All is one, and one is all.
Emotionally, Ash wanted to refute the idea the Drama Poet had proposed, but rationally, he knew this really was the only way. The World-Devouring Serpent was not a disaster that had fallen from the sky, nor an enemy from the far side of the world. It represented the collective tendency of all artificers to converge.
But why would convergence occur?
Was it because all "eight" had fallen, their power scattered throughout the world, and entropy had reached a turning point, so it spontaneously shifted toward order?
No. The World-Devouring Serpent appeared when Artifice Supremacy stepped into the Void Realm Seventh Layer. Both "Artifice Supremacy" and the "Void Realm Seventh Layer" were key factors. If Ash spent his whole life lying flat in Sevenfold Heaven, the Serpent of Ending corresponding to him would never appear at all, just like how as long as you did not go to work to earn money, you would never meet a boss who exploited your surplus value.
In other words, Artifice Supremacy's "gravity" only came into being after stepping into the Void Realm Seventh Layer.
So was it because of the temptation of the Heartbeat of the Void? No. It was not merely temptation. When he discovered his own path could not approach the Heartbeat of the Void, an irrepressible craving and greed had surged up inside him. He wanted to extend his path, wanted to grasp the Heartbeat of the Void in his palm. The World-Devouring Serpent had merely answered his greed.
Just as in the Sea of Knowledge, the Void Realm had answered his craving and bestowed upon him wings of freedom.
"Eight wings."
Starry Sky asked calmly, "If I'm not mistaken, when I become the sole artificer, I will also condense eight wings, won't I?"