Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Thus, the ancient, fallen empires revived their sacred authority. Even though the gods did not directly intervene in their wars, they still offered up the entire vast galaxy for them. Because of the Middle-earth Army, the Necromancers of space became their allies, while the nascent human civilization was utterly crushed, becoming the object of conquest by the Eldar due to its incompetence.

The guardians among humanity attempted to retaliate, but to no avail. Ultimately, after a brief war, the galaxy found peace under Eldar rule. Meanwhile, the war between the Reincarnators raged beyond the galaxy, failing to affect this battlefield until a victor emerged.

In the third line of events, Sirin made significant interference. She disrupted the divine birth ceremony, nipping the possibility of the Eldar gods' conception in the bud. Ultimately, the Eldar gods died in the womb. The attention of the Central Plains and the Demons shifted, and the unknown reincarnation team abandoned this place, choosing to rely on the power of other civilizations. The Eldar remained a fallen empire, indulging in its former glory. And when mortal civilizations flourished, their resistance and counterattacks only caused a small ripple.

The Eldar have vanished, and mortals now reign supreme in the galaxy. But this is only temporary, because the reincarnators of the Central Continent and the Demons have not invested their resources in the mortal race—meaning that these two strongest reincarnation teams will not deliberately avoid the battlefield within the galaxy. The ultimate result is that as the intensity of the war increases, there is a certain chance that the galaxy and its mortal civilizations will perish—or become new corrupted nations, thus distancing themselves from the battlefield as much as possible.

In the fourth storyline, Sirin intervened in everything. She wiped out the Eldar entirely, or relocated them elsewhere. Afterward, she chose to side with the Empire of Man—because of her, both the Middle-earth and Demonic factions allowed the expansion of the Galactic Empire and shifted their focus away from the battlefield. Ultimately, regardless of who emerged victorious, an immortal human dynasty was born upon this vast world.

Mortals have become the overlords, and as long as the final victor comes from either the Middle Continent Team or the Demon Team, their dominance will not end. They won the war almost effortlessly. And regardless of whether they are the final victors, at least they won't be the ones directly eliminated.

Alice closed her hands. Beyond these four possible futures, there were many other worldlines. But those worldlines differed from these four only in details, not in essence. Therefore, she only needed to use these four as target examples in her hands.

In the first storyline, Sirin made no choices, and the Galaxy suffered heavy casualties in the future war.

In the second storyline, Sirin chose the Eldar, a force other than humanity. Humanity was destroyed, and the galaxy suffered some damage in future wars.

In the third storyline, Sirin chose humanity, or rather, leaned slightly towards humanity. Although the fate of the Primordial Celestial Realm is unknown, at least in this galaxy, humanity can control its own life and power. Even if ultimately destroyed, some embers will still remain to continue shining.

The fourth storyline, the eternal mortal kingdom that wins without lifting a finger, signifies that Sirin has chosen the side of the primordial celestial realm. And after she makes this decision, regardless of the Spirit Race or other alien races, war will not break out in the galaxy. In this ending, at least mortals will suffer the fewest casualties in the galaxy.

The future lay before her, a choice to be made. She knew her choice might not necessarily lead to that specific future. But she understood that once she made her choice, the possibility of the future turning out that way would increase dramatically.

“Everything is inevitable; this is a truth I only recently learned.” Alice still smiled faintly, but her gaze had already slid away from Sirin. She looked at other universes beyond our own, the light and fire of war reflected in her eyes. “Some will die, many will die, many, many more will die—that’s inevitable. And all we can do is choose those insignificant forks in this inevitable future.”

"So, what is your choice, Sirin?" she asked. "Or do you not intend to make a choice at this moment, but rather to choose a new path in the subsequent events? But it doesn't matter, no matter which path you choose, war will still break out, and the final victory may not necessarily be in our hands."

Xilin remained silent for a few seconds.

Her fingers gently traced the border of the endless loop. The options Alice Lock presented were like a scale, and on each side of the scale lay the weight of a people's lives.

Is humanity all I care about?

All I want is for humanity to continue to survive.

