Chapter 497
The Shepherd and the Ouroboros Ring
In an instant, surging shadow power roared out, shoving Olive backward. The overflowing shadow power spread instantaneously, an unseen wind extinguishing all the candlelight in the small chapel. The shadows spread rapidly outward from the Great Cathedral of the Candle Holder. There was no gust of wind, just darkness swallowing all light sources. Both sides, previously engaged in battle, were forced to halt as they were all blinded.
“What happened?”
Such powerful shadow energy… The Advisor suddenly felt uneasy.
“Lancelot I… he should be a Knight of the Path of Authority, right?”
“Why does the ritual to resurrect him sound like a product of the Domain of Vengeance…”
‘Vengeance’ is the power of the Path of Love, a domain controlled by the Shadow Heavenly Envoy, akin to shadows themselves.
“Shadow of Avalon… If this is the power of a Shadow Heavenly Envoy.”
“Does that mean that when Lancelot I was resurrected… he was no longer the Lancelot he once was?”
And as the terminal ritual here was activated, another magic circle far away in Eagle Cape Village was also lit. The ritual array there was far more complex than the one in the small chapel—forty to fifty overlapping arrays, symbols, and extraordinary materials formed an incredibly precise but overwhelmingly difficult-to-maintain system. As it began to operate, another magic circle hidden within it was also activated.
At this moment, in the Dream Realm, the Shadow Realm.
Lancelot held his long spear. After a rapid movement, he swung his weapon three times in succession, knocking the longsword from the hands of the burly man before him. Then, his spear shot out like a dragon, instantly piercing the man’s throat and heart! As he withdrew his weapon, the burly man he had killed resurrected again.
“Ah, my mistake…”
The bare-chested burly man was somewhat unwilling, but he still laughed cheerfully. “But your technique is not bad—who did you learn it from?”
He tossed a wine flask to Lancelot. “Never mind that. Try this, which my descendants recently gave me as an offering!”
“Alright.”
Lancelot smiled, put away his spear, and took the wine flask. “It’s really good, but it’s a pity my descendants don’t know to send anything this way…”
“What should I send you?”
The man said gruffly, “You are alive, and we are dead. Don’t say such inauspicious things.”
“In a sense, I, who am alive, am not much different from the dead…”
Lancelot said self-deprecatingly, taking the wine flask and sitting beside the man.
It was always dim here, neither daytime nor nighttime. There was no sun or moon in the sky; the dark, gray sky was perpetually rolling with thunderclouds, and lightning struck constantly, yet it never rained… It was a depressing atmosphere.
However, the lively atmosphere on the ground was the opposite of the gloomy sky. Not far away, hunters hunted giant wild boars—these boars would revive after death, but their meat could be taken and roasted. Further away, a banquet was in progress, and beside the banquet, two warriors were locked in a bloody battle. People ate meat and drank wine while watching and cheering from the side. After they finished this meal, they would welcome the next round of mutual escape and combat. They were all dead people, the most belligerent, greedy, envious, and skilled fighters. They were the bravest, strongest, and most handsome warriors chosen by the Shadow Heavenly Envoy.
There was no work to be done here, and the dead did not need to eat. The dense black bushes produced a kind of large black strawberry, which could be used to brew wine; and various monsters in the Shadow Realm would also be reborn after death. Brewing and cooking were the responsibility of witches and fairies, while the rest of them spent their days drinking, eating meat, and fighting each other. And each time, the last survivor would spend a pleasant night with the Queen of the Shadow Realm—in this sense, these brave and strong warriors could even be considered part of the Shadow Heavenly Envoy’s harem, as were the witches and fairies.
The Shadow Heavenly Envoy controlled the domains of betrayal and vengeance, so the witches and fairies would occasionally seduce these passionate warriors—and naturally, they would be punished by the Shadow Heavenly Envoy if discovered… but this was not without its part in the ‘game.’ However, compared to the absurd, cruel, and decadent Domain of Blood, the rules here were quite conservative.
Just then, Lancelot suddenly froze. His spirit body trembled with a crackle, blurring for an instant. He heard… someone calling him.
“…Ah.”
He sighed, a wistful lament. “Finally… is it finally going to end?”
“Oh? Leaving?”
The burly man beside him laughed heartily, urging, “Hurry, have another drink! Have another drink!”
“When you resurrect, you won’t be able to drink this fine wine of the underworld!”
“Who knows, I might return. But when I do… I might be a white knight clad in silver armor.”
Lancelot smiled and drained the wine. Amidst the burly man’s complaints of “Leave some for me,” he returned the wine flask to the man, along with his long spear. His body twisted and disappeared, as if being sucked away.
At this time, the whistling shadows became even more intense, roaring and spreading again. Grass withered, flames extinguished, metal corroded. Olive clutched his chest uncomfortably, retreating step by step—his current body was too old to withstand this level of shadow assault. Grape tried to shield herself with the rock wall, but even that couldn’t block the shadow wind that penetrated everything.
If one looked down at Avalon from above, visible waves of shadow could be seen spreading outward from Glass Island. Rivers became polluted, the fruit on the trees developed black spots, and stored food was also contaminated. The shadows continued to expand resolutely and slowly.
Aside from the moonlight in the sky, all light sources were completely devoured and blocked. The entire world seemed to have returned to the primordial era, where people hid in fear at night, afraid to go out. The war was forced to a halt. Because no one could see where the enemy was, or even where their teammates were. Even the vision of Extraordinary beings was screened by this curtain of shadow. Burning flames would instantly flicker and extinguish, as if in a strong wind.
And in the coffin, Lancelot I suddenly reached out and gripped the dagger plunged into his chest. Then, he instantly pulled the dagger out! In an instant, his appearance, which had already entered old age, rapidly became youthful, as if being inflated, returning to his mid-thirties. However, he did not completely transform into the Lancelot of history; instead, he became black-haired and black-eyed. Shadow power gathered on his face, forming war markings, and his pupils, black with a hint of purple, were like a ripe grape.
