Chapter 524 (1): Stats Unknown. The Stronger the Opponent, the Stronger He Becomes

The goddess’s stunning face was like snow on a distant mountain peak, lofty, pure, and sacred, giving Wayne the feeling that no filth in the world could approach Her—that all darkness would disperse before Her.

It was incredibly hostile to Ines!

The moment he laid eyes on the goddess, Her name surfaced in Wayne’s mind: Light.

It wasn’t just a light that could disperse all darkness and defend all purity and radiance, but also a light that was oppressive and rooted in the foundation of pure prowess. The pressure was omnipresent, not just originating from the goddess Herself, but from every ray of light She radiated, targeting all filth and impurities.

The union of Sun and Moonlight gave birth to the Goddess of Light. It was a perfect demonstration of how the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.

Darkness wasn’t Light’s match!

Granted, this was a world formed by the merger of the Divine Realm of Sun and Divine Realm of Moonlight, so it was to be expected for Light to surpass Darkness. To actually determine a winner in a way that no one could dispute the result would require Light and Darkness to fight in the Astral Plane, outside their Divine Realms.

Even so, Wayne felt a formidable pressure from the Goddess of Light. He had to admit that the new goddess was stronger than Ines. If the two goddesses ever met, Ines would be humiliated.

“Then why didn’t She turn against Ines? Why didn’t She go around conquering the three other goddesses? Why has She been following Elian’s orders like a nobody...”

Wayne murmured, his eyes fixed on the goddess’s towering figure. “There must be a limitation. The long wind-up is only one of them. Let me guess. It has to be the typical weakness of fusion—time limit. It can only be used as a last resort because of that, and it won’t work a second time.”

“Still, She’s incredibly powerful. Not even Ines and Aztimor could pressure me like She’s pressuring me in their Divine Realms.”

He raised his writhing arm. It was impossible to determine his stats since the stronger the opponent, the stronger he became. He was evolving again.

He often had a strange feeling that perhaps he wasn’t a creature of flesh and blood, but a piece of code whose only purpose was to evolve. The code possessed an extraordinary capacity of learning and an impossible adaptability, as well as an incomprehensible ability to corrupt.

In fact, it wasn’t an illusion, and it wasn’t unique to him. Every existence that existed in and aimed for the Astral Plane was information, and evolution was their shared purpose.

“Not bad. I thought that I would speed run through the rest of the four stages after the Underworld, but I encountered a genuine surprise here.”

Wayne savored the pleasure of evolution, his gaze fixed on the Goddess of Light. The white foam coating his body writhed, peeling away his human skin to expose his true form: the Pale Knight.

The sickly shell, the pale folds of flesh, the featureless face, the disorderly tentacles, and fiendish eye of greed and absolute chaos... His inhuman form was beyond description.

While it was ugly, everyone who had experienced the form would have to recognize its value. Approaching it granted true understanding of the Astral Plane and evolution.

Meanwhile, the Goddess of Light required fusion, with a long wind-up and an adjustment period after the fusion.

She was the combination of Kaleb and Siluk. Having two individuals combined into a single entity required not only absolute, unconditional trust between the two, but also many other necessary prerequisites.

The matching of information alone was a great hurdle, enough to disqualify 99.99% of the closest friends. In the Chosen Land, Sun and Moonlight alone could meet the requirements.

Moreover, fusion came in two forms: permanent union and temporary alliance. Kaleb and Siluk aspired to be the former, to fully merge and become the Goddess of Light forever. However, their current power didn’t allow it, so they could only manage a temporary union.

Because it was temporary, the fusion required a long wind-up and an adjustment period afterwards. Moreover, there was a limit to how long their thoughts could remain integrated. The slightest emotional disturbance would lead to their separation.

The form was immensely powerful but also immensely limited. It demanded compromise and sacrifice from both parties.

They had run countless experiments to accumulate experience and work out a long term solution. Kaleb would handle the skill set and combat instincts, while Siluk would provide the strategy. They would leave each other to do their respective parts.

