Chapter 396: Holy City (Finale) |
Vader had always been a man with an inflated sense of self.
In the real world, he was born at a peak most people could never hope to reach in their entire lives. Since he never had to bear any responsibility, no one ever dared to point out his flaws.
In the game, his reckless actions and callous disregard for human life saw him through one instance after another. Combined with a natural talent for gaming, he had climbed the leaderboards with ease.
He knew he wasn't the strongest, nor was he the most suited for the Weird Game. But in his eyes, to have achieved such a high rank at his young age was a mark of exceptional talent.
He wasn't ignorant of the fact that top-tier players like Fu Jue stood above him, but he secretly believed their abilities weren't that much greater than his own. They had simply been in the game longer.
It was easier to belittle others than to reflect on his own shortcomings. That was Vader's way of life.
But now, bathed in the Ancestral God's gaze, the divine-level corruption assaulting his very soul as he witnessed the confrontation between Qi Si, Fu Jue, and the god herself, he could no longer maintain his composure.
So this was the level of conflict between players and instances in the Weird Game. So this was the true power of players like Fu Jue. So all the instances he'd cleared before were nothing but child's play...
The glittering golden Holy City was instantly bleached a stark, snow-like white by layers upon layers of spiderwebs. More and more silvery threads wove themselves between heaven and earth, threatening to fill the entire world.
Fu Jue was nailed to a cross, his head hanging low. Blood poured from his wounds, pooling at his feet. If not for the faint tremor in his fingers, any onlooker would have mistaken him for a corpse.
Qi Si stood frozen on the empty ground beside the cross, his body from the waist down completely ensnared in white threads. A grayish film clouded his eyes, rendering him utterly immobile in an instant.
This was the might of a god, the world that Identity Card holders were privy to... Vader stared at the[Taboo Scholar]card in the upper right corner of his vision. A sense of awe bloomed in his heart, mingled with a faint flicker of anticipation.
While he felt that Asakura Yuko had screwed him over before she died, and it pissed him off, he had to admit that gaining the qualification to participate in the Final Instance was a tangible benefit.
Danger and opportunity coexist, as the old saying goes. He had heard that all Identity Card holders could vie for godhood. What did it feel like, he wondered, to become a god?
Still, this Identity Card didn't seem to do much besides collecting knowledge and showing him disturbing, sanity-draining visions...
As Vader’s mind drifted, imagining the near future, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his shoulder blade, as if a blade had pierced clean through him.
Not far away, the History Page in Qi Si's hand fluttered to the ground. He had managed to activate its effect in the final second before being completely controlled.
The recorded text [The Son of God was nailed to the cross]flashed before Vader's eyes, and his vision filled with the crimson haze that heralded death.
This is bad, Vader thought grimly. He struggled to lower his gaze and saw several long nails materialize out of thin air in front of him, plunging into his body...
...
"Why is your blood red?" In the pure white space, the woman stared into Qi Si's eyes, asking her question with genuine curiosity.
Completely exposed to the Ancestral God's gaze, the currents of thought at the bottom of Qi Si's mind sprouted dense, fleshy tendrils. Each protrusion was uncontrollably pondering the god's question—or more accurately, searching his memory for a hidden answer.
Why... was his blood red? A god's blood should be gold, so why was his red? Why...
A chaotic storm of questions rose and fell within the sanctuary of his mind, but ultimately, he found no answer. The Ancestral God's probing returned empty-handed as well.
The color of his blood proved he was not a true god. The reason behind it was a deeply buried secret; Qi had erased the relevant memories beforehand, lost within those missing thirty-six years.
—He was incomplete. Whether as a human or a god, he was flawed. His humanity was stretched to its thinnest point, while his divinity had yet to be forged from faith. He was a monster wandering the void, destined to never find its kin.
"Why don't you guess?" Qi Si tilted his head up, looking directly at the Ancestral God. The fear surging through his veins was so potent it nearly became tangible, igniting a phantom pain across his skin.
He stretched his lips, forcing his features into a twisted smile. "Perhaps when you revive within my body, you'll find the answer. But... do you dare?"
Unlike Fu Jue or Vader, he possessed the status and authority of a god, yet his body remained stubbornly human. It was as good as screaming that there was something wrong with this vessel.
If the Ancestral God were to possess Fu Jue or Vader, she could use their status and authority to reascend her divine throne. But if she revived in his body, she would likely be trapped in a human state for a long time, just as he was now.
