Chapter 474: Difficult Decision
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
The foundational reason for the Holy War’s beginning was the G.o.ddesses of Order and Chaos’s conflict. At first, perhaps they indeed wished for everyone to become stronger so that Eich wouldn’t be destroyed by dimensional invaders. Yet the result was…
“Glorious civilizations constructed after thousands of years of acc.u.mulation are just as ethereal as a sand castle constructed by a child on a beach. The next ocean wave that appears will leave behind nothing more than rubble. Is everything beautiful nothing more than a dream? Are all sacrifices and hard work completely meaningless?”
Seeking fame and personal gain wasn’t typically harmful on a large scale. However, the greatest ideals would be capable of destroying the world. Life was like a game and the world was unpredictable. Sometimes, truth would hurt far more than lies.
Under the gaze of the highest G.o.ds up above, all lives continuously enacted life-and-death shows that were nothing more than circus. In the end, no matter how far civilization had developed, the only end result would be the same periodic harvesting of souls. Just when would this despairing fate finally end?
Having hatred? Holding a grudge? Being dissatisfied! Of course! Even if they gave lives to all mortals in this world, even if the world we lived in was created by them, did that mean that the parents could casually steal the lives of their own children, viewing the mortals’ difficulties as nothing more than a joke?
Perhaps others had the greatest respect for the Creator G.o.ddesses of Order and Chaos, and wors.h.i.+pped them most of all, but I had nothing but grudges against them. That was because I was raised as an atheist back in China of my original world, and had a logical way of thinking that made it impossible for me to wors.h.i.+p any G.o.d. In my eyes, rather than calling the G.o.ddesses of Order and Chaos venerated Creator G.o.ddesses, they were nothing more than two selfish b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.
“If I have the chance, I absolutely have to kill them and end everything.”
Such words had echoed in my mind numerous times already. I had even made attempts…
“They’re undefeatable while in Eich, since they’re the true masters of the entire world. The entire world will support them. But, if they’re in a brand-new world, they’ll become nothing more than difficult opponents. It should be possible to defeat and even kill them.”
Indeed, just as Cynthia had surmised, using knowledge and power from an entire other world was the only possible method. In the end, I concentrated entirely on trying to actualize this method.
Back when I was fighting Emordilorcan, I created my Frigidwinter Earth and cut him off from the Earth Elemental Plane which would give him an endless amount of support as he was the Earth Elemental G.o.d. I then used my power from another world to kill him.
This was actually nothing more than a rehearsal, an experiment to prove my ideas and theories. While the result was quite pleasing, it also made me slightly depressed.
“It should be possible to create a brand-new world and kill the Creator G.o.ddesses within it! But, actually doing so… is far too impractical.”
The theory being correct didn’t mean that success was almost there. The experiment on Emordilorcan had actually exposed many problems. Two particular problems were the most fatal.
First, my Frigidwinter Earth hadn’t managed to completely cut off Emordilorcan from the Earth Elemental Throne. In the end, I only won against him because Beifeng and Little Sandy helped to destroy the Earth Elemental Throne.
“This means that the current Frigidwinter Earth will probably be ineffective against a more powerful existence like the Creator G.o.ddesses of Order and Chaos. I need to level up my entire world, strengthening its independence and dimensional walls, and once there’s a final fight, I need to successfully drag my enemy into another dimension that’s far away from the world of Eich…”
After h.e.l.l was constructed, this difficult problem had now been solved. But, there was still another difficult problem that made this “plan” into nothing more than a backup plan in the end. It all seemed far too impractical, because…
“The two G.o.ddesses of Order and Chaos are far too strong, strong to the point of despair…”
Even though Emordilorcan had been cut off and isolated in my Frigidwinter Earth, I had to pull out all my ace cards in order to barely win. Even if I stripped the G.o.ddesses of their “undefeatable” powers, they would still be purely strong existences with personal power far surpa.s.sing that of any Main G.o.d out there. They would still be almost the same as being completely undefeatable.
“Even if I can cut them off from Eich, how am I supposed to defeat them…”
Not only did the game’s history prove that the G.o.ddesses had astonis.h.i.+ng achievements of killing Main G.o.ds after they finally awoke, Ayer proved for me as well that this would be impossible. And so, I could only leave this plan as a backup plan.
But when Karwenz told me his goal of killing Cynthia and Astrya here in my world, my first reaction wasn’t “Should I kill them or not?” Instead, my first reaction was “This is impossible.”
