Chapter 175: Bestow upon Me a Dream Named Canaan (6k4)
Rast held in his hand a gathering of illusory light dots.
Then, the light dots condensed into a slightly yellowed book.
This was the fairy tale book that Akshia had originally gifted to him, and after being rewritten with a complete ending, it became the final product of sublimation—
[The Long-Distant Poems of the Past]
According to the item description provided by the Night World, any story written using one’s own bl**d on the blank pages of the book would be woven, thus materializing into a tangible reality.
Rewriting the world with one’s own imagination could truly be described as “fantasy manifestation.”
“Is it that I cannot use ordinary ink, but must write with my own bl**d and Akshia’s bl**d?”
“And the story that is written must also conform to logic and possess a certain degree of reasonableness for it to truly manifest as reality… Moreover, there are many other restrictions, including affecting the target’s status.”
Rast observed the azure light screen before him.
“For example—at my current status, if I wanted to directly write a Legendary Strongman to d*ath in this book… the end result would either be that nothing happens, or I would suffer immense backlash while that Legendary Strongman remains unscathed.”
“However, aside from these restrictions, I can be considered a man with ‘Word Spirit.’”
“Just like what’s depicted in fantasy novels from my past life… being able to pronounce laws at will, or say ‘one word can enact laws for the world.’”
Rast couldn’t help but smile a bit.
His thoughts stirred, and the yellowed book transformed back into illusory light dots, returning to his body, vanishing from sight.
Rast then focused his attention on another piece of Emblem Armor.
[Chapter of the Fire Thief]
[Type: Emblem Armor (Secondary Sublimation)]
[Description: This was once a badge worn by a traitor, the deep scratches engraved on the silver badge witness a heart-rending betrayal from a rainy night and the despairing wail of a girl when her dream on the cliff shattered.
Such a deep-seated hatred, the chains of animosity between the innocent girl and the heartless betrayer, ought to have persisted permanently, ultimately forging an irrevocable whirlpool of hatred.
However, at the end of the story, beside that broken coast littered with rubble and chaos, the girl learned the truth of everything, misunderstandings and hatred were unraveled, and the chains of hatred dissipated in the morning light.
And this badge was no longer the mark of a traitor but has sublimated into a symbol.
Symbol of the original ‘Fire Thief’—]
[In the distant past, so far back that it can no longer be verified, during the Age of Gods, the King of Gods on the clouds refused to grant fire to humanity, leaving the world in darkness, where people could only crawl to survive in obscurity.
At that time, a god named Prometheus stole the Flame Seed from the solar chariot and gave it, along with the knowledge related to fire, to the people living on earth.
From that day on, fire lit up the earth, and people built bonfires to repel wild beasts, and from then on, no one would get lost in the night, with flickering flames held by travelers illuminating the vast wilderness, akin to starry seas.
But such an act defied the will of the gods, and the God King was enraged, binding the Fire Thief with iron chains that could never be broken upon a steep cliff, piercing his chest with diamond nails.
He could never sleep, his weary knees could never bend, and every day a vulture would come to peck at his liver, only to have it regrow at night.
This is the story of the original Fire Thief.
As one of the gods above, he fell to the dust for the minuscule human beings on earth, nailed to the cliff, enduring the pain of having his organs eaten by the vulture day and night.]
[Now, the original Fire Thief has extinguished, but his spirit has been inherited alongside the Flame Seed, right up until today, and you are one of the successors.
Even if this ideal and spirit have been gradually weathered and altered through your long experience in Deep Blue Harbor, falling into a dark abyss, twisted…
But the “partner of justice” after being corrupted and reversed has become what is known as—
“Evil’s Nemesis.”]
[Emblem Effect: When the holder of the emblem is in opposition to a target with the trait of “Enemy of Humanity,” the damage inflicted will be increased by 100%.]
“The so-called opposite of a ‘partner of justice’—”
“Is ‘Evil’s Nemesis,’ huh?”
Rast looked at the azure light screen and couldn’t help but say softly to himself.
The once ‘Traitor’s Wing’ Emblem Armor brought him the effect of increasing damage by ten times when backstabbing for the first time.
Thanks to this tenfold initial strike bonus, Rast was able to maim Noah’s legendary embodiment directly with a Holy Grenade in the Abyss… giving him time to conduct various subsequent actions and rescue Akshia from the Ice Coffin.
However, the so-called backstab and initial strike only work the first time it is used.
