Chapter 542 (1): The Three Goddesses - Life, Order, and Fate

The Astral Worm found a delicious meal.

The Astral Worm lunged at it.

The Astral Worm skidded to a stop.

Wayne stared blankly at the massive, long worm. After reviewing the long list of meals in its head, he finally figured out what the worm was lurking for.

“It was me...”

He delved into the worm’s memories and discovered that it was an early-stage NPC that had appeared a long time ago—around two and a half years prior, when he first encountered it.

No, it was the other way around. The worm had seen him.

Wayne first saw the Astral Worm in November 1938, when he battled Obed, the Deputy Minister of Magic, in the Astral Plane to stop him from claiming Kristen’s divine blood by taking her body. Back then, the Astral Worm had already been waiting outside the Chosen Land and caught Obed, swallowing the scrumptious meal whole.

In reality, Wayne and the worm had already crossed paths in March that year. It all started on that fateful night when the three magical girls barged into his detective agency for clues about the disciples of Death. After a series of happenstance, he and the Astral Worm fell into the Greater Universe together.

It was on that day that the Astral Worm passed by and spotted Wayne. Failing to eat him, the worm marked the feasting site and had been lurking there ever since.

In other words, Wayne had been studying magic for roughly two and a half years, and the Astral Worm had been staking out to eat him for about as long, witnessing his growth from outside the Chosen Land.

“This is fate!” Wayne clicked his tongue in amazement. He wasn’t even angry when he saw how he and the three magical girls had almost been swallowed in the Astral Worm’s memories. Not only wasn’t he angry, but he even had a eureka moment thanks to it.

He turned to Elian. “See? Even with the same starting point, some people have been diligently learning, while others have been waiting for cream puffs to fall from the sky. When the latter found cream puffs falling, they turned into a cream puff instead because of incompetence.”

Elian remained silent. She didn’t just suspect that Wayne was mocking Her; She knew he was.

Actually, Elian was overthinking. Wayne couldn’t even be bothered to mock Her. He would grope Siluk’s backside rather than waste his time on Elian.

(?_?)

Siluk would like to say no. She wanted nothing to do with anyone other than Her bestie.

Now that Wayne had found the Astral Worm, everything else fell into place.

There was a bestiary about Astral Beasts in the magical world, which documented extensive research on the creatures by mages. The entry on the Astral Worms read as follows:

Astral Worms were massive Astral Beasts at the top of the food chain, with the terrifying abilities to solidify space and create wormholes by gnawing through space. Prey marked by the Astral Worms had little chance of escape. The most terrifying aspect of their racial abilities was their immunity to knowledge-induced madness, despite existing in the vast Astral Plane.

Therefore, many mage scholars believed that Astral Beasts were the ones chosen by evolution. They had been humans or other conventional lifeforms, corrupted by knowledge into insane Forgotten Ones. Then, they would lose their thoughts and become empty shells, known as Wanderers.

Ultimately, they would continue to adapt to the environment and become one with the Astral Plane, transforming into a myriad of Astral Beasts.

Wayne thought back to Planck, the director of the Redleaf Asylum. The man was being too conservative when he came up with his hypothesis. The evolution could, in fact, be something even more radical: mages→Forgotten Ones→Wanderers→Astral Beasts→ancient gods.

After all, life was about evolution, and everyone and everything was evolving. The end goal of evolution was the ancient gods, which was true for the Astral Beasts, too.

Regardless of whether the evolution was successful, the path itself should exist. Then it would mean that the Randal Empire had not made the wrong decision. Their magical system was correct: mages→legendary mages→demigods→new gods→ancient gods.

The only issue lay in the vast gap between new gods and ancient gods. Expecting to ascend in a single leap would inevitably lead to missteps, like tearing a tendon by taking too large a step.

“There is a tier above new gods...”

