Whose Child
Before them remained Cross that blurred between illusion and reality; the indistinct human figure was barely discernible, only vaguely resembling a human form, while the wooden stakes and flowing blood on the body were exceptionally clear.
Neph's unbridled gaze probably made the "True Creator" uncomfortable, and he asked, "What's wrong?"
"I—" Neph moved her lips, then swallowed the words that were about to come out of her throat.
She lowered her head again, revealing the vulnerable back of her neck, her voice carrying a restrained composure. "I am simply overwhelmed by your boundless compassion."
Neph had tried her best to embellish her words, but considering her previous expression, it was clear that whatever she said at this moment would not be appropriate.
The "True Creator" clearly thought so too, but he didn't care, or rather, what he was prepared to care about wasn't this matter of attitude: "Therefore—"
Is that why you have that kind of thought?
Neph froze.
The "True Creator" continued, "The 'Hanged Man ' Pathway contains the concepts and symbolism of 'acceptance of sin' and 'sacrifice.' The wooden stake and bloodstains you see are the embodiment of these concepts, not derived from—"
His voice paused, Neph seized the opportunity to speak quickly, "That wasn't my idea! I just, uh, I just glanced at it and remembered it—"
"Then why do you remember?" the "True Creator" asked her.
Neph froze for a moment before speaking, "I... I have the Authority to remember—"
The "True Creator" did not speak. Neph knew her answer was inadequate, but she couldn't care less at the moment, because she had realized that neither the "True Creator" nor Adam seemed to have any intention of punishing her for this matter; they merely wanted to correct her thinking.
As for why she should correct her thinking, Neph had the answer, "Child of Winter" signifies a comprehensive enhancement of control over the Authority over the Bitter Winter Realm. In terms of memory, her Authority is manifested in her interference with Historical Void and Prophecy.
As she said before, Prophecy is the history of the future, and history is the memory of the world. With Sequence 2, she finally had the ability to manipulate the Historical Void. As the holder of the Authority of memory, she could not reverse the past, but she could modify the past in the world's memory. Specifically, this was manifested in the alteration of the Historical Void.
Neph found it hard to say what use this was, because the ability was so targeted, it was practically made to counter the "Scholar of Yore," which made Neph wonder if the "Eternal Winter" had some deep-seated grudge against the "Lord of the Mysteries."
To be frank, from the Genie's perspective, this isn't so hard to accept.
The Mythical Creature Form made Neph even more suspicious of this matter. In fact, her Sequence 2 Mythical Creature Form was just a pale human figure. However, Neph had observed her own form while walking, and with the memories of her ascension and the abilities she had demonstrated all along as a reference, Neph suspected that the human figure was actually a condensed white mist.
As her Sequence lengthens, the mist will gradually dissipate, losing its human form and transforming into a completely amorphous White Mist!
That corresponds perfectly to the Gray Fog- like form of Historical Void.
But this is too profoundly related to that Celestial Worthy, that "Lord of the Mysteries." With such similar forms and even related Authority, it's hard for Neph to believe that the two are unrelated. However, she can't quite figure out how these two are connected.
Neph had previously suspected that this person had simply died and entered directly as Sefirah. Even assuming, hypothetically, that this Great Old One had somehow survived and entered, how could He not be on "God Almighty's" list?
As for the interference with the Prophecy, that's easy to explain. In Neph's view, it's just a more sophisticated form of counter-divination—it involves the River of Fate, or rather, the counter-divination of the Authority of Fate.
Regardless, Neph, burdened with a host of unsolved mysteries, decided to throw out a random question to steer the conversation away, "Lord, I have something I'd like to ask you."
"In my previous understanding, after ascending to Sequence 2, one needs to confront the Great Old One spirit, and the image formed by faith and cognition can serve as an anchor," replacing our confrontation with the Great Old One, thus allowing us to retain more of our self in the confrontation.
"However, after advancing to Sequence 2, I did not perceive that spirit that should have been there—"
"Your situation is different from that of Beyonder," the "True Creator" replied. "You do not belong to this world, do you?"
"Most likely," Neph responded cautiously, "I'm not sure how much Adam told you—well, I don't think I know."
She paused, and seeing that the "True Creator" did not intend to interrupt, she continued, "I may come from another Earth. In my understanding, it is an era similar to the Great Old One one, with even the timeline being almost identical—perhaps there are differences, I have not compared them one by one."
When I traveled through time, at least in my memory, it was September 2024. However, on April 1, 2018, a book was published; its name was...
Lord of the Mysteries.
The protagonist of this book is Klein Moretti, who arrives with the Sefirah Castle. As for the subsequent story, I think you have some guesses. Most of my Oldest One knowledge of Mysticism actually came from that book.
"And within the Sefirah I carried, I also found traces of that book. It was a space similar to the Collection Hall, and I was a collectible stored there. The introduction to me mentioned that book."
"Besides, the description also said that I have no trace of a father"—I believe that "father" refers to the Oldest One Creator.
The "True Creator" confirmed her guess. "You're right."
"At least in the beginning, you cannot be remembered by others. Besides the influence of the Sefirah ' itself, there is another crucial reason: you have not been recognized by the Original Creator and cannot yet be considered a part of this world."
"Within the Chaos Sea, there exists a symbol of Patriarchy; I used the Chaos Sea to acknowledge your identity."
"----?" Neph paused suspiciously for a moment, "Then I'm your----?"
"Not mine," the "True Creator" denied. "Mysticism speaking, you should be considered the Oldest One child of the Great Old One who conceived you."