She knew she already had the answer; the nature of connection prevented her from deceiving herself into creating falsehoods. A thousand thoughts then gently swirled in her mind. In the end, only a sigh echoed.

"Couldn't we... not involve these mortal races?" Her voice was terrifyingly low.

“You know it’s pointless,” Alice chuckled. “You don’t care, and neither do I. The first-tier reincarnators are basically indifferent, since the power of a true god is the limit of a single universe. Even if this place transforms into a finite multiverse, the power we possess is destined to no longer be able to be amplified by momentum. But this is only us; the other reincarnators are different.”

"Of the fifteen reincarnation teams, eight remain. Excluding the unlikely new Celestial teams, our Central Continent team, and the neighboring Demon team, there are five teams with combat capabilities remaining—the fact that we failed to detect them immediately means they have successfully hidden themselves. This means that unless they utilize the 'power' bestowed by the Supreme God to amplify their strength and temporarily elevate their life level, even with external assistance, they will find it difficult to become a force capable of opposing us."

“So that’s how it is.” Alice’s tone turned calm. “War is inevitable, and it will inevitably drag the mortal civilizations that you can’t bear to erase into it. After all, this limited multiverse is still very immature, still incomplete, and can only support a few supreme god positions. So no matter what, there will always be reincarnators who try to use the power of civilization to ascend to the heavens in one step and thus be able to compete with us.”

Even if we strike first...

Alice released her grip, erasing the future paths she had been clutching. And as she removed her other hand from the endless loop, she saw the options Sirin had chosen.

—And the thunderous sound of the outbreak of war.

Section Thirteen: Mythology

Celine's choice was to choose nothing.

Because she eventually realized one thing: when she actually placed mortals and other races on the two sides of the scale, she couldn't feel the weight of mortals.

coupling--

Connecting all things—

She remembered fighting Ex in the Moon World, doing her best to protect the mortals suffering from the disaster, and then countless alien races perishing in the aftermath of the war. At that time, she felt nothing, as if such actions were simply the right thing to do.

At that time, she was a true god. She was the pinnacle of power in a single universe, yet she was still limited by the true gods within that single universe.

And now, she is a transcendent being. She is an immortal being who has surpassed the power limit of a single universe, and is no longer bound by any objects or concepts in the old world.

Past beliefs could no longer bind her, no longer influence her. She understood what it meant for Heaven and Earth to be impartial, and what it meant for sages to be impartial. She also came to know the meaning of equality for all beings.

So she didn't choose anything.

So she turned around and left.

................................................

Alice didn't chase after her. One reason was that she knew it would be pointless, and the other was that she knew where Celine had ultimately gone.

She knew that Celine was no longer the team's only weakness and weak point. She also knew that the war had already begun.

War – When did the war begin?

As Alice removed her fingers from the endless circuit, war erupted from an ancient era nearly three billion years ago—a time after the spacetime barrier had been breached, when the Old Ones and the Star Gods had already determined their victor. At that time, the Eldar were at their strongest, and their controlled territories spanned the entire galaxy.

They are powerful, they are intelligent, they are invincible. And these thoughts intertwine and coil, ultimately constructing an immortal divine power before the object of this endless cycle was even created—

"My name is Asuyan, the creator of the Spirit Race, the beginning and origin of all things."

The future reflects the past.

The divine embryo, built up over billions of years by the Spirit Race, bore fruit at a time when everything was still in its infancy. This primordial deity was born from the ocean of consciousness of all Spirit Race beings during the Spirit Race's most prosperous period. It had the appearance of a firebird and, at the moment of its birth, rapidly expanded its power.

Ordinary things become extraordinary, achieved in an instant.

In an instant, a pure and clear light of the soul was born, and it was instantly tinged with an unusual color.

An unknown team of reincarnators descended upon this deity, paying the price with some unknown treasure, likely not from the main god. The unnamed reincarnator took control of this power—it merged with the deity the instant it gained control and pushed it to its ultimate limit.

A true god, born within this limited multiverse and limited to the final battle, possessing the identity of the Elven race.

