Chapter 485: Truth, Three Paths

When you read this book, it means I have decided the moment has arrived for you to know the truth. I have achieved this through a despicable act, sacrificing a friend to reach this end. Of course, I do not know if this will succeed, but I must do it nonetheless.

Icarus turned the pages mechanically, reading in a state of "internal circular thought." After the opening left him stunned, the subsequent content began to dismantle his understanding bit by bit, gradually stripping away a certain ability from him.

"I do not know if I have truly glimpsed the whole truth, but at this moment, to the Utopia organization you are fighting, I am the one who has seen it. Therefore, I am destined to become their enemy."

"They possess abilities you likely cannot comprehend, such as influencing and utilizing those powerful deities. This ability stems from this 'truth.' Where do these divine powers actually come from? Even the Void cannot create power out of nothing; a rootless duckweed can never be called powerful."

"Ordinary believers likely never ponder the origin of divine power; such inquiry might be called blasphemy. But as it happens, I am a wizard without faith, so I occasionally wonder where the gods derive their strength."

"Generally, we believe divine power comes from faith. After all, it is plain for all to see that gods with more followers are more powerful. But another question arises: what is 'faith,' and why can it provide power to a god? As a wizard and a scholar, I am very curious about the answer."

"I never expected that the answer to this question would reveal itself to me as my wizardry progressed and my research deepened."

"As I said in the opening, that power originally belonged to us. Yes, the power of these gods comes from us, these insignificant beings. We do not bestow faith upon them; rather, all the power of the gods originates from us."

"You are likely familiar with the name of this power, which we once fully mastered long ago but lost at some point: 'Void Affinity.' Yes, it is the very thing that determines a wizard's talent."

"In my early years, I studied the source of a wizard's power. I did not want to be a 'rootless duckweed'—it made me uneasy—so I had to figure out how to grasp this power 'borrowed' from the Void."

"It was not until long after, when my strength reached the legendary realm and I noticed and contacted the Utopia organization hidden in the river of history, that I truly understood what 'Void Affinity' was."

"Wizards never 'borrow' power from the Void. All we do is take back the power we lost in the Void. Nothing more."

"I cannot yet accurately describe what this is, but the ability wizards possess to alter the material world actually belonged to us in a more ancient era. It was lost at some point, then gathered together to form what we now recognize as the 'Void.'"

"The source of divine power is this lost 'Void Affinity.' I prefer to call them 'agents' rather than gods. Although we lost this power, our souls can still unconsciously influence those forces in the Void, which depends largely on our cognition."

"Cognition—this may be the most important point. When you subconsciously believe this power does not belong to you but comes from the Void, the power you can mobilize is much less. This is why emotions affect a wizard's power; when emotions fall into extreme anger or fear, your cognition completely ignores the source of this power, thereby indirectly enhancing the wizard's strength."

"Just as we lost our original power, the belief that 'a wizard's power comes from the Void' has become a recognized fact. This is likely the trap and misinformation laid by the Utopia organization in basic wizardry education. In my early days, I too was misled by this knowledge."

"Intelligent races that are not wizards are almost unable to use this power that originally belonged to them. So where does this 'Void Affinity' go? Yes, apart from about half that dissipates to form the Void, the rest points toward the gods."

Seeing this, beyond the violent psychological turmoil, Icarus noticed that knowing the truth meant he could no longer possess the capacity for faith. No god could receive his "belief," a fact that verified the authenticity of the book's contents.

The author did not mention their name, but Icarus was almost certain who it was: Roland, the man known as the greatest wizard of the human race, who had suddenly vanished without a trace.

"The soul's cognition affects 'Void Affinity,' and the shared cognition of intelligent races causes that power, which they cannot actively use themselves, to aggregate in the Void. That becomes an existence countless times more powerful than any individual wizard—that is, a god."

"The characteristics of a god are determined by this cognition. Briefly recall: the God of Light, the Mother Earth, the Lord of Oceans and Storms, the Goddess of Wealth, and so on. Do the descriptions given by their believers match the images they manifest?"

