He Is... God!

For a long time, Karen had harbored a touch of guilt toward the golden retriever at home. It was simply so well-behaved, so remarkably sensible. From the very beginning, when Alfred was hospitalized and Kevin ran all the way from the apartment until his paws bled just to deliver money, to later on, when he and Pu'er offered Karen guidance in spellcraft and various other matters. For an evil god to go to such lengths—even if it was all an act—Karen still felt a twinge of unease every time he patted that bald dog head. Now, though, Karen suddenly felt that being a dog was exactly what it bloody well deserved! "Lord Raniedal, the Great One truly never expected that you would awaken even earlier than she. "Back when you were suppressed, the sleeping Great One sensed the utter disappearance of your godhead's aura, and she even smiled in her dreams because of it. "Now, the Great One will smile once again in her sleep, for the awakened you has actually appeared before her. "And what is more, "You are so terribly weak." *Would you believe that the real Raniedal is countless times weaker than I am right now?* Karen had no desire to beat around the bush on the matter. He stated flatly, "I am not Raniedal. You and the Great One behind you have mistaken me for someone else." "Mistaken?" Linda began to laugh. "My Lord, attempting to exonerate yourself with such a clumsy excuse truly insults your status. When all is said and done, you were once a high-and-mighty deity. How have you become as shameless as a dog?" "He really is my dog. I'm only like this because my body—" Karen cut himself off mid-explanation. Rather than standing here explaining things to her, he clearly had far better options. Looking around, the house had shifted completely from Piaget's home back into the Inmeles home. This meant he had already seized the formal initiative. Why bother explaining anything to her? Couldn't he just break out of here, wake up, and leave with his squad members? If he returned to Tagima Village early and waited on the grassy meadow, the people outside who detected the disturbance would surely activate the teleportation array to extract them, even if the God of the Wall awakened. By then, he would already be outside. If she had the ability, why didn't she try coming out too? Gods were undeniably towering and powerful, but one must never underestimate the power of the orthodox churches. Unless a main god returned at the height of their prime—someone on the level of Order, Light, Samsara, or the Goddess of the Moon—an ordinary god wouldn't necessarily be able to suppress this world with a single hand. It was just like priests of the same rank: some priests couldn't fight at all. As a deity of divination, the God of the Wall belonged to the category that couldn't fight. His prospective father-in-law had mentioned more than once that he wasn't good at fighting, yet Karen knew Mr. Bede's realm was by no means low. "You want to leave here?" Linda caught onto Karen's intention. "Impossible. You are inside my painting." "Yet this is my home." Linda raised her hand, and the surrounding furnishings once again shifted toward the environment of Piaget's home. Karen stood motionless, but the shift in the environment slowed to a crawl. The two of them began contending over this living room. So that bizarre, disjointed sensation from earlier hadn't been an issue with Linda after all; it had been his own instincts resisting Linda's intrusion. Ridiculously enough, he had actually stepped in earlier to help Linda stabilize the situation. That was tantamount to helping the enemy strike himself. It truly had been foolish. Yet such foolishness had been unavoidable. Whenever something touched upon "gods," it could no longer be measured by experience or common sense. Besides, novel circumstances always required an adjustment period. Karen raised his hand. A chain of Order extended beneath the black coffin resting on the mortuary slab. The coffin promptly stood upright and swept toward Linda like a cage. Linda clasped her hands before her and began chanting: "Supreme and Great One, you record the true history of this world, purging the falsehoods that ought not exist, preserving the purest truth..." A ripple of watery light radiated from Linda, instantly swatting the coffin away. Linda fixed her gaze on Karen. Beneath her chanting, Karen discovered that his clothes—no, more precisely, even his skin—had begun to discolor, as though pigments were melting. When Karen moved to lift his feet, he found that both feet had actually been woven into the carpet. "My Lord, your soul is terribly frail." This was the first time Karen had ever heard anyone describe his soul as frail, but he knew Linda was comparing him to the real Raniedal. No matter how confident Karen was, he couldn't possibly believe that his current self could compare to a true god. "You must remain here and await the Great One's awakening. You shall become her first dessert upon waking. This was once the symbol of an end, and it shall be the beginning of rebirth—the first gift I offer to the Great One!" *Wasn't the God of the Wall sealed by the God of Order? What does that have to do with Raniedal?