Enlightenment
2641 Words
Eldrin nodded vigorously and ran back to his room. But judging by his excitement, he would probably not be able to sleep tonight. Smiling and shaking his head, Eldrin took the magic lamp and climbed up to the attic.
The attic was usually piled high with junk, but it was swept clean. Elaine moved one of the boxes to reveal a small altar behind it. The altar was made of stone, and the base was outlined with intricate magical formations in delicate and precise brushwork. Only the place where the idol should have been placed was now empty.
Elaine carefully cleaned the altar, scrubbing every last bit of dust from it. Only then did she stand up, her gaze falling on a thick book lying casually on a nearby chest. The book was surprisingly thick, nearly a thousand pages, as big as four copies of an ordinary spellbook, and weighing at least a dozen kilograms. The bronze cover shone brightly and was immaculate, obviously having been flipped through many times. Elaine was struck by the fact that she hadn't touched it in a long time, so obviously Eldrin was reading it. She just hadn't realized that the little guy had read it so many times and with such vigor.
Elaine went over and reached out to open it. Her fingers were long and beautiful, several orders of magnitude beyond her appearance. More than once the men of the village had privately commented on her hands.
The cover of the book was cast in real bronze, rough and cold, radiating the heaviness of age. Elaine knew that within the bronze, scattered like stars, were hundreds of crystal particles that, when excited simultaneously, formed a miniature altar through which the user could even hear the voice of the Moon Goddess, Elucia, if he or she was pious and powerful enough!
On the title page, written in beautiful ancient Elvish, was a long poem in praise of the Moon Goddess Elucia. To this day, Elaine remembered every syllable of that hymn. Elaine flipped through the pages casually, the textured pages running through her fingers like flowing water, with either large passages of Elvish text or a vivid illustration. Unlike the human canon, only a small portion of its contents consisted of the teachings of the Moon God, but there were many deeds of the Moon Goddess Elucia before she became a god. Therefore, in addition to the continent of Norland, it also contains content from many other continents, even the otherworldly realms. Little Eldrin probably saw it as a book of landscape and geography, and that's why he read it with great interest.
This large book, which was nothing out of the ordinary except for its thickness, was once the most precious treasure of the Elven Royal Court, the Holy Scripture of the Moon Goddess Elucia.
There were actually seven other divine arts unique to the Moon Goddess recorded in the Holy Canon, but only those who were recognized by the Goddess could see and use them. And at that time, she could use five of them. Other than the Great Druid of the Royal Court, she was the priest who had the most divine arts. That meant power and the approval of the goddess. But now, even at great cost, there was only one divine art that she could inspire, still with the power of the sacred text itself.
Seven divine arts flowed like water through her mind.
"Elucia's Destiny Divine Art: Enlightenment;
"Eloisia's Favor Divine Art: Healing;
"Eloisia's Wrath" Divine Art: Sanction;
"Sword of Elucia" Divine Art: Silver Moon Armor;
"Eloisia's Will" Divine Art: Judgment.
There are also two Divine Arts, one of which is the "Heart of Elucia" Divine Art, which she was unable to master: Foresight.
The seventh divine art, on the other hand, is simply recorded in the scriptures, but no one has ever been able to use it, which is the "Elucia's Daze" divine art: Dark Side of the Moon.
Elaine placed her hand on the scripture, silently feeling the touch of holiness that remained in it. The fifth moon was currently hanging in the middle of the sky, and the cool moonlight shone through the skylight on the roof and onto her body. A hint of divine power hidden in the moonlight quietly seeped into her body, accumulating and reserving it for the ceremony ten days later.
Arcane: Enlightenment is Eldrin Jr.'s tenth birthday present.
On the day of young Eldrin's birthday, still at midnight, he was summoned, brought to the attic, and knelt before the altar. The holy scripture in front of Eldrin had been turned to a particular page, and on it floated several lines of a prayer he had never seen before. It was in Ancient Elvish, a difficult and obscure language that Eldrin had mastered as well as Common. The content of the prayer was still praise and supplication to the Goddess of the Moon, but as Eldrin recited it in his mind, he suddenly felt a strange sensation, as if his body became transparent, and something in the netherworld that had been wandering aimlessly seemed to have suddenly found something and flew towards him, plunging right into his body. Eldrin felt an additional flow of ice between his chest and abdomen, which abruptly expanded and spread toward his limbs and stomach. The sensation flickered, though with unusual clarity, but it was common to feel special sensations during divine sacrifices or magical rituals, and there were many rituals that even required enduring intense pain. So little Eldrin said nothing, but continued to empty his mind as his mother had asked.
