Looking Directly at God!

"Diss, don't attack her true body first. Her true body is beneath the ice, and the position we see right now likely isn't her real location. Besides, it's too close to the main palace gates—in all probability, it's a trap. Prioritize attacking her dharma body. Start with the dharma body to draw out the exact position of her true form. "Levinlina Ponsti—the Ponsti clan is an ancient summoner family in the Church of Order. With her dharma body stationed so high in the air, an ice-attribute monster beast ought to be lurking below, well suited to concealing itself in this environment. "At Order University, Levinlina majored in Divine History and minored in swordsmanship. In her youth, she took part in numerous external special operations for the Church of Order alongside other summoners. After entering the Temple of Order, the star under her purview enshrined the Sword of Agrant. Agrant is also known as the God of Combat, which means she possesses formidable close-quarters combat prowess herself. "Therefore, the ice-attribute summoned beast lurking below is likely focused on crowd control and containment, creating a better offensive window for her. "The Sword of Agrant surely has a new custodian by now, but as seen from the complex permissions on the Scythe of War, the Temple of Order likely hasn't completely erased the imprints of the past. It is highly probable she can still summon an illusory projection of the divine artifact to fight. "Finally, a peculiar scent of laws is brewing in the surroundings. I suspect it's the power of Eternity, which will likely activate the moment you strike. There's no need to dodge it deliberately—actively infiltrate the area where the power of its laws is densest, and simply transition from one extreme to the other." Old Hoffen's warnings were transmitted to Diss at maximum speed through their mental chain. Ordinarily, Diss wouldn't need to pay much heed to a fallen, corrupted temple elder, but this was the Eternal Palace, where everything pointed toward the God of Eternity. It was entirely necessary to exercise utmost caution from the very start. Diss nodded, his figure darting into the air. Just as he took to midair, a massive depression caved in across the basin below. A colossal white spider emerged, its dense cluster of eyes firing beam after beam of white light into the sky, rapidly weaving a grid in midair in an attempt to trap Diss. "Order Cage." A colossal cage materialized beneath Diss's feet, exuding boundless suction that swallowed whole the grid before it could even finish forming. As for just how powerful Diss's Order Cage was, Purr had the most say on the matter. The giant spider's offensive was dissolved so effortlessly that confusion appeared across its myriad eyes. Up in the air, Levinlina's dharma body extended an arm. The illusory projection of a sword appeared, radiating a sacred aura—the Sword of Agrant! Old Hoffen's guess had been spot-on: the Temple of Order indeed hadn't erased all the restrictions on the divine artifact, for doing so was an extraordinarily intricate undertaking. Wielding the artifact's projection, the dharma body swung toward Diss. A formidable sword technique erupted, carving a breathtakingly brilliant display of light and shadow across the sky. Within the Temple, the status of the Scythe of War stood several tiers above the Sword of Agrant—not to mention that what Diss held was the true Scythe of War itself. The dazzling brilliance flared quickly, but faded even faster. All variegated colors were swallowed by the Scythe of War at that moment, condensing into the most unadorned, pristine strike. The scythe pierced straight through Levinlina's dharma body. Diss then jerked the scythe with a flick of his arm. Levinlina's dharma body was violently wrenched, warping to the brink of collapse. Down on the ground below, another figure of Levinlina appeared, situated directly across from where the kneeling form was. Diss tightened his grip on the Scythe of War, exerting force once more. *Boom!* The dharma body shattered into pieces. In the next instant, Diss materialized directly above Levinlina's true body, raising the scythe to thrust downward. No matter how thick the ice was, it clearly could not halt Diss's strike. Yet right at that moment, everything in the surroundings seemed to plunge into stillness. The first thing to freeze was all human perception. It truly came as no surprise that the God of Eternity had ultimately chosen to pursue the taboo of time; the origin of his laws was remarkably akin to time. The difference was that his was stillness, whereas the latter was forward and backward movement. Diss did not resist this power of laws. Instead, he drew as much of it onto himself as possible. For a moment, even thought itself seemed to grind to a halt. Yet this was merely a split-second zenith. Once that peak was breached, the previously terrifying sensation of stagnation vanished in an instant. And Diss's scythe finally drove down. *Bang!