Samsara Paradise: Dream Weaver of Connections.

The bishop looked at Lin Yi and did not continue the attack. The nun dolls scattered throughout the cave also stopped moving.

The giant made an unexpected move—raising his left arm and gesturing for the depths of the cave to proceed.

Hina and Hoshino simultaneously took a step forward, raised their weapons, and stared warily at the giant.

Lin Yi raised his right hand and waved it behind him.

"fine."

Hina frowned, a hint of worry flashing in her purple eyes, but she ultimately did not disobey the order. She simply gripped the heavy machine gun handle tightly, ready to fire at any moment.

Hoshino clicked his tongue, the muzzle of the shotgun drooping slightly, but his finger remained on the trigger guard.

Lin Yi strode forward.

He walked across the cracked black stone slabs, past the still nun dolls, and came straight to the giant.

The two were less than five meters apart. Looking up from this angle, the giant's body appeared even larger and more imposing.

The clash of punches just now had given him a rough idea of ​​his opponent's strength level.

This body is strong, but that's about it.

If he really went all out and didn't use his trump cards that would come at a cost, Lin Yi was confident that he could dismantle this "bishop" into a pile of irreparable scrap metal within thirty seconds.

This is not arrogance, but a precise judgment formed after countless life-and-death battles.

The giant seemed to understand this as well.

It made no threatening movements, but simply made the "please" gesture again, and then turned and walked deeper into the cave.

Lin Yi followed.

They passed through a stalactite forest, bypassed several man-made niches—which housed the remains of some long-decayed sacred objects—and finally arrived at a relatively open area deep within the cave.

This place has been transformed into a small church.

The rough rock face has been smoothed and covered with huge religious murals painted with some kind of luminescent pigment.

The murals are blurry, with most of them faded and peeling away, and only the outlines of some angels, saints, and victims can be barely discerned.

There is no altar in the center of the church, only a huge stone chair.

The stone chair has a simple and heavy style, with intricate thorn and rose patterns carved on the backrest and the armrests polished smooth as a mirror, indicating that it was frequently used.

The giant walked to the stone chair and gestured to Lin Yi again—this time referring to a long wooden bench beneath the stone chair.

Lin Yi glanced at the bench.

The stool was old, the wood was blackened, and the surface was covered with fine cracks, but it was very clean.

He did not refuse and went over to sit down.

The giant then slowly turned around, his massive body sinking into the enormous stone chair.

The metal made a dull grating sound when it came into contact with the stone, and the whole chair vibrated slightly.

If someone were to take a picture from a distance at this moment, the scene would appear both eerie and harmonious: a ten-meter-tall metal giant sits on the cathedral throne, while a human in black sits on a bench below, the two facing each other quietly, less than ten meters apart.

It was like a pilgrimage.

It was also like a trial.

A few seconds passed in the silence.

Then, the giant spoke.

"Outsiders."

Lin Yi raised his head and met the gaze behind the metal mask.

“Kiwatos… hasn’t welcomed a true ‘outsider’ in a long time.” The giant’s voice was devoid of emotion.

"The people from before? They're all dead," Lin Yi said.

“Yes,” the giant admitted, “died in the passage of time, and also at the hands of me… and my comrades.”

Why kill them?

"Because they would bring variables," the giant replied directly. "And at that time, we couldn't afford any variables. The world was too fragile, like a glass vessel just taken out of the fire, which would shatter completely at the slightest carelessness."

Lin Yi remained silent, waiting for the other party to continue.

“But you are different.” After a long silence, the giant spoke again, “I can sense… the aura of ‘Paradise’ on you.”

The church fell silent again, with only the faint sound of dripping water coming from deep within the rock walls, and the suppressed breathing and footsteps of the students in the distance.

Although they were told to stay where they were, they were clearly moving slowly toward this side, maintaining a safe distance.

“Then, outsider,” the giant finally spoke again, “before you decide whether to destroy this broken shell of mine, perhaps we can talk. About this world, about… why we have come to this state.”

Lin Yi nodded slightly.

"I am listening."

“First, let me introduce myself,” the giant said. “I am Eustina, the first president of the Eustina Saints, the Goddess of the Cross, and also… one of the creators of this ‘Paradise World’ of Givotos.”

“The first president…” Lin Yi repeated, “According to records, the Saints of Eustina should have completely disappeared thousands of years ago.”

“We did indeed 'disappear',” Justina’s voice carried a hint of bitterness, “but not in the way you understand. We didn’t perish, we didn’t disband, but rather… we merged into this world itself.”

She paused for a moment, as if organizing her thoughts.

"Let me start from the beginning. This will take some time, and you'll need some basic knowledge about the void and the pantheon."

“I have it,” Lin Yi said.

