In the Western Continent, enveloped and blocked by countless gray fogs, an illusory long river—pitch-black, lightless, and with no visible beginning or end—abruptly materialized. It looked as though it had always been there, merely never noticed before.
The somewhat transparent and illusory river water flowed slowly without creating a single ripple, carrying a connotation of dead silence, death, the endpoint, slumber, and decay, looking as though it flowed toward the endpoint of all things, the end of everything.
In the sky enveloped by gray fog, one star after another materialized, densely packed and brilliantly dazzling, interweaving a serene and gorgeous cosmos.
Under the tugging of an Invisible Force, the entire cosmos rotated slowly, like an immense expanse of astral sand. It appeared slow, yet in truth pushed forward extremely rapidly.
The gray-white fog was rapidly dissolved under the starlight. The surrounding gray fog continuously filled the voids, yet was continuously dissolved by the starlight, forming a silent tug-of-war.
The blockade formed by the endless gray fog was eroded bit by bit under this tug-of-war, being broken through and forming a deep and dark passage.
The pitch-black, illusory long river closely followed behind the starlight, continuously flowing forward. The river water continuously evaporated, forming a thin mist that enveloped the surroundings, obscuring the passage created by the starlight.
Outside the thin mist, countless insects drilled out from the ground. Accompanied by tentacles fused from flesh and blood, they continuously expanded toward the surroundings, forming a slimy wave of flesh and blood that pushed toward the thin mist ahead layer by layer.
Appearing along with the insect tide was also an illusory, viscous black mist resembling liquid. They came from the "Tenebrous World," condensed from various extreme emotions and desires.
The desires to breed and feed from within the insect tide became the nutrients for the black mist, continuously nourishing and strengthening it, driving it to interweave with the thin mist from the "River of Eternal Darkness" and mutually erode one another.
Between the viscous, overlapping mists, countless shadows swam forward rapidly, looking as though they were situated in another world with completely distinct underlying rules, entirely un-interfered with by the "River of Eternal Darkness" and the "Tenebrous World."
Crash!
The sound of shattering glass abruptly rang out. The originally interwoven faint-white and pitch-black mists suddenly shattered like a mirror surface, and the things swimming like shadows inside the underlying rules broke free uncontrollably, transforming into a tangible shadow in midair and rapidly reorganizing a miniature replica of a kingdom that was neither symmetrical nor coordinated.
The Sefirot blocked by the Celestial Worthy in the Western Continent were like students who had been shut inside a classroom for too long, jostling and crowding one another, wishing to run out with the fastest speed.
Inside the gray fog where a segment of the blockade had been broken through by the starlight, the astral sand continuously pushing forward like an immense galaxy and that pitch-black, lightless river suddenly became transparent and illusory, transforming into a heap of bubbles and fusing into the surrounding gray fog.
Giving the Sefirot crowding in from behind no chance to react, one after another complex symbol of a mercury color emerged outside the passage, merging together with countless illusory rivers and evolving into a blurry, insufficiently real, slowly rotating giant wheel.
The gray fog dissolved by the starlight re-materialized, rapidly filling the surrounding vacancies anew.
The "Reboot" belonging to the Fate Pathway!
In less than a second's time, the barrier composed of the endless gray fog restored its completeness anew, and those Sefirot that had just crowded into the passage sank deeply into it, unable to extricate themselves.
Enveloped by the endless gray fog, they fell into an awkward plight—unable to go out, and unable to come in.
After completing a "Reboot," the giant mercury-colored wheel rapidly collapsed and retracted, transforming into an illusory key constructed of pure, silver-white light. Inlaid at the tail of this key was a milk-white die.
Streams of "light"—unbrilliant, un-clear, and devoid of any color—slipped out from the void, as an immense, chaotic torrent of pure information rapidly reorganized Leyton's body.
He reached out his hand to catch that mercury-colored illusory key in front of him, voicing his contemplation:
"No matter how activated the Sefirot are, being heavily influenced by their own symbols, the self they give birth to will inevitably be extreme, manifesting a bigoted, radical, and stubborn side."
"And this kind of extreme self is easily utilized and deceived."
Upon that mercury-colored illusory key, densely packed patterns and symbols connected to form the image of an illusory, scaleless snake, nodding toward Leyton in approval.
A dark mist—the materialization of concealed power—rippled out in the surroundings. A pitch-black, lightless, illusory river flowed out from the concealed world, and the surroundings instantly entered a state of noiseless, dead silence. All existing matter and concepts inevitably died, and even existence itself was perishing.
Turning his head to look at the quietly flowing "River of Eternal Darkness," Leyton voiced his inquiry with some curiosity:
"I am somewhat curious. 'Key of Light' and I have a higher degree of activation and are relatively rational because of our own authorities and some special encounters. But you, who symbolize the end and endpoint of all things and belong to the incomplete Fourth Pillar, why do you possess such a high degree of activation and furthermore possess quite a decent amount of rationality?"
Following the fall of Leyton's voice, the pitch-black, lightless river surface reflected a human face outlined by an orange-red twilight light. Distinct from the last time, it nonetheless remained facial features belonging to a relatively soft Oriental race.
