On that very day Ayer and I boated down the River Styx, after finishing planning our grand scheme I suddenly felt like idly gossiping. (Once again, refer back to Chapter 66).
“You’ve met the Goddess of Order Astrya and Goddess of Chaos Cynthia before, haven’t you? What are they like? Why did they start the eternal Holy War?”
Of course, how can we gossip about any random topic? I wouldn’t rest reassured without at least trying to learn some more information on the final bosses.
“What are their personalities? What were they so stubborn about that they started the Holy War? What are the special characteristics of their powers? What…”
I had far too many questions I wanted answers to. Besides an overwhelming advantage in power, the most practical method to defeat an opponent would always be to target their weaknesses.
“What weaknesses do they have? Does the Goddess of Chaos have a hasty personality? Is the Goddess of Order overly conservative? Do they make mistakes? If they make mistakes, will they personally act to fix them?”
From a certain standpoint, I had obvious bad intentions when I asked these questions that weren’t exactly “idle gossip.” Directly telling me the answers would be the equivalent of betraying the Order Faction.
Ayer immediately understood all this, of course, which was why, after a period of silence, he sighed helplessly and started “gossiping” with me.
“The Mother Goddess (Goddess of Order) is a nice woman. She views all lifeforms as her children, but sometimes too much motherly love will limit the children’s ability to develop. Astrya wishes for all lifeforms to live the way she desires, but do you think that’s possible? Meanwhile, her sister Cynthia is the extreme opposite. Cynthia has a lively and active personality, and more than anything she loves to watch duels and warfare. She admires courageous warriors who don’t give up. She wants her children to be able to evolve independently. Did you know the first demons ever created weren’t evil? They simply loved all sorts of competitions and sports…”
Although the Holy War’s origin was clearly something fit for a myth or legend, this young-looking ancient existence told me the story as if it were simply a normal sibling fight that happened next door. Although it was clearly a bloody battle that would cause the rise and fall of countless immemorial Gods, Ayer described things as if it were an eight o’clock soap opera filled with love and revenge.
The Death God’s story helped me gain a better understanding of the two Goddesses. Rather than the vague and ethereal myths, Ayer had a much better and humanlike understanding of these two most “venerated” Goddesses in Eich.
“…It’s like a normal argument between sisters. Since their mother is no longer here, the serious older sister took charge of running the family’s affairs. However, she was overly severe and treated her only younger sister more and more strictly as time went on. In the end, her younger sister became ever more rebellious until the two broke their relationship with each other.”
But from a certain standpoint this was perhaps the most vicious fight between sisters in all of history. This “fight between sisters” had lasted for such a long period of time, affected so many lives and left such a terrible influence behind that perhaps not a single lifeform would be able to comprehend its full effects.
“You’re probably the only one in the world who’s capable of interpreting the Holy War as a fight between sisters.”
That was Ayer’s comment to me when I told him what I thought about it. Still, he didn’t disagree with my opinion. And, in a way, I felt that you could even treat Earth’s World Wars as human brothers disagreeing and fighting with each other…
“After the Creator Goddess Eich left, the Twin Goddesses were left behind as the administrators. What they mainly argued about was how they were to manage the lives under them. Astrya wished for all lifeforms to act according to their natural talents. Under her, farmers’ children would forever be farmers, and warrior’s descendants would forever remain warriors. She also wanted the same for whole species. Angels would be responsible for carrying out divine will as God Envoys, Titans were supposed to be magnificent architects and artists, and all warfare and intermarriage between species would be banned—”
“Pahahaha! Where did such a naïve young miss come from?”
At this point I couldn’t help but interrupt Ayer with loud laughter. Even if people back in the immemorial generation were more honest and down-to-earth there would still be obvious problems with Astrya’s way of running things. Having all farmers’ children forever be farmers and government officials’ children forever be government officials? This type of unfairness would continuously accumulate as societal problems before spectacularly exploding in the end. And it was even more ridiculous for Astrya to want entire species to act in the same way. Wasn’t this a classic example of a racial prejudice policy? And just how did she think she was going to deal with conflicts and differences between species?
“…Don’t criticize it so much. It would be ridiculous for any other existence, but Astrya truly does have the power to accomplish it. All she has to do is make it so that everyone thinks that its only natural. Just look at the current angel society… maybe you don’t know, but angels are the only species allowed to enter and exit the Source of Order. As a result, their entire species has become more and more “Order-like.” Yep, they’re basically nothing more than tools with no self-will.
“How ridiculous! It’s impossible to have absolute fairness in such a society because there’s no such thing as an absolutely fair administrator.”
“…There is. Rumors say that the Goddess of Order Astrya intended to abandon her sense of self and become the purest essence of Order. However, I personally reject this course of action. Even if society still exists under such a system it’s inevitable that every single individual will have lost their sense of self. If time turns back and I get the choice to choose again, I would still choose to betray… even if the ending is that my entire tribe becomes nothing more than devils.”
