As if realizing her previous advice to "just run" had been utterly unreliable, Barbara looked away with a trace of guilt. After a few forced coughs, she abruptly changed the subject.

  "Do you need clothes?"

  "You have a way to get clothes?" Eros’s face lit up with joy. Standing obediently to the side, Irina also looked up with a glimmer of hope.

  For Eros, now that he knew Estelle was safe, his most pressing crisis was his lack of attire. Irina could simply retreat back into his shadow, but he was stuck. He couldn't exactly stroll out of the Sin-Domain with his rear bared to the world.

  Barbara didn't say a word. She simply gave a small wave of her hand toward Eros and Irina. In the next instant, ethereal garments began to shimmer over their bodies, gradually solidifying into physical fabric.

  "There. But you must consciously restrain yourselves from absorbing the spirituality within them. These clothes are woven from pure Spirit. If you accidentally consume it, your clothes will vanish."

  Eros immediately clamped down on his instinctual urge to draw in the surrounding energy. He had zero desire to be naked a third time. Beside him, Irina, now clad in a simple but elegant black dress, smoothed the fabric and let out a long sigh of relief. Though the new dress felt a bit tight around her chest, at least she no longer had to face Eros in the nude.

  With his immediate modesty secured, Eros turned his attention back to the gray-white ring in his palm. He brought up the question that had been gnawing at him.

  "What exactly does it mean to 'bear the sins of the world'?"

  The question had been sidelined by his worry for Estelle and the distraction of the clothes, but he was in no hurry. He could wait for a proper answer.

  Barbara paused, appearing to organize her thoughts. After a moment, she spoke:

  "The faith of living beings rises to the High Heavens, while their sins sink into the Abyssal Depths. These sins are categorized into seven distinct types: Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, and Lust."

  Eros’s expression turned pensive. He was familiar with the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins, and Barbara’s mention of them confirmed several of his suspicions. Barbara glanced at him and continued in her unwavering tone:

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  "To 'bear the sins of the world' means to take these seven Original Sins upon oneself."

  Just as I thought. A faint smile played on Eros’s lips. Initially, he had been baffled—how could a world, as a physical entity, commit a sin? It wasn't until Barbara mentioned the Seven Sins that he realized she was referring to the collective transgressions generated by the inhabitants within the world.

  He had briefly wondered if the world itself was a living organism, as only living things can sin.

  "So, you're saying this alternative path to Godhood is the path to becoming an Abyssal Evil God?"

  "No," Barbara shook her head.

  Eros was stunned. Since childhood, his education had taught him that the Evil Gods of the Abyss were the very manifestations of the Seven Original Sins. If a path required bearing those sins, how was it anything other than becoming one of those horrors?

  "Do you know how Spirit Marrow is obtained?" Barbara asked, pivoting to a seemingly unrelated topic.

  "Of course. When a Specter is slain, certain residual traits within its body condense into Spirit Marrow. To get it, you have to hunt Specters." Eros answered diligently. This was basic knowledge, the kind of thing taught in introductory courses.

  Barbara’s pink lips curled into a tiny, knowing smirk. "Then do you know how Specters are born?"

  "They are born from Original Sin..." Eros stopped mid-sentence, his eyes widening in shock. He suddenly grasped her point.

  Looking at his stunned face, Barbara’s large, beautiful eyes danced with amusement. "Precisely. Specters are born from Original Sin. From the foulest sins emerges the purest Spirit."

  "I see... so that's what 'bearing the sins' means. Extremes meet!"

  "Extremes meet..." Barbara repeated the phrase softly. "That is a very apt description."

  Eros grinned. He had localized the ancient idiom quite well. On the other side, Irina blinked, realizing she had just stumbled upon a piece of profound, hidden knowledge.

  Barbara shot a warning glance at Irina. "The conversation we just had regarding the paths to Godhood... do not speak of it to outsiders. Some knowledge is, by its very nature, a form of Contamination."

  "The only reason you haven't been corrupted by this knowledge is that you are now his shadow. You share a portion of his Authority."

  Irina flinched and nodded frantically. "Understood, Lady Spirit! I swear I will never speak a word of it."

  "That conversation carried contamination?" Eros asked, startled. He hadn't felt a thing.

  Barbara rolled her eyes at him. "We were discussing the secrets of Apotheosis. How could it not be contaminating? Normally, only those at the Mythic level are permitted to touch such secrets, as only they possess the strength to resist the corruption."

  "And what happens if someone is corrupted by this knowledge?"

  "Lower sequences would lose control and go insane on the spot. Even if they didn't, they would feel an uncontrollable, maddening urge to 'bear sins' until they were devoured by the Original Sin and transformed into a monster."

  "Then why can 'Oddities' do it? That girl from before was only at the Transcendent level."

  "That," Barbara said, "is a racial trait of the Oddity species."

  "Ah... I see. Fair enough."