Chapter 23: Half a Great Old One

Chapter 23: Half a Great Old One

Within the astral world—an existence even more abstract than the spirit world, as though it encompassed every authority and symbol in the entire cosmos—everything revealed itself.

Yet the light that illuminated this place was not distributed evenly. It was concentrated mainly in several places, layered and interwoven into patches resembling thick prisms.

There were three such patches, each sealing off a different illusory kingdom.

One of those kingdoms was covered in bright flowers, its sky forever radiant. Another seemed to be made of books, some open and some closed, with different figures shuttling among them, taking pleasure in reading. The last was a boundless sea wreathed in violent winds, torrential rain, and ceaseless thunder and lightning.

The next second, intense changes occurred simultaneously within all three different kingdoms.

In the place where the sky was eternally bright, every flower released light, as though transforming into miniature, blazing suns.

Countless tiny suns interwove, then threw themselves together into an exceptionally dazzling golden sun that shot up from deep within the kingdom. It radiated scorching light that seemed capable of illuminating the entire world, the entire star system.

Yet no matter how much energy this near-real sun poured out, no matter how many ultra-high-temperature flames it created, it could not break through the thick, prism-like patch of light.

Each layer it destroyed was immediately replaced by a new one, and the speed of regeneration was not at all inferior.

Elsewhere in the astral world, across the surface of the marvelous kingdom composed of all kinds of books, faint brass-colored light rapidly wandered over the same prism-like patch of light, sketching one mysterious symbol after another. It seemed to be searching for the critical structural point or effective method that could destroy the barrier in a single strike.

During this process, the faint light even formed a pair of illusory eyes—eyes that could directly see weak points and create weak points.

Yet within the patch of light, a similar faint glow was also wandering, reconstructing itself again and again and altering its critical structural points.

The two sides looked as though they were competing in calculation ability, with no clear victor for the moment.

Deep within the boundless sea shrouded by lightning, storms, and rain, a point of light suddenly flared.

It carried a portion of matter and approached the limit of speed, creating by this means a violent “wave” capable of destroying a planet.

That “wave,” together with the point of light, repeatedly slammed against the thick prism-like patch of light, knocking loose countless motes of brilliance.

At some unknown point, an illusory sea that seemed to contain all colors and all possibilities rippled within the patch of light. It appeared to bring the surrounding environment into a state of solidification, causing the storm-bearing point of light to slow irresistibly. Then the point of light accelerated, slowed, accelerated, slowed again—repeating the cycle endlessly, refusing to give up.

With the Chaos Sea as His source, with Himself and the True Creator as His pillars, Adam had “Envisioned” three Uniquenesses and incorporated them into this system. He seemed to have surpassed the limits of the Sequences and become half a Great Old One. By His own power alone, He forcibly suppressed the Eternal Blazing Sun, the Lord of Storms, and the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, trapping three Sequence 0 true gods inside Their respective divine kingdoms!

At this moment, He seemed to have returned to His peak state, becoming once again the ancient Sun God who had fought and slain one ancient god after another.

He had chosen the Visionary and Hanged Man pathways as the foundation of His rebirth, not only because each possessed special traits related to resurrection, but also because, according to His own research, this was the choice with the greatest probability of becoming God.

Becoming a true god of either the Visionary or Hanged Man pathway, preliminarily mastering the Chaos Sea, then reclaiming the remaining Uniquenesses and Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics in sequence—this was the comparatively easiest and least risky path toward advancement as Lord of the Astral World.

And within this, the Visionary pathway possessed one additional special point compared to the Hanged Man pathway.

When a Visionary had preliminarily controlled the Chaos Sea and, to a certain degree, accommodated a second Uniqueness and corresponding Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristic, He could rely on Envisioning to manifest the remaining false symbols and authorities, allowing Himself to temporarily obtain a level beyond the Sequences and wield the strength of half a Great Old One.

However, at the end of the Third Epoch, the ancient Sun God’s plan had been this: after being “assassinated,” He would immediately revive within Sasrir in the Giant King’s Court, first reclaim the Hanged Man Uniqueness and the three Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics, becoming a Sequence 0 true god once again. Then He would use the first Blasphemy Slate placed beside Him to preliminarily take control of the Chaos Sea. With that foundation, He would then allow the Angel of Imagination, Adam, to awaken and return to His main body, forming a pillar of support.

Once such a system had been constructed, the ancient Sun God would use the Hanged Man’s grazing ability and the Visionary’s means of separating virtual personalities to control the Uniquenesses of the Sun, Reader, and Sailor pathways, as well as one Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristic from each, bringing His status and strength infinitely close to that of a Great Old One while maintaining the minimum degree of stability.