“That’s good.” Eustina continued, “Then you should know that in the void, the ‘divine system’ has always been a special and powerful power system. There are six major categories: gods, ancient gods, evil gods, alien gods, ancient gods, and divine soul gods. They are characterized by divine sources, divine energy, and divine bones. High-ranking gods can use the core of the world to build array defenses.”

Lin Yi nodded. These were common knowledge in the void. Although they might be considered secrets to most ordinary contractors, at his current level, this knowledge was no longer a secret.

“But do you know the origin of the pantheon?” Justina asked.

“There are many different opinions,” Lin Yi replied. “The First Era theory, the Second Era alchemical civilization theory, the Abyss connection theory… every school of research can produce evidence, but the most ancient gods remain silent on this matter. So the truth remains a mystery to this day.”

“The reason we remain silent is because that history… is too heavy.” Justina’s voice lowered. “However, none of the schools of thought you mentioned are entirely wrong. They are like blind men touching different parts of an elephant; each of them has touched a part of the truth, but none of them have the ability to piece together the complete picture.”

"The true origin of the pantheon can be traced back to the early First Era, to a transcendent world known as the 'Realm of the Gods'."

Lin Yi sat up straight.

"In the end what happened?"

“The specific details, even I don’t know them completely. It happened in a time too long ago, so long ago that even memories are distorted over time.” “And in the end?” Lin Yi asked.

"In the end, less than one in ten of the gods who participated survived. Most of the survivors were severely injured and fell into a deep slumber, or were forced to reincarnate into a lower-level divine soul form."

"And you are one of the survivors."

“Yes,” Yustina admitted. “I am a member of the ‘Soul Gods’. Or rather, I used to be. Among the six categories of gods, Soul Gods are quite special. We are not ancient gods born naturally, nor are we gods formed through faith. Instead, we are ancient beings whose physical bodies were destroyed in war, but whose souls were fortunately preserved and reincarnated.”

She raised her left hand, her metal palm facing upwards.

A faint but pure golden halo appeared in my palm, within which I could vaguely see the outline of a woman, dressed in a classic nun's robe and wearing a crown of thorns.

“This is my ‘essence of the soul’,” Justina said, “and the source of all of Kivotos’s ‘students’.”

Lin Yi's gaze fell on the halo of light.

He sensed a familiar aura—similar to the halo, but older, more complete, and also more…fragile.

Faced with this situation of energy manifestation, the abyssal power within Lin Yi's body was somewhat eager to try, but Lin Yi forcibly suppressed it.

He didn't want to become a madman who devoured everyone he saw, which was one of the troubles that all Abyss-type characters had to face in the later stages.

"You mean, Kivotos's students are actually all..."

“They are all fragmented divine souls,” Yustina continued. “They are shattered fragments of the divine souls of ancient gods who were severely injured and on the verge of death. These fragments are too weak to exist independently, nor can they be reborn as complete divine souls. So, I and several other survivors made a decision.”

“We collected these fragments and used our last strength to create a small, enclosed world. We named it ‘Kivotos,’ which means ‘sanctuary’ in ancient language. Then, we cast those fragments of the soul into this world, allowing them to reincarnate as ‘students’ and slowly repair themselves in this relatively safe environment through repeated reincarnations, learning, and growth.”

"So, the halo is the outward manifestation of their power." Lin Yi understood.

“That’s right.” Eustina nodded. “The aura is a phenomenon that occurs when the fragments of the soul interact with the rules of this world. It is both protection—providing the basis for the existence of these fragile fragments—and an identifier—allowing us to track the repair progress of each fragment.”

She clenched her fists, and the golden halo disappeared.

"The initial plan was wonderful. We set the operating logic of this world: a 'student' learns and grows here, and when she 'graduates,' it means that her soul fragments have been repaired to the point where she can leave this 'nursery' and begin a complete new life. She will leave Kiwatos to experience her own life, continue to repair her soul until the end of her lifespan, and then enter the next cycle. This cycle repeats itself, thus helping them to recover quickly."

"It sounds just like a petri dish in a laboratory." After hearing this, Lin Yi thought of the vessels used to cultivate bacteria in a laboratory.

“A very apt analogy,” Eustina didn’t deny. “It is indeed like a petri dish. But this is the only way we can think of to save our broken kin. Without Kivotos, these fragments of the soul would either completely dissipate or be captured, devoured, or transformed into something worse by other beings in the void. I believe you are aware of how much malice the void harbors towards the gods.”

Lin Yi remained silent for a moment.

"Unfortunately, your plan has run into problems."

“Yes.” Eustina’s voice turned heavy again. “The problem lies in two places. First, we underestimated the power required to maintain such a closed world. Several other creators and I exhausted our last bit of divine power shortly after establishing Givotos and fell into a deep sleep one after another. I was the one who lasted the longest, but even I completely lost control of my physical body thousands of years ago, and my soul could only attach itself to the core of the Saints’ Covenant, falling into a semi-dormant state.”

