When the plot-skips players into the game world

Fortunately, Aiwass had always been on edge, so the moment he sensed danger, he fiercely threw out a card.

"—Don Quixote!"

He shouted without hesitation.

The splendid, radiant Pure White Knight formed in front of Aiwass.

However, Aiwass did not expect Lily to react even faster—

She leaped silently from the shadow and landed on the ground without a sound.

Lily looked down at the seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy, wearing a straw hat and holding a clay pot, with anger burning in her eyes.

The boy, who had been kneeling and kowtowing like other passersby, suddenly raised the clay pot placed beside him and tried to smash it—the sense of crisis Aiwass felt emanated from here.

Obviously, Lily, as an Adapter, sensed the life-and-death crisis a moment earlier.

Lily appeared silently, snatching the water-filled clay pot from the boy's hands!

The boy was startled, bewilderedly looking up at Lily.

He was clearly just an ordinary person, not knowing the extent of Lily's strength.

However, it was precisely because he was a mortal without Path Power that he went unnoticed by others.

Yet, the boy quickly realized—he was discovered!

Thus, gritting his teeth, he attempted to punch the clay pot and smash it!

"Bind his limbs."

"Confuse his mind."

"Silence his tongue."

"Blind his senses."

But at this moment, four Snake-man Priests immediately raised the head lanterns at their waists and together cast curses.

Inside those lanterns were a finger and toe, a piece of heart and liver, a tongue, an ear, and an eye.

All these materials were fresh and dripping with blood.

In just a moment, these non-lethal curses stacked upon the boy.

—Broken hands, crippled feet, idiocy, berserk, silence, blindness, tinnitus…

He was instantly stripped of all ability to act amidst his agonizing screams, unable to even commit suicide or attack Lily.

"Stop."

Adil softly commanded.

Following his words, everyone stopped kowtowing and praising in unison.

Not a single noise was made, completing a synchronization akin to a horror movie.

Everyone maintained their position with hands on the ground, and simultaneously raised their heads to gaze at Aiwass.

"Our Lord above!"

Don Quixote, who appeared beside Aiwass, was full of rage and indifferent to others' views. Gripping the sword in his hand, he righteously shouted, "What a brutal rule!"

And Aiwass merely glanced at Adil and continued along Don Quixote's words, "We are not on the same path, Adil.

"To answer your previous question—I am Aiwass, the Hope of Aiwass, the new Benevolent Lord of Dawn City."

At the mention of the first name, Adil had no reaction. But upon hearing Dawn City, he surprisingly widened his eyes, becoming somewhat friendly.

"No matter, Aiwass."

Adil smiled, his demeanor deep and gentle like a Greek philosopher, "You have your path, and I have mine.

"The so-called 'proper path', 'right path', 'only path', such things do not exist. Even if we are not fellow travelers, we are at least not strangers as disciples of the Shepherd."

Shepherd…

Aiwass frowned slightly, scrutinizing Adil.

"I think," he calmly said, "the Shepherd does not wish for his strength to be used on mortals."

"How do you know he doesn't?"

Adil countered, "He was harmed by those fools and tyrants of the past, even having his name stripped by the Parthia King."

These… fools?

Aiwass was momentarily stunned, suddenly understanding the implication of Adil's words.

"…Shepherd, is a Parthian?"

He had always thought the Shepherd was Heracelian because Lancelot seemed to have met the Shepherd.

"The Shepherd was one-third of those punished with 'Punishment'."

Adil sarcastically remarked, "So much so that even his name cannot be known."

Only then did Aiwass sense a genuine emotional fluctuation from him—a mix of disdain and resentment. Like a fervent fan feeling the injustice of an idol's treatment.

—Punishment.

It was something Aiwass read in books while studying in Avalon, the most supreme punishment in the Parthian Ancient Country.

Only the Parthia King could authorize this supreme punishment.

For Parthians, it was a punishment more cruel than imprisonment and soul torment—completely erasing all traces of this person's existence.

Any record in books would be altered, his name erased or rewritten, leaving not a single original copy. Everything he did… whether good or bad, would be attributed to others. All his descendants and disciples would be killed, severing bloodline and intellectual succession, and all who knew him, including family, friends, siblings, or even wife, would have their memories erased, existence wiped, or be brainwashed and replaced with someone else.

Ultimately, no one would remember this person.

Through the ceremony… even the soul entering the River of the Dream Realm would forget its own name.

"Come to my palace, my brother. O Benevolent Lord who practices the Ring Principle… I will show you the only evidence of the Shepherd's existence. You should and have the right to know everything about the Shepherd. This is my reason for creating paradise."

Adil warmly invited, glancing at Lily, who was holding the clay pot, "By the way, seal that thing—you're welcome to help too."

"What is that?"

Aiwass glanced back at the clay pot.

For some reason, it no longer had that sense of deadly danger.

"That is the Amber Egg, a very dangerous thing. It must be continually sealed in seawater to keep it dormant, or it will awaken."

Adil casually replied, "I actually tracked it here following its traces, my Prophet told me it was here. It's the thing I lost some time ago, probably someone tried to use it to plan an assassination against me."

He downplayed the assassination attempt, not even asking Aiwass to return it first.

But Aiwass noticed another detail.

"...Amber Egg??"

"Yes, that's the egg of the Pillar God Amber. You know its value, right."

Adil nodded, quite proud of his collection, "Of course, just a stillbirth—a few decades ago, a Cardinal Archbishop tried to buy it from me, offering an exorbitant price, but I didn't sell it to her."

Cardinal Archbishop…

Aiwass remembered that the Cardinal Archbishops of the Relic Restoration Assembly numbered only three—Matilda, Galatea, and Aquina. Cannot be "her" except Matilda or Galatea. Judging by the time, perhaps it was Matilda.

"Did she just… leave it like that?"

Aiwass found it somewhat unreal.

That was something related to the Pillar God; shouldn't the Holy Nation acquire it at all costs?

He couldn't help but look back at the small clay pot, suddenly feeling an indescribable allure in it. Yet an overwhelming, irrational fear kept him from looking inside… or even getting close to it.

"They couldn't contain this Pillar God's stillbirth. Being part of the Dusk-cursed Ancient Race and daring to make such a demand, truly audacious."

Adil mocked with leisurely composure, "The Cardinal Archbishop just wanted to use it to prove Amber wasn't the God that was unborn… Hmph, what significance does that have?

"—We of the Ring People have long known, Amber was never a fetus within an egg."