Chapter 536 (1): New Divine Realm x Merging and Rebirth

In the Divine Realm of Darkness, Wayne organized another meeting of the goddesses.

He shared all his hypotheses and asked the four goddesses for their opinions. While he was overwhelmingly stronger than them, expertise was valuable, and they were the experts in the field of godhood.

No one else could offer anything constructive due to their limited perspective. The goddesses were the only ones he could consult.

Auston was intelligent. Wayne always thought the man was as smart as he was and many times smarter than Kaleb, but now, Wayne would rather hear about Kaleb’s suggestions than discuss the plan with Auston.

Auston could only see Londan, or Windsor by a stretch. The Chosen Land was the hard limit. Talking to him about gods would be talking to him about something beyond his perception. Because of the education Auston had received since youth, it was impossible for him to contribute to this conversation.

Only the four goddesses could.

“What’s the basis of your guess that the final judgment can help Elohim become an ancient god?” Ines asked with a frown.

She wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand the leap of logic. Aztimor, Kaleb, and Siluk were confused, too.

Siluk stared at Wayne and said, “Elohim’s evolution follows the trajectory of the ancient gods, meaning he’s going in the same direction as you. Rather than asking us for an answer, you should ask yourself.”

She held her breath. “You can try it. If you’re right, you can become an ancient god before Elohim does.”

What? Instead of letting someone else destroy the world and become an ancient god, I should do the honor instead?

Wayne huffed. Siluk had a clever little brain above Her shoulders. He wondered what was inside.

Mind if I open it up and check?

Seeing his expression, Siluk immediately realized that his bottom line was shifting again. She gave Ines a pointed look.

Your husband is losing it again. Talk some sense into him.

Ines rolled Her eyes. The best She could do was make Wayne compromise, but he would never change his way for Her... She did know someone who could make him do whatever she told him to do.

Anastasia, the Holy Maiden of Darkness!

Ines ground Her teeth together. She hated the Holy Maiden. In the future, She had to make sure to have the Church of Darkness pick a hideous Holy Maiden; the more hideous, the better.

She kept her anger to herself. “Siluk is being a little radical, but you have to admit that’s the only way to stop Elohim. You go down his path to leave him with no way to go. Besides, the world may be destroyed, but you can easily create another world once you become an ancient god.”

“I don’t think that’s right.” Wayne shook his head. “First off, if I am to destroy the world and recreate it, it won’t be true destruction, but reconstruction. Secondly, it’s only my speculation that destroying the world can make one an ancient god. I myself don’t think it’s viable. I sought you out for your perspectives rather than for you to urge me to destroy the world.”

He wasn’t sure how far Elohim had gone down the path of the ancient gods, but looking at himself, he concluded that destroying the world had little bearing on ancient gods. Life was about evolution and learning. Power was merely the byproduct of the pursuit.

Whether the world was destroyed or created, it would only be the outcome of using said byproduct. Even handing out candies would facilitate evolution more.

Rather than destroying the world, it was better to focus on experimentation, or just randomly pick a couple of lucky souls to preach to.

“I don’t see how the destruction of the world is related to becoming an ancient god.” Wayne turned to the goddesses. “Any ideas?”

Ines frowned, Aztimor pulled a long face, Siluk stayed silent, and Kaleb... seemed to be thinking hard, if the blank look in Her eyes was anything to go by.

“I got it!” Kaleb raised her hand.

“What do you three think?” Wayne looked at the other three goddesses.

“Hey, I said I got it!”

“We don’t have anything yet. Since our evolutions are different from yours, it’s difficult for us to give you constructive suggestions.”

“Bastard, listen to me!”

Kaleb furiously slammed the thick Sacred Tome onto the table. It was the new version, named the New Testament by Mikhael.

She flipped to the last page and pointed at the Revelation. “This is where the answer to world destruction lies. Why would you rack your brain for an explanation? It’s here.”

“...” x4

Wayne and the three other goddesses stared at her in shock. She might have a point.

Are you a genius? x4

Kaleb returned to Her seat with a hand on Her hip and huffed softly.

Damn, the idiot is looking down on us! x4

“Idiot, Wayne isn’t Elohim, so the Revelation is all coincidence.” Ines scoffed, looking down to read the Revelation.

“Idiot, Elohim won’t just tell us the answer. Even if he does, it has to be a lie to mislead us.” Aztimor scoffed, looking at the book, too.

“Idiot, stop messing around,” Siluk said affectionately before She joined the study session.

“Um...” Wayne was going to say something, but the three goddesses had stolen all his lines. He added, “Silly girl, hush. I’m thinking.”

Kaleb was so angry that She could pop a vessel. Oh, am I an idiot? Then don’t look at the book!

The Goddess of Sun fumed while the four smart ones ignored Her and pretended nothing had happened while they browsed the Revelation line by line, trying to find the connection between the Final Judgment and the ancient gods.

Wayne was the most focused one among them. It wasn’t until Kaleb’s reminder that he realized that with so many religions on his Earth for Elohim to choose from and pay homage to, there had to be a reason that Elohim chose Catholicism.

In the end, he found nothing.

Ines couldn’t help but pose the question She had been ruminating on for a while. “The coincidences are too many. What is the relationship between you and Elohim? Why were you able to predict the Final Judgment?”

Wayne rubbed his temple. “You won’t believe me if I say that it’s a coincidence, so I might as well come up with a fake answer to humor you.”

“Go on.”

“Just like Elohim, I came from outside the box, and the Sacred Tome is a bestseller there, known as the Bible.”

“Really?”

“I predated Elohim,” Wayne said seriously. “Do you know the long river of time? I will become an ancient god in the future, and with the evil thoughts I put into the river, Elohim was born.”

