Chapter 76: CH 76

As a god, Apollo was highly revered in Greek mythology. He enjoyed massive popularity throughout the world.

It could even be stated that among the most well-known gods, he ranked in the top five.

What did that mean? It meant that as long as Zong Yan fought on Earth, he would harvest a steady stream of faith bonuses.

When Yun Zhong Jun had confronted the Lord of Tindalos and his many subordinates over Jiangzhou, his success depended on the regional bonus he received.

This was the reason so many Elder Gods on Earth were able to fight against Great Old Ones and even Outer Gods, sealing Great Old Ones in various places around the planet. For example, Nodens, the Lord of the Dreamlands, had been able to defeat Nyarlathotep’s avatar because his popularity was so much higher than Nyarla’s.

Faith was a far more powerful weapon than most people imagined.

Unfortunately, in order to stop this specific Great Old One, the Sun God had been forced to take the initiative and meet his enemy in outer space. He gave up his home field advantage.

That meant Zong Yan didn’t have any bonuses. While fighting, the only power he could rely on was what came with his S-class daily disposable persona card.

In order to save as many precious seconds as he could, the Sun God transformed into a golden beam of radiance and shot out of the atmosphere at the speed of light. An instant later, he crashed directly into the region of space beyond Earth that had already begun to splinter and collapse.

Boom boom boom—

Space was disintegrating, imploding on itself.

In the airless vacuum of the universe, sound couldn’t be transmitted. That meant a collision of this magnitude didn’t affect the Earth and could go unnoticed.

The light of Apollo’s incarnation slammed into the weakened section of space.

Behind him, the bright star of the Earth’s solar system gave him strength. Golden-red flames and thermal energy converged in the god’s palm, which he formed into a sphere, condensing the magnificent light and heat into a weapon.

“What about that?”

Elsewhere in outer space, a pair of evil gods were floating in the sea of stars, watching from a distance with great interest.

“It will be destroyed,” the Lord of Time and Space said indifferently.

Although he couldn’t see Zong Yan’s present or future, he could see the future of the Earth.

Mordiggian was fated to descend on the planet. Half of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would freeze into vast glaciers. Eddies of snowflakes would fall. The freezing conditions and black fog were so extreme they’d temporarily halt the rotation of the Earth.

The advent of the true body of a Great Old One was no laughing matter. Only an advanced planet could withstand such a thing, and the Earth was by no means advanced. It was a 4.5 billion year-old baby ball.

According to the timeline, its destruction was predestined.

Under the eyes of the all-seeing, all-knowing god, 95% of timelines contained scenarios in which the Earth was destroyed.

Mordiggian’s arrival would cause Ghroth to approach the Milky Way from the other end of the universe. His grotesque song arrived with him, and every Great Old One buried on Earth woke up, destroying the planet from the inside.

It could be said that Mordiggian was the first domino to fall. After he appeared, the galaxy would be destroyed.

This described 95% of the timelines. Of the remaining five percent, one percent showed that Mordiggian suddenly felt grumpy and decided to turn around. His appearance was too brief to attract Ghroth’s attention, and the Earth survived. This wasn’t especially unusual. After all, whether an evil god showed up or not depended entirely on their mood, and the thousands of heads prepared by the ghouls were basically just an hors d’oeuvre as far as Mordiggian was concerned. He might decide not to lower himself for the sake of a rather paltry appetizer.

The remaining four percent of timelines were dark. Of them nothing could be seen. Yog-Sothoth didn’t even need to speculate; he knew that Zong Yan was involved in them. The only futures that could escape the gaze of the all-seeing, all-knowing god were ones in which Zong Yan participated.

But since he was able to distinguish these timelines from ones in which the Earth was destroyed, it was possible that Zong Yan managed to save the planet in those cases.

The thoughts of the master of time and space were a bit idle as he dropped his gaze and stared at the void.

He knew exactly what Nyarlathotep was up to.

As Azathoth’s crazed fanboy, Nyarla obviously wanted the Lord of the Universe to wake up. The Outer Gods existed above and outside the universe. If Azathoth awakened, it wouldn’t affect evil gods of their level.

Not to mention that Nyarlathotep was a fanatical believer. Even if his Lord annihilated him, Nyarla was still devoted to the glorious existence of his god.

As for what Shub-Niggurath was thinking, Yog-Sothoth knew that as well.

