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"I saw it, the world falling in flames."
What did Ouroboros see?
He saw the world falling in flames, saw darkness devouring one familiar person after another, saw…
He saw Lin Ruo walking step by step towards an unfamiliar throne, with all beings kneeling at His feet, seemingly showing submission, or perhaps just welcoming His return.
He saw His calm and indifferent eyes, devoid of any emotion, any humanity, as if nothing in the world could be placed in His eyes, and nothing was worth a second glance.
That wasn't Lin Ruo; Ouroboros had never had such a clear understanding.
Lin Ruo wasn't like that; he had abundant humanity, would show Ouroboros a smile that made Him feel warm, would quietly accompany Him while He painted, even if He painted very boring things, would tell Him the stories of His experiences after every trip, would patiently answer Him when He was confused, would make roasted meat for Him, and would noisily gather others to celebrate His birthday…
In the countless days after restarts, when Lin Ruo raised Him, Ouroboros had long gained the clearest understanding of what kind of person Lin Ruo was.
In fact, to Ouroboros, Lin Ruo was, in some sense, almost like His… father.
This might sound ridiculous, but it was the truth.
So this wasn't Lin Ruo!
Who was this?
Ouroboros didn't know, and the revelation of fate didn't give Him time to think.
The surroundings then turned dark, along with Ouroboros's consciousness, and then He felt an unprecedented Chaos; for a moment, Ouroboros even felt that He might die.
But He didn't die; He only heard a voice in the chaotic darkness.
"Oh? It was actually seen."
"Hmm, let me see which little darling it is. Oh, it's a stupid snake. Should I kill it…?"
"Haha, just kidding. After all, you're the stupid snake He pays attention to. If I really kill you, He'll definitely be angry, and I don't want to be beaten."
"But if I just let you go back, He'll guess, won't He? Then maybe my plan will fail… Hmm, that seems more interesting?"
And then, Ouroboros knew nothing else.
When He woke up, there was nothing unusual around Him, and He Himself was not unusual; only the lingering memory told Ouroboros what had happened.
So Ouroboros came, to find Lin Ruo.
He had to tell Lin Ruo what He saw.
And after Ouroboros finished describing the revelation He saw, even Lin Ruo was momentarily stunned.
He immediately frowned, instinctively analyzing what Ouroboros had seen.
Undoubtedly, the future Ouroboros saw should be a future where he failed to maintain his humanity and his contingency plans failed.
In such a future, the destruction of Earth was not surprising, as even excluding the interference of other Outer Deities from the Cthulhu Mythos, His mere divinity would be enough to bring about this outcome.
Rather than being panicked by such a future, Lin Ruo was more concerned with who caused all of this.
And the prime suspect among them was naturally the voice Ouroboros heard.
"Although there's no evidence, with that personality, it's you, Nyarlathotep!" Lin Ruo directly blamed a certain Outer God who enjoyed playing with humans in his heart. He actually had no evidence, but such matters didn't require evidence.
Anyway, no matter who the mastermind was, he would definitely beat Nyarlathotep up later.
And… "Those who do not keep their promises will be punished," Lin Ruo said softly. This was not idle talk, nor was it false.
How could the agreement He made with the Outer Deities truly rely solely on the mutual awareness of both parties as a restraint? That group of Outer Deities, including Him, had never been ones to obediently keep their promises.
This agreement, reached long ago, was bound by… uh, what was it bound by again?
As he thought, Lin Ruo suddenly got stuck because this part of his memory and knowledge was quite dangerous, and he hadn't recovered it yet, so for a moment, he really didn't know what bound the agreement.
But this didn't bother Lin Ruo, who calmly skipped this part and continued thinking.
Leaving aside the binding of the agreement and the punishment Nyarlathotep might receive for breaking it, at least one thing Lin Ruo could be sure of was that even if Nyarlathotep secretly did something in violation of the agreement, it couldn't be too much. At most, it would be limited to a few jumps as an Incarnation with power equivalent to Sequence 0 of this world, because the agreement was not just for show.
To give a simple example, Nyarlathotep, as a Pillar God, could indeed do something within a certain range and only receive a minor punishment; this was a loophole deliberately left for both parties at the beginning of the agreement. But if Nyarlathotep truly completely violated the agreement and Her main body descended into the Mysteries World, then Lin Ruo could just wait for the funeral feast.
Similarly, if Lin Ruo chose to break the agreement after the appointed day, Nyarlathotep and the others could also wait to divide and consume Lin Ruo.
This was also one of the reasons why those Gods agreed to the pact; they both anticipated the return of that One and yearned to completely devour the remains of that One… Wait, what am I thinking?
Realizing his thoughts were gradually straying, even thinking about things that shouldn't have been remembered, Lin Ruo was startled and quickly looked at the "Witch Roselle" on the table twice to stabilize his humanity, while simultaneously sealing away this part of his memory again, and began to ponder what Nyarlathotep had done.
"Among the incidents I've encountered so far, what could be called abnormal? The cult counts as one, but the others… there are no clues at all. And Nyarlathotep allowing Ouroboros to see such a future, allowing Him to tell me this information, is it really just for pleasure? Or is it that interfering with my actions is His goal?" Lin Ruo had a headache. He really didn't like dealing with these multi-layered schemers; it was too convoluted.
"And a very important question: when exactly did Nyarlathotep start interfering with this world? That loophole deliberately left for both parties… I don't believe that scoundrel Nyarlathotep hasn't been causing trouble for a long time!"
Lin Ruo suddenly narrowed his eyes. Previously, because this information was too sensitive, he had never deeply considered it, but now that he thought about it, he suddenly suspected whether Nyarlathotep had a hand in the hardships he experienced in his past life.
After all, setting aside all the flashy stuff and just talking about the essence, the point of conflict between him and Nyarlathotep was actually his humanity. Lin Ruo had a hunch that as long as he could win this agreement, whatever Nyarlathotep and the Pillar Gods were, they would eventually have to obediently go somewhere cool and stay there.
Therefore, what Lin Ruo himself needed to guard was only his humanity. Under this premise, what Lin Ruo needed to guard against was only Nyarlathotep shaking His humanity; nothing else was important.
And looking back, Lin Ruo's humanity had been shaken twice significantly, each time almost causing him to directly become Him.
"The little fairy maintaining the plot, could it be you?" Lin Ruo narrowed his eyes. He rarely showed any amusement; his beautiful blue eyes were as cold as ancient, unmelting ice.
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