Chapter 590: Hope

“I bet that you all can tell what happened afterward,” Baiyi said. “These gods waged war against each other.

“Try to imagine the scale of this battle, which involved gods, who can all bend the Laws at will. What do you think would happen when such beings weaponized Laws — which the universe is founded on — against each other? Simple: tens of millions of years of progress were gone in a few seconds. In the mad scramble to wrest control of all reality, the gods used the Laws over and over again, and eventually, what remained was hardly recognizable. The universe’s foundation had been badly damaged; this, the Age of the Gods came to an end. That was a loss that could never be undone.

“I sifted through time and the Temporal Laws in a bid to uncover prehistoric memories, but all I could find were these little fragments, as almost everything else got destroyed in that war.

“Think about this: tweaking a bit of the Laws of Life was all it took to eradicate all life. Celestial objects and the vast expanse of space were only playthings for the Gods of yore. Back then, a planet could be destroyed with a thought, and the snap of a finger could cause the death of millions; it was an apocalyptic world. Power and anything else modern humans can come up with mattered little in the wars of old,” Baiyi said, a hint of fear in his voice. “Any random warrior from those times could kill us Voidwalkers effortlessly. Even the modern gods would be as easily killed. You could not survive that war; trust me.

“The war was a short one, but it shattered the universe into what we now live in; broken crumbs that we call ‘Realms’, suspended in the boundless darkness we call the “Void”.

“Wait, Sir Hope. There’s something that makes no sense: if the people of that epoch really did attain the hight of civilization and progress, they should have wanted nothing, thus eliminating any motivation for wars,” the Scholar Walker said. “Even if we apply the principle of charity and account for conflicts that could arise from differing ideologies, ambitions, and desires, I still find it absurd that they, with their superior intellect, failed to predict the destruction that a war of that magnitude could cause.”

“Oh, but they did know. They knew it so well, more so than anyone else,” Baiyi replied, shaking his head. “You see, that war was nothing more than a novel suicide.”

“What?! Were they mad?” The Archmage exclaimed, shaking his head.

“Maybe they were.” A bitter smile appeared on Baiyi’s mask. “From the little bit I gleaned, I could see that they were burdened by lunacy. The world was too small for people that powerful; it was no different from a school of whales within a small swimming pool. The feeling of the walls around them closing in made these people snap. Their suicide was triggered by madness.

“The war could have also been one last effort to forge a new path. They may have thought that a new order could only be forged from destruction — their destruction and the destruction of the Laws. Anyone that hears this may not help but think that they paid too much,” Baiyi said, sporting an expression of sadness.

“This reminds me of what some theorists on Earth imagine the end of civilization would look like. They believe that when the pinnacle of progress is reached, there would be nothing left to drive humans; no road to move forward. Only stagnancy and, eventually, destruction would await them. I considered it pessimistic drivel, but now, I see the hint of truth in it,” the Soul Armature Practitioner muttered. “‘The phoenix must burn to emerge,’ they say. But, is that really the only way to forge a path forward? Forgive me, but I still can’t understand the motive behind their mad choice…”

“Let us carry on. What happened after that? What allowed insignificant weaklings like us to populate this universe?” The Archmage said, drawing the conversation back on course.

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“Well, as the Soul Armature Practitioner said, some of these prehistoric gods disagreed with their kin. They chose not to die, and during the war, they did everything they could to survive. When the war was over, these survivors did their best to learn the Laws again, thus recreating a workable universe. To protect this frail, new infant of a universe, they contained it within its dimension and created habitable realms in it — a doomsday shelter of their own,” Baiyi said. “These survivors are who we now call the ‘gods.’

“They may be called gods, but the power and knowledge they have are nothing compared to that of their brethren of old. Although they were from the Age of Gods and had a great understanding of the Laws, a handful of survivors could not possibly rebuild a complex system of reality from the fragments that remained. Although these survivors tried their best, they could not restore their former glory. As though that was not enough, that was not the only calamity hurtling towards them,” Baiyi said. “However, this incoming danger wasn’t present in the time fragments; it’s a prediction of the future, foretold by Nehemiah.”

“Nehemiah? Our Fourth Walker?” The Archmage quickly asked.