Shub didn’t want Azathoth to awaken. The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young had a great deal of affection for the universe in general. Almost the entire pantheon of deities were descended from Shub devouring other gods and splitting to create offspring. If Azathoth woke up, these Great Old Ones would be the first to perish. Shub was a ruthless mother goddess of the highest order, but he didn’t want his creatures to silently disappear. Shub wanted the toys he owned to remain under his control.

So one of them told Zong Yan to use the card, and one explicitly forbade it.

There was nothing the omniscient and omnipotent God couldn’t see. Yog had watched coldly as his two fellow gods messed around.

Of the three, he was the most indifferent.

As for whether Azathoth woke up, it didn’t matter much to Yog. He didn’t thirst for trouble or excitement like Nyarla.

He was just a little curious what Zong Yan would ultimately decide.

Time was meaningless to evil gods, but the Lord of Time couldn’t conceal his interest in Zong Yan.

If Zong Yan used the Azathoth card again, he wouldn’t get away unscathed. His human self would be extinguished. He’d revert to a stream of consciousness and merge into the vast, magnificent mind of the Lord of the Universe, which would erase his personality. But if he did so, he would ensure the safety of the Earth and preserve the galaxy. For, although His Majesty Azathoth was blind and foolish, his taste in music fundamentally disagreed with Ghroth’s. He hated Ghroth’s nauseating singing and had banished him before. Ghroth wasn’t permitted to set foot in the palace at the center of time and space or join the musical performance of the other Outer Gods. So if His Majesty’s avatar showed up, Ghroth and Mordiggian would have to roll out.

If Zong Yan didn’t use the Azathoth card, it would be in accordance with Shub’s wishes. Right now Zong Yan had the abilities of an Elder God and could travel at the speed of light. It wouldn’t take him long to escape the galaxy. Even if Ghroth appeared, he wouldn’t be able to do much to harm Zong Yan. If Zong Yan decided to protect himself, it was only natural.

“And so, what choice will you make?” Yog asked in a low voice. 

His chaos-colored eyes were filled with hidden interest.

Very few people had ever received this honor, but the all-seeing, all-knowing Lord was unable to see Zong Yan’s future. That was what gave rise to such unique curiosity.

If Zong Yan used the card of His Majesty Azathoth and returned to His Majesty’s mind, and His Majesty woke up, that would be quite interesting.

If Zong Yan didn’t use the card, Yog-Sothoth wouldn’t blame a pathetic human for saving himself, but his interest would end there.

Zong Yan, who was in the spotlight at the moment, had no idea he was being watched by three Outer Gods.

He didn’t hold back his strength but struck with all the force he had. Gathering the light and heat of the sun, he punched the evil god who’d just emerged from the spatial rift.

""

“Who are you? Why are you trying to block me?!”

Mordiggian, who had just been summoned, was in a good mood. He lazily decided to answer his believers’ call and opened a space channel to enter the galaxy.

What he didn’t expect was that before a tenth of his body could emerge, he was suddenly attacked by the full strength of an alien god.

Mordiggian was stunned for a moment, then automatically started to fight back.

He lived in the Black Temple in a distant galaxy, and he only left his house every few hundred million years. Once in a while, believers sent him souls and corpses. He was basically a fat, reclusive evil god.

A fat, nerdy evil god like Mordiggian obviously didn’t have a terrible reputation throughout the universe like Nyarlathotep, let alone a bunch of grudges with other gods. After all, his personality was very Buddhist. To a certain extent, as long as an intelligent creature was able to withstand his divine nature and inherent aura of cold, he was quite willing to chat and be friendly. He wasn’t half as aggressive as Cthugha, the evil god who tried to fight everyone he met.

So the sudden punch left Mordiggian astonished.

“Sorry, you can’t accept this summons.” Zong Yan heard his opponent’s question, but his fist didn’t stop. He continued to manipulate sunlight, capturing the black fog that was scattered throughout space and dumping it back into the spatial rift.

“Give me a reason, god of another world.”

One could argue that Mordiggian had a good temper. Of course, the black fog on his body continued to struggle against the light. The black fog and the golden light blasted each other, throwing out shards of the purest energy, capable of destroying heaven and earth.

If his opponent had been a tiny bug, Mordiggian would have squashed him without a glance. But since this was a being that could talk to him as an equal, he didn’t mind spending a little time communicating.

All evil gods were higher-dimensional beings, and only higher-dimensional beings were capable of speaking with them. In this form, at least, Zong Yan could attempt to talk to him.

""

“There’s life on that planet. Many of those humans are my followers.” Zong Yan smiled faintly and began to lie. “My believers asked me to protect their home.”

