Old Bu, Do You Want a Godhead?

Qin Chuan and Dies Martin's conversation left everyone else utterly confused.

Xiao could not help moving closer. "Godfather, who is it? Is there someone steadier than Crimson Feather?"

In his view, someone with Crimson Feather's unyielding temperament was already the best candidate to wield dangerous power.

Qin Chuan did not answer, merely looking at Dies Martin.

"Your God Chosen. Aren't you going to deliver it personally?"

"That was precisely my intention."

Dies Martin's avatar nodded, his figure beginning to turn translucent.

Qin Chuan gave Ji Xing and the others a brief instruction.

"Get Long Teng and Idith settled. I'll be back soon."

Before his words had even faded, he and Dies Martin's avatar vanished from the council hall.

Black rain fell in a steady drizzle.

In an alley, Bruno leaned against a damp wall, an extinguished cigarette hanging from his lips as cold rain soaked his trench coat.

Ever since Aleisa, Lady of Night, had descended upon Magic City, he had used expanding the Night Watcher branch as an excuse to leave that city of gods.

Instead, he had hidden away in this second-tier city.

Here, there was no divine radiance piercing the sky, no suffocating pressure. There was only primordial chaos and people struggling to survive in the apocalypse.

It made him feel at ease.

As Dies Martin's Deception God Chosen, he was like an aberration hidden among a flock of sheep.

Aleisa's pure darkness and protection instinctively repelled him.

He feared that the aura of the Lord of Lies upon him would tarnish that lady's holiness.

So he chose to flee.

Suddenly, Bruno's body tensed.

Two figures emerged from the curtain of rain at the mouth of the alley without warning.

One was shrouded in shadow, emanating an aura that made the entire world tremble.

The other wore a cheerful smile. Though he stood in the rain, not a single drop clung to him, as if he himself were a false illusion.

Qin Chuan.

And Dies Martin, God of Lies and Deception.

Bruno spat out the drenched cigarette butt in his mouth and straightened up.

He knew he could no longer hide.

"I thought you wouldn't be able to find me." Bruno's voice carried a trace of self-mockery.

"My God Chosen, it's time to end this game of hide-and-seek." Dies Martin's voice carried a unique cadence as it echoed through the narrow alley. "The more you try to hide, the clearer your coordinates become in my eyes."

Qin Chuan said nothing, only watched him.

That calm gaze was more oppressive than any judgment.

Bruno felt as though he had been seen through completely, inside and out.

"What do you want with me?" he asked bluntly.

"Crimson Feather in Kyoto refused an opportunity to become a god." Qin Chuan spoke quietly, yet his voice clearly overrode the rain.

Bruno's pupils contracted.

Refused to become a god?

Those four words surprised him more than hearing that Dies Martin had come in person.

"He's a smart man," Bruno commented.

Anyone capable of refusing such temptation was either a fool or someone so terrifyingly resolute that they were truly intelligent.

Crimson Feather was clearly the latter.

"So this opportunity has fallen to you."

As Qin Chuan's words fell, a chaotic sphere of light that continuously contradicted and denied itself appeared out of thin air between them.

It hovered in midair, its power causing subtle distortions in the surrounding walls and ripples that defied the laws of physics to spread across the puddles on the ground.

The neon lights at the end of the alley were affected by the sphere, splitting into countless contradictory colors.

Twisted Logic.

Bruno understood the nature of the thing with a single glance.

Chaos, subversion, contradiction.

This was the purest and most dangerous Deception Power.

It came from the same source as the aura of his divine master.

"Its authority allows you to forcibly twist an enemy's perception and judgment within a limited area." Qin Chuan's voice remained completely even, as though he were describing a product's features. "Make them see their allies as enemies and poison as medicine."

Dies Martin added from the side, "This is the most fundamental, and the most interesting, part of my divine office. Master it, and you will see through every lie in the world and weave truths that even gods cannot distinguish. Of course, that is assuming you do not go mad first."

Bruno stared fixedly at the Godhead.

His breathing grew heavy.

He had once been a member of the Night Watchers, but through a twist of fate, he had ultimately become the Lord of Deception's God Chosen.

"What is it?" Dies Martin's amused voice rang through the alley. "Are you afraid of your own nature, my God Chosen?"

Bruno raised a hand and slowly wiped the rain from his face.

"I was just thinking," he said hoarsely, "what can a god forged from lies still protect?"

"There are many ways to protect." Qin Chuan's voice was flat. "Crimson Feather chose order. You can choose chaos."

"Using a greater lie to cover all the smaller lies is itself a form of order."

"Power itself has no right or wrong. Existence is reality. What end you reach is a personal choice."

After hearing this, Bruno fell silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

"Shadow, I have to admit, you're right!"

He reached out, all hesitation gone, and grabbed the Godhead of Twisted Logic.

There was no earth-shattering explosion of energy.

The instant Bruno's hand touched the sphere of light, the entire world shattered within his perception.

The ground beneath his feet was no longer solid, becoming instead a logical carpet woven from countless "yeses" and "nos."

Qin Chuan and Dies Martin before him broke down into countless contradictory possibilities.

The raindrops no longer fell. They splashed upward, downward, left, right—flying in every direction at once.

The space within the alley stretched infinitely, then instantly compressed into a single point.

Time was flowing backward and racing forward at the same time.

Past, present, future—every concept blurred together, forming a boiling pot of porridge.

Any person of sound mind would have completely collapsed the instant they touched such ultimate chaos, becoming an idiot incapable of understanding even what one plus one equaled.

But Bruno did not.

He did not resist, struggle, or even attempt to understand.

He simply quietly "watched."

He watched all this absurdity, watched all these contradictions.

At this moment, his heart found perfect resonance.

Because he himself was a living logical paradox.

A protector, and also a deceiver.

Chaos was his destination.

In the alley, the twisted light and unnatural phenomena gradually calmed.

Bruno slowly raised his head.

His appearance had not changed in the slightest, yet his bearing had undergone an earth-shaking transformation.

Like a bottomless pool, calmly reflecting the absurdity of the entire world.