novelraw Chapter 703: The Truth of the World
Chapter 703: The Truth of the World
"I..."
"Yes, you..."
Speaking up to this point, Ramastia wasn't in a hurry either. She merely reached out to withdraw the fluorescence beside Her, transforming it into a small circular lamp flying towards the distance. Only at this moment did Fisher vaguely hear an indescribable sound seemingly existing outside this inverted triangular architecture.
"Buzz, buzz, buzz"
That small lamp pointed towards another direction within this spacious area, revealing a wooden table and two chairs from the darkness there. For some unknown reason, when he saw that table and chairs, Fisher's heart trembled slightly, as if some sort of inspiration was triggered.
"Come sit here for a while. You've also just experienced a great battle, you should feel exhausted."
"...Those table and chairs don't seem like the creations of those Ramastia people."
"Indeed, we all lived in the water, even the instruments soaring to the sky were entirely filled with water, completely having no need for these... Those were made by the contributor of the Demi-human Completion Handbook. She once stayed here and conversed with me."
"Is the content of the conversation related to me?"
"Some is related, some is not."Ramastia spoke with such frankness, and Fisher also walked over here. The human figure Her avatar took sat on one side of the wooden table and chairs, and pointed to the other side, guiding him to sit down.
As Fisher was about to sit down, the avatar tentacles of Azanroth on his body suddenly revealed themselves. They looked extremely dispirited, yet still familiarly and comfortably lay upon the wooden table all at once, appearing as if it wasn't the first time they did this.
"Plop..."
When Fisher utilized it to use Azanroth's authority back then, it became dispirited and vanished. Actually, the severe injuries at that time were primarily caused by borrowing Azanroth's authority; otherwise, he wouldn't have been so easily eroded by Heon's power.
The power of Azanroth's authority was too strong, completely not on the same level as Dagon's. Utilizing it bore a massive burden.
At this moment, looking at the tentacles stretching their bodies while lying on the wooden table, from the corner of his eyes, Fisher saw four square Kanji engraved on the wooden table where Ramastia sat. He couldn't read them. Just as he thought about memorizing them to rely on the Demi-human Completion Handbook to translate later, Ramastia spoke up first to explain it,
"This line of words is a nickname the contributor of the Demi-human Completion Handbook gave me. After she finished listening to the story of me and the Ramastia people, she said that I am very similar to the deities of her homeland. In her homeland, the deities she worshipped not only looked exactly the same as humans, but might even be their ancestors or famous people, and also pragmatically governed some natural rules; otherwise, people wouldn't worship Them... Therefore, she affectionately gave me a similar title from her homeland..."
【Compassionate Mother Goddess】
This was the title the Demi-Human Girl Con gave Ramastia.
Fisher looked at the Kanji whose meaning he suddenly knew, and suddenly asked with a bit of curiosity,
"What is the name of the contributor of the Demi-human Completion Handbook?"
"Who knows? She never told anyone her true name; they were all just some code names."
"Is that so..."
"Seeing Azanroth makes me truly nostalgic. So He's been here the whole time. I even thought He had already distanced Himself from our mess..."
Ramastia didn't continue the narrative, merely lowering Her head to look at the twisted tentacle lying on the tabletop, a nostalgic expression surfacing on Her face. Subsequently, She said,
"In that dispute I brought up previously, because I was more powerful than the other deities excluding Dream Illusion, I was thus the existence to take the lead first. The dispute at that time had already lasted for who knew how long, and I wholeheartedly wanted to end it. Therefore, I was the first to enter that twisted space supposedly harboring the Creation Mystery... Accompanying me were like-minded Hela, Dagon, Anabatos, and Ouyun. There, we jointly witnessed the so-called 'Creation Mystery'...
"That harbored secret had absolutely nothing to do with creation, but was a teleportation coordinate allowing an audience with a great deity. Through that information and the twisted space, Hela and I instantly traversed the boundless deep space and darkness, finding the true form of that great sage."
Fisher paused slightly. He similarly lowered his head to look at the tentacle avatar lying on the tabletop playing dead, picking up the conversation,
"That great deity is the hidden Azanroth?"