I nodded in agreement. Indeed, if everyone was brainwashed, it would be possible to establish a fair and peaceful society. However, this would come at a cost. It would be no different from a living hell that nobody realized they were living in. In a way, I was even beginning to agree with Cynthia since at least she didn’t allow her older sister to act so ridiculously.
But then I immediately regretted having sympathized with Cynthia for even one second…
“Goddess of Chaos Cynthia is the extreme opposite. She prefers a system that’s far more dangerous than simply sitting back and doing nothing. She prefers ‘survival of the fittest.'”
“Isn’t that how society is today?”
“Ha! What she wanted wasn’t something so simple. She believes that the meaning for all lifeforms to exist is to achieve the ultimate evolution and that as the administrator she should award her citizens territory for successfully evolving and provide them with motivation to compete with each other. She believes that every lifeform should fight for their own position on the food chain. Just take a look at demon society today. They are the ideal species in her eyes.”
Right after being born, demons would immediately begin devouring each other. Their brains were only filled with two thoughts: eating and killing. Although demons indeed had the best overall combat strength of every species in existence, didn’t something seem wrong with such vicious and simpleminded lifeforms being treated as the perfect species and ultimate evolution?
“From a certain standpoint, the fact that the Holy War has become a stalemate is actually a good thing, at least for ordinary lifeforms. After all, no matter if all lives become angels with no self-will or demons filled with chaos and evil, neither would be an ideal life. But if either side manages to win…”
“We’ll all be enjoying such a living hell?”
“No, because Order will probably recreate the world and create new species of Order. The Source of Order has long since stopped favoring the ever chaotic and messy humans. It’s most likely that the Source of Order will create new species of pure Order, similar to angels. Astrya at least intends this in the later stages of the Holy War—the angels’ current behavior proves this. And I don’t know what will happen if the Chaos Faction wins, but regardless of what Cynthia does when she recreates the world no ordinary lifeform will survive.”
As I chatted with Ayer I could only keep sighing to myself. Choosing any choice would only lead to a bad ending. This had far surpassed the so-called “Hell Difficulty” of any video game. Was this video game truly playable? But it served even more to firm my resolution to find allies to overthrow this entire system together with me.
And even back then I had started having suspicions about my personal System’s real identity, especially after I learned that Time, Space, Fate and such Concepts were the ultimate powers of Order. My suspicions only increased as I spent more time with my System.
There were just far too many points to be suspicious of.
First was my status as the “Child of Light.” The mysterious way by which the Holy Light favored me might be better explained by actually calling me the “Child of Order.” And even though my System’s abilities were wondrously strange, they all foundationally followed the most basic rules of “equivalent exchange.”
Nothing I drew through my random lottery would ever be reliable. Rather than calling this a wheel of fate, it was more like a wishing mechanism that needed to obey the basic rule of equivalent exchange. And magic spells and divine arts did exist in the world of Eich, such as “Ain’s Wishing Pool,” but my System’s lottery was obviously at a higher level.
As time passed, I became ever more suspicious. I was already someone so paranoid I’d wonder if I was stepping into a trap if I found a wallet on the ground. How could I possibly not be suspicious of an existence like my System, which was both unscientific and unmagical?
What finally confirmed my suspicions was what Supreme Immemorial White Dragon Sam recently told me.
“You’re calling me the Order Faction’s major precognitor? Does this power have anything to do with Order? Isn’t prophecy a neutral type of magic?”
“…Of course! It’s even the ultimate ability of Order. Since Order is about rules, the highest-level dimensional rules are doubtlessly space and time. While the power of prophecy seems chaotic, it’s actually calculating the future probabilities based on time and space. Being able to obtain more information than the enemy is why the Order Faction has performed better than the Chaos Faction that has better combat strength. The concept of Fate is the same way. Otherwise, why would the God of Fate be in the Order Faction?”
After that, I was absolutely certain that my System was intimately connected with the Source of Order. The “game walkthrough” it possessed was far more detailed than any prophecy, and she even successfully caused a transmigrator like me to accept it. In that case, her so-called Fate Points were naturally another power of Order as well.
In fact, I even inferred that perhaps, in a Holy War long ago, another hot-blooded young person received such a cheat-like System and became the major precognitor of the Order Faction. He learned about the future and defeated the evil demon king in the final battle with the System’s assistance. He became a hero adored by all, obtaining everything, a winner in life, and finally ascended to Godhood through his achievements… Fine, I was referring to the God of Holy Light, whose name as a human had long been forgotten by history, Karolan Loci.
But even though I had guessed my System’s identity, I never stated it out loud as that would be a direct confrontation against an existence that could follow me through even my many reincarnations. But now my grand scheme was at its critical junction, and it was naturally time to confront her. After all, I was about to become a mortal enemy of the entire Order Faction!
[The past me was wrong, but this time my choice isn’t wrong at all…]
After a long period of silence, my System finally spoke up with a rare, serious tone and proceeded to reveal a story unknown to history.