Free Web NovelDark golden dust fell slowly, like snow.
The dragon corpse that had once blotted out the sun was no more; the colossal entity that had once occupied the sky had rapidly disintegrated, leaving behind only vast swathes of ash.
A faint current of heat lingered in the air, but no trace of Dragon Might could be felt anymore.
Louis stood in the center of the ruins.
At the very moment the last speck of dark golden dust touched the ground, an illusory figure slowly emerged before him.
The figure was incomplete, its silhouette appearing as if it had been repeatedly washed away by time, barely maintaining a human shape.
Louis looked up and clearly saw the other's face.
He recognized this face.
It was the Archmage who had died back then in the Primal Land after spitting the primal heart into his brain—Noken. Perhaps he also had an identity known as Lin Ze.
Only at this moment, he was no longer that elegant and composed Chief Steward.
That body had been dead for many years; the existence before him was merely a residual shadow of a soul that had been forcibly severed.
With obsession as his anchor and prophecy as his direction, he had endured for a thousand years.
Louis simply looked at him, not speaking immediately.
From the state of that residual shadow, he already understood everything.
Noken quietly gazed back at Louis.
Deep within his hollow eyes, a faint trace of emotion emerged—not joy, but more like a sense of relaxation, as if he could finally let go.
The thousand-year plan had finally reached its end, and his mission was completed at this very moment.
Louis remained silent for a long time before he spoke in a low voice, "You have worked hard."
His voice was not loud, yet it was extremely solemn.
Noken merely lowered his head slightly in a bow, as if making his final farewell to this world.
In the next moment, his figure began to grow thin.
Like smoke dispersed by the wind, without pain or struggle, he vanished silently into the air, leaving not even a trace behind.
Louis stood where he was, looking at that void.
Only when the last wisp of soul fluctuation had completely vanished did he slowly turn around.
Above the ruins, mist that had not yet dissipated still lingered.
That was the legacy of the Dragon Emperor: the mist of Greed and that half-portion of the mist of Pride.
Louis reached out, and under an invisible pull, the two mists converged, compressed into a stream of light carrying pure authority.
He did not hesitate, letting the light pierce straight into his chest and merge into the primal heart.
At this moment, the authorities of the seven original sins finally completed their closure.
The power of original sin and the primal heart achieved a complete resonance at that instant.
Louis's consciousness left the battlefield, falling into a boundless expanse of pure white.
In the next instant, countless memories flooded into his consciousness.
The images were fragmented and chaotic, like a revolving lantern with its order scrambled, being forcibly spliced and reorganized deep within his consciousness.
He saw war—not from this life, but from a much more ancient era.
Dragon wings blotting out the sky, cities incinerated by flames, and human settlements reduced to livestock pens.
He remembered; in his past life, he was indeed the first mage—the Primal Mage.
A thousand years ago, in an age where the human race was pushed to its limits and left with no way out, he had stood up to lead the surviving humans in rebellion against the dragon race.
After failure upon failure, he realized a cruel fact.
To truly oppose the power of dragons, humans had to master an authority that did not belong to the dragon system.
Thus, he chose to bear the original sin.
Not because of a fall from grace, but to create a foundation of power other than that of the dragons.
After the dragon race was defeated, the world welcomed a brief period of peace.
He established Mage City, attempting to restrain this power within the bounds of reason and order.
However, the original sin did not rest.
It constantly eroded his consciousness, devouring his sense of self.
He clearly felt his existence sliding toward an irreversible abyss, and the time remaining for him was not much.
To avoid being completely devoured by original sin, and to prevent himself from dragging the entire world into destruction should he lose control, he made an extreme choice.
He chose to split himself.
He sent his still-rational self into reincarnation.
He stripped away the emotional, tyrannical, and uncontrollable original sin along with all his memories, decomposing and sealing them.
All memories returned to their places at this moment; as the final puzzle piece clicked into the depths of his consciousness, Louis's figure gradually solidified.
Opposite him, a dark shadow also took shape.
Its silhouette, build, and face... were exactly the same as his.
But Louis could see through that surface; it was not a complete existence.
It was the sneer of Pride, the claws of Greed, the maw of Gluttony, the mire of Sloth... it was the collection of original sins he had personally stripped away and sealed back then.
Louis looked at the dark shadow before him, his gaze calm, as if watching a fated enemy he had known for a thousand years.
The dark shadow spoke first.
"Child," the voice was identical to his own, yet carried an unsettling echo, "we meet again."
The white space slowly cracked open behind the dark shadow.
An image unfolded.
It was a projection of the real world—the land after being ravaged by August.
Collapsed cities, piled-up corpses, and crowds wailing amidst the ruins.
"Look," the shadow's tone was level yet full of enticement, "humans are forever in conflict; desire never rests..."
The shadow spread its arms, as if displaying a long-predicted result: "This is the true face of this world.
The desires of this world are endless."
The dark shadow slowly approached, its silhouette expanding and eroding the surrounding white.
"Even across a thousand years, I still exist. Even if you kill a Dragon Emperor today, a new crisis will appear tomorrow, and humans will still destroy themselves."
