Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 1345 Enduring the Lost Paradise!
Aiwas attacked before the leaders of the four elements could make a move—

He did not back down, nor did he attempt to defend himself.

His pupils suddenly contracted to their limit, and then pure white light seeped out from the whites of his eyes, causing light to shoot out of Aiwass's eye sockets, making him look like he had laser eyes.

Along with it, Aiwas's hair suddenly swelled and flew up, his muscles bulged, and his skin turned a somewhat frightening deep red... not the red caused by blood flowing through his body. It was more like the dark red light that seeped through the skin when you shield your hand from a strong flashlight.

Like a sun bursting into flames within me—

Aiwas squeezed his own power with his life, and his terrifying presence grew ever stronger.

—The Furnace of Nuclear Fusion!
When preparing for crucial battles, Aiwass often burns cards a day in advance to summon a sufficiently powerful Beast of Sin. This way, by the next day... once the cooldowns of the other Phantom Cards have finished, he can use them again.

The great beast of sin he chose to summon ahead of time was none other than the Great Sun Lia!
Unlike other Beasts of Great Sin, Lia and Aiwas share some of the same materials. That's why Yulia instinctively trusted and was close to Aiwas, while showing obvious resistance and distance towards everyone else.

This is why the fully awakened Lia doesn't have a "travel form." Outside of combat, she can directly slumber within Aiwass's soul, providing him with power. This allows Aiwass to use all of Lia's power, albeit at only one-third of its intensity.

Even considering the buffs that burning cards provides to the Great Sin Cards, and the 333% damage buff from the Furnace of the Core... Aiwass's attack is no less than the normal output of the Flame Butterfly!
Aiwas raised his right hand, and a torrent of blazing white flames surged forth!

—Guide the flame stream!
The explosive heat instantly dried, melted, and crystallized the earth.

Air was expelled from beneath Aiwass, and the shockwave caused by the mere expansion of the heated atmosphere ripped the surrounding ground away. The distant grasslands were instantly ignited by the howling heat and burned to ashes in the blink of an eye.

This probing attack alone was enough to cause visible damage to the Avatar.

...That's how it should be.

However, the astronauts remained unfazed.

He didn't even raise his hands to try to resist; he simply used his chest to receive the stream of flames.

At this moment, however, He still had his arms outstretched, looking completely calm and composed.

To make it even clearer for Aiwass to hit Him, "Circle Celestial" even changed his originally slightly outstretched hands to wide open ones. He even comfortably tilted his head back, like Andy in "The Shawshank Redemption" bathing in the rain, or like Rose in "Titanic" with her arms outstretched as she greeted the sunset.

After a few seconds of charging, the guiding flame suddenly became several times thicker and more intense.

Originally, it was slightly wider than a basketball, but now it has expanded to the point where it can completely engulf the Celestial Astronomical Union.

Yet it was still clear that the heat had not harmed Him in the slightest.

Just then, the four elemental kings captured by the "Circle Celestials" launched a counterattack against Aiwass!

In an instant——

The earth is shaking and the mountains are shaking.

Countless earth spikes emerged from beneath Aiwass.

They are not ordinary rocks or soil spikes, but pure gold!
However, under the influence of the "miracle" power, the attacks that were originally aimed at Aiwass and should have been able to pierce him instantly all failed.

By sheer coincidence, they collided with each other and then just missed each other. This allowed Aiwass to stand motionless, yet remain completely unharmed!

Even so, these giant golden spikes formed a cage.

Immediately afterwards, under an invisible force, these golden spikes, which were over ten meters tall, instantly deformed and suddenly clamped down on the center!

However, they were instantly melted before they could even get close to the incandescent flames that Aiwass was guiding.

After failing to inflict any damage on the Cosmos for a long time, Aiwass also began to have doubts.

...Could it be because He set the distance between Himself and the attack to be infinite?

In that case, it would even be questionable whether an attack could reach Him!
But can He do such a thing?
So he tentatively changed the direction of the stream of flame.

The stream of flame that shot out from Aiwas's right index finger was like a giant lightsaber—

It sliced ​​through the golden cage in an instant, and Aiwass calmly flew out of it.

It was only three swords.

Before the Wind Elemental King could even make a move, he was sliced ​​into six pieces by the scorching lightsaber and suddenly disintegrated into a mass of green elemental blocks.

The aftershocks swept across the earth, instantly splitting it in two; they swept across distant mountains, cleaving them in two.

The water elemental king, who looked somewhat similar to Yuan Tiansi and resembled a whale-headed fish-man, and was as massive as a mountain, wielded his trident and channeled extremely cold freezing air.

From the trident, a dark stream of water, emitting a chilling white vapor, rushed toward Aiwass!

However, it was not a stream of cold water, but air that had been instantly liquefied by the cold air.

Aiwas swung the blazing white lightsaber and slashed at it.

