Enlightenment

Eldrin nodded vigorously and ran back to his room. But seeing how excited he was, he probably wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. Ilanie smiled and shook her head, then climbed up to the attic with the magic lamp.

The attic is usually where the sundries are stored, but it is also cleaned up. Ilanie moved a box, revealing a small altar behind it. The altar is made of stone, and the base is delicately and accurately outlined with a complex magic circle. However, the place where the statue should be placed is now empty.

Ilanie cleaned the altar carefully, wiping away even the smallest specks of dust. Then she stood up, her eyes falling on a thick book casually placed on the box next to her. The book was incredibly thick, probably with nearly a thousand pages, and was the size of four ordinary magic books, weighing at least ten kilograms. The bronze cover shone with a luster, spotless, and was obviously often read. Ilanie was startled, she hadn't touched it for a long time, so it was obviously Eldrin who was reading it. But she didn't expect that the little guy would read it so frequently and so enthusiastically.

Ilanie walked over and opened it. Her fingers were long and beautiful, several levels higher than her appearance. The men in the village had talked about her hands in private more than once.

The cover of the book was made of real bronze, heavy and cold, exuding the heaviness of time. Ilanie knew that in the bronze, there were hundreds of crystal particles scattered like stars, and when they were activated at the same time, they would form a miniature altar. When the user was pious and powerful enough, he could even hear the voice of Moon Goddess Eluxia through it !

On the title page, a long poem praising Moon Goddess Eluxia was written in beautiful ancient Elvish . To this day, Ilanie still remembers every syllable of this hymn. Ilanie flipped through the book casually, and the textured pages passed through her fingers like flowing water. There were long passages of Elvish text or vivid illustrations on them. Unlike human scriptures , the teachings of the Moon God only accounted for a small part of its content, but there were many deeds of Moon Goddess Eluxia before she became a god. Therefore, in addition to the Norland continent, it also contains content from many other continents and even other planes. Little Eldrin probably regarded it as a geography encyclopedia, so he read it with great interest.

This huge book, which seems to have nothing special about it except for its thickness, is the most precious treasure once possessed by the Elf King's Court, the Sacred Canon of the Moon Goddess Elucia.

The Sacred Canon actually records seven unique divine arts of the Moon Goddess, but only those who are recognized by the Goddess can see and use them. She could use five of them back then. Apart from the Archdruid of the Royal Court, she was the priest who had mastered the most divine arts. That represented both strength and the recognition of the Goddess. But now, even at a huge cost, she could only activate one divine art, and that was with the help of the power of the Sacred Canon itself.

The seven magic arts flowed through her heart like water.

" Elucia 's Fate" Divine Art: Enlightenment;

" Elucia 's Favor" Divine Art: Restoration;

" Elucia 's Fury" Divine Art: Judgment;

" Sword of Elucia " Divine Art: Lunar Armament;

" Elucia 's Will" Divine Art: Adjudication

Elucia " Divine Art: Foresight , which she has also failed to master .

The seventh divine art is only recorded in the Sacred Canon, but no one has ever been able to use it. That is " Elucia 's Confusion", the divine art: Dark Side of the Moon.

Ilanie placed her hand on the Sacred Canon, quietly feeling the trace of sacred breath left in the Sacred Canon. The fifth moon was hanging in the middle of the sky at this moment, and the cold moonlight shone on her body through the skylight on the roof. A trace of divine power hidden in the moonlight quietly penetrated into her body, accumulating, and preparing for the ceremony in more than ten days.

Divine Art: Enlightenment was little Eldrin's tenth birthday gift.

On the day of Eldrin's birthday, at midnight, he was called up and taken to the attic, kneeling in front of the altar. The Sacred Canon in front of Eldrin had been turned to a specific page, and on it appeared a few lines of prayers he had never seen before. It was the ancient Elven language, a difficult and obscure language that Eldrin had mastered as fluently as the common language. The content of the prayer was still praise and prayer to the Moon Goddess, but Eldrin suddenly had a strange feeling while reciting it in his heart, as if his body was becoming transparent, and something in the dark was originally wandering aimlessly, but it seemed to suddenly discover something, flew towards him, and pounced into his body. Eldrin felt a stream of ice between his chest and abdomen, which suddenly extended and spread to his limbs and lower abdomen. This feeling was fleeting, and although it was extremely clear, it was common to have special feelings during sacrifices or magic rituals, and many rituals even required enduring intense pain. So Eldrin said nothing, but continued to gradually empty his mind as his mother asked.

