Chapter 454: Three Layers
Translator: imperfectluck
In the year FT 1, dawn of the new generation, the Chaos and Order Factions met a new challenger for the first time in the eternal Holy War. When the River Styx’s waters of reincarnation started flowing towards an unknown dimension, the entire Cycle of Reincarnation had been broken.
This was no vague statement. It meant that the Cycle of Reincarnation had concretely been broken. The River Styx’s flow restrained all the souls within it, but once that restraint was broken, countless souls suddenly obtained freedom.
Some of those who died in battle between the years FT 1 and FT 4 were the luckiest. The old Cycle of Reincarnation had been broken, and the new Cycle of Reincarnation was still immature. A few people were able to reincarnate without the River Styx as their souls directly formed into new lives without having their memories wiped. These individuals were able to begin new lives with their past lives’ memories fully intact, meaning that they had a tremendous advantage from the very start.
However, others that died in battle that year the unluckiest of all. Although the River Styx restrained the souls within it, it was also a mechanism for protecting the fragile soul that had lost its physical body and life. Without the River Styx’s protection, powerful netherworld gusts would easily destroy the weaker souls. Only the most fortunate and most stubborn of souls were able to successfully reincarnate, memories intact and all. Although it was impossible to calculate the success rate of those who reincarnated with memories intact, when considering the tremendous number of deaths vs. the new population born afterward, it had to be less than one percent.
And even for the few that successfully reincarnated, they obtained far too many memory fragments from the still immature Cycle of Reincarnation, which meant that most of them had to deal with chaotic memories and multiple personalities as a result. The few “heaven-blessed” who retained their full sense of “self” were less than ten percent of those who reincarnated successfully.
But since there was a bug in the system, there would always be those who benefited from such a bug. And of course, there were “cheaters” who intentionally made use of such a bug in order to benefit.
Those who acted the swiftest to take advantage of this bug was the Ayer Faction… I suppose I should call them the h.e.l.l Faction now. This was because this bug was something that we created intentionally in the first place. With my typical habits, how could I possibly let go of such an excellent opportunity? Everything had been planned from the very start.
The Halls of Valhalla that housed heroic spirits and G.o.d Envoys also fell down to h.e.l.l together with the h.e.l.l Faction’s Divine Kingdoms. It was now time for these powerful heroic spirits to make their own choice as well. That was because Halls of Valhalla were a special byproduct of Order from the Source of Order. Without the Order Faction’s support, it would be quite difficult for ordinary G.o.ds to maintain heroic spirits.
The heroic spirits had only two choices. One was to enter h.e.l.l together with the Divine Kingdom, become truly dead, and thus become a member of h.e.l.l. However, entering h.e.l.l was easy enough, but exiting would be quite difficult. The other choice would be to enter reincarnation by taking advantage of the immature new Cycle of Reincarnation.
That’s right, that’s the loophole that I and our faction took advantage of. From a certain standpoint, heroic spirits were like a physical byproduct of the soul, as well as a “special form” for dead spirits. Naturally, they could still be reincarnated if they wished.
Unlike those who died naturally and had extremely low chances of preserving their memories fully intact, heroic spirits had far stronger souls. Their own heroic spirit bodies already had the ability to protect their soul from the Cycle of Reincarnation, so their reincarnation success rate was one hundred percent.
These newborns destined to grow up in the Holy War now possessed their former memories, experiences, and techniques as heroes. They now also once again possessed actual physical bodies with the power of evolution. As long as they didn’t die on the way, they were destined to far succeed their original power levels in their first lives.
Of course, being reincarnated still meant starting over from the very beginning. There would still be problems such as the clash between the new and old personality. Before they “awakened” into becoming “heroes”, they would still have a long path ahead of them before they matured. Yet, these heroic seedlings were now spread throughout the entire world, destined to sprout during this Holy War.
“…Perhaps this can finally make up for the fact that there are no game players… who were the strongest army in the latter half of the Holy War. Just think about it, for ordinary mortals with such difficulties, perhaps your next-door neighbor’s child is actually a famous former emperor or some great dragon and demon-slaying hero. These mortals that became heroes have become mortals again, so they’ll naturally fight again for the sake of the mortals’ future. One hero is more than capable of protecting an entire town or changing the course of an entire battle. Each hero can lead an entire squadron. They’ll be far more useful than heroic spirits, who can only act as fighters that are unable to improve their power level.”
That was how I convinced the G.o.ds of the h.e.l.l Faction to allow their own heroic spirits and G.o.d Envoys to choose for themselves. Most of the heroic spirits chose to enter reincarnation… the future generation would eventually call them the “heaven-blessed” individuals.