"Correct. This is everything. Involving disputes for so long, this is all we got. We found Azanroth's true form, He was very surprised we could find Him, thus He appreciatingly gave us a chance to see Him again. Only a brief fraction of a second after that, He vanished once more, unable to be observed."
"This..."
"Isn't this absurd?"
Fisher couldn't say anything, yet Ramastia picked up his unfinished words.
Even up until now, deep mockery and sighs still flowed from Ramastia's mouth,
"You are right, Fisher... The rest of the deities had higher pursuits, because even just meeting Azanroth's main body could grant unimaginable wisdom, and indeed we also acquired a massive amount of knowledge from it. But after all, our ambitions didn't lie in this, we merely felt sorrow. You must have thought that the war I participated in would probably accidentally destroy the civilization of the Ramastia people, and thus I turned against Heon and the others, betraying the so-called alliance...
"But ironically, such a thing didn't happen. With my participation in the war, the flames of war didn't spread towards that expanse of stars. But by the time I participated in the war and then had an audience with Azanroth, a vast expanse of years had already passed. The Ramastia people perished on their own within time. I am deeply aware of this, which is why I felt confused, doubting the meaning of the existence of the universe and deities.
"After having an audience with Azanroth, we drifted within unfamiliar, silent star systems just like that, carrying that knowledge and mystery that seemed meaningless to us, arduously returning to the homeland we resided in... But unknown if it was fate mocking us, while we were drifting within that desolate star system that seemed to have no deities residing in it, after who knew how long had passed, we completely unexpectedly discovered an incomprehensible spectacle, a treasure truly capable of rivaling the Creation Mystery..."
Ramastia's tone was spectral, and Her gaze also slowly shifted from the Azanroth avatar on the tabletop onto Fisher before Her.
Right after Her words fell, the entire dark crystal behind Her seemed to vanish instantly, revealing the darkness of the Spirit World outside. Ramastia remained motionless, yet the entire space behind Her was abruptly sliced open by an azure radiance, creating a massive gap, briefly parting that Scarlet Mist.
"Rumble!"
Taking advantage of the gap where the Scarlet Mist parted, Fisher raised his eyes to gaze far away. At the edge of his vision through the Scarlet Mist, he vaguely saw a ring-shaped region shimmering with specks of fluorescence, spanning horizontally across the entire Spirit World like a galaxy.
Beneath that resplendent, ocean-like halo of souls, trickling streams formed by the convergence of specks of fluorescence were traveling through the Scarlet Mist completely unhindered, connecting towards the direction of the Crevice, looking just like rivers connecting the ocean and the land.
Within the entire Spirit World where Fisher couldn't see clearly, filled with darkness and Scarlet Mist, that singular fluorescence was still as resplendent and beautiful, proclaiming to Fisher the exquisite design of the deities who forged all this back then.
It could be imagined, back when the Spirit World contamination hadn't been produced yet, that Sea of Souls should be even more beautiful, exactly like how the bewildered deities saw it in the universe back in the day.
"That is the Sea of Souls?"
"Mm, back then... within that desolate and quiet star system, we accidentally encountered a massive expanse of matter that converged out of thin air, whose existence had never been confirmed before: Souls."
Listening to Ramastia's narrative, Fisher remembered once again that beyond the Barrier, there was no concept of 'souls' proven to exist.
Actually, inside the Barrier, even with the manifestation of the Sea of Souls, the Southern Continent, and various other bizarre pieces of evidence proving it, humans still argued endlessly. One could imagine the extent of the argument outside where souls couldn't be seen.
To take the simplest counter-argument, using humans as an example, assuming souls exist: considering humanity experienced civilizational development, within a certain amount of time, the total number of living individuals is more than the total number of those who died in the past. Then where did the souls of these surplus individuals come from?
But back then, Ramastia, having seen that Stream of Souls, seemingly found an explanation.
What if the total amount of souls is not based on one civilization, but based on the entire universe?