"The convergence of cognition forms the prototype of these deities, and the power they manifest reinforces the believers' cognition, causing them—unconsciously—to hand over their lost power to these gods through faith. The more believers, the more powerful these gods naturally become."

"To infer simply, what are those Void evil gods? Beyond the clear, orderly cognition of intelligent beings, there is naturally chaotic, disorderly, and even cruel and insane cognition. These cannot reach a consensus and can only be entangled in a forced combination, becoming those Void evil gods filled with chaotic, manic, malicious, and insane minds."

"Also, you will find that gods rarely manifest their own thoughts or actions; almost all divine descents come from the prayers of believers. This is normal. Gods are the aggregate of believers' cognition; they must first conform to the believers' cognition before they can consider something like a 'self.'"

"The friend I sacrificed revealed to me part of the laws of divine self-awareness: the consciousness of a god comes from the power gathered by the believers' cognition, and the believers' cognition is a changing and uncertain thing."

"Unlike our own consciousness and soul, a god's consciousness is almost always blurred. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to see a god communicating with believers, at most conveying some extremely vague information."

"Only in two situations will a god gain a consciousness similar to that of intelligent races, possessing a clear will. The first is when faith reaches a certain scale, and thousands of similar cognitions converge into a direction that can be considered 'determined.'"

"The second is when faith is lost and the god is at the moment of death. Without enough cognition to define the god's 'personality,' it will have a very short time to possess its own thinking and will based on residual power before falling into silence."

"Therefore, based on these theories, the Utopia organization has the power to 'slay' or 'manipulate' deities. Using more cognition to override the original believers' cognition is 'slaying,' and influencing a god's personality with insufficient cognition to 'slay' it, making it perform acts like a divine descent, is 'manipulation.'"

"The reason you see this information here is because the Utopia organization used their methods to influence the gods, using divine power to complete their plans. So, even if it means letting the existing intelligent beings lose their gods, I must inform you of this news and make you realize this truth."

"When your cognition understands the source of divine power and your own lost 'Void Affinity,' your soul will not unconsciously turn that power into faith for the gods, and you will lose the power of faith. Gods who lose their faith will naturally perish and cannot be used by the Utopia organization."

"Remember what I said? Our power was lost in the Void, and because of this, no matter when or where, our souls are connected to the Void. The soul is the bridge between matter and the Void, and gods, as aggregates of consciousness and cognition, can forcibly influence the souls of intelligent beings through this unbreakable link."

"Once the Utopia organization utilizes the power of the gods, the consequences are predictable. No one's will will be safe, so I must do this..."

Roland's writing paused here. After explaining his reasons and the truth, he seemed to have pondered before writing the final page.

"But you failed, didn't you? The Utopia organization still successfully used the God of Light to complete what they wanted. If not for a stroke of luck, where the talent of the Winged Race allowed me to bypass that cognitive shielding, I would not have known this truth. How much more does the Utopia organization control?"

Icarus felt a sense of bewilderment. Even Roland, even this plan and this information, had ended in failure. He could guess the time this information was supposed to appear—the moment of the God of Light's descent—but it hadn't. It was obvious who had stopped Roland: the increasingly unfathomable Utopia organization...

Before Icarus could think further, his body had already mechanically turned the page, and the final words Roland wrote appeared before him.

"The following content is what I wanted to tell you myself, and also things I have not yet fully understood: the three existing paths regarding this lost power..."

"First, I can clearly state that the Void and the material world are equal. And in this era, wizards, mages, and knights represent three different paths."

"Wizards, obviously, are the seekers who find their own power back from the Void."

"Mages, having almost completely abandoned the Void, have started anew, pursuing 'magic'—a power composed of mathematics and logic."

"Knights, you will find that after a knight's inner potential is awakened or they step into the legendary realm, they can influence the material world just like the Void. Although I do not know exactly what this power is, it is certain that their path is not to retrieve the power lost in the Void, but to regain a new, similar power through their own strength."