But right now, Karwenz was saying that it was possible to kill them. While I was astonished to hear this, I finally figured out what I had missed after a.n.a.lyzing all the information I had.
“Previously, when I a.n.a.lyzed the two G.o.ddesses’ combat strength, I calculated their power levels based on after their revivals. After all, that was the only record of them appearing and attacking in the game’s history. But right now, they’re nothing more than remnant souls attached to our bodies. Without the protection of their physical bodies, of course it will be possible to kill them.”
This new information brought new opportunities. If it wasn’t for the fact that I had far too much on my plate, I should have figured this part out already right after I finally confirmed that my System was indeed Astrya, the G.o.ddess of Order.
“…How are we supposed to kill them? Even in this dimension, their souls are indestructible.”
“Ha, but they’re nothing more than souls right now. And, this dimension of yours is specially targeted for souls. Since the Tower of Death represents all souls here, it should be capable of stripping these two b.a.s.t.a.r.ds off our bodies. The Tower of Ice is capable of giving physical bodies to the dead. In that case, just give them the weakest physical bodies possible and drag them into the void. This will be able to truly and completely kill them!”
The Creator G.o.ddesses of Order and Chaos were the highest-level existences possible, only under the Creator G.o.ddess Eich herself. But, my Four Pillars also had equivalent powers of Creation. This was basically a method of revival that I had never even considered. If the two G.o.ddesses’ remnant souls were forcefully revived by another method than originally planned, they would become mortal and naturally killable.
“Shut up! Today… today is your personal Armageddon!”
Karwenz’s sudden angry shout surprised me, but the rage in his bloodshot eyes helped me to understand that he was actually roaring at the existence attached to himself—Cynthia!
My System continued to remain silent. However, I could sense a very rare emotion for her: fear.
By now, I finally understood Karwenz’s plans. He learned from his spy Ilmisya about the functions of h.e.l.l’s Four Towers. Since he knew more overall information than I did, he was the first to come up with this possibility to truly kill off the G.o.ddesses of Order and Chaos.
Unlike the G.o.ddess of Order who was already in the pitiful state of having to pretend to be my System, Cynthia was still in full control of the Chaos Abyss. She probably still possessed the ability to freely move around. In that case, Karwenz must have tricked Cynthia into personally coming with him here to this “guillotine.” That was why he said “You’ve created the guillotine, and I’ve brought along the prisoner to be executed.”
And once he learned my plans from Ilmisya, not only did he not interfere, he even secretly helped my plans along. In the end, this caused my “grand scheme” to have an unexpected harvest. From a certain standpoint, this could even be considered another type of cooperation between brothers.
And now, he had brought Cynthia over in front of the Tower of Ice. His so-called “I surrender” from earlier was just a joke. This was his true plan!
I had always wanted to defeat and even kill the two Creator G.o.ddesses of Order and Chaos. But now that I really had this opportunity in front of me, I hesitated.
“Don’t you want to say anything at all?”
My System continued to remain silent, as if she was leaving her fate entirely up to me.
“What will be the consequences if you truly die? Will the world of Eich be affected?”
This time, she replied.
[…Rest a.s.sured. Even if my divine soul is destroyed, there won’t be a direct influence on the world. The Source of Order has already rejected me, so I’m nothing more than an isolated, individual soul. However, it’s different for Cynthia. Right now, she’s still the master of the Chaos Abyss. If you execute her, that means the entire Chaos Abyss and all the demons will no longer be under control. That means there will be no limits whatsoever in this Holy War! The purest Chaos Abyss and demons will be far stronger than you can imagine. They shall then have a limitless thirst and desire for more souls—]
“That’s enough! I only want to know about you.”
I angrily interrupted Astrya’s attempts to save Cynthia’s life, but she continued regardless.
[Perhaps executing Cynthia will solve all your grudges, but the Chaos Abyss will go out of control. You’ve already done so much and true peace is right before you. You can end this Holy War simply by watching Cynthia weaken and fall into hibernation again due to lacking nutrition. There’s no need to take the risk of killing her. You should know that without Cynthia’s control, the demons will never stop their slaughtering and the Holy War will truly become eternal!]
[I know that we sisters have committed an unforgivable crime. So, you can execute me. This is the punishment I deserve for my crime. But, you need to think about the consequences of executing Cynthia! We’ve already seen the dawn, so don’t miss this final chance!]