When the flames met the freezing air, an extremely violent explosion occurred. A shockwave followed, sending up plumes of gray smoke.

With a calm flap of his white wings, Aiwass soared through the air at breakneck speed—this was also why Aiwass had to prioritize killing the Wind Elemental King. He would indeed cause Aiwass some trouble.

Now, it is indeed a difficult task for the Water Elemental King to use his freezing air to pursue Aiwass.

It was as if He was wielding a high-pressure water gun; the water that missed its target sank to the ground under the influence of gravity. The liquefied air sank, touched the ground, and released cold air, instantly freezing and crystallizing the previously heated ground, turning the area into an ice field.

At the same time, pillars made of gold spikes mixed with obsidian continued to rise, making the scene resemble a dilapidated ancient Roman temple.

The King of Water Elementals also consciously used the cold air shooting from his hands to resist the flames—which seemed to be able to withstand the "light sword" that was powerful enough to sever the King of Water Elementals' body.

But after only three collisions, it was completely unable to catch up with Aiwass. Only two seconds had passed since Aiwass took off. The Water Elemental King had already completed a full circle.

Finally, Aiwass flew behind Him and split Him vertically from bottom to top in two, causing the Water Elemental King's body to explode instantly!
Then came the downward severing of the Earth Elemental King. His vitality was so great that Aiwass had to deliver four more blows to finally kill him.

Strangely enough, even though the Fire Elemental King's mind had been corrupted by nothingness, he still did not take any action.

He simply stared intently at Aiwass, remaining motionless.

...Is it because of Yan Tiansi?

The thought popped into Aiwass's mind.

He tentatively swung the Flame Stream Sword again. The flames entered His body but caused no harm whatsoever.

Just like when attacking the Celestial Division.

"--I see."

Evans immediately understood the principle behind the "invincibility mechanism" of the Cosmos Astronauts—

That's elemental resistance.

As the creator of the four elements of wind, earth, water, and fire, the Observatory of the Heavenly Spheres has absolute authority in this regard.

The theoretical foundation that Geometry Celestials used to construct the Analytical Cannon was the Ultimate Spell: Paradise Lost, invented by Ring Celestials, concerning "infinity and multiplication." The core of the cycle, used to create spells other than runic magic, was also the "transformation of the four elements" controlled by Ring Celestials. By obtaining only fragments of Geometry Celestials, Aiwass gained the authority to "control the four elemental domains."

As the true creator of the four elements, "Endless Knot Ai Shiping" is the genuine Emperor of the Elements—

The elemental spells developed based on His power could not possibly harm Him in the slightest!
"but……"

The white wings behind Aiwass suddenly unfurled.

Pure white, light gold, and dark gold—three interlocking rings emerged from the void behind Aiwas. From the outer ring to the inner ring, they began to rotate in the order of extremely slow clockwise, extremely fast counterclockwise, and relatively slow clockwise, rapidly overlapping and converging at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"—Paradise Lost!"

Seeing this, the Celestial Division's expression also suddenly became serious.

Besides its "infinite" power, Paradise Lost has another easily overlooked characteristic: it can strip away the enemy's corresponding attribute resistance based on the proportion of mana attribute used to activate Paradise Lost—a total of 66%.

Before being amplified to 66% across all attributes by [Darkness of Hatred], the 66% resistance reduction across all six attributes of "Paradise Lost" in White Wing form wasn't particularly impressive.

However, for enemies with maxed-out resistance, this slight reduction in resistance is precisely the dividing line between "being able to deal damage" and "not being able to deal damage".

It's the difference between "possible" and "impossible"!

Faced with the attack from Paradise Lost, the "Circular Astronauts" finally made their move.

The Celestial Observatory naturally knows this move as well. His knowledge of it is equivalent to that of the Whispers of the Void.

However, the Whispers of the Void knew something else—Aivas' Paradise Lost could be used twice.

He can reduce the cooling of Paradise Lost by "redeeming the Great Sin." In a sense, this means having the Beast of Great Sin bear the "infinite" backlash for Aiwass.

However, the Celestial Chief did not have a companion to share his fate and bear the burden of his sins.

This means that His own Paradise Lost can only be used once.

Rather than offsetting the first Paradise Lost, and then enduring six more Great Sin Redemptions with one's own body to gain six more enhanced attributes, it would be better to forcefully take the first Paradise Lost first.

However, the Celestial Bureau also knew that it was best to avoid eating this stuff if possible.

The ultimate spell that can kill the Descendant Celestials with a single shot is an attack with "infinite" power—the spell that "turns the cycle into infinity" developed by the Celestials using the "Ouroboros" as inspiration. Even he himself dares not face it casually.

And so the Celestial Observatory finally moved.

He slowly walked forward.

With each step he took, he left a trail of shadow in the same spot.

