The value of [Folly] continued to rise.
Ti rewound by a mont.
While the gods' attention had been drawn to the corner where [Truth] held sway, [Folly] stood alone in the empty Void, witnessing the collapse of the universe.
It was true that He had leaped free of [Truth]'s trap one step ahead of the others, but that was as far as it went — He had never intended to stop the experint in the first place.
All of this, in His eyes, was nothing more than a foolish act.
He did not believe [Truth] could succeed — or rather, what [Truth] called "success" was rely a fleeting glimpse of this universe's true nature, hardly worthy of being called a "success" at all. And so He had no reason to intervene. He simply stood to the side like a spectator, watching in silence.
Under the Supre [Truth]'s extraction, the entire world was collapsing at a terrifying pace. Stars winked out. Flesh dissolved. Countless players had no ti to register what was happening before everything around them crumbled to dust.
Fear had no ti to spread — in an instant, it froze into absolute nothingness.
The final act of the Void Era seed to have arrived ahead of schedule. In that mont, neither people nor things escaped its reach.
Every existing thing in the world was ground into raw material, destined to be used in the reconstruction of a new world belonging to [Truth].
Hong Lin was fortunate. Under the protection of the Convention, this Proxy of [Prosperity] was not counted among [Truth]'s experintal materials, and so she remained unaffected.
But the instant she watched Tao Yi — standing right in front of her — dissolve into ash with a look of utter bewildernt, Hong Lin's stunned eyes turned red in a heartbeat. She shifted into her Bear Spirit form and lashed out at everything around her.
Yet her "counterattack" was utterly powerless. No matter how desperately she fought the surrounding nothingness, she could not find the culprit who had taken Tao Yi and everything else away.
She howled in defiance, roared in despair, pounding in every direction, unleashing her fury — and yet it changed nothing.
Only when everything in the world had been ground to dust and begun rising, converging toward the heavens, did she finally see it in the Void — that beam of light called [Truth], and the cold, impassive figure of [Folly] standing beneath it.
Hong Lin raised her head toward the sky, blood dripping from her eyes, and roared her accusation:
"If you wanted the world to die, then why bestow the Ga upon us?
Are mortal lives not lives at all?!"
[Folly] glanced at this mortal who had been pushed to the threshold of a Divine Throne, and spoke:
"'All life is folly, all civilization is foolishness' — that is the greatest truth of this universe.
[Prosperity] wanted nothing more than for the universe to flourish — but did She ever ask whether anyone else wanted that?
[Truth] sought to prove the truth in His heart — but did He ever ask whether the world consented?
And you — when you ended the lives of others through preemptive strikes or acts of vengeance, all for the sake of those aningless mortal emotions — did you ever ask how those who died at your hands viewed you?
The law of the jungle, selfish gain — the fundantal nature of this universe has never changed.
And so, you and Him..."
[Folly] cast another glance at [Truth]'s ongoing experint and let out a derisive snort. "You're all the sa. All foolish acts."
Hong Lin visibly froze for a mont at those words, but in the next instant her gaze grew even more resolute.
She had never once questioned whether her path was right or wrong. But inspired by [Folly]'s words, she ca to a realization: the false [Prosperity] was utterly insufficient to protect her friends from the gods. If she wanted her friends to flourish forever, she had to beco the true [Prosperity].
No — even higher than that. She had to beco an existence above those sixteen Divine Thrones to impose her will upon the universe!
Hong Lin had her epiphany — but it seed to have co a bit too late. And so, she went "mad."
She charged straight at [Folly].
"I can't find [Truth], so I'll start by taking down His accomplice!
[Folly], prepare to die!"
The silhouette of the great bear was utterly tragic. Perhaps she knew she could never kill a deity, and might even die here herself due to the gap in their Status — but she charged forward regardless.
With no attachnts left, she had nothing but her own lonely courage.
But in [Folly]'s eyes, this courage was simply absurd.
"?"
'Do you even hear what you're saying? [Folly] is [Truth]'s accomplice?'
'Even setting aside opposing faiths, [Folly] was standing right here criticizing [Truth] — how does that make Him [Truth]'s accomplice?'
'What kind of brain does this Proxy of [Prosperity] have?'
Her foolishness didn't even operate on the sa wavelength as the cosmic "foolish acts" He spoke of. Hers was foolishness in the most literal sense.
