In the deep blue sky, silky, cotton-like clouds floated gently, portraying a dream-like landscape. In the center of the sea of clouds, white structures that resembled churches stood magnificent with clear, jade-like walls. Clouds and mist curled around the palace, creating a serene, peaceful beauty beyond the mortal realm.

Today, the serenity was broken.

“Kekekeke—”

Pale tides rushed through the cracks in space, rising into ever taller waves. In no time, it reached a terrible scale that covered up the sky. The fluctuating tsunami didn’t roar but only whisper endlessly.

Whispering was usually soft and quiet, suggesting an unobtrusiveness that did not disturb serenity. However, the whispers within the waves were different. They were eerily quiet and contained an insidious temptation that was highly corruptive. The entire pale ocean was calling out. Anyone who listened closely would be compelled to hum along.

Rumble!!

The pale ocean submerged the sky. Giant tentacles extended and climbed along the walls of the sky palace, reaching further above.

“Life of the Void...”

The cold voice spoke with rumbling lightning, suddenly unleashing overpowering light and hurricanes. The lightning wiped out the tentacles, while the hurricanes pushed the pale ocean far away. In the center, where the chains of lightning gathered, a figure in white armor slowly floated from the palace in the sky.

Clad in white armor, the woman wielded a silver long spear, her nose tall and elegant and her ears elongated like those of elves. Her facial features in perfect harmony, her cold, aloof temperament gave her an inherent air of nobility and holiness.

Goddess of Sky!

In the depths of the pale ocean, white cracks burst out audibly, revealing a massive eyeball with randomly swaying eyelashes that resembled pale tentacles with no place to go. Wayne looked down at the assertive goddess. As they said, the handsome ones tried their best to prove their competence; only the ugly ones kept talking about their handsomeness.

He, for example, rarely talked about how handsome he was!

The reason was simple: his confidence.

The Goddess of Sky’s attitude clearly meant She was as weak as She was assertive. Without enough power to back it up, She could only intimidate others through posturing.

“Goddess, you said that you would grant me divine power through thoughts. Why did you go back on your word when I’ve spread my arms for you?” Wayne’s voice came out of a mouth appearing in the ocean. “The betrayal hit my tender heart hard. I came here for nothing but to ask for an explanation!”

Bastard! You’re pushing it!

The Goddess of Sky’s face darkened. Staring at the boundless pale ocean, She wanted to make the man who challenged her authority pay with blood, but She feared more that he would boast about his achievement while stepping on her corpse. She was too weak to defeat Wayne.

“Say something, Goddess. If you don’t give me an explanation, I won’t leave!”

A tentacle reached out of the crack, dangling a wisp of thoughts—the thoughts that the Goddess of Sky had sneaked into Wayne’s body. They had turned into a pale human shape from being submerged in the white foam, unnerving the Goddess of Sky.

Sensing that the thoughts were still connected to her and could bring the corruption over, She decisively detonated the thoughts before severing the connection.

Boom!!!

A white glowing sphere expanded as lightning and hurricanes crushed the massive fiendish eye. The sweeping pale ocean quieted, like all had settled down.

Rip!

On the peaceful sea, a sinister eye slowly opened amid the rising, roaring waves, once again looking down at the Goddess of Sky. The whispers continued.

The explosion was far from the level of the Lord of Envy’s self-detonation, not comparable in either quality or quantity. Wayne didn’t know how powerful the Goddess of Sky had been at Her peak, but She was nothing but a dish to be eaten, far from Her past glorious self, who would’ve been able to make demands at the dining table.

“I’ve asked you twice, Goddess. How are you going to make amends after fooling my tender soul? I won’t ask a third time!”

Pale waves rose continuously until they covered the entire sky. Tentacles once again climbed along the tall walls of the sky palace. One of them approached the Goddess of Sky’s long legs.

The Goddess of Sky looked bitterly through the pale ocean, seeing a pitch-black despair. She couldn’t help but reminisce about her glorious past self. She would’ve been able to make the intruder pay with life.

“If you won’t say anything, Goddess, I’ll get justice for myself...”

The pale ocean cascaded down and engulfed the sacred, magnificent palace along with the goddess. Amid the boiling white ocean, the Goddess of Sky shattered the incoming white tentacles with her spear. With every rolling wave, however, more tentacles emerged. There was no wiping everything completely.

Every now and then, entirely pale, faceless figures would run on waves to circle the Goddess of Sky, brandishing blades, axes, spears, and other weapons their limbs had transformed into, taking away her space.

Goddess of Sky did not demonstrate the powers that all goddesses should have, such as a basic Divine Realm. This sky palace, protected by an ocean of clouds, was nothing but a shelter for Her to hide in.

As the battle escalated, the Goddess of Sky gradually became transparent in Her resistance. She had long lost Her body. This physical form, armor, and spear were forged with thoughts, and as Her thoughts dramatically ran out, She lost the ability to even maintain Her most basic shape.

The Goddess of Sky pushed back. Since She couldn’t return to the world, She would rather die in battle than become corrupted by the Astral life and turn into his plaything.

