Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1182: Chapter 1181: Enya Filled with Experience

We have to admit that in most topics that easily spark controversy, ”I have experience” is always more convincing than ”I don’t think so,” especially when that experience can’t be replicated by others, its persuasiveness is enhanced by a hundredfold. When Enya said the words ”I’ve died,” the scene instantly fell silent. Amon and Milmina’s expressions froze, let alone say anything further. Only Gawain barely had the right to speak, as he had also died — but he hadn’t been a god...

The thought of doing sit-ups in a coffin is an experience that can’t exactly be shared with Enya...

The awkward silence lasted for almost half a minute before Milmina finally hesitated and broke the silence, ”Well... your assertion is indeed very convincing, but now you...”

The former Goddess of Magic pondered for a long time before finally sorting out her words smoothly: ”Haven’t you come back to life... Since you have already resurrected from death, our concern about the War God’s return is also...”

”Precisely because my mortal nature has returned, I understand what the concept of divine death is,” Enya interrupted Milmina before she finished, ”My ’return’ is the result of pre-reserving and condensing my mortal nature, and only the mortal part could return. What I am now is not so much a resurrected Dragon God, but rather a personality backup of the Dragon God — and the War God, who had already gone completely mad and was directly killed on the battlefield before his descent, could not prepare like this, nor did he have the chance to. His downfall was accompanied by the joint annihilation of mortal and divine nature, making it very difficult to achieve a return through so-called ’Divine Kingdom Revitalization.’

At this, she paused slightly, her gaze slowly sweeping over Gawain, Amon, and Milmina, speaking with a particularly serious tone: ”Indeed, gods will continually regenerate and return as long as there are factors in mortal mindsets inclined towards blind worship and awe of the unknown. Gods will have the soil for continuous birth. I have personally witnessed generations of War Gods, Reapers, Elemental Gods, and others regenerate continuously, but this regeneration requires crossing a season of civilization’s history, thousands of years are far from enough — remodeling mindsets is not that simple.”

Amon pondered, and after a few seconds, couldn’t help but ask, ”Are you also confident in this?”

”Confident,” Enya nodded solemnly, ”I’ve seen them die.”

Amon & Milmina & Gawain: ”...”

”...You’ve said the two most convincing phrases in the world,” Gawain couldn’t help but press his forehead with a face of helplessness, ”You’ve died, and you’ve seen them die... Well, I admit you’re right.”

”Since you’ve said so, I have no more comments,” Amon finally came out of his surprise, slowly nodding, ”But this matter still requires utmost caution. You are going to explore a divine realm, and even though all indications suggest that mortals have developed ’immunity’ towards the War God’s divinity, we can’t be certain that a divine realm in gradual collapse won’t manifest other dangers besides divine contamination...”

”Of course, I know that,” Gawain gently nodded, ”Everyone involved in this plan knows that, and we will make all preparations — at least as much as we can.”

Enya looked at Gawain, then at the two former gods sitting on either side of her, her gaze finally falling on Milmina: ”Milmina, you...”

”I know, I can help,” Milmina nodded proactively before Enya finished speaking and turned her gaze to Gawain, ”Take me with you when you depart.”

Gawain instantly widened his eyes, clearly caught off guard: ”Are you saying... you want to explore the War God’s divine realm with us?!”

”What else can I do?” Milmina spread her hands helplessly, ”The ’senior’ beside me now has mobility issues, the ’colleague’ opposite me is now completely paralyzed, leaving just one god who can do something. Who else can it be but me? Exploring the War God’s divine realm is extremely dangerous, and besides complete preparations, what you need more is experience with divine realms and a pair of eyes that can fully observe a divine realm. In this regard, I can still be of help.”

Milmina’s reasoning was clear, but Gawain still wasn’t entirely certain: ”Your reasoning makes sense, but is it really okay to do this? As far as I know, there is a mindset gap between gods. Due to the strong tendencies of mindsets, gods from different domains are like signals of different frequency waves; upon contact, ’signal contamination’ inevitably occurs. For a Goddess of Magic like you to enter the War God’s divine realm, wouldn’t it be...”