“Second,” she continued, “is that the ‘blockade’ we left behind has developed a flaw. For some unknown reason—perhaps the erosion of time, external shocks, or the natural wear and tear of the internal rules—in any case, a tiny crack has appeared in the barrier separating Kivotos from the Void.”

“From that moment on, everything changed. The originally planned ‘graduation’ process turned into a death trap. Any student who left Kiwatos would be captured and devoured by that alien entity called ‘Color’ the moment they stepped across the barrier. There were so many that we lost count…”

"Didn't you try to stop it?" Lin Yi asked.

“We tried,” Eustina’s voice was filled with bitterness, “but most of the time the other creators and I were in a state of slumber, and the remaining consciousness could barely keep Givotos running. We couldn’t intervene directly. We could only use the power of the contract to implant some vague warnings and instincts into the best and most promising students, hoping that they would notice the abnormality, postpone their graduation, or find other ways.”

"The student council president..." Lin Yi thought of the key figure who had mysteriously disappeared, "Did she also encounter the color?"

“She’s more perceptive and stronger than most people,” Justina said. “She sensed the danger of graduation and began to investigate secretly. However, her actions attracted the attention of ‘Color.’ During an attempt to track ‘Color,’ she was directly attacked by the original entity.”

"She's dead?"

“No,” Eustina shook her head. “But her condition… is very strange. At the last moment, she used some kind of power that we don’t fully understand—a power that even transcends the realm of the divine system. She forcibly broke free from the edge of being devoured by ‘Color,’ but at the cost of a fundamental change in her form of existence. She is now neither in Kivotos nor in the void, but stuck in some kind of ‘gap.’ Unless someone can completely destroy the true form of ‘Color,’ or find a way to reverse that power, it is virtually impossible for her to return to a normal state of existence.”

Lin Yi processed this information.

The true nature of Kivotos, the truth about the students, the origin of the divine system, the threat of color... these fragments finally piece together a relatively complete picture.

But this also raises more questions.

"So what now?" Lin Yi looked at Yustina. "What's going on with your current body?"

Justina fell silent.

She lowered her head, the light behind the metal mask flickering erratically, revealing the intense turmoil in her heart.

After a long while, she slowly opened her mouth, her voice filled with obvious self-loathing and pain.

"This is...my sin."

“About a hundred years ago, a group of outsiders calling themselves the ‘Symphony of Numbers’ discovered the crack in Giwatos. They found my sleeping core of the contract and discovered my remaining divine soul.”

"What did he do?" Lin Yi asked.

“He proposed a ‘deal,’” Justina said. “He said he had a way to strengthen the barrier of Kivotos, repair the cracks, and even help me establish mechanisms to warn of and defend against the erosion of ‘color.’ In exchange, he needed my ‘authorization’ to allow him to use the contract framework left by the Saints, as well as the ‘idle’ fragments of divine souls and material resources within Kivotos, to conduct some ‘necessary experiments.’”

"You agreed," Lin Yi said.

Justina's voice trembled: "I... wavered."

“I agreed to his deal. I granted him access to the Saints' Order's contractual authority, allowing him to access those 'stagnant' soul fragments for various reasons—those fragments that couldn't reincarnate normally or had severely deviated from their intended path in the cycle of reincarnation. I thought he would truly fulfill his promise, repair the barrier, and establish defenses…”

“But he didn’t keep his promise to you,” Lin Yi finished the sentence for her.

“No.” Justina’s voice was so low it was almost inaudible. “He lied to me. He used the framework of the Saints’ Covenant to create these ‘Saint’s Armor,’ to create… this abominable body of mine.”

She raised her remaining left arm, her metal fingers trembling as she touched her mask.

"He forcibly stuffed my remaining soul into this body. He called it 'to provide me with the ability to move,' but in reality, he turned me into the control center of his experiments. Those nun puppets are controlled and maintained through my body and the contract array under my feet. Most of the time, I have no way to control them, since they are just puppets operating according to the contract."

“So now you are…” Lin Yi looked at Justina.

“I am resisting.” Justina’s voice became firm again. “With my remaining will, with my remaining control over this body.”

She raised her head and looked directly at Lin Yi.

“You are unlike any other outsider I have ever met.”

“So I’m telling you everything,” Justina said, “not because I want sympathy, nor because I want to shirk responsibility. It’s because… I need your help.”

"What do you need me to do?" Lin Yi asked.

She paused for a moment, her voice carrying a certain resolve.

"kill me."

Lin Yi's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Destroy this body and release my imprisoned soul."

"You will die," Lin Yi said.

“I should have died long ago.” Eustina’s voice was eerily calm. “I should have perished alongside my people. To have survived until now, to have created Givotos, only to have it all become a breeding ground for monsters because of my foolishness and gullibility… This is my sin, and it is I who should end it.” (End of Chapter)