With its birth, more spirit deities, illuminated by the future and drawn from the past, gained physical form and were born into this world.

There's Kane, symbolizing war; Isa, representing life; Lilith, equating wealth and dreams; and Silego, representing intrigue and mockery—they are numerous, with around eleven powerful beings bearing names. The rest are lesser Eldar gods; perhaps these deities can gather the light of the soul, but their ultimate potential is no greater than that of the Valar whom Iris brought down in The Lord of the Rings through the Book of Revelation.

They were born.

At the very moment of their birth, some of them were corrupted and replaced by an unknown reincarnation squad. That reincarnation squad and Asuyan, who arrived first, shared the same origin. Together, they paid an extremely high price for this synchronized infiltration.

Cost, cost.

They may each have a different definition of this 'greatest price'. However, in the eyes of their adversaries, the greatest price paid by this group of unknown reincarnators was the choice they made.

They made their moves; they revealed themselves.

They took action to join the war; they could no longer hide.

So Alice closed her eyes.

When she opened her eyes again, she had arrived at the height of the Spirit Race's power, at the moment when the gods were born and reached their zenith. She did not manifest herself directly, but instead invoked the 'power' she had established in this universe, constructing the identity of 'Xin Liezhi,' the supreme divine power master of all transformations. After manifesting, she waved the token in her hand that controlled all changing events.

This is to her advantage. As the master of all changes, 'Xin Liezhi' is naturally involved in all conspiracies, schemes, and plots. And if she were to interfere in the greatest scheme of this universe at this point in time—the birth and demise of the Spirit Race gods—then 'Xin Liezhi's' presence at this point in time would naturally increase significantly.

And as expected, the instant she wielded the Staff of Control, among the Eldar gods, Kane, the embodiment of 'war,' let out a low roar. He abruptly raised his greatsword, which shone with pure light, and slashed with all his might towards the starry sky where Asuyan resided!

"You are not one of us! An outsider!" It was one of the few high-ranking gods among the Spirit Race who had not been replaced, and its roar, accompanied by a sword strike, resounded through the heavens. It was a sudden, decisive, and fierce sword strike; the moment it fell, the scattered light illuminated most of the Milky Way.

"You're insane, Kane!" The replaced Asuyan shrieked, flapping its fiery wings and slamming into the war lord who dared to defy it—the God-King's authority instantly crushed the God of War's resistance. Kane was sent flying out of the Eldar's realm like a beaten-up sandbag, crashing headlong into the energy tides within the Milky Way, and then vanished without a trace.

He was banished.

After the God of War was banished, the authority of the God-King was confirmed. Led by the high-ranking deities who had been secretly replaced, the gods of the Spirit Race submitted to Asuyan. However, this brutal action eventually attracted the attention of some of the remaining deities—two pillars among the high-ranking gods, the Goddess of Life Isha and the buffoon Silego, noticed the unusual behavior of their brethren beside them—the two gods exchanged a secret glance and, without tacit agreement, chose to remain hidden.

The Eldar gods gained peace, a brief peace—yes, that's right. Having lost 'war,' they naturally gained peace without war. And the interaction among the gods was reflected in the Eldar race itself. Thus, the Eldar, who had become the rulers of the galaxy, also became weak because of the loss of 'war,' and became yearning for peace rather than fighting.

The future changes the past, and the past corrects the future.

The accumulation of resources for the future allowed the gods of the Eldar to be born in the past. However, the lost 'war' of the past led to the Eldar becoming complacent, conservative, and even decadent.

This is a bitter pill to swallow. Alice… Xin Liezhi's conspiracy made the event of 'Kane's exile' a crucial element in their creation of their own time loop. They were born from the Endless Circuit, the Endless Circuit from the Eldar's fall, and the Eldar's fall from Kane's exile—once this chain of events was anchored, as long as they needed to maintain their stable existence, they could not remove this fundamental event.

They could no longer find Kane. They could no longer restore the Eldar's fighting spirit and expansionist desire. They discovered that the potential of the civilization they had conquered had reached its limit for this very reason. No matter how much they guided it, no matter how much they used their divine authority or power, they could not drive a civilization that had lost its ambition to move outward.

