Completion event bonus chapter - [Deception] outtakes: Behind the stage

Event complete! Bonus chapter included!

On the eve of the Audience Assembly, Void.

The brilliant starlight shone with an orderly interplay of light and shadow, and the orderly Milky Way was breathtakingly beautiful. Amidst the endless starlight, two voices echoed from the depths of the Void.

"I'm worried."

"I'm worried too."

The negotiations reached a stalemate, the atmosphere was tense, and neither side was willing to give in, gradually escalating into a standoff.

After a long while, countless White Bone Flood, transforming into enormous skulls beside the two gods. Eerie green flames roared from the skulls' eye sockets as they looked at the two before them and hummed:

At this point, what's the point of arguing?

The Radiant Balance —yes, one side of the confrontation is a balance scale structured with flowing light, representing the Proxy of the [Covenant], [Justice) ].

The scales were still balanced at this moment. He shook his head and said in a deep voice:

"My goal is a new Order for the Cosmos. I know I will die, and I know that [the Origin] is not the source of Order, but I must not die before Him!"

He is adept at deceiving the world; I cannot leave the Cosmos to Him, for no one can guarantee that He will not drag the Cosmos into the Abyss of Nothingness...

Only Deception could drive Justice) to such a Cosmos.

Those eyes, now only spirals in size, held a mocking gaze as they looked at the Radiant Balance and sneered:

"Laugh--

You're an old fogey; I think you're too old to see the current situation clearly.

Do you think that just because you disagree, this Cosmos won't belong to me?

My Believer have begun to amass voting power. You might as well think about it: who in this Cosmos can stop the Predestination course of events?

"Big brother? Foul Mouth? Or... are you blind?"

"..."

The claim of [Deception] is true. If things continue at the current pace, [Justice) ] will only be able to watch as voting power is increasingly concentrated in Predestination hands.

It's not that He disapproves of the Fear Faction; on the contrary, He greatly admires them. When He glimpsed them in the Sea of Desire, He knew that the existence of all living beings and the Order of all Civilization were meaningless in the eyes of [the Origin]. [He] would eventually destroy this world; it was only a matter of time.

He also wanted to escape this false Order, yet He believed in fear, but dared not believe in [Deception].

Admittedly, the Fear Faction's plan may work, but as long as [Deception] exists, as the helmsman of this plan, He can change it at any time and derail the Cosmos from its Predestination.

[Justice) ] dared not gamble, so He rejected [Deception] proposal.

But now it seems that [Death] actually agreed first.

He who holds the Divine Name of [Death], would he willingly die so anonymously?

The giant skull, sensing the confusion in the Radiant Balance, spoke again:

Death is never a dramatic event; embracing death is the final end.

As for how the ending unfolds, that's a consolation for others, not my own will.

But even gods have feelings.

I also wish to bid farewell to my Believer. But whoever is saying goodbye, may this offer them solace.

He will understand, because he is my Believer, and is about to succeed me, the one who bears the Divine Name.

[Justice) ], if we consider who in the Cosmos cares most about whether this plan can be implemented...

I don't think it's you.

It must be [Deception].

He, who has propelled the times to this point, will certainly not allow his plans to fail!

No one knows how much He paid for this, or how much He endured for it...

Won't this ruin my plans?

[Deception] glanced at [Death], smiled, and said nothing.

Perhaps it was the persuasion of [Death] that worked, or perhaps it saw the situation clearly and realized that it had no choice, [Justice) ] struggled for a long time, and finally sighed and nodded.

The moment He nodded, the scales of light tipped almost imperceptibly.

"I will hand over the Cosmos to what Predestination, but it can only be what is Predestination."

I'm tired. For the sake of the Cosmos, I've endured until now. I should have been free long ago, I should have died in that cold Sea of Desire.

At that time, I wanted [War] to end with me, but He said:

The Cosmos cannot afford to lose its Order. You cannot die, but you also cannot allow the Cosmos to get any closer to this place...

So I put on a show with Him, making all the gods in the Cosmos retreat from the Sea of Desire.

Since returning from the Sea of Desire, He has set His sights on that merciless Creator. Knowing He was destined to die, He only wanted to vent His anger on the [Origin] that had given Him Divine Name and Divine Authority, but also corrupted Him!

He made me endure, yet he himself was freed first... We have waited so long for this day, let it end soon, everything will be over."

"It will end, everything will end, and we will both be free."

[Deception] His eyes flickered as he looked into the endless Nothingness.

The negotiations finally came to a conclusion, and from that day on, the [Covenant] transfer plan quietly began.

Then, at the Audience Assembly, [Deception] comes to a confrontation with the Clown, and he makes a dramatic exit in front of the Clown.

Yes, a god did indeed fall at that moment, but under the cover of [Deception], the fallen one was not [Deception], but rather...

[Death].

As He said, [Death] embraced death silently.

No, it wasn't entirely silent. At least in the end, for the sake of the Cosmos, He played the role of [Destiny], using a death that cannot be defined as death to obtain the last wisp of [Origin] power for this world.

And [Deception] transforms into [Death], guarding the final post for the Cosmos, for Predestination, and for the future of this world!

He wants to watch the plans of the Fear Faction take shape in the hands of those Predestination; He wants to ensure that the arrangements and schemes of this era will not encounter any unexpected events at the most critical moment!

He knew he was finally free when the new [Covenant] Proxy.

So He left the Divine Throne of [Death] to the Believer of [Death], and before leaving, He said those words to the Clown:

"Once the screenwriter finishes writing the script, how to act it is the Clown's business."

He would cheer for the Clown no matter what.

But the premise is that the Clown doesn't cry.

"..."

Cheng Shi paused, his head bowed, his expression unreadable. He waved his hand, reclaiming the Divine Authority of [Deception], and took out a strand, holding it in his hand as if it were a pen that could write the Cosmos.

"My lord, did He say this, or did you say it?"

[The Deception] remained silent and did not respond.

White Bone Flood surged into the sky, finally releasing the Despair that had burdened an era. It found a future for the world and foresaw what that future would look like.

He was not satisfied, but...

This is the limit of what He can do.