Within the stellar realm — even more abstract than the Spirit World, encompassing as it does all the authorities and all the symbols of the whole universe — every thing was made manifest, and the light that illuminated this place was not evenly portioned, but rather concentrated in a few sites where it layered upon itself, weaving together into patches like a thick prism.
Three such patches there were; each had sealed a different illusory realm.
Of those realms — one was overspread with brilliant flowers and a sky for ever bright; another seemed to be made up of books, here open, here closed, with various figures threading among them, taking their joy in reading; another was a boundless sea covered by gales and storms, with lightning and thunder that never ceased.
In the next moment, all three different realms underwent fierce changes at the very same time.
Where the sky had remained ever bright, every flower gave forth light, as though turning, one and all, into so many tiny, blazing suns.
Those uncountable little suns wove themselves together and threw themselves, in a single body, into the abnormally dazzling golden sun that was rising swiftly from the depths of that realm, so that it gave forth a searing radiance which could illuminate a whole world, a whole galaxy.
Yet however much energy this sun, near to the real, might pour forth, however many extreme-high-temperature flames it might create, it could not break through the thick-prism-like patch of light.
Destroy a layer, and the patch born a new one at no lesser speed.
Elsewhere in the stellar realm, on the surface of that wondrous realm formed of books of every sort, on the same patch of light, points of pale-brass shimmer roamed swiftly, tracing one mysterious sign after another, as though seeking the structural keys or efficient means by which the barrier might, with a single strike, be broken.
In that course, the shimmer also formed an illusory pair of eyes — eyes that could see weak spots directly, and create weak spots.
And within the patch itself similar shimmer too was roaming, restructuring itself over and over, altering the structural keys.
It made the two sides seem to be vying in calculation, and for the moment there was no telling who would prevail.
In the depths of that boundless sea wrapped in lightning, gale and storm, a point of light suddenly flared.
Bearing with it some part of matter, it approached the very limit of speed, and so created violent "waves" that could destroy a planet.
Such "waves," together with that point of light, beat one after another against the thick-prism-like patch of light, until from it had fallen uncountable sparks of brightness.
At some moment that was not noted, there spread within the patch of light an illusory ocean that seemed to contain all colours and all possibilities; it brought with it, it seemed, a stiffening of the surrounding environment, and the light-point bearing the storm grew uncontrollably much slower; then it sped up, then slowed, then sped up again, then slowed — repeating, repeating, unwilling to give up.
Drawing on the "Sea of Chaos" as well-spring, on himself and the "
At that moment, He seemed to have returned to His own peak — to have changed back into that ancient Sun God who had hunted one Ancient God after another.
He took the two pathways of "Daydreamer" and "Hanged Man" as the foundation of His rebirth; besides their respective peculiarities in resurrection, this was the path He had himself researched and which had the highest probability of becoming "God":
By becoming a true god in either the "Daydreamer" or the "Hanged Man" pathway, and, having begun to take command of the "Sea of Chaos," recalling in turn the remaining uniquenesses and the Sequence-1 extraordinary characteristics — that was the relatively easiest, lowest-risk road to ascend to "Lord of the Stellar Realm."
And within this, the "Daydreamer" had one further peculiarity over and above the "Hanged Man."
When the "Daydreamer" had begun to drive the "Sea of Chaos" and had, to a certain degree, accommodated a second uniqueness and the corresponding Sequence-1 extraordinary characteristic, He could, relying on "daydreaming," actualise the remaining false symbols and authorities, and gain in a short time a tier transcending Sequence, possessing the strength of half an Ancient.
However, at the close of the Third Era, the ancient Sun God's plan was this: after being "assassinated," to resurrect at once at
Once such a system had been built up, the ancient Sun God would use the herding capacity of the "Hanged Man" and the means of the "Daydreamer" of severing virtual personalities, to drive the uniquenesses of the "Sun," "Reader," "Sailor" pathways and one share each of their Sequence-1 extraordinary characteristics, so as to draw infinitely near, in standing and in strength, to an Ancient, while maintaining a minimal stability.
He did not directly subsume the "Sea of Chaos" or accommodate the uniquenesses and Sequence-1 characteristics of the other three pathways, because He did not wish, in that age, to ascend to an Ancient and become a Pillar; that would have inevitably brought about the awakening of "God," and the loss of His self.
His intent was rather to seize the situation and the materials, and only at the verge of the apocalypse complete the last few steps, and become at one stroke a Pillar with self-consciousness.
He had not, at that time, prepared to use the "Daydreamer" as foundation, because He had not yet obtained the "Pen of Alesuhod," lacking one main material. Only when the Kings of Angels betrayed Him, the plan failed wretchedly, and He came back to life within Adam, did He resolve to seize the opportunity that this very disaster offered to take the best of all paths.
At this very moment, Adam — transformed into a huge form of light and shadow — stood upon the still-black waters of chaos, with the stellar realm reflected in his eyes, and made it impossible for the three great true gods to break through the limit.
All around him, ray after ray, dragging tails of flame, fell from the heights and lit up the whole God-Forsaken Land, so that the southern and northern continents found themselves at once in noon-day brightness.
Within the surviving bell tower in Bayam,
In that motion, His left hand at some moment held an ancient, weathered stone tablet.
The first "Blasphemy Tablet"!