Chapter 231: Josephine Again
The information the scythe had conveyed left Evan suddenly enlightened. The realm they were in — which Evan had first taken for a Divine Domain — was in fact one whose Divine Domain, the god Josephine's, had long since collapsed. The very ground beneath their feet was what Josephine's divine corpse had become. Josephine had indeed ascended to godhood, but his nature was one of slaughter, and not long after becoming a god, he had met with catastrophe — his Divine Domain never truly established before it dissolved into nothing. A lingering resentment refused to die, and upon his divine corpse it had taken shape as Divine Spawn. It was fortunate that the Gonno Society's faith had sustained him — meager faith, but enough to slow his decay.
The god's unyielding will had, against all odds, carved out this pocket of heaven and earth, though that will was now dissipating. Had Evan and the others never come, this little world would have lasted no more than ten or twenty thousand years at most. The divine corpse was rotting, and however completely the many Divine Spawn might merge into one, they still could never become a god — only by obtaining the divine core was there even the faintest hope. Within this space, the distortion of the god's consciousness had given the Divine Spawn their peculiar nature — their speed, their ability to control everything here. And because that divine consciousness was nearly spent, Evan's own consciousness had been able to interfere within it, even to disperse it. That was why Evan had been so elated: he'd grasped the Divine Spawn's weakness.
Evan's scythe appeared once more, and this time, having seen the truth of it clearly, he cut the Divine Spawn down in a single stroke — helped, too, by the fact that the Divine Spawn was incomplete, no small portion of it already devoured by Evan's scythe.
The scythe drove into Josephine's body. The Divine Spawn howled in agony, then burst apart with a roar; the golden Saint's Skull tumbled free as the body dissolved into black mist and was drawn into the scythe. The scythe rang out with a light, crisp note, its patterns shifting and rippling until a new rune formed upon its surface.
Before the Saint's Skull could hit the ground, Ronaldo lunged for it. He whipped out a robe of crimson gold-threaded brocade, wrapped the Saint's Skull in it, tucked it against his chest, folded it into a bundle, and slung it across his back.
The ground began to crumble. With this final battle, the god's last consciousness had vanished, and the land split open into bottomless ravines, every phenomenon that defied the natural order breaking loose at once. The mist parted overhead, man-headed eagles and countless other strange birds plummeting from the sky, while the ground shattered piece by piece, innumerable fragments drifting up into the air. Above, the violet sun rapidly darkened.
Evan was still absorbing the information the scythe had conveyed. Everything was clear to him now — but he faced a crisis: how to get out. No sooner had the question surfaced in his mind than the flower on the great tree in his Sea of Consciousness — the flower that bore his Divine Domain — suddenly blazed with light. In that instant, Evan understood, and shouted, "Get to me, quickly!"
Ronaldo and Tina were both caught helpless. Hearing Evan's cry, they stumbled to his side without a second thought. A strange radiance poured off Evan and enveloped all three of them at once. Just then, the landmass beneath their feet collapsed, and a polygonal crystal shot out from it — as though drawn by the light, it plunged straight into the radiance.
Evan sensed something incoming and grabbed for it on reflex, catching it in his hand. His mind roared, the strange light around him flared, and they vanished from that space. Within that realm, countless fragments flew wildly about, first expanding outward, and then, at the very peak of it, suddenly contracting violently — the entire space imploding until, with a final flash, it seemed to become a single point, then not even a point, and was gone.
In the snowfields of the Caucasus, three figures tumbled out — Evan and the others. In Evan's hand was a perfectly regular polygonal crystal, faintly tinged with red. Evan understood it now: this was the divine core. The Divine Spawn had meant to devour everyone, then find the divine core and merge with it, seeking to reclaim its place among the gods. When it had first appeared, it hadn't been this color, but a solid, blood-red throughout.
The moment Evan took it in hand, the blood-red hue surged up his arm and into his Sea of Consciousness. Once inside, the red instantly formed itself into the wolf-headed, bat-winged monster — though its eyes were dull now. Even so, it moved on instinct to seize his body for its own. But the World Tree stirred though no wind blew, its branches and leaves suddenly lengthening to bind and sever the creature. It struggled desperately. Evan had followed it into his Sea of Consciousness, and seeing it take Josephine's shape had sent a jolt of alarm through him — but what followed set his mind at ease.
The branches sank deep into its body, drawing out the blood-red vapor. It howled, its form growing fainter and fainter. Evan watched the transformation the branches worked upon the red vapor — one portion turning more translucent, nearly colorless, while another turned red so deep it edged toward violet, all of it flowing into that flower of the Divine Domain. The Divine Domain changed once more: its space seemed more complete, the sky higher, the earth thicker. The ground began to stratify — eighteen layers in all, each with its own distinct treatment — and the heavens divided as well, into nine layers. Without his quite noticing, several goblins appeared on the sixteenth layer. Evan was puzzled, and touched them lightly with his mind, only then learning that his Divine Domain had somehow acquired a receiving function. Those were several goblins who had died — their souls, after death, drawn into the domain, though of course a certain degree of faith was required.
