When the plot-skips players into the game world

Star Spirits...

The race to which Cardinal Galatea belongs.

The Atlanteans rejected the fate of "returning souls to the Dream Realm after death to recreate new souls"...

Instead, they stored the souls of their deceased kin in special crystals and implanted them into replaceable constructs.

In a way, the extinction of the Atlanteans is also related to this technology.

They wanted only birth and rejected death. As a result, they occupied the resources of other races in the material realm, and in terms of creating souls, they only took without giving—creating new individuals of their race using the souls returned by other races after death. Such an outcome of destruction was inevitable.

"Just like the Star Spirits, the Fog Demons can also be a symbiotic race with humans."

Aiwass nodded slightly at Isabel and then turned to Sherlock, saying, "Fog Demons can only transform from Transcendents of the Path of Love. And they must have an adaptation to the Path of Devotion, which is already rare in itself. They won't directly intercept the soul flow of the entire race like the Star Spirits. With these immortal, gentle assistants, efficiency would undoubtedly increase significantly.

"This is not a crisis at all, but an opportunity, Sherlock."

Aiwass stared at Sherlock for a while, then lightly tapped the table with his fingers: "Did you discover something? Why are you so tense? This isn't like you."

Upon hearing Aiwass's words, Sherlock nodded slightly. He reached out and tapped a book on the table, signaling Aiwass to take a look.

Aiwass picked up the book with a brownish cover.

It was written in Elvish Language, clearly in Lady Haibasha's handwriting.

"...The Ten Holy Numbers Theory?"

Aiwass muttered.

He flipped through it briefly, discovering it to be an esoteric treatise describing the concept of "Holy Numbers."

Undoubtedly, this was an esoteric treatise of the Path of Wisdom—because the content was so profound, filled with various dense numbers and formulas, that it gave Aiwass a headache. He closed the book and handed it to Isabel, asking Sherlock for a summary: "What did you find?"

"This is a technique developed by an ancient branch of Mages, called the Secret Number Masters. It existed before the Geometric Celestial Marshal killed the Number Heavenly Department. Since the emergence of a new Number Heavenly Department, it's considered a hidden knowledge."

Sherlock said as he took the book from Isabel, who was also overwhelmed, and opened it to a page, showing it to Aiwass: "Do you guys know about number roots? Never mind, I'll start from the beginning... A number root is obtained by adding each digit of an integer together, and if it exceeds 10, continue adding. For example, the number root of 16 is 1+6=7, so the number root of 16 is 7; the number root of 343 is 3+4+3=10, and 1+0=1, so the number root of 343 is 1.

"The power of the Source Rivers is closely related to the Holy Numbers because the Source Rivers are the first 'number' that appeared in this world. Just as invoking the name of the Pillar God grants power, arranging stones according to the stars also grants power, and even applying cosmetics akin to the beings will yield power... This touches the essence of numbers themselves, which also exist with inherent power. The essence of numbers can be discovered by finding the number root that reveals which Source River the mysterious number belongs to.

"For instance, the exponentials of numbers 1, 4, and 7 cycle only among 1, 4, and 7. For example, 4² is 16, with a number root of 7, and 4³ is 64, with a number root of 1... This signifies that the first, fourth, and seventh Source Rivers are linked together, forming a triangle relationship of creation-wisdom-stability."

Sherlock said seriously, "Neither the scholars who discovered this pattern nor Lady Haibasha realized the truth hidden within this finding.

"We already know... that behind the Gate of Truth, there is only the Void, which is why the Great Sage remains silent. Which is why the Great Sage destroyed the Tower of Heaven and the legacy of the Mages because the power of spells inherently comes from the Void.

"So, what if the bases of the first, fourth, and seventh Source Rivers are linked together? I remember you said, Aiwass, that the Source Rivers were opened one by one, right? We also know that the state of the Eternal Self is evidently wrong... even the Blood Celestial Marshal has endured the erosion of the Void.

"This is why the Eternal Self and the Beast Master must intertwine closely to fight against the Void. It also explains why the state of the Supreme Heaven has become so strange... Although it was once the mighty Winged Celestial Marshal, it created the Giants, a race entirely not aligned with its aesthetic, and even its mental state became increasingly strange. But if the Giants mean to the Supreme Heaven what the Son of the Moon means to the Blood Celestial Marshal, then it seems to make sense."

"...You do know what you're saying, don't you, Sherlock."

Aiwass also became serious, asking in a deep voice.

Even though Sherlock spoke of the Great Sage, the Eternal Self, the Beast Master, and the Supreme Heaven...

Aiwass knew what Sherlock truly meant.

—The Emperor has rebelled!

"...Yes, I know."

Sherlock raised his head, looking at Aiwass with a rational yet sorrowful gaze.

"As a vassal and believer, I too do not want to accept this fact. But truth is truth—when all impossible factors are excluded, no matter what is left, no matter how improbable, that is the truth."

He stated word by word, "The Silver-Crowned Dragon might already be infected by the Void. Perhaps even the Path of Authority had problems from the very beginning... it's possibly a wrong path leading to the Void.

"It's not completely the same as you previously told me... The Void doesn't strictly infiltrate from the outer to the inner circle. The Path of Love might indeed be the first, but the Path of Dusk remains stable, and the Path of Transcendence and Path of Beauty currently have no issues. Yet the Path of Love and Path of Wisdom have already fallen... If the number root theory has enlightened me correctly, then perhaps the Path of Authority has issues, too."

This is the true reason Sherlock was in a bad mood and inexplicably anxious.

"...Consider it half wrong, but not wholly," Aiwass sighed, "After all, the Winged Celestial Marshal indeed sought to reach a miracle through the fusion of strength and wisdom. Also true is that they abandoned the fusion due to the pollution of wisdom. But who would have thought that strength was also polluted..."

The difference is that the Great Sage already realized they were polluted, but the Supreme Heaven did not.

That's why the Great Sage tried to crush the Supreme Heaven.

That's why the Silver-Crowned Dragon, like the Eternal Self and the Beast Master, split itself in two.

Sherlock might not know the Silver-Crowned Dragon has another half, but Aiwass does.

Thus, Aiwass also knows Sherlock's deduction is probably correct—the Silver-Crowned Dragon might already have fallen, which is why it hasn't moved for so long. If it moves, the Demon Dragon inside the Ice Mountain might not be suppressed.

"...The Destructive Demon Dragon."

Aiwass murmured, "So that's what it is... That's how it is a world-ending event..."

It all adds up.

Though the Pillar Gods blocked the first wave of erosion with the self-sacrifice of the Eternal Self and Amber,

Another wave of erosion has already reached the domain of Wisdom and Authority from the depths of the Source Rivers!