The situation on the field shifted quickly. Fate grew weary of this cat-and-mouse ga and stood His ground, divine power surging wildly, once more driving the universe toward misfortune.
The assembled gods were exasperated with this volatile Void ruler. Although the collapse of the universe aligned perfectly with Void's will, it contradicted the will of every other Path of Fate. The gods wouldn't let Fate unleash His full power unchecked — and their thod of stopping Him was an interesting one.
Rather than simply reasoning with Him or joining forces to counterattack, they decided to give Him a hand — by driving Oblivion out first.
This wasn't exactly standard procedure. Before Void's era, any individual who dared resist the majority of gods would be besieged. But ever since the Void era had begun — or more precisely, ever since Deceit had "sold" the Convention to everyone — no one was willing to provoke Void anymore.
One madman was headache enough. Add a noisy "flea" on top of that...
Yes, the Convention protected divine authority from being lost, but the Convention also protected the "flea's" annoying attributes.
All the gods knew that Void was of one mind. Even if They appeared to be split right now, who would wager that this wasn't just another Void illusion?
If they antagonized Fate to stop this war, then as long as Void still stood, no one could withstand the retaliation from either of Them.
Compared to Void, however, Descent was far easier to bully.
Corruption never showed Himself. Decay had nothing left to give. If they dealt with the sole remaining Oblivion, one could almost say Descent had already lost any chance of competing with other Paths for the future.
None of the gods present were fools — Truth least of all. The mont He saw the situation trending in the direction He'd envisioned, He imdiately bestowed the guidance of Truth upon His followers, ordering every "scholar" to scour the trials for traces of Oblivion's Envoy — the Hand of Purifying Weevil, Herobos.
And then He personally joined the "hunt."
The score suddenly beca two against one.
The fire of war began to spread, and yet the true god who bore the divine na of War rely stood in a corner of the void, silently watching it all unfold, never once making a move.
Seeing this, Silence spared Him a rare glance — but by sheer coincidence, at the very mont Silence's gaze shifted, a Fishbone Hall crashed into existence behind those eyes of blood and fire, and a massive skull slowly drifted forth from the Bone Throne.
Death had arrived.
The instant He descended, Silence vanished without a trace.
War calmly regarded the Death behind Him and rumbled: "You should be on the battlefield, not here."
"?"
The green flas in the massive skull's eye sockets flickered. He felt this remark should be directed at anyone but Himself, so He tossed it right back — with a little extra.
"The one, who should, stand here, is Order. You, are so, orderly — do you, want to, inherit, Order's, divine throne, or steal, His authority?"
War fell silent. After a mont, He rumbled: "The Convention expressly forbids initiating a God War."
"And yet, a God War, has already, begun," the massive skull replied, looking toward the battlefield with curiosity. "If you, truly cared, about the Convention, you should, use your authority, to stop, the war, that has already, broken out.
Yet you, still haven't. Don't you, want to, explain, yourself?"
An explanation was absolutely not forthcoming. War lapsed into silence again.
The massive skull glanced at Him, then suddenly let out a laugh that set teeth on edge.
"I wonder — are you, still, War?
Could you, perhaps, be a puppet, double for Silence, or maybe, half of Order, who was, split apart, in the Sea, of Desire?
Only that, would explain, why you've, beco... like this."
As the two conversed, the God War below grew fiercer by the minute.
Oblivion could barely hold off Fate's pursuit, and adding a Truth with ulterior motives to the equation left Him with virtually no chance of winning — especially after He spotted His own counterpart descending.
So at a certain mont, after shaking off the pincer attack of Fate and Truth, He plunged directly into His own world, obliterated every trace, and vanished from before the gods.
anwhile, Death — right beside where Oblivion disappeared — hadn't lifted a finger. The flas in those eyes of blood and fire erupted for an instant, and He rumbled once more:
"You are not Death. You are—"
Before the words could finish, a pale Fishbone Hall descended upon... the first Fishbone Hall.
And when the massive skull within the second Fishbone Hall looked down and saw another version of Himself beneath, He finally understood what soone's so-called "probing" had been all about.
It turned out He wasn't needed to do the probing at all — He'd just been used as a disguise!
Yes — the newcor was the real Death. As for the first one...
"Deceit! I, demand, an explanation!"
Hearing this thunderous roar, the "massive skull" beside War let out a snicker, winked at War with those hollow eye sockets, and said:
"See? Old Bones just loves demanding explanations. Seems I didn't play the part too badly after all.
Hmm, and neither did you."
With that, the "massive skull" looked up at the "other self" overhead and argued — shalessly, stubbornly, brazenly:
"Old Bones, you were the one who got trapped. I went through all that trouble, personally stepping up to fulfill the promise you made , and you won't even thank ? What are you getting angry for?
Hee~
nopause truly is terrifying."
With that, the first Fishbone Hall and its "massive skull" instantly collapsed into a flood of Void and vanished, leaving only a grim-faced Death and a grave-faced War staring at each other, with nothing left to say.
An absurd farce concluded with an even more absurd ending. The spectating gods had begun to withdraw the mont Deceit appeared, and now that Oblivion had fled, they naturally had no intention of staying around to bear the brunt of Fate's fury.
In an instant, only two remained in the void — the frigid Fate and... the smiling Truth.
Truth had never left. Or rather, His decision to enter the fray hadn't been rely about coveting Oblivion's authority. Let us not forget — it was He who had witnessed the transaction between Fate and mory, which had sparked His investigation into Void's secrets.
So at this mont, having lent Fate a hand, He naturally wasn't about to leave. He wanted to glean so information from Fate.
He looked at this Void ruler, whose anger still smoldered, and said with a light smile:
"If you wish to see Descent fall into true descent, I might offer myself as an ally. I know you have no interest in Oblivion's authority, but I happen to be quite interested. So — shall we cooperate, Fate?
A partnership that sees through both truth and destiny."
Those star-filled eyes, crusted with frost, glanced at Truth and let out a cold laugh:
"I know you want more than just Oblivion's authority, but you've co to the wrong person.
I need no allies. I can still send Him to et true oblivion on my own.
He will understand — the end of oblivion is not Himself, but Void."
Hearing the refusal, Truth showed no annoyance. He simply smiled on:
"Practice is the only path to verifying truth. We've worked together before, and it was a rather pleasant experience. So why not try once more?
Whether it's your twin deity Deceit, who never speaks a word of truth, or your busy and enigmatic counterpart Ti — compared to Them, I'm far more like a trustworthy partner. Wouldn't you agree?"
"Your cooperation is rely a pretext to learn about my transaction with mory. But as you yourself once said, one must respect mory's authority. Since the transaction is complete, I cannot rember what I've forgotten.
But I can tell you what I have not forgotten:
I am the essence of Void, wielding the authority of Fate. I perceive the changes of the present and witness the Fixed Destiny of the future.
Regrettably, no matter how trustworthy you may be, your figure appears in neither the change nor the Fixed Destiny of this era.
You've taken a wrong turn, Truth. Take care of yourself."
With that, Fate vanished from the void, leaving Truth gazing at the spot where He had disappeared, shaking His head with an amused smile:
"If every path were the right one, I would already be Truth itself — wouldn't I?"
...
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