Life Game In Other World
Chapter 1258: People in Fate (Big - for Monthly Votes)

Chapter 1258: Chapter 1258: People in Fate (Big Chapter for Monthly Votes)

"You..."

The enormous dodecahedral crystal spun slowly, its hoarse and deep voice resonating through the silent darkness. The Crystal Giant raised his head—an entirely transparent, featureless crystal head without any ’eyes’ or facial features—but He Ao could clearly feel its gaze locked onto him.

In that brief instant, the Crystal Giant had actually moved faster than He Ao, stabbing his crystalline sword through He Ao’s body a moment earlier.

He had been concealing his power all along, not nearly as weak as he seemed to be.

Yet, his fatal strike had failed to kill He Ao; it hadn’t even slowed him down. In that critical moment, He Ao had erupted with a power far greater than before, completely obliterating the Giant’s flaw and detonating the chaotic forces within his body.

"You turned my heroic spirits against me?"

Now, both giants had their weapons piercing through each other’s bodies. They were so close that their faces were almost touching.

The Crystal Giant gently turned his head, glancing at the scattered heroic spirits nearby. Realizing something, he asked in a low voice.

"I merely extended an invitation,"

He Ao responded calmly, his voice also hoarse and weak. "To test whether they would truly fight for your so-called ’Order.’"

He had anticipated that the Crystal Giant might hide his strength, but he hadn’t expected it to be this much. If he had taken the full brunt of that power alone, he likely would have been utterly slain by the Giant.

However, he wasn’t fighting alone. During the initial chaos, only about a third of the heroic spirits had regained a sliver of rationality, but nearly all of them had joined his collaborative network.

By leveraging the abilities of the ’Collaborator,’ these heroic spirits had absorbed much of the damage for him, sparing him from certain death.

And it was precisely because of their presence in this collaborative network that he had resolved to gamble everything in such a brutal exchange with the Crystal Giant.

In his final strike, some of the coordinated spirits also lent him a share of their power, amplifying his attack.

Listening to He Ao’s words, the Crystal Giant’s ’gaze’ swept over the surrounding heroic spirits once more. In their eyes, he seemed to glimpse faint traces of brilliance.

He hesitated slightly, letting out a faint sigh. "So Chaos can even influence the dead like this."

His gaze returned to He Ao. "But they may not fully agree with you—they just despise me more."

He released the crystalline sword embedded in He Ao’s body. Simultaneously, He Ao also let go of the bloodied blade in his hand.

The towering Crystal Giant staggered, straightened his body, and slowly stepped back, gazing upon the crystal-covered landscape around them.

This city wasn’t entirely ’real.’ Only the core region within a dozen kilometers or so held any semblance of fidelity. Beyond, the further one ventured, the cruder it became, with much lower energy density.

Beyond the core region, the speed of crystal ’pollution’ accelerated dramatically.

Given enough time, he could completely corrupt this city.

At this moment, he also once again sensed the mystical connections binding him to the heroic spirits. These were backdoors left behind by the Order Church when the spirits were originally ’awakened.’

The power of Chaos was indeed formidable—it had briefly interfered with this backdoor earlier. However, the interference lasted but an instant, insufficient to sever the connection entirely.

Now, he could feel this ’backdoor’ reestablishing itself once again.

Through it, he could channel Order’s power directly into the heroic spirits, purging every trace of ’abnormality’ tainting them.

It would be akin to pressing a ’factory reset’ button on machinery, restoring the spirits to the state they were in when he first summoned them.

Of course, now that these heroic spirits had joined He Ao’s collaborative network, they might theoretically use his chaotic power to resist this backdoor. Even so, the backdoor was enough to temporarily paralyze the spirits and momentarily disrupt the network.

The Crystal Giant glanced at the bloodied blade embedded in his body.

Acting on impulse earlier, attempting to exchange his life with this fool’s, had been a mistake.

Staggering back, he seemed to realize something. Turning to He Ao, he started laughing hoarsely, his voice reverberating through the darkness. "You... altered my thoughts? Some kind of mental manipulation... even effective against an Angel? From the one behind you?"

He Ao didn’t answer. A cold wind tinged with the scent of blood brushed past the towering forms of the two giants.

The dim night trembled faintly as the Crystal Giant’s voice dwindled. "But... you shouldn’t be able to monitor my thoughts. My surface thoughts are a façade. If you could observe my deeper consciousness, you’d directly alter my will—you wouldn’t need all this effort.

"So, how did you figure it out? I taught you to seize every opportunity by advancing forward, not retreating."

He lifted his head to ’gaze’ at He Ao, a quiet laugh echoing in the dark. "You discovered the traps in my teachings? Realized that parts of my ’personality’ are feigned? Just as a cat teaches a tiger, or a father educates his son—I held something back. You noticed that I held something back?

