Witch, Fireball and Steam Evil God

Chapter 437 Virus Invasion of Database

“Mr. Ethan, I have heard about your deeds.”

On the prison terrace, the warden's index finger glided across the ground, and rows of floating characters appeared in the space touched by his fingertip. The jumping characters pieced together and gradually formed a picture.

Deep within the stars, an eye appears and disappears, and anything it glances at sprouts flesh and blood.

Insects, vegetation, animals, humans, and even the earth, sky, and ocean—all without exception—clustered together with wriggling limbs, gradually covering the planet's surface and transforming the entire planet into a constantly trembling organ.

“The Old God, Bazartos, the father of flesh and evolution, you should be more accustomed to calling Him ‘Father’.”

Noticing Ethan's puzzled look, the warden said, "Your rituals, which are steeped in flesh and soul, have caused countless plagues in various planes."

Her gaze fell on one of the floating characters: “67. That’s the number of Death Stars you created.”

Ethan hesitated several times before speaking, but the warden's confident and in control demeanor made him feel a little embarrassed to interrupt him.

He never referred to Bazartos as “Father”; those who knew him affectionately called him Old Bazartos.

Secondly, he was not a follower of Barack Obama, therefore the warden's accusations were completely unfounded.

On the other hand, the warden also provided him with a lot of new information.

For example, during his studies at the guild, he had heard of the concept of the "Death Star" among the 67 destroyed planes. It was a forbidden zone that was explored and recorded in the investigator's manual by investigators and was explicitly prohibited from being entered or explored.

This word represents destruction and desolation. No living beings can nurture the spark of civilization on the "Dead Star," and theoretically, those destroyed planes are not worth exploring because all life has been wiped out, leaving only desolation and nothingness.

However, the number "67" far exceeded the guild's records of the "Death Star". Ethan remembered that when he was taking a crash course at Transfer Station 003, he specifically asked the station manager to retrieve the guild's database after class. There are currently 21 confirmed records of the "Death Star".

The warden accuses Bazartos and his followers of their crimes, while Ethan carefully examines the characters that keep jumping around next to the image. It's amazing how the warden seems to be operating an invisible tablet computer.

She had the potential to be a great orator, speaking with great passion and conviction, as if they were the true heroes, while Ethan and the other outsiders were "cancer" trying to bring a plague to their plane.

While the warden wasn't looking, Ethan secretly operated the "invisible tablet" a few times, only to find that he didn't have permission to access the screen.

In fact, he had long felt that the guild's existence was inextricably linked to the God of Truth. This could be seen from the teleportation anchors they set up, which looked like a God of Truth shrunk countless times. There was also the database that the guild was so proud of. For "primitive people" whose average level of technology had just entered the industrial age, this could only be described as a miracle.

If you've never encountered a "computer" in your daily life, it's difficult for you to develop a systematic concept of "data transmission" and "storage." In Ethan's view, the guild's database is more like a concept of "future" being instilled into the primitive people he encountered by a time traveler.

It now seems that the God of Truth was that time traveler.

"It's really sad."

The warden suddenly changed the subject, her gaze vaguely drifting to a more distant place.

That was the place where the hero Solan had once fought. Now, he and the other side had stormed into the aerial castle floating above the capital, and the remaining white glow had long since dissipated.

She seemed to be conversing with a long-dead soul, saying, "What you've been longing for isn't hope, but destruction."

She had already seen through Ethan's identity.

A few days ago, the night sky over Gear City was shrouded in crimson, as a gaze from the depths of the universe descended upon this land.

After that, the person who should have died gained eternal life, and he will become an apostle of the Father, bringing disaster to the world.

Such events have been recorded dozens of times in the archives of the God of Truth, without exception.

At this very moment, somewhere in the capital, a bloody plague is spreading rapidly.

The one who should have died is now an apostle of the Father, sowing the seeds of disaster.

“Mr. Ethan, it seems you are speechless.”

The ubiquitous characters instantly transformed into the warden's weapons, arranged behind her like an armory.

On this day, Ethan finally witnessed the fighting style of the followers of the God of Truth.

The strings were linked together, and countless floating cannons appeared and disappeared behind the warden.

Ivy, a senior follower of the God of Truth, once mentioned that the power of the followers of Truth is closely related to their knowledge and experience, which helped Ethan glimpse the essence of the warden's power.

Those hundreds of floating cannons were merely one manifestation of her vast knowledge; they could transform at any moment into a soaring dragon, a falling star, or even any tangible thing in the world.