* The ice melted away in a flash, and the scythe's power surged straight through to Levinlina's true body. Levinlina's flesh ignited rapidly, and a look of relief surfaced in her eyes. The summoned giant spider dissipated at the very same moment. The battle was over, concluded in the blink of an eye. The blood-colored snowflakes ceased falling. The ice before the palace was melted into several hollows and craters, severely marring the overall aesthetics. Below, though Levinlina had perished, the divine robe upon her—representing her station as a temple elder—was preserved. This was not due to deliberate restraint on Diss's part; no matter how formidable he was, he could not purposefully preserve an enemy's clothing while striking to kill in the heat of battle. It was Levinlina herself who had preserved it before her demise. She left no parting words, only shielding this divine robe that symbolized Order. Diss reached out. The robe floated up from below and settled into his hand. Turning back toward the palace's main gate, he saw that the illusory figure of Levinlina remained, still frozen in her kneeling posture. At the edge of the basin, Old Hoffen lifted a foot; when it came down, he was already standing behind Diss. A veteran priest of Principles could always find the safest spot right behind his Order partner. Levinlina's phantom spoke once more: "You have angered Eternity." Diss glanced at the robe in his hands and said, "You could have killed her, or turned her into a puppet, but you should not have forced her to kneel there wearing the divine robe of Order." Old Hoffen knew Diss was furious. That rage had sparked the moment he saw Levinlina kneeling. Even though his old comrade had run amok in the Temple of Order not long ago, shattering the dharma bodies of numerous elders and battering them into bloodied heaps, that was merely an internal dispute within Order. Levinlina's kneeling posture, however, was Eternity's humiliation of Order. The fact that this temple elder had preserved her robe to the very end carried this exact significance. "Yet, in the world of Eternity, Order does not exist." The fall of the God of Eternity marked the dawn of the last era, followed by the outbreak of the war between the Light camp and the Eternal camp. It was in that very war that the God of Order rose, subsequently establishing the Church of Order. In terms of age, the Church of Order was younger than most orthodox churches, to say nothing of the far more ancient Church of Eternity. Diss countered: "If Eternity truly existed, Order would never have arisen." Holding the scythe, Diss walked up to the main gate. Levinlina's phantom remained kneeling. "When my Lord returns, Order shall witness the true meaning of Eternity." "I look forward to it." With those words, Diss's dharma body manifested. In the preceding battle, Diss hadn't even deployed it. At this moment, a colossal phantom of the Scythe of War also appeared in the hands of Diss's dharma body. Two figures, two scythes, chopped straight down toward the main entrance of the Eternal Palace ahead! *Boom!!* A deafening roar erupted as the gate began to shatter, and along with it fractured the phantoms of goddesses dancing in the sky and the fluttering banners below. Seeing this, Levinlina spoke: "Futile provocation and outrage will only bring disaster upon you and the church behind you." "It was you who provoked Order first." *Boom!* Another scythe strike crashed down. This time, the already fractured gate could no longer hold out, bursting into fragments that scattered across the ground. A terrifying current of air swept out from beyond the gate, and an enraged face manifested: "You shall suffer the tortures of Eternity!" "Fine. I'll be waiting." *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!* Diss seemed to have no intention of stepping inside at all. He simply raised his scythe again and again, hacking repeatedly at the magnificent, imposing palace before him. With the gate smashed, there were still walls; when the walls collapsed, there were still the structures inside. To hell with whatever secrets you harbor inside, and to hell with what this palace represents! If you dare make Order kneel to you, you must bear the inevitable price for such an act! Old Hoffen stood behind, watching Diss in his fury. At a time like this, he wouldn't dare step forward to urge his old comrade to calm down. He knew full well that Diss had always been a devout believer in Order. His past curses and blasphemies toward the God of Order had merely stemmed from dissatisfaction with the God of Order Himself, not dissatisfaction with Order. What was more, the God of Order had now become his grandson. The walls began collapsing across vast swathes, and the surrounding structures began to buckle—shaking, cracking, and tumbling down. "Do you even know what you are doing?!" Finally, the phantom of Levinlina no longer spoke in aloft dogmatic tones. This meant panic had begun to set in, for she realized the man before her genuinely intended to destroy this palace. Diss replied, "It is you who did not know what you were doing before." Then, another scythe stroke slashed down. *Boom!* ... In the deepest layer of the Church of Order's containment space. Upon an altar stood a spear, bound fast by chain after chain. Sitting upon the steps of the altar was a man—the artifact spirit of the Spear of Eternity. At this moment, he lifted his head, eyes filled with shock: "My Church of Eternity has long since perished... So who is it that is scourging and humiliating the faith of Eternity?" ... Under the relentless bombardment, half of the palace structures stood on the verge of total ruin. However, from deep within the palace, a thumping vibration began to echo: *Thump... Thump...