If one speaks of the Heaven-Opposing Scripture, it was created to oppose the heavens.
Talent is an innate gift.
You are emotional, simple, and rash. A talentless child like you originally should not learn Qi arts. Distinguishing the world from oneself, and shaking the world by imbuing one's Will into the flesh—this is the fundamental root of Qi arts. It is clothing that does not suit you.
When others take ten steps, you will barely manage to follow one; when others spur themselves and dash forward, you will crawl on your belly like a newborn babe.
However, even to someone as talentless as you, the Heaven-Opposing Scripture is fair. It is honest to all.
Regardless of heaven-bestowed talent, as long as you possess a human body. You can achieve grand completion by engraving experience and effort into that body.
With Will stripped away, solely through pure experience and sensation. It will move by controlling your body unconsciously. If you achieve grand completion in the Heaven-Opposing Scripture, you will become a powerhouse who makes your name known to the world.
...However. To reach the truth with a Qi art devoid of Will. For a dull talent who chose the second best to reach the pinnacle, several times, tens of times, hundreds of times more effort than others would be required. An endlessly distant experience and effort that a single human lifetime could never contain.
If it is you, who regress every time you die, perhaps... I do not know if you might be able to reach that state.
I hope, Shei. That you never reach that state.
That so many scars are not engraved upon your fragile body and mind.
Before the shackles of infinity crush you, that you save the world first.
...I merely wish.
***
Even though she killed Shei, Nebida did not feel any great excitement. She was quite sharp and impressive, but only a part of the numerous strong enemies Nebida had faced in her life. She wasn't that outstanding.
However, if there was one thing that slightly caught her attention.
"Was she not a Saintess?"
It was the fact that she felt a sensation from Shei as if she were facing a Saintess.
Occasionally, a Saintess specialized in combat like the Iron Saintess pops up, but basically, a Saintess is not a combatant. A Saintess's authority is seeing the future and twisting its flow.
Politics, stratagems, schemes, coincidences, and so on. Stealing 'victory' by any means necessary is the essence of a Saintess. Therefore, the moment a Saintess appears, victory is already promised. What follows is merely a futile struggle unrelated to the tide of battle.
Paradoxically, because of that, the only way to deal with a Saintess is to fight back without caring about such things.
"…"
After pondering slightly, Nebida moved to confirm Shei's death instead of returning to the Spirit Lord's Layer. It was a decision made because the threat of a Saintess was greater than any other threat.
Finding the traces was easy. This was because Shei's flying body left a trail like dozens of trees being pushed over by a bulldozer. Nebida lightly landed above it.
And at the end of her gaze, a blood-stained hand hanging powerlessly was seen. It was Shei's hand. The other parts were buried under rocks and logs and could not be seen. However, the blood flowing from beneath indirectly showed the tragic end.
Her death was certain. Even if King Yama came, he would have judged it so. Nebida thought the same. Now, all that was left was to return and grind up all the druids who dared to interfere with the Lord's resurrection to use as fertilizer.
"Born from nature, to the bosom of nature."
Expressing obligatory mourning as a druid, Nebida was now about to return. A small groan reached the ears of the departing Nebida.
"Ah."
It was too clear and transparent to be called a death rattle. At the completely alien voice, Nebida inadvertently turned around.
It was Shei.
She resembled Shei, and it was a position where she couldn't appear if she wasn't Shei. Therefore, Nebida also understood that existence to be Shei.
"So this is where it is. The bookmark I placed."
Put differently, she was so different from Shei.
There is a toy called a thaumatrope. It is a toy where a paper with different pictures drawn on both sides is suspended on a string or stick and spun rapidly, making the afterimages of the two pictures merge into one.
Shei's appearance looked just like such a picture.
Bleached-white hair sparkles like light. It is impossible to fathom how long or short the hair is. A face that seems detached from life and enlightened is sparkling with overwhelming vitality.
Endlessly ephemeral, looking like she might disappear at any moment, yet Shei was definitely there.