“Oh… I see.” The terrible, amorphous black fog that had been rotating in front of the spatial rift suddenly paused.

Mordiggian was aware of the inherent effects of the black fog that surrounded his body. He thought about the humble offerings prepared by those believers on Earth and his interest began to wane.

He wasn’t quite sure why, but as he faced this unknown god he felt remarkably agreeable. Obviously the other party’s body was surrounded by light energy, while he himself was an eerie, dark, and cold god at the opposite extreme, but the heart-felt closeness he felt couldn’t be faked.

Zong Yan was on tenterhooks. Every single second of delay meant the stars got ever closer to returning to their original positions.

He twisted sunlight, wrapping up all the space around the rift, trying to shove his opponent back into the crack.

“Well, in that case, the Great Mordiggian agrees to your request. But you have to make it up to me next time,” Mordiggian said slowly.

Then he turned into a huge, eyeless giant and crept back into the rift.

Zong Yan: ? ? ? You’re leaving just like that? So casual, brother?

The Sun God floated in the universe and watched this happen in astonishment, at a complete loss for words.

“Ghroth stopped in his tracks.” A little further away, Nyarlathotep said with great regret, “It looks like the Earth won’t be destroyed today. What a pity.”

At first, when Ghroth sensed the signs of the return of the stars, he immediately crossed more than half the universe. But Mordiggian chose to return of his own accord, so the Harbinger Star of Death lost track for a while and remained in the center of the universe.

""

Just a little closer, just a little bit more, and Ghroth’s song would have reached the Milky way.

Nyarlathotep, who was missing out on the entertainment he’d expected, wanted to trick Ghroth into coming closer.

“That’s not necessarily true,” Yog-Sothoth said with significance.

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A moment later, the spatial rift that had just closed was suddenly torn open again. The large amorphous black cloud poked its head out and spoke to the Sun God who was still suspended in the void. “I live in an underground temple on the continent of Zothique. I promise I won’t hurt your believers, but in return you have to come over and hang out sometime.”

It was that moment when Ghroth sensed Mordiggian’s presence. The Harbinger Star of Death began to move once again.

Zong Yan’s pupils constricted.

He felt the pressure throughout his body in an instant, coming from a distant part of the universe. It was the force of a calamity that was about to end the world.

The god of prophecy saw the collapse of the galaxy and the destruction of the planet. The Great Old Ones awakened from their slumber and broke free from their cages.

And the Earth ceased to exist.

It had finally reached this point.

In the midst of panic and determination, the Sun God’s slender fingers reached into the void and drew a card.

At such a critical moment, there was no time to confirm which card it was. He crushed it immediately. But when he glanced down he was distracted, and only then did he realize the jagged crystal fragments scattering from his hand weren’t the colorful remnants of Azathoth’s card, but something else, dark green reflecting ominous light.

When had he ever drawn a card like that?

The Sun God’s mind was filled with chaos. Emotions flooded through him, confusion, exhaustion, and powerlessness, and he sensed the coming destruction of the world.

But—

He couldn’t retreat.

He was the only human being with enough power to stand against a being like Ghroth. If he retreated the Earth would no longer exist.

Ghroth was coming.

“No—!!! I’ll bet against fate, bet against everything I have… and you will get the hell off my planet!”

In Zong Yan’s mind the San value warning was flashing bold and red, and his fingers had stopped working. But he fought to take out the card that belonged to Azathoth. Without hesitation he crushed it.

Even if it meant his death.

“As expected of you, Yog.”

Fate returned to its rightful track. Nyarlathotep laughed a bit, put his hands behind his head and gazed at the scene before him in a good mood.

“I almost thought Ghroth wasn’t going to come, but fate has a way of playing tricks on people. How funny. I guess it finally chose to play a trick on the Father God.”

The massive Harbinger Star of Death moved through the cosmic void of the universe. From the perspective of an evil god, it was incomparably huge, half the size of a sun. The Earth in comparison was a grain of rice next to a soccer ball, tiny and insignificant.

The moment Ghroth arrived, time stopped flowing.

The Sun God whose feet were tinted with sunlight suddenly transformed. He became a brown-haired god in sackcloth with long hair scattered behind his shoulders.

His eyes were lazy and relaxed, but when you looked closely, there was nothing in them, nothing at all.

‘Third-rate musician, get out of here! You sound terrible!’

The moment Azathoth’s eyes landed on Ghroth, the latter was banished to another dimension.

At the same time, the spatial rift opened by Mordiggian was also closed. The two of them were sent away in a package deal on a one-way ticket to another dimension.

