Chapter 169: Is Being Killed by a God Different from Ordinary Death?

Chapter 169: Is Being Killed by a God Different from Ordinary Death?

In the "Eternal Canvas" base, Ernos's consciousness silently emerged from behind a painting.

Using the vibrant colors as her eyes, she peered beyond the frame at the corridor outside.

At the end of the hallway, The Grinning Canvas—wearing a grinning mask and dressed in a bespoke suit—walked ahead, respectfully guiding a red-haired woman dressed as a feudal-era sorceress.

Ernos's gaze settled on the red-haired witch, her expression tinged with confusion.

After escaping the nightmare's cage, Ernos had pored over recent authoritative gazettes of the mystical world to keep up with the times and stay aligned with her Lord's will. She had committed key events to memory—among them, the report of the Ill Fate Witch Elius's resurgence.

Everyone believed this witch possessed the goat-pupiled gaze of the Old God of Fate, naturally placing her in opposition to the Lord of Fate, waging war beneath the standard of the Old Gods...

Even Ernos had once thought so.

It wasn’t until her Lord commanded her to orchestrate chaos within the "Eternal Canvas" and then cooperate with the witch’s actions—pretending to be subdued and returning to a pliant, vacant state—that Ernos realized:

The so-called "Old God puppet," the Ill Fate Witch, was also a servant of Fate, working for Him.

Under the watchful eyes of all, the God of Fate had orchestrated a brilliant theatrical deception, collaborating with the prophet and the Ill Fate Witch to deceive everyone!

The deeper Ernos delved into these truths, the more she was filled with reverent awe by her Lord’s methods.

She wondered what had compelled this ancient witch to bow before His throne.

Holding her canvas, Ernos curiously peered outward.

Just then, the witch seemed to detect her presence, slightly turning her head. Her calm, emerald-green eyes looked back.

"!!"

Even though she knew the painting was her domain and the outside world couldn’t see inside, Ernos’s heart still skipped a beat. She stumbled back several steps, her layered, bell-shaped skirts fluttering as pearl strands trembled uneasily.

Instinctively crouching down, only her eyes remained visible above the frame. She wondered uncertainly—had the witch sensed her too?

Such terrifying sharpness and intuition... It was almost as if she shared the same bloodline as Lord Fate.

Was this how all superiors of the Fate Domain were?

Whispering to herself, Ernos turned and vanished into the depths of the painted world, awaiting her Lord’s next summons.

Outside the painting, Elius coolly averted her eyes and continued forward.

The Grinning Canvas led the way, prattling on incessantly:

"Who would’ve thought? Last time I escorted you here, you were our honored stranger. Now, walking the same path, you’ve become the master of the 'Eternal Canvas' base... It’s an honor to serve you!"

"I’ll first show you around the base. Then, at exactly 2 PM, there’s a formal meeting where your position will be officially handed over. I’ll remind you and guide you there..."

"Ah, right!"

The Grinning Canvas suddenly remembered something and carefully pulled out a narrow, long box from his pocket, proffering it to Elius. "This is the organization’s emblem left behind by Hekate. Now, it’s yours to inherit."

Elius opened the box. Inside, nestled on delicate black satin, lay a familiar pen—the "Anchored Eye," Longinus’s symbol.

Picking up the pen and examining it closely, Elius noticed this Anchored Eye differed from the one the Scholar had wielded.

The power within this pen was stronger, its appearance far more time-worn. The brass clip at the end was covered in scratches, as if weathered by time, yielding only a blurred silhouette.

Running her fingers over the uneven engravings on the clip, Elius squinted intently and deciphered the markings:

"Seek the Pure Land, Deconstruct the Eternal."

Recalling the history she’d recently studied—how the Deconstruction of All Things had split into two factions under pressure: the "Purification Faction," advocating temperance and atonement, and the other seeking new territory for unfettered experimentation...

Could Longinus’s current leadership belong to the latter?

