System's POV

Chapter 1499: This Is Checkmate [Part 2]

The Goddess of Fate looked around her, but all she saw was white space devoid of color.

She found herself in a world of white, with nothing to see but… a broken Soul Core hovering a few meters away from her.

This was Thirteen’s Soul Core, the one the Goddess of Fate had pierced when he stabbed his heart.

Its surface had weblike cracks, converging on the hole in the center. If it were whole, it would’ve shined faintly as it actively made high-speed calculations, aiding Thirteen in his fight against opponents much stronger than him.

But it was now lifeless. No different from an abandoned piece of broken equipment.

The Goddess approached and looked at it with a complicated gaze.

She thought she had finally put an end to the threat of the System of Cannon Fodders.

Wielded by the body of his beloved, her sword had clearly pierced through his heart. It was a very dirty move, and even she was appalled by her own method.

But she still did it because… she was afraid.

She feared that if she fought Thirteen through normal means, he could defeat her. As such, she decided to play dirty and took over Stella’s body, fully knowing she was Kate’s reincarnation.

“So this is what you meant when you said ’Checkmate’,” Fate muttered. “You really don’t care whether you live or die as long as you can take me out of the bigger picture huh?”

The Goddess who was in charge of the countless threads of destiny throughout the entire multiverse sighed deeply.

She had been born to play a role, and she only did what was expected of her.

She was the Goddess of Fate.

A deity whose power surpassed most Gods, for she was responsible for pushing things in motion.

The whole system worked because she was its center, and this had been the case for thousands of years until… a virus appeared in the system.

A clog in the machine that had stopped working, threatening to bring everything else down with him in his desire for revenge.

“Free will… huh?” Fate sighed deeply.

There were unique individuals who managed to free themselves from her control. But she hadn’t done anything to persecute or hunt them down.

She believed those who could defy Fate were special individuals who didn’t necessarily get in the way of her work.

But Thirteen was different.

He wanted to free everyone from Fate.

Every. Single. Soul. In. The. Universe.

Such a feat was impossible. But if he were to succeed, it would break the system.

Even now, she was afraid that cracks had already appeared in the firmament protecting their realm of existence. Without her keeping the balance, the universe would be in danger.

“Was there really no other way…” Fate reached out to hold the broken core before placing it over her chest. “Was compromise really impossible?”

Suddenly, she felt something wet drip onto the back of her hands. She then touched the side of her face and realized she was crying.

No. She wasn’t the one crying.

Stella was crying inside her. She had to watch helplessly as her own body pierced the heart of her lover.

Thirteen didn’t know how much Stella had screamed and asked Fate to stop hurting him.

And the moment the sword pierced his heart, Stella cried helplessly inside her Sea of Consciousness. Finally, her tears had reached the Goddess, who was now pressing the broken core to where Stella’s heart was located.

This realization made the Goddess sigh a second time.

She didn’t know what had happened, but when Pandora’s Box activated and trapped her inside, it made sure she wouldn’t be able to escape.

In fact, it also made sure that Fate couldn’t leave Stella’s body, trapping her in two vessels.

In the end, she relinquished her hold on Stella’s body, allowing the grieving girl to regain control.

“Zion… I’m sorry.” Stella wept bitterly as she held her lover’s soul core. “I’m sorry… I couldn’t do anything.”

She hadn’t been with him for a very long time. But she felt like her heart had been carved hollow, and nothing could fill the gap no matter what.

This was the first time she felt so heartbroken that the only thing she could do was cry.

“Why?” Stella asked the Goddess that had returned control of her body to her. “Why do you have to kill him? Why?! What has he done to you?!”

“Because it had to be done,” the Goddess replied inside her head. “If we allow him to exist, the entire fabric of our universe will collapse and bring danger beyond your wildest dreams.

“But I’m afraid it’s too late. With me trapped here, it’s only a matter of time before they cross over to our side.

“Looks like Thirteen succeeded in the end. He avenged all his previous Hosts at the cost of his existence… but in doing so, he put every soul in this universe in danger. I don’t really know if there is a compromise that both of us can agree on.”

Stella had no idea what Fate was talking about, and frankly, she didn’t care.

All she knew was that her lover had been killed, and the tool used to kill him was her own body!

For that, her hate for the Goddess peaked.

Half an hour later, Stella finally calmed down a bit. The Goddess then used that moment to tell her about what she observed from inside the white world.

“Time here flows differently from the outside,” Fate said. “A day here is only equivalent to a minute in Solterra.”

Stella didn’t react and simply held her lover’s broken core close to her heart. She couldn’t feel any warmth coming from it. Only the coldness of steel, which made her heart ache even more.

Perhaps understanding that the young lady didn’t care about what she had to say, Fate decided to tell her a story.

A story about the System of Cannon Fodders and the reason why he chose to rebel against his own Fate.