The world devourers launched their counterattack.
Millions of individual worms coiled together to form a colossal mouth spanning the void. Inside lay not teeth, but a nothingness capable of devouring all.
The moment it was about to snap shut on the Silver-Crowned God's left forearm, he raised his hand, sweeping out a wave of pure conceptual power.
Any worm touched by the light instantly disintegrated into dust.
This was suppression from the supreme laws of reality.
The world devourers let out an unbelieving shriek, “How can you be this strong?”
From their observations, the Silver-Crowned God's power should have been roughly on par with the Will of Chaos.
But the strength the Silver-Crowned God displayed now far exceeded their imagination.
The Silver-Crowned God chuckled. “Because the current me is not only who I was before creation, but also who I am at my peak.”
Without a doubt, the Silver-Crowned God was powerful.
Yet, no one knew exactly how terrifying he truly was.
To put it in perspective, while continuously powering the Landia Continent, the Silver-Crowned God still had enough strength left over to severely wound the Will of Chaos. Even after ten thousand years had passed, the Will of Chaos had barely recovered seventy percent of his power.
Had it not been deliberate, he would never have fallen.
The Silver-Crowned God beckoned the world devourers with a finger. “Continue.”
At his peak, dealing with these little worms was child's play.
Sensing the danger, the world devourers began to collapse inward en masse, fusing into an even more terrifying form.
The swarm connected head to tail, forming a Mobius strip.
They secreted black mucus to weave a cocoon. The cocoon grew and twisted, eerie patterns surfacing on its exterior.
Slender silver threads extended from the Silver-Crowned God's fingertips, piercing toward the black cocoon like living things.
However, the moment his attack struck the cocoon, the energy was converted into material to weave the cocoon even tighter.
“Every attack you make only feeds us,” multiple echoes vibrated from within the cocoon. “When we break free, we will become a new cosmic law—a law that reduces all things to zero.”
“You will eventually return to the past. You cannot stop us.”
“This universe will ultimately return to nothingness!”
The Silver-Crowned God stared at the expanding cocoon. He felt no anger, no tension; his eyes held only tranquility, as if he were looking at an error that merely needed correction.
Suddenly, he smiled.
He did something the swarm could not comprehend.
He did not attack.
Instead, he began to create.
Around the swarm's cocoon, he created countless miniature universes. Each followed different physical laws, and each nurtured brand-new possibilities.
These universes were as fleeting as bubbles, rising and falling in an instant, but their existence threw the swarm into a massive paradox.
If universes could be created infinitely, then nothingness was no longer the sole destination.
This was the negation of “nothingness” by “existence” itself.
The cocoon's expansion ground to a halt.
Their logical core was disrupted, and the very meaning of their existence was overturned.
They existed to return everything to nothingness, but if infinite existence remained beyond nothingness, their mission lost its foundation.
The cocoon began to disintegrate.
The Silver-Crowned God did not destroy them; he simply stripped them of their purpose.
Ultimately, the worms dissolved away.
Everything returned to silence.
The Silver-Crowned God did not leave immediately.
His summoning from the past had been mediated by his splintered divinity, humanity, and rationality.
As for Ning Busan and the others, they were currently at the junction of the past and the present.
The Silver-Crowned God was full of anticipation to meet his three little successors!
However, when he arrived at the boundary of past and future, the scene before him struck him silent.
The three of them were cozily nestled in luxurious sofas, and they were... playing Fight the Landlord?!
Rationality, who had already secured a ten-game win streak, pushed up his glasses. “Playing this kind of game with you two makes me feel like I'm bullying the mentally disabled.”
Ning Busan and Divinity snapped in unison, “Shut up!”
Rationality shook his head helplessly.
Two terrible players who loved to play anyway...
The Silver-Crowned God materialized before them and asked softly, “Are you three having fun?”
The three of them turned their heads in perfect unison to look at the Silver-Crowned God.
After sizing him up for a moment, Ning Busan glanced at the two beside him. Compared to the real Silver-Crowned God, the three of them felt like cheap knockoffs.
The Silver-Crowned God smiled slightly. “I believe I don't need to introduce myself.”
Three pairs of eyes stared back at him silently, saying nothing.
The Silver-Crowned God cleared his throat. “Are you not concerned about what happened outside?”
Rationality countered calmly, “Could there have been any other outcome?”
Divinity let out a soft snort, seemingly dismissive.
Ning Busan voiced the question lingering in his heart, “Why are you here? Did you foresee everything that happened today long ago?”
Brilliant silver light swirled in the Silver-Crowned God's eyes. “I can see the destiny of the world, the destiny of the universe, including the trillions of possibilities it might develop into in the future.”
“Without exception, its ultimate end is always nothingness.”
Ning Busan asked, “Because of those worms?”
“Indeed, it is because of them,” the Silver-Crowned God said. “The world devourers will eventually lead the universe to nothingness. They are actually not difficult to deal with, but to stop them, we had to lure them out first.”
Rationality remarked flatly, “From your fall to the three of us banishing the Will of Chaos to the end of nothingness, everything has been within your plan.”
“The most ingenious part of it was that you knew you wouldn't be able to interfere with destiny after your fall, so you chose a human to manipulate the threads of destiny in your stead.”
The Silver-Crowned God curled his lips. “As it turns out, the person I chose was indeed excellent.”
Ning Busan's gaze was incredibly complex. “So, to stop the world devourers and prevent the universe from falling into nothingness, you chose to sacrifice yourself?”
“No, I still exist,” the Silver-Crowned God said with a smile. “I exist in the past, but the three of you are my successors.”
Rationality showed a look of disgust.
Divinity merely sneered.
Clearly, they did not identify much with the title of “successors.”
The Silver-Crowned God felt as if his heart had suffered a critical blow.
He slowly turned his head to look at Ning Busan.
Ning Busan said, word by word, “I have my own place of origin. No matter what, I cannot stay in this world forever.”
“Please tell me the coordinates of my world.”
The Silver-Crowned God shook his head. “There are no coordinates.”
“That's impossible!” Ning Busan's lips trembled. Grabbing the Silver-Crowned God's lapels, he roared, “You could send me to that world, and you could deploy the game 《Xeno Invasion》 to that world, so how could you possibly not know its coordinates?”
The Silver-Crowned God said, “The two worlds are not in the same space, nor the same time, and not even in the same dimension.”
“I merely projected the consciousness belonging to my humanity into that dimension. It was you who decided when and where you would be born, and what kind of life you would experience. Then, at the right time, the God of Light would summon you back.”
“I do not know what game you are referring to, but I had implanted a thread of destiny affecting this world's development into the consciousness of my humanity long ago. Perhaps in your world, it manifested in the form of a game.”
After a brief pause, the Silver-Crowned God spoke softly, “Ning Busan, you must understand that this world can also become your home.”
Ning Busan's fingers tightened in a spasm, and he felt cold all over.
So... was he never going to be able to return home?
“I must go now...” the Silver-Crowned God said. “The future of the Landia Continent is in your hands...”
The Silver-Crowned God vanished.
And Ning Busan, along with Divinity and Rationality, reappeared once again in the Ruins Beyond the Boundary.
Rate on N.U.
