Chapter 153: Quiet acceptance

Camping is a good way to appreciate the world... Lea mused, throwing more sticks in to keep the fire burning.

She was back in her human form, with the Mother of Life in her arms.

The flames danced against the darkness of the forest, casting shifting shadows that would have terrified most travelers. But to Lea, they were just shapes. Moving patterns of light and dark with no meaning beyond themselves. The Plague Garden bounced gently in her lap, warm despite being slime. Its presence was oddly comforting, like holding a living hot water bottle that occasionally squeaked.

Lea leaned back against the tree trunk, watching sparks drift upward into the canopy. Above, through gaps in the leaves, stars were visible. More stars than she'd ever seen before the Fog Wall fell. The universe opened up and spilled its light onto a world that had been hidden for so long.

Beautiful, she supposed. In an abstract way.

This is what is known as a True Night Sky. A view so beautiful it creates stories on countless worlds, what it is, what it meant.

She couldn't quite feel the beauty the way she used to. Couldn't experience that chest-tightening awe that came from witnessing something vast and wonderful. But she could recognize it intellectually. Understand that this moment, this quiet solitude beside a crackling fire under ancient trees, was supposed to be peaceful.

And maybe that was enough. A beautiful night sky despite knowing each of those dots contains horrors beyond one's imagination.

The forest around her was alive with sound. Crickets chirping. Leaves rustling in the breeze. Somewhere distant, an owl called out. Normal, mundane sounds. The kind of sounds that existed long before mysticism, before Paths, before everything went wrong.

Lea closed her eyes, just listening. This world had taken everything from her. Home, innocence. Warping her humanity into something unrecognizable. It had thrown her into horror after horror, forced her to become something monstrous just to survive.

She should hate it completely. Should want nothing more than to watch it burn.

But sitting here, in this small circle of firelight, with the Mother of Life humming contentedly in her arms and the forest breathing around her, Lea felt something she hadn't felt in a long time.

Not quite happiness nor quite peace. But something adjacent to both.

A moment away from suffering.

The world was cruel, it was broken. The world demanded endless pain and rewarded only the ruthless and those endured.

But the world also had nights like this. Quiet moments between the violence. Small pockets of stillness where nothing was trying to kill her and she didn't need to kill anything in return. Maybe that was enough reason to keep it alive.

Lea opened her eyes, watching the flames consume the wood she'd fed them. Destruction and warmth, both from the same source. She understood that better now than she ever had.

"Mm?", The Plague Garden squeaked softly.

"I know...", Lea murmured, stroking its gelatinous surface, "I'm being sentimental."

"Nn...", another squeak.

"No, I'm not going soft. Just... thinking."

The slime bounced once, as if laughing at her.

Lea smiled. A small expression, barely noticeable in the firelight, but genuine.

She was a monster now, a false god masquerading as the embodiment of the night's horror. But maybe monsters could still appreciate a nice campfire. Maybe that was what made the difference between becoming a monster and becoming something else.

Lea wouldn't make that simple mistake.

She'd hate this world as much as it deserved. But she'd also remember why it was worth saving. Even if she couldn't quite feel it anymore, she could remember feeling it once, and memory was better than nothing.

The fire crackled with the breath of the forest. The stars watched from above and for tonight, Lea Darkwill was neither victim nor monster.

=0=0=

"The God of Knowledge had made His move.", Kahelzar stated.

Currently, the Shepherd was standing in front of the Academy of Infinity. The oppressive tower seemingly stared down at her.

But for one who had seen death and rebirth, she kept on smiling.

"I know you can hear me, Wisdom Seed.", she walk forward, "I know you have no beef with anyone except the Chalk Princess."

The sands behind her moved, and corpses from eons long slumbered awaken, the living dead walked again. From empires that rose and fell, their history buried in a forgotten past. The crimson flame of the Shepherd of After recalls all of them back to their full glory.

Steel armor and evergreen banners flutter through the endless desert. Groaning from those tainted with undeath, cries to rest once more.

"I am Kahelzar, Shepherd of After under Lichtma Balisk the Necro Lord, the Third Harbinger of Life - master of the Afterlife.", her tone was gentle, yet there was an undeniable determination to her voice.

She raised her lantern up, letting the flame and her soul flare up.

"For the sanctity of this world, I shall deny your existence, O' Ancient Wisdom Seed.", her face completely burned away; only a burning skull remained, "Let us gamble!!"

Kahelzar owns two of the Four Fundamental Forces, the power of Transformation (Weak Force) and Connection (Electromagneticism). Not that she would use them to their full capacity; they are too overpowered for her own liking.

The tower responded. Knowledge itself manifested as geometric patterns and formulas in the air, equations that could unmake reality, truths so absolute they denied contradiction, becoming a devouring serpent.

