Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

"So, you chose her?" Alice gazed at the girl before her, her expression complex as she uttered the name. "My former priestess..."

"...Flora!"

A new war is brewing.

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

Meanwhile, in the main battlefield universe.

Patchouli, who wields the divine authority of Tzeentch and sits atop the Throne of Wisdom, opens her eyes.

Something unexpected happened; it was an unexpected event that Alice's very existence was bound to cause.

This unexpected turn of events completely exceeded her original plan, but in other words, this unexpected event had no impact on the plans on this side.

Ah, what an accident.

Alice always brings all sorts of unexpected events.

However, unexpected events wouldn't trigger continuously for her. When she had already triggered an unexpected event outside the designated area, this phenomenon itself meant that all her arrangements before leaving would proceed as normal—the four supreme divine powers were fully and seamlessly embedded in the main universe, becoming an immutable and vital part of that universe. And the script she had anticipated for hundreds of years had also functioned perfectly, with the entire galaxy being constructed into a form that met her needs over those hundreds of years.

The timeline of the main battlefield can no longer be altered, unless the modifier possesses power exceeding the combined power of the four supreme gods. All causes and effects are anchored, and the galaxy is gradually becoming turbulent due to Alice's schemes.

The Eldar have fallen silent.

Several surviving arks, guided by Zhan Lan's alias "God of Laughter," gathered together, forming a force akin to the remnants of a fallen dynasty. Initially, they planned a dramatic awakening of depravity, activating long-dormant machines, breaking forbidden protocols, and unleashing all the technologies that had caused terrible disasters—they almost did just that, but ultimately failed in a resource exchange with the higher-ups.

What Zhan Lan needed was a flock of harbingers of doom, a group of servants who would act on her behalf, not a ruling power that would proclaim her hegemony.

Meanwhile, the clone Alice also wanted some tentacles from the physical universe to strengthen the status of Slaanesh, the supreme god, so that this power could help her in the future.

Thus, both the guardian god and the coveting god simultaneously decided the mindset of this remaining force. And because of this, silently, some conflicts between the Eldar erupted.

The Eldar have split.

Instead of awakening, the corrupt empire suffered a second blow in the calamity. A portion of the Eldar abandoned their lost gods—who still revered Angelina (Silego) and her agents—and turned to Slaanesh. They delayed the harvesting of their own souls by sacrificing the emotions and souls of living beings to Slaanesh. Although they did not directly surrender their faith, in a sense, they had become Slaanesh's claws.

They call themselves the 'Dark Eldar'. They have become plunderers and bandits roaming the galaxy. All intelligent life inhabiting the galaxy is their prey. They adorn these sacrifices with ravage and torture, offering them as tribute to their de facto masters, the Slaanesh.

They are actually what the Eldar Empire looked like before the Great Vortex erupted.

Their appearance naturally meant a significant weakening of the Eldar's remaining power—the remaining Eldar no longer had the strength to wage war. They also feared the inevitable end of having their souls harvested by the Slaanesh. Thus, guided by Angelina (a pseudonym for Zhan Lan), the Goddess of Laughter, they bound their actions with strict doctrines and creeds, transforming themselves from wanton libertines into ascetic monks who did nothing. At the same time, by abandoning war, they also relinquished their former absolute power—they no longer armed themselves with weapons, but with wisdom. And this perfectly suited Zhan Lan's needs.

Because of Zhan Lan, the status of the prophet has been greatly elevated among the remaining Eldar. They are able to foresee good fortune and misfortune, and predict the future. Thus, in this perilous Dark Age, they can discern every opportunity and force that could help the Eldar revive—and the Eldar's Ark world will operate according to their prophecies, participating in every significant event and exercising their power.

They became harbingers of doom, objectively speaking. Like crows chasing after disaster, they continued to arrive at every place where an accident occurred, their clan-like nature deepening as they moved closer to their predators.

Zhan Lan's ideals deepened gradually. In her spare time, she would occasionally play with her clone, Alice, and sometimes, when she won, she would retrieve some of the Elven souls captured by Slaanesh from Alice. This made the Elven people increasingly adore and dependent on her. And all the Elven people who stood by her side thus formed a tradition: after death, the Elven souls would be absorbed into Soul Stones and placed into the endless circuits of what was now her divine kingdom.

The Eldar have become completely dependent on her, and she greatly admires these members of her race. Although she doesn't know what the future holds, as long as she survives until the very end of the war—which is highly likely—there will likely be a few members of this race remaining under her protection.

