Humanity was complicated, and humanity was full of possibilities.
At the shallowest level, possibility meant duality. It meant that the same thing could contain two opposing qualities, two tendencies that contradicted each other and still existed at the same time.
From that duality came the principle Wu Ling had grasped: Rebellion.
Every Evil of Humanity possessed Beast Authority and Independent Manifestation as shared traits. On top of those, every Beast also held a skill in the format of anti something.
Goetia, for example, had Anti Summoning and Anti Genesis. The former could negate any Heroic Spirit attack or summon, then convert it into energy. The latter could overturn existing concepts such as the theory of evolution and the language of Earth's creation by forming a conceptual bounded field. Beyond Goetia, Kiara Sessyoin had Anti Savior, Kama had Anti Desire, and Tamamo Vitch had Anti Self.
Wu Ling's skill was called Anti-Possibility.
In precise terms, it erased the concept of duality itself. Used on an individual, the ability was almost useless. Used against a world, however, it was almost like a virus, because parallel worlds were born from countless possibilities.
In other words, Wu Ling's skill could eliminate parallel worlds. It did not merge them like Goetia's method, and it did not invade them. It erased them directly from the source.
A parallel world was like a line that would never intersect with another line. But from the perspective of all parallel worlds, they formed a tree. They used the central trunk as their model and kept extending new branches across different periods of time. Those branches were the parallel worlds.
For example, take the event known as the birth of humanity. If that event vanished, then every parallel world built around humanity would vanish with it.
Of course, Wu Ling had no intention of erasing every parallel world. That would cost him more effort than it was worth. From beginning to end, he had only one goal: find the world that could be called the main Chaldea. In other words, the world of the game he had played in his previous life.
The moment Alaya realized his goal, she truly panicked for the first time.
"Ah, erasing every parallel world? That skill is way too unfair!" In her own space, Alaya stomped in anger.
She had allowed Wu Ling to act before mainly because there were too many parallel worlds. Every second, every instant, countless parallel worlds were born or destroyed. There were so many that even she, a Counter Force, did not know the total number.
In Alaya's eyes, Wu Ling had never contacted the main world's Chaldea and had no bond with it. If he searched alone, who knew how many years it would take. She would also interfere from the shadows. Unless something unexpected happened, he might never find the main world in his entire life.
But she had never expected that, after becoming an Evil of Humanity, Wu Ling would gain such an unreasonable skill.
Even Goetia, who had forced her to seek help from the Root, had only kept burning parallel worlds and might return to the main world through a bond. Wu Ling, on the other hand, could erase every parallel world outright and identify the remaining main world directly. Judged by the result, Wu Ling's threat level now rivaled, and might even surpass, the revived Goetia.
"What do I do? What do I do? Do I have to ask the Root for help again? But what if he and the Root meet as fellow countrymen, hit it off, and then keep ruining this world together?"
Alaya was so anxious that she almost did not know what to do. Because of Wu Ling's special nature as an Evil of Humanity, she did not even know which Grand she should send to eliminate him.
At that moment, another expressionless girl avatar appeared behind her.
Bonk.
"Ow."
Alaya clutched her head and used the classic skill of crouching down with both hands over her skull.
"Gaia, what are you doing?" Alaya stood and turned to question her.
The expressionless girl she called Gaia was, without question, the Counter Force of the planet.
Alaya was both surprised and confused by Gaia's arrival. In the past, no matter what happened on Alaya's side, it rarely drew Gaia's attention. After all, Gaia only cared about the survival of the planet. The survival of humanity meant nothing to her. Even the Evil of Humanity, the greatest threat to humankind, usually acted against humans and did not affect the planet too much.
Of course, across endless parallel worlds, there were entities like the Machine Gods of Lostbelt 2.5, beings with enough force to destroy a planet. But if it was only a few insignificant parallel worlds, Gaia would not interfere much.
Wu Ling's ability, however, had truly alarmed her.
"Alaya, you really have created a monster." Gaia's tone was perfectly flat, but because Alaya knew her well, she still heard a dangerous edge inside it.
Alaya lowered her head, embarrassed, and nervously tangled her little fingers together. "Erasing parallel worlds is powerful, yes, but that still should not be enough to alarm you."
Gaia sighed, then explained.
"First, that man is an existence from outside the world. He became an Evil of Humanity based on love for himself. In other words, even if every human in our world died, it would not affect him much."
"So, if the parallel worlds centered on humanity are reduced to only one main world under his influence, what happens if he decides to attack the planet itself to force you?"
Hearing Gaia's words, Alaya realized the problem. Just as she would eliminate any seed that might destroy humanity, Gaia would eliminate any threat that might affect the planet.
"Second," Gaia continued, "if every parallel world is destroyed, have you thought about what will happen to those extremely powerful beings that can escape their own parallel worlds? Leave the Machine Gods and Outer Gods aside for the moment. The seven Evils of Humanity alone would become a problem. Imagine one world containing seven Evils of Humanity."
Alaya shuddered. She could not even imagine that scene. If she had been human, cold sweat would have been pouring down her back.
"I am starting to regret this," Alaya said. "But if we just let him leave, is that not the same as slow suicide?"
"As long as the world barrier exists, we do not have to worry about beings on the level of Cthulhu or Chaos entering this world. But if entities on that level obtain the passage inside him, our world will become like someone else's back garden. They will come and go as they please. Would that not still end in destruction?"
Gaia nodded after hearing her. "True. But this still started because you said you wanted a backup plan, then handed him a back door into our world."
"I did not know his desire to leave would be this strong," Alaya began to protest.
Then Wu Ling's body began to move.
"He is acting," Gaia said. "Let us keep watching. If things truly reach that point, we will need to prepare to abandon part of our origin."