The Truth of the Divine

Luo Wei certainly didn’t dare disturb Her. He simply stood at a distance, quietly observing Her form.

The image of the Bountiful Mother Goddess wasn’t too different from that of a Black Goat’s Young, though compared to those wailing, mucus-dripping offspring outside, the Mother Goddess’s appearance was actually rather pleasing to the eye...

Of course, this wasn’t because Luo Wei’s tastes were growing increasingly bizarre...

After all, the Mother Goddess was a deity who presided over life. Her massive, tree-crown-like limbs exuded a grotesque yet vibrant vitality.

After circling for a long while, Luo Wei arrived at the position of Her lower body.

Countless egg sacs lay quietly arranged there, each nurturing innumerable Black Goat’s Young. But all of it was frozen in place by the Mother Goddess’s deep slumber, turning this white space into their prison.

Luo Wei did his best to lighten his footsteps.

The Bountiful Mother Goddess was asleep, but She was not dead.

So under no circumstances should She be disturbed—otherwise, trouble would follow...

Just as he thought this, the white space abruptly trembled.

Luo Wei held his breath, his gaze fixed intently on the egg sacs. A few of the Black Goat’s Young twitched faintly...

What the hell?!

Luo Wei whipped his head toward the source of the tremor.

The sky—if the expanse above could even be called a "sky"—had noticeably darkened.

Luo Wei sprinted toward the direction of the disturbance.

Before long, he spotted Eleya in the distance.

At this moment, she seemed to have lost all reason. She was frantically casting divine spells, attacking herself in a self-destructive frenzy.

"Eleya?" Luo Wei rushed over in shock. "What are you doing?"

Eleya appeared deaf to the outside world. Her eyes were blood-red, her expression terrifyingly deranged.

After several Judgments rained down from above, Luo Wei witnessed an extremely gruesome sight.

Her limbs were severed in an instant, her chest and abdomen pierced through, even revealing glimpses of her internal organs...

"Holy shit! Stop this now!" Luo Wei tried using magic to intervene and even attempted potions to reduce her corruption levels.

But it was all futile—Eleya had completely lost control.

Her relentless, self-mutilating spellcasting made Luo Wei’s skin crawl. The worst part was that her body kept healing under the Holy Light, forcing her to repeat the bloody spectacle over and over...

The pristine ground was soon drenched in rivers of blood, a sight so horrifying it sent chills down Luo Wei’s spine...

But the true horror lay elsewhere...

[Eleya]

[Affection: 0]

[Corruption: 0]

...

[Eleya]

[Affection: 100]

[Corruption: 100]

Every time she harmed herself, it was Eleya’s human side acting, while her divine side struggled to stop it.

With Eleya in this state, communication and intervention were impossible...

Helpless, Luo Wei could only watch as the white world began to collapse around him.

[Warning!]

[Overload...]

[Overload...]

[System failure...]

The white sky grew increasingly murky, then mottled, corroded, pitch-black...

Countless wormhole-like rifts of corruption appeared in the heavens, and Luo Wei even caught glimpses of the endless abyss beyond.

In this world, white symbolized the sacred power of order.

The guiding light that led Luo Wei was white, this sealed space was white, and Eleya’s Holy Light was the whitest of all...

The "miracle" of white light was the origin of both magic and divine spells, the primordial force that shaped this world.

Now, the light sustaining this sealed space was rapidly fading.

Because the Bountiful Mother Goddess had awakened.

The indescribable entity fixed its gaze on Luo Wei’s back, and he heard the system’s prompt.

[Temporary Quest Failed]

[Anomaly spreading, breach irreparable...]

[Loading save...]

The next moment, Luo Wei found himself back in the pitch-black abyss.

He immediately turned around—the stone staircase stretched upward, leading to a tiny white speck in the distance: the exit.

This wasn’t the moment when he had bid farewell to the others. He should have already been trekking through the darkness for a long time.

Was the save point really here? Luo Wei barely remembered, having nearly lost himself in the endless dark back then.

He sprinted downward, stone steps materializing beneath his feet with each stride.

This time, he had to hurry!

He needed to understand what had happened to Eleya—otherwise, the sealed space would collapse again!

Luo Wei raced toward the abyss’s depths with desperate urgency, his speed so great that he left behind a crimson afterimage.

Yet despite his reckless sprint, he never fell into the abyss—every step landed perfectly on a newly formed foothold.

Upon touching the white light, Luo Wei returned once more to the boundless white sealed space.

The moment he found Eleya, he let out a mental sigh of relief.

Eleya was still normal now, standing solemnly in place as she stared at a strange, floating fragment before her.

"Luo Wei?!" Eleya turned in surprise.

Seeing him panting heavily, she paused her movements. "I didn’t expect you to make it here... But it’s fine. Accompany me on this final journey."

"E-Eleya, wait!" Luo Wei gasped for breath. "Don’t touch that thing!"

Eleya frowned slightly.

Luo Wei didn’t know what the fragment was, but it was undoubtedly the cause of Eleya’s later madness.

"The will of fate tells me this is what I’ve been searching for. Why shouldn’t I touch it?" she asked, puzzled.

"Because you’ll chop yourself into pieces..." Luo Wei stepped forward, blocking her path to the fragment.

After recounting what had happened, Eleya’s expression turned to disbelief.

"How could this be...? This is a fragment left behind by the God of Light..."

Luo Wei studied the fragment, and a system prompt appeared.

[Fragment of Eltuga, the God of Light]

[Danger Level: ★★★★]

[Path to Divinity—contact to restore memories and power]

The fragment’s danger level wasn’t as extreme as Luo Wei had feared, ranking the same as Usoma’s Heretical Tome. Yet it had driven Eleya to such madness...

So the danger likely wasn’t the fragment itself, but the memories it carried...

Wait a second—

Luo Wei suddenly realized something.

Eltuga, the God of Light?

At the end of his journey to Thornflower Castle, Luo Wei had learned that there were actually two Gods of Light. The original, Bader, was this world’s true deity. But the second one—that androgynous figure who had appeared out of nowhere—he’d never learned the name of...

Now, the truth was revealed. The second God of Light was called Eltuga?

That name was all too familiar. On his way here, he’d even used [Eltuga School Healing Magic] to treat Helena’s wounds...

El Tuga, the God of Magic, was a powerful mage from the ancient era of the Arcane Empire and the leader of the Continental Magic Association—the precursor to the Magic Hermitage.

The first time Luo Wei heard this name was from Tilis...

"Luo Wei? What's wrong?" Eleya asked, puzzled as she watched him lost in thought.

"Nothing, just a feeling..." Luo Wei murmured, "a sense of conspiracy in the air..."

"Conspiracy?" Eleya blinked in surprise. "Is there something wrong with this fragment?"

"I don’t know for sure. Just a hunch." Luo Wei stared at the floating fragment and slowly stepped forward.

"Are you still going to touch this thing?" he asked.

"Yes," Eleya nodded. "I’ve come this far. There’s no reason to back down now."

"Then let’s do it together," Luo Wei turned back to her.

"Together?" Eleya was taken aback. "Didn’t you say touching it might lead to something terrible?"

"Enough talking! Together!" Luo Wei’s expression was resolute. "Whatever memories it holds, we’ll face them side by side."

Eleya nodded, unconcerned about Luo Wei stealing the power within—after all, it was never his to begin with.

And so, they both reached out their hands.