The Outer God wasn't Deceit—it was Fate!?
Cheng Shi had lost the ability to think. Only a single phrase remained in his brain—a quip that had circulated among players since the very first day of the ga:
'Void has only ever had one god, and that god is Fate!'
Who could have imagined that a joke players used to tease Deceit followers would turn out to be true?
But even so—even if Fate had picked up Deceit's authority and co to this world—how had He fooled the Convention and successfully assud the role?
Could Deceit's authority alone accomplish that?
Perhaps. But He clearly had an easier thod!
The world reset alone proved that the Outer God Fate wielded power surpassing all other gods. Otherwise, He never could have saved this world from a failed Creator experint!
It all made sense now. Having already survived one world's collapse, He was likely "enriched" by the experience—which was why He could reverse everything when this world failed, forcing a restart!
'What a savior, this Fate!'
But what good did it do? His ultimate goal was still to take him away—to forge a "fixed" of His own, and with it, to demand an accounting from Origin!
Ha—how ironic.
A god sched through untold ages, all for the sake of "demanding" one explanation!
This was Fate through and through. Even when supposedly "rebelling," He was still pandering!
'Your devotion is cheap. It doesn't deserve to stand alongside Deceit's death!'
While Cheng Shi's mind stord, the true Fate was weathering His own tempest of will.
He looked at His other self—the one who had co to seize the fixed—and spoke with stunned, grief-stricken uncertainty:
"When did you replace Him?"
The Outer God Fate was devoid of emotion:
"Shortly after Void descended and the Convention was signed.
The universe couldn't cage Him. The spaceti storms hadn't scattered yet; the barriers hadn't fully stabilized. I crossed over, seeking a new 'fixed'—and happened upon Him in the Real Universe, just as He'd breached the barrier.
I told Him the story of the Real Universe. He half-believed, half-doubted, and swore to verify it with his own eyes.
I warned Him not to take the risk, lest He walk into misfortune. He mocked
for ddling—just like the Deceit from my world had, back then...
So He died the sa way mine did.
I watched Him be erased by the rules. Then I collected His authority, ca to this world, and found you—the one most like —and the 'fixed' who most resembled His collection.
A 'fixed' shackled to a single corner can never beco a sacrifice that opens Origin's temple. Only by journeying to the Real Universe—by comprehending His true will—can one forge the divine throne that Fate's very first will envisioned at His descent!
I too am Fate. I know full well that only that throne can serve as the universe's final answer!
So I must take the 'fixed' with .
This world may not perish. But everything must wait until after I've opened His temple!"
'Wait—!!'
'After Void descended!?'
Cheng Shi's mind went blank.
That ant from the very beginning, the "Deceit" of the Fear Faction had always been the Outer God Fate in disguise?
Before Brother Mouth had even witnessed Deceit's "departure," He was already the Outer God Fate?
Since the Faith Ga began, He'd been deceiving him!?
"Bitch!"
Cheng Shi, drowning in despair, cursed from the depths of his soul.
Every ti he'd called Fate a "bitch" before, there had been annoyance, yes—but also a teasing undertone. This ti, he ant every syllable. Pure, unfiltered profanity.
Stealing Deceit's authority, plundering Fate's fixed destiny, and dressing it all up as "for the sake of the fallen Deceit"—if even a fraction of it had truly been for Deceit, He neither would nor could have done any of these bitch-worthy acts.
Even if He'd killed him—no, killed every Cheng Shi across every world, strangling all "fixed destinies" in their cradles—Cheng Shi would have willingly applauded and said "good!" At least that would count as rebelling against Origin.
But now!
He still wanted to et Origin!
A divine throne?
'Go to hell with your divine throne!'
Cheng Shi wanted to flip the table. He was done. The last shred of hope he'd harbored toward Deceit and the Fear Faction had been extinguished by the Outer God Fate's revelation. Now his road truly had only two choices:
Either beco the Outer God Fate's "fixed" and serve as adhesive for that wretched divine throne, or beco this world's Fate's "fixed"—and still serve as adhesive for the sa damned throne.
'Hahaha—my confusion, my fear, my struggles, my efforts—all so I could be glue for so inexplicable chair?'