Kahelzar laughed, the sound echoing from her skeletal jaw. With the passive Power of Friendship from Connection, connecting her to the undead army, she waved her lantern lightly.

"First Bet! You don't know why I came instead of Charlotte."

As if the universe flipped a coin, testing her own luck against the most knowledgeable god in this world. The tower's knowledge-patterns twisted. Tried to maintain their absolute form, but transformation cared nothing for absolutes.

Equations dissolved into new configurations.

Truth became lie became truth again, cycling endlessly through states the Wisdom Seed couldn't control.

The power of Transformation at work, combined with the arcs of Connection. Empowering her winning gamble.

Yes, her gambling power and addiction have nothing to do with the powers of this world. Kahelzar just used this world's divinity to enhance her original might.

"We are invading a school today. Go forth, O' forgotten souls.", she commanded.

The undead army lurched forward, unwilling.

Corpses from civilizations that predated written history marched across the desert sands toward the Academy of Infinity. Their armor clinked despite being millennia old, their banners flew despite no wind, their eyes burned with Kahelzar's crimson flame.

The tower responded immediately.

Knowledge manifested as walls of pure mathematics. Geometric shields that existed as conceptual barriers rather than physical ones. Each equation was a law of reality made solid, declaring "you shall not pass" with the weight of absolute truth.

The first wave of undead hit the barriers and simply ceased. Their existence was rejected by equations that proved they couldn't be there. Dust scattered across the sand.

Kahelzar's skeletal grin didn't falter. She raised her lantern higher.

"Second Bet! Your defenses cannot hold against me!"

Another cosmic coin flip. The mathematical walls trembled. Transformation surged through them, twisting their fundamental nature. Equations meant to deny became equations that affirmed. Barriers that repelled became pathways that welcomed.

The second wave of undead poured through the collapsing geometry.

They reached the tower's actual physical stone inscribed with ten thousand languages, each word a ward, each sentence a curse against invaders. The words activated.

Lightning arced from the inscriptions. Fire erupted from between carved letters. The air itself turned hostile, molecules rearranging to become poison.

Undead soldiers fell by the hundreds, their ancient forms unable to withstand concentrated divine wrath.

But Kahelzar just laughed and sent more.

"Third Bet! I will breach your first layer before my army is gone!"

The tower's response was fury made manifest. Knowledge became weaponized. Every fact about decomposition, about entropy, about the countless ways flesh and bone could fail was compiled into a single devastating attack.

The undead began to digitize. Their forms broke apart into fragments of data, pixels of existence separating as the tower analyzed and deconstructed them at the conceptual level. Not flesh turning to dust but reality itself translating them into information and then deleting that information.

Thousands fell. Then tens of thousands.

The crimson army dwindled rapidly as the tower's defenses systematically erased them from existence.

But they'd reached the walls. And with the last of their strength, empowered by Kahelzar's Connection linking their force into a single unified strike—

The outer wall cracked.

Not much. Just a hairline fracture.

But it was enough.

Kahelzar's lantern flared brilliantly as the universe rewarded her successful bet. Through that tiny crack, power surged, spreading the fracture wider like an infection, destabilizing the defensive equations woven into the stone itself.

The first layer of defense shattered.

And in that moment, as the tower's attention focused on repairing the breach, Kahelzar saw what she'd come for. Knowledge unguarded, just for an instant. Information about the tower's true nature flowing freely before new protections could be erected.

She absorbed it all in that split second.

Then smiled as the last of her undead army was digitized into nonexistence, leaving nothing but empty desert sand.

"Well then...", Kahelzar said cheerfully, her burning skull somehow conveying satisfaction, "Thank you for the lovely visit."

The tower rumbled with what might have been anger or confusion.

Kahelzar waved her skeletal hand in farewell, "Do give my regards to your master. Tell them the Shepherd sends her compliments."

She turned, already walking away as the tower's defenses rebuilt themselves behind her.

"So there is someone who became a dual Divinity holder before me...", she mused aloud, crimson flame flickering in her empty eye sockets, "Of Imagination (Actualization) and Voracity (Information)."

She laughed, the sound echoing across the desert.

"How delightful, two Divine Domains from the Palace of Unreality... guess I'll have to convince Astrelnoia to give me his, and try to take that Emerald Comet's."

Her form began to dissolve, flesh reforming over bone as she prepared to return to her own territory.

"It wouldn't be a gamble if I don't put my third life on the line!!"

The Academy of Infinity stood behind her, first wall broken but ultimately victorious. But Kahelzar had never intended to win the siege. Just to confirm what she'd suspected.

And now she knew.