It's like shooting with time-lapse photography—

That is using the power of "infinity" to divide oneself into each moment.

Each afterimage gained its own life the instant it appeared, becoming an avatar that was infinitely close to the real one.

Whether it's its appearance or the terrifying pressure it exudes, it's no different from the real Celestial Division!
It was just "one" enemy before... but in just a moment, it immediately turned into seven or eight, a dozen or more, and even more over time!

However, despite this difficult situation, Aiwass, who was guiding Paradise Lost, was not particularly nervous.

Instead, I felt relieved.

Whether it's the Celestials' overzealous defensive measures or His deliberate decision to leave one of Paradise Lost's uses unused... it all means that the Celestials actually takes Paradise Lost's power quite seriously.

This means that the Cosmos Corporation was afraid.

This also corroborates one thing—that the "infinite" power held by the Celestial Bureau is not actually absolutely infinite, but at most "close to infinite"!
Just as when Paradise Lost and the Analytical Cannon clash, they cancel each other out.

As a replica of Paradise Lost, the Analytical Cannon is clearly inferior to the real Paradise Lost. However, infinity is incomparable to infinity—so although only one beam came into contact with Paradise Lost, the state of neutralization was exactly the same as when the Fallen Angels used Paradise Lost.

If the power of the Celestials is truly "infinite," then Paradise Lost cannot inflict any effective damage on Him. Similarly, if His elemental resistance is also "infinite," then after Paradise Lost deducts a percentage from it, it should still be infinite—so from any perspective, He has no reason to fear Paradise Lost.

Perhaps it's the pollution of nothingness that has led to the deterioration of concepts, or perhaps it's simply because the concept of "infinity" in the Celestial Sphere is primarily "limitless" rather than "infinitely large"—

but no matter……

All of this means that this sure-hit blow will cause irreversible and enormous damage to the Celestial Division!

The next moment, the three magic arrays interlocked, indicating that Paradise Lost had completed its power accumulation.

Countless golden rays of light coalesced and transformed into sharp blades of light descending from the sky, streaking across the heavens like meteors!
—As the developer of this spell, the Celestials were certainly aware of the power of Paradise Lost.

When Paradise Lost begins to gather its power, all spells are nullified and disintegrated, becoming part of its infinite power; but once it has been unleashed, it is impossible to defeat it by blasting it with a light cannon...

Therefore, the Observatory chose to take a different approach.

After creating numerous clones, His true form began to constantly teleport short distances, trying to draw the firepower of Paradise Lost. Each time He disappeared, He left behind a clone capable of withstanding damage—thus Paradise Lost could never accurately locate Him.

The remaining clones then entered the portals that appeared like ouroboros.

—Then he was suddenly teleported in front of Aiwass!

They didn't use any magic; instead, they directly attacked Aiwass with their resilient bodies, which were at the level of celestial beings, using their fists, fingers, palms, and blades!
Paradise Lost destined them to have a trajectory.

Even if it means being instantly shattered by Paradise Lost, we must still inflict damage on Aiwas!

If Aiwass were trying to evade their attacks or launch a preemptive counterattack, then they would have interrupted the unstoppable Paradise Lost; but if Aiwass insisted on maintaining Paradise Lost, they could at least launch one last attack on Aiwass before being killed by Paradise Lost!
This is precisely the strategy of "besieging Wei to rescue Zhao"!
But just then, a dim, yellowish light suddenly appeared on the horizon—

The entire world has turned black, white, and gray.

Aiwass has finally summoned his beast of sin!
Gluttony Star

"—Inanna!"

Aiwas called out.

[Effect: When Inanna enters the field, she applies the "End of Civilization" status to all enemies.]

[End of Civilization: Advanced "Petrification," with the same effect as petrification, and reduces defense and resistance by 33% while in effect. "Petrification" is automatically applied when this effect is removed.]

The colors of the Celestial Sphere and its other avatars were completely stripped away—with the blessing of many Dao characteristics, Inanna, who obtained the Celestial Sphere fragment as an amplification, had an energy level sufficient to break through the Celestial Sphere's priority resistance!
They maintained their stance as they were about to strike Aiwass, but were sealed in mid-air at the last moment.

People were still being teleported to the ground, but they were frozen as soon as they appeared.

In the entire world, only Aiwas and the Paradise Lost behind him were a dim yellow.

That dim, yellowish Paradise Lost looked like a giant clock face—the Paradise Lost, tinted dim yellow by that filter, was still operating normally, unilaterally annihilating those "Circum-Sky Controllers" who were frozen, stopped in time, and frozen in place!
The number of those "circum-astronomical bureaus" is ultimately limited.

After they were picked off one by one, all the remaining "meteors" of Paradise Lost crashed down on the Celestial Guardians, who had been petrified and weakened by the "End of Civilization"!
(End of this chapter)