The Elius avatar, played by Yi Fengchu, calmly gripped the Anchored Eye and lowered her gaze, thinking:

Call it selfishness—

He refused to believe that Bryce had been deceived by those he called "like-minded friends," that the hopeful smiles of his disciples in distant memories were built on lies.

He preferred to believe that Longinus had once been untainted, that Bryce’s Founder friend had truly held a transcendent vision.

But something unknown had changed. The organization had gradually been consumed and controlled by the notorious Deconstruction of All Things...

Fortunately, Fate’s intuition assured Yi Fengchu that his hopeful assumption wasn’t entirely wrong.

"Oh, are you looking at the engraving?"

The Grinning Canvas’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

Elius’s examination of the Anchored Eye hadn’t been discreet, prompting the Grinning Canvas’s casual explanation:

"This emblem has been used since the organization’s second leader. It symbolizes the great spirit of exploration, research, and deconstruction."

Second leader?

A flicker of emotion passed through Elius’s eyes, but she remained silent, allowing the Grinning Canvas to continue.

"Guided by these principles, Longinus has grown steadily, conquering one seemingly impossible goal after another."

"The mediocre submit to mystery—we deconstruct it and wield it."

Pride laced the Grinning Canvas’s voice: "We are the true masters of all secrets."

Elius responded with a wry smile, neither affirming nor denying Longinus’s lofty aspirations.

Next, the Grinning Canvas gave her a tour of the "Eternal Canvas" base’s blueprint.

Passing through the office area, Elius saw a spacious workspace where each oak desk—piled with documents—also held easels, paint boxes, and other art supplies.

The staff members were low-ranking Ability Users, with a few mundanes mixed in. Their hands bore the paint-stained calluses of lifelong painters.

Outwardly, these artists wore tight, practiced smiles, sitting upright like soldiers awaiting review. Yet Elius could see the trepidation and wary assessment shadowing their gazes.

"These are the painters cultivated by the organization," the Grinning Canvas explained. "'Eternal Canvas' requires endless canvases, all produced by these absolutely loyal artists."

"Occasionally, some paintings enter the open market—sold or auctioned—to reach specific individuals, obscuring the institute’s unusual consumption."

"To the outside world, these painters belong to the prestigious atelier 'Les Fleurs du Mal,' shielded from occult scrutiny."

Elius nodded in approval. "A masterful subterfuge."

After all, who would associate a group of unassuming, studio-bound artists with a grand design dedicated to unraveling reality's fabric?

"Of course!"

The Painted Smile was clearly a fervent follower of the organization, lifting his head with exaggerated pride as if basking in shared glory. "Longinus is never wrong!"

Elius let out a soft chuckle, kindly refraining from reminding him of the recent painting passage disruption—where everyone had been helpless against the sudden attack of a Rank 9 false god, and it was ultimately she who quelled the threat.

For zealots like these, who had utterly abandoned independent thought and devoted themselves wholeheartedly to worshipping their idol, the best way to interact was not to shatter their illusions—

They were powerless to face the vast, alien reality that would emerge once the bubble burst.

"Alright, this is your office," the Painted Smile opened a wooden door, revealing a lavish, spacious office. "Looking forward to this afternoon’s meeting."

Elius slowly curved her lips, resembling a mannequin in a shop window that had suddenly come to life.

She replied with genuine sincerity, "I’m looking forward to it as well."

……

At exactly 2 p.m., under the guidance of the Painted Smile, Elius took her seat at the round conference table, discreetly scanning the room.

This was a crimson room—every surface, from the floor to the walls and ceiling, was covered in a uniform, blood-red.

Upon closer inspection, one could see that the walls were laced with capillaries, pulsing rhythmically as if pumping fluids—as though the entire room existed within the flesh of a colossal creature, this square conference chamber constructed amidst its veins and flesh.

Elius pondered thoughtfully—could it be that the upper echelons of Longinus included a high-level ability user or Life Domain artifact?

Her gaze swept over her new colleagues.