"It wasn’t entirely deliberate, I assure you. I truly admired you. I wanted you to be stronger than me, to embody a greater heroism..."

He paused for a moment, seemingly realizing something, and murmured, "But you didn’t retreat. Instead, you chose to alter my thinking, forcing me to move forward."

The enormous dodecahedral crystal slowed its rotation slightly. The Crystal Giant stared silently at He Ao. "You’ve learned well, child. You’ve learned well."

The night wind howled past the two towering figures as countless cracks spread across He Ao’s massive, blood-red body. The barely flickering, dim light enveloping him was now nearly translucent.

The Crystal Giant stood amidst the dark wind, gazing at He Ao, and let out a faint sigh. "I’m sorry..."

His voice grew weaker and weaker until it finally dissipated into the pitch-black wind.

The world fell completely silent. The sprawling city emitted no more sounds.

Boom—

The crystalline sword embedded in He Ao’s body shattered in an instant. He Ao staggered slightly, his gaze fixed firmly on the now-lifeless Crystal Giant.

In the skies above, the heroic spirits seemed to lose their source of power. Their forms began to fade quickly.

Some of the heroic spirits still clung to chaos, while those who had joined the network He Ao controlled, those who had regained partial clarity, turned their gazes toward him.

Among these spirits regaining a unique form of clarity, the vast majority were heroes recently buried at the Dumel National Cemetery within the last century or two. Only a few hailed from Dawn City’s earliest days—ancient figures long since entombed in slumber.

He Ao looked upon those spirits, his eyes scanning for Ande and Roy among them. Raising his hand slightly, he bid them farewell as countless fractures spread across his body from within.

Crack—

With the final spirit fading into the darkness, a faint sound echoed. The massive blood-red figure crumbled entirely at that moment.

Amidst the blood-streaked ruins covered in crystal, a small, battered figure plummeted from the sky like a drifting feather, landing amidst the wreckage.

The enormous blood blade embedded in the Crystal Giant’s body also shattered at that moment. Pieces scattered, with one fragment falling like a glowing streak near where He Ao lay, piercing into the hardened crystalline ground.

He Ao stared at the firmament overhead, shrouded in purple mist.

Above the haze appeared the inverted silhouette of a city hanging in the sky.

This was the true Dawn City.

Dimly, he could see figures along its streets, faces turned skyward in celebration, as though they were cheering for victory.

Even through the barrier dividing the real and the unreal, He Ao seemed able to faintly hear their cheers and laughter.

But he did not let his gaze linger on the scene above. Slowly, he gathered his focus, scanning the crystal-covered ruins around him before staggering to his feet.

His body was critically weakened, and even the life-giving Grace’s power had been utterly depleted.

He turned his head, his eyes settling on the blood blade lodged in the crystal nearby. Stumbling forward, he moved toward the weapon.

The crystal floor reflected his bloodied figure as he took his first step. His foot slipped slightly, nearly sending him sprawling.

Quickly, though, he steadied himself and resumed his slow, stumbling march toward the blood blade.

Above him, the cheering city fell momentarily silent. In every corner of the metropolis, on every colossal screen, someone had hijacked the broadcast, projecting his image to every corner of the city.

The jubilant crowds and the confused bystanders all fell quiet, watching the figure on the screens. For a moment, no one could fathom why He Ao, at this time, was painstakingly walking toward the blood blade.

Ding—

A faint, crystalline chime pierced the boundary between the real and the illusory, resonating in everyone’s ears.

In the night sky, an enormous, semi-illusory clock emerged at the highest point, suspended both above the buzzing, jubilant city and within the silent, dreamlike one.

It displayed only a single hand, resembling a short hour hand, locked firmly at the twelve o’clock mark.

The clock was translucent and only a few meters in diameter, but it appeared to float at a height of a thousand meters. Everyone raising their heads could see its numbers clearly, even the intricate, densely packed engravings on its surface.

It was as if the clock wasn’t truly hanging in the heavens but rather in every individual’s imagination.

As the clock materialized, every clock with hands—whether in the city’s corners or on electronic wrist devices—stopped moving instantly.

Ding—

Once more, a soft chime like the drop of a pin resonated in everyone’s ears.

The lone hand pointing to twelve began trembling slightly.

However, instead of advancing, it reversed counterclockwise, retreating from twelve to eleven.

Within the Glorious Palace, Christos glanced at his wrist, where his electronic watch also displayed the hour hand pointing to eleven.

Under this firmament, every clock with hands reversed course, turning back one step in unison.

