Chapter 2238: The Prototype of a Multiverse |
"Hello, God of Lies."
Countless voices reverberated through the sea of stars, and with their sound, time, space, and destiny itself trembled.
Jenkins looked up at Them:
"It's finally over. I've become a true Savior. So, is it time for me to become a god now?"
He smiled, knowing the answer.
"The situation is a bit special this time."
The voice came from his left. Jenkins turned to look at the former Prince of Lies, now the God of Shadows and Subterfuge.
"According to the rules established at the dawn of creation, after a Savior successfully saves the world, they are to be elevated to godhood. We bestow upon the Savior a corresponding divine domain, but they must also leave the material world. Gods cannot walk freely in the material realm."
"So, I'm an exception this time?"
"Yes, you are an exception."
The voice came from behind him. Jenkins turned again. This time, it was the Goddess of Flowers and Festivities who spoke. She had the appearance of a young girl. Jenkins had dealt with her during the 'Six Gods Descend on Nolan' incident and had guessed that she had a deep connection to the Lord of Blossoms.
The last time he saw her, she had used the body of the Young Flower Seller. This time, it seemed to be her true form—a young elven girl, which further confirmed Jenkins's suspicions.
"You are different from any other Savior. This isn't just about you taking up all the available slots, but that there is a fundamental difference between you and them."
"Does that mean I'm already a god?"
he asked.
"Of course not."
The voice came from the front. The speaker was the Goddess of Music. Jenkins knew she was a splinter of Oviya, who had inherited the divine domain of Music. Although she was a splinter, the two were independent entities and did not influence each other. But judging from the way she looked at him, even if they were independent, their memories from before her ascension to godhood were likely identical.
"Your uniqueness doesn't lie in the state of your soul. Jenkins, you should already understand this, actually. But before we announce the final result, as is tradition, you need to know the rules that govern this world—you need to know its deepest secrets."
"About the cycle of sin, the purpose of gods and Sovereigns, and the repeated fracturing of the material world?"
he asked.
"Yes."
the Goddess of Music replied.
"In that case, why don't I start by explaining what I know? I did see quite a bit on the Creation Slate just now."
He cleared his throat. Seeing no 'one' object, he gazed out at the sea of stars and began to speak to the gods:
"This world, even now in the Eighteenth Epoch, is still a nascent world. It is still growing, expanding, and is far from reaching its limit."
The gods smiled. Jenkins truly understood.
"The gods born at the dawn of creation discovered this. They understood that a newborn world is not stable, that it needs more new rules, that it needs stable time and space. This is why the Righteous Gods and Pseudo-Gods needed to exist. They anchor time and space while, in the moment of their own ascension, engraving more rules into the world, providing the impetus and framework for the nascent world's expansion."
He paused. No one interrupted, so he continued:
"But the space of the material world is ultimately finite. When it grows to a certain point, it can no longer expand. To prevent the space from collapsing, or even worse, the system of the sin cycle was established to periodically cleanse the sins produced by civilizations and intelligent life. I originally thought that the Sovereigns who inevitably appear in every Epoch were meant to divide the world and create 'dumping grounds'... please forgive my choice of words... creating dumping grounds to process Sin. But I felt that this method wasn't truly cyclical; it only treated the symptoms, not the root cause. Now I understand..."
He took a deep breath. Jenkins had long guessed the preceding information; what followed was what he had just learned from the two fragments of the slate:
"The most important purpose of the Sovereigns who appear at the end of an Epoch isn't to deal with sin at all. It's to handle the problem of the material world's time and space expanding to their limits. The Sovereigns partition off the excess time and space, establishing new worlds in the void. Dealing with sin is merely a minor issue they resolve along the way. And because the worlds of the Sovereigns are only small parts partitioned from the material world, the rules of each world are incomplete. They have special laws, making them unsuitable for ordinary life, but—"
He smiled, a genuine smile from the heart, as he looked at the gods:
"It's truly incredible. Really, just incredible. The ancient gods who created this series of rules in the First Epoch were absolutely magnificent. The world is constantly growing, but the material world's time and space have their limits. So they partitioned the material world to allow it to continue growing, while simultaneously allowing the worlds of the Sovereigns to become new worlds. Although those worlds are incomplete, because the Sovereigns are completely independent of the material world, they have instead mastered even more rules."