"Now, I'm going to expose your last layer of disguise."

The warden floated in mid-air, her body overlapping with the silvery sun in the sky.

Pure and holy, yet incredibly oppressive.

"Your 'flour element' is nothing but a smokescreen, a trick that uses the power of an evil god to infect matter. Such a charade is nothing to me!"

With a wave of her right hand, she unleashed a barrage of floating cannons that locked onto Ethan.

"Bring it on, you minions of the evil god! 'Gatekeeper' Oliva-Vilanus will make you perish here!"

Ethan looked up and faced Oliva, who resembled an "archangel" in the night sky. Silvery energy poured into her, making her appear as a crescent moon floating above the capital.

It's impressive, but the only downside is that Oliva's interpretation of the flour element is completely wrong.

It seems that even believers in the God of Truth cannot escape the shackles of preconceived notions.

Any explanation was futile; Oliva had clearly already regarded him as a member of Bazartos's retinue.

The next moment, an uninvited guest intervened in the impending battle.

Before Ethan could unleash all the "pizza tricks" he had devised along the way, the white cat that pounced on Oliva under the moonlight with the ferocity of a hunter crashed into her.

Caught off guard, all the floating cannons veered off course, and Oliva transformed into a streak of light and crashed heavily to the ground.

Even Ethan was startled by the sudden attack.

This was not the fighting style he was familiar with.

In his memory, Winter followed the most traditional mage route, and she would try to avoid contact with enemies in battle. However, the cat that suddenly appeared now seemed to have turned into a berserker. After knocking Oliva away, it relentlessly chased after him to the ground.

He exchanged a glance with the cat and received a warning from its red eyes.

—Don't interfere in their fight, or the cat will hiss.

Ethan withdrew his hand from the balcony and fell into deep thought.

He couldn't understand who had provoked Winter, or why the cat seemed so angry and furious today.

Could it be that she and Oliva were old acquaintances, and had a past feud?
As he wondered what was happening, he faintly heard curses coming from below the terrace, which sent a chill down Ethan's spine.

"You took my spot! You took my spot!"

Oliva dodged the close-quarters attack with a start, a burning and chilling pain shooting through her forehead—if her intuition was right, the cat had just tried to pull her hair!

Before she could even stand still, the persistent white cat whipped up a gust of cold wind and rammed into her once again.

"Are you still going to steal the back seat of my motorcycle?!"

His scarlet pupils were filled with murderous intent.

Oliva once again fled backward in panic.

No, who stole your motorcycle seat?

Ethan gazed at the two intertwined white streaks of light from the terrace until they disappeared into the depths of the night, leaving him standing alone on the terrace, feeling both desolate and awkward.

However, Ethan soon found another person who was just as idle as him.

The silvery sun in the sky seemed to have transformed into a spectator, looking down at Winter and Oliva wrestling together. Ethan and the silvery sun suddenly had a subtle telepathic connection, and their gazes met.

After a long stare, Ethan finally understood and tentatively asked, "Shall we start a game?" The silvery sun did not respond.

Ethan felt that this statement could usually be interpreted as tacit agreement, especially when the atmosphere became somewhat awkward. The next question was how he should approach that sun.
Like the other shore, with immense strength, bricks fly, one foot stomping out a deep pit more than ten meters deep on the ground, using the recoil to throw oneself into the air.
He immediately rejected this hasty idea.

Even disregarding visual bias, the most likely outcome of doing so would be that he would crash into an invisible wall after passing the aerial fortress.

Through Xiao An's eyes, he glimpsed the memories that Solan received on his deathbed.

The first hero who swung his sword at the "new god," and the fragments of his soul that turned into birds after his death, were seen by the village's old fisherman as touching the edge of the world, but to Ethan, it was more like crashing into the outer wall of a "birdcage."

Ethan also saw the Crimson Queen in that memory, which makes the identity of the first hero obvious.

He has now found the whereabouts of the missing Silver Emperor.

It turned out to be the case.

Ethan felt he was gradually understanding everything. Those remaining memories were both a legacy and a message the Silver King wanted to leave for his companions. They contained the secret of meeting the new god, but Soran failed to see the mystery within.

Thinking of this, he threw the now-cold pizza in his hand with great force. This was originally his weapon for the final battle with the warden, but now, it had fulfilled its last mission, disintegrating in the night sky and returning to its original form, with the flour drifting in the wind forming a white mist.

The flour transformed into billions of tiny, softly white stars, bursting and splashing outwards at an astonishing speed.