This is the Spirit Race.

The matter concerning the Eldar can be considered largely resolved.

Besides the Eldar, the other races—the few pieces allowed to step onto the stage—have also undergone their own distinct changes, all within the plans of the strategists.

The least changed were the space necromancers—Inori Yuzuriha, the Silent Queen, truly presented herself as indifferent to the world within the galaxy. Perhaps she had already somewhat guessed her role as a pawn, but she didn't intend to make any significant resistance. She simply quietly managed her tomb world, naturally awakening the other necromancer emperors who obeyed her one by one. She didn't intend to actively participate in the wars within the galaxy, but she did have some thoughts about other external forces outside the galaxy that were trying to invade this star system.

She became the galaxy's shield against extraterrestrial invaders—though those she protected knew very little about her achievements. This arrangement did not seem to conflict with the beliefs of the clone, Yuzuriha Inori. Thus, she was able to continue her work, freely fulfilling her role as a guardian.

She felt that this kind of life was good.

—Perhaps she wasn't the only one who thought this development was good.

Besides her, there is another race with mutations: the Space Orcs. In fact, currently, neither the Central Plains nor the Demon Realm have many members who show much interest in these green-skinned berserkers. So much so that, although it is unknown who is controlling this race behind the scenes, they are currently being left to their own devices.

Free-range grazing.

The free-range orcs grew stronger as they invaded one planet after another.

Their race is a natural weapon of war, possessing not only an independent psionic system but also a unique ancient-designed technology tree embedded in their genes—they grow very quickly, but in the process, they also suffer greatly.

This is normal, after all, races cannot be generalized. Furthermore, with the close attention of the four supreme gods of the warp, this exposed target naturally did not have a smooth ending.

In short, before the orcs grew into a scourge, they were repeatedly thrashed by the undead, dark elves, and elves. They thus regained a semblance of confidence and a sense of existence on mortal planets. However, with the end of this centuries-long narrative and the subsidence of the powerful void storms caused by the Great Vortex, the overall situation of the galaxy underwent a new change.

The agreed time is approaching.

Human civilization, having rebuilt its communication and transportation networks, is about to experience its most brilliant revival in this era.

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

Patchouli looked away.

As she withdrew her gaze, an avatar of hers successfully teleported to Terra. She could clearly sense the location of the guardian of humanity who inhabited this planet. She even knew the guardian's next goals and movements.

He will become the emperor of the human kingdoms, transforming from a guardian into a ruler and guide. He will rebuild human civilization from this severed state of decline. And to accomplish this great undertaking, for this grand expedition to rebuild the human kingdoms, he, as the guardian, needs a sufficiently powerful and controllable force.

Five minutes later, he will initiate the ritual to summon the Lord of a Thousand Knowings and Changes, and attempt to obtain from me the technology and blueprints for creating innate demigods. This will allow him to create a legion of demigods… that is, a conventionally controllable Legion of the Four Primal Gods. This will enable mortals to acquire and wield the power to permanently rule the galaxy.

[Good idea, but it doesn't meet Alice's and my needs. So I won't give him the technology, but only a successful technological entity—he can only take twenty demigods from me. And he can only cultivate degraded demigods, that is, legions of around Tier 3, to fight for him.]

Patchouli's eyes flickered, clearly outlining this future. And just as she finished making her decision, she sensed the ritual being arranged and realized that the Guardian's mindset had completely transformed into that of an Emperor.

Emperor, the emperor of mankind.

Ah... when was the first time I came across the concept of the Human Emperor?

Patchouli's thoughts were fragmented—she remembered that her first encounter with the concept of a 'Human Emperor' was in the world of Final Destination 2. For the ritual of mending the heavens, she had created a Human Emperor—

Patchouli's movements suddenly stopped. She suddenly realized that she shouldn't have brought this up, and that a drastic change had occurred in the multiverse!

The Human Emperor... no, it has nothing to do with the Human Emperor; the change is caused by something else.

She suddenly raised her head and looked up at the flawless sky—the sky was as clear as a mirror.

"Mending the sky... In mythology, who mended the sky?!"

She... couldn't remember which god had mended the sky!

Chapter Twenty-Four: Who Will Mend the Sky?

Who mended the sky?!

What's happening outside?

Besides the god who mended the heavens, who else could it be?

Patchouli lowered her eyes, assigned tasks, and reset an avatar to carry out her original plan. At the same moment, her true self returned to Tzeentch's AI domain.

She banished all her kin, leaving only her alone atop the throne of wisdom in the empty Hall of Knowledge.