“...” x4

Both answers were far-fetched, so the four goddesses concluded that Wayne was lying. Even Kaleb, who had a blind faith in fire elements, didn't buy the story.

Explaining what was happening outside the box would be a wasted effort that took too much time. Rather than speaking about his origin, Wayne pointed at the Sacred Tome and said, “The Final Judgment is supposed to judge sins. From the faith standpoint, it’s meant to fool the followers and increase unity. Those who believe will live, while those who don’t believe will meet their doom.”

“You’re all goddesses who do not believe in gods. Let’s peel away the pretenses and get to the true essence, putting extraneous elements like religions aside. Who could tell me the fundamental logic behind the Four Horsemen?”

The four goddesses nodded in agreement. Fiction always drew inspiration from reality. While the Revelation in the Sacred Tome contained distorted facts, the appearance of the Four Horsemen proved that the destruction of the world was connected to the transformation into an ancient god.

The brainstorming led nowhere.

Bam!

Kaleb hit the table. “What’s there to agonize over? Rather than thinking about it and coming to the wrong conclusions, we should just do as I say and follow our instincts.”

What good does instinct do? If you just rely on your instinct, you would’ve long since died in the War of—

Oh, right. You survived the War of Faiths with your instinct. Keep going then. x4

They were curious about the idiot’s intuition, but couldn’t lower their pride to ask. They remained silent.

Kaleb tamped down Her rage and said bluntly to Wayne, “If you aren’t willing to destroy the world, turn it into yours. Then, Elohim won’t be able to destroy the world and become an ancient god. That’d make sure we could never lose. Then we’ll have all the time to take care of him.”

“But—”

“No but,” Kaleb said. “I know you don’t like corrupting others, but this isn’t the time to coddle you. You’ve been evolving. You can corrupt others now; you will be able to reverse the corruption in the future. Then, the world will still be the world we know, and there will be peace. You will have violated none of your principles.”

“What if I cannot reverse the corruption after reaching my final evolution form?”

“Aren’t you quick to make bets? Why don’t you bet on it?” Kaleb said reasonably. “We’ll talk about what comes after later. What we’re facing right now is the Final Judgment. Whether you win or lose, Elohim will lose.”

The three other goddesses said nothing as they turned to Wayne. The idiot’s idea sounded extreme, but was actually the safest way to go. Since they couldn’t attack the Four Horsemen, they should simply build a defense line with everything on the table—a defense line that would give the Four Horsemen nothing even if they broke it down.

See the white foam? Do whatever you want. It makes no difference.

Ines and Aztimor were in favor of the idea. In fact, they had wanted Wayne to do that for a long time. Today, Siluk joined them in supporting Wayne to corrupt the whole world.

After spending more time with Wayne without actually spending time with him, Siluk had come to believe Kaleb’s instinct. Wayne had not put them on their knees to humiliate and torment them for his perverted desires. Instead, he had only forcefully banded the goddesses together by corrupting their Divine Realms because they refused to work together.

He wouldn’t have raised his arms against the goddesses if the Final Judgment weren’t a threat... Siluk thought.

Anyway, the Divine Realm of Moonlight was peaceful. Siluk decided to listen to Kaleb and trust Wayne this once before the Final Judgment. As for what would happen after that, She could only pray that he would behave.

Wayne had to admit that Kaleb had swayed him. His goal was to protect the world and those he cared about by keeping the Four Horsemen outside the Chosen Land, rather than protecting his principles.

As long as he could achieve his goal, principles could always be put aside.

He sighed. “I’ve realized that a long time ago, Kaleb. Remember the replicas I handed all of you? My replicas have established themselves in each church base across the continent. I will not give the Horseman of Pestilence any chance. Before he makes his move, I’ll corrupt the world myself.”

“Then why aren’t you doing anything?”

“I’m waiting for the Four Horsemen to show up,” Wayne said wryly. “They have been hiding too well.”

He had prepared to corrupt the whole world, but he worried that the Four Horsemen would stay hidden after the corruption. Moreover...

If—and he did mean if—his corruption of the world had also been foreseen by Elohim, or perhaps was a part of Elohim’s plan, wouldn’t Wayne be playing into Elohim’s hand? The Heavenly Father and the Anointed One, the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Horseman of Pestilence and the Pale Knight, the Lord of Greed and the Book of Greed, and the fact that both of them came from outside the box... There were too many coincidences for Wayne not to suspect that.

Of course, it was only meant as insurance. Wayne firmly believed that he had nothing to do with Elohim, and that the Book of Greed was greater than everything. He could lie to his followers about Elohim being his evil thoughts, but shouldn’t lie to himself.

“What else can we do now?” Aztimor asked. “We just wait?”

“We can also manipulate the Divine Realms and attempt my new meta...”

Wayne closed his eyes, his thoughts plunging into the Divine Realm of Darkness. Drawing the neighboring Divine Realms of Death, Sun, and Moonlight, he did his best to merge the four realms.

It had been some time since the attempt began. The fact that he could merge the Divine Realms proved Wayne’s theory right, but so far, he had not seen actual benefits.

In theory, with the four Divine Realms coming together, the four goddesses’ Authorities should at least buff each other, if not overlap and become exponentially stronger. That should have raised their power further in the new Divine Realm.

The theory was inspired by the cover of the Book of Greed. The large eyeball was in the center, surrounded by smaller eyeballs, which was in line with Wayne’s relationship with the four goddesses.

That led to a problem—not in the four goddesses. They weren’t able to do anything but play along since Wayne had corrupted their Divine Realms. The problem lay in him. He could not define his position in the new Divine Realm.

The King of Gods?

That sounded awesome and all, but what would being the King of Gods entail? Would his purpose be the pursuit of great power?