Today was a little different. Kaleb had taken the pilot seat first. The Goddess of Light gave Herself a thumbs-up, then wagged a finger at Wayne. Only after the provocation did She hand the control over to Siluk.

Kaleb wanted to win so badly that She would borrow Siluk’s power to do it.

Siluk kicked Kaleb aside. As the Goddess of Light, She looked coldly at Wayne, Her mind unified. At that moment, She gave him a completely different feeling. She was both Kaleb and Siluk, but also neither of them. It was difficult to describe the goddess’s thoughts.

“My goddess,” he said, “might I have the honor of hearing your name?”

A vertical slit split Wayne’s featureless face. A pale, writhing tentacle extended from within, its tip opening and closing in the form of a mouth. It was such a disturbing image that the Goddess of Light, assuming the form of a light elf, refused to respond. Her cold gaze grew even more aloof, as if She were looking at a piece of unrecyclable trash.

“I’m starting to like you, Goddess.” Wayne pulled the tentacle back. Crossing his arms and then swinging them out, he transformed his arms into two pale, sharp blades.

He stepped forward, pushing through the light pressing in from every direction to make it to the Goddess of Light, bracing against Her oppressive aura. “Stop posing. It’s a waste of time when your fusion has a time limit. I can afford to stall, but not you.”

One of his arms collapsed. The Goddess of Light cracked a slight smile then, as if telling him that he couldn’t hurt Her even if She did nothing to defend Herself.

“Power makes you careless. Pride is indeed the greatest obstacle to survival...” Wayne’s disintegrated arm regenerated. With every step he took, a part of him crumbled. As his body continued to reconstitute, he evolved a little further. By the time he was face-to-face with the Goddess of Light, he had already adapted to Her presence. The omnipresent light no longer inflicted pressure on him.

“You’ve missed your best window.” Wayne raised a bladed arm and pressed it against the goddess’s shoulder.

“No. You know nothing about Light.” The goddess became translucent, and the scepter in Her hand turned into a golden sword of light.

“Oh, no. I’ve always believed in light. Even when people keep telling me that it’s no more than a special effect, I still believe it.”

Wayne swung his bladed arm through the goddess’s translucent neck, unable to make contact. By contrast, Her translucent sword of light dealt real damage, easily slicing off one of his arms. The white foam fell apart, and the severed arm disintegrated into ash before hitting the ground.

His large chest eye looked over at the goddess thoughtfully.

The Goddess of Light was still smiling. She made another swing that ignored distance and bisected Wayne before the blade even made contact. His lower body turned to ash, obliterated until nothing remained.

The Goddess of Light marveled at his form. “I see. This isn’t your real body. Your thoughts never exist in reality. Everything anyone has ever seen of you isn’t you.”

Wayne didn’t deny it. There had only ever been two people who had seen his true self: Senna and Ines.

They had ventured into his rotting, dying universe and saw the colossal eye growing in the heart of the Astral Plane. Ah, there was another one. The ancient god he encountered on Dragonheart Island had probably seen him, too, but it didn’t really count since an ancient god wasn’t human.

“So, what is your truth? What do you actually look like?”

The Goddess of Light swung Her sword in rapid succession, burning away the excess impurities and paring Wayne down until nothing but a single big eye remained.

Whoosh!

White foam regenerated, and the Pale Knight was whole again.

The Goddess of Light was undeterred. “You’re not invincible. You can die. All I need to do is cut every part of your thoughts, then you won’t be able to reach the mortal realm.”

The goddess’s eyes blazed with golden light, and Her entire form was engulfed in a dense halo of flames. The power unique to Light awakened at terrifying speed as though it had no ceiling, surging without end.

Her majestic divine might swept in all directions, stopping only at the threshold between the Divine Realm of Sun and the Divine Realm of Moonlight. There was no concrete symbol like blazing sun or cycling moon phases, but only an infinite radiance.

“What incredible visual effects. Luckily, I’m willing to invest, too, or I’ll be outshone today.”

