Only God

"That Veldor..."

Inside the temple of lies and tricks, Wally quietly briefed on the recent situation in the afterlife town.

"What about him?"

Slaier turned his head and asked,

"I remember that True Believer; during the time I masqueraded as a Philosopher, I had a long interaction with this person."

Wally nodded and then continued,

"It seems... he wants to try venturing outside of the town."

Slaier frowned and mused,

"He still hasn't given up to this day? Wow, that's truly... rare."

Wally feigned calm and spread his hands, saying,

"The cunning Slaier, some people in the world are just that persistent."

Slaier scratched his head and quickly asked,

"Have you figured out why he wants to leave the town?"

Wally presented a set of prepared explanations, and as one listened to him speak,

"Veldor wants to search for Heaven's traces beyond the town."

Slaier laughed and teasingly asked,

"What is he doing? Heaven and the Netherworld aren't the same place; why would he have such a notion?"

At that moment, Wally leaned in, lowered his voice, and slowly said,

"It's said he found evidence in the Scriptures.

Do you remember, Great Slaier, how Hiris, the god of mountains and craftsmanship, lived year-round in the Netherworld?

And before Heaven descended, Hiris sheltered countless True Believers on their way to the Netherworld, and it's said that those groups of True Believers held the ladder to Heaven."

Slaier tilted his chin up, adopting a thoughtful pose,

"This really is..."

As one of the divine beings of the Celestial Kingdom, Slaier certainly knows that Hiris once sheltered True Believers going to the Netherworld.

At that time, Heaven had not yet descended, and Death God Nakbet diligently reaped souls from the earth, taking all races, faiths, genders, and ages under His guidance into the Netherworld, including, of course, True Believers.

Slaier also heard that at that time, Nakbet even considered harvesting Xilan's soul as well.

Looking at it this way, Veldor's idea seems to have some truth to it and isn't without trails to follow.

The god of lies and tricks suddenly felt a moment of difficulty.

The afterlife town itself is an extremely authentic place, closely imitating the Netherworld's Sighing Plain, just so these "deceased" would truly believe they were dead.

So, Slaier did everything possible to fill in each loophole, everything that the Netherworld had, was here as well.

All of it was for the sake of authenticity.

If it weren't authentic, then the "deceased" wouldn't believe they were actually dead.

Yet, Veldor's act of searching for Heaven's traces hit the weakest link in the afterlife town.

Could He, for the sake of authenticity, really manage to create a "Heaven"?

That was a preposterous notion.

"Troublesome, troublesome... True Believers are so annoying, I should have driven them all out at that time."

Slaier couldn't help pacing back and forth in the temple, deep in thought,

"How could I possibly build a Heaven?"

Wally observed Slaier's actions carefully.

He understood that, in the end, Slaier wasn't clear about whether there really was a so-called "ladder to Heaven" in the Netherworld; it was because of this uncertainty that He momentarily didn't know what to do.

If there wasn't, it wouldn't be so bad, the authenticity of the afterlife town wouldn't be shaken.

But what if there was?

What if the Netherworld truly had a "ladder to Heaven"?

It wasn't impossible.

Wally clenched his fists in secret.

Unbeknownst to him, Slaier had already fallen into the trap he had laid.

Wally, now a spokesman for lies and tricks, had learned many tricks for lying during this time.

To convince someone of a lie, or to foster doubt, one must build on a foundation of truth, and at the same time, preserve unverifiability!

What is unverifiability? According to Wally's idea, to prove whether a lie was indeed a lie required either a significant cost or it was outright impossible to verify the truth of the matter.

For example, if a person is generous and tells his friends that in his distant homeland there is not only a large family fortune but also a title to inherit.

Then, for the person's friends, to verify whether he truly has a fortune and a title back home requires a great cost, involving crossing mountains, and numerous hardships.

Therefore, the person's friends would choose to believe that the generous individual is speaking truthfully.

This was one of the valuable experiences Wally learned from following Slaier.

Now, the boy intended to lead Slaier step by step into his trap.

Thus, Wally continued to speak,

"Resourceful Slaier, you said, 'How could I possibly build a Heaven?'

I think perhaps you misspoke."

Slaier turned around, looking at Wally with amusement,

"I misspoke?

Do you think I could build a Heaven?

Or is it that you have the ability to build a Heaven?

Since you spoke so confidently, then tell me, which Great Angel are you, descended from on high?"

There was teasing in Slaier's words.

Wally humbly shook his head, sincerity on his face,

"Of course, I am not any Great Angel; I am merely your humble servant.

It's just that I think you don't need to actually build a Heaven, you only need to make others believe that beyond the town, there really is a Heaven."

Slaier suddenly understood and spoke up,

"You mean to build just a facade of Heaven? Make Veldor believe that it is, indeed, Heaven?"

Wally nodded.

"Anyway, he can't possibly enter, just having a shell will do."

Slaier couldn't help clapping his hands, praising,

"Good, good, I just need to conjure some illusions and pull off a few tricks, make Veldor believe that it's Heaven. This way, once he sees the 'gates of Heaven,' he will have no reason to doubt. Your suggestion is truly wonderful."

