Mythology (2)

Lu was silent for a while, then said, "Let's talk about their affairs later. Aren't you curious about your own affairs?"

Inger asked dryly, "Why me?"

Zero poked his side with his finger, "Not you, the God of Time and Space needs Inger Neka, the original one."

Lu nodded and said with a wry smile: "He doesn't care whether our world will be destroyed or when it will be destroyed, but there seems to be something wrong with the time and space you are in. He needs Inger as a wedge."

Ling said: "He once said that this was the only possibility to avoid a terrible ending."

Ritsu added, "You're just one of the people who finished reading that comic book."

Zero: "We don't know why the God of Time and Space chose you, but before he left, he said that even if there is no way to prevent the ultimate demise of human civilization in this world, this can be used as a possible variable to give this era a good ending."

In Inger's mind, the questions just kept growing.

He said in a dry voice: "So, what I went through..."

Lu obviously knew what he was going to say, and said softly, "We are not gods who control destiny. The destiny of this world is the path that creatures take. We can interfere and guide, but we cannot control it. We cannot modify the Book of the World either."

Zero added: "Including the history that was retraced will also be faithfully recorded in the Book of the World."

For a long time, Inger believed that the goddess sent him to this world to guide him to help the protagonist save humanity.

Even though he is reluctant, the gears of fate will eventually mesh, forcing him to jump into this fire pit willingly, as if everything is destined.

But they now made it clear to her that he was just a random pick, a byproduct of a special exchange of people.

Everything he experienced was just his own choice. It was not fate that controlled his life, but the path he took was his destiny.

Inger wiped his face, struggling to digest this fact.

Zero: "We didn't expect you to bring any changes to this time and space, but you not only gained magic from another time and space, but also changed some of the trends through your own actions. In this respect, that guy is right."

Inger forced a wry smile.

Law: "We have been paying attention to you, but we have no way to guide you. Our divinity was no longer sufficient to support our intervention in this world. Even these two bodies could not wake up."

Inger: "This is... a clone?"

Lu: "Yes, you should have heard about it from the Tree of Life and Death. We have long liked to use clones to interfere with and guide the direction of human history."

Ling glanced at her and said, "But it was never satisfactory. I went back several times and my divinity weakened so rapidly."

Lu smiled bitterly: "..."

Zero: "This time it was because the little girl woke up the ring that we were able to make a sound and contact her."

Lu: "That ring was made by us a long time ago. It has been dormant for a long time, and our divine power still remains in it."

Inger: "...Does this ring have the power to make people unconsciously convinced?"

Lu: "Well, you guessed it. But if people didn't believe it at all, it wouldn't have infected them. It just magnified the possibility that already existed in people's minds."

Zero thought for a moment. "We used this ring to give speeches a long time ago, and it worked great. Well, we occasionally give it to children we choose to use. That child, Eric, is very close to us in nature."

Inger gradually understood what had happened and murmured, "Well... this time it was because of the clone's behavior..."

Lu explained: "Our original divinity was already very weak. When we realized that we could not maintain our clones, we planned to go back in time and let Elena and Alex retain their memories, hoping that this would bring some positive changes to the direction of this space and time."

Inger: "Then why... is Alex the only one here?"

Lu: "...No, we chose Elena, not Alex."

Inger's eyes widened.

Zero: "We judged that Alex was too emotional, and that Elena from the later period was more suitable for the survival of humanity as a whole, but she refused and gave the opportunity to Alex. Her original words were..."

Elena said: "I have no regrets in my life. Alex has many regrets, and he needs this opportunity to make up for them. And his vulnerability will become his strength, which is a stronger power that I don't have. He will protect humanity."

Lu: "We couldn't ask Alex for his opinion at that time. We had to send him back."

Zero: "Your meeting was an accident, but a good one."

Lu looked at him and smiled, "You have done a great job getting to this point. Thank you for your hard work."

Inger opened his mouth, and a sour look welled up in his eyes and nose.

It turns out that it was not because they were the chosen ones, but because they stood at the forefront at the critical moment of human survival that the goddess chose them and they became the protagonists.

Their good fortune, their sorrow, their trials, were not predestined.

They are just ordinary yet unique people.

They are not characters in comics, but real people who exist here and are desperately trying to live in this history.

This place where he was was the reality.

Inger looked up at the wooden beams, trying hard to control the tears that were welling up in his eyes.

As he was talking, Lu Ling leaned sleepily on the soft pillow standing at the head of the bed.

Inger immediately took out a large pile of magic stones.

Lu half-closed his eyes, fighting sleepiness, and waved his hands: "We can't use this."

Zero pointed at Inger's hand: "But we can use your magic."