At the conclusion of this night world mission, he returned to the Guardian faction once again and completely severed ties with the Gravekeeper… this Emblem Armor lost its usefulness to him.
After all, the Gravekeeper is not a fool; after suffering a loss once, they would undoubtedly strengthen their defense… and Rast cannot play the role of a double agent each time he enters the Night World, spending a lot of time infiltrating the enemy before waiting for the chance to backstab.
Such plans are merely risky gambits; using them as a surprise tactic is fine, but they are impractical as a standard method.
Now, however, ‘Traitor’s Wing’ has sublimated into ‘Chapter of the Fire Thief,’ gaining special effects against ‘Enemy of Humanity’ while losing the backstab bonus, it can be considered a decent upgrade.
Transforming an emblem with harsh trigger conditions that can only be utilized in special situations into a constant boost that can be effective in most circumstances.
After all, according to the Sixth Epoch’s Night World traits, be it Iron Cross, Beast Tide, or those cult organizations, they indeed pose real threats to the survival of human civilization, possessing the attribute of ‘Enemy of Humanity’ to gain that special damage boost.
Even including the Gravekeeper, who, in Rast’s view, substantially hinders the survival of human civilization, also falls within the special damage range of ‘Enemy of Humanity.’
“From this perspective, perhaps I can completely self-hypnotize and convince myself that the opponent is ‘Enemy of Humanity’… just like Saint George, if I say you are a dragon, then you are a dragon.”
“This way, no matter who I face, I might be able to gain that damage boost, directly becoming a permanent 100% damage buff.”
“However… in the state of self-hypnosis, I should then lose the identity of ‘Fire Thief’ and can’t be the true master of this Emblem Armor; I didn’t expect the Night World to be so dead set, actually blocking this bug.”
Rast smiled and shook his head, carefully pocketing the old Guardian badge.
Then, he once again turned his attention to the last Night World mission reward.
[Your inherent skill ‘Heart of Iron’ has sublimated into ‘Iron Heart Dome.’]
[Iron Heart Dome]
[Type: Inherent Skill]
[Eternal sameness of the endless day, the cyclical time, the stagnant life—this is not a gift for humanity, but the most despairing curse… Even the truest feelings, the hottest ideals, will ultimately decay and deteriorate in the face of the long passage of time and turn into nothing but dust.
Lost memory, forgotten past, existing in the world like a walking corpse. The boy abandoned morality, transforming his spirit into a mechanism that operates like gears.
In that red wasteland of the heart’s imagery, along with the barren ruins, there is nothing but the continuously revolving, gigantic gears akin to an iron smelting factory.
This is a heart image difficult for ordinary people to possess; it is a steel land where living beings cannot survive. Even the dark sky and grayish, turbid clouds are forged of iron and fire, forming a steel heart dome.
Such a resilient soul forged of steel can even swallow the remnants of the ancient gods’ thoughts without corrosion or wavering.
So… what kind of person could melt your ironclad heart?]
[Skill Effect: Your sanity value is permanently solidified at 99; you are permanently immune to all states of hypnosis, seduction, mental control, corruption, and pollution.]
[All abilities targeting you for hypnosis, mind-reading, soul probing, memory retrieval will rebound against the caster at 100% of the total value.]
“It’s no longer like the previous ‘Heart of Iron’ that merely significantly boosts my mental resistance.”
“But rather, it directly permanently fixes my SAN value at max?”
Rast looked at the skill effect description of ‘Iron Heart Dome,’ feeling slightly astonished.
This is the first time he saw such an absolute statement in the Night World’s descriptive text, one that leaves no room for doubt.
After all, generally speaking, even Akshia’s ‘d*ath’s Messenger’ and Grey’s ‘Fate’ sequences, which are truly supermodel skills, often have various restrictions, including rank conditions.
For example, Akshia in Sixth Rank cannot directly order a legendary to d*e instantly with the words of d*ath, and Grey’s time reversal and world freezing cannot directly act on Legendary Strongmen either.
However, the skill effect of ‘Iron Heart Dome’ is different.
In the skill description, Night World employed an absolute, unqualified statement.
This means that even if a powerful being such as a Fifth-Rank pinnacle god, who is four whole ranks above Rast, were to stand before him—
This pinnacle true god could indeed k*ll Rast’s physical body, obliterate his soul, crush him, and tear him to shreds…
But even a true god cannot alter Rast’s memories, seduce and corrode his mind, or forcibly transform him into a believer, making him willingly worship that deity.
This is akin to the saying ‘Oh, just k*ll me,’ ‘You can obtain my body, but you will never obtain my heart.’
