"Have you met Olerunis?"
The Virgin Mary asked quietly, sitting on a stone bench.
Alka nodded beside her.
It seemed that the Virgin Mary was indeed very familiar with this newborn god. Perhaps, as the newborn god had said, they were siblings.
Thinking this way, she heard the Virgin Mary speak.
"Olerunis, according to normal relationships, he should be considered my younger brother.
He emerged from my mother's body at the same time and place as I did."
Hearing this, Alka pondered for a moment. Upon closer examination, she realized that these natural-born gods, like the Virgin Mary, were certainly born differently from the flesh-and-blood beings they were.
After all, they were born directly from the world's body.
Their concept of birth might not be the same as Alka had imagined.
But Alka didn't ask further.
"It's a shame. He's so proud, so proud that he can't stand any attack on his self-esteem.
The Tribulation of the Ten Thousand Gods severely shattered his pride, and from then on, we parted ways." The Virgin Mary narrated calmly.
She seemed to be reminiscing about the past.
The Tribulation of the Ten Thousand Gods?
Come to think of it, it is.
The once almighty gods were struck down one by one by the world and became mortals.
Without the privilege of being born a god, how could these people with strong self-esteem endure this?
Perhaps it was the Mother's intention to let these first children born from her body understand the relationship between themselves and mortals.
Perhaps some truly understood and learned.
Like the Virgin Mary.
But it seems that many simply sought to bury this humiliation in their hearts.
After all, these gods are no different from mortals in some ways.
They are all sentient beings.
They are simply born powerful.
Listening to the Mother's words, Alka's mind was swirling.
"The gods have returned," the Mother suddenly said.
Hearing this, Alka snapped out of his thoughts and refocused his attention, looking at the Mother.
After a moment's thought, he said, "Are they here to destroy this world, which has been so hard to piece together?"
The Mother nodded without hesitation, "Yes, they are here to completely destroy this world this time."
Hearing this, Alka couldn't help but ask, "If they were able to destroy the world before, then they could have done it completely before. Why didn't they do so?
Instead, they waited all these years before resuming their destruction?"
This was something Alka couldn't understand.
Although he didn't say it explicitly, he knew that in the previous battle between the defenders and destroyers of the world, the destroyers had won.
In other words, the Virgin Mary's side had lost.
The world's current state and the records in the Great Library clearly record it.
This was indeed the reality.
The destroyers had won, blasting the world into ruins.
Logically, if they were afraid of the world being repaired, they should have blown the pieces of the world to smithereens.
Or, after the world was pieced together again, they should have returned to destroy it once more.
Rather than waiting until now.
This was strange.
He was a little confused.
Hearing Alka's words, the Virgin Mary looked at him and suddenly smiled.
"Since you're so eager to know, follow me."
With this, the Virgin Mary stood up. Alka stood up and hurried after her.
However, the moment he stood up, the world around him shifted.
He was no longer standing on the manor floor, but suddenly appeared in an area resembling a starry sky.
This was the Astral Plane.
Alka looked down, toward a place that stretched as far as the eye could see.
This was an ocean world. Judging by its shape, it resembled the legendary round sky and square earth.
Alka didn't quite understand, but this place was familiar. He recognized it immediately: this was the boundless ocean he had seen when he rewound time.
The Virgin Mary and Meniex stood beside him.
They stood with him above the Astral Plane.
The Virgin Mary pointed to the boundless ocean below them and said,
"This is our world, but it wasn't always like this."
With this, the Virgin Mary waved her hand.
A mirage-like transformation unfolded before his eyes, and then a beautiful, dazzling world appeared.
This world resembled a crystal, a round sphere with a hard, crystal-like outer shell.
Through this crystal shell, one could see the true core within.
A beautiful world.
It was countless times larger than the vast ocean.
This world seemed boundless, as if it had no boundaries, and countless lives thriving within it.
Powerful life forms and a brilliant civilization flourished above.
Alka could sense it without the Mother's introduction.
Yes.
This was the world of the past.