* Yet Karen knew very well that this was no time for a question-and-answer session. He needed to find a breach swiftly, leave this realm, and return to reality. Karen snapped his fingers. A prayer rose from the basement as well: "Thank you for guiding me in the right direction, allowing me to witness the true scenery; thank you for enlightening my mind, allowing me to know true joy..." Alfred's prayer resonated out, mingling with Linda's chanting. Linda's body swayed immediately—her prayer had been disrupted. Karen's feet returned to normal, and he bolted toward the front door. Earlier, outside the door of Piaget's home had been the giantess's maw, but beyond the door of his own home would be fresh air. Linda's body shuddered as fresh blood spilled from her eyes once more. The front door before Karen vanished in an instant, and in the next moment, he found himself on the second floor—or perhaps the first and second floors had swapped places. Karen turned around and saw Linda weaving a new body out of the wall mural. "My Lord, have you also begun gathering believers in hopes of establishing a church? It seems you truly understand the importance of founding one now. "How regrettable, though. You should never have come here, and you no longer have any chance. "I do not know what relationship your current identity had with her, but she truly seems eager to help you, not hesitating to deliberately disrupt my thoughts just to grant you an opening." "Are you Rielsa?" Karen asked. "The Great One has not yet awakened. I am Linda, loyal to the God of the Wall." "I originally thought Piaget was the only one with a split personality. Turns out you're fractured far worse than he is. You people from the Church of the Mural God really are a bunch of lunatics." "Have you finally remembered, and stopped hiding?" "Remembered what?" "Back then, when you stole the Great One from the place of her sealing and buried her here, you said that the Great One was a lunatic." Karen was speechless. Raniedal had stolen Rielsa—whom the God of Order had sealed—and reburied her into the Gate of Samsara? What kind of insane scheme had that been?! Previously, Karen had felt that dog of his was somewhat pitiful, having served as a divine glove only to be discarded. Looking back now, the God of Order choosing merely to seal the dog rather than obliterate him into absolute nothingness had practically been an act of mercy! The floor of the second story began to dissolve, colors spreading out like wet watercolor. Karen knew this meant his opponent was no longer willing to preserve or remodel his mindscape; she intended to dissolve it completely. Under these circumstances, Karen had no choice but to deploy every means at his disposal to resist. Even if he looked thoroughly battered, there was no shame in it, for the opponent before him was a god! Karen turned his gaze toward his uncle and aunt's bedroom. The door swung open. A dark moon soared out from within. The moment its hue washed over the room, all the chaotic watercolors were suppressed. "The luster of a dark moon... My Lord, have you fallen so low as to collaborate with a lunar goddess so feeble?" Linda raised her hand. Outside the second-floor stairwell window, a colossal finger smashed through the glass, lunging inside to press directly down upon the dark moon. Beneath that crushing weight, Karen felt a piercing ache flare through both of his eyes. Linda's right hand melted entirely into a strand of pigment as she walked toward Karen, her liquefied hand poised to touch his throat. At that moment, Karen glanced toward Aunt Winnie's room. The door burst open, and azure seawater surged out in a deluge, instantly washing both him and Linda apart. "I know that after suppressing the Sea God, you secretly conspired to divide the Sea God Religion, My Lord. It seems you claimed a great deal of the Sea God Religion's heritage during that process." Karen swam with all his might toward the stairwell. Linda made no haste to pursue him; instead, she brought her