Aside from herself, three others sat around the conference table. Based on their appearances, personalities, and domain traits, Elius mentally matched each to the descriptions the Painted Smile had provided.

To her left sat a being whose gender was indeterminate—or rather, it had no gender at all.

Tall and slender, it stood over two meters in height, yet its shoulders were narrower than an average person’s, giving the impression of a spindly shadow cast by a withered tree in the forest.

Its face was pure white, as though welded from a mask of white metal, with a single grotesquely oversized eye where eyes should be. Though its lips curved upward in a smile, it exuded no sense of friendliness, instead radiating an uncanny, alien aura.

In terms of evoking the "uncanny valley effect," it might have found common ground with the mannequin-like Elius.

Elius deduced that this must be the director of research, codenamed "Truth Key." According to the Painted Smile, it was born a Rank 8 hybrid divine being of the Truth Domain, carrying the bloodline of "Fallen Knowledge."

Narrowing her eyes slightly, Elius recalled fragmented memories—hadn’t her true form once killed a complete Fallen Knowledge before?

To her right sat a high-ranking member entirely wrapped in burial wrappings, mottled with stains spreading across the yellowed white cloth. There was no stench of decay, but a pungent odor reminiscent of formaldehyde lingered.

Noticing Elius’s observation, the woman turned her shrouded face toward her, a hoarse voice emerging from beneath the cloth: "Shadow of the Mind."

In the Painted Smile’s introduction, this was the Personnel Monitor, responsible for monitoring members’ thoughts in real-time through dreams, weeding out treachery and betrayal.

Elius smiled at the shrouded figure, her tone certain despite phrasing it as a question: "A practitioner of the Nightmare Domain?"

The shrouded figure nodded politely but remained silent.

An elderly man nearby interjected, "Shadow here used to be one of the three Popes under the Lord of Nightmares, a Rank 8 Chosen of the Nightmare Domain!"

"Unfortunately, after she died once and resurrected from the depths of humanity’s nightmares, her rank fell to Rank 7, and she lost her divine favor, reduced to mingling with us godless rebels..."

Elius instinctively turned, expecting Shadow of the Mind to take offense, but surprisingly, she remained motionless, as if truly just a long-dead corpse.

After a few seconds of silence, Shadow of the Mind succinctly added, "No, that wasn’t me—strictly speaking, that ‘me’ vanished in that death."

Elius understood—the current Shadow of the Mind might be a new consciousness born from the corpse of a Rank 8 powerhouse, like wheat growing from bones, born from death yet not the same.

Still, Shadow of the Mind’s patience was remarkable. She showed no urge to strike her tactless colleague.

The interjecting old man, meanwhile, appeared utterly confident he wouldn’t face retaliation, lounging lazily in his chair with one leg crossed over the other, his foot nearly brushing the table—completely unbothered.

Though white-haired and visibly aged, his demeanor was strikingly youthful, as though an eternally young soul had been crammed into an aging body.

This was the high-ranking member codenamed "King of Metal and Stone." Compared to his colleagues, his rank was pitifully low—merely Rank 5 in the Earth and Stone Domain.

But as a multidimensional magnate with private holdings across worlds, his role was irreplaceable: providing vast funds and resources to fuel Longinus’s research operations.

That was likely why he felt so at ease.

Next, Elius turned her gaze to the table's head—the seat reserved for the leader remained empty, with no one arriving.

Was the leader not attending the meeting?

What a pity. She had been curious about the kind of person the current leader was—the one who had brought the Sin-laden Deconstruction Society into Longinus.

As she mused, Truth Key looked at Elius, its enormous eye gleaming with curiosity as it bluntly asked:

"I heard you were once devoured by an Old God, yet years later, you revived… So, how does it feel to be swallowed by a god? What does death feel like? Is being killed by a god different from ordinary death?"

"Perhaps, based on your and Shadow’s experiences, I could produce research findings."

Truth Key maintained its rigid, mask-like smile, fingers doodling absently on the table as it muttered intently, "Hmm, the research topic… death..."