Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 849 - 790: Another Me

The starry sky twinkled with glowing eyes, and the aurora built a labyrinth halfway up the sky, separating the dark night from the deep mire. All the light, like conductors, gathered the black particles onto the giant body leaning against the mountain ridge. The pitch-black body bore an enchanting aura, its tentacles gently stirring the seeping dark mud, then lifting their tips, staring like an upheld snake at the distance.

The thick fog eroded most of the light screen, the sound of the tide overpowering the bubbling of the marsh, until the fog peeled off like petals, and the Deep Sea Ominous stood next to the fallen Ominous. The fragmented shell of the Deep Sea Ominous began to fall off, the dark mud flowing upwards along the giant’s body, enveloping, cleansing, revealing a crescent curved horn mask on the face of the Deep Sea Ominous who sat upon a small hill of lime accumulation, completing the consolidation of authority.

[Where are the people?]

"I ate the flesh, the soul escaped, and now it should have been consumed by the Sleeper." Deep Sea Ominous raised a hand to pluck an "eye" from the night sky, examining the capability of the Five Locks, an interface for extracting malice from the outside world, materializing into a sky full of starry eyes.

[The other me is indeed · frail · weak · .]Ominous was somewhat dissatisfied with the outcome of the thief.

"Neither[Keystone]nor[Power]are by my side, what do you expect this purloined item, outside the command tower, to accomplish?" Deep Sea Ominous began to complain about itself, having plenty of confidence to rant about its own abandoned part.

A brief silence ensued.

"Why have you started collecting the malice of living beings?"

[To have humanity shine like stars and sing the praises of life, [I]voluntarily became the night.]

The deep voice seemed to come from a deep valley, spoken in Lyle’s tone, "Every shred of desire will be infinitely magnified under our power, the balance between good and evil will be disrupted, what remains will only be fools giggling in the dark. You should be able to foresee the twisted vision after ascending to Evil God."

[That is the future, this is now. I won’t worry about things that haven’t happened yet, especially the aftermath of the godly war you lightly gloss over.]

Ominous swept across the thick fog beside the deep sea, raising a hand, the fog compacted like a flock of sheep being herded, turning into a handful of fine sand.

[I was wondering why the collected[Malice]was being consumed, it turns out it went your way.]

"Thanks for the support, my anomaly was immediately detected by Serio and Arno."

[They are pawns driven by fate, without my influence the outcome would hardly change. The succession of gods is destined to go through a war, and the ownership of the planet will be decided under the watch of everyone.]

Silence, the most familiar mutual understanding of silence.

Having made a decision, the leader in silence, Deep Sea Ominous, spoke again.

"I am ready."

Ominous understood His meaning but raised a hand to stop the actions of the Deep Sea preparing to assimilate.

[In your absence, Lyle has taken some unexpected actions, among them, now we are implementing democracy on our side. We these [parts] don’t need to merge into a unified mind, you are free now, the other me.]

Prepared to have its personality erased, Deep Sea Ominous, which had been autonomously operating for less than a week, felt puzzled and questioned.

"Not merge? How can we, fragmented like this, conquer the Sleeper? We should merge, becoming a higher form of life and power to crush Him."

Ominous tapped its own mask with fingers like withered branches, prepared for the thought patterns of Deep Sea Ominous.

[If you were the final "Oracle", what would you do.]

"Unify into the supreme entity, dominate all powers, devour the Sleeper."

[What about the others then, the Liches, Spellcasters, dragons, and other living beings, would you have them fight under your command, or...]

"Assimilate everyone, become one entity, insignificant life powers are weak, only by accepting my arrangement, becoming part of [Lyle], is the most effective usage."

[I knew it would be like this. However, you should understand that their reason for being enemies with the Sleeper is to fight for the freedom of the mind. Your idea could turn our allies into enemies.]

"After the integration of thoughts, they will understand the prejudice brought about by life forms."

Ominous laughed, laughing even more boldly under the indifferent gaze of the Deep Sea Omen.

[You know, the fact that you are excitedly discussing at this moment is proof that you enjoy the freedom of mind. It is Lyle who allowed our freedom that enables you to express opinions as a final individual entity. Otherwise, as a fragment, you would not need to think. It’s indeed an interesting contradiction.]

The Deep Sea Omen laughed and stooped over, becoming a spineless, soft-bodied creature, and sighed.

"I have accepted the directive of [Lyle]."

Even though he agreed to the proposal that allowed him to exist, the Deep Sea Omen seemed to have lost something.

[This is not a bad thing, to keep individual characters intact. In the face of challenges, united as one, we are like five fingers making a fist. Unity is the greatness of the seemingly trivial.]

"Who is the middle finger?" The sudden question almost froze the giant Ominous, interrupting the good mood, and shadow Lyle looked at his other self with a dark expression.

[The point is not the fingers, but the fist.]

"Am I the middle finger?" Deep Sea Omen said, even raising that particular finger, which stood upright even with its octopus-like soft joints at this moment.

Ominous began to contemplate the possibility of self-destruction, finding it hard to believe that just minutes ago it was surprised by the return of the other.

[Your thoughts leap too far, the other me. I thought you should have learned something from the enemy, after all, that thief is no fool.]

Deep Sea Omen put his hands behind his head, found a comfortable position, and floated on the sea surface looking up at the starry sky.

"When you find a thoughtful host, you don’t need thinking capabilities." Deep Sea Omen expressed that being a trickster was quite good.

Ominous discovered that even as a fragment, personality flaws were shared. Unity also means tolerance, and gathering strengths also requires accepting flaws. He himself became the one discontented inside.

"Speaking of which, why do we have to lurk in the phenomenal mental world? Aren’t we already capable of eroding reality? Why do we still stay in this chaotic sea of consciousness?"

It wanted to go see [Keystone] and [Power], since the connection with Ominous had filled it with memories of impressions about Lyle and Nia. Being the only Ominous that had run away from home, it thought it should meet its original self. Its personal consciousness affirmed, Deep Sea Ominous naturally birthed many desires, it wanted to go out and see.

[Not now, Lyle is busy working.]

"I can help him, my authority can assist him in experimental research, whether it’s Spirit Summoning Skill or anything else." Deep Sea Ominous’s personal character seemed very smooth, happy to use its power to help Lyle, unlike Ominous acting like a small hero saving the day.

[You can’t help him.]

"Maybe we’ve been split too long, and you have some small doubts about the power of gods." Deep Sea Ominous confidently stated.

[Lyle is reporting to Raymond, can you help with that too?]

The primal life instinct made Deep Sea Ominous quickly assume the role of a lurking spirit, retracting his body into the sea, only the pointed horns on his head sticking out of the water like the periscope of a submarine rotating left and right.

"You are right, but why?"

[Mr. Dark has disappeared, and Lyle was the last person to contact him.]