The resistance this mountain beast before her held against death was surprisingly weak.
This was not to say it had lost its instinct for survival. If it were suddenly attacked, it would still instinctively struggle in an attempt to protect itself.
However, as its body continuously aged and even the simplest movements became difficult, the desire driving it to continue living gradually waned alongside the depletion of its vitality.
It no longer yearned to run, no longer obsessed over searching for new food, and even maintaining wakefulness seemed somewhat superfluous.
Most of the time, it simply lay there quietly, allowing its body to age bit by bit.
Aergia suddenly had a thought.
Previously, she had been researching why living beings resisted sleep, and why they resisted death.
Whether it was Sleep Induction or Rest, both were actually built upon the same fundamental understanding.
The reason a life could continuously maintain a certain state was that its consciousness was still constantly issuing commands to itself to continue.
To continue being awake.
To continue struggling.
To continue clinging on.
And the power possessed by Sloth was precisely able to weaken this desire for continuous maintenance.
But what if this rule were no longer limited to consciousness?
Gazing at the mountain beast before her, which had aged to the extreme, Aergia suddenly shifted her attention toward the life origin itself.
This mountain beast before her did not have a strong obsession with survival, yet its life was still continuing.
Its heart was still beating, its blood still flowing, and those forces sustaining the survival of its physical body were still slowly operating in accordance with the rules of life itself.
Even if consciousness no longer strongly demanded to continue, the physical body would still instinctively maintain its own existence.
This was a continuation far deeper than wakefulness or action.
What if Sloth could act upon this as well?
Sloth was not merely about depriving a life of its ability to act; what it could truly affect was the desire to sustain a state's ongoing existence.
If so, did life itself possess a similar rule?
The reason a living being could stay alive was that its physical body and soul jointly maintained its existence.
As long as the life origin was not depleted, this maintenance would persist; even if consciousness sank into slumber, the physical body would still continuously operate according to the established rules.
Yet the arrival of death meant that all of this would ultimately cease.
At this thought, Aergia's consciousness involuntarily touched upon that strand of the authority over death.
That was a portion of power Thanatos had voluntarily bestowed upon her earlier to help her study the rules of death.
Though far from comparable to a true godhead of Death, it was enough for her to glimpse the profound connection between life and death.
And now, when the power of her godhead of Sloth and this strand of the authority over death operated simultaneously, a rule resonance that had never appeared before suddenly emerged within her body.
Aergia startled slightly.
She could clearly feel that beyond Rest, there existed a certain even tighter connection between Sloth and death.
Sloth could weaken a life's desire to maintain a state, while death signified the complete end of that state of life. If the two were combined, could they form an entirely new power?
Could life naturally cease its operation under the influence of such a rule...?
Aergia's eyes gradually lit up.
This idea caused her godhead of Sloth to resonate more intensely than ever before.
At the same time, that strand of authority over death from Thanatos also began to flow slowly in accordance with her thoughts.
Two divine powers that were originally vastly different gradually drew close under her active guidance.
The power of Sloth manifested an extraordinarily unique sense of sluggishness, as if any ongoing process, once affected by it, would gradually lose the momentum to continue.
The authority over death was even more profound, containing the rules of life's end and capable of directly touching the most fundamental connection between life and the soul.
Aergia did not simply stack the two forces together, but instead attempted to let them blend into each other at the level of rules.
At first, the connection between the two was extremely faint.
Although Sloth could weaken the desire to continue, it could not directly determine the end of life; meanwhile, although the authority over death possessed the power to end life, it did not contain the property of weakening the desire to survive.
However, when Aergia applied both together to the process of a life maintaining its own existence, that originally blurry connection gradually grew distinct.
Sloth could weaken the drive to sustain life, while death could allow this weakening to further act upon the life origin, causing it to ultimately cease operating.
The two rules complemented each other perfectly.
Aergia had not expected that the godhead of Sloth, which she had thoroughly despised in every way, would bring her another pleasant surprise!
When the rules of Sloth and death combined, a brand-new concept was slowly taking shape in the depths of her consciousness—Cessation.
Not the spiritual tranquility represented by "Rest," but causing life to stop maintaining its own existence, ultimately returning to death.
Aergia's breathing slowed slightly.
She could feel that a divine power she had never possessed before was gradually being born at the intersection of the two rules.
However, this concept was still missing the final step.
Aergia slowly opened her eyes, her gaze falling once more upon that aging mountain beast.
"Your Highness Thanatos."
The young God of Death was just preparing to lead her onward to continue their patrol when he turned his head in some confusion upon hearing her call.
"What is it?"
"Under the guidance of the world, please allow me to try a new divine power on this creature."
Thanatos followed her gaze to look at the mountain beast, then sensed the rules currently changing within Aergia's body, shock irresistibly surfacing in his eyes.
"How long has it been? You really created another new concept?"
After the matter of the godhead of Soothing upgrading into the godhead of Rest, Thanatos had already developed an immense interest in Aergia's talent for laws, yet this speed of comprehension still astonished him.
"Then give it a try."
Thanatos folded his arms and stood aside with great interest. He wanted to see just how many more surprises this little fellow, who could always find new things within ordinary rules, could bring him.
"Let me see whether you can truly create a miracle once more."
Having received permission, Aergia hesitated no longer.
She slowly raised her hand, and a divine power of an extremely deep color, almost imperceptible, slowly flowed from her fingertips and landed on the aging mountain beast.
The mountain beast remained quietly lying beneath the rock wall, breathing slowly, without even lifting its eyelids.
Yet in Aergia's perception, the change had already begun.
That newborn divine power did not harm the mountain beast's physical body, nor did it directly act upon the connection between soul and body like Thanatos's authority over death.
What it first touched was the very power sustaining the mountain beast's vital activities.
As the concept of Cessation gradually took effect, those originally continuous life processes began to slow down bit by bit.
Blood flowed slower and slower.
The intervals between heartbeats gradually lengthened.
The already exceedingly faint life origin within its body also seemed to lose the motivation to continue releasing power.
The mountain beast's body quivered slightly.
Yet it did not offer much resistance.
For a creature that had aged to the extreme, with even its desire to live becoming exceedingly faint, the power of Cessation encountered little obstacle.
And so, that change began to spread rapidly deeper within.
Aergia could clearly feel that the divine power she applied was directly affecting the operation of the life origin.
Under the effect of her divine power, life was truly marching toward its end.
To the side, Thanatos also gradually wiped the smile from his face.
As the God of Death, he felt the changes in that power far more clearly than Aergia.
Though the mountain beast had originally been aged, it had not yet truly reached the final moment of death.
And now, its life aura was steadily weakening in a manner that was extraordinarily natural, yet noticeably faster than its original rate of aging.
There were no wounds.
There was no sudden deterioration of illness.
There was not even any power directly destroying its physical body.
It simply gradually stopped sustaining life.
And this stopping would ultimately indeed bring about death.
Thanatos's gaze gradually changed.
This divine power indeed contained the rules of death; though only a small fraction, it was already capable of producing a genuine impact on life itself.
What this signified was something he understood better than anyone.
If this power continued to be perfected, Aergia would possess a death-aligned divine portfolio truly belonging to her.
And what was more, a godhead with direct lethal capability.
Rate on N.U.