"----?" Neph was even more confused. "Then, then—if I may be so bold as to ask, what about my relationship with the Mother Goddess of Depravity '?"
The "True Creator" told her, "Your mother is His Oldest One and last child."
Chapter 2 Whose Child
"I still don't quite understand," Neph tried to organize her thoughts, "Where did my mother go after she gave birth to me?"
The "True Creator" avoided answering directly, only explaining, "Sometimes in nature, a special situation exists where, after a child is born, the mother dies, and the child eats the mother's corpse, growing and developing rapidly, thus surviving its vulnerable infancy."
"----?" Neph's face showed an absurd expression. "You mean----"
She paused, carefully choosing her words: "His spirit, I... digested it? Not the fake digestion of Acting Method, but genuine digestion???"
The "True Creator" replied, "Actually, if it were any other Great Old One, it might not have this effect, because in the process of digesting it, you will absorb the other's memories and be influenced by it."
"Compared to the Great Old One, human lifespan is still too short. You will have a blurred self-awareness under these memories, but the will of the Great Old One is immortal. When your self-awareness is blurred enough, they will be revived once again. At that time, you will become a part of them."
"But this is an old memory that governs the Great Old One— "
Yes, I absorbed his memory Authority, which ensures that I won't experience self-perception confusion due to those memories.
Neph took a breath, somewhat realizing her situation, but she still had unanswered questions. "So, He didn't anticipate this? He really risked his life, putting me inside and then coming in?"
The "True Creator" replied, "I think He must have done something to prevent you from waking up, and even if you did, the situation would probably be just like it was in the beginning."
"Because theoretically speaking, the very first moment you came into this world, the Original Creator recognized your existence; otherwise, you wouldn't exist in this world at all—since you exist, it means that your existence must have been recognized by Him."
"But that Eternal Winter" interfered with this recognition, and I used the Chaos Sea to eliminate this interference. If it weren't for this situation, with my current control over the Chaos Sea, I wouldn't be able to truly replace the Original Creator in recognizing you. Even in my prime, I probably couldn't do that. Only the cooperation of the past God Almighty and the Celestial Worthy Venerable would have made it possible.
"But—I think you still remember the place where you were born? Perhaps, due to the similarity of Authority, this Sefirah was attracted to the Sefirah Castle, and over thousands of years of contact, the Sefirah Castle has had some unknown influence on the Sefirah within you, and a series of coincidences led to your birth."
"That's terrible," Neph commented. "In that case, I have another question—do I still need to hold Ritual?"
"Of course you need it," the "True Creator" answered without hesitation. "The essence of your soul is not from the Great Old One; it's just that you come from another world, and your special form makes you more fortunate than others. This doesn't mean you don't need to advance."
Neph nodded thoughtfully, then suddenly asked curiously, "What if the essence of my soul is truly the Great Old One?"
"Then I think you won't have a chance of living," the "True Creator" shook his head, "Unless you win the struggle against Him for the Sefirah."
That's probably unlikely; I think I'd most likely give up immediately— Neph's lips twitched, and she asked again, "What if I descend into His divine realm instead of His? I mean, somewhere on Earth."
"Do you want to carry a physical body, or just a soul?" the "True Creator" asked her.
"Is there a difference?" Neph asked, puzzled.
The "True Creator" replied, "If the essence of your soul is truly the Great Old One, then there is a difference."
"Because your own body is still mortal and does not possess Divinity, it cannot bear the soul of the Great Old One. The moment you appear in this world, your body will collapse."
"Of course, you don't need to worry too much, because the souls of the Great Old One don't die so easily. Besides, your spirit is immortal. Even the Great Old One that you digested is essentially merging with you. I think some of your habits have already been affected, but it's not obvious."
"You just need to wait, and soon God or other Great Old One will find you and find a way to seal you away. Considering that you are an Great Old One being without Authority, this is not very difficult."
"Hmm, you might know about 0-05? I think your situation is a bit worse than His."
This is... this is really bad...
Neph's lips twitched slightly, and she asked again, "What about other people's bodies? Are they alright then?"
The "True Creator" told her, "It depends on your luck."
"Theoretically speaking, Beyonder at the Angel level should be able to contain an Great Old One soul, and because the level difference is relatively large, unless you happen to encounter the King of Angel or True God, you should be able to easily accommodate the Beyonder Characteristic within the other party."
"Once you have a solid foundation, you can naturally eliminate that Beyonder Characteristic."
"As for those who are not at the Angel level, there is a high probability that they will collapse directly."
Neph was silent for a few seconds before speaking hesitantly, "But it seems that, in my memory, the only truly independent Angel is Will Angsejan. The other Angel all have their own followers. If something really goes wrong, won't the True God come looking for them?"
She paused, then added, "Oh, right, Amon is also an independent Angel —well, if Mr. 'The Door' doesn't count, who else is there? Speaking of which, if someone transmigrated into Amon —would they really retain some self-awareness?"
"Perhaps you could ask Him," the "True Creator" replied, "He seems to be quite friendly towards you."
"I think it's because you've been very friendly to me" —Neph's lips twitched, she shook off the thoughts in her head, and asked the next question, "So, where should I go to find my next Ritual?"
"I don't know," replied the "True Creator." "If I were you, I would take advantage of Mother's absence and explore His Collection Hall more thoroughly."
"In that Pure White Space?" Neph asked curiously.
"I'm just guessing," the "True Creator" replied, "Well, there's one more thing."
His voice paused, then reminded Neph, "I think you know about Adam's ascension Ritual and what the necessary steps were. If possible, help Adam become a god as soon as possible."