"What do you mean, you saw nothing?" Neo blew out a smoke ring. "The future branches into countless paths, and anything is possible?"
Richard kept his hands in his pockets and said casually, "Perhaps I've already fallen."
"If you've fallen, you can't see anything?" Neo asked, a little puzzled. "Then how do those prophecy clerics make predictions?"
"What's the point if you can only predict things but can't change them?
The river of time needs a vessel to begin with, and nothing is better suited than your own powerful, long-lived self.
The best prophecy is your future self telling your past self;
the best change is your past self helping your future self change things.
So I think I probably won't live to see the next Epoch. In that case, shouldn't I join the game right away and have some fun while I can?"
Neo cursed. "So we still lose in the end?"
Then Kallen spoke. "Why couldn't it mean we won? If we win, there won't be any gods. No gods..."
Kallen stood up too, looked at Richard, and said with a smile,
"If there are no gods, naturally, there won't be a you either."
Richard said, "Then we'd have to win very thoroughly?"
Kallen replied, "You just said yourself that we of Order have always been overbearing. If we want to win, why shouldn't we win thoroughly?"
"Are you sure that's something you should say to a partner who just joined you? Win or lose, I have to die?"
"Giving up your godhood isn't dying."
"How is that any different from dying? Say, aren't you afraid I'll change my mind over this?"
"No, because there are too many things in your heart that matter more than godhood."
"I'm curious. Sometimes, winning a Divine War on the largest possible