“Those two aren’t exactly the same person. The real Nehemiah from the Age of the Gods is dead; that annoying mystic in the Void is just an incomplete fragment of his spirit. That is why he is not as high and mighty as the real Nehemiah once was. The Fourth Walker was weak enough to be influenced by my memories and experiences,” Baiyi explained. “However, he is all that remains of the real Nehemiah, so he is able to command the god’s Arbiter’s Right, to a limited extent. If he had his full power, this war would have ended in my absence! You see, using the Arbiter’s Right doesn’t exhaust mana or combat chi, but it does expend your mind directly. Use it too much, and your mind ceases to exist. Fortunately, I have quite a lot to spare when it comes to the mind…

“Back to Nehemiah. His main domains were fate and the future; this made him a unique and significant figure, even during the peak of the Age of Gods. Back then, the gods had yet to learn of many secrets and prophecies of the future; thus, many focused on understanding the Laws of the Future, including Nehemiah, and they all met the same grim end. This discovery might have been the last straw that drove the gods to suicide.

“However, Nehemiah thought differently. He was adamant that the future could not truly be deciphered, as there is always an element of uncertainty. Thus, he chose life over self-destruction. After surviving that prehistoric war, he emerged from their ‘doomsday shelter’ and began to look for that uncertainty, which had become his last ray of hope.

“He spent his time in the Divine Realm trying to come up with a solution. Time moved on, and a new order of the universe came about. New humans populated the realms, and the surviving gods occasionally engaged in their old skirmishes to obtain more control over the Laws. Nehemiah did not find his answer, though. When his patience reached its limits, he drew his Arbiter’s Right and peered into the future — only to find it enveloped by the Void, with everything a mass of chaos and disorder.

“This prediction was a slap on the face of everything the new gods had done. They had even swallowed their pride to become weakened shadows of their former selves! The new gods were banking on the new humans to save this universe with a different path, but Nehemiah’s bleak prophecy dashed their hopes. Unfortunately, part of this prediction came through; as the Laws continued to shatter, a small realm was destroyed — a scene similar to what we saw back in Gouve.

“Despite years of efforts, the toxin of the prehistoric war continued to pollute the foundation of this universe. A new world built atop a poisoned soil could never last. Chaos and destruction were inevitable, no matter how much resistance the new gods put forward; the universe would die along with the survivors.

“The gods could not accept such a reality, so they frantically established new rules. They laid down constraints on themselves regarding their Arbiter’s Rights — yes, the very rights that the angels used. Afterward, they set limits to the growth of modern humans, preventing them from ever accessing the Laws. Anyone that reached the Demigod-level and awakened their Territory would gain the ability to manipulate Laws, so the gods banished them to the Void,” Baiyi explained. “That wasn’t all. The Church’s strict ban on using Void Energy; the search for Law-bending equipment such as the Caudillo Butterfly Bow… these were parts of the new gods’ efforts to avoid a bleak future.

“Unfortunately, these attempts were ineffective; all they did was prolong the inevitable. Thus, Nehemiah focused on the thing that in the universe that was abundant: the Void. This mass of darkness was the grave of the original universe — produced by the destruction of so many Laws — and this was why nothing could grow or flourish in it. However, Nehemiah had a dream; he dreamed of rebuilding a new world from this unending darkness — a world with its own Laws.

“The other gods considered this the plan of a madman, as it was beyond what they could achieve with their powers. Only Bella, the God of Space, supported Nehemiah. After some brainstorming, the two came up with an insane scheme: Nehemiah would sacrifice himself, drawing as much power as he could from his Arbiter’s Right. This power would then be forced to clash with Bella’s power. The ensuing energy would propel Bella’s spatial Arbiter’s Right to break through the boundaries of this universe, allowing Bella to catch a glimpse of what lay beyond…

“This was not a unique idea, though. During the Age of Gods, some people had attempted something similar, but they had achieved dismal results. What they managed to glimpse beyond their universe was beyond their control and understanding, so the old gods dismissed it. However, Nehemiah’s final gamble yielded an unexpected return: Bella found me just seconds after I had died. The God of Space pulled my soul and mind into this universe, placing them in the Void.

“This may have just been a coincidence or the malfunction of the Spatial Laws. Whatever the case may be, I was brought into this universe as Nehemiah’s last hope.”