Then, as if struck by a sudden thought, the god of lies and deception slapped his forehead,

"Oh, with this suggestion of yours, we could even lure more True Believers in."

Previously, the accidental entry of Veldor and Gomu into the afterlife town was an unintended event. After that, to avoid blowing his cover, Slaier stopped letting more True Believers into the afterlife town.

Because after the death of True Believers, they either go to Heaven or to Hell, not to the Netherworld.

However, Wally's suggestion artfully filled in this gap, perfectly glossing over the previous lie.

Slaier couldn't help but applaud Wally, although He felt that, with some time, He could have thought of something similar, but Wally's performance was still commendable.

Such fearsome potential in the younger generation, truly fearsome indeed.

"Wally, it won't be long before you should stand upon this altar."

Slaier said, pointing to the Divine Statue.

Wally feigned an expression of being overwhelmed by the honor, hurriedly waving his hands in demurral.

When he left the Temple of Lies and Deception, taking advantage of the absence of others, he quickly breathed out a sigh of relief.

Leading Slaier step by step into the trap really made his heart race.

Fortunately, every step and plan he proposed was to Slaier's advantage, which kept Him from seeing through his true objective.

The lying Wally understood that if you tell a lie, you need hundreds, thousands of lies to back it up, to cover one flaw, tens of thousands more will follow.

The bigger the lie, the more likely it is to collapse at a single touch.

So, seemingly to benefit Slaier, he was actually preparing for the day when the bubble of lies would burst and the entire afterlife town would collapse.

With that thought in mind, the Dwarf boy's ambition flared, and he giggled, covering his mouth with his hand, a little excited.

He hoped...

No one had noticed this small gesture.

.........

Standing atop the Sea of Souls, as far as the eye could see was a profound and deep starry sky.

Schiller had gazed upon this scene countless times.

The deep crimson Historical Star moved along its fixed trajectory; it would appear directly above the Sea of Souls only once every hundred years.

This star, to this day, had yet to awaken its own self-awareness unlike many other stars.

Logically speaking, in the vast history of the cosmos, it should have been infused with nearly endless knowledge and wisdom, making it one of the earliest beings to awaken self-awareness, and upon its awakening, it would be the only Seventh Rank Divine in the Celestial Kingdom.

Schiller, who had witnessed the fall of Shan'en, knew that even Shan'en, as the King of Gods, only just possessed the Divine Power of the Seventh Rank after taking on the burden of the Primordial Will.

Yet, astonishingly, the Historical Star of Seventh Rank magnitude was insignificant in the grand scheme of the Celestial Kingdom.

It resided within the Celestial Kingdom, yet seemed to be disconnected from it, undoubtedly powerful and majestic, but affecting no one.

It was indistinguishable from the inanimate.

"Historical Star, why do you not awaken your self-awareness?" Schiller murmured to himself,

"Is it because you cannot, or will not?

Or is it both?"

Schiller felt that any of these possibilities could be true.

To say the Historical Star could not awaken its self-awareness was to say that although the history of civilization imparted its near-limitless knowledge and wisdom upon this crimson star, it was also filled with an almost equal measure of ignorance and foolishness.

Additionally, the aeons of Chaos that predated the birth of civilization, those meaningless stretches of history, also streamed continuously into the Historical Star.

The history amassed by the Historical Star was like a vast but useless dump, with only a tiny bit of gold among the trash.

To say the Historical Star was unwilling to awaken its self-awareness was because, once also endowed with a soul, it seemed to have a trace of consciousness, vague and chaotic, barely knowing to seek benefit and avoid harm, like a fetus within amniotic fluid. In the surviving Divine King Temple on earth, there were records of the tales where Shan'en reached out to touch the Historical Star and received its response.

So, it was evident that the Historical Star was not entirely without consciousness, yet it appeared to be resisting the awakening of its self-awareness.

"It really reminds me," Schiller couldn't help sighing, "of Antion who went to sea with Dertulian."

Antion rejected the pain of rationality and returned to the jungle, becoming an Ape-man again.

This allegorical tale is recounted in both the scriptures and myths of the Three-eyed Ape People, as well as in the "Twin Kings Book" written by the Logos people.

The Historical Star's perpetual failure to awaken its self-awareness was undoubtedly a regret for the Gods of the Celestial Kingdom.

But for the current Schiller, it was just right.

The Great Angel spread his wings, and in a single instant, he was on the vast, deep crimson land.

To the colossal Historical Star, Schiller's form was as insignificant as an ant.

The Great Angel slowly reached out his hand, and a pure black sphere of darkness rose slowly from his palm.

It was the power he had taken from the core of the Primordial Will.

The Primordial Embryo, because of the absence of this power, was temporarily unable to control the Primordial Will.

That spherical darkness, deep as a black hole, swallowed all light the moment it rose from his palm.

Schiller called it the "Initial Darkness."

"With the power of the Historical Star, add the Initial Darkness, and finally, the Divine Power of the Path of Creation... When combined, what shall I create?"

The Great Angel knelt, touching the Historical Star beneath him.

Three powers closest to the Divine,

If one day they come together...

Could they,

Once again judge the entire world?

Even, even, even...

Schiller dared not think any further.