Chapter 183: With the Light of Knowledge comes Shadow of Corruption
Not only Urduja, Aoi, alongside her 10 or so (Urduja herself is not sure) wives looked at the mushroom clouds that is emerging per second, causing tremors to be felt from the epicenter all the way to Gjallarhorn, again, the sturdiness of the core and tectonic plates of the continents shall be praised by the spectacular display of resilience despite a slugfest of nuclear proportions happening in its crust, at this scene, The Hero of the Sun, Urduja frowned.
"Shall I help Sophia?"
Urduja was worried for the well being of her daughter-in-law, she was mulling all this time if Sophia is already strong enough to face an ancient calamity as ancient as Urduja herself, though weaker than her, she have only seen Sophia fight once, but with her fight with Hebi, Urduja saw how can Sophia lead most people to the nose, even someone as experienced and as strong as Hebi. Still, Aerendil is no Hebi, he has a very exceptional brain that can simulate battles against heroes and calamities by just watching them fight head-on.
Urduja, even though confident of herself doesn't want, ever, to be on the opposing side of Aerendil if not absolutely necessary, even her god, Sinag have ordered her not to engage in the fight between the elves and the undead way before the start of the Continental wars, this order is being upheld up until now.
_I have never seen Sophia struggle for four days and counting against an opponent; then again, I have never seen a fight of Aerendil last for just a day, like how no one saw me fight someone longer than an hour... though, I guess that's bound to change very soon._
Urduja sighed, for now choosing to adhere to her lord's orders, however, she knew that she would not receive any intercession for the entirety of the war, Apparently, Sinag is busy with his mother.
_I wonder if his mother is beauti- oww..._
Urduja trailed off, but because of the sudden headache that came from her inappropriate thoughts on a deity, she decided to watch the fight of Sophia and Aerendil again, ready to disobey Sinag if Sophia ever became increasingly disadvantaged to the point of defeat.
_Can't let my daughter die like that._
Such is Urduja's thoughts as she continued watching, and soon, her eyes squinted, in the battlefield she can see a palace, fully intact with not even an aorta of erosion despite being in the middle of such a catastrophic fight, she squinted her eyes in confusion, but soon the hero of the sun's eyes widened.
"Did Racist Dumbledore stored such a potent weapon in his goddamn palace, making the place be protected by its divinity?"
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Sophia's frown deepened as she continued her slugfest through her manipulated atoms, blood spurted out continuously from her mouth, and while mushroom clouds caused by her and Aerendil's atomic-level fight emerged left and right to the place they had decided to wreak havoc, she could not help but grumble.
_Damn, this split second pain I get from my organs suddenly disappearing is annoying, not only does it strain my already stretched to the limit focus, it also created little, yet significant distractions, this will be fatal if this went on!_
Sophia, even though reluctant to use her circumnavigation tactic because it involved her deep seethed secret and might make her already hard fight against Aerendil even harder, was decisive, anyway, she is just wasting time and she is sure, though impatient that the unique skill she's waiting for will eventually come within this day, thus she activated her space magic, causing small, tesseract shaped cubes to emerge all over her body, and as her organs, inside or out disappeared, their atoms were immediately traced and put back in place.
This is one of the applications Sophia have device for the space magic, unlike her ripping the 4th dimension directly, she just got some parts of it and compressed it into small pieces and repeated the process sextillion of times, well, actually, she just have to copy the small tesseracts, so only the first one is hard, seeing this, Aerendil smirk, like a person with bipolar disorder, his despairing face was gone as well as her anger, he regained his confidence, which made Sophia want to laugh and also get hurt as her sadistic tendencies are not being met.
_I might not have space magic affinity, but that doesn't mean I can't create a spell out of it._
Thinking of this, amidst the mushroom clouds they were creating, the magic circles in the eyes of Aerendil disappeared, causing him to spurt out blood continuously, it took her a full 3 seconds real time to once again create a magic circle in his eyes, Sophia knew it was a magic circle despite it being more complicated compared to all the previous magic circle combined, such is the effect of creating a spell in an element one is not proficient on, unlike her that snorted space knowledge in her previous world, so she have proficiency.