The crimson sparks flickered and quickly merged into one.

The leaping flames seemed to shatter a black glass, and an irregular, multidimensional crack appeared on the canvas of the night sky. The edges of the crack flickered with jumping strings, and inside was a deeper, more absolute nothingness, a darkness that could devour all light and hope.

Ethan flipped himself up to the edge of the terrace and stepped into the void.

The moment he touched those strings, his body changed, beginning to be assimilated and disintegrated by the characters, merging with countless characters almost in the blink of an eye.

That void became the bridge connecting the two spaces. After a moment, thousands of characters broke away from the main group, pieced themselves together, and gradually returned to the outline of a human figure.

In this space, the concepts of life and matter have ceased to exist. Everything that exists here has returned to its most primitive state, displayed here as symbols of certain elements. The human form, formed by the characters, becomes the only discordant element.

The humanoid figure looked down at its palm, where it saw flowing, converging characters.

It has no skin, no flesh, and no bones.

“It’s very impressive.”

From the depths of that white-dominated world came a voice praising Ethan's attempt.

Courage, boldness, and keen insight are all indispensable.

Only in this way was the first "life" born—a non-believer who forcibly entered this world by breaking through space.

In other words, Ethan was the most suitable person to become his follower—more suitable than any other apostle.

Because in the process of transforming flesh and blood into characters, He had seen through Ethan's purpose.

This "life" came with questions.

This stemmed from Oliva's inadequate explanation and, more seriously, a misjudgment of Ethan's identity.

“You are not a follower of Bazartos.”

No follower of Bazartos dared to enter this temple of information and knowledge. However, when He arrived at this answer, another question arose—if Ethan was not a follower of Bazartos, then who was he? Or rather, what was he?
The sound stopped for several seconds, and Ethan saw the characters in the void scrolling faster and faster, and the pure white space began to vibrate as the characters scrolled.

This time, He did not receive an answer.

A few dozen seconds was enough for Him to review thousands of years of history, without missing a single detail.

Different planes, different civilizations—wherever He descends, everything in that world is recorded in this repository.

He searched every corner, from mythical wars to folk tales, but could not find any trace of Ethan. Therefore, He came to a bold conclusion.

"You are just like me."

This is the only possibility remaining after hundreds of billions of possibilities have been ruled out.

In a place unknown to Him, another being, unknown to Him, found a way to break free from constraints and ascend to a higher realm.

However, for the "new gods," this was undoubtedly a reckless decision.

This world exists because of Him, and Ethan's actions are tantamount to plunging headlong into the deepest part of the contaminated zone and confronting the true form of the evil god.

The space torn apart by the explosion was being filled at a visible speed, and the rolling strings built new barriers, once again blocking the passage connecting the two worlds. This was the consequence of recklessness.

He couldn't yet analyze Ethan's true nature, but He was certain that in this part of the space, Ethan absolutely could not create a gap in the space by throwing a pizza and then detonating the flour.

He could completely eliminate the concept of "fire" simply by changing the mechanism of one of the characters.

And they have even longer, almost endless time.

He welcomed Ethan's arrival, bringing with him questions that even He did not know, adding a significant chapter to His knowledge base.

A gaze from the depths of space watched Ethan, observing the thousands of characters that had become abnormal due to Ethan's arrival.

It's like a virus.

Before this, no virus had ever dared to challenge Him.

He could not be too powerful and nip this abnormality in the bud; perhaps He should have given it some room to grow.

"Why don't you speak?"

The God of Truth asked a question once again, not wanting to miss any detail.

The next moment, dozens of sounds simultaneously entered His mind:
"Old Ba".

"Barzatos".

"The evil god Bazartos".

"The Old God Bazartos".

"Buffett Legendary Pictures".

"Professor Ba."

"Professor Barzatos."

"Barzatos and 67 Death Stars".

"Basic User Guide for Database Query Engines"

"Basic User Guide for Video-Based Database Query Engine"

……

This virus is actually accessing His database without permission!?

The God of Truth was incredulous, and another terrible problem arose—He discovered that Ethan's behavior could not be deduced through calculation at all! Logically, He was an omniscient and omnipotent being here, knowing the past and the future, yet at this moment, He was completely unable to calculate Ethan's next move!
Then, something even more terrifying happened.

As Ethan continued his search, hundreds more anomalous data points suddenly appeared, strongly associated with Bazatos, including nonsensical terms like "Old Ba" and "Bazi".

This virus...

It is growing and expanding right under His nose!

(End of this chapter)