“How does it feel like my ‘Iron Heart Dome’ passive skill is particularly suited to be the heroine in a narrative or adult story…”
Rast slightly shook his head, clearing away these inexplicably rising thoughts from his mind.
It’s all Cisel’s fault; had he not awakened his humanity in the Abyss… in the past, he would absolutely never have entertained such ridiculous thoughts.
Thinking this, Rast withdrew his consciousness from the Emblem Armor and inherent skill bestowed by the mission reward.
He slowly calmed his mind, submerging his consciousness deep within his soul.
At the end of the ocean of the mind, amidst the winds and tides of the sea of consciousness, stood majestically—
A pitch-black tower.
“The ‘Library of Fools’”
He softly pronounced the name of this deep black tower.
This is the Night Blade that Rast possesses.
After experiencing the Night World of the Sixth Epoch, Rast could also entirely confirm that this library hidden deep within his soul did not merely stem from his own heart’s imagery.
But was instead a product of the Flame Seed, which was stolen from the Gravekeeper organization by the first generation and passed down through generations of Guardians, materialized in the form of ‘Night Blade.’
And upon leaving the Deep Blue Harbor, becoming a Night Traveler in that instant… he directly awakened the ‘Library of Fools’ version of himself, and this must certainly not have happened without reason.
However, before this, he was indeed unaware of the Library of Fools.
The only reasonable explanation for this would be that in his past, before being trapped in Deep Blue Harbor, something had happened—
Some events that had long since weathered in that three hundred years of time in Deep Blue Harbor, lost to his memory during the endless cycle of time.
Once, a Guardian, when he was still young, naive, and unaware of the world, passed down to him the Flame Seed named ‘Library of Fools.’
Just as Cisel once passed on his Flame Seed to his chosen successor, Grey.
Yet—
Rast’s gaze grew a bit distant.
Certain fragments of memories, already forgotten with time, surfaced in his mind… memories belonging to the border town of Canaan.
Collapsing walls, fallen floors, hot winds carrying smoke dust, and metal pipes twisting and distorting in the heat… alongside the sky scorched black-red by smoke and flames.
And that woman who, after discovering the still-living him in the burning ruins, revealed a sincere smile.
In the fragmented memory, the woman’s face had already blurred, but Rast still remembered that smile—
Perhaps it was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen in his life.
That was also the first time Rast had heard the term ‘Guardian.’
If he had to say who the source of that burning Flame Seed named ‘Library of Fools’ in his chest was…
The only answer would naturally be that woman who saved him from the burning ruins and instilled in him the ideal of being a ‘Guardian.’
“So…”
“Are you the person I think you are?”
Rast’s whisper went unanswered.
Soon after, a grand library scene quietly unfolded before Rast.
It seemed to be a pitch-black tower, and Rast stood at the base of the tower, facing endless darkness, save for faint star-like glimmers far in the distance.
Within the deep shadows, there were twenty-one pale stairways, rising from the ground beneath Rast’s feet and extending upward to the highest point of the tower, to the depths of the far-off void.
Rast scanned around, examining each of the twenty-one pale stairways.
Among them, some stairways at the bottom had illusory doors, with intersecting golden chains surrounding the doors, seemingly locked by some insurmountable means.
However, unlike the first time Rast entered the ‘Library of Fools,’ when only the ‘Tower’ and ‘Chariot’ stairways had their seals unlocked.
At this moment, approximately half of the stairways had already been freed from restrictions.
Glistening light points quietly gathered on these now-linked stairways, coalescing into illusory cards.
The backs of the cards bore designs representing their corresponding sequences, while the fronts depicted the character illustrations of those connected to Rast.
“My own ‘Tower,’ Hiltina’s ‘Chariot,’ Professor Barbarossa’s ‘Forest,’ Leader Cisel’s ‘Sun,’ Mr. Silver’s ‘Moon,’ Little Grey’s ‘Fate,’ Isda’s ‘Hermit,’ and Akshia’s ‘God of d*ath’…”
“I didn’t expect that I’ve unknowingly unlocked as many as eight sequence stairways…”
Rast gazed at the softly glowing, slowly rotating illusory cards, and couldn’t help but utter a sigh of appreciation.
Back when he first opened the Library of Fools, he would never have imagined the current scene.
However, when Rast’s gaze fell upon the ‘Sun’ sequence stairway, he looked at the card showcasing an elderly man dressed in a linen shirt with white hair, holding a pipe, his expression slightly dimmed.