The world of the Golden Age.
"Back then, our world was renowned across the star realm. Throughout the entire star realm, among countless worlds, it was the most powerful."
If it weren't the most powerful, it wouldn't have given birth to the supreme beings of the star realm like the Mother.
And not just one or two.
Just what Alka knows now.
There's the Mother, the Sea God, and the treacherous God of War.
As for whether there are more Alkas, it's unclear.
"When the world was shattered, we, the children who protected it, lost. But we refused to accept this.
Though some brothers and sisters gave up, some remained with us. So we began collecting Mother's fragments in the astral plane.
Then we secretly carried these fragments far away, reunited them, and formed the vast ocean we see today."
At this point, the Mother's face showed an expression that was unclear, whether it was a smile or sadness, but the look in her eyes was filled with memories.
"Back then, we secretly reassembled Mother and resurrected her. We then hid her far away, where no one could find her."
"That's why they couldn't find her."
Hearing this, Arka nodded. This meant that when the Infinite Sea was first pieced together, the traitorous gods had no idea, or perhaps they knew but didn't know where.
After all, the astral plane is vast and boundless.
"Although Mother eventually fell asleep in her tormented consciousness, she still retained her body.
We were strong enough by then, and gradually moved the world back to its former state.
Furthermore, those traitors had long since parted ways. If they had even betrayed Mother, how could we expect them to unite once again?
How many people have died fighting each other over those millennia?" At this, Arka clearly saw a smile on the Mother's face.
That was true. Beings who betrayed the world that nurtured them for years, seeking to wash away shame and power, how could you expect them to care about their so-called brotherhood?
After all, brothers and sisters from the same world are fighting each other. The power they seize from their brothers and sisters is surely more suitable for them than the power of other worlds.
Conflicts flare, and mutual devouring is inevitable.
Tens of thousands of years is a long time for gods.
Most importantly, two of the Four Gods have already achieved the Supremacy of the Astral Realm.
While there are differences between Supremacies, two Supremacies are enough to protect this world.
Arka naturally didn't know what journey the Mother Mother and the Sea God had gone through to become such beings, but it was clearly not a happy one.
"Although they aren't planning to destroy this world anytime soon, it's only because they fear each other, not because they don't want to.
So when the Endless Sea arrived here, the former gods would occasionally watch from the surrounding area, casting their power upon this world.
The barrier we set up can prevent these gods from entering the Endless Sea, but it's powerless against their power.
As much as I hate to admit it, I have to admit that this world was once theirs as well."
Hearing this, Alka understood.
He himself was still a little confused.
After all, it had only been less than half a year since the Church of Flesh and Blood and Alka had just learned of the battle between the gods in the sky.
How could such a large church have developed in just half a year, capable of producing two scepter-level treasures to construct the bodies for the gods' descent?
As long as you, the god, can't personally intervene, it's impossible to influence so quickly through mere force.
It now appears that the gods had already been scheming within this world.
Using their power and influence, they have galvanized numerous cults.
"And this time, due to the demonic invasion, these renegade gods have found a fatal opportunity.
Now, all the cults affiliated with the renegade gods are wreaking havoc throughout the Infinite Sea, blocking reinforcements from all directions and destroying our logistics islands."
At this point, the Mother looked at Alka.
"The Four Gods, and even the newly arrived gods, understand the severity of the problem. We don't have much power to help the Infinite Sea right now.
We must use our own strength to build a protective barrier to prevent external threats from entering.
As for the internal problems, we are powerless for now, and they will only grow more serious as time passes."
Looking at the Mother's gaze fixed on him, Alka nodded solemnly.
"I understand."
In other words, they fear the world being destroyed from within. The Virgin Mary suddenly smiled and waved her hand once more, and they reappeared within the manor.
But they weren't sitting on the stone bench outside the manor, as they had just been, but inside. Honestly, despite Alka's many visits to the Virgin Mary's kingdom, this was his first time entering the interior of the building.
He had arrived in a nursery.
There lay one cradle after another, woven from what looked like vines and wheat ears.
