Chapter 459: Evil God Festival · Houseboat |
This sphere was released nonchalantly by Bai Six, drifting and floating until it touched Bai Liu’s face. In an instant, the sphere transformed from white to semi-transparent, with colors flowing across the light membrane like a bubble refracting sunlight.
The bubble drifted toward the depths of the universe, merging into a band of light with other spheres until it could no longer be distinguished.
“I was born from these things.” Bai Six sat in a lazy posture on a spectator chair behind the water-ripple wall, propping up his chin and lifting his eyelids. He looked at Bai Liu behind the water-ripple wall with a smile, “Of course, so were you.”
“I have existed for a very long time and no longer remember how I became the Evil God. From the moment I had memories, I was already a god.”
Bai Six took off his gloves and spread his palm toward Bai Liu. There were seven or eight trembling, weak spheres constantly struggling, trying to surge out from his palm. Bai Six lowered his eyes and gripped these spheres that wanted to struggle and wander away.
The spheres were squeezed by Bai Six, letting out a tiny, miserable “ji” sound before exploding into countless points of light and disappearing in his hand.
Bai Six looked up with a smile: “In that moment just now, ten world lines where you reside were destroyed in my hand.”
“A very interesting game, isn’t it?”
“I don’t find it interesting,” Bai Liu answered him in a calm tone.
“I also find it uninteresting, very boring.”
Bai Liu asked calmly in return: “Aren’t you going to introduce the game background to me? What about your other antagonist settings?”
“For example, what is your purpose?”
“I thought you weren’t interested in me.” Bai Six leaned back against the chair, his legs crossed casually, his long hair cascading down from his shoulder. He tilted his head slightly, resting his forehead on his right hand with a half-smile, “My purpose, of course, is to escape this boundless, boring life.”
Bai Six lowered his gaze to his right hand: “Whether I want it or not, world lines will constantly be born from my palm, as if I created these world lines with my own hands.”
“But it’s actually not like that.”
“I am just a door. These world lines that originally existed need to pass through me—this door of time and space—from one side of the door to this side before they can begin to operate. Otherwise, they would perish on the other side of the door.”
Bai Six raised his eyes, a very subtle smile on his face:
“Because the other side of the door is an inorganic abyss, darkness, and bottomless evil. The species within the world lines existing there will eternally stay with the unspeakable evil of the Old Ones.”
“They will head toward madness and ultimately bring about their own destruction.”
“At first, I was very keen on trapping these world lines on the other side of the door, watching the process of their self-destruction. But after seeing it many times, such programs also became boring.”
“So I began to place the world lines on this side of the door.”
Bai Six raised his index finger and tapped the water-ripple wall. Ripples spread out circle by circle. On this side of the wall, one could only vaguely see spheres overflowing from his fingertip pressed against the surface. He said softly:
“This side of the door possesses the objective logic and truth of the cosmic stars and the movement of all things. On this side, the world lines can obtain light; they can survive for a long time.”
“Different changes will occur within the world lines on this side of the door. They will develop a rich variety of biological species completely different from those on the other side. For example, dogs, for example, cats, and further, roses and Blood Lingzhi.”
“I enjoy observing different species in different world lines. I think they are all very interesting.”
Bai Six lazily rested his chin on the back of his hand. His eyes gazed at Bai Liu as he gave a light laugh and said, “Among all species, the one I find most interesting is humans.”
“Other creatures only need some visible external things to survive, such as sunlight, air, water, food, and shelter. Only humans, besides these external things, also need some invisible things.”
“Even if you are given sufficient sunlight, air, water, food, and shelter, if a human is left to live alone in a world line, or if a human is lonely and forsaken by the collective, it won’t be long before that human commits suicide in agony.”
Bai Six said with a half-smile: “Besides material things, you also need your own kind and love to survive.”
“This is truly too interesting. It’s the first time I’ve seen a creature with such visionary needs. I am very curious about you all; I really want to know what exactly these needs are based on, and under what circumstances they would be abandoned.”
“So I conducted a large number of experiments regarding you in many world lines and discovered the essential reason why you generate these needs.” Bai Six looked up, smiling, “Because you have souls.”
“I attempted to create souls.”
“But even if I imitated a certain human in a world line and molded an identical shell, injected the same memories as that human into the shell, and then put him into an identical world line I created, this creation still could not produce a soul.”
“Even if I unified all factors, this creation of mine still could not produce a soul. The production of a soul seems to require you humans to form it autonomously in a natural social environment where I do not interfere.”
“In all the time I have existed, I have never seen something I could not create or possess, and yet it has finally appeared.”
Bai Six curled the corners of his mouth: “This is truly very interesting.”
“Something that cannot be created or possessed by me is the most valuable thing.”