Her translucent body bloomed with white lightning, blinding the fiendish eye in the center of the pale ocean and forcing it to slowly close.

“Goddess, I want only an explanation, not your life. Why are you overreacting all of a sudden?”

The pale ocean covered the entire sky. As Wayne spoke, white foam writhed like liquid and solidified into hard stone walls, trapping the Goddess of Sky and the palace like a seamless cage.

The Goddess of Sky was a little reluctant to accept death, so She stopped Her self-detonation and gritted Her teeth at the massive eye. She wanted to live, but couldn’t lower Her pride and beg for mercy. She could only stare at Wayne with wide eyes to show Her refusal to surrender, while hoping that Wayne would offer Her an olive branch.

“You need some taming...” Wayne thought and voiced his thought.

The Goddess of Sky showed visible frustration, irritated into beginning another self-detonation.

“Friendly reminder, you’re now in my body, so I can piece you back together even if you detonate yourself. It won’t be so easy for you to die. I’ll have to give you permission.”

Wayne stepped out of the pale ocean in human form, with a massive eye behind him. The Goddess of Sky couldn’t tell which was the main body and which was the illusion.

She stopped Her second attempt to detonate Herself, pulling a long face. Though She still refused to lower Her head, his pressure was bearing fruit.

Wayne saw a strong survival instinct in Her. With a slight smile, he turned one hand into a tentacle and extended it. “How is it? Would you like to be reborn?”

“If so, open your mind and accept my evolution. Henceforth, you will be my knight in the human world, manipulating the atmosphere and mastering lightning!”

His almost exact reuse of her lines was deeply humiliating. This time, the Goddess of Sky didn’t try to seek death. The two terminated suicides made Her realize that She didn’t want to die.

“Deity of the Void, who are you, and what do you want?” The Goddess of Sky rejected evolution, or it would be more accurate to say that She rejected becoming Wayne’s vassal.

“I can tell you my name...”

Wayne decided to use the name of his first angel investor. Raising his hands, he declared in a self-satisfied tone, “I’m the Lord of the Void. As you can see, I have acquired infinite knowledge and eternal life from the Void.”

His narcissistic behavior drew the Goddess of Sky’s derision. The evolution path of the Void was littered with dangers. A misstep could lead to insanity. While the rewards were great, the risks were also the greatest. Those walking on the mainstream evolution paths never acknowledged it, and She had yet to hear about any deities who were brave enough to go down that way.

While Wayne felt good about himself now, he would end up crying sooner or later.

Just wait for death. There’s no saving you!

Wayne extended his tentacle once more, hoping to gain everything from the Goddess of Sky. The senior in evolution had been around for a long time, so She definitely knew a lot of secrets. Through Her, he might just find out about the erased history.

He had to wonder why the Goddess of Darkness had led him to the Goddess of Sky. The Goddess of Darkness had to know how terrifying his corruption was, able to revive the fragile Goddess of Sky...

She would just be leading a pathetic life without freedom or autonomy, becoming a mere follower working for him even though She was a god who should’ve ruled above others.

Maybe that was the point!

The disciplinary teacher was too black-hearted. She was clearly a sadist based on how She had treated Her own knight and Holy Maiden. If there was bad blood between Her and the Goddess of Sky, that would explain everything.

Wayne glanced at the Goddess of Sky’s elf ears, sensing an antagonistic relationship between her and the Goddess of Darkness. He asked with a raised eyebrow, “Goddess, you were once a member of the Life Alliance, weren’t you?”

“Life Alliance...”

The Goddess of Sky said nothing, but judging from Her complicated expression, She was certainly a member of the Life Alliance.

There was both light and darkness in the sky, as well as Sun and Moon. The divine name of ‘sky’ made Wayne come to the natural conclusion that She once enjoyed quite a status in the Life Alliance. She might even have been a leading figure.

“Do you know about the Goddess of Darkness?”

“Ines, the Plague of Stars?”

...Who is that again? Has the Goddess of Darkness changed Her name?

Wayne was thoroughly confused. The Sacred Tome of Darkness had no record of the Goddess of Darkness’s name, so he wasn’t sure if Ines was the correct one. The Plague of Stars, though, did sound like a title related to darkness.

It also sounded insidious, more likely to belong to a villain.

Suddenly, he remembered the Goddess of Sky introduced herself as ‘manipulator of atmosphere’. That might have something to do with the War of Faiths.

“There were many deities related to darkness, some strong and others weak. I’m not sure which is the Goddess of Darkness you were talking about. The most powerful of them, though, was undoubtedly Ines, the Plague of Stars.”

Perhaps it was because She hadn’t had someone to talk to for years that the Goddess of Sky was so eager to speak; She couldn’t stop once She started.

Wayne seized the chance to ask, “What about Nature, Sun, Moonlight, and Death?”

“Nature’s Sovereign, Twilight Sun, and Pale Moon...”

The Goddess of Sky rattled off the old names of the three goddesses, but stopped when She got to the Goddess of Death. She didn’t remember any powerful goddess who was related to death.

Perhaps Her thoughts had weakened so much that She forgot about the Goddess of Death’s old name.