Inger clenched his fists and began to quickly absorb the magic power in the magic stone.

The girl with the white hairband is on the left, the girl with the black hairband is on the right, and Ritsu's left hand holds Ling's right hand.

"This last time of retrospection was also completed with the help of the power of the God of Time and Space. The remaining divinity is not enough to support the next retrospection. This is the last time. No matter what the ending is, we will accompany mankind to the end."

They said, "You may still have many questions. But please listen to our story and you will get the answers you want. Let's start from the beginning."

The name of the world, the name of the goddess, and the name of the world's laws, a trinity.

God was born from the destruction of a world.

The god of that world that was destroyed was their mother.

The gods have no language; they were given the language of a destroyed world and carry the history and memory of that world.

The twin goddesses appear as young girls wearing flower crowns, white skirts and holding authority in one hand.

There is no difference in power status.

Their world is on this planet, because its location determines that it will eventually give birth to life and civilization.

They are the gods of time. The gods who maintain time and order in this world.

Law governs creation, Zero governs destruction.

They stayed together on the desolate planet. After an unknown amount of time, the earth's crust began to crack and move, and water appeared.

The surface of the earth began to turn blue and green, and life was born.

Lu liked those strange little things very much, so he gave them divine power.

She created magical creatures, and the Age of Mythology began.

Dragons and phoenixes go to war, giant trees wrestle with earth demons, big fish and big birds chase each other in the sky, giant sandworms dig a maze underground... these little things always turn the world upside down.

But these little things must come to an end.

A butterfly in the Western Hemisphere can cause a sea storm in the Eastern Hemisphere.

All things have their birth and their death.

Destruction is a part of nature.

Living things begin with life and end with death, while matter is formed and then destroyed.

Zero plucked a flower crown from the giant tree, ultimately ushering in the end of the entire era.

Lu did not stop him because she knew that was Zero's mission.

During the demise of a great era, most of the green land was frozen. As the ice gradually melted, the third god, Morine, was born in the ocean that occupied half of the planet. (1)

She controls the ocean and all life in it, so the ocean retains many traces of its ancient past.

When Ritsu was looking back at the memories of the previous world, she saw humans who were similar to them. She asked Zero: "Why are there no humans in our world?"

Ling said nonchalantly: "It will be born one day, right?"

Lu waited and waited, and when the next era of creatures began to grow wildly, she waved her hand and created two babies.

Zero looked at her speechlessly.

Lu smiled and said, "Raise them well, right?"

They created two clones, raised two children, and played house.

Before the clones died, Lu Ling went to receive their memories.

Zero had to admit that the lives of primitive humans struggling for survival were indeed more interesting than the lives of their omnipotent gods.

Lu was very excited, like a child who had discovered a new toy.

The law has sown the seeds of human beings everywhere. Human life span is very short, and they die after a few dozen seasons. Therefore, they think that this era should not last long.

They slept for a while, and when they woke up, they found that the era of humans had arrived.

The originally handful of human beings somehow multiplied into numerous tribes, and these small and fragile creatures could be seen everywhere on the gradually fixed continental plates.

Compared with the magical creatures of the mythological age, they are much weaker, but they tenaciously multiply and thrive on the mainland, forming settlements, societies, countries, and civilizations, transforming and evolving at an astonishing speed.