"My Eldrin, in a moment you will enter the temple of the goddess Elucia and receive enlightenment about your destiny. You will most likely have two or three choices, if any, you can choose ......" Here Elaine suddenly shook her head and said instead, "My Eldrin, choose whatever you wish, pay attention to the voice of the Goddess and then follow your inner choice.
Eldrin nodded in confusion. As Eldrin's soft chanting sounded behind him, his consciousness blurred and he seemed to withdraw from the world before him.
When he regained consciousness, Eldrin found himself in front of an extremely large and high temple. The place he was standing in was a huge square, thousands of meters in circumference, and in the middle of it Eldrin felt as small as an ant. The square was paved with silver-gray stone that shone with a faint, mysterious light. When he looked around, he saw an endless starry sky, with stars so close that it seemed he could just reach out and pluck them. And the place and the shrine hung alone in the starry sky.
The immensity of the space put an almost unbearable pressure on little Eldrin, his heart was beating faster and faster, he no longer dared to look around, but pulled himself together and ran towards the temple. He ran for a long time, crossing the whole square and climbing a thousand stone steps before he stood at the entrance of the temple. If it weren't for the strength and endurance of mountain children, Eldrin would have collapsed. After he had run, he did not dare to stop for a moment, the huge square filled the whole field of vision, the shining light jumped, as if the whole space is not static, but according to a certain rule of movement, Eldrin had a kind of illusion, as if a moment of stopping, the whole square will tilt sideways, and the polished like a mirror ground can not be grasped, he will be helpless and desperate to slide down from the square, fell into the bottomless abyss. Abyss.
As he stood in the doorway of the temple, Eldrin's heart nearly jumped out of his chest and he breathed extremely hard. It took him a while to catch his breath, but he remembered his mother's advice and looked up into the temple.
The temple had no dome, but was surrounded by a circle of tall stone pillars as white as jade, with an altar in the center around which stood three vague statues of goddesses. They were in different postures and at different distances from each other. There should have been six goddess statues around the altar, each representing six different abilities, and the more goddess statues Eldrin could see, the more abilities he could inspire in Enlightenment.
Little Eldrin's memory was excellent, and he quickly recognized the abilities represented by the three goddess statues. They were 'Transcendent Divine Power', which could grant the enlightened person great strength; 'Life Rush', which possessed great vitality and could cast healing powers; and 'Wind Speed', which increased speed and agility. Wind Speed', which increased speed and agility.
Eldrin was a little disappointed, as his tiny mind had already made a choice, namely Wisdom, which dramatically increased his intelligence. After all, a real man needs wisdom.
But it was nice to have three choices, and Mom just expected more than one. What Elaine didn't have to tell little Eldrin was that of those who had received enlightenment, the majority had seen nothing but an empty temple.
Little Eldrin walked towards the altar, trying to see wisdom as he tried to keep his eyes open. But this temple, like the entire starry sky, was not real, so what could he see, no matter how hard he tried? Instead, even the three goddess statues began to blur as he hesitated and faltered.
"Do you want more abilities?" A voice suddenly rang in Eldrin's ears.
Startled, little Eldrin looked around, but saw nothing. The voice was sudden and mechanical and monotonous, full of metallic coldness and meaninglessness, and it frightened him.
"Who ...... are you?" Eldrin braced himself and drank in a trembling voice. His voice bounced back and forth in the great hall, the heavy echoes startling him again.
"It doesn't matter who I am, and I won't be around in the future. Technically, I'm the other half of your heart that's hiding." The voice spoke.
"No way!" Little Eldrin droned flatly. Mom had said that his mind was so pure that it wouldn't get all messed up. And after a few conversations with the voice, his shyness faded. Mountain children are very brave, and the fear at first was only because he did not know what was happening and was taken by surprise.
