Chapter 47: The Ghost of God

The things that the God of Truth, Surs Te, could not bear, naturally also applied to the Great Evil God, Oktaviel, who shared a similar divine power level. However, Oktaviel hadn’t had direct contact with the essence of “Truth” like the former, so it shouldn’t result in the same fate just yet.

Unknown and indescribable, even the information related to its content equated to mental pollution. Although what Vilyric witnessed was horrifying enough, it remained only superficial; the deeper, true “Truth” that drove the God of Truth insane had yet to be contacted in any form.

“Is it still not time…? What does ‘Do not gaze upon March’ truly mean?”

What was the “truth” that Surs Te saw, and what did he refer to as “fate”?

What caught Vilyric’s attention even more was that the many contents conveyed in his words coincidentally aligned with the hints Hen tried to suggest to her, like the “Key of March,” or that line relayed by Miss Xiao Kong, “Fate has already taken notice of you.”

There is definitely a connection between the two.

In the dim, silent depths of the ocean, the girl gazed at the fractured skull, reduced to half by the flames of self-immolation, watching it begin to gradually dissolve and decompose due to the earlier contact, lost in a moment of contemplation and silence.

Regarding the sea goddess of this era known as Vail, when Xi Fu Lin speculated that she might actually be the Great Evil God, Oktaviel, she had disclosed much information to Vilyric, including another deity closely related to her.

As the two deities governing the Endless Sea, Oktaviel and Surs Te ruled over the realms of “above the sea” and “below the sea,” respectively.

The God of the Azure Sea and the God of Truth protect ships and islands, bestowing the truth as a blessing that clears the fog to find the path ahead, while the Great Evil God resides in the world’s most profound depths, enjoying the bountiful resources of the water, with thousands of tentacles stretching out, nearly controlling everything in the deep sea.

The God who holds “Truth” and a god with an “endless” divine body.

The two are like neighbors; often causing various conflicts due to their differing attitudes toward the world’s living beings, yet in their respective domains and powers, the differences are enormous. The God of Truth cannot venture into the deep sea to engage the Great Evil God, and Oktaviel’s massive tentacles would weaken and become vulnerable if extended above water for too long.

Thus, although they are arch-enemies, neither could truly harm the other. While they dislike each other, they form a dynamic equilibrium that allows the ocean as a whole to flourish and thrive.

While the azure sea god guides ships and protects the islands, the sea creatures hold a stronger fear and aversion towards the other deity, who enjoys devouring living things and occasionally attacks those who enter the deep sea. However, Oktaviel seems unconcerned, going about his way without demanding any worship, unlike Surs Te, who spreads blessings and teachings.

Moreover, with his fearsome and grotesque tentacles, over time, he has come to be regarded as the Evil God.

Of course, all of this happened at least a thousand years ago. Even Xi Fu Lin is unsure of what transpired on this side of the sea after he was sealed, and the outbreak of divine catastrophe. But it is a confirmed fact that both Oktaviel and Surs Te have remained silent; no deity has controlled the ocean.

In other words, the God of Truth peeking into the “Truth,” which drove him mad, and all subsequent chain reactions happened within just a few hundred years following the fall of the Earth Mother Goddess and the upheaval in the primordial land that led to the divine disaster.

Therefore, furthering this line of thought, Surs Te accessing that kind of information through his own “Truth” authority can never be a natural occurrence; there must be some hidden force pushing this event behind the scenes.

Just like when Xi Fu encountered trouble, certain polluted information mingled into the technology worshipped in the Aibus world, interfering with decisions made by the Earth Mother Goddess.

These individuals, who disguised themselves as divine messengers a thousand years later, deceiving the Aibus people to reboot the “Doomsday Cannon” to bombard another world while secretly liberating the Withering Goddess to lead the Abyss Beasts in a massive invasion of the primordial land, are likely part of the same faction.

If the impetus for these three events all comes from the same place…

The Twilight Council

The name that Hen once warned her to be extremely cautious about floated naturally to Vilyric’s mind.

Could it be that they have been pulling strings in the shadows all along…? What exactly do they intend?

It seems further attention to intelligence on this organization is necessary.

Setting that aside for now, addressing the current situation in the Emerald Sea Region, several final and crucial questions still lack complete clarity.

Firstly, why did Oktaviel confine the “Ghost Sea,” creating such a vast box garden like the “Emerald Sea Region”? If he hasn’t suffered a major blow, what then accounts for the millennium of silence? Is he troubled by the “pollution” from Surs Te?

Additionally, if the “Ghost Sea” is the reality, and the “Emerald Sea Region” is merely a gigantic box garden reflected, how on earth did he create this oversized inner and outer world? Why does he allow the creatures within the garden to go extinct every year, only to reset them again?

Still, the Great Evil God, with countless hands and eyes, primarily manifests his powers through his nearly infinite size and tentacles, resembling more of a deity like Little Dragon Daughter who relies on a body, rather than being adept at these bizarre and arcane mysteries.

If it were said that the “Ghost Sea” transforms creatures into those tentacle-covered forms, possibly stemming from the authority of the polluted God of Truth, intertwining to some extent with Oktaviel’s existence, that could barely make sense…

However, topics like “Inner Worlds,” “Overlapping Worlds,” and even “Box Garden Reset” are definitely not something the Great Evil God could accomplish alone.

When it was heard before that the “Emerald Sea Region” might be a box garden created by a Great Evil God, Xi Fu Lin expressed considerable surprise and skepticism, believing Oktaviel would be incapable of and would not trouble himself with such matters.

Vilyric’s purpose for coming along this time, aside from rescuing Princess Nitira, was mainly to gain further insight into these deepest mysteries through the God of Truth, who was worshipped by Willipol and attempted to be sacrificed.

But…

“Hm? Wait, hold on.”

Vilyric suddenly realized a very crucial issue, a discrepancy with her current understanding.

If the God of Truth was already dead, dead to the point of no return, then the “pollution” spreading across the sea, those few “Books of Truth,” and the “whispers” that Hong Yan came into contact with were merely remnants of his unclaimed influence left in this sea…

Then… the existence that accepted the offerings and was summoned during the ritual at the Merman Tribe’s court, revealing Princess Nitira’s location—Willipol’s worshipped and sought-after “God,” the one that responded time and again…

What exactly is that “God”?

Its required offerings… are “pollution,” that which even the God of Truth cannot bear—an offspring of that information—but it also seems to possess the power to reveal truth similar to the latter. It feels remarkably like the God of Truth but could never equate to him.

Surs Te has completely fallen, with no possibility of resurrection or further responding to any followers.

During the ritual on Parut Island, Vilyric was present to observe; she felt that what appeared at that time didn’t seem like a deity; it resembled more a spirit—an incomplete form of such, and it was very sinister.

A dead god reappearing, displaying past powers, responding to followers, and even… collecting some alternative beliefs to fill itself.

Existence is reason; no matter how absurd or contrary to common sense that reality seems, what should not happen, after ruling out all possibilities, is the remaining… answer.

The girl stood atop the ocean floor, looking up towards the heights miles above, as if seeing countless eerie mists gathering at the water’s surface and hearing the ancient grinding sounds echo in the darkness.

So that’s how it is.

In this sea… there is a true “ghost,” swimming about, longing for life again.

   

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