Although the other True G.o.ds eventually learned about this loophole and attempted to have their heroic spirits take advantage of this loophole as well, the new Cycle of Reincarnation had matured already and fixed the loophole. Very few not from the h.e.l.l Faction succeeded in abusing this loophole. This maneuver from the h.e.l.l Faction was destined to leave a great influence on history.
That was because these heroes had already proved themselves in the past with their heroic deeds, rather than being “game player heroes” who could only grow through endless failures. Now that these heroes had a new chance at starting over again, they would be far superior to game players who only received their strength through “infinite lives with endless saving and loading”, in both willpower and personal ability.
Just to give one example, if a dragonslayer hero reincarnated, it would probably take only two decades before the dragons would have a huge problem to deal with. Each generation typically only had one hero, but this upcoming generation would have countless heroes in it. Some things were destined to change because of this.
More than ten Divine Kingdoms descended into the new dimension of h.e.l.l. However, most of the Divine Kingdoms didn’t enter h.e.l.l itself, but actually began to orbit the plane instead. That was because h.e.l.l was a country for the dead, so how could the living possibly survive within it?
Once the new dimension of h.e.l.l fully matured, all existences not powerful enough to ignore dimensional wills would all instantly be transformed into the dead within h.e.l.l, including even all G.o.ds not at the Main G.o.d level. If our h.e.l.l Faction G.o.ds left their Divine Kingdoms within h.e.l.l, then the dimensional law of death would invade their Divine Kingdoms and corrupt them with death.
“The G.o.ds of the country of the dead can only be G.o.ds that are already dead.”
Of course, while most of the h.e.l.l Faction G.o.ds chose to avoid becoming the dead, there were a total of five G.o.ds that voluntarily chose to become dead Guardian G.o.ds of the new h.e.l.l.
The G.o.d of Fate Catio already merged his entire Divine Kingdom into the land of h.e.l.l. As one of the top-ranked G.o.ds in the h.e.l.l Faction, he made his choice to become one of the core members and elites of the new h.e.l.l.
Mary, the G.o.ddess of s.h.i.+eld Dwarves, also joined her Divine Kingdom together with h.e.l.l. She had made a promise to Ayer to become one of the Guardian G.o.ds of h.e.l.l.
Three other G.o.ds also joined h.e.l.l as according to their agreements to begin their new “jobs”.
As for the h.e.l.l Faction G.o.ds who didn’t join their Divine Kingdoms together with h.e.l.l, they were still going to become part of the divine h.e.l.l Faction. Of course, these G.o.ds wouldn’t belong only to h.e.l.l.
As an extension on top of the plane of h.e.l.l, the other G.o.ds’ Divine Kingdoms were all combining to transform into a paradise in the void. This new Divine Kingdom would be the “Heaven” according to Wumianzhe’s divine laws, a paradise for the kind and innocent. The other h.e.l.l Faction G.o.ds would become the Guardian G.o.ds of the new Heaven.
In between the newly-born Heaven and h.e.l.l was no longer a s.p.a.ce as simple as the void. Part of the Ghostwind Plains acted as the core where the first t.i.tans and Supreme Immemorial Dragons from the first generation were now busily working. As existences capable of surviving even in the void, they were some of the strongest existences throughout all the planes. But right now, they were simply construction workers.
Some of them were busily applying dimensional coordinates to the shattered ground, which would make it more convenient for stabilization and teleportation. Some of them were busily gathering dimensional shards together, while others were going through the void and creating new dimensional coordinates. Some were acting to protect the weaker, ordinary lifeforms. The t.i.tans and dragons all worked hard for the sake of themselves and their own species’ future.
And after the new Heaven G.o.ds settled down, the t.i.tans and dragons would be going over there to a.s.sist as well.
In my blueprint, this would become a tri-layered dimension. The top dimension would be Heaven, where the Heaven G.o.ds and the kind and innocent would reside. The middle dimension would be my “Land of Spring”, my equivalent of Purgatory where mortals and animals would reside while awaiting their next reincarnation. The t.i.tans and dragons would become the guardians of the Land of Spring. And, the lowest dimension was naturally the most important one in my plan, h.e.l.l.
Under the influence of my Four Elemental Towers, the entire dimension was now rearranging and trisecting itself. However, if you measured the amount of nutrition that I gave Heaven and the Land of Spring as a unit of one, then the amount of nutrition I provided to h.e.l.l would be more than one hundred.
That was because the other two dimensional layers were only temporary add-ons to h.e.l.l so that the entirety of this h.e.l.l could begin to work as it was intended to. The true add-on for h.e.l.l would be the entire mortal plane of Eich, which meant that h.e.l.l’s capabilities and energy level requirements would naturally have to be more than one hundred times more than Heaven and the Land of Spring. [TL note: so does this mean that Roland feels that more than 100x the number of people will go to h.e.l.l compared to the Land of Spring (Purgatory) and Heaven combined…?]