Disappeared, appeared, smiled, cried. Shei was both, and she was nothing. It was an unknown phenomenon that even Nebida, who had been through all sorts of hardships, was seeing for the first time.
If there was at least one point where the two afterimages overlapped, it was Shei's gaze. Shei was staring at the top of the Tree of Origin with irises shining in seven colors.
"Is Hughes still up there? Waking the King of Humans, right? It'll take a little longer. Right? Can I watch…?"
The elated and sorrowful voice revealed distinct emotion.
Yet no sound or presence was felt. Nebida saw the boulder that had pinned Shei down just a moment ago. The boulder, as a natural object, remained as it was. With only Shei gone from inside.
"Were you hiding your power?"
Shei answered, still keeping her gaze directed up there.
"No. What I hid are my memories."
"…Memories?"
"Yeah. If a Qi art can control the flesh, and memories also remain as signals engraved in the brain. It means you can block and hide parts of your memories with a Qi art. The Heaven-Opposing Scripture is a Qi art that governs the unconscious, so as long as you operate it, it even blocks the possibility of memories involuntarily surfacing."
Nebida could not yet know, but that was the enlightenment of the Lightning Thief. Shei was casually applying the enlightenment of the Fiendgod who, fearing the truth he discovered would be abused, had voluntarily gone to the Divine Emperor's Court.
"Like now, if I receive a shock strong enough to break the Heaven-Opposing Scripture, they surface like a revolving lantern, though."
If the Heaven-Opposing Scripture breaks from a shock severe enough to cause instant death, Shei's consciousness trapped within awakens. Like breaking a hard shell and being born.
Nebida looked at Shei, who had completely transformed, and asked.
"Why did you do such a thing?"
Memories are accumulated experience. Blocking that? Nebida asked as if she couldn't understand. She had no obligation to explain, but Shei smiled brightly as if she had been waiting for just that question and answered.
"Because, Hughes can read minds."
Casually stating the fact that even her thoughts could be invaded, she smiled as if she was rather happy about it.
"…What?"
"You know. Do you know that? Hughes always helps me? No matter when, where, or how we meet. To meet him the fastest, I have to enter the Bottomless Abyss, but even if I don't, Hughes eventually ends up helping me. Even if I don't say anything, even if I don't want anything. By reading my wishes!"
Shei didn't seem to care about Nebida's reaction at all. Like a girl in love, Shei chirped joyfully with a dreamlike voice. Then, suddenly darkening her expression, she muttered.
"Except for one thing… When I know his mind-reading. Except for then."
It was abrupt, but this was also new information. Nebida asked her.
"Does the Lord fathom the human heart?"
"Yeah. Hughes reads wishes. And asks. Whether that wish is worth achieving even if you sacrifice your life and kill everyone around you. Hughes dislikes wishes that disregard life, but he respects them. So he gives the chance to fulfill the wish until the very end, and if you still give up your life, he completes it by fulfilling that wish. Conversely, he acknowledges a wish to save others for what it is in itself."
Even if hidden by lies and deceit, even if swept up in endless soliloquy. Only the cold results, untainted by emotion, announce the direction of the wish. Shei suddenly realized within the dozens, hundreds of repeated regressions.
"It's not barbaric. Hughes is merciful. Giving everyone the chance to fulfill their wish. Whether they are good or evil. Perhaps, that could be barbarism, though."
One could say she was too slow, or that he hid it well. Perhaps, fair mercy for all might not have much to do with good and evil. To the point of being unable to prevent the world's destruction.
Shei, who had poured out the emotions hidden inside her shell, let out a small sigh and spoke.
"Is that why? Knowing that my mind is being read, if I cling to him and entrust my wish to Hughes… Hughes inevitably leaves me. I had no choice but to hide my memories. Otherwise, he would eventually leave me."
To Nebida, who had no information, it was hard to empathize with those words. However, Nebida realized one clear truth in this situation.
"You are indeed a Saintess."
