Compared to the Abyss Angel's true form, Iver now appeared both sacred and bizarre.
As the giant's body gradually cooled in the torrential rain mixed with mud, Iver's skin slowly faded into a bloodless marble white. Once covered in grayish-white mud, his muscles no longer looked as ferocious as they had at first. Instead, they possessed the peculiar beauty of a marble statue.
Black Sin Thorns spread and grew all over Iver's body, like tender shoots scattered across a barren rock.
The purest Sin Thorns continuously drilled out from the neck of the headless giant, forming a vertical ring like a black hole. Above the vertical ring was another black crown lying horizontally—it was not composed entirely of Sin Thorns, but had the Chain of Friendship, wound into a ring, as its foundation, with Sin Thorns wrapped all around it.
Above that black-hole ring, two Sin Thorns spread and changed color, transforming into a pair of enormous white-jade-colored antlers.
Once the antlers had finished growing, the uniform black hole suddenly collapsed, turning into a messy ball resembling a tangled skein of yarn.
Then they melted into a black, petroleum-like gel, forming a pitch-black deer-head helmet outside. The helmet had no openings around the eyes, so it was still impossible to see what was inside—or whether there was a real head within it.
Behind Iver, six enormous pure-white wings also emerged.
Great swathes of white feathers drifted down like falling cherry blossoms.
They were quickly wrapped by the rapidly growing and spreading Sin Thorns, like stakes bound with wire or a grape trellis overrun by vines. The black Sin Thorns gradually enveloped the wings completely. In the end, the white wings were entirely submerged, leaving only six huge, tattered thorn wings resembling maple leaves.
The process of this transformation was quite