Chapter 15: The Breeding Ground of Evil Gods
The sun was setting.
On the horizon, only a long, wide arc of deep red remained.
The young dragon, Black, a holder of ancient dragon bloodline and personally designated by Count Radcliffe as having legendary potential, was lying in the vast wilderness west of Black Forest Fortress. Her body was limp, her eyes vacant, staring at the sky. She watched the fading sunset light from the corner of her eye, contemplating life.
"I was originally supposed to be... just a warhorse, wasn't I?"
After a full day of high-intensity training under heavy gravity, the black dragon girl, who didn't want to move an inch, couldn't help but feel a surge of sorrow: "Even if I switched bloodlines, I'm still a *mount*, right?"
"If I can get stronger just by sleeping, why do I have to train so hard every day?!"
"And my master never rides me anyway! What's the point of getting stronger?! He flies faster than me, carries more weight than me, is stronger than me, and sees farther than me. Does my training even have any meaning... Ah, the more I think about it, the more annoyed I get. I'm so angry!"
"Ding-dong~"
Just as the black dragon girl was sinking into her usual post-training routine of self-doubt and self-loathing, a clear ding-dong sound rang out, and a column of water fell from the sky, drenching Black, whose body was radiating intense heat, causing the ground around her to crack and dry from the heat.
The hissing sound of steam rose, and a ball of light cheerfully descended from the sky, plunging into the steam, and then accurately wedged itself between the black dragon girl's two horns.
"Wuwuwu... As expected, only Little Guang still loves me... You're the best!" Feeling the excess heat from overexertion being absorbed by the light ball on her head, and a stream of cool energy flowing from it to repair her injured body parts, Black was deeply moved. She struggled to sit up, took Little Guang off her head (Little Guang: Ding-dong?), and hugged it tightly, rubbing it: "And the feel is so good!"
It had been some time since Little Guang joined the Lord's Mansion family.
Based on everyone's observations, especially Joshua's increase in strength, Little Guang's originally mysterious form of existence and survival mode had gradually become analyzable.
Among these, the question of what Little Guang relied on to maintain its existence on a daily basis, and why it especially liked to be with Black, had been answered.
As a high-purity energy aggregate, Little Guang constantly absorbed free energy from the outside world, just like fairies, and it particularly valued high-energy environments. Generally speaking, when Joshua was around, it would follow the warrior, feeding on the high-purity Steel Force radiating from him. If the warrior wasn't there, it would choose the only entity in the Lord's Mansion with a physical form that could radiate energy outward instead of absorbing it—the black dragon girl—as its food source.
Because of her awakened Black Erosion Dragon bloodline, Black, even when carefully controlling herself, would involuntarily radiate a large amount of high-energy energy. This was Little Guang's favorite energy source. Of course, it wasn't just taking without giving. When Black overexerted herself, Little Guang would thoughtfully provide feedback healing, almost like an angel.
However, not to mention the perceptive members of the Lord's Mansion, even Black, who was somewhat slow and often hugged Little Guang while rubbing it, couldn't help but feel a hint of doubt after living together for a long time and witnessing its growth.
Black raised the light ball in her hand, aiming it at the last rays of the setting sun on the horizon. The pale silver light and the deep twilight red intertwined, making the structure at its core even clearer.
Inside that nearly solid energy barrier, a small silver vortex could be seen rotating at Little Guang's core.
"Why does your form... look so familiar to me?"
"Why does your form... look so familiar to me?"
Year 840 of the Falling Stars Era, April 20th, afternoon, Bloodmoon Abyss.
Joshua stood on the outer side of the blood moon, which had almost turned into a sun, and murmured to himself: "It's not just that. The essence of your existence is also so familiar... The geometric aggregate of all souls, all civilizations, all races of a world, plus the resentment of a civilization deceived, leading to the world's destruction... Look at this vast soul vortex. Light, tell me.
"How similar are you and an Evil God?"
In the Bloodmoon Abyss, on a vast floating continent, a colossal blood-red tree was growing vigorously.