“Ha, I’ve never expected that you would be so naïve. You really think that allowing Cynthia to go free will give us a future? Indeed, I’ve cut off Cynthia from the River Styx’s replenishment. However, she has another method of replenishment that’s even more direct. She can use her demon armies to forcefully harvest souls and obtain the nutrition she needs through blood sacrifices. She’ll sacrifice every living being in the entire world of Eich to revive herself if necessary. There has been no retreat from this Holy War ever since the very start!”
I wasn’t making any of this up at all. This was the result of a past discussion between me and Ayer. We never believed that h.e.l.l’s construction alone would successfully end everything. The Chaos Abyss, h.e.l.l, and Order Divine Kingdoms would make the three major factions of the world, and we would be the weakest. Our original expectations were to never underestimate the two G.o.ddesses’ lack of limits.
“Only absorbing naturally broken soul shards through the Cycle of Reincarnation will of course result in less nutrition than directly devouring the souls. When the two G.o.ddesses lose the possibility of awakening through a relatively ‘gentler’ method, they naturally wouldn’t want to simply watch as they enter an eternal hibernation. The worst result is that the two major factions will start killing everything living without regards to methods or cost, wanting to harvest mortals’ souls so that the ‘Mothers’ can be fed. This will be nothing more than a total slaughter of all of Eich.
“Since we’re the weakest third faction, directly opposing both major factions simultaneously is tantamount to suicide. We must take advantage of the conflict between the two major factions. That means we can only cut off the possibility of one side’s revival! Only that will finally give us hope in finally ending the eternal Holy War rather than making the Holy War into a truly eternal absolute battle to the death!”
Obviously, it would be more acceptable to us if Order won over Chaos. At the very least, Ayer believed that Astrya would be easier to talk to compared to Cynthia. That was why we preserved Heaven’s Pillar for Order but cut off the River Styx for Chaos.
In order to deal with the highly likely furious reprisal of Chaos, we kept a sufficient amount of mortal power and mortal heroes in reserve. The Dark Elf knights, Absolute Gentlemen Alliance, Northlands Mist Alliance, Underground factions, powerful human kingdoms, and so on. Even if we successfully constructed h.e.l.l, the mortals’ future would have to be developed by mortals’ themselves. Naturally, the mortals would have to end this final Holy War.
And now, many difficult questions were before me. What should I do with Astrya? Would executing Cynthia really cause the release of all the demons within the Chaos Abyss? Would leaving Cynthia alive be equivalent to her personally controlling all the Demon Lords and harvesting all the souls in Eich? And Karwenz… perhaps this was simply my instinct, or a mysterious connection between our identical souls, but I suddenly felt that Karwenz was far more dangerous than Cynthia… that he was far more like the essence of the Chaos Abyss.
“If Cynthia dies, can you restrain all the Demon Lords and control the battle…?”
“Ha, don’t be so naïve. Chaos doesn’t need anything like an eternal boss. Every single demon desires to move up the ladder. This is an instinct carved into their very bloodline. Restrain them? How can that be possible? Besides, why would I possibly do something so boring?”
Karwenz didn’t hide his expectations at all, nor was he able to hide them. And, his answer confirmed my a.n.a.lysis of Karwenz.
He desired war. He desired for the Chaos Abyss to obtain true freedom. He desired to kill off Cynthia, who ruled over the Chaos Abyss. He believed that this would make him happy. He had no guarantee whatsoever of becoming the next big boss of Chaos, nor did he plan to steal that position for himself. His seemingly wondrous plan was probably a random thought he cooked up on the spot.
“d.a.m.ned creature that runs only on instincts, did he catch this opportunity through his instincts alone…?”
Karwenz simply desired for the cheat-like administrators to leave this world so that this worldwide war would become more interesting for him. As for what the result would be? If he could become the new master of the Chaos Abyss? Or if the entire world would be destroyed? He didn’t care about such things at all! He only wanted to have more fun while playing!
“I…”
I didn’t even get to make my decision when the entire dimension began to violently shake. Judging from the energy storm that suddenly whipped up, the battles in the other Infernos had suddenly escalated. In fact, I even received an emergency report that Sophocles the Deceiver had just violated the terms of the peace agreement contract he just signed! That was a soul contract signed with his true name, and violating it would mean that he would pay a tremendous price.
“Ha, hurry up and decide, Elder Brother. We don’t have much time here. See, someone’s already been moved by Cynthia’s offered conditions to save her. Ha, just what did you promise them so that they’re seriously going all out, Cynthia? Doesn’t this mean that I finally have a chance to fight them for real? I’ve been waiting for this for so many years. This is really interesting!”