Following Amon's worldwide "door opening," the barrier formed by the endless gray fog in the easternmost part of the Forsaken Land of the Gods began to churn, and the effectiveness of the seal started to decay.
Also affected was the barrier left behind by the Original Creator, which was likewise a type of seal. Although Amon's actions would not directly cause a seal of this magnitude to fail, they would still diminish a portion of its effects.
The deities of the astral world no longer had any leisure to attend to anything else; they could only strive to patch the rifts and resist the encroachment of the outer deities from the starry cosmos upon this world.
Leyton turned his head to look at Roselle and said calmly:
"You should go too. Having only four true gods in the astral world is not quite enough."
Roselle's gaze lingered on Leyton and the True Creator for two seconds, letting out a sigh:
"I hope you two won't overplay your hand. This fragile world cannot withstand too much tossing and turning."
As he spoke, his figure blurred, blending like a shadow into the darkness of the world's rules, directly returning to his divine kingdom in the astral world by utilizing a distortion of the rules.
Streams of chains, either silver-white or golden-yellow, extended out from his divine kingdom, merging into the rules of the illusory astral world and continuously reinforcing the barrier left behind by the Original Creator.
With Roselle joining in, the pressure on the other four true gods was visibly reduced, allowing them to spare extra energy to respond to their believers' prayers and pay attention to the struggle within "Sefirah Castle."
.....
Before the barrier condensed from the endless gray fog, Leyton looked at the True Creator and said, "Begin."
The True Creator stepped forward without any haste, speaking in a solemn and deep voice:
"I am the one and the many, the beginning and the end."
During this process, pitch-black and viscous fluid continuously surged from around Him like a flowing shadow, enveloping His body as it rapidly expanded, only stopping once His frame had grown as massive as a mountain.
Five heads grew upon His neck, three of which were relatively distinct, while two were shrouded in a layer of profound shadow.
Among the three distinct and normal heads, one possessed golden hair and golden eyes, with a dark, deep "ocean" reflected within its eyes, looking like a certain manifestation of the mind world; another possessed messy, thick, greenish-blue hair resembling seaweed, with a terrifying storm brewing inside its azure eyes.
He held the first Blasphemy Slate in His hands, and a scarlet glow continuously flowed out from the eyes of the head situated at the very center.
Silently and soundlessly, a pitch-black, illusory ocean materialized beneath His feet.
He opened His arms, and all five heads proclaimed solemnly at the same time: "Let there be light!"
Endless light erupted in an instant, illuminating the entire world and even lighting up the cosmos outside Earth, while simultaneously illuminating the barrier shrouding the planet, causing it to manifest to a certain extent.
The barrier, which had originally been weakened due to Amon utilizing the authority of "Door," received reinforcement. Upon the barrier, terrifying, distorted, and indescribable faces bulged outward; they were connected to one another, pressed tightly against the barrier, gazing at the deities of the astral world through the invisible, transparent barrier with venomous eyes as they continuously vented power.
Within the Forsaken Land of the Gods inside the barrier, as the light continuously converged, it looked as though a massive golden rift had appeared in the sky, shedding endless light onto the barrier formed by the gray fog below.
Stimulated by the light, the originally stagnant gray fog instantly churned, being torn open into a massive rift.
As the light continuously encroached, this rift grew larger and deeper, as if intending to pierce straight through this endless gray fog.
Behind the "True Creator," a brilliant sun materialized out of thin air, immediately followed by a brass-colored eye, both merging into that deep, dark, and profound "ocean" flowing with shadows and interwoven with countless silver-white streaks of lightning before Him.
The brief fusion of five Uniquenesses allowed Him to obtain a temporary qualitative leap, raising the aura on His body boundlessly, approaching the level of an Outer Deity.
The gray fog barrier ahead was torn apart even more severely, looking as though it could be penetrated at any moment, yet it always remained just a hair breadth away.
The True Creator gazed at the gray fog ahead, which was suppressed by the light and unable to put up any resistance, and spoke in a deep, powerful voice:
"You have five seconds. If you cannot penetrate the gray fog within five seconds, you will be lost in the angle of time, making it difficult to ever return to normal time and space."
"I understand. Though my status and strength are still a bit lacking, those 'Sefirot' in the Western Continent will lend a hand in order to rid themselves of the seal."
Leyton nodded gently. While speaking, his body blurred, breaking down into streams of a torrent of information so complex it was terrifying, condensing into beams of "light" devoid of any color as they surged frantically into the massive rift torn open by the light.
Maintaining his forward surge at a rapid pace in the form of a torrent of information, Leyton appeared at the deepest part of the rift torn into the gray fog barrier in less than two seconds.
The light here had already become quite dim, like a twilight that could vanish at any moment, barely able to resist the counterattack of the gray fog.
The "light" devoid of any color, composed of pure information, suddenly erupted. The illusory information turned into substance, revealing one picture scroll after another that possessed no thickness, like projections.
