Negary was surprised when he saw the abrupt burst of flames as well.
This level of attack was definitely not something Eternal Heat would be able to unleash without time to accumulate power. Evidently, when Eternal Heat acted like he wanted to burn The Unreachable Gate earlier, it was actually a ruse. The Unreachable Gate had actually helped Eternal Heat obscure his attack to accumulate power in another aspect of reality.
Negary didn’t notice any of this at all, which made him even more cautious against the Seven Gods, as any number of them might be cooperating to deceive you.
The Unreachable Gate was indeed stopping the attack for Red Tears, since they had made a deal. As long as he helped her during this occasion, regardless of whether or not Red Tears would obtain the Divine Artifact, she would still give up a bit of Source Energy for him.
At the same time, The Unreachable Gate was also helping Eternal Heat. While blocking Eternal Heat’s attack, he was also silently guiding its power to another aspect of reality and obscured it, these two acts did not contradict one another.
By cooperating with both sides in a struggle, he benefited from them both, The Unreachable Gate could truly be said to be the slyest fox among the Righteous Gods.
The mass of flames had converged to their limits, manifesting as a golden arrow. By simply gazing at this arrow, one would feel like their mind was being caught on fire and would instinctively turn away as if the sun shined straight into their eyes.
It was common knowledge that the shape of something also carried Principles. For example, sharp objects tended to be more damaging compared to rounded ones, this was an easily understood surface-level Principle, so when objects were in a certain shape, they would naturally carry a level of power.
A more advanced example would be Negary’s image, which had gradually gained power as Negary’s existence continued to evolve. One example was during his time at the SCR world when he created the parallel worlds, the mere act of appearing in a parallel world with his true form would have caused it to collapse. At this point in time, if someone obtained a mundane image or sculpture of his true form, they would still be able to obtain a certain level of power from it.
This golden arrow was the same, while its form wasn’t particularly complicated, it was this exact form that was somehow able to concentrate the power of the flames to their limits.
Negary attempted to draw the shape of this arrow in his mind, but the form in his mind didn’t contain any power.
〖 So it’s exclusive? 〗
Negary’s mind associated this with the coordinates of a Greater Realm. Without a catalyst, a set of coordinates wouldn’t be able to do anything but exist as a bit of useless information, and the shape of this arrow seemed to also be the same. Without a catalyst, this shape itself wasn’t extraordinary.
〖 Compared to these Righteous Gods who come from Greater Realms, I’m still lacking a lot 〗
Negary once again recognized his shortcomings. Having never gone to a Greater Realm before, he lacked information, and these Righteous Gods might be able to take advantage of this difference in information to strike him down without him being able to do anything about it.
This golden arrow was most likely only part of it, they surely had even more means that they hadn’t revealed.
[Infallible Golden Arrow]
Eternal Heat’s attention focused on the arrow, which was a treasure that he frequently used. It had the ability to accumulate power within a small area and carried the ‘infallible’ property that always hit its target. Without a corresponding property to counteract it, a target would have no choice but to take this attack head-on.
Although Mequik had assumed that there would be an ambush, she didn’t expect for it to be the golden arrow. This could also be considered to be a Divine Artifact, but the Scion of Life’s Divine Artifact was created from their own Pathway, while the golden arrow was an object that was imbued with Principles through other means. Comparatively, the Scion of Life’s Divine Artifact was more precious since it was related to the concept of ‘Life’.
The fact that Eternal Heat had used the golden arrow meant that the Divine Artifact was actually here, and if someone managed to take this manifested arrow, they would also obtain the actual Divine Artifact.
Having been burnt by Eternal Heat’s flames previously, if Mequik were to be hit by this golden arrow, her real body would also be forced into slumber for a while, unable to accomplish many things.
『 He actually dares to gamble like this! 』
『 The difference between us isn’t that great 』
Mequik silently sighed. Even though the two of them were essentially equals, the one who definitively ranked #1 among the Righteous Gods was definitely Eternal Heat, and not her.
The golden arrow wasn’t flying particularly fast, but it wasn’t slow either, heading straight towards Mequik’s body.
Right at this moment, Mequik’s body abruptly divided into two. This division wasn’t just the creation of a clone, but rather it was her existence that had split apart. Both of them were Mequik, and from the standpoint of essence, they were exactly the same.
If a Divine Artifact like the golden arrow could be evaded by creating a clone, it wouldn’t be considered a Divine Artifact at all. The arrow would still hit the clone, but the effect of the attack would be transferred to the original.
For that reason, Mequik had split herself into two individual Mequik. Both of them were Mequik, and both of them could be struck by the golden arrow, but the effect would not be interchangeably transferred.
This type of complete self-replication could only be achieved by an entity with a profound understanding and usage of the Principles of Life.
The golden arrow struck one of the two Mequik without pause while the other Mequik appeared next to Lisa and touched the Divine Artifact inside her. As the original owner, she easily reformed her connection with the artifact since her consciousness was still imbued inside it.
Red Tears and Eulogy of the Ocean Depths were still stuck in a tug of war. At this point, they were essentially holding onto two ends of a rubber band, whoever let go first would heavily injure the other party. Even if they couldn’t obtain the Divine Artifact, it would still be great if they could heavily injure the other party, and it was because Mequik saw this opportunity that she showed herself once again despite knowing that there was an ambush.
Right as Mequik was about to take the Divine Artifact out of Lisa’s body, a ray of energy abruptly shot out of thin air and struck Mequik; it was actually two rays of different energy spiraling around a golden bead.
As her body began to collapse, she glanced at Negary and disappeared into broken particles with a smile, the golden flames burning her body also disappeared.
It was as if The Unreachable Gate didn’t care who he cooperated with, as Negary’s attack was also guided into a different aspect of reality and obscured by him, then released again at this exact moment.
The price that Negary had to pay was information regarding one of the aspects of reality that The Unreachable Gate didn’t know about, in exchange for him hiding one of Negary’s [Ray of Obliteration].
This preparation was only made for good measures since information regarding one aspect of reality wasn’t much to Negary, and helping Negary hide one attack wasn’t much to The Unreachable Gate. After all, before The Unreachable Gate could completely overwhelm another party, he wouldn’t be able to achieve victory, so as long as anyone could pay an appropriate price, he would gladly provide them support with great credibility.
As for why Negary attacked Mequik, it was out of her own request. Everything that she had displayed so far led to the other Righteous Gods believing that the Scion of Life’s Divine Artifact was actually inside Lisa’s body, otherwise, Mequik had no reason to pay such a heavy price to retrieve it.
