Chapter 406
First Meeting, Night Demon (Two in One)
After the sky had completely darkened, Eivass changed into his priest’s robe, which he hadn’t worn in a long time. He solemnly lit three brand-new candles in his bedroom.
In front of Eivass was a silver basin placed on the table, filled with salt that Eivass had consecrated earlier that day.
Yulia and Lixia sat side-by-side on the edge of the bed, while Janis peered into the room from within the landscape painting hanging on the wall.
Eivass closed his eyes by the candlelight for a long time, brewing his emotions.
The sacred and faint candlelight illuminated Eivass. The shadow behind him distorted and writhed as if it were alive.
“I implore the Candlemaster, the God of the Sacred Number Three, the God of Sin Thorns Binding the Body, the God who Burns Himself to Chase Away Darkness…”
Eivass murmured in a low voice, repeatedly closing his eyes in prayer: “Please watch over the fire of my soul… watch over me as you watch over the candle by the corner…”
“I implore the Candlemaster, the God of the Sacred Number Three…”
His solemnity made Yulia unconsciously tense up, her back stiffening.
She had always known that her brother had ways of enhancing the abilities of the Shadow Demon and the Butterfly of Burning Flames through self-sacrifice.
However, Eivass had never demonstrated it in front of her.
Eivass hid many things from Yulia. Some were to prevent her from worrying, while others were to keep her from being exposed to overly dangerous things.
Yulia was well aware of this, but she found it difficult to refute. After all, it stemmed from Eivass’s concern and love for her, and the root of it was the persona she had built in front of Eivass—in Eivass’s perception, Yulia was a weak girl who needed care.
There were no sudden emergencies now, so it was awkward for Yulia to suddenly change her demeanor.
After chanting three times, Eivass plunged his hands into the basin of salt, which had been consecrated with a blessing spell.
He scooped up the salt with both hands and, spreading his arms, casually scattered it around.
It flew upwards like sparks. The pure white salt powder, as if imbued with life, danced and swirled everywhere.
They gradually began to glow with a faint light—in the dim bedroom, they slowly illuminated like a starry firmament.
The shoulder strap draped around Eivass’s neck fluttered as if by wind, twisting and writhing like two slippery sea snakes.
He lowered his head, gently caressed the salt in the basin, and sighed softly, “My child, my fleshless daughter whom I have fed…”
“—Arise, return from the flesh of all things.”
The salt symbolized the flesh and blood of the material world.
And hearing Eivass’s call, the Shadow Demon, which had already lost consciousness and fallen into a deep slumber, floated out from the shadow in the salt basin before him, like a puppy responding to its master’s call.
It was a blurry shadow. It looked like mud, and it also resembled a swamp.
As Eivass gently stroked it, the salt in the basin flowed on its own, emitting sounds like the ebb and flow of ocean waves.
“I am your totem, I am your father, I am your god.”
Eivass chanted in a low voice: “You shall not touch my divinity, you shall not harm my body—
“Yet, when I die, you shall grieve; yet, after the days of my death, you shall celebrate!”
As Eivass spoke, he retrieved a short spear from the shadow formed by salt.
He held the salt spear high, then fiercely plunged it into his own abdomen!
Yulia flinched in shock, almost letting out a scream.
But at that moment, a pair of ice-cold hands reached out from behind her and covered her mouth.
“Don’t be afraid, child,” Janis’s voice whispered softly from behind her, “this is how sacrifice works.”
“…Does sacrifice always require hurting oneself?!”
Yulia whispered, her voice filled with anxiety and fear, “Will anything go wrong?”
“Nothing will go wrong.”
Janis said softly, “This is a ritual. The essence of a ritual is imitation, and its purpose is transcendence.”
Lixia nodded from the side.
Now, she had also deepened her understanding of the Transcendent Path through study.
The white-haired Dragon Girl replied softly, “Humans possess a desire within them, an unstoppable and inevitable innate instinct for ‘imitation.’ It is the most fundamental aspect of humanity, and it intensifies with the repetition of external voices.