Only a Saintess would speak incomprehensible words with unempathizable foresight. And if she is a Saintess, she is Nebida's enemy. The druid, who had lived since primordial times, knew the truth that simplicity is the wisest thinking.
Shei looked at Nebida preparing for battle and let out words.
"Maybe. But I don't think that's important. What's important is Hughes. Even memories that repeat meaninglessly, don't accumulate despite effort, and vanish ephemerally. If I'm with him, they eventually connect. The memories that have unilaterally piled up inside me, ride my heart and pile up inside him as well."
Nebida, who had wandered for thousands of years after losing her king, was likely in a similar situation as Shei. Perhaps even worse than Shei. Because Nebida's king wouldn't have been able to smile and chatter like Shei's king.
Shei slightly empathized with Nebida. And she was certain that Nebida would also understand her.
"I will get him back. The single person who can share my journey."
Shei reached out her hand.
Or so she thought, but Shei's hand was already inside the Small World Tree before she knew it. Passing through the lush leaves and dense branches, she grabbed the Earth Seal trapped inside.
'Pass through?'
The expression 'passed through' wasn't even accurate. To Nebida's senses, it looked as if Shei's hand had skipped the process of heading to the Earth Seal and just appeared there.
Nebida reacted to that and swung the Small World Tree. Within a fraction of a second, the overgrown thickets that had absorbed spiritual energy assailed Shei like an explosion.
"Ouch."
Pushed back by the green explosion, Shei staggered, unable to keep her balance. However, Shei had already achieved her goal. The Earth Seal, which had been sealed in the roots of the Small World Tree, was already safely in Shei's hand.
It was an alien power. Probably related to the faint flickering appearing all over Shei's body. Nebida observed Shei carefully and spoke.
"A phasing ability."
"A little… different. Stair Step. It restricts the world's unit of movement and moves by walking the in-between spaces like stairs."
"What?"
"The world is a slope, not stairs. If you can take one step, you can take half a step, and you can step half of a half step. Half of half of half of half of… I thought you could walk with infinitely subdivided steps. But actually, that's wrong."
Flinch, flinch, flinch. Shei's movement disconnected and reconnected several times. Just as she said, it was an unnatural movement, like climbing stairs, as if caught on a level difference.
"The world is actually countless stairs. Looking down at billions, trillions of stairs with a giant's eyes, it looks like a slope. But we all live spanning the stairs. I just ran up a few of those stairs."
"What a complicated and convoluted power."
"It's okay. I don't actually understand it either. It's a Fiendgod discovered by a genius born like a miracle even within countless cycles of reincarnation, and it doesn't exist at this point in time. There's no guarantee I'll find it again."
Speaking of Fiendgods, they are truths of the world that can only be discovered when a historical genius, with mad obsession, meets a miraculous opportunity.
Even in countless regressions and countless futures, the new Fiendgods Shei discovered were few. But she didn't feel they were lacking. Because even those few existences called Fiendgods were hard to handle.
"I also just trained my body to learn them."
No matter how much Shei tried, studied, and learned, she couldn't reproduce the Fiendgods. The seats of the Fiendgods were strict and did not yield a place to a dull talent like Shei.
However, do you think of a lever while using scissors? Do you consider a pulley while drawing up a bucket? There is no need to understand the principle just to use a tool.
And Shei learned the Fiendgods solely through sensation, engraving countless marks on her body.
Too inferior, incompetent, and foolish to be called a truth. A truth like a blank sheet with no ability whatsoever, but.
At the end of countless regressions, Shei reached the truth.
The Limitless. The other extreme reached by the Heaven-Opposing Scripture through regression.
A truth that engraves Fiendgods not in the head, but in the flesh.
Nebida, who had tried to catch Shei, realized it was hopeless and changed her plan.
"Then, I will crush you whole."
There must be a limit to passing through matter. Nebida extended her roots beneath her feet and linked with the Tree of Origin. Roots touching, crossing, and entwining with roots, Nebida became one with the Tree of Origin.