Ghroth: …?

That was how he ended up banished. For singing too loudly, too badly, and disturbing people’s sleep.

But the entity he was dealing with was the Lord of the Universe and his immediate superior, so… deal with it!

And as a result, the stars that had begun to return paused for a moment, then moved back to where they’d been.

Everything returned to normal. Time resumed its flow. Despite encountering the true body of a Great Old One and an Outer God, the solar system was miraculously unharmed.

“Looks like the Father God is about to wake up. I’ll go back first.”

Nyarla’s heart was bursting with joy. He hadn’t been so delighted in a very long time. He hastily tore through space and traveled directly to the palace at the center of time and space to await the awakening of the Father God.

Meanwhile, the other evil god, with gray hair and golden eyes and a trench coat, continued to float in the void. In his eyes neither joy nor anger could be distinguished.

Azathoth, hovering in the universe, seemed to sense it. He glanced over his shoulder and looked in that direction.

The next moment, the avatar disintegrated against the star-strewn curtain of the universe, dissolving into stardust that dispersed, until nothing of him remained.

Only the black-haired teen was left, floating among the stars. His breathing had ceased. His heartbeat stopped.

This was a corpse.

Zong Yan, a human being, died.

A human body was weak and frail to begin with. It was a miracle it had been able to meet the arrival of three gods.

His soul would return to Azathoth who slept at the center of the universe. This would become the catalyst for the Lord’s awakening.

“That’s why… Human life is just too fragile,” the Lord of Time and Space muttered to himself. 

He glanced at it without a trace of nostalgia.

When a human body was exposed to vacuum, the fluid on the skin’s surface and soft tissues would evaporate. Blood that didn’t have time to vaporize turned into swollen bubbles inside the body, presenting quite a spectacle.

Ugly.

He didn’t know what led him to do it, but he hooked his finger and the body was forced back in time. It slowly drifted before the Lord of Time and Space.

“It will make a good addition to my collection.”

He lifted his finger and casually stroked the young man’s face. With a mood he couldn’t have explained, he put him into the deepest part of his storage box.

Yog-Sothoth stored countless treasures in this box space. The human whose heart no longer beat was by far the weakest and most worthless thing inside it.

He didn’t even know why he did it. After all, the soul of the stream of consciousness hadn’t perished. Zong Yan would merge with the flood of other streams of consciousness in Azathoth’s mind. One might consider it a form of immortality.

Perhaps it was because of those ordinary hours he’d spent with the human. It made the Lord of Time and Space feel an interest he’d never felt before. That was why he was merciful enough to treasure a worthless corpse.

‘If the Father God awakens, a stream of consciousness will be nothing to him. I can ask the Father God to reincarnate him as a human.’

‘It’s so ugly when it’s dead. The priests of the great omniscient and omnipotent Lord would never accept such an offering.’

Yog-Sothoth thought these things to himself rather carelessly. The next moment, he stepped across the dimensions and arrived at the palace of the Lord of the Universe.

There, the Lord of the Universe was sleeping quietly, weaving the beautiful dream of everything that existed.

The three pillars of the original gods arrived one after another.

The stream of consciousness had returned, and His Majesty Azathoth was about to awaken. His subordinates had come to welcome him.

Then the omniscient and omnipotent Lord revealed an unexpected expression.

He stared intently at the body of the Father God in the palace, then his eyes looked away. He began to trace the timeline.

However, as this went on, Yog-Sothoth’s expression got uglier and uglier.

In all the timelines he could see, no future existed in which “Azathoth awakened”.

Did the stream of consciousness fail to return?

He scrolled forward. In the past timelines, from any point of view he could name, Zong Yan experienced death in the human sense.

He was dead. It was an irrefutable fact.

The black-haired teen had died outside the Earth, but the Lord of the Universe didn’t return.

With his death he’d escaped the control of the omniscient and omnipotent Lord, as if to mock the spinning threads of Yog-Sothoth’s undefeated fate.

—

The author has something to say:

The Sun God arc is over!

The next arc is—guess what!

TL Notes:

A human body was weak and frail to begin with. It was a miracle it had been able to meet the arrival of three gods. – 人类的身躯本来就羸弱不堪，能够迎接三次分/身的降临都已经是奇迹了。- providing the raw bc this sentence was kind of vague

Transliterated names, titles, and places—new in this chapter:

brother – 大兄 – Dàxiōng – Big elder brother

Zothique – 佐希克 – Zuǒxīkè

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