Yet another one desperate to pick up the kids.
[Fate]'s urgency was written plainly across His face — every god present could see that He simply wanted to go protect the follower He had left stranded in the Void.
Although [Truth]'s experint had bypassed the cage area He had established, that asure was designed to restrain the gods. Once [Justice] had pulled them all into the Convention assembly, there was no telling whether the Void out there was still safe.
The other gods clearly couldn't care less. Only [Birth] and [Fate] remained unable to set their worries aside.
Seeing this, [Deceit] smirked with amusent. [Justice] hesitated briefly before asking — in a rare departure — a question unrelated to the Convention:
"Is the truth that [Truth] sought truly beyond this space-ti?"
[Fate]'s answer was resolute: "I don't know."
That answer drew an inscrutable smile from [Deceit], who turned His gaze toward [mory]. [mory], anwhile, quietly lowered His eyes.
Since [Truth]'s self-destruction, no god knew that [Fate] had sealed away mories within Him.
[Fate] continued:
"All I know is that the Fixed Destiny has not yet been severed. So even if this universe truly contains truth, it can only reside within this space-ti that I perceive.
[Truth] took the wrong path. He went astray.
As for the other spaces-ti that the rest of you are imagining — that is nothing more than a great deceptive lie spun by [Deceit] and [Ti] together.
I had assud that even though [Existence] stands opposed to [Void], the two paths were at least equal in their devotion to approaching 'Him.'
Now I see how wrong I was.
[Existence] truly should not exist."
With that, [Fate] cut a blade-cold glare at [mory] and departed the Convention.
A great deceptive lie woven by [Deceit] and [Ti]?
The phrasing sounded profoundly awkward.
[Deceit] certainly loved His lies — but did [Ti] even have ti to tell lies?
If not, then what exactly had He been busy with all this while?
The gods knew far more than mortals and understood this world far better. They too had all manner of speculations about the universe and Origin, but now it seed that so had already surged ahead in their understanding — [Void], [Ti], [Folly], and the freshly fallen [Truth].
When you thought about it, the secret powerful enough to drive [Truth] to self-destruction in pursuit of self-evidence probably wasn't as simple as [Fate] described it. If truth truly lay beneath these stars, why would [Truth] have needed to annihilate everything and reconstruct a new world?
So [Truth]'s experint hadn't rely brought Him His answer — it had inspired the others' imaginations about secrets beyond the universe, turning their gazes once again toward [Void], toward the two masters of this era.
Under the pull of curiosity and thirst for knowledge, everyone wanted the truth.
Yet perhaps only a handful actually possessed it. If the others wanted to catch up quickly, they would have to choose between [Truth]'s Authority and the universe's secrets.
[Oblivion] knew He couldn't scrape together half the votes. After long deliberation, He concluded that [mory] — sibling to [Ti] — likely knew sothing. Besides, His reason for attending the Convention was straightforward: prevent [Void] from claiming the Authority and making more trouble. With [Void] now ineligible for votes, He decided to cast his ballot for [mory].
He wanted to acquire useful mories from [mory]'s Collection Hall.
The two gods conferred briefly. [mory] was noncommittal.
He didn't believe He had any collection worth sharing with [Oblivion], so He offered no response.
But [Oblivion] surveyed the assembled gods and simply couldn't find a better candidate. Even if only to rally opposition against [Void], He could only give this vote to [mory].
One other god shared the sa thinking. Although the Iron Law bore no grudge against [Void], it too yearned to learn about the past.
It often felt confused about its own identity, sensing that perhaps so mory had been lost. So it also cast its vote for [mory].
[mory] suddenly held two votes — a temporary lead.
The remaining gods held off, still observing.
And by "observing," they were really just waiting to see [Deceit]'s next move.
It wasn't hard to notice that among those who hadn't yet voted — besides [mory] Himself — only [Death], [Silence], and [Chaos] remained.
Those three votes were transparently aligned. [Deceit] had initially planned to secure [Birth]'s single vote to claim [Truth]'s Authority, but [Birth] had impatiently voted for Herself, and [Fate]'s wasted ballot made things worse. Now it seed impossible for the Fear Faction to sweep up [Truth]'s legacy.
Since that was off the table, [Death] and [Silence] couldn't very well give their votes to [Chaos] either — after all, on the surface, they weren't allied with [Deceit].
And so the situation deadlocked.
The gods were all shrewd enough to foresee the outco. If no one compromised, [Truth]'s Final Oracle would drag on indefinitely. Who knew what would beco of the world under the experint's ongoing reconstruction? And the final act of the Void Era might well proceed without them — leaving only the absent gods to play out the drama.
So everyone would inevitably compromise. The path of compromise was to choose the most reassuring, lowest-risk third party to receive [Truth]'s Authority.
And that third party, when you looked around the room, could only be...
[Birth].
No other reason — She was stable.
And so, in the next instant, [Death], [Silence], and [mory] simultaneously voted for [Birth]. [Chaos] stealthily conferred with [Birth] at length, and under the impatient lashing of Her Divine Pillar, He too cast his vote for Her.
Five of nine — the Final Oracle was fulfilled. The god least in need of Authority had received [Truth]'s Authority.
[Birth]'s Divine Pillar twisted briefly, showing not a shred of joy at the acquisition. She bellowed "Child—" and vanished from the gods' sight.
[Oblivion] fled just as quickly — He had no choice. [Death] and [Deceit] were eyeing Him like hawks. He wasn't arrogant enough to fight two at once without preparation, so to the sound of [Deceit]'s mocking laughter, [Oblivion] dissolved His own form.
[mory] gazed at [Deceit] with neither joy nor sorrow, leaving behind a single sentence — "Stop coveting my Collection Hall" — before departing.
[Deceit] paid no attention to the remark. Instead, He plucked up the pretending-to-sleep Big Cat, and said with deep implication:
"Little kitty, little kitty. After acting as a Proxy for so long, you've surely learned one lesson by now — once your Benefactor dies, there's no one left to protect His followers."
Then He casually tossed her aside and vanished into the starry sky.
The remaining gods filtered out one by one, leaving only [Justice] and the Iron Law behind.
Interestingly, at every previous Convention assembly, [Justice] had always been the first to vacate — since He represented the Convention, He never appeared when unnecessary.
But this ti, He clearly had sothing to say to "Himself."
The perfectly balanced Scales turned their gaze toward [Order]'s seat, and after a long silence asked:
"Does order still exist in this universe?"
The Iron Law's reply was unwavering: "Of course."
The Scales paused, then asked: "Then why is it that every god has gone to save the universe — yet you alone have not gone to uphold order?"
The Iron Law fell into a brief confusion, thought for a mont, then replied:
"[Truth] told
that order exists not only within the universe, but perhaps beyond it as well. So I am waiting for a new order.
I want to know how one order differs from another. If order itself is not unique, then what is 'His' expectation of [Order]...
And what aning does my existence hold?"
...
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