At the same time, everyone present heard an extremely clamorous and chaotic sound.
It was like tens of thousands of insects crawling on their eardrums, or countless people whispering in their ears at once, making their temples throb violently.
Falco's face turned instantly pale, and he whipped his head up to look into midair.
The metal sphere, which had been perfectly regular and stable just moments ago, was now violently twisting and deforming.
“Teacher... has this thing awakened?” The extreme sense of oppression made his voice tremble.
Everyone looked toward the console. Hoffman's operations had already reached the final step, but the expected outcome was nowhere to be seen.
It had not stabilized. Instead, the clamorous noise grew louder and louder until it ultimately transformed into a wave of near-furious hostility.
In the next instant, countless tendrils of filthy black mana surged out of thin air within the hall, like a horde of snakes writhing out from the ground, spreading frantically along the walls and pipes.
The black wave swept across every corner of the hall in a flash, impacting both Hoffman's group and the base guards rushing in.
“Su! Take over the console, quickly!”
Hoffman only had time to cry out before the highly condensed, filthy mana exploded with a deafening boom.
Arnold, who had been standing closest to him to guard his side, instinctively tried to shield his teacher the moment the shockwave erupted. However, that power was simply not something human strength could withstand.
He was sent flying like a kite with its string cut, his back slamming heavily against a thick metal pipe with a dull crack of breaking bones.
Hoffman clung desperately to the edge of the console to keep from being blown away, but the massive influx of corruptive pollution into his body was already unstoppable.
Gritting his teeth, he channeled gravity magic to pull his disciples, who had been scattered by the shockwave, back toward him.
Yet by the time Arnold's body was pulled back to the ground, he had already stopped breathing.
His entire rib cage had collapsed, and filthy black blood oozed from his body. His physical form was ruined, but his eyes remained wide open.
“Arnold! Arnold!”
Talier shrieked as she threw herself forward, grabbing Arnold's shoulders, but she received no response.
The veins on Falco's hands bulged as he gripped his elven longbow. He looked up at the writhing black shadow in midair, his eyes filled with rage and grief.
Hoffman stared blankly at the corpse of his most prized chief apprentice, his arms trembling violently against the console.
Ansu immediately unleashed his spiritual power, transforming it into an invisible barrier to protect the violently shaking console.
“It's useless,” Hoffman whispered, looking as if all his strength had been drained. “We failed...”
In midair, the outer shell of the metal sphere had completely melted away, transforming into an unspeakable black aberration.
Its surface continuously bulged and subsided, sprouting countless twisted limbs and giant, murky eyeballs. It looked down upon all living beings in the hall from its lofty position.
Ansu recognized those eyes. They were the very same curse marks that would later appear on his wrist.
The fury of the God of Clamor and Filth was not difficult to understand.
For any entity, existence itself was the ultimate instinct.
And awakening 【Rationality】 was essentially diluting and disintegrating its core, which directly threatened its very existence. It would never tolerate such a thing.
More guards poured into the hall through the passages. Falco and Talier immediately retreated to the entrance of the corridor, one fighting at range and the other in close combat, desperately holding the guards back.
Battle cries, magical explosions, and the squelching of the writhing aberration mingled together, creating a chaotic hellscape.
“Teacher! Teacher!” Talier shouted back in a brief opening, swinging her mana-infused warhammer. Every sweep sent three or four soldiers flying. “What do we do now?!”
As soon as she spoke, she slammed her warhammer violently into the ground. A wave of rampant mana rippled outward, blasting the dozen or so soldiers at the very front backward.
The high-intensity combat caused filthy black blood to spill from the corner of her mouth, and her body faltered.
The previous mana corruption had already damaged her internal organs.
“Talier!” Falco took down a large group of soldiers with several magic arrows, quickly turning his head to look at her. “Can you still hold on?”
Ansu swept a portion of his spiritual power through the passage, temporarily forcing back a wave of guards. He then turned to Hoffman. “The false god has completely run amok. It can't be suppressed anymore. We must make a choice immediately!”
Hoffman's plan to weaken it had completely failed. Now, there was only one path left.
His path.
“No choice matters anymore...” Hoffman's lips quivered as he repeated in a low voice, “We failed...”
“Yes, there is! Of course there is!” Ansu's voice rang directly in Hoffman's mind as he laid out his entire plan at a breakneck speed.
Halfway through, Hoffman whipped his head around. His eyes first flared with astonishment, which was quickly replaced by rising anger.
He had spent his entire life trying to curb the runaway God-Making Project, risking everything to prevent the world from being consumed. Yet Su's plan, in essence, was to create another new god.
“I spent all my effort trying to stop the God-Making Project, and yet you want to make another one?” His voice was extremely low, carrying a suppressed fury. “Is this why I took you in over the past year? If I had known this, I should have...!”
