The on the screen was dazzling.
This was a spectacle rarely seen by mortals... The struggles between Aeons usually did not surface so clearly. The dimension in which humans lived was merely the shallow reality supported by the branches of the Tree of Existence in the void, while the dimension of the Aeons' confrontations was hidden beneath the undercurrents, transcending reality.
Most of the time, reality could not bear the might of the Aeons. They would stir up massive waves in the Sea of Void relying on the support of their Paths, or perhaps gain a firm footing on the branches of the Tree of Existence, stirring up storms in the dimension beyond reality...
But now, the Aeons had come from countless miles away. They crossed the distance between stars, broke through the limit of tens of millions of light-years, pulled their feelers out of their respective divine domains, pierced through the door, and descended into reality, personally descending without hesitation to let their divine might fall upon this planet...
If someone could cross the dimensional boundary where the space between Aeons had collapsed and travel to the planet where the Aeons were engaging, looking up at the starlight, they would see magnificent auroras mixed with variegated colors completely shrouding the edge of the planet. [The Destruction] Nanook's figure had nowhere to go, nowhere to flee, having completely fallen into the encirclement of the gods.
This time, compared to the situation on New Belobog before, the farce of the Aeons "collecting debts" was likely much more terrifying... [The Destruction] Nanook's actions had blocked the paths of too many Aeons. These Aeons did not mind taking action personally to thoroughly wipe Him out from this star sea.
Therefore, they did not hold back a single hand.
The Jester's rapier opened the game first—although He was the last Aeon to appear, the tip of His sword arrived in an instant, the first to appear in front of [The Destruction] Nanook's chest.
The sharp blade cut open flesh and blood; the keen sword tip pierced into the shell... The wounds originally repaired by the flames of the [Salvation] Lantern were cut open once again. But this time, what flowed out of the wounds on [The Destruction] Nanook's chest was no longer dark golden blood, but scarlet-gold flowing fire.
From the moment His divine blood accepted the wick within the [Salvation] Lantern, it immediately began to burn, and in an instant, the flames filled His shell... just like Ron before.
Previously, when Ron ascended to godhood, boiling Holy Light and molten rock flowed within his meridians. The hot divine blood was the external manifestation of Ron as the Aeon of [Salvation]. And at this moment, after [The Destruction] Nanook usurped the power of the [Salvation] Path, this unique condition also appeared on [The Destruction] Nanook.
But Nanook naturally wouldn't sit and wait for death... The struggle between Aeons would not end simply. Even with so many Aeons besieging [The Destruction] Nanook, He still had a chance to turn the tables—and a very big one at that.
As the apex of the Path, an Aeon is not just a transcendent deity, but also the conceptual avatar representing a concept...
Therefore, wanting to kill an Aeon is equivalent to killing a concept.
Unless the Aeon personally abandons that Path, no longer adhering to the constraints of the Path's Primum Mobile, running counter to the Path's philosophy, and getting discarded by the Path, unable to draw infinite power from it anymore—otherwise, even if surrounded by several Aeons, one should not think of easily killing an Aeon.
In fact, there is essentially only one truly reliable and effective way to thoroughly kill an Aeon—
That is to resolve the Path itself that supports the Aeon's transcendence above the world.
Whether it is making the Aeon violate the Path, or letting the Path abandon the Aeon, or interpreting this Path with another concept to swallow it... No matter what, as long as the Aeon can be made powerless to obtain power from that Path, He will immediately walk towards death.
But the current [The Destruction] Nanook was no longer the Him of before...
If it were under the previous condition where even the [Destruction] Path itself was split and scattered into fragments, perhaps [The Destruction] Nanook would have had His Path thoroughly cracked under the siege of so many Aeons, truly losing the power of the [Destruction] Path and falling into a state of eternal damnation—
But the current [The Destruction] Nanook was different.
Although it sounds ridiculous, [The Destruction] Nanook had actually become the veritible Master of the [Salvation] Path...
Just as the [Salvation] Path swallowed [The Destruction] before, now He was swallowing the [Salvation] Path...
The Path fragments that were once swallowed by the [Salvation] Path returned one by one to where they should exist. He even swallowed the [Salvation] Path, making it thoroughly merge into the [Destruction] Path.