These picture scrolls gave off an exceptionally heavy feeling, as if they carried civilization, carried the enlightenment and development of human society across different classes, and accumulated thousands or tens of thousands of years of civilization—this was the Scroll of Civilization, the most complete Scroll of Civilization!
"Civilization records history from another perspective; therefore, the scroll of civilization possesses the nature to carry the fog of history."
Muttering quietly to himself, Leyton's figure emerged silently, stepping forward while surrounded by the Scrolls of Civilization.
The gray fog, so heavy it seemed to have condensed into substance, was pushed aside layer by layer by the Scrolls of Civilization, clearing a path that continuously extended inward, with no light visible whatsoever.
"Time for you to work..."
Leyton casually tossed a milk-white die held in his hand, and wisps of silver-white fine threads emerged within his vision, as if guiding his way.
Letting out a low chuckle, Leyton's body blurred once more, breaking down into a terrifyingly complex torrent of information that wrapped around the Die of Probability, rapidly moving forward along the path carved out by the Scrolls of Civilization.
Within the gray fog barrier, both time and space lacked any specific scale of measurement. The light coming from the True Creator behind him had already shrunk to the size of a sesame seed, yet it still remained, looking as if it were frozen there.
"The Scrolls of Civilization can prevent me from being 'fooled' by time, ensuring I don't lose myself. However, normally flowing time is inherently a massive challenge."
"Three seconds left..."
"Two seconds..."
A translucent key of a peculiar design fell from the light formed by the convergence of the information torrent, dropping down along the path carved by the Scrolls of Civilization and following the route guided by destiny.
Silently and soundlessly, a brilliant, illusory cosmos emerged at the end of the path, shedding a hazy glow across the grayish-white fog.
"One second..."
Under the guidance of the starlight, that translucent key of a peculiar design finally pinpointed the Western Continent on the other side of the endless gray fog.
Brilliant starlight flickered upon the translucent key, which instantly cracked and shattered. Pale blue star dust instantly filled the entire path, rapidly constructing an illusory door of starlight covered in numerous strange patterns.
Within the final second, the terrifyingly complex torrent of information passed through the door of starlight, entering a wilderness dappled with light and shadow!
A beam of silver-white light separated itself from the torrent of information, heading continuously upward and flying into the pitch-black night sky dotted with stars.
The dim night sky suddenly turned silver-white, and countless rays of light surged out from the void accompanied by the sound of an illusory flow, interweaving into a massive, illusory key.
This key composed of light was engraved with one three-dimensional, complex mercury-colored symbol after another, tightly interwoven to form one interconnected wheel after another, with different identifiers around each wheel.
As the silver-white light merged inside, the patterns at the base of that key composed of light grew solid, accentuating a blurred, unrefined, and massive wheel.
And at the center of the wheel was embedded a peculiar, exquisitely three-dimensional milk-white die. Around the die, there were various symbolic signs representing different futures.
"Endless chaos, the incarnation of destiny, representing the uncertainty of fate and the future..."
Upon the wilderness, Leyton, having exited his state as a torrent of information, looked up at the "Key of Light" gradually fading into the night sky, murmuring the information he had just perceived in a low voice.
As he muttered to himself, the flesh on his body began to churn, growing one eye after another. The skin beneath the eyes turned into a bottomless, profound black due to absorbing too much information.
The wilderness beneath his feet split open of its own accord, forming a deep chasm.
This chasm was like a mirror; the deepest part was an incomparably high and distant illusory cosmos, growing more real the further up it went, as if it contained another peculiar wilderness where light and shadow intertwined.
Leyton walked down step by step along the stairs that appeared beneath his feet. After crossing the dividing line between above and below, his surrounding vision completely inverted; the original wilderness became a reflection beneath the water's surface, while he was continuously ascending along the stairs, drawing close to that shadow tower ahead that seemed to pierce into the sky.
_Upon the transparent walkway condensed from brilliant starlight, with each step Leyton took forward, his body disintegrated by a fraction. A large amount of information, knowledge, and abstract symbols diffused outward, interacting with the surroundings.
Under this state, his spirit began to elevate, as if intending to look down upon the entire world and encompass the entire world.
The self-cognition belonging to divinity began to expand, quickly overriding the humanity that lacked the support of faith and overriding the madness of the primitive instincts within the Beyonder characteristics, engaging in a tug-of-war with the awakening will of the Original Creator inside his body.
The further he advanced, the deeper his fusion with the "Knowledge Moor" became, and the more his divinity expanded, squeezing the human self into a tiny corner, powerless to resist.
When Leyton crossed the lengthy stairs and truly entered the tower, only a translucent phantom formed by patches of starlight remained of his body.
This was the purest version of him—a version of him with nothing left but spirit, authority, and characteristics. Everything else was merely residual information to a "Demon of Knowledge."