A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 633 Closed Loop

"You don't need to be indignant." The aged voice of the Lord of Order was neither surprised nor sad nor happy: "Using and being used are common occurrences."

"In the beginning, in order to explore the mysteries of magic, I became Thoth's most devout servant when I was young."

"When I became a great mage, Thoth was waging war against other gods. I earned His respect through my strength and wisdom, and even formed an equal relationship with Him."

"When I was on par with the gods, He unfortunately fell. I first used His legacy to ascend to the pinnacle as the God of Magic, becoming the Lord of Order, and then resurrected Him."

"At this point, He is equivalent to my God, the Archangel, who rules over the pantheon worshipped by the people of the desert."

"Of course, as my closest friend, He is a special being. All members of the pantheon are named after Him and obey His commands, and I will not interfere too much."

The Heart of Thoth that Rorschach had been clutching had fallen into the old man's hands. His tone was as usual, but his golden hand caressed the heart: "Are you a pawn? Exploring the past is meaningless. My answer is that it is not the case now."

"There is no chess piece that can decide the move, and there is no chess piece that the chessboard cannot accommodate."

Originally, He had created the so-called system based on Rorschach's memories to aid his growth. Soon, Rorschach's development exceeded His expectations. After layers of upgrades, the Lord of Order decided to invest more—first binding a budding branch from the Tree of Truth to Rorschach and merging it with the system, and then giving Rorschach the special space left behind by the Arcane Hermitage.

The "divine incarnation" incident was the final test and recruitment. From then on, He no longer directly interfered with Rorschach, allowing him to develop freely.

"The space where the Senate holds meetings?" Rorschach was surprised. He had heard Feuerbach, Cano and others complain more than once that the Senate had lost its ancient "ancestral meeting room". He had thought more than once that the special space he had "found" by chance might be the one that the Senate had lost.

Rorschach also studied the secret code, but found nothing except for a clear indication that it pointed to Thoth. He was also unable to establish a connection with the border area, and at one point ruled out the truth, comfortably occupying the "Conference Center" and transforming it into a "Magic Information Calculation and Storage Center".

Based on the Lord of Order's own account, it seems he acquired Thoth's divine office—the God of Magic—and then, after gaining more authority, resurrected Thoth and returned it to His former friend. And the secret contract, as the mages speculated, indeed points to a God of Magic who never interferes with the caster's spells.

"Exactly." The Lord of Order remained expressionless, but his words revealed disappointment: "I have left these mages for hundreds of years, and none of them have shown enough wisdom and greed to monopolize or locate it from the astral plane. They have only plotted through secret covenants passed down through generations of the Hermitage."

"Now it is yours. No one can enter what you call the border without your permission, Rorschach, nor can they peek at its location."

"But be careful of Gaia. The Mother Goddess is not the same as before after her awakening. The Tree of Law and the place where it is hidden are the last safe place. Such a secret place is a masterpiece rarely seen in my life."

Dryaz felt uneasy as the Lord of Order spoke, and He listened, pondered, and remained silent.

Rorschach remained calm and composed in the face of this supreme god, but to Dryaz, the old man was merely an appearance, an incarnation. The pressure he exerted was even greater than that of the High Heaven itself, like being near a scorching sun. In his memory, the old man had casually glossed over the Second War of the Gods, but Dryaz still remembered it vividly.

Even if He doesn't want to recall it now, the current situation starkly illustrates what happened in the past: the Primordial Layer should have been the place where gods manifest their essence, but now it is only eerily desolate; the space between the Astral Plane and the Prime Plane should have been the dwelling place of the gods, but the divine kingdom has been shattered and left only as dust.

He absolutely did not believe that the Lord of Order was any kind of benevolent being, bestowing so many gifts upon Rorschach for no reason.

But now, Dryaz couldn't bring himself to say it. This was the canopy of the Tree of Truth, the throne of the God of All Laws, the Lord of Light and Order. Two celestial bodies, one black and one white, each holding and symbolizing a part of the origin of the world, silently watched him from above.

He didn't know what he could do, so he said nothing and remained silent.

"Alright, that concludes the recollection. Let's return to the current situation." The Lord of Order finally got to the point: "The imprisonment and killing of other deities in the past was not merely due to my personal likes and dislikes. All things are influenced by the yin and yang forces of the world, and gods are no exception."

