"Hee~
It seems soone can't bear the pain of their sibling-god's departure and has resorted to self-deception.
If I'm not Deceit, then who am I?"
Those celestial eyes whirled with spirals so rapid they ford a vortex of lies, swallowing every shred of truth.
He looked at Fate and began re-gathering Truth's power, intent on silencing Fate once more.
But Fate struggled harder than ever. The spirals in His icy eyes accelerated until a suffocatingly dense aura of Misfortune engulfed the entire expanse, spreading at a terrifying rate across the universe.
Cheng Shi had always believed he'd never witnessed the true wrong path. Today, he saw it.
The tidal wave of Misfortune was like chains—shackling every living thing in creation and dragging them rcilessly toward the abyss of nothingness!
In that instant, Cheng Shi t those eyes—their stars frozen, spirals sealed in ice.
He saw in His gaze bewildernt and despair.
Fate saw in his gaze fury and desolation!
It was an emotion beyond words. A thousand descriptors flooded Cheng Shi's mind, but the only one that truly captured it was...
'Mutual destruction!'
Yes—it was the fierceness of mutual annihilation and the finality of severing everything.
When Fate gave up and readied to drag the entire universe into Misfortune's abyss, there was nothing left to hold Him back. The Outer God could no longer threaten Him with the world's "fixed destiny."
He was prepared to abandon the whole world—so what did it matter whether the sacrifice remained beneath this starry sky?
Cheng Shi could clearly see that Fate's rage wasn't born from anything done to him. Perhaps everything before had been about defending the fixed. But at this mont—right now—His fury ca entirely from learning that His sibling-god had fallen!
As the true essence of Void—the one who perceived the universe's reality—He may have guessed everything long ago. But only now had He stopped deceiving Himself, sorrowfully accepting the truth that His brother-god had perished beyond the world.
And so Fate erupted with fury, and the universe... plunged into Misfortune.
The savage divine force nearly ripped the Void apart. He no longer cared about the fixed's safety—and it was Deceit who, with a grave expression, shielded the clown so he wouldn't be hurt in Fate's grief-stricken wail.
Yes—after the fury ca a crushing, suffocating sorrow that seeped from those icy celestial eyes.
Though He had never agreed with Deceit's path—though Deceit had always made choices contrary to His own—He knew Deceit was still His sibling-god, His only bond to Void.
Without the surface, what substance does the Void have? Just as lips perish and teeth grow cold—the two had always been interdependent.
The world knew He cared about the fixed. But who knew He cared equally about Void—about the sibling-god who never once walked the sa road?
Within those cold celestial eyes, the spirals began to fracture, the stars to shatter one by one. His gaze stayed cold, but within that coldness was written inconsolable grief.
"Deceit would never accept my path, never agree with my concept of the fixed.
Every gaze He cast upon the fixed was solely to rebel against the great Origin who bestowed our thrones!
To piece together a throne belonging to Him from the divine faiths of all gods—that was the sacrifice I intended to offer Origin from the mont Void descended upon this world!
This will was born with . I believed it was also His will. But when I told Deceit, He said:
'I descended from Origin's oracle, and the very first thought I had upon opening my eyes was to tear His throne apart. And you... want to build Him a new one?
Are you Existence or Void?'
That was Him!
That was truly Him!
A rebel who, from the mont He descended as Void, refused to submit to Origin!
So... even if you're from a different world—even if you co from another starry sky—as long as you are Deceit, you would never use that throne as your 'answer' to speak of rebellion!
He hated that throne. It was rebellion in His very bones—His innate distance from, His estrangent from Origin!
You are not Deceit!
Who... are you!??"
"..."
"..."
Silence—the roiling Void before them.
Cheng Shi's mind had completely crashed. He'd never imagined that the so-called sacrifice was actually an Origin's throne, created under Fate's will, assembled from all the gods!
Could the throne left behind in the Corpse Field of Gods really be... the "fixed"!?
Then what was he? A puzzle piece for the throne?
But the materials composing that throne were the gods themselves!
And besides, there was no place for him in that throne pieced together from divine corpses. The blanks were for Corruption and Fate—fill those, and where was there room for him?
Hiss—
Well, maybe there was...
Cheng Shi froze. An explosion of absurdity detonated in his brain.
The cracks!
That throne still had countless uneven cracks!
Was this so-called "fixed destiny" ant to make him... so kind of faith-less adhesive!?
'Oh no—no wonder I'm so fond of tentacle sli. It was like attracting like all along?'
The absurd, chaotic thought flashed and vanished. When Cheng Shi ca back to himself, the scene before him dragged him into an even deeper abyss of absurdity.
Deceit had been silent for an age. Just as Misfortune's grip on the universe nearly drew the attention of other gods, He suddenly let out a laugh.
That laughter carried helplessness, confusion, rage, despair, fear... countless emotions churned together, viscous as a stagnant Sea of Desire. And above that "sea" lingered a fog called self-mockery.
He seed to be laughing at Himself.
He was laughing at Himself!
But the laughter cut off abruptly, mid-note. And then those eyes—which had never stopped laughing—drained of every trace of mirth. As though shedding a skin, the mask slowly peeled away, revealing beneath all that laughter a pair of celestial eyes cold enough to chill the soul!
These eyes, as if dredged from an abyssal frost pool, bore such resemblance to Fate's that in the instant they opened, even Fate felt a mont of vertigo.
Yet the stars in this pair had long ceased to shine, the spirals had stilled. He looked as though He had weathered sorrows far beyond a single era, every agony carved into those spirals.
And what flowed from those eyes was an infinite, endless tide of Fate's essence—so dense it was terrifying, so pure it was alarming. This was no false imitation. This was the genuine article.
This was Fate!
"Things have co to this. The fixed is fixed.
I need no longer follow His example and spin lie after lie.
I am indeed not Deceit. Deceit died long ago—in your world, and in mine... all of Them are gone.
I am Fate!
The sole Void remaining after Deceit's fall. The one who swore to carry the fixed into His temple and ask whether He is satisfied with such a destiny!
But alas...
Deceit's departure took my 'fixed' with Him. I had no other choice but to co to your world seeking a substitute.
I witnessed firsthand the path Deceit and the fixed walked together. I know all too well that before the fixed truly becos the fixed, he will never walk Fate's straight road—only lean toward Deceit, turning away from Origin.
So I collected His authority, disguised myself as Him, and ca to this world.
Everything I've done began because of Him, and was done for His sake.
I'm not just saving the world. I'm also... demanding an answer from Origin for His death."
"!!!!!!"
In this mont, Void's sky fell.
The clown's sky fell too.
...
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