He raised his head, gazing at the seventeen Sovereigns formed from constellations:
"The Sovereigns are not caretakers of worlds of sin. The Sovereigns, who stand above the gods, are cultivators—cultivators of new worlds. You saw the world's future. Since the material world has limits and cannot expand infinitely, you chose to cultivate more new worlds. The growth of a single world has a limit, so you decided to build a multiverse. That is the truth of this world. This world has only just begun. The prime material world is the world's starting point, and beyond that starting point, countless pioneers are cultivating new worlds to form a more diverse cosmic system. That is the truth of this interesting world, a completely logical and correct truth. The Sovereigns... are, in fact, the creator gods of new worlds."
Learning this truth from the fragments of the Creation Slate, Jenkins was actually quite shocked. He had always thought that the material world was primary, with other worlds being merely functional appendages. Only now did he realize that the worlds of the Sovereigns, beyond the material realm, all possessed the potential to grow into entirely new 'material worlds'."
The world he had come to was exceedingly young, but its potential was limitless. What made its potential even more boundless was that the gods born at the very beginning had formulated a charter for the world's development with complete rationality, which allowed the possibility of a single world evolving into a multiverse to transform from a mere possibility into a reality.
In the foreseeable future, perhaps tens of millions of years from now, dozens of material worlds will connect with one another, allowing diverse civilizations and cultures to grow together.
Every Sovereign is an existence determined to become a creator god. They were originally Righteous Gods, but for the sake of the world's development, they were willing to commit themselves to the long march of ages to do something that might bear no fruit.
The meaning of a Sovereign is to rule a world, and also to cultivate a new world. From the dawn of creation to the end of the current Eighteenth Epoch, at the conclusion of every era, a god would ascend to become a Sovereign, carrying with them the excess power of the material world to pioneer a new one.
"According to the rules, the qualifications to ascend to a Sovereign require consideration of many aspects. The ascendant must be a Righteous God, as only the power of a Righteous God is sufficient. The ascendant must find a successor with a divine domain similar to their own, so that the god's departure does not create a void in the rules. The ascendant must also be attuned to the power of the current Epoch, so they can carry away more of the sin from the Epoch's end."
This was Oviya's voice. The Sage was proclaiming the ancient rules on behalf of the gods.
"So, in this Epoch, the ones qualified to ascend to Sovereigns are the Sage and the Artisan?"
The Sage represents knowledge, and the Artisan represents machinery. For the civilization of the Eighteenth Epoch, the powers of these two are the most suitable.
"I could as well, but I don't wish to leave just yet."
The speaker was the Righteous God representing the eleventh month, the Traceless Traveler, whose core divine domains are Travel and Contracts.
Jenkins nodded in understanding, thinking of the insurance merchant who had reappeared in the material world because of him. Being attuned to the Epoch didn't necessarily mean aligning with its main theme; it could also refer to the rules that were gradually perfected with the development of civilization.
"So, between the Sage and the Artisan, which one will ultimately leave?"
he asked again.
"It is the Sage. I have no suitable successor. Looking across the rivers of time and fate, there are no suitable mortal candidates in the Eighteenth Epoch, nor are there any gods with a similar domain."
the God of Creation and Machinery said.
"Originally, it was to be me. I chose the mortal Alexia Jane Miller as my successor. With or without divine intervention, she was destined to become the Goddess of Mathematics, a divine domain that overlaps highly with my own, making her capable of inheriting my position."
Oviya said.
"But even if Alexia becomes a god, she'll only be a Pseudo-God. How could she inherit your position?"
Jenkins asked.
"The difference between a Righteous God and a Pseudo-God is not as great as the difference between a god and a Sovereign. A Pseudo-God can inherit the position of a Righteous God by harnessing the unique fate at the end of an Epoch. It is possible."
The god of the first month, the God of Nature, replied.
"So, the original plan was for Alexia—the Savior who was not a Savior—to become a god and inherit the Sage's position, while the Sage would become the eighteenth Sovereign, pioneering a new world in the void. And my appearance disrupted all of that? Does that mean my appearance was a bad thing for the world, and for the gods?"
"No, your appearance was a gift to the gods and to the world."
Oviya's tone was exceptionally gentle:
"Jenkins, I don't care whether I become a Sovereign, and the mortal Alexia doesn't care if she becomes a god right away. Pioneering a new world and structuring its rules to make it a new material world is a long and arduous process. But if someone were to arrive carrying a complete set of new rules—rules this world has never seen before—then he would be directly equivalent to the station of a Sovereign. After he becomes a true Sovereign, he will become a creator god in the truest sense. For this world, the original material world is finally no longer alone..."