Inside, each baby's mattress was padded with soft white fabric.
But a large number of these cradles were empty.
Some children stood nearby, watching from time to time.
Next to them were two empty cradles.
"See this cradle?"
The Virgin Mary pointed to one of the cradles.
It looked no different from the others.
Alka looked at the cradle.
Inexplicably, he reached out and touched it, rocking it. A familiar feeling welled up in him.
"Very familiar."
Hearing this, the Virgin smiled.
"This is your old cradle."
So that's how it was.
No wonder Alka felt a familiarity emanating from within his soul when he looked at the cradle, especially when he reached out and rocked it.
"When your mother threw you in, I was responsible for catching you. At that time, some souls from the Infinite Sea, lacking a connection, would accidentally drift to the outer world.
Even though your mother's consciousness was already dormant, she still possessed this instinct."
Alka had seen this before; he had witnessed it twice through his time travel.
He knew it existed.
This was why they spread their reputation, using themselves as a rudder to hold back those mortal souls.
"When you were thrown in and I caught you, I immediately noticed something was wrong with you."
The Mother looked at Alka and smiled. "I knew then that you weren't a soul from our world. You simply happened to appear at the edge of our world for some reason, and your mother mistook you for one of its spirits."
With a gentle wave of her hand, a baby appeared from the empty cradle.
"This is who you once were."
Looking at the baby in the cradle, Alka felt something strange.
Looking at his own childhood?
And it wasn't really his childhood, it was his own soul.
"Although you're not a soul from this world, you were thrown in after all. And for this shattered world, an ordinary soul from another world isn't anything special.
But precisely because you don't belong to this world, I need to place you in this cradle, allowing you to integrate into the world."
As she spoke, the Virgin Mary sighed and said, "I originally thought you would thrive here, but after all, I've never raised a soul from another world, so your development is different from what I expected.
I had to release you into the world while you were still an infant. I couldn't let you be born like a normal person, but instead, you carried the memories of your soul into a body perfectly compatible with you."
Arka seemed to understand what he meant.
In other words, he had transmigrated into Arka's original body precisely because Arka had died at that time, and this body happened to be a perfect fit for him.
And it also happened to be within the Virgin Mary's jurisdiction, as it was a home island. So, the Virgin Mary cast his soul here.
So, he was reborn, or rather, traveled through time.
So that's how it was.
Although Alka had returned to his own time and rewound his own time, the rewinding process didn't include his soul, the area within the Holy Mother's capital.
This was, after all, a supreme being.
Normal rewinding would also block out information related to the Supreme Being.
So, this was the first time he knew about his experiences in the Holy Mother's kingdom, and the more specific reasons why.
"You are not originally part of this world, so I never force you to do anything for it."
At this point, the Holy Mother looked at him and said, "So, when you are willing to do something for this world, I am happy, and I hope you will persevere."
Alka nodded.
This was his own wish.
"Go! The Four Gods' order has been issued. Now is a critical moment. Even if those who control the Trial Tower are unwilling to surrender it, they must do so.
Time is running out. As time passes, our disadvantage will only grow, despite the efforts of many.
But some things are unavoidable. I hope you can bring some change to this world.
Fate is unpredictable."
Alka nodded.
With her hands folded and a bow, she vanished from the spot.
The Mother looked at the spot where Alka had vanished, her thoughts unsettled.
"Mother," Meneikos called from the side.
"Let's go now."
With these words, the Mother and Meneikos vanished into their divine kingdom.
Outside the world, in the area representing the Mother's presence, a point of light shone once again.
The traitorous gods still coveted this world, increasing their power and infecting it.
The four gods and the newly ascended gods also began to use their own powers to coordinate, doing their best to counteract the gods' power.
Together, they formed a barrier protecting this world, for the original barrier had long since vanished.
But they had to consider the world, to protect it as a whole, and to defend against other beings as well.
The gods are numerous and have a deep understanding of the world, so their power inevitably begins to pour into it.
Manipulating and influencing it.