"My Eldrin, you will soon enter the temple of the goddess Elucia and receive enlightenment about your destiny. You will most likely have two or three choices. If so, you can choose..." At this point, Ilanie suddenly shook her head and changed her words: "My Eldrin, choose whatever you want. Listen carefully to the voice of the goddess and follow your heart's choice."

Eldrin nodded in confusion. As Ilanie's gentle prayers began to sound behind him, his consciousness gradually became blurred, as if he was being pulled away from the world in front of him.

When he regained consciousness, Eldrin found himself in front of an extremely wide and high temple. He was standing in a huge square that was several thousand meters in radius. Standing in it, Eldrin felt as small as an ant. The square was paved with silver-gray stone, shining with a faint mysterious light. He looked around and saw an endless Star Void. The stars were so close that they seemed to be plucked with his hands. The square and the temple were suspended alone in the Star Void.

The huge space brought little Eldrin an almost unbearable pressure. His heartbeat was getting faster and faster. He no longer dared to look around, but ran towards the temple. He ran for a long time, crossed the entire square, and climbed up a thousand stone steps before standing at the entrance of the temple. If it weren't for the fact that children in the mountains are strong and have long endurance since childhood, Eldrin would have collapsed from exhaustion. After he started running, he didn't dare to pause at all. The huge square filled his entire vision, and the shining light was leaping . It seemed that the entire space was not static, but moving according to some rules. Eldrin had an illusion that if he stopped for a moment , the entire square would tilt, and there was nothing to grab on the mirror-like ground. He would slide down the square helplessly and desperately, falling into the bottomless Abyss.

When he stood at the temple door, Eldrin's heart almost jumped out of his chest, and it was extremely difficult to breathe. After a lot of effort, he finally caught his breath, remembered his mother's instructions, and looked up into the temple.

The temple had no dome, but was surrounded by a circle of tall, white stone pillars. In the center was an altar, with three vague goddess statues standing around it. They were in different postures and at different intervals. There should have been six goddess statues beside the altar, representing six different abilities. The more goddess statues Eldrin could see, the more abilities he could inspire in his enlightenment.

Little Eldrin had an excellent memory and quickly identified the abilities represented by the three goddess statues. They were 'Divine Might', which could grant powerful strength to the enlightened, 'Torrent of Life', which had a strong vitality and could perform healing, and 'Wind Speed', which increased speed and agility.

Eldrin was a little disappointed, but in fact, he had already made a choice in his little heart, which was "wisdom" which greatly improved his intelligence. Because a real man needs wisdom.

But it was good to have three choices, and Mom just hoped that there would be more than one choice. In fact, what Ilanie didn't tell little Eldrin was that most of the people who had been enlightened saw only an empty temple.

Little Eldrin walked towards the altar, trying to open his eyes wide, wanting to see wisdom. But this temple, along with the entire Star Void, was not real. No matter how hard he tried, what could he see? Instead, because of hesitation and wavering, even the three goddess statues began to become blurred.

"Do you want more power?" A voice suddenly sounded in Eldrin's ears.

Little Eldrin was startled and looked around, but he saw nothing. The voice was sudden, mechanical and monotonous, full of the cold and insensitive taste of metal, which made him feel very scared.

"Who... who are you?" Eldrin summoned up his courage and shouted in a trembling voice. His voice echoed back and forth in the hall, and the repeated echoes startled him again.

"It doesn't matter who I am, and I won't appear in the future. Strictly speaking, I am the other half hidden deep in your heart." said the voice.