An extremely strong oppressive force startled Eivass. His aura was even more powerful than that of a Night Demon—merely existing here, his intense presence made the surroundings appear so disharmonious. It was as if his art style clashed with the surroundings… like a 3D character suddenly appearing in a 2D environment, it was bizarre. The shadow powers that had shot out had now spread beyond Glass Island. And now, they flowed back into him at several times the speed, like time reversing, pouring into his body. Only those things that had already been polluted remained polluted.
Light returned in an instant. The candlelight flared up, flickering violently, and the chapel became bright again. Even the three candles on Eivass’s Episcopal Crown were ignited. Lancelot I opened his eyes and sat up from the coffin, very slowly. His bones crackled and popped, and his entire being gradually transformed from a statue, a corpse, into a living person… gradually possessing the aura of life.
“Children, I am back.”
He opened his eyes and said, friendly, solemn, and serious, “Is there anything I can do for you?”
A miracle of resurrection. Not only that—it was even a miracle of rejuvenation.
Seeing this, Eivass paused slightly, as if struck by an idea. But the inspiration flashed and was gone before he could grasp it.
“…Strange, it actually succeeded?!”
“How could it have succeeded?”
Eivass was momentarily bewildered. He had been ready to stab the Advisor in the back and kill him.
“Shouldn’t it have directly summoned the Shadow Heavenly Envoy? Or perhaps, in this timeline, Grandfather didn’t tamper with the Shadow of Avalon?”
“If the Shadow of Avalon ritual is the Ouroboros Ring, then it should have been the Shadow Heavenly Envoy who was summoned. And if it was Lancelot I who was resurrected, how could my mission include ‘ensuring the survival of civilians’?”
“Could it be that the Host was just trying to scare me, testing my courage?”
“…”
At this moment, Lancelot I suddenly froze. He looked at Eivass, his brow furrowed slightly.
“Have I seen you somewhere before?”
“…How could you have seen me?”
Eivass replied somewhat helplessly to His Majesty’s inquiry. “I am Eivass Moriarty. A descendant of Mordred… but our family are all adopted sons, so I should have no blood relation with that Knight Mordred.”
“Not Mordred, of course…”
Lancelot I murmured, “I’ve stayed in the Shadow Realm for too long, and my memories from life are a bit hazy. Let me think…”
Soon, his eyes widened suddenly. It wasn’t that he had thought of something, but rather he clutched the heart that had just been pierced, his face expressing discomfort. He suddenly reached out and tore his clothes apart. On his chest, where he had just been pierced, a small snake appeared—it coiled around the wound, biting its own tail, forming a ring. Purple radiance shone on Lancelot, and an intensely powerful force of transcendence spread outward.
“So *this* is the Ouroboros Ring?!”
Seeing this, Eivass suddenly understood. All his doubts were resolved!
It turned out that the resurrected Lancelot I was merely a sacrifice for completing the Ouroboros Ring ritual! To complete the Ouroboros Ring ritual required an extraordinary being at the world’s limit as a sacrifice… Although Eivass still didn’t understand how those who summoned the Fallen Heavenly Envoy managed it… however, the Lancelot I who had just been resurrected and returned from the Dream Realm undoubtedly met this condition!
Thinking of this, Eivass suddenly had an impulse, an idea. Lancelot I himself was also an Extraordinary being of the Sixth Tier, Path of Authority! The Heavenly Envoys and Apostles of the Path of Love were unreliable and uncontrollable. The Heavenly Envoys of the Path of Authority were better.
Or, he could bring down an Apostle of the Silver Crown Dragon… They were Lancelot’s former comrades, so perhaps they would be more controllable.
Thus, Eivass reached out and placed his hand on Lancelot’s chest.
“—Ouroboros Ring, I know that too!”
He could directly modify the target of the Ouroboros Ring—not to summon the Heavenly Envoy of the Path of Love, but only an Apostle of the Path of Authority. If it was an Apostle of a Heavenly Envoy, then they could still be fought, which would be better than fighting the Shadow Heavenly Envoy; if it was an Apostle of the Silver Crown Dragon, then there wouldn’t even be a need to fight!
The preliminary preparations for the ritual had been fully completed by Grandfather, so Eivass could instantly activate the ritual that was already in progress.
But strangely, Eivass suddenly found something within him being activated by this ritual. That was…
“…Art of Pasturing?!”
Lancelot suddenly understood. “I remember now, you are the Shepherd!”
“…What?”
Eivass was stunned. But he had no time to ask, nor to explain. As the techniques of the Shepherd’s Method operated on their own, the Ouroboros Ring ritual was subtly distorted. In an instant, the purple radiance turned into a scarlet ring. It unfurled like a magic circle, with them at the center, enclosing them both and completely shielding them from external observation. If Eivass had a chance to see what the magic circle looked like, he would have found it identical to the magic circle Inkda had used to seal the Beast of Sin, and the magic circle in the Book of Law!
“Wait!”
The Advisor was about to ask what had happened. But he suddenly felt a pang of dread—
He saw that the Flame Butterfly that had been perched on Eivass’s shoulder had, at some unknown time, transformed back into “Leah.” She was looking at the Advisor coldly, yet with an eager expression.
“…Why are you looking at me like that?”
“—Did I do something wrong just now, or say something wrong?”
The Advisor probably realized something, but he was still unwilling to give up. “I have something important to say to Bishop Moriarty… very important…”
He refused to believe Eivass was an Ascender until his death.
“Guess?”
Leah’s lips curved slightly upward. She raised her hand toward the Advisor.
(End of chapter)
