HPxLOTM: A Wizard's Path to Divinity-Chapter 728: The End of the Outer Deities

At this moment, beyond the battlefield.

Li Li’s slumbering consciousness caused the Mirrored Original Creator to sense an intense and imminent threat. Without hesitation, It shifted this danger onto the other Outer Deities within Its body—those already locked in internal schism. A consensus was swiftly reached: eliminate the immediate threat first, and settle everything else afterwards.

Deprived of Edward’s continuous infusion of imagination, the divine kingdom and its governing laws rapidly collapsed under the Mirrored Original Creator’s struggle. In the blink of an eye, It arrived before Edward, extending a grotesque hand formed from the fusion of multiple Outer Deities, seizing him in a single grasp and forcibly claiming the power and authorities within his body as Its own.

Suddenly, Edward’s figure vanished from the Mirrored Original Creator’s grasp and reappeared in Amon’s hands.

Looking at Edward, who had yet to fully regain consciousness, Amon suddenly split into a wide grin.

"If I were to steal your fate right now," he asked lightly, "what do you think would happen?"

"You would die."

Edward’s vacant eyes abruptly regained their brilliance. As the Mirrored Original Creator charged toward him in madness, Edward gently snapped his fingers.

In that instant, the entire universe seemed to be pressed into a state of absolute pause.

Edward’s aura began to expand explosively. The barrier of Sequence 0 shattered like fragile paper, and the boundary between Great Old Ones and Pillars became meaningless before him.

His body gradually turned illusory, dissolving into countless starlit symbols. Each symbol represented the very essence of a divine pathway, surging into him one after another.

At this moment, Edward was the Creator, and the Creator was Edward.

He possessed authority above the Pillars, infinitely approaching the Original Creator itself.

Within his eyes was reflected the birth and destruction of the entire universe—utterly devoid of emotion.

"Convergence is forbidden here."

Edward’s voice echoed through the Astral World. Every syllable caused the laws of the universe to tremble violently. The bodies of the Mirrored Original Creator and the Outer Deities suddenly stiffened, as if bound by invisible chains.

The instant the words fell, the Mirrored Original Creator and the Outer Deities were forcibly separated. With a light pat of Edward’s hand, the Outer Deities were transformed into books, each bearing a different cover.

Crash—

"Mother Tree of Desire."

Edward murmured softly.

Twisted, tree-shaped patterns surfaced upon the pages. The colossal tree formed of flesh and tumours instantly withered; its branches turned to ash, its trunk collapsed into a single seed, and finally dispersed into the void.

"Primordial Hunger."

The pages turned. A gray-white, amorphous worm was extracted from the Mirrored Original Creator’s body. It writhed frantically, yet could not escape the confinement of the pages, and was ultimately compressed into a single, simplified symbol.

"Circle of Inevitability."

A ring-shaped sigil rotated upon the page. The pitch-black body was gradually deconstructed into foundational, mercury-colored light. Each ray represented a branching possibility of fate, until all of them vanished into nothingness.

"Uncertain Mist..."

The pages continued to turn.

The Inextinguishable Ravings.

The Goddess of Fate.

The Supernova Dominator.

The Monarch of Decay...

One Outer Deity after another transformed into patterns upon the pages—only to be completely erased.

When the final page was turned, the book flipped wildly, read through in mere seconds, and then dissipated into spacetime. All that remained were the Outer Deities’ variously shaped Beyonder characteristics and Uniquenesses.

Edward immediately scattered these characteristics and Uniquenesses across every corner of the universe—even into different dimensions—separating them as far as possible. In time, under the Law of Convergence, they would inevitably reassemble into new Outer Deities.

This was the foundational logic of the world of mysteries itself: a substrate of chaos and disorder.

The Mirrored Original Creator’s body began to collapse. Countless mirror fragments burst outward from within It.

"You are merely a reflection of the Oldest One," Edward said, his voice tinged with pity. "You are not even worthy of being called a counterfeit."

Before the Mirrored Original Creator could react further, Edward completed Its [Deconstruction], dismantling It into pure authority and tossing it to Lilith—reducing the Mirrored Original Creator to nothing more than Lilith’s reflection within a mirror.

