Am I going to be controlled by the players too?

"Okay, I'll make it happen for you."

The next moment, Bugu chopped off the priest's mechanical head with a single sword stroke and tossed it aside.

…………

why? !

It was the first time we had defeated the plague demon, and it was the first time we had gained the upper hand in the battle against the primordial... so why did it turn out like this?

The Realm of Dragons, the Battlefield of the Abyss.

With the successful slaying of the Plague Demon Iron Curtain, the combined strength of humanity, including the four gods and Cheng Cheng, has never been greater. They should have the upper hand in the fight against the demons... However, the appearance and attack of the Hungry Demon disrupted everything.

The gods are still fighting, but the world they are fighting to protect has already come to an end.

At this moment, as the earth was swallowed up by the hungry demon, the battlefield of the Dragon Realm was completely exposed to the void.

Without the seal of the Dragon Realm, the remaining three Primal beings withdrew from their condensed demonic forms and transformed into pure symbolic essences, becoming darkness, the unknown, and chaos themselves, sweeping in all directions!

Sylvia and the others, no longer suppressed by the Primal One, instinctively tried to stop it...

However, the demons were originally blocked because Sylvia and the others stood at the exit of the Dragon Realm, blocking them. Now that even the earth itself has been swallowed up, the Primals can naturally erode in other directions. Why bother to confront the four True Gods head-on?

Moreover, the original demons' driving force, "destroying the world," has been achieved by the hungry demon, and this cycle has ended.

They really didn't need to confront the true gods head-on, since the true gods were unkillable, and besides... these human gods would eventually become their partners.

Thus, the three primordial beings no longer possessed their original fixed forms, but instead deconstructed themselves, ultimately transforming into the concept itself.

[Wisdom] "Nameless Mist" Neog Sohip transformed into the unknown, nothingness, unobservable, and disorder; [Beauty] "Primordial Darkness" Tulzcha transformed into pure darkness and deathly silence; while "Primordial Chaos" Nyarlathotep became the source of madness, chaos, and disorder in this world.

In the sky, the gluttonous Obolos laughed loudly, and then transformed into the essence of "hunger" and merged into the world!

Having lost their physical forms, they were unable to attack the four gods, but at the same time—

Even the four gods could not attack them!

Everyone was at a loss, and for a moment they didn't know what to do next.

Boundless darkness, boundless fog, boundless chaos, endless hunger...

This is the essence of the abyss.

Even without actively attacking, Sylvia and the others felt their consciousness being constantly influenced by the unknown and chaos, and their emotions gradually became more mad, confused, and driven by an impulse to destroy everything, as well as a desire to devour everything.

Humanity is rapidly diminishing, while divinity is rapidly ascending, not to mention...

"We...failed?"

The world has been destroyed.

The blow of failure was so heavy that it rendered all of Sylvia and the others' efforts meaningless in an instant.

The world has been destroyed, family and friends are gone, and even the enemy is in a position where he cannot take revenge... In such a situation, he is still alive, living in a void.

What's the point of living like this?

For some reason, Cheng Cheng suddenly recalled the three questions that Witch A, Ellef Medici, had asked him during the first witch trial:

"Throughout the game, you've built all sorts of connections with many people and things, whether family, friends, or enemies... So, are you afraid of severing those connections with your own hands?"

At the time, he answered "yes".

"If there were a futuristic virtual reality game, so realistic that it was indistinguishable from reality, where there was no separation or death, where you could reap all the happiness and fulfillment you deserved, and live happily ever after... would you be willing to live in it?"

He would certainly like to live there.

"If your fate is already predetermined, everything in this world will fall apart, and everything will leave you: friends, relatives, strangers; then the gentle breeze, the flying birds, the stars... and finally yourself."

"Everyone, everyone in their memories, those smiles and tears, the promises made and those not made... will eventually come to their predetermined end."

"If you knew the destination from the very beginning of your journey—"

"Will you embark on this journey again?"

The answer to the last question... he didn't know.

Now, these three questions are once again before him, and before everyone else.

The false prosperity has collapsed, the world has been destroyed, and family, friends, and enemies have all vanished into the gaping maw of gluttony. All relationships have been severed, and all fates have been sealed.

So, does everything they've done really still have any meaning?

They are still alive, and perhaps they will live for a very long time... but what is the point of living in such a world?

At this moment, the five people present felt no sadness, no grief, and no mutual accusations. Instead, they silently looked at each other, none of them knowing what to do or say next. After all, in this dark and chaotic abyss, even time itself had lost its meaning.

They failed, the world was destroyed, and... there was nothing left to do.

Everything is meaningless.

Everything returns to nothingness.

Everyone could clearly sense that humanity was rapidly declining while divinity was rapidly rising.

In this meaningless void, an unknown amount of time passed, until…

"Everyone! We haven't failed yet!"

A clear voice broke the silence as Cuckoo cheerfully stepped into the group of five: "Why are you all so serious? Smile, okay? Sigh, I always said you five little brats are still too young. You can't do anything right... After all, you're all hopeless! Hahaha!"

Everyone looked over in silence.

Bugu's awkward smile froze on her face. She then coughed twice and raised her head: "You... know about the 'Immortal Crown'?"

