An aura of Eternity burst out from Daniel’s body, shaking the entire church. But that wasn’t all.
The aura spread beyond the church and covered the sky of the entire Holy City. All the pilgrims lifted their heads and stared at the sky.
Upon seeing the change in the sky’s color and feeling an aura that seemed to blanket the entire city, some panicked while others were left in shock.
Many of the senior followers of the religion—those who had lived for many decades—were familiar with this situation. This was the aura of the Final Absolution.
Someone had managed to summon it and reach the rank of Paragon.
Inside the church, Evangelin, the three Paragons, and even Aurest stared at Daniel in total confusion and shock.
"Who the hell is he? How did he manage to summon Final Absolution? Damn it, if this continues, all my plans to become the successor might fall apart," Paragon Velmiran frowned and cursed internally.
The appearance of a new Paragon meant one more possible successor. How could he not be angry? His gaze shifted to Abraham.
But when he saw Abraham’s calm expression, Velmiran slowly relaxed and let his own expression return to normal.
However, things were a bit different for Paragon Evern.
"Another Paragon... Even though this means one more possible successor, maybe I can pull him into my faction." He thought to himself and then glanced toward Evangelin.
Unfortunately, this saint had always refused to join any side and had remained neutral. But he was certain—yesterday he saw this girl together with the white-haired boy who had just summoned Final Absolution.
Maybe this was the opportunity to draw both a new Paragon and the saint into his side.
Evangelin’s gaze was also fixed on Daniel, but her expression was unreadable, and no one could tell what she was thinking.
After a few seconds, she turned her gaze toward the Prophet and let out a sigh. One of the requirements for the Final Absolution was the Prophet’s approval—and Daniel’s success meant he had already been approved.
Above his head, a flower appeared. Not a flower with a stem or roots—just the flower itself.
Suddenly, its petals opened wide and surrounded Daniel’s entire body, forming a leafy cocoon around him.
Neither Daniel nor anyone else made any attempt to stop it. In fact, all the pilgrims and followers of the faith took the chance to turn toward the flower and kneel.
The flower emitted an incredibly pure aura of Eternity—an aura that could only be matched by the Prophet’s own.
Inside the dark space that surrounded Daniel, he suddenly found himself standing in an infinite, endless void, with a single flower at the center.
"What the hell is this?" he frowned and stepped closer to get a better look at the flower.
But with every step he took, the flower grew larger and larger. By the time he was near it, its size was nearly fifty times greater than his own.
Standing in front of this massive flower-like object, he was no different than an ant.
"What pure Eternity... it’s like I’m watching the raw power of Eternity pouring directly from its source. Wait—" Daniel frowned, and as soon as the thought struck him, he sat down cross-legged in front of the flower.
Without wasting time, he began absorbing and understanding the energy that was being emitted by the flower.
Seconds, minutes, and hours slowly passed. Every second felt like an eternity, and still, he remained completely focused on understanding.
But if he had been aware at that moment, he would have noticed the bright golden light glowing intensely from his eyes.
It was Enlightenment! A state that many Awakened—including S-ranks and even nationally ranked Awakened—would do anything to achieve.
When someone enters this state, their understanding of whatever they’re focusing on explodes, and they gain an enormous amount of progress.
Unfortunately, Daniel had his notifications turned off, so he couldn’t see or hear them. Otherwise, he definitely would’ve been shocked and thrilled.
After what felt like an eternal amount of time in that infinite space, he finally opened his eyes.
As his eyes opened, a pure and powerful aura of Eternity burst out from his body.
His eyes were glowing brightly—it was like you could see Eternity itself reflected in them.
"I did it," were the first words that came from his mouth. Without hesitation, he began examining his body—and more importantly, his spiritual sea.
In the sky above his spiritual sea, there had previously been three orbs of light. But now, those three orbs had turned into human-like bodies resembling himself.
However, aside from the one in the middle—representing his Present Self—the other two were completely hollow and lifeless. They felt like corpses.
They were sitting cross-legged, each one emitting an aura of Past, Present, and Future.
"The one in the middle is me, while the shells of my Past Self and Future Self are empty. That must mean I can summon other versions of my past and future selves and borrow their powers for a time." It wasn’t hard for him to reach this conclusion.
The realization excited him. Unfortunately, he doubted his Past Self had any useful power—but that didn’t apply to his Future Self.
From what he had seen in the various timelines, there were many incredibly powerful versions of himself.
If he could summon even one of them, he might be able to defeat A-rank Awakened—and maybe even S-ranks, although he didn’t dare test that yet.
His intuition told him that if he tried borrowing power from the strongest versions of his future self, something truly terrifying would happen. He didn’t know what exactly—but every time he even thought about it, he felt like he was one step away from death.
"Could this be a warning from the Mother System? This Transcendent Self skill is way too powerful. It completely ignores the laws of time and space. If I overuse it, I’m sure something horrible will happen to me," he muttered to himself, reaching the conclusion that he would avoid using this ability unless it was absolutely necessary.
Then, he shifted his attention to the other things around him—his Fallen, the Death Tablet—and luckily, he found something else as well.
A flower. Newly bloomed, looking very young and weak.
"This?" He was stunned when he saw the flower.
"That flower... is the Flower of Eternity." Suddenly, a voice echoed across his spiritual sea.