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Chapter 451: Truth of the River Styx

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav

Historians loved to use important events as bookmarks for the pages of history. In the spring of the year AD 1898, perhaps not a single historian could have predicted that the entire world would foundationally change. The number of important events that occurred in this year and their overarching influences were so numerous that the historians could probably write several hundred volumes sufficient to pay their salaries for the next few centuries.

But if one analyzed all the events by tracing the course of history, the sequence of events was actually quite clear. In the year AD 1896, the Year of the Dragon, Wumianzhe ascending to Godhood was the very beginning. The previously inactive Ayer Faction finally began taking action. Various Gods’ incarnations began to walk the mortal plane, as schemers and messengers walked all around the world. Roland also came back to the surface at this time.

The year AD 1897 was the Year of the Griffin. In this year, the entire world was in the calm before the storm. Roland and others’ activities helped the Northlands to successfully defend their homeland and become truly independent. The new Mist Alliance came to secret accords with Auland, Bardi, Xiluo, the Underground, and so on. This faction for overcoming Armageddon (now the Hell Faction) had finally been born.

The year AD 1898 was the Year of the Vulture. This was the year when the Holy War erupted full force, with countless incidents all occurring at once. The dark clouds of warfare covered the skies, angels and demons forcefully descended to the mortal plane, Estrada sacrificed himself to prove that there was another way to interpret Holy Light, the elves’ engaged in internal war and their Main God’s betrayal made the elves’ future appear rather dim. But, if one had to look for the greatest incident of all, that would be everything that happened at the River Styx. The direct consequences of this was that the former year naming system of AD was abandoned. The new era started over with the year naming system of FT.

The year AD 1898, the Year of the Vulture, later became known as the year FT 1, Year of the Black Rat. By the River Styx, when the white-robed young-appearing individual finally received the guests he had been waiting for, he still didn’t lift his head to look at them.

“...I never expected that we would truly achieve this step.”

Even Ayer himself never expected that this step could finally be achieved. At the current moment, he had undoubtedly become the enemy of the entire world.

Unfortunately for him, the Gods that came to visit weren’t going to give him time to reminisce on the past.

A pair of twin sisters walked over while smiling. The older sister walking in front resembled an elf with portions of her body being entwined with wood. Her gray skirt was also made of wood fibers, and her green hair was the color of tree leaves. If it wasn’t for the fact that there were no wood spirits that had the appearance of adult females, her aura of nature would make her seem just like an older wood spirit.

While the older sister resembled a wood spirit, her younger sister was hoofed and ran about happily on all fours, as if she was a wild centaur.

The Goddesses of Joy and Laughter were the descendants of the now-deceased Main God of Nature. Although they only possessed part of their powerful ancestor’s Divine Concepts, they were still powerful High Gods.

These twin sisters were the caretakers of nature, as well as the guardians and allies of some druids. Although the Goddesses of Joy and Laughter rarely participated in the mortal plane’s affairs, they had a huge amount of connections. Since there were already Elf Gods, the twin sisters weren’t the Guardian Gods of the Elves, but they had the job of protecting the forest. Many higher-ups in their church were Wood Elves.

Another God that came to visit was a red-nosed dwarf whose silver hair was filled with dirt and dust. There was also a black smithing hammer on his back.

This was Dunder, the God of Smithing and Dwarves. Although he was only a High God rather than a Main God, he was the leader of the Dwarf Gods, and had countless allies and resources as well.

The nature faction and dwarf faction’s highest leaders had arrived. From a certain standpoint, these three Gods also represented another two factions within the Order Faction. And, these two factions were typically more moderate and peaceful.

It was impossible to fool Ayer’s senses. He knew that the four Gods before him were all only incarnations. He could only shake his head at the situation.

“...It’s such a pity. The God of Holy Light only sent an incarnation. Did the other Gods all realize everything already?”

Although hunters were expected, the God of Holy Light’s incarnation was the only Main God that arrived at the River Styx from the Order Faction. The God of Holy Light himself didn’t use his true body to take action anywhere. It was unknown what he was planning.

