"How long have the Efivara been worshipping her?" Sylas asked.
"I don't know. As long as they've existed. I wouldn't have details like that."
Sylas looked into the distance, his eyes a bit vacant for a moment as some pieces started to e together.
He had seen a lot of Wills being projected into the future, but the opposite was clearly possible as well. The only issue was the matter of paradox.
In order to handle that issue, one had to form a closed loop where everything was resolved within said loop. The impetus and conclusion all had to take place within itself.
Usually, setting up something like that took a great deal of effort. For Sylas to go back in time like he had, the Monkey King had basically handled everything just for the idiot to give himself a chance at revenge against Sylas.
Sylas, himself, did very little other than resolve matters so that he could return to the present.
But… what if one was building out a plan, one in which they always intended to send someone back?
No… what if they built out a plan where the actual process of sending them back was entirely unnecessary?
If Sylas was correct, the Efivara hadn't actually started worshipping Nosphaleen herself until very recently. However, the Efivara had been worshipping the same idol since their inception.
Once Nosphaleen successfully formed the Virtue of Envy Seed, her Will connected to the vastness of Envy.
It had to be remembered that Sylas, himself, could have tapped into an endless well of Pride if he had wanted to. It was just that he chose a path of his own and chose to fuel his Pride with himself alone.
But, theoretically, that well of Pride contained every aspect of Pride to ever exist.
Though it didn't tap into the future, it tapped into every second of the past.
So… if Nosphaleen gained access to that well of Envy Will, she would have found a path akin to a blank slate left for her by the Professors or whoever was responsible.
And in the end, to the mon world, it would look like she had always existed, like she had always been worshipped.
That would create a feedback loop whereupon Nosphaleen's Envy would only get stronger, fueled by the deeds and misdeeds of the Efivara.
She would instantly bee a True Goddess just by the power of her Envy alone. It was an unfathomable amount of power.
But not only was this method extremely clever, it was also extremely sinister.
Nosphaleen's power was also her chains.
How the Efivara worshipped, what they did in the name of their God, and how they displayed their Faith would retroactively mutate Nosphaleen's Will.
Normally, when a God was worshipped, they dictated the Faith and how it was followed. But Nosphaleen never got the chance.
What Envy she had sparked on her own was immediately washed away and overwhelmed by what was probably billions of years of Efivara culture.
It was a true checkmate, and once again Sylas was losing to someone or something that had simply started playing the game long before he had.
But did that also mean that they were trying to do the same with all the other Sins as well? How many vacant god slots had they been building up for years, waiting to use?
Would it even be possible to find them? Who knew how many countless numbers of religions there were across the universe?
Sylas had never paid close attention, but he was sure that there were practically an infinite number.
It was too good of a plan, too perfect. Even if one was exposed, how would you even stop something like this?
"Which is the second that they are close to succeeding in?" Sylas asked.
"…" Cheri hesitated again, but then she grit her teeth. "Gluttony."
"How do you know that?"
Sylas doubted that Cheri was someone who just had secrets whispered to her all the time. She was just a C-tier, and as talented as she was, there were certainly better talents in the more powerful guilds and Clans.
The Professors were insane, but clearly if they could plan something out for this long, they were patient as well.
It was no wonder they hadn't bothered him in so long. They had bigger fish to fry.
Or maybe… they were planning a different way to deal with him. Starting with Nosphaleen.
"I…" Cheri took a breath and exhaled. "… You are right, I am not meant to know this either. However, I found out because I managed to bee a member of Legacy on my own. Not the Professors, but Legacy.
"I have just been silently observing things, and not long ago there was a barrier breached between the Skai Heaven and the Beast Heaven. A World Serpent went on a rampage because of it, and I received a chance at a Quicktime Event for participating in a hunt.
"God Aura leaked down from the God Plane to the Demi-God Plane and it turned a sea of Serpentes feral. They started undergoing a great number of evolutionary changes and it was a prime location to sense the essence of Gluttony…"
Sylas fell into plete and utter silence.
So, Cheri was saying that…
The Professors managed to get their hands on a perfect Vessel of Envy because of him.
And now they were close to getting their hands on a perfect Vessel of Gluttony…
Also because of him.
But something still wasn't adding up. Sylas was sure that Legacy had a presence on the God Plane. If they really just needed to feel out the aura of a God Beast to take that step, those madmen would have already charged into the Beast Heaven themselves, would they not?
Why would they need that particular set of circumstances to…
Sylas' thoughts trailed off.
It was once again his fault.
Maybe the reason the World Serpent, or Gentrixaul as the Hydra had called it, really went on a rampage wasn't because Sylas was in its belly.
But because Slithering Madness was obsessed with watching everything Sylas did.
Sylas might not have sharp enough senses to feel that…
But would a God Beast who suddenly had the aura of such a powerful Serpent enter its body not react once it woke up?
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