hands together. The stairwell leading to the floor below was sealed shut. Karen did not attempt to break through it; instead, he kicked off hard, surging upward. The moment he broke the water's surface, he arrived on the third floor. Linda's form emerged from the third-floor floorboards. A multicolored beam of light shot from her fingertips, piercing cleanly through the chest of the "Karen" standing on the windowsill. That "Karen" turned around, a helpless smile touching the corners of his lips as he murmured, "Why is it me again?" Only then did Linda realize that the true Karen was off to the opposite side! Linda rose, her entire body rapidly liquefying and swelling to immense proportions, sprouting over a dozen tentacles that reached toward Karen. Karen pressed his left palm flat against the floorboards. In an instant, chains of Order burst forth, colliding and entangling with the tentacles. Yet the moment they clashed, Karen felt immense pressure. His soul throbbed with a tearing agony; every single collision with that power felt like a searing burn against his spirit. "My Lord, is your current identity a believer of the Church of Order? Or have you possessed the body of an Order priest? I truly admire your boldness, daring to conceal yourself within the Church of Order. "However, the moment you chose to use your own strength to oppose the Great One, you had already lost." Karen clutched his forehead with his right hand, peering through the gaps between his fingers toward his grandfather's study. *Click!* The study door opened. A silver mask appeared. Its cold luster cast an intimidating brilliance, slicing through all the tentacles in an instant. Linda's body re-formed as she staggered backward. Yet right at that moment, the giant finger appeared once more, colliding head-on with the mask. *Hum—!* The finger remained motionless, while the mask recoiled, landing squarely over Karen's face. "The aura of a godhead fragment? My Lord, which Temple Elder has submitted to your banner?" Karen rose to his feet. Without the slightest hesitation, he began descending the stairs, wearing the mask. Linda moved quickly to seal the stairwell, only to find that she failed. Next, Linda attempted to swap the floors, yet there was still no response. Ever since that mask had emerged, this "home" seemed to have found an unshakable pillar of support. Linda gave chase immediately, but by the time she reached the foot of the first-floor stairs, Karen had already arrived at the front door, his left hand turning the doorknob. "Sir, if you take one step outside right now, I will destroy my own consciousness before your very eyes. Piaget's wife will perish completely because of you." "Don't!" Karen shouted in panic. Yet the motion of his hands did not pause for a second. The knob turned, the door opened, and he turned sideways while stepping backward, making it easy to pull the door shut the moment he cleared the threshold. At the same time, he did not forget to add with a smile: "Piaget's wife died long ago. I was the one who personally handed him her ashes." Were it not for the pressing lack of time, Karen would have loved to mock her further. Was something wrong with her head, resorting to such cheap moral blackmail? Did stooping to this not disgrace a god? Yet Karen understood even better that Linda was the one steering all of this. The true Rielsa had not yet awakened. For a devout believer whose heart was consumed by religious devotion, things like family, ethics, and morality became nothing more than burdens. *Bang!* The door slammed shut. The instant Karen stepped outside, the silver mask on his face vanished. From above, a colossal fist came crashing down—not toward him, but directly into the roof of the house. *Boom!* Karen felt a sharp spasm of chest pain, yet the house rapidly restored itself. Before the restoration was complete, Linda's figure appeared outside the building. Once both of them were outside the house, the structure shrank smaller and smaller, until it gradually faded from sight. Karen also brushed against the threshold of awakening. By now, he could already sense his physical body, and could even control his eyelids and fingers. He knew he was safe. Behind Linda loomed the silhouette of a giantess. The giantess spread her arms, and in that instant, everything here seemed to freeze, as though cloaked beneath a vast membrane. Yet this level of stasis fell far short of what was needed. The two of them had already lost their direct bond of connection; what Linda was doing now was more akin to trying to scare him to death from an immense distance. Karen