Behind the card of [‘Sun’ · Cisel], all the illusory steps leading to the depths of the void were illuminated by pure and radiant sunlight.
Each layer of the steps was clearly defined, with illusory originals materializing upon each.
This was the last gift left behind by Leader Cisel’s predecessor for Rast, containing all the abilities he had developed and mastered along the ‘Sun’ sequence, including all knowledge regarding the birth of ‘Supernova Explosion’ and ‘Black Hole,’ entrusted to him in the form of the Library of Fools.
From now on, Rast would not need to unlock the bond levels of the ‘Sun’ sequence stairway additionally.
As long as his rank reached the corresponding height and he could shoulder the corresponding cost, Rast would have free access to all original texts along that entire Sun sequence.
That old man was genuinely using his life to illuminate the dim night.
Simultaneously, through the sunlight piercing the veil and illuminating the misty stairs, lines of pale golden hints slowly appeared before Rast, breaking into golden fragments.
[Received a shared knowledge inheritance]
[Current number of unlocked originals exceeds the critical value; the power of the ‘Library of Fools’ has further revived.]
[Sequence stairway restrictions lifted; you can simultaneously use abilities from different cards and different sequence stairways.]
[Limit on the number of original slots lifted; provided your mental strength is sufficient to bear the consumption, you can use multiple original texts simultaneously without being constrained by the original slot count.]
“So, if I don’t worry about being drained of mental power due to excessive consumption and turning into a vegetable due to soul exhaustion.”
“Now that I’ve reached the pinnacle of Fifth Rank, I can indeed think of myself as having stepped into eight sequence stairways, capable of simultaneously utilizing various Night Blade abilities.”
“It seems my development direction is starting to resemble a youthful version of God more and more.”
Analyzing the rewards from this Night World that could be described as a bountiful harvest and the upgrades he had obtained, Rast couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh of admiration.
If one day he could unlock all twenty-one sequence stairways and master all the highest original texts… it would mean that all rules and authorities in this world would fall under his control.
That would be the true ‘Omniscient Omnipotent Being.’
Compared to the ancient gods who merely reached the end of a single sequence during the Age of Gods, such an omniscient and omnipotent being would be the true deity, or rather—
“God.”
……
Such thoughts merely flickered in Rast’s mind.
Ultimately, he was still only at the pinnacle of Fifth Rank.
Dependent on the Library of Fools, along with Rast’s own accumulated, far surpassing similarly ranked emblem armors and various additional means… he might indeed have the strength to battle against ordinary Sixth-Rank pinnacle strongmen.
However, his previous experiences in the Night World had also deepened Rast’s understanding of the Legendary rank.
Even if the opponent were merely a true Legendary, differentiated from half of their spiritual power, a bounty embodiment.
After absorbing the remnants of the ancient God of d*ath’s soul, drawing upon the forces of the entire Abyss, and wielding taboo weapons like the ‘Zenith Sword’… even so, he had only succeeded in annihilating Noah’s bountiful embodiment at the cost of nearly mutual destruction, the dangers of which were not insignificant.
Without the buffs of Abyss from the Night World, the current gap between him and true Legendaries remained profoundly difficult to bridge.
Not to mention the true gods above legendary beings… they were so far from him that there was little sense in lingering over them.
Thinking this, Rast gently raised his hand.
In the next moment, silvery light flowed around his fingers.
Then it slowly coalesced into a heavy-caliber revolver, inscribed with iron-patterned moon.
And Rast raised the revolver slowly, aiming it at his temple.
He closed his eyes, feeling the gradually quickening heartbeat in his chest, along with the complex emotions that began to fill his heart.
There was delight and anticipation at the thought of returning to Canaan and seeing that golden-haired girl again.
Yet there was also hesitation and trepidation after confirming certain information in the Night World.
But ultimately, he still gently pulled the trigger.
Boom—
With a crack, the preset psychological suggestion was triggered, taking Rast toward the ethereal realm.
……
When Rast came back to his senses from his daze, the veil of night that had enveloped him in thin gauze had already vanished.
A blue sky.
Beneath the azure expanse, mountains with layers of peaks covered in white snow.
And from outside the window, the sound of bagpipes echoing throughout the entire border town.
Everything before his eyes unfolded like a long-ago dream.
From outside the room, the bubbling sound of stew boiling accompanied by the light humming of a girl floated in.
Leaving Rast, who had just awakened from a great dream, increasingly unable to distinguish the boundary between dream and reality.
(End of this chapter)