'Go to hell with your adhesive! Go to hell with your fixed destiny! Go to hell with Fate! Go to hell with Origin!'
'You all want
dead? Fine—I'll flip the table. Nobody gets to play!'
'My fate is in my own hands!'
"..."
Well, not entirely in his own hands. At the very least, Cheng Shi needed to wait—wait for his contingency to take effect.
After the surge of fury, Cheng Shi returned to calm. But Fate was still raging.
Before the Starlight Canon could fall again, He detonated what little divine power He had left, expanding the universe's Misfortune once more.
He loathed this outco. Loathed the other Fate's claims. Loathed Deceit's death. He even began to loathe Origin—the one who had created Him and given Him His will!
Fate didn't know how His perpetually devout self had suddenly erupted with such world-weary, rebellious emotion. He only knew that this starry sky's "fixed," even if it no longer belonged to Void, must never be allowed to be taken to so other sky.
That would be an insult to the fallen Deceit. A blasphemy against this world's Fate.
He could not accept another world's version of Himself trampling Void's dignity in this way. He refused to acknowledge Void's failure beneath this starry sky.
Yes—they had already failed. The mont Deceit fell, the mont the world was invaded by an Outer God, the mont the "fixed" was coveted—they had already lost.
Even if Origin truly presided over a cosmic experint, what He desired was never a sacrifice offered by a failed Fate.
Having lost all path forward, Fate fell silent. Then, in a mont of resolve, His gaze hardened, His spirals froze—and He deliberately veered onto the wrong road!
This ti it wasn't a bluff, a threat, or an act. He was truly, genuinely dragging the universe into Misfortune!
A terrifying shockwave rippled from the Void. In an instant, every god's expression changed. They rushed to gather—but the Outer God Fate blocked them all beyond the Void.
A faint, unremarkable shimr of seven-colored light circled the Outer God Fate's eyes. Seeing it, Cheng Shi's pupils contracted—he imdiately guessed this was the trump card that gave the other the confidence to show His hand. Sure enough, the Outer God Fate spoke without emotion:
"I narrowly escaped my universe's destruction. In the tides of the apocalypse, I obtained this thread of Origin's power.
It is the supre force. Before it, the Misfortune you've detonated can only beco your own misfortune.
Stop struggling. You cannot win."
He then turned to Cheng Shi, cold beyond asure:
"Every life—mortal or divine—is nothing but a variable in this Creator's experint.
That being so, what aning does the world hold for you?
It is rely one of countless replicate cultures. Given sufficient numbers, infinite versions of you will repeat the sa fate.
Let
tell you: in my world, the clown walked the exact sa path as you. You are him. He is you.
What you cherish, he cherished. What you cared about, he cared about. What you strove for, he strove for. So the road he couldn't finish... why can you not continue it?
He gave you a choice. Don't waste his goodwill."
"Go to hell!
Don't you dare use another 's goodwill to coerce ! I've made it abundantly clear—we each walk our own path. Even if the road ahead is a dead end, I accept it.
But nobody gets to force my head down a road I refuse to walk!
I won't go with you. I won't build that blood-stained throne. If the 'fixed' is truly the universe's answer, then I am this world's answer—and that's got nothing to do with you!
I'm staying here. Even if I die, I'll die right here!"
"Stubbornly foolish."
The Outer God Fate's eyes went cold in an instant. The gale of nothingness surged, shaping into a colossal hand that reached for Cheng Shi.
And at that very mont—an earth-shattering explosion detonated at Cheng Shi's side. The entire Void's darkness shattered like a spider web, then peeled away like faded ink. The Starlight Canon was blasted into oblivion, its pages bursting into countless points of starlight—blazing, brilliant, then gone.
Within that shower of fading cosmic light, Cheng Shi turned—and saw that where the imprisoned Fate had been...
'Fate!?'
'Where did He go!?'
His pupils contracted violently. His mind went blank. Before he could even process what had happened, the Outer God Fate sighed:
"Both Fates... and yet it cos to this..."
"!!??"
'What!?'
'Fate... what happened to Him?'
...
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