Verdant City.

  Verdant Avenue No. 1, the Verdant City Museum, before the Sothos family cemetery.

  Sylvia happened to glance aside, and for an instant she seemed to see a familiar silhouette. Joy and shock flooded her at once.

  “Young master!”

  But when she hurried over, the figure was already gone. She could no longer find it, and a hollow wistfulness rose in her chest…

  “The Shadowless really is absurdly convenient.”

  Outside the city, invisible ripples stirred through the air, and Javon’s figure emerged slowly.

  He was in far better condition than Lucivar had ever been. After all, his Essence had not accumulated madness or pollution, and after ascension he had not awakened any additional madness trait.

  Using transcendent abilities, naturally, did not add any burden.

  “The Shadowless is born half an Ethereal Realm creature. For ordinary Transcendents, entering the Ethereal Realm requires positioning; for them, it’s instinct. And that is precisely why they can grasp the core ability of Ethereal Realm teleportation.”

  He murmured, and the Furnace Heart rang again.

  All the Veil Essence throughout his body surged into the Furnace Heart, was converted into Forged Light, and—using Forged Light as an intermediate—shifted once more into the most familiar Sanguis!

  In an instant, Javon felt an overwhelming strength flood every limb and bone. A casual punch could make the air crack.

  His eyes flared scarlet. With a sweep of his hand, nearby soil churned; roots tore through the earth, stubbornly taking hold and sprouting.

  “Though I’m comparable to a Beyond Mortality of Sanguis, my physique and speed should still fall short of a true Scarlet Aristocracy, and I can’t fully blood-phase. The vital point of the Furnace Heart still exists. In the end, I haven’t truly become The Shadowless or a Scarlet Aristocracy…”

  “But I can use most of their abilities. That alone is already terrifying.”

  Javon felt he had made no wrong choice. Once the Crimson Creator’s path broke into Beyond Mortality, it became omnipotent strength—strength in every direction. And that strength, with further ascension, would only become more dreadful!

  With my current self, fighting an ordinary Beyond Mortality is basically bullying. In a game, this would be a super hidden class—an existence that breaks balance outright.

  But sorry—imbalance is the rule in mysticism!

  After briefly testing the core abilities of the other paths, Javon gained a deeper understanding of the Omniforge’s conversion.

  The conversion is fast, but in combat it still demands caution. And after conversion, it still can’t match a Beyond Mortality of the original path—but it can create combinations.

  Even so, conversion is mainly support. My greatest power still belongs to my own path—the Omniforge.

  Javon converted all Essence within him into Forged Light. The Furnace Heart immediately became wildly active.

  A surge of power rose at once. He lifted his right hand and watched the pure white flame bloom in his palm. Heat spread outward, as though it could burn through emptiness itself.

  “Set this fire on a Transcendent and they’d turn to ash.”

  The knowledge within the esoteric transmissions told Javon exactly what this was: the Omniforge’s core ability—Furnacefire.

  “If I opened all the Sephiroth… could it reach the temperature of the sun?”

  Javon murmured, recalling the descriptions of Furnacefire.

  It was the key to the Furnace Heart’s operation. It was also the reason the Omniforge could burn all things and transmute everything.

  Javon thought for a moment, grabbed a rock from the ground, and stuffed it into his mouth. It crunched like potato chips, and he swallowed.

  No digestion was needed—he felt the fragments consumed by Furnacefire instantly, leaving only a trace of refined elements and nourishment that made his stomach faintly aware of “fullness.”

  Then he tried bark, and grass roots.

  “As expected. I’m not normal anymore—I’m a walking Omniforge. I can swallow anything and burn it as fuel!”

  “Ordinary toxins can’t poison me. They’d probably melt at the throat under the heat.”

  “I’ll never starve again. Anything can be ‘eaten.’”

  “No… what kind of normal person thinks of eating dirt and stones? So even without pollution, Sephiroth elevation is quietly changing me. I need to keep a close watch on my own psychological shifts…”

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  “Otherwise, Clark is the best example.”

  From The Flesh-Eater’s Pack, Javon took out a Sanguis talisman he had crafted earlier. Then he placed the metal plate into his mouth and began chewing.

  Crunch—crack!

  “Mm. Tastes like chicken. Crisp, too.”

  He swallowed the shredded metal, and the Furnace Heart began to turn.

  Metal residue and auxiliary materials were scorched away in an instant, becoming nourishment for his body. Threads of Sanguis Essence were refined and transmuted… until they became Forged Light Essence.

  “This gain is on par with what I’d accumulate from a round of meditation.”

  Javon casually tossed in a yellowish special bullet, chewed it like peanuts. “This one doesn’t taste great…”

  Then he drew out one spiritual material after another, feeding them all into his mouth.

  In the end, he came to a conclusion. “Mortis tastes like ice cream. Sanguis is like chicken. Umbral is dark chocolate. Chrysalis… is hard to describe.”

  This was the Omniforge’s path for accumulating Essence: through eating, it could burn any Essence-bearing material and convert it into Forged Light.

  This accumulation speed… even if an item’s Essence is mixed, to an Omniforge it’s no different from pure Forged Light—just takes longer to digest.

  Of course, an ordinary Omniforge can’t eat polluted Essence materials without trouble… but would I be afraid?

  That said, I could probably swallow arcane artifacts directly and accumulate Essence rapidly. I should meet the requirements for the next ascension soon—only it would be absurdly expensive.

