Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 904: Deliberation of the Great War (Part 2)

Among all the gods, if there had to be one who had the most profound study of "fate" and "prophecy," naturally, it had to be the God of Fate. However, the God of Fate was a mysterious person. He never appeared before the humans, not even on his seat as a great Divine Power of the Pantheon temple, where he would not be seen all day long. No one should expect to be able to find him unless he himself was willing to make the appearance.

If there was anything to ask of him, the most reliable way was to go look for the Goddess of Fortune—his only daughter.

The God Kingdom of the Goddess of Fortune was located on the front of the Ring of the World. It was the famous Sorrow-Proof Field.

This was an extremely large world here, at least a dozen times bigger than the Main Plane. It was forever enveloped in warm light, and there was always an intoxicating, gentle breeze. It was a place where countless innocent and happy creatures lived. No matter how gloomy and sorrowful one was, so long as they lived here long enough, they would feel themselves easing up and feeling happier. All worries and sorrows would be cast to the winds and be completely forgotten.

That was how the name "Sorrow-Proof" came about.

This was also the base camp of the Sorrow-Proof God System and was headed by the Goddess of Joy, who was a great Divine Power. With she herself and the Goddess of Fortune, who was a mid-level Divine Power, as the core, together with over 20 other goddesses who were low-level and weak Divine Powers, they formed this God System. They were considered a considerable force in the Pantheon temple, a typical mid-level God System.

Although their top-rated martial skills were not powerful enough, the Goddess of Joy was really not particularly impressive among the great Divine Powers. And in the Pantheon temple, she could only be seated in the third row. But they had always steered clear of worldly affairs, so they did not have enemies. On the contrary, they had many friends.

Sui Xiong was considered as one of their friends. This was because previously, when he helped Leon and Kalisa with their wedding preparations, he had met with a great deal of trouble over here at the Sorrow-Proof Field. And because of that, he had got acquainted with the Goddess of Joy and learned a lot of knowledge about construction from this construction expert.

Sui Xiong was usually quite a casual character. But in fact, he was someone who had great respect for his teachers. Since he had once learned a skill from the Goddess of Joy, he respected her as a teacher. So this trip to Sorrow-Proof Field, he first visited the Goddess of Joy and explained to her his purpose of visit.

The Goddess of Joy was very surprised to hear about it—the gods shared similar views about the outcome of that war between the humans and the Orcs. At this moment where she first heard that the God of Knowledge kept having a strong premonition about the "defeat of the humans," even she could not bring herself to force a smile.

Comparing the Human God System and the Orc God System, the Goddess of Joy was more inclined towards supporting the former. After all, the Human God System had not been operating in vain all these years. Most of the neutral forces among the gods would be more than happy to see them win.

These gods were not biased towards any race in particular. Or even if they did, the race that they favored would generally not live on the Main Plane. Given such a situation, of course they did not care whether or not the humans could defeat the Orcs and become the overlord of the Main Plane.

On the contrary, unity on the Main Plane could promote prosperity. This would be good for everyone.

The Orc's construction ability was a real tragedy. They appeared before the humans and built their nations way before the humans. Yet up till now, their degree of civilization was thrown far behind that of the humans. Considering this from a neutral point of view, naturally, the humans would be the more suitable side to foster cooperative relations.

There are many gods who held this thought, and the Goddess of Joy was one of them. But unfortunately, the Goddess of Fortune was not on this list.

When she met Sui Xiong and Wall, she first froze for a moment. Then she smiled mysteriously.

"I would never have thought that instead of the God of Light or the Sky Canine Devourer, but you two…" she whispered and shook her head gently.

Sui Xiong, Wall and the Goddess of Joy all showed a change in expressions.

Obviously, there was more to it than what the Goddess of Fortune said. She could even be said to have given quite an obvious hint.

"Could it be that… this war is really going to end with the defeat of the humans?" Sui Xiong could not help asking.

The Goddess of Fortune had regained her calm composure. With a smile, she said, "I didn't say anything. And I'm not going to say anything."

"Even if I'm the one asking, that won't do as well?" asked the Goddess of Joy with a frown.

"I'm sorry. I really can't say anything about this," said the Goddess of Joy as she sighed. Then she went on to say, "If I say anything about it, I will be in trouble."

The Goddess of Fortune was the embodiment of "fortune." If she was "unfortunate," that would mean her priesthood had collapsed. Then she would no longer be surrounded by fortune.

With the conversation coming up to this point, Sui Xiong and the rest knew that it would do them no good in asking further.

The Goddess of Joy was quiet for a long time. Finally, she decided to temporarily close Sorrow-Proof Field until the end of the war.

The reason that she openly declared was, "This war is something that is so saddening that I simply can't bring myself to turn a blind eye to such a massive tragedy and laugh happily. So I can only say goodbye to everyone for the time being. When time has slowly worn away the traces of blood and scars, I will appear before everyone again… I believe that day won't be too far away."

However, other than herself and the Goddess of Fortune, only Sui Xiong and Wall knew the real reason.

The two returned to the Sanctuary of the God Kingdom of the Void God System in silence. Sui Xiong used his Divine Power to set up layers of protective barriers, and only stopped when he was certain that nobody could spy beyond these layers. Then in a low voice, he said, "This matter must not be divulged!"

"Even if this was leaked out, who would believe it?" Wall asked him back with a wry smile.

Sui Xiong thought for a moment, then nodded.

They looked at each other, yet none said a word.

After a long silence, Sui Xiong said, "Don't you find it so strange?"

"Strange?"

"Yes. Obviously, the humans have the absolute upper-hand. Why would the outcome of this war result in them losing instead?" Sui Xiong asked with a frown. Then he said, "That doesn't seem reasonable!"

Wall replied with a wry smile, "If I could figure out the reason, would I still feel so distressed?"

Sui Xiong nodded. He did not have anything to say in return.

Much later, Sui Xiong said, "I think I still want to go about to ask more about it, make some inquiries."

"Ask who?"

"Ask both parties involved in this war, I guess," Sui Xiong said. He did not sound very certain as he replied, "I'll go ask the God of Light, I'll also ask the Sky Devourer Canine. I'll ask them what they want to do exactly. What are the exact preparations? Maybe there are some things that we don't know of."

"If it's really a secret, they won't tell us for sure," Wall said. "They will only reveal what cards they have in their hands at the most critical point in time. That is the way to achieve the best effect."

"But it always makes me feel unsettled in not making any inquiries at all," Sui Xiong said. "Even if there's no apparent help, at least I can tell myself, 'Auscar, you've tried, you've done your best, there's nothing to regret…' and things like that."

"But what if this alarms both sides instead? And information about it leaks out, what should we do then?" Wall asked worriedly after thinking for a moment.

Sui Xiong laughed and said, "If this is what fate dictates, then does it make any difference whether the information leaks out or not?"

In this world, there was no such saying like, "Man will conquer nature." Both men and gods believed that fate was predestined and thus could not be changed.

Though Sui Xiong did not agree with such a statement, he was a materialist who accepted established facts. He also accepted the conclusions derived from the established facts—even if they might seem ridiculous. So long as they were consistent with the facts every time, then they deserved his respect and recognition.

This was why he made such a reply.

In fact, he also wanted to take this chance to sound things out.

The Human God System and the Orc God System would be staging a war that was enough to shake the entire Pantheon temple. If such a powerful force was not enough to reverse fate, then maybe in this world, there was really such a thing as "fate determines everything…"