At this point, only one individual remained at the scene—

Cheek, Sequence 1.

Lilith stepped out from the mirror surface. Looking at the terrified Chick, she smiled faintly.

"Very good," she said. "We’re at the same Sequence once again. Care to guess who will ascend to become the Primordial Demoness this time?"

Edward’s figure appeared before the "amber" sealing Adam.

Amon was already there, arms crossed, waiting. He adjusted his monocle and smiled.

"Well now, that’s rare. I thought you’d go celebrate gaining supreme authority first."

Edward glanced at him sideways.

"Amon Grisha Adam. If I remember correctly, at this point in time, you’re supposed to be undergoing re-education at Hogwarts. Who let you skip class?"

Amon immediately stepped back half a pace.

"Hey! You turn hostile the moment things are done? I literally just helped you deal with the Original Creator!"

"I acknowledge your assistance. I will remember it—and I will repay it," Edward replied calmly. "But that and discipline are two separate matters. Don’t confuse them."

"Hey, you—"

Before Amon could finish speaking, he discovered that he had already returned to the Hogwarts Charms classroom. Professor Flitwick was still meticulously explaining spell pauses and wand vibration angles, as if he had never noticed Amon’s absence at all.

"Damn it."

Amon was left utterly speechless, managing only to curse under his breath.

"Excuse me?!"

Professor Flitwick immediately stopped his lecture and looked over in surprise.

"Oh, Merlin’s beard, Mr. Amon," he exclaimed. "Are you expressing dissatisfaction with my teaching?"

Amon took a deep breath. "Sorry, Professor. Longbottom accidentally stepped on my foot. I didn’t hold back."

Neville: "???"

———

Within the dwelling of the gods, Edward gazed at Adam, attempting to communicate with Him through consciousness. However, he quickly discovered that Adam seemed to have sealed off His connection to the outside world. It was nothing like Li Li before—Adam could no longer even attach His consciousness to others.

"Well...it seems I can’t even thank you properly."

Throughout the entire battle, it appeared as though Edward had completed all the final killings himself. Yet the one who devised the strategy, commanded the overall situation, and played a decisive role at every crucial juncture was Adam.

At the cost of His own sacrifice, He had replaced Lilith in suppressing the Oldest One and Li Li’s consciousness, allowing Edward to ascend to [Creator] without restraint and bring everything to an end.

To be frank, not only Edward—even Klein—could never have accomplished something so great.

But that was Adam.

That was the Ancient Sun God.

That was humanity’s brightest, most dazzling ray of light.

Fortunately, this time Adam had merely fallen into slumber. With the aid of Edward’s authority as Creator, He should be able to completely erode the Oldest One consciousness within a thousand years and awaken once more.

Edward reached out and gently tapped the amber several times.

"Then...we’ll meet again in a thousand years," he said softly. "I’ll be sure to have enough vodka ready for you."

———

In the world of the Lord of the Mysteries, beneath the starry sky.

The Mother Goddess of Depravity revealed Her true form—an incomparably beautiful woman whose radiance eclipsed even that of the Primordial Demoness.

The Lord of the Mysteries, Klein, continuously imposed the symbol of "Fooling" upon the Mother Goddess, lowering Her intelligence and eroding Her consciousness to create an opening for Eternal Darkness, Amanises.

However, every component of the Mother Goddess of Depravity was undergoing constant rebirth. This included Her soul, consciousness, spirit, and cognitive faculties. Each time She fell into blind stupidity, Her intelligence was immediately restored through rebirth—yet this also meant that She was unable to attend to anything else.

Amanises once again retrieved that strange book coiled by a feathered serpent from the River of Eternal Darkness. As She flipped through it with a rustling sound, every page bore the same name:

"Mother Goddess of Depravity."

"Death."

She invoked the symbol of Death.

The authority of Death directly conflicted with the Mother Goddess’s rebirth. While it could not halt the rebirth entirely, it significantly hindered it, drastically slowing the process.