_Creating a spell from a concept in 3 seconds is crazy... though I'm not the one to talk._
Sophia and Aerendil continued their fight, light flashed, sound erupted again and again, worse, the two fighters doesn't have time to care about their surroundings, thus they didn't, or well, can't erect any kind of barriers, basically making all people who wanted to watch their fights fend for themselves, which forced them to retreat away.
Kamatayan with [Guide] and Tydings with elves have it lucky, as well as the mananangals who have sound cancelling armors that is so durable it literally cancels out nuclear sonic bombs for they have several magically proficient individuals as the can block the sounds somehow, also Urduja is there for Gjallarhorn, she enveloped the whole Kingdom with a very weakened version of a red supergiant, strong enough to absorb sound energy, yet weak enough to incinerate anything, though Urduja shouted "Stay Hydrated!" repeatedly as she did such a thing.
Even Valentine needs a barrier to fend off the small waves that wreak havoc on their already prepared navy, whilst Apolaki and Mayari have to deploy their emperors to mitigate the effects of the nuclear explosions.
All of these happened much to the indifference of the fighters, they cannot care about others right now, they only care about how to break such a ridiculous stalemate that can cause a state of calamity in all of Genesis.
_Another stalemate... this will never end as long as I don't get that unique skill..._
Sophia's mind raced, wanting to end the fight, the longest of her entire second life, for her very inflexible plan to end the time loop and save the world, and the universe from inevitable ruin.
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At the palace in the middle of the universe of Paraluman, the three deities, lower than the mother goddess of creation were silent, looking at the woman taller than all of them, their expression varying, the god of the undead, Siginarugan looked at his mother, as if a child, his eyes shining, expectant, yet his grin look sly, Sinag, has his brows knitted, as if 50-50 about the answer of his mother, though still hoping for the best, he is also preparing for the worst.
And the god of streams, is, well, just here so that he won't intervene too much in the volatile Pentateuch, so he was just there, wondering casually if Paraluman will agree, though, as expected of the three gods, the goddess of creation of squinted her eyes, looking at her son that leads the domain of death.
"Yes, mother, I want Sophia to get the unique skill she deserves, [Genius]."
Paraluman frowned, putting an almost invisible indent to her otherwise perfect face.
"Are you out of your mind?"
Sinag and the god of streams backed away little by little, knowing the personality of Siginarugan; they knew that a godly berating session was about to unfold; they didn't want any business with it, though they knew Paraluman, their mother, wouldn't hurt their brother.
"No mother, I am sane, as sane as before when you asked me to venture to the solar system at the other end of the Orion Arm, create a strong soul, make him or her as competent as possible and then make her the last Sophia Demiurge of the last time loop because you can't get out of this place, the chamber that syphons your energy as a fuel for the time loop."
Paraluman, seemingly tired of the smug face of her son, sighed.
"Yes, I did say that to you; however, didn't you see what she said to you during her 'act' when you made her a fallen hero?"
Siginarugan squinted his eyes in contemplation before widening them, finally "recalling" something that, hell, he is sure about.
"Ah, yeah, that one where she said she wanted to conquer the world, what of it?"
Paraluman was perplexed, and her expression turned to one of anger. She sighed, wanting not to let herself explode, lest she wanted to expel more energy than she already had.
"Yes, she wanted to conquer Pentateuch, MY PENTATEUCH, do you think, I, as the owner, with all the sacrifices I made for this ungrateful planet, will just let a mortal become its overlord?"
Sinag and the god of streams snapped their heads towards the creator, perplexed by such a selfish answer; they found a rare anger welling up in their hearts, but only Sinag was about to unleash it when his brother, Siginarugan, let out an exasperated sigh.