  After becoming an Omniforge, the main material for opening the fifth Sephiroth—Glory—actually becomes simpler. A single remnant from a sixth Sephiroth The Crowned One will do. Any essential aspect will suffice—even dual-path. For an Omniforge, there is no difference at all.

  Javon recalled the name recorded in the esoteric transmissions for the fifth Sephiroth—

  The Perfect One.

  Yet he preferred to call it—

  Adam.

  Adam!

  The first human created by God in the Bible of his previous life. Naturally, he was the perfect human.

  By definition, the Crimson Creator’s fifth Sephiroth—the perfect human—meant the most perfected human form.

  Through the Omniforge devouring varied Essence, the self would approach perfection more and more, until there were no weaknesses.

  Of course, perfection in mysticism might differ slightly from what the mundane world meant by the word.

  “A sixth Sephiroth remnant…”

  “Killing a The Crowned One is still hard. The reason I could judge the God of Suffering this time was only because I exploited his negligence and openings during ascension. If he hadn’t entered the ascension rite, I couldn’t have taken him.”

  “Besides, every The Crowned One will have a faction behind them. The realm I know that holds the most The Crowned Ones is Inves.”

  Don’t be fooled by how badly Inves seemed to lose this time—its foundations were still unfathomable. Javon did not believe the royal house possessed only one Deity-grade Eldritcha, the Spear of the Sun King.

  But that depth would not be forced out unless one stormed Thronehall of Wessex and slaughtered the Sodoma royal line.

  For the old monsters of the royal family, the death of a king meant nothing. It could never compare to the pain of losing the Spear of the Sun King.

  With that thought, he moved aside and opened the backpack resting on a boulder. Inside were only two boxes covered in warped runes.

  Javon opened the smaller one and saw a black-and-white crystal.

  It was the God of Suffering’s Essence remnant. Using it merely to open the fifth Sephiroth would be a waste.

  Because within that remnant, there was also a thread of immortal trait mixed from The Breaking Dawn and The Night-Mother. It was enough to drive many The Crowned Ones mad—especially those walking the “Balancer” route. This was the key to the Gate of Immortality!

  “It should be used for opening the sixth Sephiroth. As for the fifth… sigh…”

  Javon sighed. The God of Suffering must have carried plenty of good things, but the situation had been critical—he could only take the two most precious items.

  “The other one is also a massive headache.”

  With that, he opened the second long box.

  Inside lay the spearhead portion of the Spear of the Sun King, broken off.

  It had once been part of a Deity-grade Eldritcha. Destroyed by The Night-Mother, it was now damaged beyond repair. Even Javon had no confidence he could restore it.

  He kept it for one reason: the Velthyr blood on the spearhead.

  And that was the source of the headache.

  Not only would Inves pursue it—Velthyr blood alone would draw countless covetous eyes. It could even become a beacon for the gaze of a Velthyr!

  Thus, immediately after escaping, Javon had processed the spearhead.

  First, purification of the Velthyr blood—cutting its link to the Velthyr completely.

  Then, a sealing rite at the highest specification, to bind the Spear of the Sun King.

  Every so often, Javon would still have to reinforce that seal with Secret Power—otherwise he could be divined and directly located by a Velthyr!

  “What a nuisance. Still… even a fragment of the Spear of the Sun King is something I can’t bear to discard.”

  Javon sighed and looked down at his fingers.

  A wound suddenly opened on his skin. Drops of crimson blood rolled free and fell onto the two iron boxes. The writhing patterns on their surfaces seemed to come alive, drinking the blood, turning ever more vivid and fresh.

  When it was done, Javon closed the boxes again and packed them back into the backpack.

  The status of those two items was too high. If he stored them in The Flesh-Eater’s Pack, he feared the pack would simply explode.

  After completing this, his expression returned to calm. He watched the wound heal at speed, then replayed the entire great incident, judging whether there were mistakes, leaks, or cracks.

  This event was, without question, triggered by the God of Suffering. The Cult of Desire used the hollow shell of the Holy Spirit Church to expand at terrifying speed, sweeping across Wynchester in a short time—and at last brewing catastrophe.

  The death toll is at least in the thousands, and most of the dead are middle-class and upper-class. Inves will face an earthquake. The Cult of Desire will be purged. And the mysticism the kingdom has hidden for so long will officially unfold before the public. This time, concealment is impossible.

  Among the Velthyr: The Fallen Corona succeeded in its temptation, but failed to gain a qualified vessel; still, it wounded The Night-Mother—so it’s not a loss. The Breaking Dawn is similar. The Night-Mother’s injury may grant it an advantage in the next contest. But I have ascended as an Omniforge and exposed myself completely under its eyes. I must be wary.

  The only true failure is The Night-Mother. A vessel it cultivated for so long betrayed it. This scheme has collapsed entirely!

  And yet, it has at least… confirmed “I” existence!

  That my did not mean Javon Yuggs, nor Javon Sothos.

  It meant the Spirit of Null Observance—the hidden hand behind the death of the sun in the ancient era.

  The Velthyr were once fully mad. Even if they suspected the hand behind the curtain, they would not probe or scheme with reason…

  But the Velthyr of today were different.

  They were more rational than the old divine lords, more willing to compromise—and to test.

  As for the death of the ancient Crimson Sun, they may have long had their suspicions, but never confirmed them. This time, I gained much—but I was far too conspicuous. I exposed the existence of the Spirit of Null Observance.

  A Velthyr understands: a World-Sanctioned Immortal cannot judge the God of Suffering.

  That kind of response from the entire Ethereal Realm had once belonged to only one being.