“When we are infants, not knowing anything or what ‘self’ means, we instinctively imitate the people around us. We imitate their language, their mannerisms, their every action. This is the pity of Father Snake, allowing people to transcend the beastly path of love.
“—Thus, we transform from beasts into humans.”
Meanwhile, on the other side, as Eivass thrust the salt spear through himself, blood began to flow out along his priest’s robe, seeping onto the floor at an exceedingly slow pace.
The shadow in the salt pool immediately began to boil intensely.
It was as if some reagent had been added—Yulia thought.
Eivass continued to chant the secret words from the Shepherd’s Secret Manual:
“You shall celebrate my death, you shall sing of my divinity. You shall hold celebrations, you shall raise your scepter.”
So spoke Eivass, as he took out a second salt spear from the salt pool.
He slightly turned his head and plunged the salt spear directly into his collarbone on the side of his neck!
The intense pain caused Eivass’s pupils to constrict and then relax, his lips trembling violently.
He choked, coughing out pink foam.
A stream of dark red blood gushed from his neck, seeping into the pure white priest’s robe.
A faint aura of blood instantly sprayed outwards in a spherical shape in all directions; the candlelight around Eivass seemed to dim slightly, reflecting the dark red blood.
On the other side, Lixia continued to speak softly: “Some children are too adept at imitation, too focused on the commands of ‘imitate me,’ fervently following the shadows cast by those lights. Thus, they become ‘good children,’ ‘clever children’… but what they imitate is not the pure and holy sacred statue, but flawed human beings.
“Therefore, this incompleteness will also be reflected in their imitation. Ultimately, they will encounter problems that cannot be solved by merely imitating those around them—and the more fervent the imitation, the stronger the shock they will experience when they first hit a wall.
“Young children have no right to refuse adults. Therefore, the ‘no’ spoken by those who issue the command ‘imitate me’ sounds like thunder, insurmountable and irrefutable.
“The inevitable failures encountered during the process of imitation, in turn, strengthen the desire to imitate. This cycle repeats, plunging them into an abyss of manipulation.
“And during this process, if the seeds of evil sprout in their hearts, they will want to escape this cycle. This desire is [Beyond], and that seed is [Degeneration], [Change], [Violence]. And this violence is also an extension of authority.
“—Among the many acts of transcendence, the essence of ‘sacrifice’ is violence.”
Lixia spoke softly, as if reminiscing about someone, recalling someone.
Yulia looked at her, as if seeing another person seeping from her.
It was another person who had once spoken these “secrets of sacrifice” with Lixia… or rather, with Meg. A person belonging to the Transcendent Path.
“Perhaps out of fear of drought, perhaps to extend their lives, perhaps seeking a scapegoat lamb, perhaps for peaceful slumber after death, perhaps in pursuit of victory in war, perhaps to enjoy the intoxication of revelry… ancient humans around the world, in the end, chose ‘sacrifice’ without exception. Whether the sacrifice was human or beast, it was a collective violence, a violence sanctioned by the collective.
“—The essence of ritual is imitation, and the essence of sacrifice is violence. Imitation is proof of humanity as children of Father Snake, while sacrifice is the fallen instinct of the human soul stained with desire.”
Lixia paused slightly at this point. She subconsciously clenched her fingers.
She whispered, “Transcendent beings on the Transcendent Path, to some extent, possess such self-destructive tendencies. They view themselves as vessels, and vessels are shackles. Those who seek transcendence will eventually have the desire to shatter these shackles.
“For their goals, they will harm themselves… not out of greed, but for the sake of the goal itself.
“…I once knew a transcendent being on the Transcendent Path. Before a battle that was almost certain to be fatal, they completed their self-sacrifice. At that time, even if they won, they could not return, so this could not be considered a sacrifice made for survival; they most likely could not win, so this was not for success; no one valued their death, so this was not for honor.
“I pondered for a long time why they would do this… it was only recently that I understood. The goal itself is the goal, and the extension of desire is still desire. Transcendent beings are always like this.”