"..."
Despite His utter disdain, [Folly] departed anyway, because He had no desire to entangle Himself in a foolish act — and because [Truth]'s little display of folly had ceased to hold His interest.
At the tail end of the experint, the result was nothing more than decoration. Once you knew the direction was correct, the rest lost all appeal.
[Truth]'s experint had indeed reached its most critical mont. The imnse power of [Truth] began to reconstruct the entire world according to the predetermined blueprint. In the very next second, Hong Lin — her attempt at deicide thwarted — watched the rest-area villa beside her re-form with a thunderous rumble, and Tao Yi, who had vanished, reappeared.
The torrent of grief and fury suddenly lodged in Hong Lin's throat. Her outstretched bear paw froze re inches above Tao Yi's head, her entire body rigid with shock.
Tao Yi flinched as well. She looked at the bear-ford Hong Lin before her, tilted her head slightly, and asked in puzzlent: "Baldy, were you crying? Why are you crying?"
The sound of her best friend's unmistakably real voice shattered Hong Lin's composure in an instant. She swept Tao Yi into a massive bear hug and burst into sobs.
"Aaahh—"
Tao Yi had no idea what was going on, but her own eyes reddened in sympathy. She gently patted the giant bear's back, swallowing hard before murmuring: "What's all this crying about? Honestly, a grown woman like you."
"I..." Hong Lin lifted her head, both paws gripping Tao Yi's slender shoulders, trembling with the raw relief of soone who had survived a disaster. "I thought I'd never see you agai—"
Before the word "again" could leave her lips — BOOM — Tao Yi and everything around them vanished into thin air once more.
Hong Lin's pupils contracted sharply. She lunged forward, desperate to hold onto Tao Yi, but her paws closed on nothing.
"Xiao Yi!!!"
The first reconstruction had ended. It appeared that no match for another [Truth] had been found.
But this was an expected failure. The second reconstruction would begin soon enough.
Just as the toppled bear raised her head once more, glaring up at the beam of [Truth]'s light blazing across the firmant, ready to wage a war to the death against it — the villa reappeared, and Tao Yi materialized out of nowhere, landing squarely on the bear's back.
The Wood Elf blinked in surprise for a mont, then laughed and patted the bear beneath her:
"Baldy, you never let
ride on your back! What's gotten into you today? Did sothing good happen?"
'Sothing good?'
'I'd like to know what part of this counts as sothing good!'
'But you're back — and that's the best thing of all!'
Hong Lin twisted around again, deftly catching the flung Tao Yi in her embrace — but this ti, before she could utter a single word, Tao Yi vanished again. Disappeared right in her arms.
"..."
A few seconds later, Tao Yi reappeared, standing on Hong Lin's bear paw with a puzzled frown: "Baldy, what are you doing? I'm a mage — don't expect
to agree to a lee sparring match..."
By now, even Hong Lin in her daze could see the pattern. Tao Yi wasn't truly disappearing — she seed to be undergoing constant reconstruction. And as for why she was being reconstructed...
That question was probably best directed at the [Truth] hanging high overhead.
What was He doing?
Running an experint?
For once, Hong Lin didn't look at Tao Yi. Instead, she turned her gaze toward the beam of [Truth]'s light crowning the heavens, wondering: if this was an experint, then why hadn't the other gods moved to stop Him?
Or had they already given their tacit approval — and if so, what did they hope to learn from it?
Did Benefactor [Fate] know? Did Cheng Shi know? And where was he right now?
While Hong Lin's mind churned in confusion, the frequency of Tao Yi's appearances and disappearances began to accelerate. She flickered in and out of existence like a strobe light, barely able to speak a complete sentence during each manifestation.
"Baldy, where is this..."
"I think I had a dream..."
"You're still alive... that's good..."
"Baldy, you..."
Hong Lin went numb. She just lay there, sprawled on the ground, watching Tao Yi flicker on and off atop her chest — sotis even wearing different outfits — and thought to herself:
'If this experint isn't lethal and could go on forever, having the little fox quietly keep
company for a while doesn't sound so bad, does it?'
The great bear, dragged back from the brink of despair, was exhausted. The strobing Tao Yi acted like a hypnotic pendulum, slowly coaxing her eyelids shut.
...
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