Wayne frowned, coming to a daring hypothesis. Based on his understanding of the goddesses—Darkness, Death, Sky, Light, Nature, and even Life, the fusion of Nature and Death—they were all gods on a conceptual level. Each could encompass the others, defying concrete examples.

Ines was the Goddess of Darkness within the box. The knowledge She possessed was negligible compared to the entire universe. Only if Her Darkness could encompass all aspects of the universe would She be qualified to attempt ascension to ancient godhood.

That further validated the Randal Empire’s cultivation system. The divine system was viable. Like a pyramid, it could create conceptual gods in the end.

However, the empire had been too impatient. They could’ve waited longer until their divine system dominated the universe before assimilating the systems of the other galactic empires, thus creating a supreme king of gods above all others. Then they could summon the ancient gods.

With the thoughts of the pinnacle of cosmic evolution to resist the overwhelming knowledge bestowed by the ancient gods, they would be able to endure the corruption. That was the only way to guarantee success.

Of course, there were shortcuts. Evolution wasn’t limited to a step-by-step progression. It was also possible to go down the path of mutation, if a little unconventional.

True mutation wasn’t the corruption of knowledge that happened to the Forgotten Ones and the Wanderers. Those cases might seem insidious, but they were still following the natural trajectory of evolution.

True mutation was a fundamental distortion of life itself. It was facing knowledge with no fear of madness. Wayne was a good example. He had mutated because of his cheat.

Perhaps Elohim was another example. He had faced the ancient gods without going mad, even forging the Horseman of Pestilence, a being capable of corrupting others. He had clearly mutated successfully.

Deep in thought, Wayne traversed the solidified spatial tunnels throughout the Astral Plane on the Astral Worm. After an indeterminate amount of time, they arrived at their first destination: the Forbidden Zone of Remains.

It had many entrances, most of which in the Chosen Land. The former Inquisition and now an asylum that every mage feared, the Redleaf Asylum, was one such entrance.

Even without the Astral Worm, Wayne would be able to reach this place. Riding on the creature was simply a way to familiarize himself with the map. And...

On the way, he had planted several octopi.

It was just a precaution.

Elohim had been plotting for the Final Judgment for a long time, while Wayne had been studying magic for two and a half years, give or take twenty days. As a rookie who was barely ready to debut, he couldn’t go wrong with setting up traps.

The Forbidden Zone of Remains was deserted. The pale world held no life—no Forgotten Ones nor Wanderers. There were only whispers carried by the wind, luring one into madness.

Wayne shut his eyes and listened for a moment before turning to Elian. “I think they make sense. What do you think?”

I think you’re all crazy!

Elian’s expression turned impassive. Before, She wouldn’t have understood the whispers in the wind, nor would She have wanted to. Now that She had become Wayne’s vassal, a true Astral life, She could discern some of the meaning.

She had come to understand everything!

Sensing Her lack of enthusiasm, Wayne smothered a laugh. He knew what was bothering Her.

Once an imperial princess, Elian had been forced to lower Herself to Elohim’s level, then collaborate with Him. Now, She even found Herself becoming someone else’s vassal, watching Her master fight with Elohim.

She had been on a downward trajectory, going down and further down. Not just Wayne, even the five wenches She had considered tools were able to step all over Her. Of course She couldn’t be happy.

That was exactly what Wayne wanted. The more miserable She was, the happier he was.

Also, he had no intention of correcting Her misconceptions about him.

In Elian’s mind, Wayne was a vassal of the ancient god of Dragonheart Island, on the same level as Thoggua from the Frozen Land. That wasn’t the case at all!

“The Horseman of Pestilence isn’t in the Forbidden Zone of Remains,” Elian said with a frown. “The Great Prison has been emptied. Where do you plan to go next?”

“Call me Master.”

“...”

Elian lowered her head slightly, Her already low spirits plummeting further. She muttered ‘master’ in a voice so quiet that even She couldn’t hear it.

