Magical Soul Parade

Chapter 382: Revelation (II)

Finn pointed across the distance, his finger locking directly onto the white-haired figure.

"You are the reason for entropic mana decay. You are the reason why chaotic soul masses exist. And most importantly, you are the reason why this world fails to hold divine power," Finn’s voice was cold and devoid of any particular emotion.

"You are the reason why it rejects divine power so vehemently. You see yourself as a God in this world. Your will pervades mana itself, which also, therefore, pervades the very fabric of reality of this world. This world does not reject divine power. It is you who rejects its existence. You reject its possibilities because you know it will breed beings stronger than you are."

Finn shook his head and let out a short chuckle, looking up at the dark skies.

"Throughout my whole quest for retribution, for the misdeeds done unto me by the Transcendents, there was always one particular fact that always bothered me... It was how exactly a bunch of powerful Transcendents, the peak of power of this world, had come together, crafting a grand plan just to achieve a single goal..."

Finn chuckled again, a cold sound. "These are beings who are essentially the Gods of this world. I have seen Gods, and I have seen people at the peak of power of a world. I have been one of them. And in no case has there ever been such a level of cooperation. Arrogant, ancient entities who have held absolute authority for centuries do not willingly bend their knees to share a vanguard line or combine their core concepts for a common cause."

"No... A collective grand plan such as this could only be as a result of a singular enemy... One that threatened their very existence...They didn’t gather out of a shared ambition to break their limits... they gathered out of a collective, desperate terror because they finally realized they were all trapped in a dying world with a monster."

"You. You are the enemy here."

Finn went silent after his analysis and the words he’d just spoken. In his own mind, he continued to ponder the implications, thinking internally:

Is this the reason why Arros brought me to this world? Is this the exact reason why he brought me here? I, who used to be a God in my own world. I, the Errant Heretic, who had bested many other gods...?

Of all the Transcendents so far, even including Sage Limitless himself who stood before him, Arros was still the single one who was the most unfathomable.

His exact goals, all the steps he had taken so far to bring Finn to this point, his numerous clashes against the faction of the Order bearer, Althea, over the many years, yet the core people never died.

His grand wipe of the memory of the world, making everyone but core individuals forget the true history of the world.

Was everything just a carefully planned step to lead up to this exact moment?

Of course, Finn had in no way suddenly turned into some sort of saint who believed the Transcendents were an oppressed group, or that he was a savior who had descended to liberate them from their plight. He held no such delusions in his mind for a single moment.

But he also did not disregard the reality of the situation. Sage Limitless was, factually, the true enemy here. The core threat that had forced these naturally combative, arrogant Transcendents to pool their resources and fight together.

Whether the initial role Arros and his hidden faction had planned for Finn to play in this theater was vital or not, Finn didn’t bother to overthink for the time being. He refused to be a pawn in another entity’s grand design. Rather, he focused entirely on what he himself wanted to achieve in this situation.

His mind drifted back to Althea. He knew she had been captured by the Sage, but she had not been killed.

Then his thoughts shifted to the Chaos Transcendent, the one who had meticulously set up the nullification array to render his Error abilities useless in the battle. Looking back now, there were aspects of the entire battle that seemed a bit too machinated, as if he had been intentionally allowed some sort of calculated leeway throughout the conflict to push his way to this exact peak.

Finn’s focus then returned to the white-haired figure floating in the distance across from him. If this man had already achieved the terrifying level of power he currently embodied, what else could he possibly want?

What did an entity who could manipulate the very power and lifeblood of his plane actually fear...?

The only definitive answer Finn could think of was death.

As with all mortal things, death remained an absolute certainty for Sage Limitless, regardless of how many centuries he managed to delay it. Despite how cold and heartless the man might be, he surely understood the mechanics of his own existence. He knew he was systematically siphoning the life force of his entire plane of existence just to keep his own heart beating.

Suddenly, Finn’s green eyes widened behind his bone mask.

"Order," he murmured under his breath.

The pieces fell into a perfect, chilling alignment. The underlying reason why Althea had been kept alive was because of her specific concept. Somehow, some way, Sage Limitless was planning to use the authority of Order to influence his own broken concept.

He needed to stabilize the self-conscious paradox of his mana manipulation to regain some level of balance.

If he could achieve that synthesis, he could, in theory, fix the entropic leak.

In essence, within the boundaries of this plane at least, he would become truly immortal.

Finn let out a dry, mirthless chuckle. He locked his gaze straight ahead, staring directly at the core of the world’s decay.

"The age-old quest for immortality," he muttered.

As if the Sage had physically perceived the exact moment Finn finished his deduction, he looked forward, opening his featureless white eyes to lock onto the Heretic.

A slow, wistful smile cracked across his stoic face, the high mountain winds fluttering his long hair about his shoulders.

"Yes, Error Bearer..." the Sage spoke for the very first time, his voice carried by a smooth, absolute resonance that seemed to vibrate through the ambient mana itself.

"It is the age-old quest for immortality."