Ch.187Arguilion (2)

The White Light expanded the otherworld to its extreme limit, integrating himself as part of it. A single magical formula containing all creation.

The ancient elders took the opposite approach. They reduced the otherworld to its extreme limit, equating it with themselves. The will they imbued in magic was ultimate reduction. They compressed all the magic they had comprehended into their single body and deployed it.

Expansion and reduction—yet the core principle remained the same: becoming the master of a providence independent from the basic world.

If one were to judge the superiority between these magical formulas, the White Light’s might be considered superior in scale, but the ancient elders’ formulas were no less sophisticated in their intricacy than the White Light’s craftsmanship.

The combined attack of the ancient elders, who dwelled in the most profound depths of magic, was a realm that even the Arguillion dared not approach. Now, with even the fundamental compatibility of mana restoration diminished, the Arguillion found themselves in an unprecedented crisis.

The Arguillion facing the ancient elders knew this fact better than anyone. But the Arguillion believed in Haltos, their chairman who had continuously confronted the great thief.

Haltos assessed the situation coolly. This was the decisive battle. By whatever means, if they could obtain just one of the Ten Artifacts, it would be their victory. Haltos decided to use the final measure.

Eidolon.

***

Ortes had already argued before the White Light, “Do you believe in Eidolon?” The argument Ortes presented then was closer to a falsehood meant to buy even a second of time from the White Light.

That was Ortes’s own assessment.

But Ortes’s falsehood had unknowingly touched upon a truth. The betrayal of Eidolon.

The leader of the Eidolon (εἴδωλον) observers was called the Celestial Observatory Master. One who measures the future by observing other dimensions through the gaps in the dimensional wall—the stars.

It was also the role of tracking the remnant echoes of the Demon King. Those who shouldered the clandestine work of Eidolon were briefed on the Ten Towers’ first secret due to their duties, and could only be deployed after undergoing thorough ideological education.

In other words, they were essentially vaccinated against the most lethal means of making them join the Arguillion’s “cause.” This was why the Ten Towers predicted that no traitors would emerge from within Eidolon.

However, the Demon King had already gradually dismantled a group that possessed absolute authority where betrayal seemed impossible. The weakening of the Divine Life Order through mental parasites.

The methodology that systematically dismantled the Order—the most formidable group before the advent of the Ten Towers—could also be applied as a time bomb to dismantle the Ten Towers.

Nastion knew he was a being arranged for such a purpose. Originally, he belonged to the class of servants that the Demon King commanded, like Adusiam.

In the Demon King’s final moment, the thought he injected into the Ten Artifacts was also a disguise for Nastion’s creation. As the Demon King’s body faced death, he outwardly inscribed his thoughts into the Ten Artifacts while simultaneously weaving the remnants of two servants, Naberion and Stibon, into a new servant in an instant.

The thoughts inherent in the Ten Artifacts outwardly appear to aim for resurrection by usurping the bodies of the Tower Lords. However, the true role of these thoughts was to protect the Ten Artifacts.

To ensure that those who inherited the Ten Artifacts without spreading the Demon King’s truth would maintain silence. To make the infinite wisdom dormant within the Ten Artifacts appear more tempting.

To ensure that the beacon calling the Demon King from beyond the other dimension would be eternally inherited.

The true duty assigned to these thoughts was to fan the dark greed of magicians. The Tower Lords, priding themselves on “I have even overthrown the Demon King’s thoughts!” would nurture their greed for the Ten Artifacts.

The ancient elders and the White Light noticed this trap, but they didn’t care. They believed that once they reached the realm equal to the Demon King—ascension—such traps would be meaningless.

That arrogant indifference was a mistake. While they noticed the trap of thoughts, they failed to detect Nastion’s covert operations.

Nastion was assigned the role of waiting at the boundary between the other dimension and the world. That’s why Nastion’s essence took the form of a shadow.

His shadowy body, undulating like mist, obscured the celestial phenomena that Eidolon observed. While it couldn’t cover all regions of the other dimension, it could distort the light in places observed by some parts of Eidolon.

It was a darkness that seduced the Celestial Observatory.

This was why Nastion, while fundamentally similar to the mental parasites of Algoth City, possessed no terminal body. Not a being that lives by parasitizing the mind, but a being created to beguile the mind.