他們擁有即便遠古的神奇生物也不曾擁有的複雜的情感和思維，創造了比種群更多樣的社會。

律經常拉着零造出幾個化身，參與到人類生活中。她們不能過度幹涉人類生活，但是可以體驗和參與。這些化身一生的記憶成了她們枯燥神生裏的調味劑。

人類的生命因為短暫而珍貴。

律在這樣的過程中越來越喜愛人類。而零只忠實考慮着怎樣恰到好處地讓人類文明走向毀滅。

因為人類地成長速度雖然快，但是毀滅速度也很快，人類的歷史比起以前的時代，過于短暫。零隐約預見了。

神本不該過度幹預人類的歷史，這是她們母親給予她們最後的教誨。

而律顯然忘記了這一點。

她們發現，某些人類竟然能聽得見她們的聲音。

這類人能夠運用萦繞這個世界的氣息，和她們一樣。

于是律擅自降下了神谕。

她把運用這種力量的語句，神用的話語，教給了她們。

律女神慷慨地将已經毀滅的世界的語言全部教給了傾聽她的話的人類孩子。

還以分身和她聊了很多事情。

那個孩子是個好孩子。零也不讨厭。

那個女孩稱之為魔法。

她成為了世界上第一個女巫。

她渴望這神奇的力量幫助到更多的人，于是在女神的允許之下，她開始傳授魔法。

往往是女性更容易學會女神的魔法。

律也贊賞了她。

可是律注意到的時候，那些女巫都被燒死了。

被信仰天神的信徒給燒死了。他們稱其為異教徒，把她們放在火裏生生地燒死。

女巫們說：“天父不是我的主，我不服從于神父，不服從于丈夫，我只追随女神，因為她讓我們尋求自己的幸福，也願為世人降下祝福。”（2）

分身急劇痛苦的記憶引起了律的憤怒。

明明這個世界只有她們三位神。

人類卻自顧自地捏造出了各種神，強迫人們服從那些扭曲人性自然和剝離人性自由的戒律，一部分人為了滿足自己掌控權利的欲望，殘殺同胞。

律想要懲罰這些人類，被零阻止了。

零從樹上摘下了一顆蘋果，于是大陸上瘟疫肆虐、戰火紛飛，将人類的時代徹底燒燼。

在人類滅亡的前夕，律坦言了自己的錯誤，選擇了用神力回溯時光。

她最終舍不得自己的孩子。

海神和零包容了她的任性。

這是第一次回溯。

在時光的罅隙中，生死木捕捉到了回溯的奇異，但他無法與任何存在言說，只是靜靜地伫立在那裏。

律把一部分的魔咒教給了擁有魔力資質的孩子，給人類設下了永遠不能突破八級的禁制。她親自挑選了自己的代言人，把神谕傳播到人類社會的每個角落，自此，巫師被證明，人類無法再創造魔法，且只有三位神祇。

海神不喜歡與陸地上的人類交流，她更喜歡與海洋裏的種族對話。

于是海神的神話逐漸從人類中消失。

人類不喜歡毀滅和死亡，出于對死亡本能的恐懼，不能坦然承認死亡是自然的一部分，于是他們将零模糊化。

海神和零都對此無所謂。

人類中，衍生出了騎士。他們沒有對魔法的精準感知和操控力，但依靠魔力淬煉自身，他們變得比同級別的巫師還要強大。

人類數量在某個溫暖的時期進入暴增狀态。于是戰争也随之而來。與不會輕易死掉的神奇生物不同，人類的死亡那麽輕易。因為擁有感情，反而更加殘忍，與自然生物為了生存的厮殺不同，人類的殺戮往往有很多理由。

戰争年代化身的記憶，并不有趣。

律又一次開始了回溯。

她渴望将這個世界塑造成她想要的平衡和諧的世界。

然而，無論她如何引導，人類最終很快會走向滅亡。

零告訴了她，人類的時代注定如此短暫。

律即便再不舍也只能放棄，因為滅亡也是順應世界法則的。

毀滅是注定的，但并不一定是這一次，如果生物能熬過滅亡，可以走向下一個短暫的和平，如果不行就重新開啓一段文明。

毀滅是周期性的，世界就是這樣處于誕生與滅亡的往複循環中。

而如果要消滅這種周期性的毀滅，必須殺掉零。

而神的造物無法弑神。

這時，律和零已經預感到了自身神性的消失，她們已經存在了漫長的時光，創造神奇生物，創造人類，維持世界的秩序在不斷消耗她們的神性，回溯時光進一步加劇了因果的糾纏。他們和他們的造物一樣，即便擁有漫長的時光，終有一日會走向滅亡。

當兩神存在時，他們會以比較直接的方式影響世界，但當兩神神性徹底消散，她們就會變成人，死後，融為世界法則的一部分。冥冥中影響世界文明的誕生與毀滅。

然而，在人類紀年十五世紀左右。

有一個異物闖入了她們的世界。

從別的時空而來，不屬于她們這個世界的異物讓這個世界産生了嚴重的排異反應。

黑色的種子從星球附近某個空間撕裂一個不存在的虛無通道突然出現，因為引力而沖向地面，沒被大氣層和太空輻射消解，墜落地在了東大陸上。

她們對于時間的概念不敏感，導致了她們意識到事情的嚴重性的時候，已經來不及了。

那顆黑色的種子意識到了神的存在，一邊用普通樹木的波動隐藏着自己的存在，一邊在東大陸地下瘋狂生根，在她積蓄了足夠力量的時候，開始瘋狂吞噬東大陸上的生物，無論人類、魔獸、魔石、野獸、花草樹木、巨龍和巨人族之類的神奇生物………