Making a familiar out of a plant that can neither move nor feel is an act that is useless despite its dangers.
However, Nebida was a Fiendgod and the Tree of Origin possessed the spiritual energy of the World Tree. There was no limit to the Tree of Origin, whose branches and leaves could transform into extant flora.
The earth rises. The sea-like roots hidden beneath the ground are revealed to the outside world. The roots become legs, trampling and standing on the earth, and the branches become arms, clenching fists powerfully.
The Tree of Origin raised its body like a giant from Genesis.
"Origin Colossus."
Does 'colossus' refer to a great beast, or a great tree?
The Tree of Origin, which was no longer just a tree, roared loudly and raised its branches high. The movement alone caused a storm, sweeping away the surrounding trees in an instant.
It was as if a giant from Genesis was about to stamp its foot. It could no longer be called an attack. It was simply a force comparable to a disaster.
The Tree of Origin, which had pulled its branches back with all its might to gather strength, fell toward Shei, carrying all its weight.
A branch with overwhelming mass falls. The atmosphere pushed away by it exerts tremendous pressure. Feeling the atmospheric pressure crushing the very space, Shei smiled as if nostalgic.
"…It's been a while for this too."
Muttering, Shei recalled the truth engraved in her body once again.
A now-vanished future, the enlightenment of a Fiendgod who swam through the distant void beyond the heavens and unearthed the truth. So simple yet so powerful that it was a miracle and a disaster that could only be reproduced indirectly by clashing the relics of heaven and earth.
The flickering intensifies. The Heaven-Opposing Scripture reproduced the truth recorded in Shei's body. Shei held the Heaven Pendant and the Earth Seal in each hand and merged them into one.
The Earth Seal, a condensed mass. The Heaven Pendant, a compressed space. Two relics symbolizing the earth and the sky.
Shei had always overlaid the Heaven Pendant over the Earth Seal. The sky is blue only when it covers the earth, and the earth is peaceful only when it embraces the sky. Like this vibrant planet, the two underwent myriad changes and caused all sorts of mysterious phenomena.
However, to kill someone, the opposite was better.
Even to the countless stars floating in the universe, an end comes. A star that has reached the end of its lifespan expands its body greatly for the last time and lets out a death rattle, then gradually shrinks and breathes its last.
Condensation. Compression. Contraction. Gradually shrinking, burrowing inward, even the composition of matter collapsing. The relics of the Earth Mother Goddess exactly replicated the end of a star.
Ink-Dark Dwarf Sword.
An excessively small and shabby, single black sword.
The end of a realm unfolded in Shei's hand. The withered Earth Seal was no longer a sword or a club. It was too much to even call it a skewer, no, a needle. Converging into a one-dimensional line, it reached the extreme of collapse.
The wind revolves around it. The particles of air drawn solely by its gravity collide, burrow, and spark. The ionized air glowed, creating an electromagnetic storm.
Even amidst the surroundings flashing with light and noise, the eye of the storm remained dark and silent.
"It's a sword I can't use for long. The planet is in danger. Let's bet everything and end this quickly."
Nebida swung the Origin Colossus. A massive slash tore through the atmosphere and struck down, twisting the earth. A strike from mythology, as if a giant from Genesis was expressing its wrath toward the Earth Mother Goddess.
The counterpart of a force that seemed visible from the other side of the continent was a slender line barely visible even from up close. It was a difference in size where even the expression 'clashing with the World Tree' seemed impossible to apply.
If size or weight mattered, why would it be given the name 'truth'?
Shei stepped forward with her right foot and planted her back foot. As if the earth itself struggled with the weight, her feet dug into the ground and ended up crushing and melting it. From the ground that had turned to rock, Shei firmly fixed her body and grasped the Ink-Dark Dwarf Sword.
On the surface of a star facing its end, its last breath burned white. Shei grasped that power and swung it.
Heaven and Earth.
Nova.