Chapter 359 Causes and Consequences
Merlin nudged his monocle.
A deep blue circle appeared in front of the glasses, followed by an auxiliary array emitting flowing light and shining runes, making it look like a virtual panel.
He stared intently at the magic book in Aiwas's hand. After looking at it for a while, he suddenly frowned slightly, revealing a somewhat puzzled expression.
...What is the Grimoire of Sin?
As an apostle of the Path of Wisdom, Merlin naturally possesses the ability to identify extraordinary items. In fact, during the era of the Round Table, Merlin was the best appraiser in Avalon.
He could see the effect of this thing.
However, he didn't know what "Phantom Card" and "Sin Card" were.
——Is this the inheritance brought by the divine entity?
"Evans," Merlin asked cautiously, "Did you just...see anything special?"
"…something special?"
"It's the 'holy entity' I mentioned earlier. It could be a snake, a ring, or perhaps a cloud of smoke, or a demon. It's the will that resides within the remains of the incubus."
Merlin offered a slightly more precise answer: "Do you have any impression?"
Although Merlin maintained a mysterious and all-knowing attitude in front of Aiwass, he actually didn't know much, and even Merlin himself was surprised by the call of fate.
His original motive for coming to the Decapitation Valley was simply to investigate the ritual of the Shadow of Avalon, information he had gained after meeting Aiwass in his dream.
After checking, he found that Jacob not only changed the ritual he left behind, but also left something else.
Merlin even saw Vivian nearby... She was not an apostle who ran out to play like him, but someone who had directly abandoned the power of the Path of Love and reincarnated as a mortal.
This unusual behavior surprised Merlin - because the woman was not the type to put herself in a passive position. Although her actions seemed crazy and extreme, she always remained rational.
Vivian is the type of person who is very clear about her own goals, and is ruthless to others and herself. Although she has done many crazy things, those things are not driven by emotions, but by interests... Her madness is mainly reflected in the speed with which she "abandons".
Most people tend to be attached to what they own. If they encounter a problem, they generally try to solve it within their capabilities. Even if they don't need something right now, they don't throw it away, but rather keep it to see if it can still be used later.
But not Vivian.
She fell in love with Merlin sincerely and devoted her true love to him. However, after she accomplished her goal from Merlin, she coldly severed the connection and sealed Merlin in the tree.
She also cared for Lancelot like a mother, and was promoted to an apostle due to her great achievements. After completing her goal, she decisively severed the mother-son relationship and never saw Lancelot again.
She is always searching for more, exchanging less for more. And she always finds more.
Yet, she had now unhesitatingly abandoned her apostle identity and power, fleeing directly into the material world—a gesture that could only be described as an escape, as her reincarnation must have been without the permission of the Shadow Celestial Master. In other words, she had even abandoned everything she had until now, becoming a mortal once again.
This made Merlin feel extremely uneasy.
Following this clue, he found the remains of the nightmare from Aiwas's promotion ceremony, and discovered the Book of Law and the seal left by Jacob, from which he found the knowledge of the Tail Ring ceremony.
In the end, it was thanks to the information provided by Yeats's fickle and disloyal werewolf that Merlin finally got the whole picture of the matter before Aiwass - to be precise, he was only ten minutes earlier than Aiwass.
But that was all he knew.
But in response to Merlin's question, Aiwass had an idea.
He suddenly realized that this seemed like a good opportunity...?
All the secrets that Aiwas knew before, whether it was the job change method of the Great Sin Scholar or anything else, Aiwas could not tell others.
Because he didn't have a reasonable channel of information - he had never known any extraordinary people before, and the only knowledge he could get about the extraordinary world came from the study of his adoptive father James.
But Aiwass took out the ritual that allowed Meg to be reincarnated and gave Sherlock a new profession he had never heard of.
Both Meg and Sherlock must have had their doubts about Aiwass. But Meg was more pragmatic and didn't think about it; while Sherlock had already decided not to argue with Aiwass...but he couldn't always do that.
And now is a great opportunity!
"I did see something."
Aiwass thought about this and his expression became serious. "I saw the past and saw my grandfather talking with a mysterious being. That being granted my grandfather some special knowledge—including some rituals I've never seen before... In addition, he also showed me some intelligence about the future."
"future?"
Merlin wasn't interested in the ritual, but after hearing the future, he repeated it. He tilted his head and thought about it before nodding. "Oh, that makes sense—do you remember what 'He' said?"
"He didn't say much, and all he said were riddles. Like a prophet's predictions... But since then, a lot of knowledge has suddenly flowed through my mind. It flashed by, and then almost all disappeared, leaving only a few vague impressions."
Aiwass said seriously: "But I feel that as long as I meet certain conditions, I will be able to remember it!"
Every word he said was true.
Even if Merlin were taking a lie detector test, he would only get the answer "truth."
But after Aiwass cleverly changed the word order, it was as if what he saw was not ritual knowledge, but fragments of the future.
He began, "For example, that divine being said... 'Those chosen as apostles and priests of the Pillars are the Priests of the Great Beast.' I think the meaning of this statement is..."
When Aiwass said this, he suddenly paused.
Merlin looked over curiously, but Aiwass's expression suddenly changed and he looked up at the sky.
——Originally, he just picked up a sentence that was familiar to him, hoping to fool Merlin.
But Aiwass had only said half of it when he suddenly understood the meaning of this sentence!
Because at that moment, Aiwass figured out one thing.
In the game, the original "Aivaz" was the inventor of the Great Sin Scholar class. Similarly, he was also the first Great Beast Master...
When Jacob and the "holy entity" exchanged these words, Aiwass hadn't even been born yet. In other words, even if Aiwass had traveled through time since birth and simply hadn't awakened his memories yet... he wouldn't have changed the world from more than a decade ago before traveling through time.
In other words, even according to the original world line, Jacob must have left this book here!
So when did Aiwass get the promotion to Scholar of Great Sin?
Because Aiwass didn't know that part of the plot, he could only infer what happened at that time based on the subsequent settings.
Avalon was gone, and his adoptive father, James, had also disappeared. By the time the Fallen Angels arrived, Aiwass was still just a level 30 rookie demonologist, unwilling to use humans as ritual materials. He chased players around, but couldn't find anything.
Furthermore, the Fallen Angel was still alive at that time. This meant that Aiwass could only change his job to this class after the player and Isabelle defeated the Fallen Angel.
By then, Avalon had already become the Land of Shadows. Judging by the fact that Haena had already transformed into a "hyena," Eagle Point Village probably no longer existed.
In other words, the original story's "Aivaz" suddenly changed his job to become a Scholar of the Great Sin after the story of the Theocracy and Star Antimony ended and he returned to Avalon with the player again.
It is very likely that Aiwas obtained the "Book of Law" at that time, which allowed him to come up with the promotion path from the Scholar of Great Sin to the Lord of Great Beasts out of thin air!
You must know that those chosen as apostles and priests of the Pillars are the priests of the great beast.
【Restrict the words of great sin! 】
The words of that divine being echoed in Aiwas' heart.
——Big beast, big sin.
...No wonder, the magic book I got turned out to be the special weapon of the Great Sin Scholar, which does not even exist in the current version.
Aiwass hadn't thought about it carefully when he got it, but now he finally realized it -
The cause and effect are reversed!
Cause first, consequence——
Originally, Aiwass got these two careers after obtaining this book!
(End of this chapter)
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