As Eivass raised the third salt spear, the shadow in the salt basin instantly fell silent. Lixia’s voice became hoarse.
Yulia suddenly turned her head and noticed that Lixia’s pupils were glowing with a bright purple light.
Witnessing a ritual with such transcendent power had resonated with those on the Transcendent Path. Just as artists feel beauty when appreciating the works of others, Lixia’s originally stable physical condition also shifted due to the resonance of this shepherding ritual.
Her dragon scales creaked, and it felt as if worms were crawling beneath her flesh and blood. Her entire body was visibly growing slowly.
Meanwhile, Eivass’s low, hoarse voice continued to echo in the bedroom:
“Who shall be sacrificed? What shall be ended? What words shall endure for eternity?
“—I offer you my sacrificial song!
“My love, my child, my flesh, my inheritance, my altar, heed my command—”
The salt particles suspended in the air turned into radiant stars; at this moment, Eivass seemed to be standing in the Milky Way.
He raised the salt spear and aimed it at his own heart.
The shadow beneath Eivass at this moment, the shadow in the silver basin before him, had completely subsided, showing an eerie stillness.
Yulia immediately clenched her fists, wanting to rush forward, but Lixia grabbed her arm.
She turned back almost in anger, only to see Lixia’s face cracking like broken porcelain, bleeding. At this moment, she looked about four or five years older than before, appearing to be around Yulia’s age. Lixia’s eyes flashed with an eerie purple light, but her expression was blank.
—Merely by listening to the secret words of the Shepherd’s Secret Manual, her body had begun to grow.
Lixia felt an intense thirst—a thirst that originated from Eivass, who was standing before the salt basin, his body soaked with blood.
But her extremely resilient rationality easily suppressed this desire, and in doing so, she also suppressed Yulia.
Eivass looked down at the Shadow Demon with pity and whispered, “I offer you…
“—My momentary death.”
As Eivass’s voice fell, the salt spear wrapped in shadow pierced Eivass’s heart like a stake used to kill a child of the moon.
It was not merely a simple wound from a pierced heart… such a wound, for the current Eivass, was no longer enough to cause instant death.
This was self-sacrifice, a most sacred ritual, a most pure devotion.
Eivass made himself the sacrificial offering on the altar, completely dedicating himself to his demon—
In an instant, Eivass’s pupils dimmed.
Just like when he was pierced through the heart by the Shadow Demon above the giant’s cauldron of magic.
All his life force dissipated instantaneously.
Eivass died immediately, his body falling backward powerlessly. The shadows restraining the salt spear oozed out from the three wounds like living creatures, completely enveloping Eivass.
He fell into the egg of shadows. Countless shadows spread out like a spiderweb, shaking the three candles dedicated to the Candlemaster, extinguishing them. Then, these shadows turned blood-red, and the entire room was bathed in a terrifying crimson hue.
It was not merely a sacrifice of blood and mana, as before. It was the offering of his life, soul, and will—all of it.
If the Shadow Demon made no response, this would be a completely selfless sacrifice with no expectation of reward.
Eivass would die here. His life, his soul, would become a part of the Shadow Demon.
“…Alas.”
However, the “Shadow Demon” sighed.
This was not the sweet voice of the assassin, nor the cold and intellectual mature voice of “Beyad.” It was an ethereal, hoarse voice, like a murmuring dreamscape, a completely new sound:
“—I am willing to offer everything I have in exchange for my master’s return from the void.”
This was the final step of the Shepherd’s Method.
Shepherding must be selfless, thus it cannot seek any reward.
In other words, a sacrifice that offered everything, including contracts, life, and soul, was the most selfless sacrifice, an act of transcendence fraught with extreme risk.
Only if the other party responded could everything that had been offered be reclaimed.
In an instant, the egg of shadows dissipated as if time were rewinding.
After the Shadow Demon returned Eivass’s sacrifice, the weakened Eivass, still stained with blood, emerged from it. Although the wound to his heart remained, and his vitality was weak, he was still alive.
And behind him stood another unfamiliar being.
