Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Lansendel was a bit lost: ”Isn’t this exactly what she said herself?”

”Could she really not know who she was talking to and what she was saying?”

”Celene is not you. Her Moonlight can be borrowed.” Shaer said blankly. ”Back then, one of Toril’s Primordials prayed to her for this shareable Divine Artifact.

Just like that Mist Divine Artifact Laila swiped back in the day.”

Lansendel completely failed to understand. His beautiful big eyes were about to pop out of their sockets: ”Wait... wasn’t Laila just screwed over... Celene!

You actually dared lend your own Divine Artifact to the Zholar?

Are you out of your mind?”

Celene spoke a little dazedly: ”But Elisui is in her slumber period, I... just wanted to help her... so that when Elisui wakes up, there won’t already be no Zholar left who believe in her.”

Her concern wasn’t exactly wrong.

Even Zholar who turn toward the light are textbook egoists.

Faith that gets no response will naturally be abandoned.

After all, for Zholar, it’s not like they can’t believe in other Deities of the Elf Deity System... it’s just that Elisui is the one Zholar can actually reach, the most enthusiastic and the most willing to extend a hand to help them.

Obviously, once Elisui can’t answer the Zholar’s prayers, given the temperament of most Zholar, they’ll probably rather go follow that God of the Sword Singers.

This refers to those so‑called good Zholar who want to return to the surface.

And Villon’s followers are even simpler... because Villon and Elisui unexpectedly fell asleep together and cooperated, this time Villon’s unlucky son Xiwentam survived; he didn’t turn into that black spider under Rose’s temptation.

As the God of warriors among the Zholar, that guy loves and longs for his aunt Elisui most; he’s always looked down on his own father.

So he definitely won’t turn away those male Zholar who flee to him.

Celene’s worry really wasn’t completely unnecessary... absurd as it sounds, for Zholar, the fact they all know Elisui is only going to sleep for a few hundred years means that if someone is willing to help that beautiful Dark Maiden shoulder part of her burden during that span, they’ll stay.

Getting a bit less in return is fine, but getting nothing at all is absolutely unacceptable... that’s the Zholar’s life creed.

Hill was actually quite surprised that Celene would take the initiative to do this for Elisui.

He had indeed heard that Celene rather admired the Dark Maiden.

But this is Celene, the one with no heart and no lungs!

Even if she did something unnecessary and probably only made things worse.

Still, this is one of those rare times she actually thought of someone else, and thought this much... for her own little sister, she’d likely do no more than this.

Thinking of that, Hill couldn’t help glancing at Shaer... he was a bit worried about Shaer’s mental state.

Shaer, on the other hand, didn’t feel much of anything.

She actually knew very well that Celene’s love was complicated, but it wasn’t nonexistent.

Just like back when Celene made that Sun, there were many reasons, and among them there was probably the idea that it was ”for her own good.”

But did she need that kind of ”for her own good” that didn’t care if she lived or died?

Some things are better off not existing at all than stomached with disgust.

If she hadn’t met William and had her heart awakened to hope again... Shaer had already prepared herself to sink into complete despair and then simply abandon the self and fuse with the Primordial Darkness.

Celene’s way of thinking, and any effort she makes for others, are... forget it. It’s rare to be this happy, why dwell on disgusting things!

Thinking that, Shaer let out a cold laugh: ”Elisui really ought to thank you, letting one of her only two remaining Chosen directly turn into Rose’s trusted retainer!”

Celene wasn’t entirely brain‑dead; if she could lend out a Divine Artifact, then that Zholar must once have been someone Elisui valued highly.

But Elisui... a Goddess that could win Celene’s admiration, what kind of virtue could she possibly have?

Think about it and you know the people around Elisui could never be clean, or Rose wouldn’t have been able to get Control of her so easily.

No matter how naive the girl is, she wouldn’t believe that her dear mother wants to find her out of mother‑daughter affection.

Someone must have exposed where she was.

Especially since the Dark Maiden only wants to save Zholar and doesn’t care what kind of ghosts they harbor in their hearts.

Among her followers there are plenty with feet in several boats.

However, Shaer also understood another point: the reason Celene could be that stupid definitely involved AO’s influence.

After all, when that Zholar used the Moonlight Divine Artifact to shine toward the center of the Universe, Celene could feel it.

She could have cut off that connection at any moment.

But she didn’t.

And Celene very obviously sensed something was off, yet still let him carry on.

Tsk~ one guess and you know who that was because of.

So what is she upset about now?

Because she helped out this once, she now feels that she bears responsibility for all those corpses lying around?

Shaer sneered and turned her head... give it a few minutes and Celene will talk herself into believing this was just an accident and has nothing at all to do with her, the one who got used.

She didn’t need to feel any guilt.

Sin—always someone else’s doing.