* It was like the heartbeat of some slumbering entity gradually awakening. Yet Levinlina's phantom, who ought to have welcomed this, stood up at this moment, abandoning her kneeling posture: "Stop! If Shabak is awakened prematurely, this expanse of snow will never contain it! It will bring catastrophe upon the world!" Diss lowered his scythe. Old Hoffen immediately sent a message via their mental link: "Shabak—a terrible evil spirit that wreaked havoc upon the world in the era before last. Fragmentary records even venerate it as an evil god. But since it's here, it definitely isn't a true deity. It's likely a powerful monster beast blessed with tremendous racial talents, capable of rivaling gods in its prime. "Legend has it that it was suppressed by the God of Eternity. But rather than being sealed upon the steps of Mount Anlamende, it was actually left here." Diss looked at Levinlina's phantom and asked, "Was the riot last time because of it?" Levinlina's phantom replied, "It was your people who offended Eternity first. Shabak did nothing wrong." "I don't think it did anything wrong either; it acted quite rightly," Diss nodded, then responded to Old Hoffen, "This is the aura. When I rescued them back then, this was the exact aura I sensed." Old Hoffen immediately said: "The one controlling Levinlina's phantom to communicate with us is likely the sentience born of this palace—something like an artifact spirit. But Shabak clearly isn't a guardian of this palace. The palace spirit cannot control it, and she might even bear the responsibility of suppressing Shabak. "Though I don't know why such an arrangement came to be—perhaps after one era, no, two eras, far too many of the original designs have undergone mutations. "Still, my advice is: since Shabak is the true culprit behind Yalo's corruption, if you want revenge, there's no need to keep demolishing this palace and setting it completely free. We can go inside and kill it while it's still sealed." Diss nodded. "All right." He harbored no obsession with having a fair duel against it at full power; he had come to avenge his children, not to display chivalry. "Great, leave it to me." Old Hoffen looked toward Levinlina's phantom. Levinlina seemed about to say something else, but the words caught in her throat. Threads of golden light radiated from her illusory form, unraveling like a knitted sweater being progressively dismantled. "Principles... Principles?!" Levinlina's phantom stared at Old Hoffen in utter shock. Old Hoffen shrugged and said, "While you were rambling nonsense earlier, I secretly analyzed you. Let's see what your true form really is." Levinlina's phantom roared in fury, "A journal of Principles... Why would you aid Order?!" Old Hoffen answered, "Who told Order to have the harder fist? That was the choice of our God." Although the deep cooperation between the Church of Order and the Church of Principles had been organized by Tyrannus, under whose advocacy and arrangement the two great churches gradually fostered the tradition of partnering up... ...in truth, along the God of Order's path of ascent, He had long grown accustomed to consulting Principles whenever encountering problems. In the respective mythological narratives of the Church of Order and the Church of Principles, the relationship between their main gods was described as that of partners and bosom friends; history, after all, had to serve reality. Yet in the records of other churches, one could clearly discern the God of Principles' initial resistance toward the God of Order. The God of Principles had even uttered words to the effect that the God of Order lacked propriety. This demonstrated that their cooperation had been coerced from the start—like an aloof scholar captured by a ruthless bandit, compelled under duress to serve and contribute his erudition. However, in outside records, the two gods' relationship later grew very close. The primary reason lay in the God of Order's character: He was a god of His word, allowing the God of Principles to obtain what He needed through their collaboration. Levinlina's phantom was thoroughly dismantled by Old Hoffen. Under his control, strands of golden thread rewove themselves before him into a figure—not Levinlina, but a blank mannequin, as clean as a sheet of white paper and wholly subservient to Old Hoffen's direction. "She is a bell here. Look, over there." Old Hoffen pointed toward the tallest structure within the palace—a clock tower. Then, delight showed on Old Hoffen's face: "Haha, I get it now! This building sank into the plane of Eternity, just like the diverse climates and regional environments around Mount Anlamende. Diss, if we want to truly step inside, we have to use this bell as our guide!" "I didn't come here to explore secrets." "I know, I know! But guess why this bell loathes Levinlina so much? It means your Order expedition probed very deeply into this place back then, touching upon the bell's power. "Shabak isn't suppressed within this palace itself; it is suppressed within the plane where this palace resides." "Hoffen, are you being affected?" "I am, yes, but that's necessary to draw upon its power. Old friend, just watch out for my bewitchment." "Mm. Let's go in." Diss stepped through the gate first, with Old Hoffen following behind. The humanoid figure trailing alongside looked like a mannequin displayed in a Yorktown clothing store, though far more nimble. Inside, ruin lay everywhere—all the handiwork of Diss. "Diss, let us enter." Old Hoffen smiled slightly and twitched his fingers. The mannequin began to clap, and