Then--

Patchouli took a deep breath.

"Now begin to recall, what exactly constitutes the mythology of ancient China?" She gently pressed her forehead, then began to recount—

"First, there's the creation myth, the most famous creator god being Pangu. Pangu separated heaven and earth, then supported them to grow and expand, giving rise to all things—good, that's fine. So, what came after creation?"

She lowered her eyes.

"It is the Creator who created all things, and it is the Creator who created humankind. All things are born from nature, but who created humankind...?"

A piece of her memory had been permanently ripped away; some knowledge that should have been impossible to forget had vanished from her consciousness forever. This should have been a devastating blow to her, who walked the path of recording all things. Yet, at this moment, she was unaware of her own weakness.

The problem is with the world, not with her. The problem is with the entire multiverse, not with Patchouli Knowledge.

She then expanded her search to include all known human mythology, as well as the details of the so-called War of Creation she had obtained from Luo Ye. Afterward, she began to search for the supreme gods she should know about.

After Pangu separated heaven and earth, a god created man—but she did not know who that god was.

After God created man, God deduced the Eight Trigrams to establish order—but she also couldn't find the corresponding data for this God. The myths naturally derived from over ten billion random universes in the multiverse all lacked data related to these two gods. In fact, if she hadn't been practicing the Way of Recording All Things, she wouldn't have been able to deduce that a god once existed in that location!

So, let's continue the search and switch the focus to diverse real-world historical data...

Patchouli blinked.

"The Battle of Creation was essentially a campaign by Gu Hejun and the human alliance against Gaia. After defeating the Two Emperors of the Eastern Heaven, they led the remaining human forces to attack Gaia, whose true form had been forcibly defined. The main participants in that war totaled—"

"Houtu, Yahweh, Odin, Zhunti, Brahma, Ammon, and the three brothers Taishang and Tongtian—"

Her drooping fingers rested gently on the armrest of the Throne of Wisdom.

"Supreme Lord, Tongtian, the three brothers?" Patchouli raised an eyebrow. "Three brothers...why are there only two?"

She took a light breath.

"Then repeat it again."

"The main members who participated in the war totaled—"

"Houtu, Yahweh, Odin, Zhunti, Amun, and the two brothers Taishang and Tongtian."

Patchouli fell silent.

She rewound time, jumping back to a few seconds earlier, to the moment she uttered those words. Then, she saw herself a few seconds earlier, sitting alone on the throne of wisdom, saying—

"The main members who participated in the war included Houtu, Yahweh, Odin, Zhunti, Amon, and the two brothers Taishang and Tongtian."

"There were seven Quasi-Saints in total, seven of whom were promoted to True Saints or even Emperors after the creation of the world." — These were the words spoken by her as an observer of the future.

—She ended the flow of time.

She exhaled softly, and the rich and diverse history unfolded before her.

Records, legends, fates, stories—she attempted to reconstruct a diverse panorama of knowledge from these endless fragments. Yet, the more she piled them up, the more incomplete they became.

Who shot down the sun? Who spun linen?

Who invented musical instruments? Who wrote the first poem?

Unknown, unrecorded, untraceable. Large gaps appear in the mythological systems of all civilizations, and the number of these gaps is increasing rapidly even as they are being assembled.

She remembered once wielding the power beyond species, assigning numbers to all the universes she could access through the Abyss of Death. From zero to ten billion, from ten billion to two hundred billion… This was nothing more than a drop in the ocean of the entire multiverse. She couldn't control such powerful variables; she could only simply assign them numbers. Yet now, at this moment, as she examined the myriad phenomena before the library she had defined, with its hundreds of billions of bookshelves holding data, she clearly saw a large number of blank patterns appear on the walls of those once-full bookshelves.

This is just a record, a simple collection of information and then a reproduction.

And on this basis, the premise for such a change is—

"...These universes must have been destroyed by now. Were they affected by the aftermath? Probably."

Patchouli looked away.

It was obvious that the war beyond the final battle was far more intense than anticipated. Those celestial beings and saints, whom she could not even imagine, must be falling like a torrential rain now, and if this place were not protected by the Supreme God, it would surely have been engulfed in that terrible war.

How interesting. This is supposed to be the final battle for the reincarnators, yet the battlefield here now resembles a sanctuary. The one who should be fighting to the death here is the reincarnators, but unexpectedly, before the reincarnators are even separated into life and death, the battlefield outside the cycle of reincarnation has already become a mere dividing line between life and death.