The vast blood lake, nearly as wide as an ocean, had nearly a quarter of its area covered by this mutated Tree of Life. Its massive roots stabilized the continent's structure, and falling leaves occasionally caused ripples on the blood sea.
A bright sun could be seen hanging directly above the giant tree, constantly providing immense energy, light, and heat.
Joshua stood between the giant tree and the sun—that is, the blood moon—facing the Light Humanoid, who seemed not to understand what he was saying. The warrior smiled helplessly.
"That's right. You've never seen an Evil God, and you don't understand what I'm talking about."
He murmured to himself, then resumed a normal expression: "And rather than saying you resemble an Evil God, it's more accurate to say that an Evil God resembles you."
The predecessor of the Bloodmoon Abyss was the world of Silaie, a sky island world. Because its original sun was gradually dimming and extinguishing, its civilization was on the verge of extinction, and its races were nearing extinction. In desperation, they sent out a Void Warship, hoping to obtain aid from other civilizations, or at least transport some seeds of their civilization to avoid total annihilation.
Their luck was neither good nor bad. They did encounter a 'friendly' void civilization and received a method to avert the crisis. Because they were weak and had no choice, the Silaie civilization could only follow the method of that seemingly gentle void civilization, performing a ritual to awaken the sun.
Then, they 'became' the sun.
According to information Joshua later gathered, the void civilization the Silaie civilization encountered was likely the Black Mist. It wasn't always using violent conquest; sometimes it used simple schemes and plots. It had tricked a civilization into self-destruction, forming a pure energy blood-colored star. But for some reason, the Black Mist did not reclaim this aggregate of the civilization's energy and souls. Centuries later, the Five-Colored Dragon Clan and demons took a liking to this powerful energy aggregate, planning to use its power to break through the space-time passage to the Mycroft World and complete the abyssal ritual, destroying the Seven Sacred Mountains—the biggest thorn in their side.
The rest of the story, of course, needs no further explanation. Joshua's arrival seemed to ignite this blood-colored star, which had been dormant for centuries, causing the aggregate of 'all souls, all energy, all life of a world' to reawaken its will and form the prototype of a World Will.
But in reality, this process was quite different from the proper birth process of a Steel Serpent.
Joshua, after all, often chatted with Steel Serpents like Carlis, so he naturally knew that the birth of a Steel Serpent first required a civilization with intelligence as its foundation, or at least souls. But the Silaie world had no intelligent life, and even its souls had been condensed into one. Logically, a Steel Serpent shouldn't have been born so quickly.
Yet facts speak louder than words. Little Guang had appeared; could they pretend it didn't exist? While even Carlis was deep in thought, considering whether there were multiple possibilities for the birth of a Steel Serpent, Joshua had a vague guess in his mind.
That was that Little Guang's true form was not an orthodox Steel Serpent, but another peculiar existence.
Think about it carefully: civilization destroyed, world perished, the resentment of being deceived and the despair of being forcibly merged... plus the convergence of infinite energy and souls. This process, these conditions, were exactly the same as those of an Evil God!
Of course, Little Guang was not an Evil God; Joshua was sure of that.
The only difference between Little Guang and an Evil God was that the birth of an Evil God might involve a mysterious force intervening, while Little Guang's birth was just a 'similarity' brought about by coincidence... But in this world, mere similarity was enough.
Even an ordinary person without magic, if they drew a pattern exactly like a rune, that pattern would also possess magical power. Even an ordinary person without battle qi, if the life energy in their body naturally circulated in a certain sequence and trajectory, they could still use battle techniques.
Magic incantations and martial arts movements were tools created to be 'similar' to the steps used by true transcendent powers. Because as long as the method was the same, even if the user was unaware, it would produce the same result.
Little Guang... was very likely, due to an accident, without the admixture of chaos, with resentment and despair purified, and without any destruction or war commands written into it—pure, flawless, natural...
An Evil God.
But that statement was too strange. Could an Evil God without chaos, without resentment or despair, and that wouldn't destroy civilizations, still be called an Evil God? Even something like the Abyssal Will might be more similar!
