Limitations of the High Heavens

Silver Wolf told the others what had just happened deep inside, and also revealed Phanes's true identity.

"Phanes..." Vernacular Poet repeated the name softly, seemingly reorganizing the information in his mind.

Windchaser had an entirely different reaction. She stared wide-eyed at Silver Wolf. "Wait, so this Phanes is that powerful?"

She gestured with her hand. "Not only did she replace a god, she can even pull us over from other worlds and use us as players?!"

"More accurately, you can only be considered tools—willing ones, at that." Silver Wolf chewed her bubble gum and thought for a moment. "She does have some skill. As an outsider, she managed to become a local god, so at least her strength is up to standard."

Hearing that, Vernacular Poet suddenly seemed to realize something. "Damn, so the Goddess of Life in War of Fantasy wasn't her at all. No wonder things never matched up before..."

"What, you studied history?" Silver Wolf looked at Vernacular Poet again.

Vernacular Poet stroked his chin and explained patiently, "Not really. I just check the forums sometimes. Some unofficial histories mentioned a legend who, after dying, met the Goddess of Life. She was solemn and terrifying, as if she were death itself. Then the legend was resurrected through their own ability."

"Oh?" Silver Wolf became interested. She could now roughly guess that it was not an unofficial history at all, since the Goddess of Life had personally told them about the authorities.

Windchaser blinked. "The Goddess of Life is death?"

Vernacular Poet lowered his head and began searching the forum for that post. "This was a long time ago. I didn't save it... I roughly remember it saying—speculating that the Goddess of Life possessed abilities related to reincarnation. The current one... Phanes, was the second Goddess of Life."

Windchaser asked blankly, "Since when did you start reading unofficial histories, Poet?"

Vernacular Poet shrugged. "It showed up while I was browsing. Sometimes it's good to read unofficial histories too—don't interrupt me. But based on War of Fantasy's previous image and abilities, it was different from Phanes now. I suspect Phanes possesses other authorities that let her pull us here to work for her."

"Genius." Silver Wolf truly admired Vernacular Poet's deduction. "That roughly lines up."

Vernacular Poet finally gave up looking for the old forum post and smiled helplessly. "This was just one of my guesses, but now there's evidence."

"Let me explain their authorities—Life governs life and death, Forest Moon governs Space-Time, Radiant Law governs Law Principle, and Wild Horn governs the Wild Hunt." Silver Wolf leaned against the side.

Vernacular Poet silently noted it down, then asked curiously, "Did Life tell you that?"

"Yep."

"Then that's extremely important." Vernacular Poet paused. "She even revealed the authorities of the other gods."

"She also mentioned Phanes's."

Vernacular Poet's eyes widened as he stared at Silver Wolf in shock. "What?"

"Fate." Silver Wolf explained patiently, "She governs fate, but we can only wait and discover what that specifically means."

Windchaser asked curiously, "Wait, I get life and death, Space-Time, and fate. But what are Law Principle and the Wild Hunt?"

Silver Wolf shook her head. "No idea. I'm even more confused than you. She only said that much."

"Law Principle probably refers to things like fairness and contracts, since Radiant Law is humanity's faith. The Wild Hunt probably has something to do with hunting?" Vernacular Poet thought briefly. "And the three races—humans, Elves, and beastfolk—each have their corresponding god of faith. We can infer the gods' focus from each race's traits."

Sunken Crow, who had remained silent at the side and whom everyone had thought had completely gone AFK, said coldly, "Well said."

Windchaser nodded. "Then how about little Vita becoming our little god of faith from now on?"

Vernacular Poet looked at Vita without speaking, but his eyes clearly held a trace of pity. "Now, the Forest Moon God is no different from having vanished. That means there are only three left: Phanes, Radiant Law, and Wild Horn..."

As Silver Wolf browsed the forum where players posted their daily wanted notices, she brought up something else. "You should remember that the Abyss gained outside power, right?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah."

Silver Wolf continued, "This world had been disguised. In theory, the Abyss shouldn't have discovered it. You can understand it as there being a mole, who also made a deal with the Abyss."

Prometheus: "Probability of intelligence: 89%"

Silver Wolf looked at Prometheus. "Right, I remembered. You weren't following me at the time." Then she began editing the account of how Prometheus had been brought back.

Windchaser scratched her head. "So you mean there's a mole among us players?"

Silver Wolf shook her head. "Not very likely. Phanes's control over you players is strong enough. Her system must be integrated with her authorities; it's almost impossible for anyone to break free."

Vernacular Poet shared Silver Wolf's view. "I think so too."

Windchaser found it very reasonable. She nodded repeatedly and stopped talking.

Vernacular Poet was somewhat puzzled. "But the Abyss has powerful corrosive and assimilative abilities. If there was cooperation, the traces left behind should have been obvious. Would gods really not know?"

Silver Wolf pointed at herself. "Are you asking me?"

"No, no. I was talking to myself, sorting through some clues." Vernacular Poet looked elsewhere awkwardly.

Vita stared blankly at the serious Silver Wolf. "The Abyss... what is the Abyss?"

Windchaser jumped in to explain, "Those pitch-black monsters. They're all really, really, really bad guys, and they all need to be killed."

Vita nodded blankly, as though her little brain had understood.

Sunken Crow was clearly getting bored. He asked coldly, "How do we get out?"

Silver Wolf looked at Sunken Crow, who had only spoken a few lines, and muttered under her breath, "This gloomy mute..."

Silver Wolf quickly added, "We can leave now. I asked about the spatial structure, but this is a rare place where Phanes can't eavesdrop on us."

Only then did Vernacular Poet suddenly look at Silver Wolf, before relaxing again. "I should've realized it. She probably knows all our movements... No wonder you weren't in a hurry to leave, Wolf Venerable."

"All of them? Then what about our accounts?" Windchaser suddenly spotted the blind spot.

Sunken Crow added coldly, "You mean once we leave, we have to pretend none of this ever happened?"

"Not a big problem..." Vernacular Poet said nonchalantly. "We can talk about it offline. The information exists offline too, anyway."

Silver Wolf considered Phanes's abilities. "That's up to you. Even if she knows, it probably won't have much of an impact, right?"

"Better keep it hidden..." Windchaser added. "After all, she tricked us once too."

"Whatever you want."