to allow Eivass to persist.
Eivass’s sacrifice was too thorough. The Abyss Heavenly Envoy could not successfully resurrect Eivass. This giant body, the headless forbidden body, was merely a vessel to “temporarily store” Eivass’s soul.
Eivass still needed to borrow the power of “Forbidden” to reconstruct a new body for himself!
What material should be used?
The Geometric Heavenly Envoy provided the answer.
“How could I have forgotten…”
Eivass sighed, having figured out the most crucial point.
—This Heavenly Envoy Fragment was meant for Eivass to reconstruct his body.
[Harmony of Yin and Yang (Gold): When your Path is in a state of equilibrium, all your Mana Pools become colorless Mana Pools. A colorless Mana Pool is the sum of all your colored Mana with paired and opposite attributes; when your Mana Pool is a colorless Mana Pool, any action that consumes Mana can gain different enhancement effects by additionally consuming 1/2/3/4/5 times the amount.]
This was a Path Trait Eivass had once obtained.
It freed Eivass from the constraints of Mana Pool attributes, while also compelling Eivass to maintain Path equilibrium, and provided him with the simplest means of increasing priority… It was one of Eivass’s most frequently used Path Traits.
However, there was another key point: its name.
It foreshadowed that Eivass’s soul had achieved a balanced state of Yin and Yang.
Therefore, it was impossible to reconstruct Eivass’s body with only the power of the Forbidden Path!
—So, how could Eivass be reborn from a state of having no body?
Thinking of this.
In the giant’s hand, a previously unused Great Sin Card of Eivass appeared:
The card depicted Eivass, clad in a white robe, holding the opened Book of Law in his hand, with a serene blue magic circle suspended behind him.
As the card activated, levitated, and spun in the air, its attributes appeared before Eivass’s eyes. The depicted azure magic circle turned crimson, with streams of crimson lightning flowing, even causing the hood of his white robe to flutter in the wind—
[Great Sin: Moriarty (Star)]
[Level: 49]
[Transcendent Path, Attributes: None]
[Upright: Eivass]
[Effect: Seal weakened Phantom Demons into Tarot Cards and issue commands.]
[Reversed: Lord of Great Sins]
[Prerequisites: None 5]
[Chant, Enchant, Summon, Continuous Effect]
[Effect: Transform oneself into the Beast of Arrogance, Moriarty. Moriarty is considered a summoned creature; this effect can only be used when all other six elemental Beasts of Sin are on cooldown.]
This was a fact that even Eivass himself had long forgotten—
—There were actually seven Beasts of Sin.
(End of this chapter)