”This contamination does exist, but it occurs under the premise that the connection between mindset and deity persists, and that mindset and deity themselves are still functioning,” Milmina nodded lightly, ”A living god is equivalent to a projection of mindset; the continuous change of mortal mindsets reflects in the activities of the gods. Therefore, direct contact between two gods is like a collision, interference between two different mindsets. But if a god falls or the connection with the mindset breaks, the ’interference’ mechanism naturally ceases to exist.

”Now that the War God has fallen, and his divine realm has long ceased to operate — it is like a congealed phantom gradually dissipating. There are no echoes of mindset within this phantom, and thus it lacks the power to contaminate other deities. When I step into this realm, it is as a shadow passing through another shadow, with mutual isolation preserved. And besides...”

Milmina suddenly smiled as she spoke: ”Even without considering the War God’s fall, I myself also am akin to a ’dead’ god now. Perhaps not as thoroughly ’dead’ as Lady Enya, but given that the world acknowledged that funeral, accepting that the Goddess of Magic had died, my connection with mindsets has weakened to near total disconnection. Even if there are any residual ’activities’ in the War God’s divine realm, I should still be safe going in.”

Listening to the former goddess’s explanation, Gawain couldn’t help but nod slightly — although she initially opposed the project, it was out of excessive caution and ”divine PTSD.” Now that her resolve was set, it was clear that this goddess was prepared to fully support the endeavor. However, hearing Milmina’s last sentence, Gawain was suddenly struck by another thought: ”Wait, then according to you, as a ’deceased’ deity, you can fairly safely approach other gods’ divine realms?”

Milmina paused, evidently not expecting Gawain to think of this. She hesitated slightly, but finally nodded gently: ”Theoretically, yes... There would still be some contamination, as my connection with mindsets hasn’t completely severed, and there are still a few people in the world adamantly anticipating the return of the Goddess of Magic, but overall, I could still withdraw safely after approaching other gods...”

Gawain leaned forward slightly, full of curiosity and anticipation on his face: ”Then couldn’t you go check out the situation at the other gods?”

This would be like visiting other divine realms — thought Gawain, though the analogy sounded a bit too folksy he found it rather fitting.

To his surprise, Milmina immediately shook her head: ”No, I’d get hit.”

Gawain: ”...?”

”Think about it, all gods are tightly bound to their positions by the chain of thought. Their divine realm is their prison, and the gods can’t take a single step out,” the Goddess of Magic looked at Gawain and explained helplessly, ”And now, suddenly, there’s an unbound one running around in their prison, hopping from one divine realm to another...”

”I see, that’s indeed quite likely to get hit,” Gawain realized abruptly, his expression slightly odd, ”It’s a bit like doing calisthenics and running in front of a paralyzed person, which could easily spike the ’victim’s’ blood pressure...”

Amon, sitting nearby, suddenly covered his forehead for some reason, letting out a silent sigh.

The Goddess of Magic nodded slightly: ”It’s somewhat similar, but even riskier—after all, those gods who still hold their positions are freely active and immensely powerful in their own realms, while a paralyzed person can’t just suddenly stand up and beat someone...”

Amon finally couldn’t help but look up, staring into the Goddess of Magic’s eyes, while a line of words suddenly appeared in the air before her: ”User ’Highspeed Stag’ challenges you to a duel, please reject/accept.”

The Goddess of Magic unhesitantly chose ”reject”—clearly, she wasn’t doing this for the first time.

Amon’s expression instantly became somewhat dejected, looking at Gawain rather helplessly: ”Isn’t there any place in this neural network that’s beyond the reach of an administrator?”

Gawain glanced at Amon and then at the Goddess of Magic, suddenly understanding something, astonished at certain facts that had unfolded beyond his knowledge, then regrettably (and sympathetically) shook his head: ”Unfortunately, the entire neural network is monitored by the Supreme Narrator and the Imperial Computing Center, and unauthorized attacks will certainly be kicked offline...”

