Super Righteous Player-Chapter 1270 - 300: The Eternal Unchanging Is...

The body of the Twisted, when compared to the Noble False Body behind Annan, seemed so insignificant...

But in the moment before he touched Annan, his "shell" finally cracked open from the internal force within.

The serene moon-white radiance collided silently with Annan’s dazzling iridescent brilliance.

This was the interaction of the Power of Truth. Since its priority surpassed all mortal matter, it did not trigger an explosion.

Thus, where their powers clashed, no deafening noise erupted, nor was smoke or dust stirred. Only the surrounding world was twisted and rewritten by the forces of the two.

On the side near the Twisted, everything from buildings to the ground lost all color, as if bathed in bright moonlight... or rather, as if the contrast had been dialed up to its maximum. Apart from areas touched directly by the light, everything else turned into pitch-black shadows.

On the side near Annan, the world grew bright, as if it existed atop a radiant surface, its colors vivid and striking—clean, transparent, and luminous.

This was not merely a difference in "filters."

It was a fundamental transformation of the world’s laws on both sides.

On the side near the Twisted, time approached stasis, all things gravitated towards assimilation... the petals dancing in the air lost their color entirely, frozen in midair, entering a state of eternal suspension.

On the side near Annan, everything became vibrant and full of life. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

The petals surrounding Annan—those that had withered and dried—regained their fresh brilliance, while the fresh ones seemed to glisten with dew.

Annan naturally lacked the power to directly alter the world; he only controlled a quarter of the area around him... he could not restore the petals to their original states, but at least he could protect them from becoming "stagnant."

And the voice of the Twisted also changed dramatically.

The eunuch-like tone transformed, tinged with echoes and sharp metallic reverberations, becoming as grating as a voice modified by a distortion device.

"Not all players will fail, just as not all who are born must perish—"

A pure white demonic god emerged from the Twisted’s shell, swelling rapidly in size. It grew larger than the Noble False Body behind Annan—reaching a scale as tall as a five-story building.

Yet its form appeared extraordinarily slim.

Its visage was barely distinguishable, resembling the shape of a "Humble Vessel." It seemed to lack hair... or perhaps it was concealed by the crown atop its head. From the circumference of the crown, four white ribbons extended outward, shimmering with elegant radiance.

On these flowing ribbons, golden texts were inscribed, glowing faintly amidst the gigantic moon manifesting behind it.

Six slender arms stretched out from the void—one hand covered the Twisted’s eyes, a symmetrical hand sealed his mouth, while two hands hovered above and below his ears, their fingertips obstructing them. The last pair of hands rested upon his chest—one palm held a dice facing upward, while the other gently pinched a chess piece facing downward.

Beneath its human head, however, was not a human body.

Instead, it possessed the elongated, pristine body of a bird, resembling that of a white crane. It stood on one exceedingly slender leg, the other tucked under its abdomen.

Its wings, spreading wide to both sides, were oversized to the point of seeming grotesque—

Each feather was a curled petal. Some petals were still full, while others had withered, and on these petals appeared to be inscriptions.

These inscriptions were not the "names" of the petals, but rather endless repetitions of the symbol "8"... or to put it more plainly, the symbol of "infinity" itself.

The four ribbons danced freely in the void, whereas the petal-constructed wings remained utterly still.

This contradictory scene imparted an intensely eerie sensation.

From Annan’s perspective, those six arms seemed to stretch out from the lunar surface.

The crowned head, the jade-bodied bird with the visage of a man, blind to sight, deaf to sound, bereft of speech... the frozen petal wings, the flowing jade ribbons... and the massive moon.

To anyone who gazed upon it, their first reaction would invariably be the feeling of divinity.

—That is, so long as they couldn’t decipher the texts.

Through Annan’s [Understanding], he comprehended the content of those golden "sacred texts."

Indeed, they were ancient Elven runes, secretive symbols used by alchemists. These were the encrypted "secret words" with distinctive personal nuances, crafted by the earliest alchemists to safeguard their research from theft.

In principle, these texts were comprehensible only by the Twisted—even Salvatore, as a fellow alchemist, could not identify them.

Yet Annan’s Elemental Power of "Understanding" transcended intermediary reasoning, piercing directly into the essence of the secrets.

Just as he could decipher the language of plants and the earth, identifying the core meaning of the texts was but a trivial endeavor.

And the true content of those inscriptions—

—consisted of the hatred and regret the Twisted had meticulously stored within his heart over the years.

Every failure, every humiliation, every injury, every mistake... even insults hurled by others, blunders committed in gambles, and deviations in schemes from initial forecasts—all were etched into his memory.

The four flowing ribbons held these "records" in their entirety.

He had no intention of sharing them with anyone, nor did he ever plan to forget them.

In the vast "wings" formed by countless lives and the perpetual stasis of his surrounding realm... only these bygone "regrets" wiggled their tendrils, alive and vivid.

At this moment, the crane-headed bird began to flap its wings slowly.

Its voice transitioned, becoming gentle once again.

However, it had lost all sense of emotion, transforming into something akin to a celestial decree.

[—Indeed, I am the Immortal, and I am also the Eternal Victor]

These words followed the statements spoken before transforming into its demonic god form.

And that godlike resonance thundered through the void—

[With Wisdom as my wings, I soar through the heavens, gazing down upon the earth]

[Failure and regret are eternal, while triumph is but a fleeting glory]

[I will extend the brevity of triumph, amplify its glow, and stretch it into perpetuity]

—This is the "eternity" belonging to the Twisted.

If the probability of success were only one in a billion, then at the very instant of achievement, he would magnify it into eternity—replicating victory infinitely until it approached certainty.

Faced with this overwhelming disadvantage, Annan surprisingly smiled at this moment.

"I see. The Elemental Power you truly yearn for... is [Victory], isn’t it?"

Annan affirmed, "You think yourself the Eternal Victor and presume that victory’s essence will awaken within you.

"But you haven’t earned the acknowledgment of victory. Settling for less, you used ’eternity’ to attempt to grasp the victory you yearned for. Because you fundamentally don’t understand the essence of victory—

"You are still afraid, Atabanus. You continue to dread the possibility of your failure... it is precisely because of this fear of failure that you seek the Elemental Power of victory. And that is why you will never earn the recognition of Elemental Power.

"Even now, after I’ve taught you a lesson, you still fail to understand why courage matters.

"—Even the body of your demonic god is inscribed with words of escapism."

At the moment the Twisted raised his wings.

Annan saw the "other side" of those petals.

[Fear][Evasion][Wrath][Envy][Hatred][Arrogance][Sorrow][Regret]...

A tapestry of negative emotions covered the opposite side of the inscribed texts on the petals. Since they were concealed, only the "infinity" symbols were visible on the outer surface.

Like a cheat’s device, two sheets of paper stuck together back-to-back.

But in the instant the Twisted truly moved into action—

The truths he had labored so arduously to conceal instead surfaced for all to see.

Even now, at the very depth of his being... he remained the frightened, clumsy child, endlessly scheming, endlessly cheating.

Still unchanged.