"I knew it, so that's why you are questioning Sophia's ability even though you see her replicate the happenings of the Second Elven Undead war without alerting that woman... You're... a liar, mother."
The whole palace shook lightly, Paraluman started to glow in gold colors, somehow, someway, Sinag and the god of streams appeared in the windows at the entrance of the garden, one step away from ditching the not-so-good-mouthed Siginarugan, yet still hesitating.
"You embecile!? After all of you, my prodigal children, have done to my planet just because I gave you freewill and even sacrificed a lot of my authorities, even my omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence just so that I can repair the planet you have destroyed, you dare call me a liar!?"
Paraluman stood up, looking at her son at a very high vantage point that Siginarugan had to look up, her palace still shaking in increasing violence.
"YOU WAGED WARS AGAINST EACH OTHER! YOU CREATED MORTALS TO DO YOUR BIDDING INSTEAD OF GIVING THEM FREE WILL LIKE I HAVE INSTRUCTED! ALL OF YOU! YOU KILLED EACH OTHER, CREATED WEAKLINGS THAT CAN TURN INTO GODS SO THAT YOU WILL HAVE A FALSE SENSE OF SUPERIORITY AGAINST EACH OTHER! AND YOU! YOU KILLED ALL OF THEM, YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS AND EVEN IMPREGNATED THE GODDESS OF NATURE!"
Paraluman's voice seemed to encompass the whole palace, causing it to reverberate, as if on the verge of collapse, yet Siginarugan just shook his head, as if directly disagreeing with his parent.
"Mother, when you say you gave us free will, did you see what future that free will will hold?"
Siginarugan paused after such a sentence, as if wanting to wait for his mother's answer, yet Paraluman stood frozen, as if remembering what she have seen in the future, after all, time is relative, thus, theoretically, anyone can go to the past and future, mortals or not, much like her former self, someone who have the greatest power in this one universe, unfortunately, all of her energy was exhausted when she created the gods of Pentateuch, giving up her three power that dominates all beings far and wide.
Though at first, she thought it was a fair deal as it meant nourishment for the land of Pentateuch, as evident by the mass nuclear bombing that caused earthquakes and nothing more.
Better yet, Urduja and Loki's existence proved how well this investment is.
"See? You saw that war, that split up like a damn orange clove of your "beloved" planet, yet, you didn't do anything, why is that?"
Siginarugan made a sarcastic pause, not letting his mother reply.
"Oh, still not answering? Then I will tell you, in your vast yet narrow mind, you have this little, cast aside wish that says 'I hope they won't act as they are destined to be' ladada~ ladadadu~, like a virgin boy hoping for a slut to love him without number 2."
Siginarugan looked at his brother and subordinates, who were shocked by what he was saying, and him saying it with such calmness.
"Mother, I have come disappointed of you, after all, you knew that free will begets greed, you know that with the light of knowledge comes shadow of corruption, yet, you didn't do anything against your gods and goddesses, which is in fact, something easy for you at that time, sacrifice this? Sacrifice what? Everything you did in Pentateuch is nothing but an experiment, no, it's not because your compassionate, it's because you have nothing better to do, it's because you are curious about the concept of family, and now that you have gained "free will", you are reluctant to part with the planet you have created as your plaything, do you understand me?"
Paraluman, who did not interrupt her son, as if realizing all her mistakes, looked intently, as if wanting him to continue.
"If you do, then this is what will happen at this moment, you will give [Genius] to Sophia, let her win against Aerendil and let her do whatever she wants to you, your planet, or hell, your universe, if you don't, then you can always give up, after all "It's not your fault"."
Siginarugan paused, and this time, he truly did not speak until his mother articulated all of what he said, and soon, much to the relief of Siginarugan, his brother and his subordinate, the queen of the universe, Paraluman put her spread out palm outward, in there emerged a clump of combined numbers and letters.
The unique skill [Genius], the skill with only one worthy wielder, has finally reappeared.