“I observed many world lines and discovered the pattern of human soul birth—that is, when a human produces two specific strong emotions, it is possible for a soul to be born.”
“These two emotions are called by human society—[Love] and [Suffering].”
“To test this theory, I began descending into each world line as the Evil God. I had them sacrifice [Suffering] or [Love] to me. In exchange, I would satisfy some of their material demands.”
The smile on Bai Six’s face deepened: “But very quickly, I discovered something even more interesting happening.”
“Souls, love, and suffering—these three things that I cannot create myself and which I find most valuable—these humans would actually sell the love, suffering, and souls they possessed for some external objects I gave away casually.”
“Eventually, they even reached a point where they could no longer produce [Love] to sell to me. But in order to continue receiving my material rewards, they chose to torture their own kind, sacrificing the suffering of their [Kind] to me in exchange for my pity.”
“Clearly, their own kind and love are essential conditions for their own survival, yet they can betray all of it for external objects and feverishly worship me, this Evil God.”
Bai Six looked at Bai Liu across from him with a smile: “The self-destructive tendency of the human species is very interesting, isn’t it?”
Bai Liu merely watched him coldly: “This kind of interest probably couldn’t satisfy you for long, right?”
“Indeed.” Bai Six gave a seemingly regretful sigh. He spread his hands and shrugged, “Because very soon, these humans began to slaughter one another and abuse their own kind under the call of me, the Evil God. Their hearts became full of evil and darkness, and they could no longer produce the high-quality emotions and souls I wanted to see, becoming like monsters full of desire.”
“This side of the door was originally full of light, but under the foul struggles of this group of humans, the universe on this side began to lose truth, logic, and light, quickly becoming dim and lusterless.”
Bai Six said with a smile: “—It became just as dark as the other side of the door.”
“And the other side of the door, because all the world lines passed through me to reach this side, no longer had a large number of world lines there, and instead became brighter.”
Bai Liu questioned calmly: “Isn’t it because you, the Evil God, did not interfere, so the other side of the door returned to normal operation?”
“If you want to put it that way, I don’t mind.” Bai Six said beamingly, “In short, the result was that the universes on both sides of the door swapped. I also got tired of playing with humans and began to feel the entire universe was boring, so I wanted to find an heir to continue acting as the door for me.”
“I think the previous Evil God might have played to this point as well, so he found me to be the heir.”
“But to become the door—that is, the next Evil God—one must meet a mandatory condition.”
Bai Six looked at Bai Liu and smiled: “—That is, one must be able to bear the universal difference between the two sides of the door without collapsing. He must have the ability to contain the desires and evil of the entire universe. At the same time, this heir must be more valuable than I am.”
“So I also hope this heir is a human with a soul.”
“The requirement of being valuable—” Bai Liu raised his eyes, “is your own requirement, isn’t it?”
Bai Six curled his lips: “Yes.”
“If the thing sitting in my position is a piece of trash even cheaper than me, it will eventually be devoured by me when I awaken one day.”
Bai Six cross-linked his hands lazily in front of him: “Because existing in this universe is too boring, I hope the heir can kill me.”
“But I searched for a long time and could never find an heir who met my requirements.”
“Finally, I truly reached the limit of boredom, so I decided to try and create one myself.” Bai Six said with a smile. He stood up and walked unhurriedly toward the wax statue sitting on the chair behind him, narrating with a logic-based lack of emotion,
“I stripped away a large portion of my divine power for this creation, carved him into the appearance I liked best, gave him a perfect body, and bestowed upon him the highest qualities praised and possessed by humans since ancient times.”
Bai Six reached out his right hand, gently touching the facial features of the wax statue. He looked down at the statue:
“I gave it all the most beautiful things I learned from human society, attempting to turn him into my most perfect and valuable creation.”
The blurred face of the wax statue began to slowly melt and take shape, turning into exquisite features. The wax liquid at the back of the head dripped down, and silver-blue long hair fell loosely to the ground along with the wax. The left and right hands of the wax statue formed during the melting, pale and sturdy, dropping unconsciously to the side of the chair. The eyes of the wax statue were closed, and its chest went from static to slowly rising and falling, like a sleeping god.
Bai Six rested his hands lightly on the back of the chair and looked at Bai Liu with a smile:
“I call him the incarnation of my kindness, and I have named him Tawil.”
—
Author’s Note:
In the original setting of the Cthulhu Mythos, Tawil is the incarnation of the good side of Yog-Sothoth; here, I have made a modification, and he is a creation.
The basic contents of this chapter are all fabricated by me, there isn’t much reference, and it is not the original setting of the Libri Logaeth (Book of the Dead). It can only be said to be completely unrelated, so please don’t spread misinformation! There is no reference here! It is not a Cthulhu system! It can be considered a fantasy (?) framework.
