[Vol. 7] Chapter 47: The Ghost of a God
What the [God of Truth] Surst couldn’t bear, the evil god Octavier was also unlikely to withstand, considering their similar levels of divine power. However, Octavier hadn’t directly come into contact with the essence of that “Truth” like Surst had, so it seemed They wouldn’t suffer the same fate.
The unknowable, the untransmittable, even information related to its content was equivalent to mental pollution. Though the truth Violet saw was shocking enough, it still only scratched the surface. The deeper, true Truth that drove the [God of Truth] mad, she has yet to come into contact with in any way.
"Is it still not the right time...? What does [Don't make eye contact with the third month] really mean?"
The Truth the [God of Truth] Surst saw and the Fate they spoke of, what were they truly referring to?
What troubled Violet even more was that many of the things Surst’s words hinted at closely matched the messages Hen had been trying to convey to her. For example, the [Key of Three Moons] or the message passed through Xiao Kong, [Fate has noticed you].
There was definitely a connection between these things.
In the dark, silent depths of the sea, Violet gazed at the broken skull, burned to half its original size, watching it gradually crumble and dissolve due to the touch earlier. She fell into a moment of thought and silence.
When Sethlin had speculated that the [God of the Azure Sea and Truth] might actually be the Evil God of the Sea, Octavier, she had shared much information with Violet, including details about another god closely tied to this one.
As two gods who jointly ruled the endless seas, Octavier and Surst governed the "sea below" and the "sea above."
The [God of the Azure Sea and Truth] protected ships and islands, bestowing the blessing of truth to help guide the way through the fog, while the Evil God of the Sea resided in the world's deepest waters, enjoying the abundant resources of the sea. Their thousands of tentacles stretched in all directions, almost controlling everything in the deep sea.
One god ruled Truth, while the other commanded an endless divine body.
These two gods were like neighbors. Despite their differing attitudes towards the creatures of the world, which often led to various conflicts, their vast differences in their domains and powers kept them from interfering with each other.
The [God of Truth] could not venture deep into the sea to challenge the Evil God, and Octavier's massive tentacles, if they extended above the surface of the sea for too long and lost their moisture, would weaken and become vulnerable to being severed.
So, even though they were mortal enemies, neither could harm the other. Their mutual dislike of each other resulted in a dynamic balance, allowing the sea to thrive and prosper, full of life.
While the God of the Azure Sea guided ships and protected the islands, the sea creatures held a stronger fear and dislike for the other god, who liked to devour living beings and occasionally attacked those who ventured too deep.
However, Octavier didn’t seem to care about that. They did as They pleased, never collecting any followers, and unlike Surst, They didn’t spread blessings or create sects. Their terrifying, grotesque tentacles gradually earned Them the reputation of an evil god.
Of course, these events happened at least a thousand years ago. Even Sethlin wasn’t sure exactly what happened to Octavier after she was sealed, nor what transpired in the sea after the [Divine Catastrophe] began. But she was certain that both Octavier and Surst had fallen silent, and no god had any control over the sea anymore.
In other words, the madness that consumed the [God of Truth] after They glimpsed the Truth, and everything that followed, occurred in the short span of a few hundred years, after the Goddess of Earth fell and the Origin Realm became unstable until the [Divine Catastrophe] erupted.
Further, the fact that Surst accessed such forbidden knowledge through Their own Truth powers couldn’t have happened naturally. There must have been some hidden force pushing Them toward it.
Just like what happened when Seth had her accident, some individuals mixed information pollution into the techniques offered to the god in the world of Aibus, interfering with the Goddess of Earth’s judgment.
These individuals, who disguised themselves as divine messengers a thousand years later, deceived the Aibus people into restarting the [Doomsday Bombardment] to strike another world, secretly liberating the Goddess of Withering, and guiding the Abyssal Beasts to invade the Origin Realm, were likely part of the same group.
If the forces behind these three events all originated from the same place...
It could only be the [Twilight Council].
A group name that Hen had once warned her to be extremely careful of naturally came to mind. Could it be that they’ve been secretly pulling the strings all along? What exactly do these people want?
It seemed like she needed to pay more attention to gathering information on this organization.
But putting that aside for now, there were still a few crucial and unresolved questions about the Emerald Sea.
First, why did Octavier create the Ghost Sea, forming this huge box-like world known as the Emerald Sea? If They weren't severely injured, why did They remain silent for a thousand years? Was it because They were troubled by the pollution caused by Surst?
Additionally, if the Ghost Sea is the true reality, and the Emerald Sea is just a huge mirror-like world, how did They create such a massive world that spans between reality and the mirror? Why do They allow the creatures in the box world to go extinct and reset every year?
As mentioned before, the Evil God of the Sea, as the god of countless eyes and hands, derives Their power from Their nearly infinite size and tentacles. They were more like a physical god, similar to a small dragon, and not good at handling strange, mysterious things.
If the Ghost Sea turns creatures into those with tentacles all over, it might be because of the polluted powers of the [God of Truth], and in some way, those powers are intertwined with Octavier’s existence. That could make sense...
But when it comes to things like “inner worlds,” “overlapping worlds,” or even “box world resets,” it’s absolutely impossible for this Evil God to handle on Their own.
When Sethlin first heard that the Emerald Sea might be a box world created by an Evil God, she was extremely surprised and skeptical. She didn’t think Octavier could even do something as troublesome as that.
This time, Violet came along with the team not only to rescue Nitila but mainly to try to understand these deep mysteries by offering and attempting to perform a ritual to the [God of Truth] through Willipol.
But...
“Hm? Wait, hold on a second.”
Suddenly, Violet realized something very crucial. A strange detail that didn’t match what she currently understood.
If the [God of Truth] has long since died, utterly and completely, and those pollutions spreading across the sea, the few [Books of Truth], and the "whispers" Hongyan encountered are merely the lingering, aimless effects of the god's presence in this sea...
Then… what about the existence that was summoned by the ritual at the Merfolk’s royal palace? The one that accepted the sacrifices, revealed Nitila's location, and was worshipped by Willipol in an attempt to fight against the Evil God... Who was that “god” that repeatedly responded?
That... who exactly is it?
It demands sacrifices... pollution, things even the [God of Truth] could not endure, derivatives of knowledge so powerful it could overwhelm, yet it also seems to possess the same ability to reveal truths as the [God of Truth]. It looks very much like Surst, but it cannot possibly be the same.
Surst is truly gone, with no possibility of resurrection, and certainly no way of responding to any followers. Violet had witnessed the ritual on Palut Island firsthand, and even back then, she thought that the being that appeared wasn’t a god. It felt more like an incomplete spirit, and it was disturbingly evil.
A dead god, reappearing, showing its old powers, responding to its followers, and even… collecting some strange form of belief to sustain itself.
The very existence of such a thing... was absurd, against all reason. Yet, when all possibilities were ruled out, the remaining answer became clear.
Standing on the ocean floor, Violet looked up toward the distant heights, as if seeing through the deep sea, watching countless eerie mists gather at the water’s surface. She heard the screeching, the sound of something scraping through the darkness.
So that’s it.
There’s a real “ghost” in this sea, lurking, yearning to regain its life.