她擁有通過吞吃生命，将其基因糅合在一起的能力，開出花胎，孕育出只屬于她的“衛兵”，她通過消耗生命而成長壯大，并把東大陸的生态環境改造成适合她的孩子們生活的地方。

外來入侵物種，想要改造這個世界，并成為神。

律想要将其連根拔起，然而她們不被允許直接用神力大範圍幹涉世界本身。

零嘗試過讓人類帶着淨化的魔咒前去消滅這個異物，沒有人類能活着走出東大陸。

在嘗試無數種法子無果之後，這個世界所有生物将近被這個異物毀滅殆盡。

三位神不允許這樣的事情發生。

毀滅是世界法則中的一環，但是這個毀滅必須是在這個世界中自然發生的，不能被這個世界之外的異物所幹涉。

他們共同進行了回溯。

然而這一次，因為世界被魔樹蠶食太深，世界本源受到了損傷，包括她們的神力也因為世界魔力的被侵吞而大大減弱。

被魔樹蠶食的部分竟然不會因為回溯而回歸。

他們只回到了魔樹在東大陸上紮完根系的那個時間點。

海神神性消失了。

在徹底消失之前，她做出了選擇，用最後的神力把自己獻給了海洋。

海洋将會在未來千年內充斥着奇異的魔力，魔樹以及其誕生的生物将難以踏入海洋，即便海洋生物偶爾會被海岸的魔力侵蝕，也不會在海洋裏擴散，海水裏的魔力會驅散這些，汪洋會稀釋這一切。

然而海水離開了海洋，這種魔力就無法維系，海洋是一個整體。

律和零為了驅趕魔樹，命令巨龍和不死鳥去灼燒那根莖。

地上的部分的确有效，但是地下已經匍匐太廣，只要有一絲根莖存活，這株魔樹就會再次複活。

這次她們沒有猶豫，在魔樹成熟并進攻西大陸之前，直接回溯了時光。

此刻時間點已經延遲到了魔樹開始吞噬占領東大陸的這一刻。

她們匆忙地設立了隔絕之牆，渴望延緩侵略的步伐，給人類反擊的時間，但很快，她們陷入了沉睡。

沉睡期間她們也能知道世界歷史的進程，但是只能看着，不能幫助。

她們看着人類內鬥之後重新建立聯系，牆破碎之後拼死抗争，最終消滅了魔樹。

她們看到以艾列娜、艾利克斯為首的人類英雄閃耀着光芒，強烈的光芒之後，是灰暗地熄滅。

人類死了大半。

他們的獻祭，強迫她們的力量流淌出去。

那個古老的血祭法陣，是久遠的女巫時代未清除的漏網之魚。

當時的人類，并不知道魔樹當時并沒有被完全消滅，還留下了殘存的種子。

那時，兩位神的想法是相反的。

人類文明的滅亡本來是很常見的事情。

律在創造世界與不斷在世界裏誕生的過程中愛上了這個世界，她經歷世界并心甘情願成為這個世界的基石。同時她也愛上了人類這個物種，她愛着自己的造物，不忍心看他們走向這樣的結局，于是一次又一次改寫。

對于零來說，兩者都無所謂，反正人類自取滅亡和魔族導致毀滅對她來說沒區別。

律希望自己尚在的時候能看見人類延續下去的希望，而不是自己創造的世界被魔族毀滅。

這時，時空之神降臨，請求她們幫助。律也請求他的幫忙。

The God of Time and Space helped them go back in time and space for the last time, and also helped them find the possibility of changing the ending.

The arrival of souls from another time and space was just a by-product of their transaction.

The God of Time and Space came and went in a hurry. He traveled through countless universes and time without leaving any news.

Because humans had defeated the demons on their own once before, this time Lu Ling left hope and decision-making power to humans.

Lu chose Elena between Elena and Alex.

Elena rejected God's kindness and gave the opportunity to Alex.

This is truly the last time.

Lu held Ling's hand tightly, his voice was very gentle:

"Even if kingdoms and dynasties are destined to repeat and overlap in the long river of history, and even if human civilization is not worth mentioning compared to the long years of the universe, at this point in time, the struggle of mankind is by no means in vain. Even if mankind is destined to be destroyed at a certain time, there should be room for them to struggle. They have survived many catastrophes. Doesn't this prove the resilience of this race? And as the god who created them, I have spent this short time with human civilization. It is my happiest time. No matter whether it is painful or happy, I want to give them one more chance before I leave my dear children. Thank you for accompanying me on this willful journey."

A rare smile appeared on Zero's face: "I don't care about humans, I only care about you. I will help you, because you are the other half of me, but I will also fulfill my duty and eliminate the aliens that do not belong to this world. I hope we can all do our best to do what we should do, and finally face destruction without regrets."

(1) Morine is derived from the word marine.

(2) “They obey neither priests nor husbands.”

—————《The Witch: The Unbeatable Woman》