Complete domination of others is merely inefficient. One only needs to occupy a corner of the mind and release an appropriate amount of doubt when necessary. The more accurately one tries to observe Nastion to perfectly read the celestial phenomena, the more people fall into truth and cause.

Showing the truth to Eidolon’s observers while simultaneously whispering the cause. Showing the sins of the Ten Towers under undeniable reality.

Conversely, also showing the utopia that would be reached if they aided the Demon King’s return. The future of this world where a paradise from another realm would descend.

The dark nebula, which had been Eidolon’s main observation target for the past several decades, was Nastion’s first essence—a time bomb installed in the Ten Towers.

And when the Golden Desert Operation failed and the elite agents of Blasphemia fell into the other dimension, Nastion’s second essence activated.

Just as the world is agitated when the magic power of the other dimension is injected into the world, when something is ejected from the world into the other dimension, it creates ripples in the other dimension.

When the size of these ripples exceeds a certain level, Nastion collects them and recreates them as vanguards for the Creator’s descent.

This was why the former Blasphemia agents, who would have originally drifted in the other dimension before being ejected back to their original world, all became infiltrators and turned into Arguillion.

In a world where Ortes had not met Baek Mu-myeong, Baek would have killed most of the Blasphemia agents. Even if it hadn’t led to their deaths, without Ortes’s scheme, the Golden Desert Operation wouldn’t have ended with an unprecedented number of drifters.

The Blasphemia agents thrown into the other dimension by Ortes’s machinations caused a disturbance large enough to awaken Nastion, who reborn them as vanguards of the cause.

Nastion’s first role was to install a trap to collapse the Ten Towers from within. The second role was to cultivate vanguards to protect the Creator’s descent.

The reason he didn’t just stop at cultivating vanguards but also divided his essence and attached it in the form of shadows was due to some ineradicable error in the vanguards.

The fear of the “adversary” that they couldn’t overcome despite receiving the blessing of the cause. Nastion, who wanted to transform the Arguillion into the most perfect soldiers, couldn’t wash away their abnormal obsession with the adversary.

It was a shadow entity dispatched to correct their unique irrationality by serving as an advisor, but after Nastion himself directly experienced that adversary, his thoughts changed.

It was indeed a being to be feared.

Thanks to having a body when entering this world, Nastion also learned unintended emotions like fear, dread, and bewilderment—mainly because of Ortes—but there weren’t only side effects.

He could slip into anywhere using his formless body. How many public opinion manipulations had he contributed to by becoming nameless crowds spreading rumors?

By combining the spatial distortion ability he possessed as a being of the other dimension with the qualities of his shadow body, he could even connect the shadows between two specific targets.

The pair of shadows Nastion designated were those of Haltos and the Celestial Observatory Master. He could move from Haltos’s shadow to the Celestial Observatory Master’s shadow, and vice versa. The information that the Tower Lord hadn’t moved despite the death of Talo from the Iron Tower was also obtained from the Celestial Observatory Master.

The ability to hide in others’ shadows and engage in clandestine conversations was also the link between the Arguillion and Eidolon.

The Celestial Observatory Master’s response that the force to be deployed to the Ten Towers expedition would be “as much as possible” was also a result of Nastion’s intervention. A trap prepared to maximize the success rate of the Ten Artifacts usurpation plan.

Eidolon, which was originally supposed to assist the Ten Towers’ interdimensional navigation, subtly hinders the expedition’s advance. In response, the Arguillion transforms the dimensional gate being constructed at the main base into a trap.

The Arguillion main force’s entry into the expedition is slowed, and even if they arrive, they get caught in the trap, increasing the time it takes to return.

“If at this point we divert Eidolon’s capabilities from hindering the expedition to securing the Ten Artifacts, the expedition’s return might accelerate.”

“The expedition’s advance has already been delayed. Even if they attempt an immediate return, we’ll be faster in getting our hands on Nokmok.”

One more sentence was added to eliminate Nastion’s hesitation.

“…If we spend more time dealing with those decrepit elders, we don’t know when Ortes might appear.”

After the clash with Ortes, Nastion fully trusted Haltos’s strategic insight.

Nastion seeped into Haltos’s shadow and headed towards the Celestial Observatory Master.