"Impossible!" Little Eldrin shouted. His mother had said that his heart was pure and would not have any messy thoughts. And after talking to the voice for a few words, his fear gradually faded. Children in the mountains are very brave. His initial fear was only because he had no idea what was happening and it was unexpected.

But the voice was not affected by Eldrin at all, and said in the same tone: "Now, choose what you want."

Right in front of Eldrin, the altar lit up again, and three more goddess statues appeared! In addition to 'Wisdom', there is also 'Elemental Affinity', which is crucial on the path of magic. This ability can make it easier for the mage to communicate with the external elements, so as to cast magic with less consumption. Intuitively speaking, a magician with the talent of 'Elemental Affinity' can have one to three more spell slots than a mage of the same level. This is a terrifying talent that becomes more powerful the higher the level. Another ability is 'Nature's Messenger', which can make people have a more intuitive and thorough understanding of nature. It can not only greatly improve the ability to hide and the speed of traveling in complex terrain, but also increase the power of various natural spells, and gain higher resistance to poison.

At this point, all six powers of enlightenment were laid out before Eldrin.

"This... this..." Eldrin had already opened his mouth, unable to speak. His little head was in a mess, and he couldn't understand what was 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 what the book and his mother said.

Eldrin finally remembered the purpose of this trip, so he stretched out his hand with trembling hands and walked towards the goddess statue representing "wisdom". In front of the goddess statue that was more than ten meters high, the little Eldrin could only touch the goddess' feet. This was also part of the meaning of the ceremony. Bending over to touch the goddess' feet represented a humble attitude. When Eldrin's hand touched the goddess statue, a crisp cracking sound suddenly sounded in his consciousness, and the whole world seemed to become more real and clear.

"Wisdom allows people to see the world more clearly." This is a sentence from the Sacred Canon, and now Eldrin finally understands the meaning of this sentence.

When Eldrin touched the Statue of Wisdom, all the goddess statues disappeared at the same time. 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 goddess statue appearing in front of the altar. Her expression was that her hands were crossed in front of her chest, her face was slightly tilted to one side, and her expression was melancholy and focused. Unlike other goddess statues, this goddess statue had no texture at all, and seemed to be made of shadows. Could this also be an ability? Eldrin tried hard to recall, but he couldn't remember what this goddess statue represented . Even in the Sacred Canon, there was no record of the Moon Goddess having this form, although she was indeed the statue of Elucia .

"Don't you want an extra ability?" the voice sounded again.

"What power is that?" Eldrin paused, then spoke loudly, "I do not want to give up wisdom."

"You can call it reality. It allows you to see the world from another perspective, and at the end of this road, maybe you'll see something else."

"Something else? What is that?" Eldrin asked curiously.

The voice fell silent, and there was no answer.

Eldrin wanted to leave. He now knew that as long as he wanted, he could completely leave here and return to the real world. This temple was actually a world built by ritual power. Its function was to allow gifted people to see their own abilities and choose their future path. But on the other hand, this world was not completely empty . The temple floating in the Star Void was filled with the power of the goddess, and all six abilities could not be obtained without the favor of Elucia .

But the voice that appeared in Eldrin's consciousness and the seventh statue that had never been recorded in the Sacred Canon completely overturned Eldrin's cognition. Eldrin suddenly felt that this... was very much like the temptation of the devil. But how could the power of the devil appear in the sacred ceremony of the Moon Goddess?

Looking at the seventh statue, Eldrin was truly hesitant. Two different voices were arguing fiercely in his mind, neither of them was superior. To take it, or not to take it?

Eldrin hesitated and struggled, but he walked towards the seventh statue step by step. "The world is balanced, and everything has its price." Eldrin remembered this teaching from the Sacred Canon, and balance is one of the core of Elucia's teachings. So what price will he pay for gaining the second ability?

The little boy was confused and struggled for the first time, but in the end, he still reached out to the statue. His mother said that he could choose according to his own ideas, but he was unwilling to give up this opportunity and was ready to pay the price. Little Eldrin was courageous and was willing to fight for unexpected gains. He was also smart and knew that deep in his mother's heart, she wanted him to become a hero, a truly important person.

At least bigger than Baron Tuck.