The other remaining four Order Main God existences didn’t even send their incarnations. Obviously, they already knew about Ayer’s undefeatable abilities and didn’t intend on wasting their divine power or committing suicide by coming here, either in an incarnation or in their true bodies.

“Of course, this old man isn’t here to die. The three of us are here to greet you and see you off. Right, I’ll have to ask you to take good care of the little girl in my family.”

The Dwarf God spoke quite directly. The Dwarf Goddess under him, Mary the Goddess of Hammers and Alcohol Barrels, the Guardian Goddess of the Shield Dwarves, was one of Ayer’s staunchest supporters. In a way, she also acted as the connection between the Dwarf Gods and Ayer. And now that Mary had chosen to directly enter Hell, the fact that there were other Order Gods not directly in the Ayer Faction that were still friendly towards their cause had finally been revealed.

“Mister Ayer, we sisters have been under your care for so long.”

“Mister, Mister!”

The Goddesses of Joy and Laughter brought their smiles with them. The older sister waved her handkerchief at Ayer, while the younger sister joyfully ran around everywhere. But no matter how one looked at it, it seemed as if they were seeing Ayer off for the final time.

This was why Ayer had sighed and said that things were “such a pity”– not a single enemy God had sent even an incarnation here to deal with him, apart from the God of Holy Light under the Source of Order’s orders. But, this was something that was already expected because the fact that “Ayer is undefeatable on the River Styx” was known by too many already. Thus, Ayer wasn’t too anxious about this.

That’s right, Ayer was indeed undefeatable on the River Styx. This was a fact. This was already a basic concept of reality that had been written into the dimensional rules. And, as long as the Source of Order still possessed basic logical reasoning capabilities, even it wouldn’t force the Order Main Gods to all come here in suicidal fashion.

Ayer’s undefeatable abilities had a price to them. Just like the other Order True Gods, while he had power over his Divine Concepts, he was also restricted by the same Divine Concepts.

As the very first undead who broke the boundaries between life and death, he was loathed by Order. And since Ayer also lost the living’s most basic ability to evolve as well as losing all desires, he became an undead that was unable to change anymore. Naturally, Chaos also disliked him.

The current undead were in the same situation. Order viewed undead as mortal enemies, yet Chaos viewed undead as nothing more than slightly useful cannon fodder. The undead were stuck between a rock and a hard place with the two major factions. And, the dimensional laws would always be hard on the undead, making things even worse for them.

However, the fact that neither Order nor Chaos liked Ayer represented something else – he was a third party that both were willing to accept. And so, the important job of guarding the River Styx was tossed over to Ayer. That was because neither faction would be able to rest assured if the River Styx fell under the control of the other faction.

The River Styx was quite different from its counterpart, the Heaven’s Pillar. The Heaven’s Pillar was a path that didn’t truly exist. Rather than calling it a path to Divine Kingdoms with the God’s permission after having worshipped a True God, this was more like a natural law regarding souls that had reached the point of being “harvestable” after being engraved with a God’s imprint.

Every single God’s believer that obtained the recognition of the Divine Kingdom would receive a special imprint in their soul. This was a basic natural law of the world. And, the closer one was to their God, the more apparent that imprint would become, and the more of that God’s attention he or she would receive. In fact, some would even become the God’s living representative in the mortal plane, and become a heroic spirit after death.

However, the River Styx was different. The River Styx was a path of Chaos, so how could it possibly have something like “rules”?

This river passed through countless planes, but most would be the lower planes belonging to the Chaos Faction. All souls that weren’t guided by the Order Gods would fall into the River Styx. And whenever these souls were attracted by the “Order” of some chaotic plane, they would crawl up and become new lives. But since they crawled ashore in the lower planes, they would naturally become new residents of those planes – demons and devils.

It could be said that the River Styx was the birthing grounds for new demons and devils. However, nobody knew just how many souls were contained within the River Styx. No matter when you looked at this river, one would be able to see that it was completely filled with souls.

However, very few existences knew that the River Styx even passed through some of the upper planes. It was just that in the upper planes, the River Styx would appear to be as beautiful as the glorious galaxy itself, or even appear to be a rainbow bridge. Back when Ayer brought Roland to the Underground, the River Styx had even appeared in the underground rivers in the caverns.