As for the God of Knowledge. He was left confused about the whole ordeal, even after checking the state of his followers - who were all ready to fight - the question of why Kahelzar of all people decided to confront Him.

She could've done more than raise an empire back from the dead; beneath the desert are countless dead creatures, not just humans. The Shepherd of After is such a being, so similar to the Primordial God. They can recreate the memories of all beings as if they were still alive; such is the highest form of Necromancy - the power of Memory.

He put that question aside and continued His plan.

Taking down Charlotte Silvi, the most chaotic variable in this world. Never in His existence had the Wisdom Seed seen so many Divine Domains attracted to a single person.

There is Progress, which upgraded itself to be more like the Chalk Princess.

Below that are Tale, Potential, even Sentience wanted her. But more alarming are two Divine Domains which are a cut above the rest.

Time, of course, the Divine Domain of Time would want her no matter how impossible it is to obtain.

And... Miracle. If the Monarch from another world decided on a whim to take that, she would become the default Savior of the world. This Divine Domain can bypass the restriction of the World.

And that is the worst outcome...

=0=0=

After a long journey through the day, Lea entered a town. From the overview near the entrance, she couldn't see a temple or any sort of building like that.

There is really no need for religions to be here when one out of ten people are Pathstriders, and people killing each other on the street isn't that rare. See, her senses picked up a fight to the death on the other side of the town. And grudges are forming.

Not her problem for now. Not until someone prays to her and enables her.

Getting into the town, she can feel people avoiding her instinctively, not knowing why. This was not Cloak at work, Lea realized instantly.

Just within a day, the villagers back there had spread what she did to the patrol unit. Lea could feel she was becoming more complete.

Now for the final step... a commotion big enough to make everyone fear me. So that the name of The Faceless Twilight would be feared across the world.

She walked into a diner where people bustled about, the smell of cooking meat and spices filling the air. Conversations hummed, coins clinked. Life happened around her as if the world wasn't ending piece by piece.

Lea took a corner booth, sliding into the worn leather seat. Setting The Plague Garden on the seat beside her.

"What'll it be?", tired waitress appeared, not quite meeting Lea's eyes.

"Whatever's hot, and tea.", Lea's voice was flat, disinterested.

The waitress scurried away.

Through the window, Lea watched the street brawl escalate. Two Pathstriders, Second Step or Third, throwing mystical attacks with all the subtlety of drunk children. Fire versus ice. Classic.

Predictable... she thought.

Her food arrived. Some kind of stew with bread. Steam rose from the bowl in lazy curls.

Lea picked up her spoon with mild interest, watching the fight continue. One combatant was losing badly now, backing toward the diner with blood streaming from a head wound.

She took her first bite, of course, it was dull. She took another spoonful and fed it to the slime.

"Mm!", The Plague Garden approved.

The losing fighter stumbled backward into the diner's door. Lea took her second bite.

The door burst open. The bloodied man fell inside, scrambling away from his opponent who followed with flames gathering in both hands.

Lea reached for her tea. The victor grabbed the loser by the collar, lifting him off the ground—

And threw him.

The body sailed through the air in a perfect arc, landed directly on Lea's table. Her bowl shattered. Hot stew exploded across the table, her lap, the floor. Her teacup tumbled away, liquid spilling everywhere.

The bloodied man groaned, sprawled across the ruined meal.

Lea sat very, very still.

Her spoon was still in her hand, now dripping with wasted stew.

The diner went silent.

The victor, flames still dancing on his hands, froze mid-step when he saw where his opponent had landed.

Lea slowly set down her spoon.

She looked at the ruined table. At the man bleeding on it. At the stew soaking into her clothes. Then she looked up at the Fire Pathstrider.

In an instant, his body was compressed into a cube small enough to fit into a person's hand. A second after, it started bleeding.

Fear and confusion spread quickly, feeding Lea passively.

As for the Ice Pathstrider...

She grabbed his shoulder before he could run away.

"D-Don't!! I am the heir of the Kayron family!!", he quickly spoke, "My family will come after you!!"

"Why should I care?", she replied monotonously, "I prayed to my god, and She allowed me to exact my form of justice."

Just like what she did to the other guy, Lea used Soul Morph and compressed him into a cube.

"As the Envoy of Flame, I am the voice of the Gods of Justice.", she spoke out loud, loud enough for the people in this diner and those curious outside to hear, "And I judge you as... guilty."

She crushed the flesh cube in her hand. Lea could feel the subtle rise in her infamy, a step closer to her completion...

"Another bowl of the same stuff, please.", she spoke politely.

Nobody could do anything against her. Because they all feared her, they feared the Envoy of Flame.

Fear is the drive of all life; it is what makes those challenging this world's Nature different from the rest.

For the Endless Path of Pain, facing fear head-on is normal.