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Watching the changes in the flower's Divine Domain, seeing the goblins pray devoutly, praising the god, a swell of joy rose in Evan's heart. The goblins seemed to feel his joy, and grew more devout still. Within the Divine Domain there was nothing at all to worry over — everything appeared at will, and there were no natural predators; to enter it was to enter heaven itself. Evan thought this, and suddenly laughed. Of course — to a believer, a Divine Domain was heaven, by its very nature.
Even as joy filled Evan's heart, a sudden chill welled up from deep within, diluting the joy all at once. What was happening to him? It seemed a Divine Domain was like a narcotic — better that he not let himself grow attached to it. This realization of Evan's had, unwittingly, laid bare the Divine Domain's secret: many were unknowingly drawn in by their Divine Domains, gradually coming to take the joy of their believers as their own joy, their believers' feelings as their own feelings, until at last they lost everything of themselves and became something like an objective, impartial machine. Cultivation ground to a halt there, unable to advance another inch.
This realization of Evan's — though he didn't know its full nature — nonetheless cemented his foundation, ensuring that his path of cultivation would suffer no great deviation.
Evan withdrew from his Sea of Consciousness. A single flower, an entire world — he was beginning to grasp the truth of it.
He looked again at the divine core in his hand. It was pure and flawless now; from this point on, this divine core was purely the crystallization of divine power and the embodiment of the laws of heaven and earth. A pity he hadn't yet reached the stage of touching those laws. After a moment's thought, he sent it into his ring.
Evan put the divine core away. Neither Ronaldo nor Tina paid it much attention — they had no idea what kind of crystal it was, and simply took it for something ordinary.
"Where is this?" Ronaldo said, lifting his eyes to look around. At once he caught sight of that distinctive peak. "It looks like we've made it out — back to the real world."
Evan glanced around, took out his magic map, and it spread open before his eyes, marking the positions of all three of them. Though the peak was nameless, the three of them knew they had indeed gotten out.
Ronaldo looked at the two of them with a smile. "Thank you both. I'll be off now. I never imagined I'd actually obtain the Saint's Skull. I need to hurry back. I'll take my leave here — farewell."
"Farewell!"
Ronaldo's figure grew smaller and smaller across the snow. Evan turned back to Tina. "I'll see you home."
Tina lifted her head. "Evan, I've made up my mind. I'm going with you — to Hollingburton."
Evan was taken aback. "Why? You're not going back? Leonardo is worried sick."
"I can't face them if I go back — or my master. I don't know what to do," Tina said.
Evan sighed and nodded. "All right. I know you're in great pain, thinking all of this was your fault. But how is any of it your fault? If they hadn't coveted the evil god's core, they'd never have gone in there. You were simply unlucky enough to be swept up in it. There's no need to grieve for them — you should count yourself fortunate. You escaped with your life."
Tina's lips moved as though to say something, but in the end she said nothing. Rationally, Evan was right, but it brought her no comfort. She could only bear it in silence, carrying even a sense of guilt — guilt toward herself. If she had died in there too, then it would all have been over and done with.
Evan set his bearings, but before they had gone even a kilometer, a group of people appeared ahead, led by Augustine. Enemies truly did always meet on a narrow road. The other side wasn't a large party, but there were eleven of them. Augustine had never expected to run into Evan here — he too had suffered a grievous defeat at Evan's hands, had even had his arm severed. Fortunate that it had been dealt with in time; Aegis had used divine arts to preserve the wound, and after returning he had specially sought out an ascetic monk to reattach it with divine arts, restoring it to as good as new. He had since undergone further ascetic training under the monk. Today, at the sight of Evan, his arm ached faintly — he knew it was only in his mind, that nothing was actually wrong with the arm.
"There's a road to heaven you refuse to take, Nicholas — or should I still call you Evan Wang. Let's see you run today! Don't you have a flower fairy? Where is she?" Augustine scanned his surroundings warily. Though Shuang hadn't ambushed him last time, he still harbored a wariness of her.
"Relax. The thing you're worried about isn't going to happen — Shuang didn't come along," Evan said with a faint smile. It seemed Augustine had led this party here alone; Aegis wasn't present. Evan's mind eased.
This band wore black, their insignia a witch bound to a cross-shaped star above a design representing raging flames — marking their true identity as members of the Holy Inquisition. They stared at Evan. Augustine, brow furrowed, looked at Tina. He could tell she was a knight, nearly a Great Knight, but very young. "Miss, you're keeping company with a heretic. Are you aware of that?"
At the sight of the Old Church's people, Tina remembered what she had suffered before, and her face went taut. "You're the ones who betrayed the Maker. What right do you have to call anyone else a heretic?"
"Ha ha, Augustine, did you hear that? That little girl is lecturing you. I could die laughing." One member of the Holy Inquisition burst into wild laughter, and all the Holy Inquisition members around him roared with laughter as well.
"What's so funny? Miss, you're quite lovely. If you repent, we of the Holy Inquisition aren't without compassion — so long as you don't involve yourself in this matter, we'll let bygones be bygones," Augustine said, a trace of a smile crossing his face.