Just like on Toril, as long as it wasn’t her own hands doing the killing, Celene could just watch kingdoms fall and families be wiped out.

Her kindness has forever extended only as far as what’s right in front of her.

Shaer finally unraveled the doubt in her heart... Cyric had been acting far too lively, and clearly knew all the causes and consequences—knew even more than she herself did—and that fact made someone like her, who loves secrets so deeply, very unhappy.

But if Celene was mixed into it, then everything suddenly made sense.

Shaer herself knew her own problem... She sometimes liked to avoid moonlight—too bright a night would make her unconsciously stop and fail to move forward.

And naturally, that meant there were things she’d simply overlook.

If not for this, she wouldn’t have spared Celene’s meaningless whining a single thought... heh~

Tsk~ honestly, she recovered even faster than Shaer had envisioned.

She was already in quite the high spirits now, going off to watch the giant screen hanging outside the Dimensional Gate on the topmost layer of Heavenly Mountain.

The Lord of Hell, Asmodeus, was over there opening a door.

The black-winged Angels standing behind him had faces full of excitement and mockery.

Farther away, the Devils and Demons were sneering at the gods above while eyeing one another viciously from across the way.

It was the biggest joke of all... No matter how formidable the God of Order made the defenses of this layer of the Plane, there was no withstanding an enemy who could just directly copy the key.

Asmodeus, using for the last time his identity as the former King of Angels... his lock-picking Skills were truly practiced to perfection.

Who knows how many times he had rehearsed it in his mind.

Hill glanced, a little dazed, at the three Deities who didn’t seem to care much about what had just happened... None of them spoke, but the expressions on their faces clearly showed they were cheering Asmodeus on.

Even Shaer’s usually emotionless face had taken on a rare flush of red.

Hill could understand it: any Deity that had existed long enough would loathe Heavenly Mountain... especially Shaer and Celene.

Back in the tens of thousands of years when the two of them fought to defend Toril, at least one-third of the powerful Wild Gods had been lured away by that pack of Gods of Order.

How could Heavenly Mountain possibly not care about AO’s sudden departure back then?

But it wasn’t hard to imagine... Even someone like AO couldn’t stomach those Gods of Order; how incredibly stupid and absurd must they be.

Remember, AO did not detest evil.

He seemed to hate idiots more.

And those who don’t know their place, who push their luck without any sense of proportion.

So Shaer’s slightly clenched little fist, Celene’s flailing arms... the fact that the two of them still remembered not to shout out loud already counted as them giving a lot of face.

After all, everyone knew: the Gods of Order might suffer, but they’d never be completely wiped out.

To be able to churn out so many disgusting acts yet only force others to swallow it in silence of course meant they had overwhelming power.

They refused to leave Heavenly Mountain now, partly because they couldn’t bear to... but more importantly, because they didn’t think they’d lose to this former King of Angels.

For the Gods of Order, if they could pay the price of a temporary loss to sever Heavenly Mountain completely from Asmodeus—who held a portion of Heavenly Mountain’s sovereignty—that was obviously a good deal.

It wasn’t them who would die—just a bunch of vassals who could be replaced at any time, right?

Lansendel and Hill had grown increasingly disgusted with the Gods of Order because, as time went on and the Gods of Order stayed utterly indifferent to the misery spread across Heavenly Mountain, the two of them had finally worked this out.

Those who depend on others will, in the end, be abandoned... This, in fact, The Wise Ones all understand.

So anyone with half a brain would never place their life entirely in someone else’s hands.

But for those in high positions to completely disregard the lives of their own subordinates—that was another matter entirely.

If we’re talking about those Deities who only lodge in Heavenly Mountain... like certain fellows from Toril.

They might have received approval to reside in Heavenly Mountain, but that was because they met certain baseline requirements of Heavenly Mountain... so they didn’t need to pay tribute to those Gods of Order.

The Gods of Order were, after all, not the true masters of Heavenly Mountain; they could only pile on additional conditions, but they could not refuse entry to Deities who met the natural requirements.

Thus, their true subordinates consisted only of those God Systems that did not qualify but had been specially allowed to move in.

And those were the ones who had to pay tax.

The beautiful Goddesses Celene had mentioned were subordinates deployed by the Gods of Order to each Plane layer, in charge of overseeing tax collection.

They were just like little gangsters—once you’ve taken protection money, at least you’re supposed to manage safety on your own turf!

Yet the Gods of Order had simply abandoned these residents who’d paid them protection money for tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years!

”Heavenly Mountain is really going to decline from here on out.” Lansendel spoke with deep emotion. ”Asmodeus is the truly ruthless one!”

What they could clearly see, the Lord of Hell, who understood the Gods of Order even better, had probably already figured out long before he made his move.

Hill tilted his head... He still couldn’t quite grasp the way Deities thought.

All that had just happened... and it was simply over like that?