Chapter 803: The True Identity of the Quill

She stared blankly at this terrifying man.

She opened her mouth.

For a moment, she couldn't utter a single word.

Wasn't it absurd? Wasn't it twisted? A body so deformed and distorted, a form that would be regarded as the ultimate taboo of evil in any world...

She bit her lip hard, but she no longer tried to hide her body as she had before.

And finally.

She said to him in a low voice.

"Thank you..."

"You are... you are the first living being who hasn't hated me for the way I look since I fell into hell..."

"I... thank you..."

Lynn sat cross-legged, still wearing that warm smile on his face, sitting there casually, facing this enormous and twisted form, his gaze gradually growing even softer.

Indeed, he didn't care.

Although he truly didn't understand what was going on, nor did he know whether this was her original appearance.

But this was hell!

He had long since seen every kind of form that could make your SAN plummet. He had seen ghosts that were breathtakingly beautiful but would instantly transform into Vengeful Ghosts, seen Evil Ghosts that would approach you looking cute and pitiful, only to suddenly reveal a ferocious grin and try to dig out your heart.

Because it was the soul!

As long as one preserved a pure soul within this filth, what did it matter what one's appearance became?

She was silent for a long time.

Finally, she spoke again in a low voice.

"This is my retribution, as you can see... the reason I have such a twisted form is entirely due to the sins I have committed."

Lynn gazed at her, listening quietly.

She fell silent.

As if she were pouring out her heart to herself.

"You should know that I am one of the fallen ones from the Shattered World, but what you probably don't know is that I am not an ordinary fallen one. At least in the world where I existed, I wielded an Authority that even the gods envied. They gave me many names. They called me 'the One Who Writes the Future,' they called me 'the One Who Controls Fate,' but more often than not, they called me..."

"The Goddess of Fate."

Hearing those four words, as if some long-held suspicion had finally been confirmed, Lynn's eyes flickered slightly.

Although he had vaguely speculated about this for a long time.

Guessing that the quill might very well be an Authority held by some Ancient God representing fate.

But he truly hadn't expected.

That she would actually be...

The Goddess of Fate herself.

She was silent for a moment, then spoke in a low voice.

"Ridiculous, isn't it? Such a fact. Did you ever imagine that a god who once wove fate would fall into such a state, even more degraded than the creatures of this hell?"

Lynn's expression turned serious as he looked at her gravely.

"You... are you the same as my Father-in-law, my Matriarch, and the others?"

He finally asked the question that had been troubling him all along.

She answered in a low voice.

"No, there is an essential difference between us."

"Although they also call themselves gods, in essence, they are no different from other living beings. They are merely existences that have grown a bit more powerful than the weaker creatures over the long river of time. In essence, they have never truly transcended this mortal world."

The twisted mass of Flesh and Blood writhed and squirmed.

As if it had raised its head, gazing vacantly through the pitch-black strata, staring out at the bone-piercing black mist.

"Those who can truly be called gods are inherently incarnations of rules, a part of the rules that govern all things and oversee the operation of everything in existence."

"They have no form."

"They have no lifespan."

"They have existed since the beginning of this great universe, and will accompany it until its very end as eternals."

"That is... us."

It was as if she were recounting some eternal Fate, yet in an instant, it was shattered into pieces.

But Lynn quickly noticed a point of doubt, and he asked seriously.

"What about the Shattered World then?"

Because he knew that Miaomiao's family had fallen from that world, and they had merely been ordinary people in their past lives.

Her gaze vacant, she whispered.

"That is the one exception. But it wasn't always called the Shattered World. It has an ancient name that has been used since time immemorial. And within that world, there has always existed a power that even we cannot fathom, as if it were a Cycle..."

"Whenever we, the rules that maintain the operation of the great universe, develop a sense of Self through the evolution of time, that power forcibly drags us into that world, causing us to incarnate as one of its inhabitants."

Lynn's brow twitched slightly.

She drifted off, as if once again recalling those broken memories from the past.

"It's like some kind of evolution, or some kind of rotation. Because as time passes, it is almost inevitable that rule-entities like us would develop a sense of Self. And once we possess Self, we are materialized into that world at a certain node. Though we can still control the operation of rules, we take on a physical form in some sense."

"And whenever a cycle comes around, as if pre-programmed, all incarnations of rules, including the powerful individuals of the main universe, undergo a large-scale purge, returning the world to its original state once more. Round and round, over and over again."

The moment these words were spoken, Lynn almost instantly recalled the periodic Great Shattering that the Matriarch had once mentioned.

This seemed to be some kind of mechanism that existed within the main universe.

When the number of powerful individuals in the world reached a certain threshold, it would be triggered, formatting everything and starting from zero.

Lynn immediately thought of the Calamity that had caused countless Ancient Gods to fall and was still ongoing.

"Is the Calamity in the Upper World right now the Great Purge you're talking about?"

He asked sharply.

But unexpectedly.

She gave a negative answer. She said in a low voice.

"No."

"Although the two are similar, there is an essential difference between them. In fact, at first, we also thought it was the activation of that mechanism, and we were willing to accept death gladly, because to us, the destruction of Self merely meant returning to our previous form of pure, unconscious rules. To us, it did not mean complete annihilation."

"But this time is different."

"Because the mechanism of the Great Purge would never target beings whose power falls below a certain threshold. It is more like a means designed to prevent the world from becoming rigid and stagnant. In essence, it is actually more conducive to the orderly development of the entire main universe."

"But what that Calamity targets is indiscriminate. Not only against us, but even weaker life forms, matter, energy, and even the rules themselves have all become targets of its destruction."