She couldn't be certain if the total amount of souls in the universe was fixed, but could be certain that souls definitely flowed mutually among civilizations. Because under the persevering research of Her and Hela, They quickly discovered that these tangible, pure souls all carried some readable information on them, proving they all originated from the same civilization in the same direction.
At the place where the Sea of Souls converged, They also perceived phenomena of rules being twisted. They believed that location was special, causing originally intangible soul matter to manifest and converge. And very quickly, under the wholehearted efforts of several deities, They continuously discovered more properties regarding souls.
Exactly as Fisher discovered, souls and their vessels mutually influence each other. Tangible souls can even be directly injected into stones, granting them consciousness and wisdom, possessing direct intellect-creating abilities...
"Azanroth, residing within Secrecy, remains unmoved by external matters. In the Secrecy-wrapped space where He exists, all rules and deities from the outside world cannot penetrate it inside. He just stays in that 'vacuum' where all sounds are still, meditating, happy and content, giving me and Hela a huge shock, as well as... a bit of envy.
"A world where rules of the Outland are ineffective, where deities cannot interfere, where beauty is eternal and never perishes, forever belonging to us—that kind of existence is a fatal temptation to any being, even more so to us who were lost and yearning for stagnant beauty... Thus, while gazing at that cluster of the Sea of Souls, an extremely bold idea burst forth from our minds.
"With this massive cluster of souls, and if we have the help of Azanroth, paired with our power, we could probably act like creating the universe, creating a world uniquely our own, free from outside interference, and not abiding by the rules outside."
Consequently, the several deities of that time wholeheartedly immersed Themselves into that cluster of the Sea of Souls They discovered, immersed into Their "Creation Plan".
In Ramastia's vision at the time, at the center of Their new world, there should be beautiful, magnificent civilizations unhindered by deities. Deities would no longer sound the mourning toll like a death knell, but become a part of sheltering them.
Therefore, carrying the tangible Sea of Souls and Azanroth's mysteries, They left everything, no longer returning to Their homeland, merely searching for a corner in this star system to take root. They pleaded with Azanroth to cast down an absolutely unprecedented, powerful Barrier, wanting to live in seclusion here, residing in Their own world from then on, never to leave again.
Azanroth did exactly as requested, casting down an unprecedentedly powerful Barrier across space, a Barrier so powerful that almost any existence in the universe couldn't discover it, enveloping the deities and Their impending new world within, isolating everything outside, including rules.
Inside the Barrier, the deities each performed Their own duties, beginning to forge the world and order belonging to Them.
Ouyun used His immense strength capable of piercing galaxies to hammer out matter entirely different from the outside, like sculpting a precious treasure held in the palm of His hand, avoiding His authority influencing that fragile and exquisite creation; Hela sealed Her consciousness, restraining Her properties, becoming a part of that treasure; Dagon carefully wrapped it up, isolating the boundary from interference by deities; Anabatos wove the rules for the world's operation, defining time and space...
Lastly, Ramastia utilized all Her power, fabricating living beings uniquely theirs, extracting the dust-sealed souls from the Sea of Souls to connect with the world, establishing living beings belonging to Them.
And the problem, also manifested at this moment.
"We were just too foolish and ignorant. Even though signs had already appeared at the time, we still didn't realize something was wrong, still immersed in the joy of performing our respective duties and creating a world uniquely ours."
"Rumble!!"
Ramastia raised Her hand and waved. Three incredibly massive silhouettes surged like the tide, appearing before Fisher. Fisher raised his eyes and looked, seeing a massive, illusory large tree, a massive dragon, and a humanoid figure possessing countless bright wings.
The World Tree Yggdrasil, the Dragon God Fafnir, the Heavenly Lock Jehovah...
Those were the three Demigods!
"You must know, the three Demigods are powerful living beings born from the aggregation of the power of all our deities. You thought that was a demonstration of my favoritism; in reality it's not so. The truth is we had no choice but to create them by joining forces..."
The problem arose during Ramastia's forging process of the living beings.