Amon sighed, while the Goddess of Magic wore a slightly smug expression, raising her eyebrows with self-satisfaction: ”Actually, I just found a blind spot in the management system’s monitoring the other day, but I’m certainly not going to tell you about it...”

”Let’s get back to the main issue,” Gawain finally couldn’t help but interject, seeing the topic turn off course with these retired ”gods,” ”I understand the Goddess’s concern now, probing into other divine realms indeed carries immense risk—even without the issue of corruption, the hostility from other gods poses an even bigger problem...”

”The biggest trouble is that their attitudes are not their own will,” the Goddess of Magic’s expression turned serious again as she nodded slightly, ”Due to the exclusivity of faith, except for gods like the ’three goddesses of fertility,’ who were ’maintained’ together by doctrine from the beginning, gods are mutually exclusive. Mortals see followers of other gods as heretics or heterodoxies, and thus gods must consider other gods as enemies, especially within their own divine realms. This rejection is a crucial part of the ’chain,’ utterly uncontrollable by their own will.

”And I, although from a mortal’s perspective am seen as a ’fallen god,’ in the eyes of other gods, I’m still the Goddess of Magic Milmina, unless they free themselves from their chains, this perception will firmly control their actions.”

At this point, she sighed lightly: ”There’s no friendship among gods, no communication, no alliances; this is the greatest obstacle before us. If it weren’t so, I would have long since tried to contact other gods, acting like a messenger to allow them to exchange views, perhaps even establish a ’unified theocracy front’ on the side of the gods to align with your mortals’ decoupling efforts...”

The scene described by the Goddess of Magic stirred thoughts in Gawain, making him imagine what a thrilling and delightful sight that would be. However, the more he imagined, the more it could only transform into a sigh—a vision destined to be unattainable, the more he thought, the more it filled him with regret.

Amon, on the other hand, couldn’t help but seriously look at the Goddess of Magic: ”I didn’t expect you to harbor such... ideals, I thought...”

”Thought what?” the Goddess of Magic glanced at Amon, ”Thought I frequently ran to the depths of the shadow realm, risking attacks at the borders of those divine realms, just because I love running?”

”That’s not what I meant... fine, I did have some misunderstandings about you previously.”

Listening to the conversation between these two Gods of Yore, Gawain couldn’t help but become more curious about how they usually interacted in the defied Court, but now was clearly not the time to delve into such matters. He turned his gaze to the Goddess of Magic: ”Although what you propose sounds difficult to achieve, there’s no harm in us conducting some research. Over the years, our scholars have been deciphering natural laws and utilizing them. I’ll bring your idea to the experts in the theocracy Authority Council, maybe... it could offer them a new perspective.”

”If they truly find a way, this endeavor will undoubtedly earn the admiration of all gods,” the Goddess of Magic said with utmost seriousness, ”Although I still believe it’s an almost impossible task, you seem to have achieved many things considered impossible over the years...”

Amon was also pondering, and after a long silence, couldn’t help but mutter: ”The isolation and rejection between gods... it’s indeed a very difficult problem. I think each god would want like us to break free from the current chains, but even with a shared goal, the gods can’t form an alliance, let alone act together. Is there really no ’opportunity’ for the gods to reach a consensus? Like iron filings aligned by a magnetic field, causing the mutually repulsive gods to move in the same direction...”

Under the golden oak, there was a momentary silence, Amon’s thought seemed even more far-fetched than the Goddess of Magic’s, yet Enya suddenly spoke after a brief silence: ”It’s not completely out of the question. The gods can indeed reach consensus, but you surely wouldn’t like that ’opportunity’.”

Three gazes fell on her simultaneously, and Gawain, deep in thought, immediately realized something.

Sure enough, Enya spoke the answer Gawain anticipated: ”When the Final Defiance occurs—at that time, the gods will achieve consensus, and all the gods’ goals will be the destruction of all mortals. Such a highly unified objective could forcefully stitch the gods together, turning them into a divine amalgamation.

”In this regard, I also have experience.”

Gawain covered his forehead with a long sigh: ”I knew it would be that...”