But the voice was not influenced by Eldrin at all and said in an unchanging tone, "Now go and choose what you want to get.
Right in front of Eldrin, the altar lit up again, and to his surprise, three more goddess statues appeared! In addition to 'Wisdom', there was also 'Elemental Affinity', which was crucial in the path of magic. This ability allowed a mage to communicate with the external elements more easily, and thus cast magic with less consumption. To put it bluntly, a mage with Elemental Affinity could have one to three more spell slots than a mage of the same level. It was a fearsome talent that became more powerful the higher the level. The other talent, Nature Messenger, allowed for a more intuitive and thorough understanding of nature, which not only drastically increased the ability to hide and move through complex terrain, but also provided a power bonus to all types of nature spells, as well as increased resistance to poisonous properties.
At this point, all six of Enlightenment's abilities have been laid out in front of Eldrin.
"This ...... this ......" Eldrin had long since opened his mouth wide, unable to speak at all. His little head was in a state of confusion, completely unable to comprehend what was actually happening in front of him. The only reasonable explanation was that everything he saw was an illusion. What else could it be? This was different from the books and what his mother had said.
Finally, not forgetting the purpose of his journey, Eldrin trembled and reached out his hand towards the statue of the goddess who represented 'Wisdom'. In front of the statue of the goddess, which was more than ten meters high, the tiny Eldrin could only touch the feet of the goddess. This was part of the meaning of the ceremony, bending down and touching the goddess' feet represented a humble attitude. As Eldrin's hand touched the statue of the Goddess, there was a sudden c***k in his consciousness, and the whole world seemed to become more real and clear.
"Wisdom allows one to see the world more clearly." This is a quote from the Holy Scriptures, and now Eldrin finally realized the meaning of this quote.
When Eldrin touched the idol of Wisdom, all the statues of the goddess disappeared. This should have been the end of the initiation ceremony, but the temple did not disappear.
Eldrin looked around in confusion and suddenly saw a new statue of the goddess appear in front of the altar. It was in the form of a goddess with her arms crossed over her chest, her face slightly turned to the side, her expression melancholic and focused, unlike the other goddess statues, this one had no texture at all, it was more like it was made of shadows. Eldrin tried hard to remember, but could not recall what this statue represented. Even in the canon, there was no record of the Goddess of the Moon ever taking this form, though she was indeed an idol of Elucia.
"Don't you want another ability?" The voice sounded again.
"What is this ability?" Eldrin paused and said loudly, "I don't want to give up my intelligence."
"You can call it real. It allows you to see the world in a different light, and at the end of the road you might see something else."
"Something else? What's that?" Eldrin asked curiously.
The voice fell silent and there was no answer.
Eldrin wanted to leave, he knew now that he could completely break away from here and return to the real world if he wanted to. This temple was actually a world built with ritual power, it served to allow the gifted to see what they were capable of and to choose a path for the future. On the other hand, this world wasn't completely empty; the shrine floating in the starry sky was filled with the divine power of the goddess, and all six abilities could not be obtained without the favor of Elusia.
But the voice that appeared in Eldrin s consciousness, and the seventh idol that had never been recorded in the sacred code, completely overturned Eldrin s perception.Eldrin suddenly had a feeling that this ...... was very much like the devil s temptation. But how could the power of the devil appear in the sacred rituals of the Goddess of the Moon?
Looking at the seventh idol, Eldrin hesitated. Two different voices debated fiercely in his consciousness, not splitting hairs. To take or not to take?
Eldrin hesitated and struggled, but the man took a step toward the seventh idol. "The world is balanced, and all gains have their price." Eldrin remembered such a lesson from the Scriptures, and balance was a central tenet of Elucia's teachings. So what would be the cost of harvesting a second ability?
The little boy was confused and struggled for the first time, but eventually he reached out to the idol. His mother had said that he could choose as he saw fit, and he was not willing to give up that opportunity, and he was willing to pay the price. Little Eldrin is brave, and he is willing to fight for the unexpected. And he was smart enough to know that deep down, his mother wanted him to be a hero, a big man who really mattered.
At least as important as Baron Tucker.
- Writer
