Chapter 156: The Test of the Heart! Worthy of the Divine Halo, Summoned for an audience

Caelus and Sylvia felt the ground beneath them shifting as the blinding light that had assaulted them during the transition disappeared. When it cleared, what they saw was a golden world under a golden sky filled with countless black stars.

Beneath them was a smooth golden surface.

Around them stood several Bodhisattva statues.

Ahead of them was a six-edged golden star. In its center rested a special symbol. It glowed brightly, as if it was the only thing illuminating this entire world.

Caelus’s jaw tightened, and Sylvia shifted her grip on her weapon as they surveyed the golden wasteland. This was far more abnormal than they had expected.

"This doesn’t look like a challenge initiated by people of the middle expanse, does it, Sylvia?" Caelus asked with a helpless smile.

"What should we do now, Caelus?" Sylvia asked with a bewildered expression. A deep sense of unease settled in her stomach.

Caelus felt it too. The fact that both of them felt this creeping dread meant there was definitely something wrong.

"We should try to find a way to leave this place," Caelus suggested.

Now that they were here, he remembered the notification that had appeared just before they descended. It said this place was called the God Domain’s Fragment. What could that possibly signify, and why were there Bodhisattva figures everywhere?

Just then, a notification rang.

[Ding!]

[You have angered the divine gods by trespassing into their territory.]

[A quest has been initiated for you.]

[If you want to leave, you must finish this quest.]

[Quest: Bow or Kneel and beg for mercy before the record of divinity.]

[You are a being burdened by mortal ignorance. Your individual existence is insignificant.]

[The collective divinity demands you to bow, let go of your ego. Maybe, they will reward you instead of killing you completely for trespassing.]

[Those who refuse to kneel will drown in their own power.]

The quest’s voice cut through like an alarm for Caelus and Sylvia.

A terrifying force field descended upon them. It was as if a mountain had suddenly materialized above them. It carried a force that even their gold combat score could not match.

Boom!

They immediately felt their knees buckling.

"Sylvia, grab my hand," Caelus gestured towards her while gritting his teeth.

She stretched her arm out with great effort and eventually held onto Caelus, even though she grasped it weakly. They could not use any of their powers to surpass this pressure.

While enduring the crushing weight of this world, Caelus understood one thing. This pressure was not related to strength or combat score. It was targeting something else.

Just then, Caelus and Sylvia began hearing chants.

The words were being spoken by the golden statues of the Bodhisattvas. The chants slowly adjusted into a language they could understand.

"The sea of suffering is boundless. Abandon your ego. Kneel, and find the shore."

"Your flesh is an illusion. Your pride is karma. Bow to the golden light and be severed from your worldly ignorance."

"Why do you bear the weight of the world, child? Fall to your knees. Surrender your insignificance to the collective divinity."

Caelus’s face began to flicker with confusion and slight unwillingness when he heard this.

For a split second, he wanted to bow and end this. He felt truly powerless against this suppression. Now that the combat score wasn’t working on them, what was the point?

That was what Caelus thought until now.

Until he realized how flawed his thinking was. He realized he was nothing without his power. His first thought after a small suppression was to give up.

’No, that has to change.’ Caelus grew determined.

Caelus thought hard about his situation.

Why do people bow? A student bows to a master out of gratitude. A person bows to the fallen out of grief. A bow was meant to be a symbol of profound respect, a choice given freely by one soul to another.

These gods weren’t asking for respect and an apology for trespassing into their territory.

They were demanding submission from him.

They were using suppression and fear to force him to agree that he was "insignificant".

To admit that his life was a worthless mistake in the face of "divinity," or that he was an ant too small to even make them care.

A true deity, a true higher power, wouldn’t need to crush a mortal to prove its greatness. A being that has to break your spine to make you kneel isn’t a god but a spineless coward.

If he bowed to a bunch of tyrants, wouldn’t he just be a coward?

If he didn’t have the conviction to face divinity, he wasn’t worthy of his Ender title.

He was a person first and an Ender second. If the former wasn’t strong, how would the latter work?

He did not need to bow. Instead, he should face this suppression with all he had.

That was when Caelus’s vision began to violently glitch. He saw a dragon appear in his vision.

The dragon stared at a vast world down below.

Then, multiple voices rang.

"Don’t do it. Origin. You will disrupt the balance forever. Infinite branches, can you handle it?"

"Are you going to break the rules?"

"DON’T BREAK THE BARRIER OF TIME, ORIGIN!"

Boom!

The world trembled. Boundless golden-black light erupted from Caelus like a tidal wave, washing away the oppressive gravity. Seeing this, the suppression grew frantic, the Bodhisattva chants turning harsh and desperate. The six-edged star in front of them stirred violently, as if reacting in terror to the golden-black light.

[Your Ender passive to break the rules of the domain has been fully unsealed. You can use it freely without the aid of intense emotions.]

Caelus slowly straightened his legs, pulling Sylvia up with him. He looked at the golden statues and then the star, his chaos perception eyes glowing brightly.

"No thanks," Caelus said softly. "I choose not to bow."

"I have already realized that this is a trap," he added calmly.

Caelus glanced at the golden star and crushed it with the power of his Ender passive.

[You’ve broken the rules of this domain and destroyed the entity: "Fake Collective of Divinity"]

[You have proved yourself worthy of your divine halo]

[You will now be summoned to have an audience.]