Rather, it was just a reincarnation within a world, where it resurrected from the identity of a world's dead, transformed into a sun to illuminate the world, and revived the Bloodmoon Abyss.
Little Guang's true form, the Light Humanoid, didn't understand what Joshua was saying and didn't care about those words. It happily split off a beam of light and shone it on Joshua's head.
"Thanks." Feeling the surrounding energy rapidly becoming denser, Joshua looked up and smiled helplessly: "But there's no need. I just came to visit you."
But then again, to this day, Joshua had never seen a normal world after its normal destruction.
Even the vast database of the Era of Radiance had no such records.
Not long ago, the warrior had even specifically asked the Steel Serpent Carlis, and its answer indicated that it didn't know either.
"How long is the lifespan of a world? If not for the existence of civilization, an ordinary primitive life world could exist for hundreds of millions of years, billions of years, or even until its star burns out."
That was what Carlis said. At the time, the Steel Serpent was coiled around the warrior's shoulder, speaking somewhat helplessly: "In fact, some dead worlds are born that way. Their suns burn out, and primitive life goes extinct. But any world with a Steel Serpent, or rather, with a civilization, never lasts that long before being destroyed by war or other reasons... Most of those abyssal worlds were probably born that way."
No one knew the final outcome of a normal world with intelligent life after its natural demise.
According to Joshua's speculation, the final outcome of a world should be self-decomposition, becoming one of the energy sources of the Great Magic Tide. The Steel Force would disperse, eventually converging somewhere, like the Void Great Maelstrom, waiting to be reborn as a world.
But now, it seemed that perhaps the outcome of such a world would be like Little Guang: all the lives and souls that once existed would merge together, re-form into a sun, and replay a cycle.
Like a cycle, without experiencing destruction and rebirth, continuing on and on, forever and ever.
"...Haha, is this also considered eternity?" Joshua couldn't help but laugh at his own thoughts: "How did I come up with this idea? If even this kind of cycle is called eternity, then what in the world isn't eternal? Even the memories of souls are erased and changed. In this regard, it's not even as good as an Evil God."
Also born from countless souls mixed with a World Will, an Evil God at least retains the memories of all those souls. Those memories are its information barrier and the basic units of its core structure.
If we're talking about eternity, an Evil God, which is nearly indestructible, almost impossible to kill, and very difficult to destroy, might barely count as 'half-eternal.' It can exist in the world for longer than the world itself, but it cannot be immortal and live forever.
Of course, even so, it is closer to eternity than any other existence in the world.
Joshua always had an indescribable feeling of familiarity and déjà vu, but he couldn't figure out the connection for the moment, so he simply gave up thinking about it and entered the Bloodmoon Abyss, playing with the Light Humanoid for a while to cheer it up.
Regardless, no matter how similar Little Guang's essence was to an Evil God, it was now the light and heat of a newborn world, representing a brand new future and hope.
If possible, Joshua really wanted to purify all other Evil Gods into Little Guang's current form. Although it was impossible, with no method to achieve it, he couldn't help but think about it... Those Evil Gods born from resentment, despair, and sorrow, even if destroyed, wouldn't dispel the mist and gloom shrouding the world. Only by turning them back into flames could they once again illuminate this dark multiverse.
Transforming into a colossal kilometer-tall giant god, the warrior stroked the Light Humanoid's ribbon-like long hair. The smooth texture made him unconsciously show a relaxed smile.
But suddenly, Joshua's smile froze.
Wait.
He thought. Wait a moment.
If the steps of an Evil God's formation are similar to Little Guang's experience—both condensing a world's souls, life, and energy into a massive entity.
Then.
The legendary deepest layer of the Abyss, that place formed by the convergence of countless worlds' Steel Shards, the despair, pain, and resentment of countless destroyed worlds, plus the endless gathering of lost souls... that unprecedented 'Nirvana Ground.'
There, in the darkest, most fallen, and eternal place of the entire World Star River, the decisive battlefield between the Sage and the Plenty Evil God.
Wouldn't that be the largest and most likely breeding ground for an Evil God?!