Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"Faithless Celestial, huh?"

Eren murmured to himself as he pondered over Azurea's words.

Indeed, he had no interest in becoming a Faithless Celestial and forging a lone path for himself—it simply wasn't necessary for him.

But what about his subordinates and female companions?

Even if he boosted their powers using various Blessings, it wouldn't be enough if they faced an opponent a whole Rank higher than them. The Rank suppression alone would negate all the advantages his Blessings could provide.

Eren didn't know how to create Faith-based God Sparks that he could bestow upon his believers and companions. Even if he did, he couldn't mass-produce and distribute them among so many of his subordinates.

First of all, he was still a Demigod, and he was certain that he wouldn't be able to create Faith-based God Sparks until he became an Immortal himself.

"A long enough lifespan for comprehending the Worldly Laws and an evolution—so these are the requirements for achieving SSS-Rank," Eren summarized the new information in his head, finding it logical.

***

Of course, the butcher understood that a long lifespan wasn't necessarily a requirement for SSS-Rank. As long as one could communicate with the Creation and transform their Elemental Attainments into Worldly Laws, they would meet one of the prerequisites.

However, the comprehension process itself took an immense amount of time, even for the most talented beings. This wasn't something one could accelerate through sheer hard work or by consuming various elixirs.

There were limits to everything, and some things simply required time to unfold.

Of course, Eren could overcome this hurdle by utilizing his pseudo avatars. But how could any other regular Ranker pull this off?

The butcher could only form avatars using his unique powers along with an Immortal Artifact. It was nearly impossible for others to achieve what he could—unless they were someone like the Sansara Sage.

To be honest, even the Sansara Sage struggled with this hurdle. Despite having successfully created nearly flawless clones of himself, he faced numerous challenges when it came to assimilating the comprehension gained from them.

Essentially, the insights Lin Lehan received from his clones weren't in perfect harmony with each other.

He wanted a straightforward summation where 1+1+1+1 equaled 4, but in reality, he could only derive 1.5 as the end result. The rest of the comprehension was effectively lost in translation.

While this method still yielded better results than relying solely on oneself to deepen elemental comprehension, the loss of comprehension made it inefficient.

This was why the Sansara Sage continued researching souls and clones, even after making significant progress in those fields. He sought to refine his clones, making them more efficient in comprehending Elemental Attainments on his behalf.

Of course, the Sansara Sage still needed more time to fine-tune his cloning techniques. He had created an Origin Clone that was far better than any other regular cloning or even homunculus techniques still being used in Labh Salem and Anfang. However, there were still many issues with it.

So when Nira Nightshade informed him about the existence of a cloning technique far superior to his own, he became obsessed with tracking down one of Eren's clones.

However, the Sansara Sage wasn't relying solely on cloning techniques to achieve a breakthrough into SSS-Rank. Though he was still uncertain, he had vaguely sensed that a human's original Existential Concept was the key barrier preventing them from breaking through.

The base template needed to change if he wanted a different model that was more accommodating to a higher realm of power than the racial limit.

An evolution was necessary to surpass that limitation.

As a result, the Sansara Sage also delved into bloodline research, experimenting with the creation of a new species of humans. One of the reasons he created Maya and granted her free will was so that she and others like her could help him overcome this barrier.

As the true legacy holder of the Sansara Sage, Eren was aware of many things. This was one of the reasons he dedicated much of his time in Labh Salem to creating and maintaining pseudo avatars.

To be honest, using clones to meet the SSS-Rank requirement was akin to cheating. And deceiving the "Creation" was no simple feat.

While Creation had granted free will to all beings, it did not easily allow any individual to wield more power than they were naturally meant to.

It was up to the individual to prove themselves worthy. Only by doing so would Creation permit them to defy its Universal Mandate.

However, Eren's pseudo avatars were fundamentally different from the Sansara Sage's clones. Even though he was not a True Immortal, he could create clones that closely resembled an Immortal's Avatars. As a result, Eren could experience an almost absolute harmony among his pseudo avatars' elemental compressions.

This was a breakthrough the Sansara Sage could never achieve with his current setup, no matter how hard he tried. There wasn't a problem with his intellect or hard work in the field. In fact, Sansara Sage was more talented in this field than Eren because of his longer experience and crazier dedication.

The limitations came from the fact that he was still a mana practitioner that was far away from the concept of the divine.

Not to mention, without an Immortal Artifact, the Sansara Sage was not like the demigod Eren, who could walk the fine line between being an enlightened mortal and an Immortal.

One could say that, in this department, Eren had already surpassed the Sansara Sage. A student had surpassed his master without the latter's knowledge.

Of course, even without knowing anything about Eren or the actual requirements for the SSS-Rank, Sansara Sage was well aware of his own limitations.

The reason he had decided to steal the witches' Immortal Artifact was that he wanted to overcome those limitations.

***

Azurea and Marina were unaware of Eren's true background at this point.

They had no idea that their discussion had helped him solve some of the greatest puzzles he had been struggling with.

What Azurea had intended as intimidation had, in reality, benefited Eren in numerous ways.

Only time would tell how many lives would be shaped by Eren's hands for their better or worse—all because Azurea had attempted to frighten him into submission, or rather, forced cooperation.

===

AN: Sansara Sage's Origin Clone is mentioned in Chapter 1809. In the same chapter, he also learns about Eren's pseudo avatars from Nira Nightshade. In Chapter 1810, he decides to steal the Elder Seed Artifact from Labh Salem's Witch Association.