Because the [Salvation] Path was dilapidated, the [Destruction] Path could easily swallow the broken [Salvation] Path...
Now, [Salvation] had thoroughly intertwined with [Destruction]. You are in me, I am in you, becoming completely indistinguishable.
They merged into one Path... and a Path completely under the control of [The Destruction] Nanook.
The current [The Destruction] Nanook could be said to have reached the strongest moment since His birth. The [Destruction] Path was broadened to a great extent. Infinite power turned into burning divine fire flowing within His meridians. Even though His chest was cut open by [The Elation] Aha again, there was not half a trace of expression on His indifferent face.
The moment the dark golden flames flowed out from the crack in His chest, they burned away the existence of the "wound." Previously, He could only watch helplessly as unhealable wounds opened one after another on his body, but now, due to the broadening of the Path, He obtained new power.
The moment His chest was cut open, He unhesitatingly "destroyed" the injury on His body, allowing His divine body to welcome "new life"—
Even though this power from [Salvation] had only just been touched, the Aeon was an Aeon. After swallowing the [Salvation] Path, He integrated the powers of [Destruction] and [Salvation], achieving something His past self could never do no matter what.
But... just this was not enough.
The Jester's rapier moved like flowing water and floating clouds, retracting upon contact. Closely following it was a heavy giant hammer—the Amber Lord followed closely behind, smashing heavily onto [The Destruction] Nanook's body. The heavy giant hammer fell again and again, splashing dark golden sparks like magma.
That giant hammer should have made a dull sound, but hitting [The Destruction] Nanook's body, it seemed to strike upon an anvil, emitting the crisp sound of striking iron.
The clear sounds of striking rang through the star sea. On [The Destruction] Nanook's divine body, dense cracks appeared one after another. The heavy strikes were not just physical blows to [The Destruction] Nanook's divine body, but also heavy poundings against the concept of His existence.
The Amber Lord was attempting to shatter Nanook Himself, stripping away His concept existing in reality, diluting His existence on the Path, shaking the very foundation of His being...
As the oldest Aeon who had existed since ancient times, the number of divine battles [Preservation] Qlipoth had participated in was countless. In numerous wars, He stood on the battlefield like a monolith, and the giant hammer in His hand had shattered the concepts of who knows how many Aeons.
The Swarm Disaster that once ravaged the star sea ultimately ended under the hammer of [Preservation] Qlipoth—
[The Propagation] Tayzzyronth was like ink dropped into the sea; His concept was smashed into powder by the Amber Lord hammer by hammer, and He finally ceased that endless propagation due to fear, falling into pathetic silence.
But now, although the sound of the giant hammer rang through the star sea, there were no miserable screams from its kin... [The Destruction] Nanook's face was still cold. Although the cracks from the strikes had already climbed up His cheeks, He was not flustered.
The plight of [The Propagation] Tayzzyronth would not be re-enacted on His body... He was far from reaching the moment of despair.
He raised His eyes, in which star patterns of hope flashed with brilliant light. The dark golden divine blood burned within the cracks on His body. The blazing flames enveloped His entire person, and the injuries were repaired in an instant—
He used the Divine Authority of "Hope Manifest" to anchor His future of withstanding [Preservation] Qlipoth's giant hammer, and relied on the flames of [Salvation] to burn away His injuries, supporting Himself to recover again and again under [Preservation] Qlipoth's hammer.
The power of [Salvation] was so stubborn... Although [The Destruction] Nanook's divine body cracked open bit by bit under the Amber Lord's fierce attacks, He maintained Himself without collapsing, firmly grasping the [Destruction] Path.
Although it looked like [The Destruction] Nanook's current situation was extremely miserable, this was not a manifestation of defeat. Instead, it was the possibility of completely winning this war—
Although His current situation was miserable... so what?
As long as He relied on the power of [Salvation] to forcefully maintain the [Destruction] Path so it wouldn't collapse, then as an Aeon, He would never completely die...
Even if the Amber Lord's giant hammer fell ten million times, as long as it couldn't thoroughly smash the concepts linking Nanook and [The Destruction] into powder, then He would not truly die. Even if He was heavily injured again, possessing the power of [Salvation], He could recover in the instant of burning.
As long as He could hold on, then all this targeting against Him would be meaningless—this war between gods could only end with His thorough death, but He forcefully survived...