the great bell on the clock tower swayed. As the chime resonated outward, the scenery around them shifted. Structures that had collapsed and broken in reality were steadily restoring themselves. Everything, down to the last detail, was now retracting back toward its point of origin. Soon, Diss saw Order's investigation team entering this place. He saw Levinlina walk past him, and then, looking farther back, he saw Yalo and Anli among the crowd. "Stop." "I can't stop it..." Old Hoffen gave a wry smile. "I've lost some control, damn it!" The temporal rewind not only failed to halt, but accelerated at an even more exaggerated pace. The shift of imagery surpassed any comprehensible rhythm. Suddenly, it was as if some barrier had been pierced through. The palace radiated an even more majestic aura. If one stretched their perception outward, they could sense that the outside world had changed entirely. In the subtle depths of consciousness, Diss felt waves of 'awe' and 'insignificance.' Old Hoffen explained in agony, "It has rewound to the last era! Diss, in our current era, aside from a few extraordinary anomalies, you can practically be called the ceiling. But the last era was a world where gods walked the earth—naturally, the feeling is completely different. "The God of Order extracted things from this world, ensuring that eras were no longer merely distinguished by major historical events, but separated by true, substantive severance. "Look, Raniedal has appeared! He visited this place—that pool of piss was left by him." Diss saw a colossal figure walk past in front of him, whose most prominent feature was his bald head. "Hahaha! Finally made it in. I hope whatever's inside won't disappoint me!" Raniedal strode inside, yet the scene continued to rewind. By logic, this palace must have been constructed in the era before last, so even reaching the timeline of the previous era was only halfway back—or even less. Yet right at this moment, the horrifying acceleration plunged into an uncanny stillness. "Huh? What's happening? Did I lose control?" Old Hoffen looked startled and bewildered. After checking, he realized, "No, it's not me—the bell lost control?" Soon, however, Old Hoffen uncovered an even more astonishing truth: "It's not me or the bell that lost control... It's that this plane once fell out of control right here! Who could it be?!" After all, even when Raniedal, a true deity, had passed through earlier, he hadn't exerted the slightest effect on the plane's temporal rewind. *Buzz!* A boundless, majestic pressure descended. A figure entered this place. His appearance warped the very plane of Eternity. Old Hoffen's eyes widened in disbelief: "The G-G... God of O-..." The pages of his true book-form fluttered frantically, as if using this frantic rustling to mask some terror. This was not the book's emotion, but an instinctive imprint left upon it by its master, who had done the exact same thing at an identical moment long ago. The figure of the God of Order had descended here. This meant that in the last era, the God of Order had visited this place—before Raniedal. Diss gazed at this towering, majestic figure, his expression solemn and his eyes filled with complex emotion. Had it been any other believer of Order, they would likely be weeping tears of reverence by now, pouring out their devotion to their great Lord. But Diss knew full well that the changes this being had wrought upon the world had stripped him—a father—of the chance to save his own children. Normally, following the pattern of Levinlina and Raniedal earlier, the God of Order should have simply walked past Diss and Hoffen, continuing onward. Yet when that figure reached Diss, it suddenly halted. The rewind process, which should have been irreversible, came to a dead stop! Old Hoffen cried out in horror, "There are two planes within this palace?!" One was the plane of construction, the final destination of the rewind and the original purpose of its design; the other was a moment wrenched by force from the flow of time and permanently preserved—the present instant. Because at that very moment, He had halted in His tracks. Immediately following that, the God of Order turned around, facing Diss. The gaze of Order seemed to pierce through endless boundaries to arrive here—this was, in the truest sense, the Eye of Order! Old Hoffen's jaw dropped. A terror beyond all terrors suddenly dawned on him: Heavens... The God of Order had seen the two of them! Diss remained standing straight as a spear. He would not bow to Him—never. Because bowing would mean that all his past grievances and fury had been nothing more than a joke. He could choose to let things go for Karen's sake, but he would never dissolve his convictions. He was no infant attempting to cry and throw a tantrum for a sweet reward. The pride in his bones forbade him from lowering his head to anyone—even a god! Perhaps this was the true essence of the conflict between Diss and the God of Order. Anyone else, even if faced with the same tragedy, would have found ways to rationalize it, making excuses for both themselves and their God. Diss, however, did not ask for much. He could endure all anguish and suffering, but at the very least, You should have given me a word of warning. I believed in You; I followed in Your footsteps... Yet You, at the very least, owed me a measure of respect! Diss did not close his eyes. This time, he chose... to look directly at God!