Cataphracts, surviving in a world full of mods

The deity smiled and slowly placed his two hands together, each finger perfectly aligned.

"Like two transparent paintings overlapping, the you of that world and the you of this world also overlapped in an instant. In that instant, you both existed in this world at the same time, and then continued in this state. So your soul also belongs to this world."

"That's why you're still wearing the armor made by modern industrial machines, instead of the armor that Tersolius originally wore, forged from fine steel by imperial craftsmen, which symbolized their honor and pride."

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions about this too. For example, although the armor and weapons are made by ourselves, the inner garments and boots are exquisite items with fine stitches, which are part of Tersolius.”

Thesolius's expression remained calm and composed throughout, but his fingers kept tapping on the marble floor tiles beside him. Finally, he could no longer bear it, and a hint of anxiety appeared on his face.

"That means in my original world!—"

"That's right, just as you think."

The deity smiled and nodded, then suddenly scooped up a handful of clear water from the pool and scattered it to the side. The numerous droplets didn't fall to the ground; instead, each drop rose upwards, then gathered together, spreading out like a thin film to form a shimmering curtain of water.

"There's another you in that world, exactly the same as you, except he also possesses Tersolius's memories... so some rather interesting things happened~"

Colors began to emerge from the water curtain, becoming clearer and clearer, transforming from chaotic patches of color into a distinct image—a clean and tidy two-story rural house with a courtyard of several dozen square meters planted with fruit trees, and a dizzy young man reaching out to hold onto the door frame, his armor plates rattling as he slowly got up.

He was covered in mud from the fall, and should have looked disheveled, but at this moment, an inexplicable sense of menace emanated from him, like a warrior who had crawled out of the blood and mud of the battlefield, unable to conceal his cold sharpness and power.

The heavy armor that had seemed heavy and inconvenient just moments before now fit him like a second skin, not affecting his movements in the slightest. He first thoughtfully surveyed his surroundings, then reached out and grabbed the spear beside him, giving it a light shake to fling the mud off like raindrops. He then strode forward, walking confidently out of the back gate of the courtyard, and stood on the sturdy, wide cement village road, gazing into the distance.

He looked at the calm little pond in front of him, at the few sturdy willow trees beside the pond, and at the smooth stone blocks under the willow trees... It seemed that these ordinary things had become new to him at this moment, making it hard for him to look away.

Just then, the sound of a scooter came from the side. A fat man in a black t-shirt rode over on the scooter, about to cross the road. But his gaze was inevitably drawn to the tall man covered in iron armor. A mocking look appeared on his face. He was about to say something and raised his hand as if to slap the guy on the head... but the other man suddenly turned around!

Almost instantly, he completed a series of movements—turning around, stepping forward, and holding his spear—standing motionless like a steel statue. A terrifying intention was revealed in his movements, carrying something bloody and undisguised malice.

The fat man screamed in terror as if he had been bitten in the eye by a snake. He couldn't even ride his motorcycle anymore and frantically tried to escape. His strong will to survive was immediately triggered, but he just plunged headfirst into the pond without even daring to call for help. He just rushed towards the other side as if he were fleeing some terrifying being.

It was obvious that he wasn't very good at swimming. He took two steps forward and then stepped into deeper water, which submerged his head. He could only struggle desperately, like a duck whose throat was about to be cut.

This time, it was Xu Ning, who was fully armored, who was stunned. After hesitating for a while, he realized that he should save people. So he quickly took off his helmet, unfastened the buckle, and took off his heavy armor within three minutes before jumping into the water.

………………

"How was it? Pretty interesting, right?"

The god smiled at him, but the story on the water screen was nearing its end—the fat man, who was constantly spitting out water, was dragged up, and a large group of villagers gathered around him. Several people were also trying to pull out the scooter that had fallen into the water. Then the scene returned to its clear, emerald green color.

Thesolius, however, wore a thoughtful expression. After a while, he suddenly smiled slightly:

"It was just a little farce, and I'm just relieved about it... My parents in that world will not lose their son, and they will be taken care of... And I believe I can do well too, and that everything I love in that world will not be abandoned."

The deity smiled without saying a word. He simply waved his hand to remove the water curtain, then adjusted his posture, resting his back against the smooth, delicate pool wall.

"Alright, let's wrap up the small talk for now. I have something I want to tell you, something quite important, and I also have something I need you to do for me. Let me know how it goes."

"I'm all ears."

Chapter 526: The End (5)

"To put it simply, I'm a bit wronged."

"..."

Thesolius stared at his opponent expressionlessly, waiting for what was to come. Although his mind was racing, he remained outwardly composed.

“The old man named Scripps was originally planning to do something… I initially thought it would be too much trouble, but then I realized that leaving it unattended would be even more troublesome, so I somewhat abruptly called you over for a chat and to clarify things beforehand.”

Tersolius continued to nod, showing no intention of offering his own opinion.

"...To explain this clearly, we have to start from when I first passed by...Do you want to see the truth about me?"

The god slightly pursed his lips and asked him a question with a hint of inquiry. Teresolus naturally had no reason to refuse, so he nodded. The next moment, as the other's wrist, still dripping with water, suddenly turned, the magnificent bathroom around them suddenly collapsed and twisted towards a point, just like peeling off a canvas, revealing the scene they had covered.

