After chatting until midnight, everyone returned to their rooms to rest.
Although it didn't really matter if Ethan and the others didn't sleep, their current physical condition allowed them to remain in a normal state for extended periods without growing tired or weak due to lack of rest.
Still, there were a few ordinary people aboard, and everyone was used to maintaining the habit. Even if they didn't sleep, they would find something to do to pass the time, rather than staying up all night chatting.
Ethan didn't rest either. He hid away in his workshop, continuing to study the ball of death energy on his arm.
He had always felt that this mass of death energy was important to him. It was a strange feeling, but as his strength increased, his spiritual power grew stronger, his magic deepened, and he even carried a trace of divinity. A sudden feeling like this wouldn't come out of nowhere. There had to be a reason.
After researching it for half the day in the workshop, he vaguely formed a hypothesis.
This dense and pure death energy was indeed important to him, and the key to the matter seemed to lie in his Holy Light Cross.
Everything in the world has two sides. Light and darkness oppose one another, yet they are also interdependent. However, his Holy Light Cross was singular in nature, containing only pure and extreme Holy Light energy.
If it were just a magic item, that wouldn't be a problem. But the Holy Light Cross had already undergone changes, evolving to contain a small internal world. Continuing to maintain such a highly polarized energy state wasn't a good sign. Anything too extreme eventually collapses.
"Maybe that's why this thing began spontaneously absorbing negative energy bodies like souls—to stabilize this world?"
Holy Light symbolizes positive forces such as light and life. But a world can't be supported by positive energy alone. It also requires negative energy to maintain balance. So the Holy Light Cross began absorbing souls on its own.
"Especially souls with strong faith. Though they're inherently biased toward negative energy, their devout belief allows them to 'generate' positive energy like Holy Light."
Their very existence also provides the negative energy needed by the world, making the internal realm more complete and stable.
Ethan now suspected that the reason heaven was so willing to accept devout souls might stem from this same principle.
Heaven was full of positive energy. Whether it was the Old Man upstairs or the angels, they all clearly used powers of a positive nature.
But such a place, being the final destination for the dead, must also possess a perfect integration of positive and negative forces.
If that was the case, then his little Holy Light Cross did indeed have the potential to evolve into a miniature heaven.
Whether it could truly become heaven aside, acquiring this death energy gave Ethan the opportunity to genuinely master Holy Light.
Holy Light was too extreme. Even the Holy Light he had created had extreme properties. It was troublesome to completely master it—like mastering fire and water—without being affected by it and integrating it into his own magical attributes.
But this ball of death energy reminded Ethan that as long as he could maintain a balanced energy structure and not push it too far into extremes, fully mastering Holy Light might not be impossible.
He had understood this principle for a long time, but had never found a suitable opposing force. He had considered the energy within death magic stones, but unless they possessed extremely high purity, they couldn't balance out his Holy Light.
Because the quality hadn't been high enough, Ethan had never applied the idea in practice—until Anubis gave him this "gift."
"Should I use it directly as 'nourishment' to help me master Holy Light, or use it to stabilize the Holy Light Cross?"
Although the death energy Ethan acquired was pure, it wasn't much in quantity. He could only choose one of the two options.
Technically, the severed part of his arm had enough concentrated death energy, but it wasn't preserved. Even with Loki's frost sealing it, the death energy had still dissipated once the arm was destroyed.
So only a small portion remained at the stump of his severed arm.
"Upgrade the Holy Light Cross!"
Ethan quickly made his decision without hesitation.
Although this death energy could be used to assist in mastering Holy Light, it wasn't enough to bring it under full control. Worse, it might lead to delays or dead ends, especially since finding a replacement energy source would be difficult.
Unless he could use this death energy as a foundation to generate something like shadow energy, it would take far too long, and Ethan didn't want to stay one-armed that long.
Since using it directly involved too many complications, that option was out. That left him with just one choice: using it to enhance the Holy Light Cross.