Did He win...?
The situation of the battle did not change by half a point. The Amber Lord's giant hammer struck [The Destruction] Nanook's body like forging iron, while intermittently, [The Elation] Aha's rapier pierced into the fierce fire, flitting lightly like a startled swan, as if a sculptor was currently carving.
And at this moment, [The Remembrance] Fuli raised His head—above His head composed of countless prisms, the rainbow of the stars was refracted.
The crown on His head illuminated Nanook, who was completely shrouded in the dark golden holy fire before Him. The beaded curtains of the crown trembled slightly, but ultimately, what was reflected on that prismatic face of His was not the cold figure of the Head of Destruction, but rather the appearance of another person—
Ron's laziness from before received its recompense at this moment. [The Remembrance] Fuli relied on that portion of the Path Ron returned to record Ron's existence...
Ron's fall perhaps could not be changed, but this did not represent that He was powerless to descend upon this star sea again—
If there was an Aeon possessing the [Salvation] Path, and His memory was modified by [The Remembrance] Fuli into Ron's appearance, then... what exactly would this Aeon be?
...[The Destruction] Nanook, what would He become?
The existence of an Aeon does not rely on the flesh... Compared to living beings that truly exist in the dimension of reality, Aeons are more like avatars of concepts, existing in a form that transcends common logic...
The special way of existence for gods transcending the world gave this banquet the possibility of reaching the Divine Birth—
The three-headed Compassionate Mother sang the music of assimilation. The joyous sound moved the stars to resonate, and the sound of the Amber Lord waving the hammer became the jubilant music of welcome... [The Destruction] Nanook's body became trance-like at this moment. Under the joint action of [The Harmony] Xipe and [The Remembrance] Fuli, He was transforming into the appearance of another.
For the first time, a panicked expression appeared on the face of the Head of Destruction. [The Destruction] Nanook finally realized the gods' calculation and immediately stopped the utilization of the [Salvation] Authority, wanting to strip away the burning fire of [Salvation]...
But in the next moment after the flames faded, the giant hammer that followed caused His body to be full of cracks. The threat of death was right before His eyes, forcing Him to once again use the [Salvation] Authority, forcefully supporting Himself to survive.
...This was an Open Conspiracy (Yangmou).
It was an Open Conspiracy that [The Destruction] Nanook was completely powerless to resist.
[Preservation] Qlipoth's giant hammer did not stop for even a moment. As long as Nanook didn't want to follow in the footsteps of the Swarm Emperor, He could only use the Authority of [Salvation] to support His own life, keeping Himself from being hammered into powder...
But conversely, if He uninterruptedly used the Authority of [Salvation], that was falling completely into the calculation—
A smirk hung on the Jester's face. The rapier in His hand traveled through the raging fire like a carving knife, its exquisite technique carving out the appearance emerging from the infinite prisms of [The Remembrance] Fuli;
The Amber Lord's giant hammer was like striking iron, ruthlessly hammering the concept of [Salvation] into [The Destruction] Nanook's body, making it completely merge with [Destruction], never to separate;
[The Harmony] Xipe's singing assimilated these two originally incompatible Paths, letting them assimilate each other, blurring the originally clear boundary;
[The Remembrance] Fuli bestowed the decree. The cold current of memory washed away the raging fire, filling [The Destruction] Nanook's shell...
And [The Abundance] Yaoshi finished the tail end. The ten thousand eyes on the Compassionate Father's body intertwined their lines of sight, attracting eternal blessings at the focal point of vision, repairing all that chaos, barely fusing the conflicting concepts on the Path...
And that burning dark golden Holy Fire burned furiously. The flames became more and more intense, gradually swallowing the Aeon within completely, until that cold appearance mixed with a trace of panic could no longer be seen—
Finally, the blazing Holy Fire suddenly stopped. It seemed as if time froze at this moment. The flames stopped dancing, and then, like flowing water, they converged, retracted into a brand new lantern.
The flame in the lantern shone softly. The lantern cover fell into a pure white palm. There were countless fine cracks on the hand, through which dark golden light could be seen flashing...
The light of the lantern illuminated His face. The Aeon holding the lantern looked gentle, the corners of His mouth holding a smile.
That was... Ron.
...........................