"Come," the shadow's voice became low and seductive, "accept me, embrace me.
As long as you and I merge, you will be the only, eternally supreme True God on this continent."
The white space shook accordingly.
The dark shadow's form constantly shifted, turning into countless silhouettes symbolizing desire: thrones, legions, mountains of corpses, and cheering crowds.
"You can erase all the pain in the world as you please and establish an eternally peaceful utopia.
Is this not exactly what you have always pursued?"
Louis gave a light chuckle: "It sounds like a perfect bonsai indeed; unfortunately, it has no vitality."
He looked up at the dark shadow that almost blotted out his entire conscious space.
The expansion of the dark shadow faltered slightly.
"Your so-called utopia," Louis's tone was calm, "is a world without desire and without variables. That is nothing more than a giant tomb."
He took a step forward.
"Furthermore, what you want has never been to help me become a god, but to make me a vessel for you to devour civilization." ƒrēewebnovel.com
Seeing its thoughts exposed, the dark shadow stopped pretending.
It suddenly expanded, and the pure white space was completely swallowed; even direction and boundaries vanished along with it.
"Do you think you have a choice?" The voice pressed down on Louis from all directions.
"In your current state, you can at most suppress me for a few decades. Once you die, I will still take control of the entire world."
"And eliminate me?" The dark shadow let out a low, almost mocking laugh. "You couldn't do it a thousand years ago, and it's the same now."
I am a companion entity born at the dawn of the world. As long as living beings exist, as long as desire exists, I shall live as long as the world.
You cannot kill me, nor can you avoid me."
Louis stared directly into that darkness. "You're wrong. I indeed cannot kill you, but can you feel it? You have grown weaker."
The dark shadow's voice fluctuated for the first time: "Weaker? No! War, famine, death... these all nourish me."
Louis shook his head: "Compared to a thousand years ago, humans have learned law, learned cooperation, and learned to use tools to combat nature."
Louis slowly raised his ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) hand, pointing into the depths of the void: "For every inch knowledge spreads, your shadow shortens by a fraction.
The so-called original sin is essentially the chaos caused by ignorance, and I shall sow the seeds named 'Reason' across this continent."
The dark shadow surged violently in the white space.
It no longer maintained its calm posture; its silhouette constantly fractured and reorganized, as if pushed to its limit.
"All it takes is one disaster! Or a war sufficient to destroy civilization!" The voice of original sin lost its certainty, carrying an almost hysterical sharpness.
"Order will be torn apart, systems will collapse, and humans will retreat into being beasts once more!"
"At that time, everything will return to the starting point..." Louis listened quietly until it finished, then spoke, "You still don't understand."
His tone was not aggressive, yet it was like a steadily falling hammer, pinning the original sin's roar in place.
"The accumulation of civilization is never a circle." He took a step forward, the pure white space beneath his feet rippling in layers, "It is a spiral ascent.
Disasters can destroy cities, but they cannot completely erase the knowledge and logic already etched into the blood."
Louis raised his eyes, his gaze passing through the dark shadow as if looking at a place much further away.
"History indeed regresses, but it never returns to the starting point." His voice gradually became clear and powerful.
"A thousand years ago, the dragon race harvested humans like they were harvesting weeds."
"But today, my workers know how to use steel to withstand the winter, and my knights know what they are fighting for.
Something like knowledge, once mastered by millions, becomes an instinct etched into the very bones."
The dark shadow tried to retort, only to find its form contracting uncontrollably.
Louis continued: "Even if you destroy the Red Tide, as long as a single literate child survives, the speed of civilization's recovery will be a hundred times faster than the last time."
He paused for a moment, his tone lowering with a hint of threat: "One day, humans will step upon your head."
The white space vibrated, and unmaskable cracks began to appear in the silhouette of the original sin: "These are all your delusions!"
"The most important thing I taught my subjects," Louis said slowly, "was never how to use gunpowder, but to dare to use their own reason.
And when a farmer begins to ponder the logic behind next year's harvest instead of praying to the void, the way this world operates has already changed."
His gaze fell back onto the dark shadow, as if stating a conclusion that had already been verified countless times.
"At the moment you merged with me, you were already dead. You are no longer a nightmare; you are merely a problem that has yet to be fully solved."
The original sin let out an almost tearing roar.
Louis gave it no more room to continue its roaring.
He spread his arms, and that surging darkness, along with the yet-to-dissipate essence of original sin, was actively absorbed into his own body.
Deep within his consciousness, countless images flashed by.
The lights burning in night schools, the constant roar of machines in factories, the smiles on people's faces when they received their wages... the magic power accumulated in his body began to be consumed at an alarming speed.
This was the most dangerous yet most stable sealing magic mastered by the Primal Mage—Eternal Vessel.
The original sin crashed wildly within his soul, struggling, breaking down, and being forced into compression.
Eventually, it lost its form.
It turned into countless tiny, cold chains, wrapping layer upon layer around the cornerstone of Louis's soul.
The white space returned to silence once more.
The original sin was temporarily sealed.