Fisher had seen it just now; the Ramastia people completely lacked human shapes. And according to Ramastia's description, the remaining deities also lived in extremely distant star systems just like Her, having never even encountered the human race. How could They possibly create out of thin air this kind of thing exactly the same as Transferred Persons?
If They were to create, it should definitely be creating the appearance of the Ramastia people that Ramastia was familiar with and favored, right? But why, looking around, inside this world, apart from the three Demigods, everyone was humanoid 'Demi-humans' or humans themselves?
This was completely because Ramastia discovered in terror that when She used the souls of the Sea of Souls, the traces engraved upon those souls made Her completely unable to smoothen them out, causing whatever living beings She fabricated to inevitably twist towards the appearance of humans after a period of evolution! They possessed human characteristics!
If forcibly twisted, and if the power used was insufficient, they would completely turn into twisted monsters, reduced to failed products.
Those souls all originated from a civilization in Their original star system. Ramastia thought those souls were already pure enough, that besides a tiny bit of trace, they were already completely akin to newborn living beings, but in reality it was not the case.
Ramastia felt astonished yet still didn't resign to it, thus uniting the power of all deities except Hela to jointly balance the degree the soul traces influenced the living beings.
Four deities, the great power of five authorities dividing the labor and cooperating, exhausted all Their effort to merely forge two intelligent beings that looked 【completely devoid of human shape】, yet STILL corresponding with some information within those soul traces. Their names were precisely given to commemorate the traces on the souls that couldn't be smoothed out.
Seeing this, Ramastia was forced to give up Her original idea of forging living beings that met Her own desires.
Therefore, inside the world, no matter how Ramastia created living beings, the created living beings were all extended based on the template of 【humans】 deep within their souls.
Consequently, all the living beings inside this world, without exception, were all 【Demi-human Races】!!
Fisher sweated coldly listening to this, and Ramastia's expression also turned bitter,
"You thought correctly, the source of the Sea of Souls indeed comes from the civilization of the Transferred Person's homeland, which is why when they entered this world, you discovered they originally looked exactly the same as humans."
"..."
Actually, up to this point, the terror of souls had already revealed a clue. Even for such pure derivative creations, before souls were utilized, they still harbored such an intense tendency to twist their vessels, so much so that even the combined power of five authorities couldn't reverse it. Yet any intelligence in the universe had never seen such a phenomenon transpire.
This was merely creations...
This seemed to be connected to the place where They initially discovered the Sea of Souls? Or perhaps this cluster of souls was more special? Or perhaps there was a problem with the vessels Ramastia manufactured?
Regarding this kind of thing appearing for the first time, even though the deities possessed an unimaginable breadth of understanding, not a single deity among them had an answer to this. The deities thus decided to contact Azanroth through the Barrier. However, starting from that time, Azanroth beyond the Barrier bizarrely lost contact.
At that moment, the entire world isolated under the Barrier instantly turned into a dark solitary island completely ignorant of the outside. From then on, the Barrier completely became a cage that couldn't be dispelled, although Ramastia and the others originally never planned on going out anyway.
The deities didn't know They inadvertently forged a colossal mistake. The demi-human civilizations inside the world also grew increasingly prosperous. That radiance obscured the darkness beyond the Barrier, making the deities submerge Themselves in this beauty resembling a mirror's reflection of flowers or water's reflection of the moon...
Until one day, a gap exactly the right size split open from the outside of the Barrier, a gap that 【only permitted entry but not exit】, a gap that 【Authorities could not enter】.
Hearing this, Fisher finally understood what the deities did when creating the world. He narrowed his eyes, looking at Ramastia and asked,
"That Sea of Souls was completely not naturally formed, it belonged to someone, right?"
"Worse than that, Fisher..."
Ramastia let out a sigh, using an analogy to say,
"We were like beggars at the end of our ropes, seeing an exquisitely crafted treasure box within the depths of the profound, dark deep space. We were attracted by the purpose of that treasure box, and so we greedily brought that box back, along with the treasure contained within.
"Little did we know, that treasure box was the cherished collection of the Grim Reaper... And the reality of that time was, that treasure box and the treasure contained within were inlaid together and couldn't be separated, yet we were so ignorant that we only saw the treasure box, failing to discover the existence of the treasure."