The pitch-black starry sky was clear yet dim, dotted with countless stars like grains of sand. Before him appeared a pale blue planet—land occupied only a small part of it, the rest being vast oceans. A bright and scorching sun shone down from one side, while the other side was shrouded in the darkness of the universe.

He floated in the starry sky like a meteorite, but was not tormented by the vacuum environment and extreme cold. He was simply freed from the constraints of gravity and was tumbling and drifting aimlessly.

Despite having some expectation of what was happening before him, Thesolius was still involuntarily overwhelmed with astonishment and shock—no matter how many times he had seen it on screen or in books, nothing could compare to witnessing the impact of the stars and the earth with his own eyes. Here, he was no different from a speck of dust.

But he didn't see the truth the other party had just mentioned, which puzzled him, until a bright golden-red light swept over him from behind.

"I am here."

A gentle voice entered his mind... It appeared suddenly, like his own thoughts, without any medium, and it wasn't in any language he was familiar with, yet he could understand it, and understand it faster than in his native language.

However, he had no time to delve into the details. The scene before him once again shocked him, causing him to briefly lose his ability to think. Before him was a magnificent sight formed by the intertwining of gold and red, as brilliant and splendid as the sun, yet not blinding, but carrying a just-right warmth.

This is a creature with a somewhat humanoid shape... It looks like a jellyfish with a translucent body floating in the ocean. Golden and red light flows over its body, and its four long tentacles have countless branches, each with distinct colors and textures, just like its body—the outermost layer is a brilliant pale gold, then a bright red, and the innermost layer is a fiery orange-red.

In that position resembling a human head, three points of the most intense and brightest color are distributed in an irregular manner, like three strange eyes. The head itself is slender and spindle-shaped, with tiny, hair-like tendrils floating in the void at the end.

The red-gold light that had just turned him around was merely the tip of the smallest branch of one of His tentacles... while His true form was as tall as a mountain, requiring him to tilt his head back to the extreme to see the top of His head.

"This is my truth... and of course, it's what you can understand."

The gentle voice rang in his mind again, and the other person slightly raised one of its tentacles and swayed it towards him, as if greeting him.

"I am not an omniscient and omnipotent god... My abilities are far from that level. To be precise, I am just a wandering traveler with no destination."

The massive, mountain-like body slowly twisted, its head turning in one direction, continuing to speak in his mind with a touch of nostalgia:

"According to your method of calculating time, I probably broke away from my tribe about 5000 years ago and became a completely different being from them. Since then, I have been less constrained and have started to travel around according to my own will, looking for interesting places and civilizations."

"Back then, when I passed through this area, I accidentally discovered that there was already a civilization on this planet, so I decided to observe it for a while. It was also at this time that I sensed a power at the same level as mine that was also trying to infiltrate this world... If things were left to develop, something bad would undoubtedly happen here, but at the time I had no interest in caring about it."

"After all, I am just a passerby, and based on my experience, it is often not a good thing to interfere too much in a nascent civilization, so I was somewhat regretful and preparing to leave... But at this moment, the will of a native creature on this planet made a connection with me."

“You may not understand how rare this situation is… His level of life is still the same as others, but his spirit and will are strong enough to connect with me… This is the first time I’ve encountered something like this in all my years of traveling, and it’s quite novel and interesting to me… But connecting with me is not a good thing either. The difference in our levels of life is too great, and he will be involuntarily influenced by me. This is not even something I can control or decide, and his spirit is destined to become insane and collapse as a result.”

"And that person was the first emperor of the empire. He called me a god, begged me to save their country, and was willing to pay any price... This troubled me a bit. After all, I didn't want to get involved in this kind of thing, and I had no intention of clashing with an existence at the same level as me. But he was unwilling to give up and called on me every moment."

"He was like someone grasping at a straw, unwilling to slacken in the slightest... In the end, I agreed. After all, what I was facing wasn't a powerful being, just a remnant of a force on the planet. As the price for me getting into trouble, he had to show me something interesting. And whenever that threat came again, my attention would inevitably be drawn to the emperor of the empire, inevitably affecting them... This was also an unavoidable price."

"Something interesting?"

“Yes, he needs to show me the future—a prosperous future in that land. I like to see that, and I find it genuinely interesting. Besides, I won’t stay here forever, and I can’t completely solve the world’s problems.”

"...?"

"Don't be confused. In fact, I'm about to leave... I have about 700 days and nights left, and I've already figured out the power hidden deep in the planet—simply put, it's an larva."

"An juvenile."

Tersolius was probably more surprised today than he had in the past few years... and he was almost used to it.

Chapter 527: The End (6)

"That's right, it's an juvenile."

His crystalline yet massive tentacles, coiled like sea serpents, then stretched out, touching the azure planet behind him, and gently tapping it at a point resembling a human head.

"It took me a long time to realize this because the force that intended to infect the world was always subtle, intermittent, sometimes strong and sometimes weak, but overall it was becoming more and more robust and obvious, just like a toddler gradually growing stronger."