Elian thought Wayne was mocking Her. He could’ve forced Her to address him as master, but instead, he loosened the restraints on Her and gave Her a taste of freedom, only to trample Her dignity thoroughly.

Thinking of his marriage with Ines, Elian couldn’t help but think that they were a match made in hell, both as black-hearted as one could get.

“Don’t be upset,” Wayne said. “Although I’ve toyed with your freedom and crushed your dignity, look on the bright side. Your instincts are right. You guessed correctly.”

Wayne laughed brightly. Again, he had to reiterate that Elian’s good times were yet to come!

She wasn’t alone. If Wayne could subdue Elohim after the Final Judgment, the mastermind of everything would suffer a fate worse than death.

In the past, Wayne, despite having questionable character, had at least clung to his principles and could tell himself that there was a line he wouldn’t cross, but not anymore. His last bastion of integrity had crumbled. He couldn’t even deceive himself anymore.

Someone had to pay for it!

Elian could only take twenty percent of the blame, so the other eighty percent would go to Elohim. The two schemers wouldn’t be allowed to die easily, nor would they be allowed to live.

“Let’s go,” Wayne said. “We’ll keep searching the Astral Plane. If we can't find them...”

He glanced at Elian. “Take me to the edge of the box. I want to study it.”

***

The Divine Realm.

Wayne had been searching the Astral Plane for days, corrupting the Forbidden Zone of Remains and dozens of withered grey spaces in the process.

Bad news: he hadn’t found where the Four Horsemen had been hiding.

Good news: he had found quite a lot of stray knowledge in the Astral Plane, and the Book of Greed seemed satisfied with the meals.

Additionally, he had left countless octopi along the spatial tunnels and reached the edge of the boxed world. At a place that seemed like the asteroid belt, he had planted a bunch of them.

He tried to corrupt the edge of the box to forcefully open a path outside. The attempt failed because his corruption wasn’t advanced enough.

Meanwhile, the Divine Realm and the Chosen Land had been completely reshaped by him from top to bottom and inside and out. Every living being was now bound to him. As long as he lived, no life would be lost.

In the current Chosen Land, even a stray on the streets had godlike vitality. The Horseman of War could bisect the continent with a single blast, but he couldn’t even kill a stray. With everyone becoming unkillable, the Four Horsemen couldn’t judge a single soul.

Wayne had assumed that the Four Horsemen would launch a surprise attack during his absence. Then, his contingency plan would be put to good use.

But they hadn’t. Perhaps it was because the Horseman of Death hadn’t awakened, or perhaps Elohim had been waiting for a specific moment. The Four Horsemen had not made an appearance.

According to Elian, the Final Judgment would be a ritual with a strict process: first, the Horseman of War would bring war, then war would bring Death, Famine, and Pestilence.

The order was crucial. It had to be followed.

That was all Elian knew. She didn’t know the deeper meaning behind the order, and Elohim had not explained. He always said that it was how the ritual was, or if push came to shove, He would cite the ancient gods as the reason.

Wayne still hadn’t figured out the connection between the destruction of the world and becoming an ancient god. Given what he had been doing and the Four Horsemen’s unwavering composure, Wayne had reason to believe that the two weren’t causally linked.

The reason was simple: Wayne had already corrupted all of the Chosen Land and the Divine Realms. All life was under his control. If he ever felt like it and dreamed of the end of the world, the Chosen Land and the Divine Realm would vanish in an instant.

Then, he would be the one who destroyed the world, and Elohim would gain nothing. All resources would go to Wayne. How was Elohim going to become an ancient god then?

Therefore, the more patient the Four Horsemen were, the more anxious Wayne became. He feared that he had fallen into Elohim’s trap, that his corruption of the Chosen Land and the Divine Realms had been part of Elohim’s plan all along.

ε=(′д`*)))

Life was hard. The savior sighed.

He lamented the pressure on his shoulders. To relieve his stress, he stayed in the Divine Realm, studying the goddesses.