In the dreamlike city, the lifeless Crystal Giant stirred faintly, its colossal body trembling. Scattered red light began to leak from within its crystalline form. The massive wound made by the blood blade quivered before slowly starting to heal.

He Ao tilted his head to glance at the enormous crystalline clock above him. Without any discernible expression, he then lowered his gaze and resumed his stumbling trek toward the bloodstained blade embedded in the crystalline ground.

Ding—

The clock’s hand in the sky reversed another tick, shifting to ten o’clock.

The Crystal Giant’s wound closed by one-third.

This time, He Ao didn’t raise his head. He continued, step by step, trudging toward the blade.

Ding—

Again, the soft chime rang in everyone’s ears, the clock hand visibly speeding its counterclockwise journey.

Thump—

The sound of He Ao’s slow footsteps reverberated.

His pace was painstaking, each step threatening collapse. Yet, as he faltered, he managed to stabilize himself and press forward to take the next step.

By the time the clock retreated to nine o’clock, the Crystal Giant’s wound had closed halfway.

He Ao neared the blood blade.

When the clock reached eight o’clock, the Crystal Giant ceased emitting the red glow from its body.

He Ao was only a step away from the blade.

When the clock turned to seven o’clock, the Crystal Giant’s wound healed completely.

He Ao finally reached the blade. Gripping it with both hands, he clenched tightly.

When the clock reached six o’clock, the Crystal Giant’s body quaked violently before shattering completely, scattering into countless fragments of light.

He Ao wrenched the blood blade free.

Without glancing upward, he gripped the blade firmly and sliced through his palm. Streams of luminous, multicolored (purple, red, and yellow) blood coursed down the crimson weapon.

The tip of the blade touched the ground, transforming into a pen tip.

The sharp edge etched grooves into the crystal, allowing blood to seep into the fissures. The chaotic power spilling from the blade prevented the crystal from automatically regenerating, preserving the cracks momentarily.

Meanwhile, the clock accelerated its counterclockwise motion. The shattered brilliance consolidated into a massive bud, encased layer by layer within successive crystalline petals as time unraveled.

Concurrently, the patterns He Ao etched with the blood blade expanded and nearly completed their design.

Ding—

As another chime rang out, the clock in the heavens returned to twelve o’clock. It shuddered briefly before fracturing into infinite shards of light.

At the same moment, the crystalline bud hovering in the air reached its completed form.

The design He Ao was inscribing on the ground required only its final portion to be finished.

But at that very moment, his entire body stiffened as if an invisible force had clenched his throat. Straining, he attempted to wield the blood blade, but the weapon refused to move, no matter how hard he tried.

Blood-streaked veins surfaced across his swollen face, yet the crimson blade remained immobilized, as if seized by an unseen grasp.

"I am sorry, child."

An ethereal, far-reaching voice echoed across the firmament.

Beneath the inky night sky, the tightly shut bud unfurled slowly. A radiant, humanoid figure, entirely constructed of crystal and etched with unending lines of rules and regulations, stepped out.

He possessed both a tangible and intangible form, with countless intricately ordered lines filling his body, reflecting the multifaceted gleam of crystal.

An invisible pressure emanated from his figure, blanketing the entire world in orderly lines.

Simply gazing upon his form stirred within He Ao a twisted, fervent yearning for Order.

This was the complete, unadulterated mythical form of an angel.

The radiant figure lowered his head, gazing at He Ao. The voice, cold and unfeeling like Order itself, rippled subtly.

"You know nothing of Divine Power, child. Did you think Yuluns was the only one capable of manipulating fate?

"To enable my ascension as an angel, the Great Order secured for me two contracts:

"The first contract granted me a single opportunity—so long as a breath remained in me, I could reverse time and restore my body wholly or partially to any state within the past twelve hours."

He paused.

"The second contract was a piece of paper tied to fate itself. By writing down a desire, it would generate a ’one-line script’ that maximized the probability of that desire being fulfilled.

"The script I received was: ’During the Promotion Ceremony, you will face a necessary obstacle, but you will also obtain the means to overcome it.’

"Now I can tell you what the ritual to ascend as the ’Carpenter’ actually entails:

"Under the intervention of Divine Power, restore teetering Order to its proper state or establish new Order amid Chaos.

"The Federation’s turmoil wasn’t caused by the God of Chaos, but Divine Power must participate for me to fully complete the ritual.

"So I wrote my desire as ’an obstacle to the ceremony I could safely bypass.’

"Fate cannot target the Divine directly, but it can influence those related to the Divine, compelling them to appear before me."

He gazed at He Ao.

"I am sorry, child. You are the one chosen by Fate, brought before me to help complete my ascension ritual.

"The smooth path you’ve traveled until now was a gift from Fate, and now it has come to claim its price."