Ansu did not argue. He knew how crazy this plan sounded, but he understood even better that this was the only solution at hand.
Thanks to the system's hints and witnessing the failure of Hoffman's endeavors firsthand, he had figured out many things by now.
【The past cannot be changed; it can only be recorded.】
【Of course, you can't change it anyway.】
【The path to salvation lies within...】
Since the grand direction of history would never change because of him, yet he had indeed returned to the past and made some very real “small changes,” was it possible that this matter was a case of the effect preceding the cause?
High-tier deities were entities that transcended the dimension of time. His traversal through this 【Time Beacon】 also proved that time was not linear for such high-dimensional beings; the Goddess of Holy Light even still believed he was Her Chosen One.
Once he understood this, Ansu felt a sudden wave of clarity.
Perhaps a “God of Magitech” had already existed all along... after all, the magitech industry was incredibly prosperous in his own era.
What he needed to do now was simply close the missing loop.
“Master Hoffman, we indeed cannot change it,” Ansu said, meeting his angry gaze with a tone so calm it was almost cold. “But we can take 【Knowledge】 and 【Rationality】 out of its body. Trust me, this is the only solution we have right now.”
Hoffman stiffened, the anger on his face freezing.
He stared into Ansu's eyes. “What do you mean?”
Ansu's spiritual power echoed in his mind, transmitting a crystal-clear train of thought all at once into Hoffman's head...
Finally...
Hoffman's expression slowly shifted into hesitation, and he eventually fell into deep thought.
“I actually knew long ago that you were destined to fail,” Ansu said slowly. “But your failure will give birth to my success. It is precisely because you cannot stop the birth of the God of Clamor and Filth that my plan can be realized.”
“The divine spark fragment you just risked your life to separate is exactly what I need. When 【Rationality】 and 【Knowledge】 coalesce into a new god in my way, it will mark the beginning of the end for the God of Clamor and Filth in the future.”
He looked up at the increasingly twisted and massive black aberration in midair. “Give me the fragment, Master Hoffman. We are out of time.”
Not far away at the corridor entrance, the battle was growing increasingly difficult.
Talier clutched her chest and coughed violently, black blood dripping through her fingers as she struggled to even hold her warhammer.
Falco covered her with arrows while repeatedly glancing back toward the console, his face filled with anxiety.
He didn't know what his teacher and Su were arguing about; he only knew that if this dragged on any longer, they would all die here.
“Teacher! Su! We can't hold them off anymore!!”
Hoffman looked at his desperate students, then sensed the surface of the base, which was now completely silent.
The Rationalist allies who had agreed to cause a distraction on the perimeter had likely all fallen in battle...
He fell silent for a moment.
A memory flashed through his mind of an afternoon a year ago. He had asked Su many questions about the future: when the God of Clamor and Filth would awaken, whether the Rationalist faction's plan would succeed, and whether there was still hope for this world.
Back then, Su had hesitated and refrained from giving an answer, saying that matters of the future could not be disclosed.
But Su had actually already given his answer...
At that time, Hoffman's heart had felt heavy, as if pressed down by a giant boulder. Yet his obsession refused to let him admit defeat, always believing that with just a little more effort, perhaps he could rewrite the ending.
Only now, as he watched the false god run amok, his apprentice die a tragic death, and his life's work shatter like a handful of dust under divine wrath, did he despairingly admit...
He could not change that preordained history.
This prosperous Era of Magic was ultimately destined to face destruction.
“Fine... I will give the divine spark fragment to you.”
As if using up the last trace of his strength, Hoffman let out a long sigh.
But Su had also said that in the era he came from, the world was still there and people were still alive, at least having a glimmer of hope in the face of calamity.
Since everything here was destined to be destroyed, he could at least do something for the future.
Supporting the future.
“Alright!” Ansu nodded, his spiritual body flying forward swiftly.
Hoffman looked at a glass container embedded in the side of the console. Inside, a soft blue glow drifted—it was the loose divinity that had just been forcibly stripped away.
He stepped forward, his fingers rapidly manipulating the dashboard to adjust the container's output permissions. “This stripped divinity is now at your disposal.”
Ansu immediately said, “Please help me guard the perimeter. I need time; the ritual must not be interrupted.”
“Rest assured!” Hoffman replied in a deep voice.
He stared intently at the God of Clamor and Filth, which was on the verge of breaking free from all shackles, directly facing the overwhelming, tide-like black wave.
He was the only line of defense standing before Su.
Once everything was ready, Ansu hovered at the exact center of the circular magic circle and slowly closed his eyes.
His ritual had officially begun.
...
Rate on N.U.