"..."
"And a long time ago, the Grim Reaper dragged His scythe right to our doorstep."
Fisher took a deep breath. He raised his eyes to look beyond the triangular architecture, at the expanse of resplendent Stream of Souls outside that Scarlet Mist. His heart twitched slightly, but just as he wanted to say something, the entire Spirit World suddenly quaked.
"Buzz buzz buzz"
"What's going on?"
Fisher quickly realized it wasn't the entire Spirit World trembling, but rather the Scarlet Mist filling it to the brim was constantly shuddering, as if it suddenly received some stimulation and became incredibly restless.
He hurriedly turned his head to look outside, and Ramastia also stood up with a serious expression, looking at the surrounding Scarlet Mist, speaking softly to Fisher,
"It's the authority of Dream Illusion trembling."
"Dream Illusion, the Spirit World Contamination, but how..."
Fisher was slightly stunned. He quickly discovered that the Scarlet Mist pervading everywhere within the Spirit World suddenly pounced fiercely in the direction of the Crevice, just like moths discovering a flame.
He was puzzled and bewildered. The Crevice was clearly still perfectly intact, so why did the Spirit World Contamination suddenly riot? Did some incident occur?
Ramastia's expression remained calm and composed. She glanced at the surrounding darkness, seemingly quickly knowing what happened. She heaved a sigh and said,
"It found Its lost soul."
"At this time?"
Ramastia was equally helpless, but Her expression was still considered stoic. At this moment Fisher finally discovered, under the radiance of the azure glow upon Her body, Her form seemed to possess a bit of an illusory nature,
"But there is no need to worry. Thanks to you after all, the Crevice is still there, without the Base, It still cannot break through the Crevice... The key right now lies in the matters afterward. However, no need to rush, you need to rest well for a while, let me handle it for now."
"..."
Seeing Teresa's appearance on Ramastia becoming increasingly illusory, Fisher seemingly had never experienced this kind of "leave it to me, you rest" feeling before. He was always the one running around hectically in front, so at this moment hearing Ramastia say this, he unexpectedly still possessed a bit of a trance-like feeling.
It was akin to a Naris worker, exhausted from rushing about, suddenly becoming idle, yet still having to look anxiously at his family members and asking them,
"Then what about me, what do I do?"
Ramastia smiled and turned Her head, Her eyes always bearing maternal and divine love,
"You can first continue reading your Demi-human Completion Handbook. You should have already read a lot of other handbooks, satisfying certain conditions to unlock projects within it. After your rank elevates, if you're really bored to death, you can walk outwards from here. On the table I've left you coordinates, an old friend of yours is waiting to see you there."
"Is it Renee?"
Fisher stood up somewhat excitedly, his eyes lighting up as he said this.
But Ramastia merely smiled beautifully, ruthlessly shaking Her head,
"...It's your father-in-law."
Fisher sat back down again.
Pondering over it, the Spirit World was extremely dangerous. He had already finished reading the Death Completion Manual and the Life Completion Manual. He still had the Destiny Completion Manual on him unread. Reading three books consecutively all at once, according to the progress of one rank per book, after finishing all of it he would reach the nineteenth-tier. At that time walking in the Spirit World would be a bit safer too.
Furthermore, Ramastia spoke about too many contents just now. Even though there were some unsaid details, there was already enough information that required digesting, especially the part concerning himself.
However, if he didn't reach the demigod level, he wouldn't be able to confront the deities directly. He was still a bit curious about Renee's main body...
Mhm, although Renee said not to look at Her main body, and Fisher also understood the principle that curiosity killed the cat, but...
Who asked him to be unable to resist?
Seeing Fisher sit down decisively, Ramastia also spoke no further, merely abruptly disappearing on the spot like a phantom. That originally looked like nothing more than an illusion anyway.
While outside the inverted triangular architecture, after a burst of booming sounds echoed, a terrifying physical entity seemed to have departed from here, heading towards the direction of the Crevice.
(End of Chapter)