Given that the rules permitted the Ancestral God's revival as a matter of time, and she had already endured for eons, there was no reason for her to take such an unknown risk in the final days.
The woman was silent for a moment, then she suddenly drew closer to Qi Si, judging him with deliberate, sharp words. "Qi, you are afraid."
Her cold, spiritual form overlapped with his own. Silvery threads coiled around his wrists, one by one, and a bone-deep chill spread from his heart, racing through every nerve.
"To be human or to be a god, it makes no difference to me. All living things are me, and I am all living things."
"Is that so? What a coincidence," Qi Si was still smiling, a hint of madness creeping into it as he lost control of his facial muscles. "Whether you choose to revive in my body or not makes no difference to me either, in terms of the amusement it would provide."
His fear of the Ancestral God stemmed from a primal memory, from the dawn of the gods' creation. It was a cloying sense of being dominated, of being tethered by her threads no matter where he went, every thought and action scripted by her will.
What he saw was what the Ancestral God wanted him to see. What he heard was what she wanted him to hear. What he thought was what she wanted him to think... An endless gloom permeated every corner of his being, as pervasive and inescapable as the air itself.
But in Qi Si's own memories, no such controlling, oppressive Ancestral God existed. He had been free, a recluse unbound by any rules.
His parents had died early, and he had dealt with the uncle and his family who had abused him. He had repaid every person and thing that caused him displeasure with abundant malice. For a long time, he had not known the taste of fear. He respected no gods and believed in nothing.
The moment he saw the Ancestral God, it was as if he had been torn in two. One half of him, driven by instinct, felt fear and apprehension, rejecting everything associated with her. The other half thrilled with the excitement of encountering a strange, new creature, desperately wanting to know what it would feel like to kill a being of the Ancestral God's caliber.
Li was trapped in Chang Xu's body, unable to return to the Weird Game. Could the Ancestral God, too, become trapped in his body?
Qi Si was eager to find out.
...
Under the sky of the Holy City, where gold and silver light intertwined, Vader hung nailed to the cross. Blood gushed from the wounds as new nails periodically pierced his body, wrenching agonized cries from his throat.
He knew he was doomed, but he felt no regret. There was no path to survival for him in the *Holy City* instance. With the Ancestral God's descent, ordinary players stood no chance against her might. For Identity Card holders who wished to avoid being her host, the only option was to embrace death first.
Not to mention, he was up against two old schemers, Fu Jue and Qi Si. The former held the dual identities of a Kyushu leader and the Sila Guild's Puppet Master, while the latter had recently risen to fame and become a god in a recent instance.
To be outplayed by these two working together—Vader considered it a worthy death. Besides, from the looks of it, Fu Jue and Qi Si weren't going to make it out alive either. Wasn't this a two-for-one mutual destruction? Thinking of it that way, he was coming out way ahead!
As Vader comforted himself, he looked across at Fu Jue, who was also nailed to a cross. Then, he watched as the feathers on Fu Jue's body vanished before his very eyes. Blood flowed back into his wounds, and the nails popped out of his flesh. [Hidden effect of "Fallen Savior" — "Rebirth" — has been triggered. This effect cannot be activated again in this instance.]
[Note: You once gave your life for their survival. Now, you can naturally use their lives for your revival. They came from you, and to you they shall return.]
In a corner, the three puppets collapsed to the ground, their barely-alive state instantly shifting to one of complete lifelessness.
Fu Jue calmly stepped down from the cross, standing steadily on the spider-silk-covered ground, his expression unchanged.
He tilted his head slightly, as if noticing Vader's resentful gaze, and slowly walked over. "You're in pain," he stated in his usual monotone. "Seeing me saved has crushed you, and your will can no longer overcome the agony of your body. I can end your suffering and reset your chances of survival. The price is the forfeiture of your free will..."
Fu Jue paused, his eyes landing on the bloody hole in Vader's shoulder. "It is currently impossible to determine if the execution mechanism triggered by the recorded effect is identical to other execution mechanisms. However, based on your rate of blood loss, you have thirty seconds to make your decision."
Vader wanted to retort with a defiant, "I'd rather die than be saved by someone like you." But the thought of the wealth and luxury awaiting him in the real world made the words die on his lips. What came out instead was a faint, breathless, "Save me."
The next second, a silvery-white thread coiled around his little finger.
...
Qi Si shook off one thread, only for more to ensnare him. After a few attempts, he couldn't be bothered to struggle anymore. Sinking his consciousness deep into the sanctuary of his mind, he summoned the long-unused[Azure Underworld Guide].