He had not directly accommodated the Chaos Sea, nor the Uniquenesses and Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics of the other three pathways, because He did not wish to advance to Great Old One and become a Pillar in that era. That would inevitably lead to God’s awakening, causing His own self to be lost.

His plan had been to control the situation and the materials first, then wait until the apocalypse approached before completing the final steps in one stroke and becoming a Pillar with self-awareness.

The reason He had not planned to use Visionary as the cornerstone back then was that He had not obtained the Quill of Alzuhod and lacked one of the main ingredients. Only after the Kings of Angels betrayed Him and His plan failed miserably—after He revived within Adam—did He decide to seize the opportunity brought by this disaster and take the best path.

At this moment, Adam, transformed into a gigantic figure of light, stood upon the chaotic, void-black surface of the water. The astral world was reflected in His eyes, and the three true gods could not break through the restrictions.

Around Him, streak after streak of light trailed flaming tails as they constantly fell from above, illuminating the entire Forsaken Land of the Gods and placing the Northern and Southern Continents simultaneously beneath the noon sun.

Inside Bayam’s remaining bell tower, Amon, who sat on the railing, pushed the monocle ground from crystal over His right eye. Supporting Himself with both hands, He abruptly leapt up and directly entered the astral world.

At some unknown point during this process, an ancient, mottled slate had appeared in His left hand.

The first Blasphemy Slate!

Amon had once used it to block the gap created by Mr. Door’s return ritual, preventing the Mother Goddess of Depravity’s invasion.

After the return ritual ended and the Door of Flesh collapsed completely, with no passage left capable of being maintained, He retrieved the Blasphemy Slate.

Now, Amon casually tossed it down, letting the ancient mottled slate fall from the astral world to some place in the Fog Sea.

It was a mountain peak that pierced through boundless black fog.

Its base could not be seen, and around it there seemed to exist a continent.

After the first Blasphemy Slate fell, it accurately embedded itself into the mountain peak, transforming into an illusory sea that contained all colors.

At the same time, Amon entered the astral world and saw the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range that had been “grafted” here. He saw the ancient, dilapidated palace atop the peak.

His body, dressed in a pointed soft hat and classical black robe, expanded rapidly, instantly reaching the scale of a mountain.

His mouth then opened, as though He intended to swallow the grand but ruined palace of Antigonus into His stomach.

Suddenly, He saw a hazy, indistinct figure.

This figure wore a layered but not overly elaborate black gown, adorned with countless points of starlight.

Like the current Amon, She was now colossal. A pair of arms covered in short, deep-black fur grew from Her ribs and waist respectively, yet She had a beautiful, gentle face veiled as if by thin black gauze.

Her eyes were like a night sky dense with stars, bringing peace to the heart while also causing an irrepressible fear.

Two of Her hands dragged a long, enormous scythe. Another held the golden bird-shaped ornament. The remaining hands were empty, as though lifting up something invisible.

The Evernight Goddess!

The next second, Amon, with a monocle over His right eye, was rapidly erased like a sketch rubbed away by an eraser.

The Evernight Goddess raised Her two empty arms, lifting a nearly invisible misty haze.

Across the surface of this haze, “doors” of different shapes opened rapidly in different positions, one after another. Yet each was instantly blocked, unable to create any loophole.

The Evernight Goddess floated above the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range within the astral world. She concentrated on controlling the “mist world” in Her hands, preventing Amon’s true body from escaping.

As more and more “doors” appeared and opened faster and faster, the Goddess could no longer handle them using only Her own power. She had no choice but to raise Her other two arms, lifting the long, enormous scythe.

The deep-black scythe rapidly turned illusory, as though becoming a noncorporeal coffin formed from dense black fog.

The nearly invisible “mist world” was stuffed into that coffin, and all movement instantly ceased, as though everything within had died at the same time.

Yet this silence lasted only a single second. On the surface of the dense black fog that formed the coffin, door after door took shape and opened once more.

While blocking these “doors,” the Evernight Goddess raised the arm holding the golden bird-shaped ornament.

Dim orange twilight descended, giving the dark coffin a sense of decay and extinction.

The formation and opening of the “doors” slowed with it. The two sides entered a stalemate.

At that moment, beneath the Evernight Goddess’s feet, the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range collapsed with a thunderous roar.

It was as though the apocalypse had descended ahead of time.

At the same time, one black tentacle after another, like giant pythons, extended from somewhere in the astral world.

At the tip of each tentacle grew an eye, some open and some closed. Anything seen by them instantly turned into grayish-white stone, while anything directly touched by the tentacles distorted, stretched out limbs and a head, and became women—women of different sizes, all quite beautiful.

As gray-white spread rapidly, these tentacles surged madly toward the ancient, dilapidated palace, toward Klein, who was about to accommodate The Fool Uniqueness.

The Primordial Demoness, Cheek!