Wayne murmured to himself. His legs melted into white foam and spilled pale tides rapidly, turning into a pale ocean in no time. It drowned the sea of lava below and sent clouds of white particles rising into the sky, forming pale clouds. Rain began to fall. One by one, vertical slits tore open, revealing tens of thousands of eyes. After darting around in frenzy, they all fixed on the Goddess of Light.

Even without any corrupting whisper, the sight alone was beyond what any demigod could endure.

The third level of the Divine Realm of Sun had become divided between a pale world and a radiant world. Kaleb’s subordinate gods, Weaver and Aroman, had been cleared from the audience long ago. Kaleb had sent both to the seventh level in advance since She couldn’t let them know that She had admitted defeat, or that She could fuse with Moonlight to become the Goddess of Light. Both were top secrets in the Divine Realm.

The two evolutions collided. With the Authority of the Divine Realm, the Goddess of Light empowered Herself and overpowered the pale ocean. Unless Wayne used his strongest corruption to force the goddess to listen to his reason, he couldn’t defeat Her in the short term.

He had promised Kaleb that he wouldn’t use corruption, so he wouldn’t. With his two bladed arms and four twisted tentacles, he grappled with the Goddess of Light.

The goddess’s scepter shifted at will. It was an upgraded version of Her divine armory. One moment it was a sword of light, and the next, it became a spear. Because it was pure light, She could strike Wayne, but he couldn’t touch Her.

Brilliant flashes erupted with no predictable patterns. One beam of light swept past Wayne, turning him into scattering pieces.

The Goddess of Light turned around slowly and looked at him as the body pieces writhed and regenerated. “Surrender. You cannot touch me. There is no point continuing. If your plan is to stall until my fusion runs out, I won’t acknowledge it as a defeat.”

“Almost there. I’ll get you soon.” Wayne’s hands wriggled and reformed into ten fingers. He made a grabbing motion and seized a ball of shimmering light. “See? The outcome will be decided in no time, my goddess. Prepare to listen to my unreasonable demands!”

The goddess’s expression darkened. From Her flickering eyes, golden threads of light crossed and cut through the Pale Knight, burning him to ashes in an instant. Immediately after, streams of flowing light wrapped around the pale ocean and sealed it in its entirety.

With a wave, She retrieved the sealed light and held it in Her hand. “You’re the arrogant one. You trust yourself so much that you dismiss everyone else...”

Wayne had kept his promise not to corrupt the Divine Realm of Sun even though he had been at a disadvantage. The Goddess of Light saw that, but chose to say nothing about it.

Crack!

The sealed light cracked, and white foam splattered out, morphing into numerous tentacles and lunging at the goddess.

“Pointless struggle...”

The tentacles passed right through Her suddenly translucent form. The white foam reassembled into Wayne’s shape behind Her, and as soon as the goddess turned around, he grabbed at Her face with a splayed hand.

She sensed the wind brushing Her cheeks and looked at the incoming hand in shock, but out of confidence, She had not moved to dodge.

Impossible. There’s no way he can grab me.

The fingers reached Her face, then passed right through. As Wayne brushed past Her, the Goddess of Light let out a sigh of relief. Indeed, it had to be a coincidence. She had almost thought that he could touch Her.

It might be possible, but not so soon. Evolution had limits. No one could adapt so quickly—

Smack!

Wayne slapped Her on the backside, making Her stiffen with shock. Seeing how rigid She had become, he said helpfully, “Goddess, I’m going to attack you now. Get ready. You aren’t getting away this time.”

The Goddess of Light pulled back quickly. She had no time to process Wayne’s impossibly rapid evolution before She saw the pale figure closing in on Her. She raised Her scepter and transformed it into a shield of radiance.

A hand passed through the shield and thrust toward the goddess’s chest. The moment the fingers touched Her white robe, golden light rippled out. Then the hand penetrated right through Her torso.

Although the goddess was still translucent, She could no longer decide who could touch Her and who could avoid harm inflicted by Her.