Chapter 759
The Mark of Envy and Greed
It took Alistair a while for the boiling in her mind to finally calm down.
She covered her face, which felt as hot as if she had a fever, and felt the restless blood of the Child of the Moon within her gradually subside. Only then did she realize her loss of control.
Normally, the body temperature of a Child of the Moon would not be this high. Their body temperature should be lower than that of a normal person.
—This was a genuine omen of losing control.
The “Child of the Moon” body, which was originally just a phantom mirror image, had now become a real race. This meant that Alistair had inexplicably gained a considerably high-level Path of Love. This fell under bodily instinct rather than a soul trait, making it somewhat difficult to restrain.
Previously, Alistair’s Child of the Moon trait had not been activated, so it was not very apparent.
However, when Alistair touched Sister Sasha’s corpse, this trait was finally fully activated—
This meant that Alistair had now officially become an Extraordinary who cultivated both the Transcendent Path and the Path of Love simultaneously.
This was different from Eivass, her main body… because Alistair also had some residual vestiges of the Path of Devotion.
One of the characteristics of the Path of Love is “for oneself”; the Path of Devotion is “for others.” Generally, the traits of these two paths would conflict with each other… but on Alistair, they formed a very perfect synergy.
Because Eivass, for Alistair, was both “oneself” and “another.” At the same time, Eivass’s strong desire for devotion led him to want to sacrifice himself to let Alistair live… Alistair’s desire to transcend made her want to rebel against this expectation and future—ultimately leading her to want to sacrifice herself for Eivass.
This was not a sacrifice of “fusion.” Because the selfish characteristic of the Path of Love was reflected in Alistair, she did not want to be forgotten by Eivass like this… even if it was just a possibility, even if Eivass would not forget that she had existed so easily.
…Alistair was somewhat unsatisfied; she wanted to pursue a longer existence.
For others, but also for oneself; wanting to exist, but also wanting to sacrifice; wanting to sacrifice, but also wanting to accompany…
…While loving “oneself,” also loving “another self.”
As such thoughts arose in Alistair’s mind, the aura of the mark of greed flashed across her.
The overlap of the three paths inevitably caused abnormalities in Alistair’s spirit.
But fortunately, this overlap was relatively perfect, so Alistair did not show too many obvious signs of losing control.
“Forget it, stop overthinking…”
Alistair patted her cheeks, trying to suppress the traces of her overthinking, but the thought still lingered.
This made Alistair involuntarily start contemplating how this plan could be accomplished.
To fuse back, she would need her own body… at least a basically complete corpse. And the soul and body of a Child of the Moon were intricately fixed together. But in the end, fusion was the primary goal; she could not let her fusion with Eivass have flaws due to a damaged soul…
…Was there any way for her to retain a partial consciousness and body after fusion? As long as a small part of her “self” could remain, Alistair could be “revived” by collecting the complete Sister Sasha Set.
Given Eivass’s personality, he would most likely accept such a future—because it meant that “Alistair” could continue to exist, even if it meant merging with Sister Sasha and existing in the incomplete form of the Beast of Sin…
“…No.”
Alistair suddenly realized—
Such a method seemed to exist!
[Dissolving Soul (Golden): Your soul transforms into a more noble form; blessings below “medium” scale no longer require a ritual; you will be immune to sleep, charm, curses, and instant death spells, and your soul can be actively drawn out of your body as a consumable.]
This was a Path Trait that Eivass obtained during his previous Ascension Ritual.
However, there was a problem here… Dissolving Soul only worked for Eivass. Not because of being separated, but because the soul of the Child of the Moon had dried into a powder. Although her soul still possessed a certain divinity, it was like instant coffee… perhaps requiring water to be added to the powder that Alistair would turn into after death to become Dissolving Soul.
But…
There was another place that retained a part of Eivass’s soul!
—It was on Isabel!
Isabel wore the third of Eivass’s original soul that he had cut out back then.
This was Eivass’s emergency healing method left for her to prevent her from suffering severe injuries.
If she hadn’t used that bottle of soul yet, then this bottle of soul could also serve as a supplement for Alistair—she could completely cut off a part of herself and combine it with the complete Sister Sasha Set to complete the ritual! And the remaining part of the soul, with the replacement from the bottled soul, could prevent the cutting ritual from being unable to heal in the end…
Alistair analyzed subconsciously.
But she soon couldn’t help but chuckle bitterly.
“…How ironic.”
The last one to be cut by the Hourglass was Great Philosopher and Supreme Heaven. At that time, the Hourglass seemed to have cut too cleanly, leaving them unable to rejoin thereafter. And now, a part of Supreme Heaven had finally returned to Great Philosopher’s hands…
It seemed the Hourglass had learned its lesson; this time, it cut like a Taijitu, leaving a part of the other within the body. Preventing them from ever returning once separated…
The result was that both parties were rushing to merge again.
If Isabel was a partner who could “complement Eivass’s soul,” then Alistair was the other half of the soul that could complement the current Pope, the Holy Eivass. Perhaps her possessiveness, her unwillingness to leave, was also related to this “love.”
Alistair vaguely remembered a psychological term from her past life, something called Anima-Animus. Anima referred to the image of a woman within every man, the feminine component of a man’s psyche; Animus was the opposite. There would be an instinctual attraction between them…
In that case, the current incomplete Eivass and Alistair’s souls were both incomplete. Compared to Isabel, they should be more attracted to each other…
“…Looks like I have to collect the Sasha Set.”
Alistair made up her mind, her will becoming firm.
The Night Demon beside her narrowed her eyes slightly.
For some reason, she suddenly had a strange feeling—she actually felt a faint sense of jealousy towards her Master.
It was as if her Master would snatch her Master away from her hands… Was such a possibility real?
Alistair put away the contaminated “Merciful Eye of Offering,” completely destroyed the remaining ritual traces, and then planned to leave.
But after a moment’s thought, she turned back to tidy up the clothes of those tragically dead girls, casually cleaned up the bloodstains on them, and covered those who were unclothed with a blanket.
—If it were Eivass, he would probably do this, Alistair thought.
Eivass was a sufficiently gentle person, and he was easily moved by compassion for those who suffered misfortune…
The reason she suddenly decided to do this was that Alistair suddenly realized something… If she deliberately did things that Eivass would not do, and did not do things that Eivass was willing to do, just to prove that she was “completely different from Eivass,” wouldn’t that mean they had truly separated and become two people?
Alistair was unwilling to accept that possibility.
Even to prevent Eivass from refusing to merge with her, she could not do anything too extreme.
(End of this chapter)