At that moment, Klein’s next act of Fooling struck during the gap between the Mother Goddess’s two rebirth cycles, successfully completing the effect of foolishness. He then stole Her cognition responsible for continued rebirth and used the replicated authority of the Black Emperor to twist Her thoughts.

Immediately after, Amanises’s second invocation of Death descended. Combined with Klein’s theft, it drained and seized the Mother Goddess’s vitality, tearing away—bit by bit—the authorities of rebirth and degeneration from Her body.

The Mother Goddess of Depravity instantly awakened from foolishness and, without hesitation, once again initiated Original Sin.

But at that very moment, a figure suddenly appeared.

It was Edward, newly ascended as the Creator.

In the next instant, driven purely by instinct, the Mother Goddess of Depravity abandoned the Original Sin altogether. Ignoring the two authorities that had been torn from Her, She fled frantically toward the depths of the universe.

Edward made a slight motion with his hand, completely severing the two authorities from the Mother Goddess’s body. Then, with a flick of his finger, he flattened the severely weakened Mother Goddess of Depravity into two dimensions and exiled Her to another dimension where time was infinitely stretched.

From a factual standpoint, She was still alive.

But in terms of outcome, there was no difference between Her state and death.

It was not that Edward could not kill Her, nor was it out of mercy. He needed to preserve Mother Goddess of Depravity’s symbolisms as a Pillar to maintain the balance of the world of mysteries.

At that moment, however, Edward suddenly turned his head to look toward the blue Earth behind him. He gave a slight nod to Klein and Amanises from the future, then moved in a flash to the Forsaken Land of the Gods. Passing through the layer of white mist, he arrived at the sealed site of half of the Brood Hive in the Western Continent.

Looking at the woman who had completed the preliminary accommodation of the Brood Hive, Edward said calmly, "As expected of a Pillar. You even prepared a backup plan."

Christine—the Mother Goddess of Depravity’s avatar—looked up at Edward, unhurried and composed.

"I am me. She is she."

"I imagine that, to avoid the Law of Convergence of Beyonder characteristics causing you, a newly ascended Creator, to uncontrollably merge into everything, you would want someone to share that burden with you."

"Choosing Her, who acts madly by instinct, or choosing me, who possesses sufficient rationality...that shouldn’t be a difficult decision."

Edward shook his head. "The convergence of Beyonder characteristics has never been subject to human will."

"But clarity is still far more controllable than madness, isn’t it?"

"That’s true."

Edward suddenly smiled—a smile devoid of emotion.

"Then I’ll send you to find your original body. Whether you can tear off a large enough piece from Her and replace Her will depend entirely on your own ability."

"As for the Sefirot Brood Hive, I have my own arrangements."

Without giving her a chance to speak again, Edward sent her directly into the dimension where the Mother Goddess of Depravity resided. His hands never stopped moving as he extracted every Sefirot sealed within the Western Continent one by one. Suppressing the instinctual urge brought about by convergence, he threw each of them into different dimensions—ensuring that they did not exist in the same space, nor in the same time—making reunion as impossible as possible.

As the Sefirot vanished, the barrier left by Celestial Worthy dissipated, and the Eastern and Western Continents were completely connected at last.

Yet Edward immediately erected a new barrier.

The two continents had been separated for far too long. When faced with the common enemy of the Outer Deities, they might have quickly joined forces to resist external threats. But now that the threat of the Outer Deities had been eliminated, allowing the two worlds to come into contact abruptly would only lead to endless conflict.

Thus, the status quo was maintained—for now—awaiting the day when some destined individual might appear to open the barrier between the East and the West, allowing the two worlds to merge in a gentler, more gradual manner.

After finishing all of this, Edward returned once more to the Astral World. Under a sky that looked as though it had been painted with oil, the future Klein and Amanises were already waiting for him.

Klein smiled slightly.

"All taken care of?"

"Yes."

Edward nodded. "At least for a very long time, there’s no need to worry about me losing control and forcibly converging everything, triggering the destruction and reboot of the world."

"That’s wonderful."

Klein suddenly sighed with emotion.

"This world is truly lucky to have you. Unlike my timeline—where the final battle was an absolute mess."

———

[Note]: Don’t forget to VOTE. It keeps me motivated.