Chapter 1536 — "The Solution"

Gao You, listening from the side, was dumbstruck. He had never imagined such a thing possible, and for a moment he could not decide whether to marvel at the Pathfinders' brilliance or Lady Night's—until at last he concluded that both were brilliant indeed. And amid his astonishment he could not help muttering: "And you all just believed Her, because She explained it that way?"

The Earth Goddess was briefly at a loss for words. The Goddess of Spring, being rather outspoken, answered for her: "What choice did we have? She explained it *after* She was done beating us—and by then the beating was already over..."

"Flora, do not speak that way," Gaia said at once, turning to admonish her younger sister. "Lady Night's method did produce results. Whatever the process, Her help to us is beyond doubt."

Then she turned back to Gao Yang. "Also, according to Lady Night, She was confident in this method from the very beginning. Years ago the Pathfinders used a similar method to forcibly 'pull' Her back from a state of semi-madness. Only their technique was more refined and more efficient; She has merely borrowed the method in some small measure."

Gao Yang could not help rubbing his forehead. He now understood a little more of the ancient secrets of the Pathfinder era, and a little more of the truth behind Lady Night's transformation into a "Starchart Keeper" at the Pathfinders' hands. Yet for some reason he felt he would have been better off not knowing. At least then he could have kept a magnificent, epic world intact in his heart. As things stood, Lady Night had brought her club down and smashed that image to bits—and he still had to sit here under the impact of this shattered worldview and discuss serious matters with the Triad of Abundance. Oh, and all the while the Gaia sisters had blood all over their faces...

"Be that as it may, the results show that Lady Night succeeded," Gao Yang said, having finally steadied himself. "So what does She want to do next? Or rather, what does She want you to do? And what does She need from us?"

The three Gaia sisters fell silent in unison for a moment. Then the youngest, Flora, broke the silence: "She told us... to prepare to kill ourselves."

Gao Yang's eyes went wide on the instant, and even Amber, who had scarcely made a sound all this while, could not help crying out: "Huh? What did you just say? Prepare to kill yourselves?!"

By now thoughts were racing through Gao Yang's mind, a flood of clues and information converging with sudden force. These fragments had once been vast and scattered, sketching only faintly the logic behind some matter, never once showing him the whole picture—yet now Flora's answer was like a single bright thread that in an instant bound everything together. In his astonishment he saw it clearly, and understood what Lady Night intended.

"Did She tell you to strike at your own divine halves when the Divine Calamity erupts, and die together with them?" He whipped his gaze to Gaia, eldest of the three. "She set your human halves free... so that you could end yourselves this way?!"

The three goddesses were briefly silent. Then Amoen, who had lain nearby listening quietly all this while, gave a faint sigh. That sigh brought Gao Yang up short, and he turned to look at the former God of Nature: "You already knew?"

"Guessed. A faint guess," Amoen said, lifting his head, his voice low and slow. "I have lived through a god's entire 'life course'—from birth to ascendancy, from freedom to bondage, from 'fall' to rebirth. I understand better than any of you what properties and what power that chain binding the gods possesses, and what a god can and cannot do... Self-annihilation—given how pressed we are for time, how desperate the situation, it is already the greatest freedom Lady Night could bring the gods."

He lowered his gaze, his crystal-like eyes resting quietly on Gao Yang. "And it is also the only reliable way. At this critical hour of resisting the demon tide, when every mortal nation has played its last card, when industrial capacity and social function are squeezed to the limit just to sustain the Mother Star Barrier, any additional pressure from a Divine Calamity—even a little pressure—would be utterly fatal. I know you have contingency plans, Gao Yang. You always have 'one extra card.' That card might raise this season's civilization's odds of survival a little, but the price is likely already more than even you are willing to bear, isn't it?

"And even if such a price were paid, how much higher could civilization's odds of survival be raised? Even if it survived, how far could the last survivors rebuild this world? Could a scant handful of survivors truly endure upon scorched earth after a Divine Calamity? A demon tide can last half a year, and the Divine Calamity will begin the very instant the tide arrives, turning the whole world to scorched earth in a short time. Across those six months of scorched earth, can the Mother Star Barrier really run as steadily as you planned?

"So when the three sisters of Abundance appeared before me and told me they had achieved the separation of humanity and divinity, I guessed what Lady Night intended."

Gao Yun drew a soft breath. In that moment he suddenly recalled a few words he had once let slip in idle conversation with Amber. They had been discussing whether there might be some way, when the final Defiance was triggered by the demon tide, for mortals to resolve the Divine Calamity crisis at the lowest possible cost—or to complete the Rite of Adulthood in the shortest possible time. They had earnestly discussed every method they could think of, and in the end only one joking conclusion remained—

Hoping for such a stroke of luck was less realistic than hoping the gods would all kill themselves.

Now the gods had decided to kill themselves.

The conclusion had not been a joke after all.

"Lady Night says the Rite of Adulthood must be passed by the mortals of this season's civilization themselves. She does not belong to this age; Her connection to the mortal world is too tenuous. To reach out and sever our divinity from our humanity was already the greatest breach of the rules She could achieve," Eve said, her expression calm. "A god's self-annihilation is a 'clean, residue-free' means of disposal. It leaves no corruption leakage or thought-tide echoes from the involvement of external forces, and it will not greatly affect the mortal world. If we act quickly enough, it will not even cause the mortal faithful too great a shock—it will take only an instant, and they will no longer hear our voices."

"Wait, no..." Amber finally could not hold back any longer. She stared wide-eyed, her expression making plain she could hardly accept it. "You've just accepted this? She says killing yourselves will solve the final Defiance, and you just..."

"Divine Calamity after Divine Calamity, the wasteland wars, the Sentinels, the Reverse Tide... these years the mortal nations have scarcely had a moment to breathe," Gaia said softly, gently shaking her head, her voice cutting Amber off. "This is not a question of accepting or not accepting. It is a choice that must be made. We are trapped upon our thrones, yes, but through our believers' eyes we see the world change. We actually understand the present situation better than you do.

"I do not know how matters stand with the other gods, but we sisters have discussed this long and seriously. The mortal nations of this world must now give everything they have to endure this crisis of adulthood; the mortals have no strength left to bear the pressure a Divine Calamity would bring. So... we will kill ourselves."

(End of Chapter)