"Therefore, for the past few hundred years, I have been fighting against Gaia. If the power cannot be enveloped by yang, it will be eroded by her. And the power I can bear is still limited. The North Wind Bear God, Delyuez and others could only seal their divine remains, giving Gaia an opportunity to take advantage."

"However, such things always happen over time, regardless of whether I interfere with or prevent Gaia's followers from performing the rituals. For a long time, only I have been able to suppress Him in the symbolic realm. This is a battle in the highest heavens, and it is only getting more intense."

"The usurpation of the Bear God's authority was my mistake. It was the rift that led the Mother Goddess to reality, the beginning, and it means that she is just one step away from a complete revival."

"I no longer have the ability to interfere with or redeem my people, my compatriots from my past lives. My power is no longer sufficient to descend upon the material world; I can only rely on you."

"I?"

The old man held his friend's heart high, and as the power surged into it, the glass-like divine organ once again emitted a dazzling light, creating a scene in the darkness.

At this moment, Rorschach and his heart were still in danger, and strangely enough, Rorschach's physical body had been eroded by the black tide, leaving only the magical circuits within his body.

At this moment, his brain and Thoth's heart are in a similar state, the two strange organs connected by circuits and existing by the power released by both.

At this moment, Rorschach's "remains" are the battlefield of the Mother Goddess and the protagonist of the Order. The Mother Goddess has worn away Rorschach's flesh and bones, leaving only the most difficult parts to chew. The circuits and the brain not only carry the order of Rorschach's other world, but also receive continuous support from the power of Thoth and the Order of Light.

"As you can see, your physical body has been completely consumed, leaving only a vessel for your soul and a vessel for your magic. I need them to release the otherworldly order you carry and my remaining strength."

"This action will completely erase the Black Sun from the material world, reversing the Mother Goddess's invasion to its pre-disaster state, buying the world more time. At that time..."

"Enough! What's the point of talking about the future? Are you suggesting sacrificing Rorschach?" Dryaz, unable to bear it any longer, finally broke the silence, interrupting the Lord of Order: "It can be done without Rorschach, can't it? Thoth's heart is enough."

"He should have been consumed in the sub-plane, he should have given his life in the shadows, he should have accepted my promise of godhood and given everything. This has far exceeded my expectations and surpassed his predetermined fate, but that does not mean my gift is without price."

As he finished speaking, the Lord of Order activated Thoth's heart, unleashing a torrent of power—like a flood, like thunder, like the blazing sun—that flowed into the Black Sun. The final sight was a pure white explosion erupting within a vortex of chaos, engulfing the last remnants of Rorschach in the real world.

"Just now you said I wasn't a pawn, but now I've become a tool with no choice." Rorschach watched himself explode, and gave a bitter laugh. "Did you tell us all that just now to wait for the Black Sun to destroy my body, leaving me with no way out?"

"Exactly." The old man readily admitted this: "Without a physical body, your only connection to reality is this." The Lord of Order raised his shining heart: "And it is in my hands. Otherwise, like the border crossing, you can send your soul back, but I will make sure you do not."

"At the same time, it also drew the attention of the Mother Goddess, causing her to focus more of her will and energy on the interior of the Black Sun, rather than spreading it outwards."

"Thankfully, everything went smoothly. I successfully detonated your and Mother Goddess's incarnations in the mortal world."

This expressionless old man remained blank, his face bearing an aura of sacred solemnity and sublimity, yet one could vaguely discern from his words that he was in high spirits:

I would like to say a few more words about the metaphor of chess pieces and chess players.

"After peeking into your original world, I gained some great insights: in addition to seeking victory or defeat within the game, one can also use special means to achieve victory outside the game."

He only said that Rorschach was not a chess piece, never that Rorschach couldn't be a chessboard to be smashed against the opponent.

The chessboard was of excellent quality, allowing the Lord of Order to achieve a victory akin to that of the "Great Han Chess Saint".

Witnessed by the gazing gaze of countless living beings, a crack appeared in the black sun, from which pale light shone forth, eventually fading into the night. The white light did not dissipate, but gradually transformed into a warm, pale yellow hue.

That was reassuring sunlight; dawn had broken.

(End of this chapter)