When [Void] was divided, whose voice should be heeded next?
The answer was [Deceit].
Because [Fate] was suprely indifferent and rarely spoke.
And because He could never outpace [Deceit] in conversation.
The mont He finished saying "I object," [Deceit]—holding the opposing view—had already launched into His mockery.
"Great idea. I've been wanting to rge with the Mother of [Prosperity] for ages. I've always felt Her eyes weren't captivating enough—why not swap them for mine?"
"But the Pact probably wouldn't appreciate
doing that, so how about you give
a demonstration first?"
"Oh, and we'll need the most esteed [Truth] to release the Mother of [Prosperity] from that dusty pile of books first. Then we can discuss who gets to assimilate with Her."
With that, He turned His gaze toward [Folly].
Those eyes sared with chaotic white opacity let out a contemptuous snort, muttered "a aningless farce," and vanished.
He was gone—as if He'd already foreseen the coming disagreents and their futile end.
Seeing [Folly] depart, [Deceit] turned to [Truth] with a playful grin.
"Your hard-won ally just walked out. So tell , interested party—how do you feel?"
"History may not be truth, but it is still worth rembering. The Pact recognizes [mory]'s Divine Na and safeguards His Authority—and so it should likewise acknowledge the changes brought about by the exercise of that Authority."
"Therefore, I have no objections."
At those words, [mory] opened His eyes and gazed at Him with a faint smile.
Hearing this, Cheng Shi could only marvel at how formidable [Truth] truly was. He seed to have gained yet another ally—if not in the present, then perhaps in the future, or even in the past.
[Truth]'s infinitely rational gaze swept over the bodies of Cheng Shi and Hong Lin, and then He stated His position with asured composure:
"All of you know my will. I have no desire to hoard divine power indiscriminately."
"So the Pact need only confirm my identity, granting
[Prosperity]'s Authority of Assimilation. As for the remaining Authorities, I am perfectly willing to relinquish them—to share them with this long-absent Servant God, Frazor."
Upon hearing this, the tightly wound, terror-stricken Cheng Shi and Hong Lin both brightened—while [Deceit], on the other hand, furrowed His brow.
[Truth] was not [Prosperity]. He was the aggregate of all cosmic laws, the sum total of the universe's essence. If He obtained the Authority of Assimilation, it would likely be only a matter of ti before everyone was subsud within Him, becoming part of this world's truth.
And that was precisely why [Deceit] had agreed to let Cheng Shi run wild—because no one wanted to be assimilated, whether by [Prosperity] or [Truth].
The no-longer-grinning [Deceit] prepared to voice His opposition, but before He could open His mouth, a cataclysmic roar erupted from the void without the slightest warning!
BOOM—BOOM!!!
An explosion that seed to shake the entire universe tore through the cosmos. Before Cheng Shi and Hong Lin could even react, an indescribable torrent of overwhelming vitality erupted from rifts in the void on all sides, instantly flooding the entire starry sky with erald green.
The two humans couldn't process what was happening. Their vision went black and consciousness fled. When they opened their eyes again, they discovered they had both beco bleached-white skulls.
"?"
"Huh?"
Two small skulls appeared beneath that great one's Bone Throne, utterly dumbstruck. [Death] had at so point reassud the form of a colossal skull, and Fishbone Hall had materialized in this stretch of void without anyone expecting it.
He sat high upon the Bone Throne, green flas blazing wildly in His eye sockets, His gaze heavy as He stared downward.
Cheng Shi and Hong Lin exchanged an uneasy glance, hearts pounding, and followed His line of sight downward. Below, in the void that still bore the shadow of the Canopy Sea, there was no longer any trace of green. The apocalyptic force unleashed by that horrific explosion seed to have destroyed reality and void alike, crumpling everything into a single mass.
Throughout this space riddled with tears in the void, terrifying fluctuations still surged and overflowed—yet all that t the eye was the ravaged aftermath of vitality turned to ruin.
Cheng Shi's heart lurched, and a deeply unsettling thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.
But the thought was so absurd, so terrifying, that the instant it ford, he shoved it away.
Hong Lin felt the sa—but she knew slightly more than Cheng Shi, because her keen [Prosperity] senses told her that this space had just experienced a single instant of [Prosperity] aura so dense and overwhelming it defied comprehension. And now, this place held...
No more [Prosperity].
She gaped in disbelief, her teeth clacking against each other, struck mute by the utterly unfathomable thought forming in her mind.
"This is..." Cheng Shi tilted his chin upward, his head buzzing, the question escaping him involuntarily.
"The Final Oracle..."
The colossal skull atop the Bone Throne let out a mournful sigh and slowly uttered the words. His tone was so complex, so inscrutable—tinged even with a thread of ineffable sorrow.
"[Prosperity]'s... Final Oracle."
"When... a True God... falls... the Pact... bestows on Their behalf... one last... inviolable... oracle."
!!!!!!!!!!
What!!!???
[Prosperity] had fallen?
She was dead?
Huh? No—how was that even possible!?
"How is that possible!? My lord, didn't you say the Pact protects all True Gods, preventing Their fall and ensuring Their Authorities are never lost? How could She die!?"
"Who killed Her?"
"Who could kill Her?"
Of course it was Cheng Shi asking—because Hong Lin's brain was still in a state of complete shutdown.
From the mont she'd appeared under the gaze of the gods, the roaring in her head had never stopped. She'd lost nearly all the composure and awareness essential to a warrior—all she could guarantee was that she wouldn't collapse from fear in the presence of the gods, standing as straight as she possibly could, but nothing more.
She let her ears passively absorb everything, but words like "Pact" and "Final Oracle" ant absolutely nothing to her—she neither knew nor understood them.
It was only after hearing Cheng Shi speak that she realized this Fate Weaver from the Destined Ones knew far, far more than she did. He seed deeply familiar with the gods—and hadn't shown even a flicker of timidity before this terrifying colossal skull.
'This must be [Death], right?'
'So He's a giant skull...'
'But why does He stutter when He talks?'
'No, no, no—Hong Lin, you can't be thinking about that right now. You need to pull yourself together. Focus! This is serious—because your Benefactor, [Prosperity]... seems to have fallen!'
The colossal skull on the Bone Throne did not answer Cheng Shi. He rely gazed in silence toward the epicenter of the explosion—toward the place where [Prosperity]'s Final Oracle still echoed—and sighed once more.
"[Life]... is... so... fragile."
"Only... He... and I... remain."
Listening to [Death]'s lant, Cheng Shi confird one thing: [Prosperity] was truly dead. Dead beyond any doubt!
But the question was—who killed Her?
Was it [Oblivion], who wanted to annihilate Her Authority for His own amusent?
No, that wasn't right. He rembered that the pair of eyes like twin black voids had been present at the scene the entire ti. They hadn't left...
Then it was...
No! Wait!!!
Cheng Shi froze. Because he suddenly recalled what [Death] had said before—those words about the Pact's rules. The exact words were:
"Under the Pact's protection, no god can kill another god."
"Because the very purpose of signing it was to prevent any more wars that led to the fall of deities."
No god could kill another god!
So...
Cheng Shi stared at the devastation stretching across nearly the entire starry sky beneath his feet. Dumbstruck, unable to believe it, he shook his head and spoke:
"So it was..."
"[Prosperity] killed [Prosperity]!"
"She..."
"Destroyed Herself."
...
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