And if the Order Divine Kingdoms didn’t “harvest” enough souls, causing a large imbalance between the total number of souls on the Order and Chaos Factions, the upper planes’ dimensional laws would be slightly modified so that souls were more easily attracted to Heaven’s Pillar and the Divine Kingdoms. The creatures of Order would undergo a population boom. And if the overall population of Order became too high, the demons and devils’ rate of birth would also be secretly increased.

Crawling out of the River Styx represented a blank soul’s new life after having undergone reincarnation. Naturally, this blank soul could become an angel or a devil.

Of course, this was something that no mortal would be allowed to learn about. Not only would this affect the believers’ faith if they learned that angels were born in a method identical to demons, just the fact that it was possible to enter Divine Kingdoms without going through a church would make it quite difficult for any church to collect donations for “the people’s salvation.”

Actually, not only did the mortal Roland not know about the River Styx’s true functions, not a single one of the newly-ascended Gods from the recent generation knew about this second use of the River Styx.

What people believed was that as long as the River Styx wasn’t stopped, demons and devils would forever be endlessly born. The Chaos Abyss would have an endless amount of combat potential because of this. And, it also had the hidden role of balancing the power between the two major factions. Not only that, the River Styx was the soul harvester in all Holy Wars, so it could be said that the River Styx was the most critical part of the Cycle of Reincarnation... as well as the weakest part!

That was because the River Styx was far, far too long, passing through so many planes. Although the River Styx itself was already highly dangerous, as long as part of the river was blocked at a single location, that would naturally cause a problem with the entire river. That was why the River Styx needed a guardian – a guardian that both major factions would be willing to accept.

And so, Ayer became a part of the River Styx and the Cycle of Reincarnation. As long as any individual possessed the possibility of harming the River Styx or the Cycle of Reincarnation, Ayer’s true body would instantly teleport to that individual’s location. And, Ayer would then be buffed by the powers of the River Styx, Order, and Chaos into becoming the most terrifyingly powerful existence in the world. All the Order Main Gods in the past that had attempted to destroy the River Styx used their lives to prove just how powerful Ayer was.

That was also why Roland had to die on the River Styx. Those who tried to harm the River Styx would be forced to fall into the River Styx. This was one of the most basic dimensional rules of this world. It was part of Ayer’s Concept that he would be forced to carry out.

“There’s a problem with your plan.”

“Yep, a huge problem. My entire scheme will be nothing more than empty air if this problem isn’t solved.”

Back on that day at the River Styx, both Ayer and Roland knew what problem there was with Roland’s scheme. Still, they knew what it meant and didn’t go any further into this.

That’s right, the problem with Roland’s scheme was with Ayer, the Guardian of the River Styx. If Roland wanted to create a new Cycle of Reincarnation, of course he would need to destroy the former Cycle of Reincarnation so that souls could enter the new Cycle of Reincarnation. Otherwise, everything would be nothing more than empty air.

Yet, it was obviously impossible to defeat Ayer, the Guardian of the River Styx, who was undefeatable on the River Styx. At the very least, Roland found it impossible. Back then, he didn’t have anything even close to a Main God’s combat strength. Not to mention, not even multiple Main Gods would even come close to being able to face Ayer on the River Styx. Ayer was being powered by the entire Cycle of Reincarnation!

And so, Roland came up with a ridiculous idea at the time. If he wanted to stop the Cycle of Reincarnation, he would need to defeat Ayer the undefeatable. Yet, defeating Ayer was an absolutely necessary part of stopping the Cycle of Reincarnation. This was obviously a dead end with no solutions.

“Okay, if I can’t defeat him, why don’t I try talking to him?”

And so, Roland intentionally went to visit Ayer at the River Styx. In order to realize this “ridiculous” scheme, Roland would absolutely have to obtain Ayer’s recognition. Roland would have to convince Ayer to no longer carry out his duties as the Guardian of the River Styx. And, asking a God to give up on, and even destroy one’s own Concept, was the equivalent of...

“Is it time? Yes. It’s finally time for this River Styx that’s as ancient as the world itself to change. It’s time for everything to have a new beginning.”