"And that is precisely why I cannot completely erase Him—He is hidden at the center of the world. If I were to destroy Him, I would have to tear the planet apart. Just as one cannot easily catch a worm in a tree trunk, my power also brings me considerable limitations."

“I can suppress and suppress it again and again, and constantly thwart its development, but that only cuts off its tentacles that it has tentatively reached out. It cannot truly destroy it. Sooner or later, it will break through the soil... and it has already realized that I am about to leave.”

Tersolius frowned in confusion, though it was only a fleeting glance, it was still accurately captured by the other party.

“I know you’re wondering about this. After all, you might think that my departure is just because I’m tired of it and it’s a whim… But in fact, I’m not tired of it yet. I just have to leave to prevent things from getting worse.”

"I already mentioned to you the special influence I have had. In fact, this influence is becoming stronger and stronger... Simply put, this world is assimilating into me. If I continue to exist, I will not only be your emperor, but even the people of this world will be affected, and eventually this world will become the way I know it."

“I don’t want to see this happen, so I’m preparing to leave before it gets too far. It seems that it has realized this, so it’s making its move.”

Thesolius lowered his right hand, and the potential energy from this movement caused his body to involuntarily lean to one side. However, he quickly adjusted his center of gravity and movement, preventing his gaze from shifting to the side.

"...What will happen to us after you leave? Destruction?"

The enormous head nodded slightly, and the burning light and shadow on it moved like ribbons.

“That’s right, it will be born from the earth sooner or later, and that will be the end of this world… and that is the destiny of this place. My arrival has only delayed the moment of destruction for a while. You will eventually be destroyed.”

"It's laughable that there are still mortals in this world who think they can use this to rise to the heavens, but they don't realize that they are ultimately just food... It's just that their leader has indeed been granted permission to have the long life he desires... but certainly not in the way he most wants it to be."

"Even though it is just a juvenile, it is full of malice, and it is irrational, boundless and extremely powerful malice. Whatever it wants to achieve, it will definitely do so in a malicious way."

The sudden realization that one's world is about to be completely destroyed is not good news for anyone. It's not impossible for someone with a slightly fragile mind to go insane. But he maintained a calmness that surprised even himself, as if his mind was carved from ice and no hot waves would rise inside.

After a brief moment of thought, he asked a new question:

Is there any way for us to save ourselves?

The colossal entity paused, surprisingly hesitant, as one of its massive tentacles, as large as a mountain peak, coiled and then stretched. Its countless branches swayed like sea anemones.

"There is one... but it's not easy to succeed, and it's also quite troublesome for me—I'm actually quite afraid of trouble. I changed my direction and came here to avoid a problem."

"But you still got involved in the trouble, didn't you?... Otherwise, you wouldn't have stayed here for thousands of years."

"Don't push your luck, little one."

A bright, gleaming tentacle gently tapped his forehead, the force of which was pitifully light, like a human finger. For His enormous size, such control was absurd.

"I'm afraid I have no choice but to push my luck. After all, no one will easily give up the right to live, and I am now the only person who can speak to you. I have to pester you like that emperor did back then. Please tell me even the slightest possibility that I am unwilling and have no right to give up."

He remained remarkably calm... It seemed that Tersolius was born with this talent; the more critical the situation, the more rational his mind became. Almost nothing could completely interrupt his thinking, which allowed him to always make the right decisions when others were in a panic... even though there was very little he could do at this moment.

Their country, the order and prosperity they protected, the people living on that land, and even the land itself, were about to face destruction. Everything he had fought for and sacrificed would be in vain. Nothing could be more tragic than this, and what's worse, they had no way to resist such despair.

This was a problem far beyond what the iron hooves of cavalry and the swords of warriors could solve, not even a problem that the nations and humanity of this era could solve. The only hope lay with the being before him, a being so powerful that it could disregard certain rules, a being worthy of being called a god…

The other person lowered their head slightly, their gaze, seemingly unfocused, fixed on him with a hint of curiosity.

"...Then I have to tell you, you stubborn little thing...This method is just troublesome for me, but for you, it requires a real sacrifice...and only you can sacrifice yourself, even your soul might be completely annihilated. Do you have the resolve to do that?"

“I will be leaving some time from now. During this time, I will still keep my promise. I can even erase your memory of the time we talked, and let you live out the rest of your time according to your original plan. But if you choose this path, you must do it immediately without delay. If you are not careful, you will be doomed and this bomb will be detonated immediately.”

"By then, I can naturally erase it with ease, but it will be too late, do you understand?"

Chapter 528: The End (7)

"I am fully aware of this, and I still have no hesitation in pointing out this possibility to me."

Tersolius maintained that terrifyingly resolute expression, even somewhat stubborn and hardened, showing no wavering whatsoever because of the other party's words... or rather, his decision had not changed at all from the very beginning.

He had to act immediately, to seize the opportunity before the situation changed further. Cowardly escapism was never a viable option from the start; it was merely a helpless act born of despair. He would not choose it if there was even the slightest possibility.

"...Your will is strong enough to rival that of the emperor back then...Since you insist on this, then I will tell you about this possibility."