Chapter 160, The Story Because of You

"...The above is the top-secret information that the clever, cute, and kind Cuckoo has gathered for everyone!"

In the abyss where there is neither light nor darkness.

After hearing Bugu's story, everyone was shocked and fell silent.

Two worlds intertwine with their tragic destinies, dancing an eternal waltz around a pitch-black sun called "The Abyss."

Throughout countless ages, generation after generation of heroes, gods, worlds, and demons, the ebb and flow of hope and despair, the rise and fall of civilizations—all served as sacrifices at the end of the story, offered together to the newly born tenth source material.

The Immortal Crown.

“So that’s how it is…” Freya glanced at Cheng Cheng thoughtfully. “So, the world you’re in is also…”

Cheng Cheng nodded: "If I'm not mistaken... the world I live in is the testing ground for the next cycle of reincarnation after this world is destroyed."

"Through some means, I came to this world located in the 'past'."

Cheng Cheng's words did not surprise the crowd.

Freya and Sylvia had anticipated this, Li Xianyu had grown accustomed to their company, and Bugu was a reincarnation from the future. The only exception was Himeko...

"I...I'm going to die!" Ji Yushen's eyes widened, and she covered her mouth. "You traveled from the future? That's impossible!!"

Li Xianyu looked over curiously: "Why?"

Everyone knows that you, Ji Yushen, are cunning, but no one expected you to be this cunning. You don't even know that your subordinate, the Divine Ritual Officer, is the mastermind, yet you keep clamoring that you are the greatest emperor of all time...

Now you're making a big fuss over nothing; it's making you look ridiculous.

“The Source Matter possesses a uniqueness in space and time, like an anchor standing in the river of time. No interference with history and the past can shake the Source Matter, especially its ownership!” Himeko said seriously. “Like Freya, can you reproduce the Source Matter in your memories through the power of memory?”

Freya shook her head: "I can't do it."

"But he did it."

As Ji Yushen spoke, resentment welled up in her heart again: "Back when we were fighting the War Demon, it was he who stole my Dragon Vein... If he really came from the future, it would be equivalent to changing history and shaking the uniqueness of the 'Dragon Vein originally belonged to me'—how is that possible?"

Looking back on that period, everyone agreed that it was indeed true...

"Ugh~ Why bother with this? The answer is already pretty obvious~"

The cuckoo suddenly chuckled and asked, "What is immortality?"

The one who answered her question was Hime Mikami: "The Divine Ritual Official once described to me the existence of the Immortal Crown—the Immortal, who transcends reincarnation, time, and causality, who is eternally proven, omniscient and omnipotent, immortal and indestructible, who severs the three corpses, and possesses supreme divinity, eternal and unique... Hiss, could it be?"

“That’s right.” Bugu stepped forward and patted Cheng Cheng on the shoulder. “As long as he becomes immortal in the future, isn’t it normal for him to be able to transcend time and shake the uniqueness of the source matter?”

Cheng Cheng: "Me?"

Did I succeed? How come I didn't know?

He was able to do all this because of the game "Fate/Immortal Crown". Combining the truth of the two worlds he now knows, and the existence of the Immortal Crown... Cheng Cheng suspects that this game is similar to "being able to manipulate the Immortal Crown that will inevitably be born in the future to a certain extent".

But this does not mean that you have become the crown. After all, according to Bugu, to become the immortal crown, you need to accommodate twenty-two paths and nine source substances at the same time.

No one has ever done that before.

"Correct!"

Bugu nodded: "The Crown of Immortality is a testament that lasts forever. Perhaps you became immortal in the distant future, or perhaps outside of time, or maybe even..."

At this point, Bugu opened her hands, revealing three cards:

"Now!"

…………

…………

"All source matter has the potential to be upgraded to an immortal crown."

As Bugu walked, he said, "For example, if the Hungry Demon were to devour all the source matter, it would become the only immortal; and if Sylvia were to successfully 'dominate' all others, she would succeed in the same way... Himegami's conquest and Freya's memories are all based on the same principle."

"Therefore, the essence of the 'Crown' is actually the collection of all other source matter and paths—twenty-two paths, nine sources of matter, not one can be missing!"

In the esoteric theory of the Kabbalah Tree of Life, the Son of Man must embark on a journey of meditation, traversing twenty-two paths and passing through nine sources, to reach the place symbolizing supreme divinity—the Crown (Kether).

This is the ultimate occult ritual that the two worlds have tried countless times and in countless cycles to complete.

Now, "The Fool" and "The Magician" are in Cheng Cheng's hands; "The Priestess," "The Emperor," "Power," and "Judgment" are in Ji Yushen's hands, and "Wheel of Fortune" Serafina is also in Ji Yushen's divine kingdom;

Although the "Lovers" card was destroyed, the legendary flame remains. Felix's remains are in Himegami's divine kingdom, and it won't be long before a new "Lovers" card is formed.

Sylvia has "The Pope" and "The Hanged Man"; Freya has "The Empress" and "The Tower"; Li Xianyu has "Death".

Karen and Vilette are both in Sylvia's divine realm at this moment and have not been sacrificed, so they have both "Justice" and "Temperance" in their hands.