The Eldar imprisoned themselves within the Milky Way galaxy.

The gods of the Spirit Race were imprisoned within the Milky Way by the Spirit Race's conservatism. Asuyan, who originally had the potential to advance further, was completely halted at the stage of True God. They could only follow the script written for them by the Lord of All Changes.

This group of outsiders, reincarnated beings, tasted the bitter fruit of struggle resulting from their lack of experience beyond their own.

As they helplessly focused their energy on consolidating the external force that bound the final battle, which was born of 'momentum', the scepter of the Lord of Changes swung for the second time in secret.

..............................

Within the heart of the galaxy, the God of War, Kane, slept for hundreds of millions of years.

In the long, slumbering years of the God of War, His weakened consciousness stirred within the void—the past influencing the future, the future correcting the past—when His consciousness awoke from its hazy state, He discovered He had arrived in the depths of a subspace whose rules of time were vastly different from those of the outside world.

He saw a bronze throne, and a blood-soaked giant writhing before it. Many creatures, both living and dead—powerful, strange, brave, or treacherous—charged at the giant, only to fall instantly to a single, blood-red, rusted blade.

That was… a supreme divine power. A king of blood and bones, yet to be born, but destined to be. And when Kane saw Him, He saw Kane too. And He raised His greatsword, and the massive army that had been fearlessly attacking Him just moments before retreated like a tide.

"Come!" the burly man roared, raising his sword toward the Spirit Clan's God of War.

"Roar!" The Spirit Race roared in war, gripping their greatswords tightly and rising against the tide.

'Boom—!' In the first clash, the blood-rusted greatsword shattered the gleaming giant sword.

'Break—!!' In the second clash, the blood-soaked giant tore through Kane's armor.

'Bang—! ! ! !' In the third clash, the Eldar Warlord's body was almost cleaved in two vertically. His shattered remains drifted in the boundless warp. The tiny fragments scattered and decayed, their remains scattered across countless light-years.

"I refuse to accept this!" He roared, manipulating the power of war. The next moment, He returned to the bronze throne in His full form, shouting at the unknown, burly man.

"Come!" He raised his greatsword once more, launching another attack on the unborn god beneath the throne. And the blood-rusted blade was raised once more. Vast tides surged within the warp, causing countless worlds, large and small, to rise and fall in cycles. Billions of light-years of space became a battlefield between gods, and in the midst of this bloody battle, defeat once again befell Kane.

How many countries were destroyed because of this war? How many lives were lost because of this war?

It doesn't matter; it never has been in the warp. Every instant, hundreds of millions of warp civilizations are born from the overflowing warp tides. Every instant, an equal number of warp creatures vanish into the tidal waves.

Consciousness reflects the present world, and the past reflects the future. As countless subspace races rose and fell in the war of gods, a small amount of power leaked from the sea of ​​consciousness scattered across many places in the vast universe. At least three extragalactic systems, equivalent in size to the Milky Way, shattered due to the erosion of the subspace storms, while at the same time, seven places in the present world's void were transformed into material galaxies by the waves of the subspace.

Time has no meaning in subspace.

Death struck Kane down, destroyed him time and time again.

He was not discouraged. After each defeat, He would regroup in a very short time and rejoin the war. So much so that after this endless war and defeat, even the unborn King of Blood and Bones expressed his admiration for Him.

"Come work for me, Old Kai." After yet another crushing victory, the man extended an inviting hand to the Eldar's God of War. "I prefer conquest to war. I need an assistant to take my place in the war effort, and you are the best choice."

However, God's invitation only brought the roar of war.

"I will defeat you! I will defeat you sooner or later!" roared the War God of the Spirit Race, raising his indomitable sword once more.

Thus, He received the whispers of the unborn God, and with them, another death.

"Then I will give you a chance."

"I'm giving you a chance to improve yourself to the extreme, and then fight me again in perfect condition."

And so, the Eldar war fell. When He awoke again, He found Himself deep within the Milky Way—His physical form was rapidly regenerating. And at the edge of His vision, a shadow appeared.