[Name: Azure Underworld Guide]
[Type: Item]
[Effect: Consume one page to transform any being into a ghost. (Duration: 60 seconds. Page count resets with each instance.)]
[Note: Wield the guide to the underworld, command the affairs of the netherworld. Whomever you call a ghost, a ghost they shall be.]
Just two seconds earlier, Qi Si had realized something was wrong. In Qi's memories, the Ancestral God was a being of few words, preferring to physically manipulate the other gods into the forms she desired.
But the woman before him was patiently conversing with him, explaining her motives and goals. This was something the Ancestral God of eons past would never have done.
A superior does not need the understanding of a sacrificial lamb, unless that superior is all bark and no bite. This principle applied to any being.
Qi Si tried activating the [Azure Underworld Guide]on himself. The resistance he expected never came. In the blink of an eye, his exposed skin turned a deathly gray, and the blood that trickled out was a deep, putrid purple.
He felt the power of the Ancestral God within him retreat, and he laughed. "No wonder you're not picky. You're at the end of your rope."
...
"She really is at the end of her rope," Fu Jue murmured, staring at the two overlapping figures within the white cocoon. A bright glint reflected off his glasses. "Her decisions are based on a low probability of success, colored by desperation. Engaged in a struggle, she can't perceive the outside world, which has given me an opening. The Twilight of the Gods... is it?"
"What do you mean? Wasn't the Twilight of the Gods that event from twenty-two years ago?" Vader had been freed from the cross and was now clutching the bloody holes in his body as he asked, "What's our next move? Team up and pick off the winner after they're done fighting?"
The last part was pure nonsense. He wasn't a fool; he knew that Fu Jue and the Ancestral God, as competitors on the same path, were destined to fight to the death. Now that Fu Jue was free, he would most likely help Qi Si escape.
He was trying to probe for the instance's solution, but Fu Jue simply stated, "Based on the optimal solution for the group, there is a very simple way to end this game..."
...
[The last believer has died. Congratulations to the Heretic Faction on your final victory.]
[Congratulations to player Fu Jue for clearing the faction-based instance "Holy City".]
Hearing the cold system notifications, Qi Si let out a hoarse chuckle.
His limbs were completely numb, and the chill had already crept up to his jaw, making it impossible to open his mouth. The laughter rumbled deep in his throat, sounding muffled and grim.
The Ancestral God was undoubtedly weak, but an old power dies hard. If she had kept wearing him down, she would have eventually devoured his soul and inherited his body.
The crucial factor was time. He was betting that the time left in this instance was running out.
The ending was unlocked, the prerequisites had been met, and clearing the instance was just one final step away. And Fu Jue, to eliminate the threat of the Ancestral God, would surely cooperate with all his might.
The white threads covering his body grew transparent, like melting snow. Long fissures cracked open in the pure white space, and Qi Si's perspective soared upwards, finally settling high above the temple, looking down upon the land.
Dawn had broken. The believers from the East, North, and South districts emerged from their homes, gradually gathering in the square before the temple.
They had heard the commotion last night but had only dared to investigate this morning. Now, they stared in stunned silence at the bodies of their fellow believers and Father Raki inside the temple, and at the Son of God nailed to the cross outside.
Flor crawled out from a pile of corpses, presenting the miracle of his resurrection to the crowd. But to everyone's surprise, he did not thank the god for her grace. Instead, he condemned the god's evil.
He proclaimed that courage and wisdom were humanity's innate gifts, that freedom and life were their inalienable rights. The evil god had seized them, only to grant them back as favors, exchanging trivial boons for humanity's eternal gratitude. It was, he declared, a grand deception.
The believers struggled to accept this at first, but Father Raki was dead, the priests were gone, and the altar behind the temple laid bare its bloody secrets for all to see.
Looking at the tragically dead bodies of their kin, they no longer dared speak of piety—not out of sympathy for the dead, but out of fear that they, too, would one day join their ranks. . .
From that day on, the Holy City no longer worshipped the Holy Lord. Instead, they began to worship a lifeless thing called "the cross."
[The fanatical believers thought they had uncovered a hidden truth, only to throw themselves headlong into another masterfully woven lie.]
[Later historians would consider the Holy City the first godless land where the people overthrew divine rule. But was it truly a land without a "god"?]
[Whether humanity cast out the divine, or the divine abandoned humanity, that is the question.]
["Holy City" True End — "A Land Without Gods" — has been recorded.]