This would be simple and wouldn't cause any additional issues. Injecting this death energy would stabilize the inner world of the cross and keep it from becoming too extreme.
If the Holy Light continued evolving in an extreme direction, the small world inside the cross would collapse. Even if Marvin, the soul currently living within, was devout in his faith, he was still a soul. He would be destroyed by the increasingly extreme Holy Light energy.
Unless Marvin's entire life form transformed before that happened—becoming a Holy Light energy being and shedding his ghostly negative traits—he couldn't survive in that environment.
But with the death energy injected, balance could be achieved. It would allow Marvin to live more comfortably and prevent him from being treated as a target for purification as Holy Light intensified.
Ethan carefully guided the death energy into the cross. In his magical sight, the internal world expanded. A vast new land appeared. Marvin's originally tiny living space grew immensely, and the black soil even began to nourish Marvin's "body."
Marvin suddenly noticed the ground beneath his feet expand countless times. Except for the patch of white stone tiles where he stood, the rest had turned into black soil.
He bent down and touched the black earth. A cool, soothing sensation spread through his hand, making him feel inexplicably at peace.
At the same time, the once-blinding light in the sky softened. Looking up, he saw that what had once been a vast, indistinct white glow now had a sun. The sky was like the one he remembered from life. After the death energy was injected and tempered the Holy Light, the energies condensed, forming the sun Marvin saw overhead—a manifestation of Holy Light.
Now, the world inside the cross had become more and more like the one Marvin had known. It was no longer a confined space flooded with harsh light from all directions.
He didn't know exactly what had happened, but he sensed that his environment had improved. He believed this to be a gift from God, so he returned to the greatly expanded cross and resumed his prayers.
Ethan ignored Marvin for now and continued to monitor the changes inside the cross.
The black land, formed from condensed death energy, emitted fluctuations ideal for the undead or souls. That's why Marvin felt comfortable here.
These fluctuations also suppressed the extreme aspects of Holy Light, causing it to condense into a form similar to the sun. In its prior scattered form, Holy Light would have been overtaken by the invasive death energy. Now, as a condensed form, it was no longer threatened.
Once Holy Light contracted its energy, it no longer endangered Marvin. On the contrary, Marvin's continued existence would further nourish the Holy Light. This meant that even if Ethan no longer went around collecting faith through churches to generate more Holy Light, the Holy Light Cross now had the ability to regenerate its energy. Ethan wouldn't have to worry about it running dry.
"Just as I thought."
Marvin's presence also provided a foundation for the death energy's continued existence, preventing it from being slowly purified and erased by the Holy Light over time.
Of course, this was only in the early stages. When opposing energies first come into contact, they clash. Marvin served as a buffer between them.
With time, this antagonism would transform into interdependence. Eventually, even without Marvin as a buffer, this heaven-like small world wouldn't suddenly collapse.
"I accidentally absorbed Marvin's soul back then, and I didn't expect it to bring such benefits."
This saved Ethan a great deal of trouble. If Marvin hadn't been there, Ethan would've had to personally manage the balance, constantly recreating "cycles" to prevent these two forces from destroying each other.
Now he began to consider whether he should absorb more souls into this little heaven. If this miniature world grew and housed enough souls, and if it developed enough devout believers and evolved beings similar to angels, then maybe one day he could summon an angelic army at will during battle.
"Looks like I don't even need that many souls to have an angel army."
After thinking it through, he realized he could shape angels directly from Holy Light. These pure energy bodies wouldn't need complex thought or emotions. As long as they could follow commands and fight, they wouldn't require souls at all.
To solve the issue of command and control, he could selectively absorb a few devout souls. If they were as loyal as Marvin, they could serve as field commanders.
"Those would be called Archangels."
He suddenly found himself looking forward to future battles where he wouldn't need to act personally—he could simply raise his hand, and a million angels would descend and crush the enemy.
"Should I call the move 'Million Angel Babies'?"
(To be continued.)
***
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