And now, a large amount of the River Styx had flowed within h.e.l.l, bringing along a countless number of souls. A new Cycle of Reincarnation would absolutely be required, and the entire system of h.e.l.l had to be activated now. None of us had any path of retreat.
And, it was the same for our enemies. They also had no more path of retreat!
The dimensional walls of h.e.l.l had now been established. Leaving this plane was now directly equivalent to jumping into the void. The rate of survival in the unknown void, even for Main G.o.ds, would be less than 0.001%. And once h.e.l.l finished forming in its entirety, this entire world would embrace the dimensional law of death. Although the Main G.o.d level existences would likely be able to remain alive in h.e.l.l despite the dimensional law, it was a certainty that they would lose a significant amount of power by having to fight the dimensional law. And, all of their subordinates and squadrons would absolutely die to the dimensional law.
Looking at it from the Chaos and Order Main G.o.ds’ standpoint, the best possible result for them would naturally be to destroy us all, after which they could take over this still incomplete dimension. They would then wait for the two major factions to slowly locate this dimension in the void and provide them a path of return several decades later, and receive a hefty payment from the Source of Order or the will of the Chaos Abyss afterwards.
And since these Main G.o.ds were all willing to come here, they must have realized beforehand that it would be almost impossible for them to return. In that case, the only possible course of action for them was quite obvious – whoever stood in the end would be victorious!
Warhorns sounded as numerous Dimensional Doors sounded. However, this time it wasn’t enemies that arrived.
Heroic spirits started walking out of the Dimensional Doors. The black tower of Death and the white tower of Ice were both glowing as the Hades Mist provided these “dead spirits” with even more power. The gift of Ice also gave them powerful physical bodies.
Indeed, the heroic spirits in the h.e.l.l Faction’s Divine Kingdoms had two major choices they could choose from. One was to start over again after reincarnation, and the second was to appear like this and become a part of h.e.l.l. They would fight for the sake of the mortals’ Heaven and h.e.l.l.
It was now time to go all-out in the battle. The h.e.l.l G.o.ds wouldn’t possibly hold anything back here. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were busy stabilizing the new dimension of Heaven, they would have likely sent divine incarnations containing a majority of their power here, despite the fact that it would be impossible to get their incarnations back with the dimensional law of death here.
“It would seem that this will be a difficult battle of attrition.”
I was still rather dissatisfied with the three glowing towers before me, even if the black and white towers were now playing the role of important strategic objectives.
Even these strengthened heroic spirits would be dispatched by a single attack in front of Main G.o.d level existences. Even if they were capable of endlessly reviving… would endlessly reviving ants be capable of killing a tyrannosaurus rex?
As for the gold tower of Holy Light, it was acting in the same capabilities as the concept of Time, one of the two most important dimensional coordinates which represented the order of existence for all existences living and nonliving… To use simpler phrasing, Time represented a one-track direction, the constant progress of all existences.
People would grow old. Machines would age. It was impossible to turn time backwards. That was the impression that mortals had of the Concept of Time. No matter if mortals were happy or sad, their Time would always progress forward. And in the new dimension of h.e.l.l, Holy Light also represented this always forward-progressing direction.
“Our Holy Light is now completely separate from the G.o.d of Holy Light. Our Holy Light represents the Concept of Salvation.”
That’s right, that was the direction for Holy Light in h.e.l.l. Criminals and villains would be locked up and tortured in h.e.l.l. Yet, torturing them for eternity wasn’t the final goal. The goal was for them to be punished a suitable amount for their crimes so that they, too, may receive salvation. Once an individual was punished sufficiently for their crimes while alive, that would wash away all their sins. Only then would they be able to enter the Cycle of Reincarnation after being cleansed of their sins. This would be a warning to all the living to do more kind acts and perform less heinous deeds.
And, the result of the chosen direction for Holy Light in h.e.l.l was naturally that mortals and souls in h.e.l.l would all receive salvation. This was naturally the most important function of h.e.l.l, and it would have wondrous effects and uses after h.e.l.l formed in its entirety. But right now…
“No matter how bright you are, it’s still useless.”
On the current battlefield, this Holy Light of Salvation was basically completely useless against those Main G.o.d level existences! In fact, its cleansing properties weren’t even as effective as the large light bulb incarnation not far away.
“It would seem that it will all depend on the Tower of Law.”
This silver tower was still inactive, as if it was gathering energy. And only I knew that if “Salvation” was h.e.l.l’s direction and final goal, “Law” would be the method to achieve this goal. It could be said that present everywhere in the future h.e.l.l would be a land filled with Law.
And, this Tower of Law that was about to be ignited would become the true core of the entirety of h.e.l.l.
At the top of the Tower of Law, Wumianzhe had finally completed his final preparations. h.e.l.l was about to start a new chapter.