Chapter 925: The Man Who Integrates into the Sun
"Do you know who I am?"
Adolf asked suddenly.
"...Your Excellency Adolf von Menzel," Count Leipzig forced a friendly smile, "Of course I know who you are..."
Although he still didn't know whether Hong Xiang was dead or not... when he tried to call for help, the empty echo coming from deep in his blood gave him a not-so-good answer.
——Even if Hong Xiang was not dead, all contact with them had been cut off.
For him, this is no different from death.
But Adolf's gaze towards him became increasingly cold.
Suddenly, Adolf asked, "I heard that you have a special understanding of art?"
“…Ah, yes.”
When this question was mentioned, Count Leipzig became more energetic.
Even his originally timid and cautious voice grew louder. "I've carved other 'me's' into immortal works of art—are you interested in my work? Haha... I mean, after all, you're a well-known artist throughout the planet. I'm delighted to receive your praise."
"How did you do it?"
Adolf asked softly.
"I feed my flesh and blood to others," Count Leipzig said solemnly. "With the accumulated love over the years, when they consume enough of me, they gradually become another me. And on this basis, each body has its own characteristics, a life experience different from mine... Those subtle differences become the skeleton of art.
"I discover the brilliance in each person and find the source of their immortality. Then I add the ingredient - my fiery, sticky and deadly love.
"I allow them to reach the realm of endlessness with me... because my heart longs to be eternal too!"
“…I see.”
Adolf sighed.
He asked one last question: "Who taught you this?"
“I learned it on my own.”
Count Leipzig's face was filled with a confident smile: "That comes from the bottom of my heart..."
"--wrong."
Adolf interrupted Count Leipzig and said, "That's what I taught you."
"……What?"
Count Leipzig was stunned for a moment.
At that moment, his eyes suddenly widened.
It was like being struck by thunder in the brain, and the memories that were "preserved" in the past were suddenly unsealed.
That was his memory of studying art with Adolf——
"I can't surpass you, Sensei!"
The noisy boy yelled, "Ever since I saw your paintings, they've been lingering in my mind! No matter how much I paint, the shadows of those paintings are always in this painting..."
"In other words," the young man hidden in the shadows said gently, "you feel that I have become a bondage to you... right?"
"I never said that."
The boy muttered, "But it's true—to be honest, I'm right! I want to paint my own paintings, not paintings in the style of Menzel! But the more I learn from here, the more I lose my true self..."
"So what do you want?"
The young man patiently asked, "What is your style?"
"My fiery, sticky, and deadly love!"
The young man stood up without hesitation and praised loudly: "Never-ending love - unlike your stillness, I want to create moving art - art that never stops!"
Looking at his shining eyes, the young man was a little dazed for a moment.
He stared at the confident and brilliant young man in amazement, but his resolute face was now as pale as a stone statue.
“…Ah, that’s true.”
The young man was silent for a long time, then lowered his hands dejectedly.
His drooping face faded into shadow. "You and I are not of the same kind, Finn. You are not of the Way of Twilight... but you are right. Perhaps I am not suited to teach."
As he said this, he reached out and gently touched the boy's head:
"—Then you are free."
A dim power seeped into his brain and slowly seeped out from his eyes. His memory was "saved" deep within, along with every painting by Adolf he had ever seen. Adolf's influence gradually faded, leaving only the purest, well-established skill and talent.
Finn Heinrich's eyes widened slightly.
That is...
——He once firmly believed that he was a genius.
"Did I harm you, Finn?"
Adolf said softly, "Those 'artworks' of yours are you and yet they are not you.
"That incomplete self...is it the real you?
"Is the life that extends from that incomplete self your life?"
Adolf recalled the scene when he met Count Leipzig again.
At that time, I was standing in the vast snow, and saw the elegant and aristocratic Son of the Moon saluting me with an evil smile.
He looked at the other person coldly.
But the other party was so arrogant as if he had never seen him.
"—I come with the goodwill and regards of my master, my esteemed father, my blood of blood, Mr. Franz Pomponazzi."
So said Count Leipzig.
At that moment, Adolf knew... Finn was already dead.
At this moment, he wasn't speaking to Count Leipzig. Instead, he was speaking softly to the frail yet handsome young man from the past: "Perhaps it's my fault. I didn't teach you well. The evil you've done is also my fault... This is my sin."
"I thought about it, what else can I do? Why not teach you this last lesson?"
Adolf reached out and tore off his left arm.
But even so, no blood spurted out from the empty cuffs.
He then hurled his left arm out like a hatchet.
When it touched the body of Count Leipzig, it was like a drop of blood sinking into water.
Count Leipzig's body suddenly shattered into blood.
But they did not scatter on the ground, but condensed into a pure white canvas in the void.
"Pain. Love. Peace. Joy. Sadness. Anger... Human emotions have colors. The human soul is the best palette, and human memory is the best paint."
Adolf whispered, "This is what I taught you, but you only seem to remember the colors of pain and love."
As he spoke, he stretched out his right hand and pressed it on his forehead.
He pulled out a wisp of green memory and flicked it lightly into the air.
It symbolizes the past. It is the entirety of his personality.
Just like Count Leipzig lost a part of his memory and was no longer the same Finn as before...
"Since you are so obsessed with 'body' art, so obsessed with eternity and never-ending..."
As he spoke, Adolf drew out another wisp of his dark blue soul and slammed it onto the previous memory, mixing the colors together.
This symbolizes the "future" - he originally had the opportunity to become an apostle.
"——Then let us complete this final piece of art together."
He said so.
I want to give Aiwass a final gift as a thank you.
As the last painting in life, a work of art that engraves my entire life...
——How can one not crush his own soul to create this immortal thing?
He heard the conversation between Aiwass and the teacher.
For the future "Yao Tian Si"... using mundane things as gifts is too mediocre.
"Throw your body into the sun..."
Adolf whispered, reaching out and taking out his still-beating heart.
He crushed it into a handful, turning it into a dark red viscous paint, which he dropped into the paint tray.
This is life, it represents the "now".
Memories, soul, and life - he shattered everything of himself, leaving nothing behind.
Although Hengwo gave up herself ten times, she still retained her "self" in the end.
Adolf chose to give up completely.
Go beyond the limit of "1" and step into the realm of "0".
From then on, his life entered its final countdown.
Aiwass said to the teacher...the path with the holy number of eleven may have the power to cause miracles.
Beauty, the sacred number two, and dusk, the sacred number nine, added together... make exactly eleven.
The zeroth path is also the tenth path.
——Fin’s “love” and the “nothingness” he reached after abandoning everything are also eleven.
If his own artwork could help Aiwass' ascension even a little, it would be like adding fuel to the fire of the sun.
...When you think about it this way, it's really amazing.
This thought suddenly popped up in Adolf's mind.
My childhood wish... I still have a chance to realize it...
Melted in the fire of the sun—
——Transformed into a momentary light, or an eternal fire.
Update completed meow!
(End of this chapter)
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