She embraced Eivass from behind, preventing him from falling to the ground.
The demon had the upper body of a human, its appearance resembling Beyad and Eivass. Its fierce scarlet wolf eyes instilled intense fear.
Her long, soft black hair cascaded down to her mid-thighs, now wildly fluttering behind her. And from her back grew a pair of illusory black wings made of shadow. Their silhouette resembled those of a crow.
She was unclothed, with her private parts wrapped in invisible shadows. However, from her cheeks to her waist, there were strange yet uniquely charming dark red bloodstains. From her waist down, her body was an amorphous gaseous form exuding black smoke. And the skin of her arms from the elbow down were completely matte black transparent hands. Her claws looked ferocious, but they did not harm him in the slightest as she embraced Eivass.
When she appeared, the entire room was filled with blood.
This was the Night Demon, an Upper Demon that brought about blood nights upon manifestation.
As a possessor of the power of the Path of Love, she controlled the forces of shadow, blood, and curses.
Legend had it that the Night Demon would fulfill the wishes of the jealous, grant them power, and incite them to revenge.
Those who made deals with the Night Demon shared a common trait: they would lose their shadows during the day. And after nightfall, their shadows would control their bodies, compelling them to do things they dared not do.
After fulfilling the deal, the Night Demon would drain the other’s blood and soul during a blood night, ultimately leaving only the memory of the blood night’s arrival, with no one remembering that a person had ever existed.
In many places, she was worshipped as the “Blood God” by the foolish.
The Night Demon was not on the evolutionary tree of the Shadow Demon at all.
She was one of the highest-ranking demons born from the brand of jealousy, her status and power equivalent to that of a Punisher Demon.
The Night Demon was the “executor” who helped the Fallen Heavenly Envoys harvest the souls of sinners, and also the “debt collector” for those who had made promises to the Fallen Heavenly Envoys but arrogantly broke them.
The Night Demon coldly gazed at Yulia, her scarlet, malicious pupils filled with undisguised, almost insane jealousy.
That gaze was enough to make anyone cower, but Yulia merely paused, and then her eyes suddenly turned icy.
“Shadow Demon… no, I should call you Night Demon.”
Eivass’s weak voice rang out.
Seeing that Eivass had regained consciousness, the Night Demon immediately handed him a candle.
Eivass lit the candle and gripped its flame. The method of Fire Worship began to continuously heal Eivass’s wounds, and his body slowly began to recover.
In the Night Demon’s embrace, he raised his head and met the gaze of the Night Demon, who was at least two meters tall after floating up.
“Long time no see, Shadow Demon.”
He smiled and said softly, “First meeting, Night Demon. What should I call you?”
“…Call me Beyad… no, call me Viness.”
That ethereal, hoarse, echoing voice came from behind Eivass: “Viness Emil Zola Beyad… that was my former name, my master.”
Unlike when she was a Shadow Demon in the past, she now candidly admitted her past.
Having consumed all of her “self,” this was now her most complete form.
Eivass’s lips curled slightly.
“It’s a pity you can’t turn into a little snake, a little dog, or a little cat anymore…”
Eivass said softly, “Then how about I call you Little Bird?
“My loyal, loving… little crow who brought back my life and soul?”
As Eivass’s voice fell, Viness behind him dissolved into a wisp of smoke and transformed into a shadow crow with scarlet pupils, quietly perching on Eivass’s shoulder.
“As you wish, my master.”
Like an elegant young lady, she whispered softly.
The two-in-one chapter is finally caught up—
I can’t believe it, it’s gotten so cold lately. I slept for more than five hours yesterday, and this morning, I suddenly got a cramp in my blanket. I had a severe cramp without even kicking my legs, which woke me up instantly…
Because I didn’t get enough sleep, I took a nap after breakfast today. It was almost six when I woke up, and my sleep schedule is completely messed up (sad face).
The good news is that I’m finally eating three meals a day again. The bad news is that I haven’t eaten the third meal yet.
My meals have gone from 3→2, and my sleep from 3→1, essentially.