raised his hand. This membrane of stasis was not particularly thick, and he was already breaking through it. In just three more minutes, he would break free completely and return to reality. "Sigh..." Linda let out a soft sigh. "My Lord, I can no longer stop you—unless the Great One awakens right this moment." The word "unless" was almost always followed by something impossible. "Because you are not worth the Great One doing so, My Lord. Therefore, I hope you can leave this place soon and flee as far as possible. That way, when the Great One awakens to hunt you down, the amusement will be all the greater." Karen nodded. "I will." Once he woke up, he would take his people and leave immediately. At that moment, Linda waved her finger forward. A scroll materialized, and the scene within sprang to life, rendering a serene beach at sunset. A beautiful woman walked barefoot along the sand, breathtakingly graceful. "My Lord, have you forgotten her?" "Mills..." "Yes, Goddess Mills. The Great One once painted a mural for Goddess Mills, prophesying her future, though it was fraught with choices and uncertainties." "What are you getting at?" "If you wish to obtain this mural, My Lord, then step back into that house. The Great One requires your assistance." "Yet just a moment ago, you said you would eat me like a dessert." "Assimilation has never meant an end; it is a form of rebirth. You could become a branch beneath the Great One, My Lord, if you truly wish to save your Goddess Mills." "Is this the God of the Wall's intention?" "No. It is a choice I make on the Great One's behalf. How could the Great One ever be as filthy and despicable as I am? Yet I am willing to offer up everything I have, solely for the Great One's sanctity." "I truly wish it were the God of the Wall making this deal with me right now." *That way, all of you gods would truly be filthy in my eyes.* "Heh, you flatter yourself. So, have you made your decision, My Lord?" "Keep the painting for yourself. I don't want it." Karen refused once again without the slightest hesitation. This left even Linda somewhat taken aback. Clearly, certain aspects of Raniedal's image and deeds were no secret among a specific circle of gods from that era, and those memories had naturally flowed into Linda's mind. Karen looked up at the membrane he had already pierced through. A black vortex had appeared; he could return to reality now. To be safe, chains of Order materialized around Karen, wrapping him in protection before he surged upward. *Boom—!* Right at that moment, a violent tremor shook the realm. Linda fell to her knees, and the giantess behind her twisted in agony, resembling a sleeping person trapped in a nightmare. Immediately after, from the pitch-black region above the membrane, an unimaginably terrifying, majestic aura descended. An ancient, colossal Throne of Order manifested there. Linda raised her head, her expression a tangle of tears and laughter as she cried: "My Lord, you cannot leave! The Great One just rolled over in her sleep, disturbing the Throne of Order that seals her! Beneath that throne, all tangible and intangible, all existent and nonexistent, all known and unknown, will be suppressed!" Unable to stop him herself, she had simply shaken loose the chains binding her, attempting to trap him along with herself! "My Lord, remain sealed here forever, awaiting the Great One's true awakening ten days... no, nine days from now! When that time comes, you shall... How can this be?!" Linda froze, stunned, because she saw Karen depart. A gap seemed to have existed in the Throne of Order's seal, or perhaps Karen's departure had occurred right before the Throne of Order completely sealed off that region. In any case, Karen had slipped through and returned to reality. "Was that luck...?" Linda murmured to herself. Could the Throne of Order, which had sealed the Great One for so many years, truly possess a flaw? How was that possible! Suddenly, the words Karen had spoken earlier echoed in Linda's mind: *"He really is my dog..."* Terror washed over Linda's face, swiftly morphing into an overwhelming fury. Near-hysterically, she slammed both hands against the giant palm beneath her, attempting to force the Great One awake ahead of time. "Wake up! Please wake up! I beg of you, wake up quickly! Wake up!" Linda clawed frantically, shrieking: "He is not a weakened Raniedal! He is not a weakened Raniedal! He is your true nemesis, the very source of your wrath! "He seems as though he has just returned, or perhaps just been reborn; "In any case, he is still frail, still weak; "He is— "The God of Order!"