"I am the endpoint of all deaths, converging the death imprints of all living creatures in the entire universe, harboring countless emotions, memories, and cognitions. Therefore, I am precisely the one that came alive earliest among all Sefirot."
"The system of the Underworld ultimately moves toward the Union with the Dao, and I am the Dao. Although humans are insignificant, under the accumulation of one Union with the Dao cultivator after another, I can also gradually throw off bigotry."
"I understand." Leyton nodded gently, no longer continuing this topic.
Glancing at the heavy gray fog ahead whose boundaries and end could not be seen, he took a step forward. His right hand groped in the void in front of him for a spell, pulling out a faint-red ball of yarn—a ball of yarn capable of guiding directions, the Thread of Ariadne!
The faint-red ball of yarn was casually thrown out by him, rolling forward spontaneously and extending into the gray fog without receiving the slightest obstruction.
Simultaneously, Leyton's other hand sliced across the front of him, and individual giant, illusory roots materialized out of thin air, extending into the gray fog along the direction guided by the Thread of Ariadne.
A black dragon as tall as a mountain, its wings draped fully with corpses, crawled upon these roots, continuously devouring the roots and swallowing them into its stomach along with the surrounding gray fog.
The "Dragon of Despair" Nidhogg, created by "Mystical Re-enactment." It would follow the direction of the Yggdrasil's roots to devour all barriers and seals.
.....
In the Forsaken Land of the Gods separated by the endless gray fog, a faint-red ball of yarn rolled out from within the gray fog, continuously moving forward, crossing shadows, penetrating space, until it came to a stop right by Bernadette's feet.
Mr. Door looked at this ordinary-looking ball of yarn on the ground with quite some astonishment. He failed to see a single speck of specialty upon it, yet it was precisely such an ordinary ball of yarn that actually penetrated the space He had hidden away.
Seemingly perceiving Mr. Door's puzzlement, Bernadette voiced an explanation:
"This is the Thread of Ariadne, a 'Mystical Re-enactment' originating from fairy tales, capable of guiding directions."
"I carry the favor of the 'Savant' upon me. It should have taken me as the target to look for."
Above the gray fog, Klein likewise heard Bernadette's words, unable to restrain himself from lamenting:
"A 'Mystical Re-enactment' at the Great Old One level is rather formidable; even the seal left behind by the Celestial Worthy can be penetrated."
"Compared to the limited Beyonder abilities of other pathways, a 'Mystery Pryer' who has grasped a sufficient amount of mysticism knowledge can single-handedly match 22 pathways in the later stages."
"If a 'Savant' can craft a sufficient quantity of mystical items, they can likewise achieve a comprehensive lack of flaws. Is this what 'Knowledge is power' means."
"However, these three pathways I am on are also not bad. Although neither omniscient nor omnipotent, I can steal, I can use 'Record' to copy and paste, and I can make wishes to myself."
"In a certain sense, all Beyonder pathways are moving toward the direction of omnipotence at the very end of their development; it's merely that the ways of realization are different."
During his lamentation, his inspiration was suddenly touched. His true vision above the gray fog rose continuously, and he saw the gray fog barrier that had been gnawed out with a gap, seeing a black dragon flapping its wings fly out from the gap.
This giant dragon's stomach looked a bit bloated, appearing to have overeaten. Upon the wings it flapped hung individual dried or scorched corpses.
At this very instant, a frame of a picture popped into Klein's mind for no reason:
In the deep, dark, and boundless universe, countless starlights suddenly flickered, constructing a face as huge and exaggerated as a nebula.
A blazing white, burning hot, and giant fixed star was spat out from the mouth of this face, dragging out a brilliant gold tail line in the universe and crashing toward Earth at an extremely rapid speed.
The picture in his mind disappeared. Before Klein could think carefully, he saw the blazing white sunlight appearing at the outer layer of the Astral World.
Klein's thoughts short-circuited for a moment, lampooning with some speechlessness:
"No, do you outer deities directly throw suns at one another when fighting?"
Without overthinking, he directly took action, grafting the probability of the fixed star onto himself.
At this moment, the entire gray fog suddenly boiled, and blazing white light and heat engulfed everything above the gray fog, leaving behind only pure white.
This was a grafting at the Sequence 0 level, an effect he could barely achieve only by relying on the status of The Fool and the power of Sefirah Castle.
At the outer layer of the Astral World, that burning hot fixed star suddenly grew dim, and the terrifying light and heat vanished silently and soundlessly.
Streams of light resembling golden liquid surged out out of thin air. Using the illusory, abstract Astral World as paper and Invisible Force as a pen, a line of rule was rapidly written down:
"Gravity vanishes here!"
Silently, soundlessly, and invisibly, the immense gravity brought by the fixed star vanished; it was just like an ornament hanging at the edge of the sky.
Another "sun" rose within the Astral World. The blazing, golden-yellow sunlight shone so brightly that others were completely unable to open their eyes, and it was even difficult to turn a single extra thought, continuously stripping away the energy of that fixed star outside the invisible barrier, attempting to extinguish it completely.