The beings that transformed into meteors in the sky weren't just gods.
There was also the divine essence ripped from their bodies.
This divine essence was thrown by the world into the bodies of wild beasts and into various dangerous situations.
It even became the sacred statues and treasures of some tribes and settlements.
Observing these objects imbued with divine essence, Alka probably had some thoughts in mind.
This world is truly soft-hearted.
Alka couldn't help but think.
He deliberately sought out a particular god and observed where they fell. The divinity that had been stripped from him essentially landed around him.
His former divinity became the divinity of the beasts that ravaged the surrounding area, the divinity of some plants, and the offerings of some tribes.
This meant that the difficulty of restoring these gods to their divine positions had suddenly decreased.
Add to that the god's inherent knowledge, and the golden speck of light still lingering within its body.
These golden specks of light weren't left randomly; they held within them something that could provide the gods with self-preservation.
They were specially selected.
One can only say that the eldest sons truly deserve to be the eldest sons.
Alka watched, silently thinking.
"Damn ants, get out of here!"
The observed god raised his weapon and slaughtered the humans who cared about him.
Alka, watching from the side, was stunned.
He must be mentally ill. No wonder, in some records in the Great Library, many mortal scholars express such disdain for some born-again gods, cursing them between the lines.
What giant infants, morons, and immoral monsters.
But this god had clearly met a tough opponent.
Because the gathering place he landed in was one guarded by warriors.
The leader was a demigod. Alka observed him and thought he was likely the descendant of someone lucky enough to have gained divinity by accessing the treasure vault.
In this era, divinity could be passed down through death.
The god Alka observed was fortunate enough to be the first to die.
It had only been two days since the gods were cast from the sky.
Among the unchecked gods, there were indeed some truly useless ones.
"Isn't it possible these gods are mentally ill?" Alka muttered beside him.
Thinking carefully about the deeds of these gods in the past, it seemed understandable, Alka thought silently.
Ever since he began viewing the historical illusions of the world, the morons among these gods had repeatedly challenged his understanding of the gods.
The world's indulgence was once again on full display.
Surprisingly, they weren't truly dead.
Instead, they were resurrected elsewhere.
After observing this, Alka determined that each god had approximately three chances.
This wasn't intentional on the part of the World Mother, but rather a natural right inherent in these gods.
Their powerful souls and innate nature allowed them to be reborn.
And just as he had focused his attention on this particular god, he had already squandered three chances in just one week.
Then, before the world's disappointed gaze, he completely died and became part of the earth.
However, Alka had only witnessed one or two such foolish gods.
Most gods, even those who looked down on humans with arrogance, believing them to be mere ants to be manipulated at will, immediately realized their fate after dying once or twice.
They began to suppress their own nature and blend into the human tribe.
Alka deliberately focused his attention on the gods he knew.
The Holy Mother was just as he had expected.
Alka had noticed the Holy Mother before the Tribulation of the Gods.
The Holy Mother at this time was very young, completely different from the Holy Mother she would later become.
Before then, the Holy Mother rarely did anything to humans.
She simply treated humans as dispensable animals, neither harming nor caring.
She simply found her brothers and sisters' actions towards humans childish and strange.
To be honest, the Holy Mother at this time resembled aloof, serene, and cold goddess.
Even their appearance and temperament were somewhat similar.
Her long golden hair fell to her waist, she wore light clothing, and walked barefoot in a cold and solitary manner.
Especially, her face was as expressionless as ice, and her eyes were sharp and cold.
A true frost goddess.
If he hadn't seen the Virgin Mary's true appearance, he wouldn't have believed she looked like this in her youth.
A goddess who kept strangers away.
Under Alka's watchful eye,
The Virgin Mary quickly blended into the local gathering, and the locals simply regarded her as a powerful, arrogant, and cold woman.
Then, the Virgin Mary slew a beast, which contained within it the divine essence that had originally belonged to her: a golden Holy Grail-level divine essence.
"Valkyrie, Valkyrie!"
As the Virgin Mary slew the beast and obtained the divine essence, her actions were witnessed by the surrounding humans.
They shouted, cheering around the Virgin Mary.
The Virgin Mary simply looked at them with a hint of surprise and ignored them.
After all, he was doing this for himself.
Then, the Mother did something reckless and incomprehensible to Alka.
It seemed she hadn't yet grasped her own situation, no longer the powerful god she once was.
Relying on two Holy Grail-level divine essences within her, the Mother faced a massive beast, the most powerful beast in the surrounding area.
Within her was a scepter-level divine essence that had been separated from the Mother.
Unsurprisingly, the Mother was in danger.
But at this moment,
The warriors who had originally accompanied the Mother began to desperately rush forward, creating an opportunity for the Mother.
Because the beast was equally powerful, it wreaked havoc on the surrounding area, becoming the greatest scourge in the area.
Although ultimately victorious, the losses were also immense.
The tribe, which was already small to begin with, lost over 60 warriors, with over 20 crippled.
When the Virgin Mary won the battle, these people still cheered for her, though their cheers were tinged with sadness.
The Virgin Mary looked at the dilapidated gathering place.
She had been here for quite some time.
If she left, if she didn't care,
This gathering place, lacking sufficient fighting power and young and strong men, would soon disappear.
The cold goddess stayed.
Seeing this, Alka smiled.
As expected.
Is this the beginning of everything?
However, not every god encountered such a situation.
Some gods, because of their inherent nature of viewing humans as ants, their harsh attitudes made it extremely difficult for them to survive in human gathering places.
This formed a vicious cycle.
However, some gods, like the Virgin Mary, were transformed, realizing that humans were different. The difference between them and them was almost non-existent, except in strength.
It's very likely that they were their brothers, created by the world, powerless and weak, relying solely on their own strength to grow.
This gave these gods a strange desire to protect them, and they became the first to establish churches.
Spreading their faith, sharing their power.
Thus, the first group of gods to return to their thrones were born.
Among them were the Holy Mother, whom Alka had paid close attention to, and the Four-Part God.
Or perhaps he should now be called the God of Knowledge and Secrets.
This human, Alka saw, was a true legend.
He came from a large settlement, but he loved to delve into knowledge. Using traps and various tricks, he slew a beast and gained divinity.
He used this divinity to strengthen his own strength and develop the settlement.
Due to the Tribulation of the Myriad Gods, nearly every powerful beast possessed divinity, and the world didn't specify that these divinities had to be slain by the original gods to be obtained.
This became the mortals' greatest opportunity to rise to power.
Then.
Some powerful mortals slew one powerful beast after another.
And the strongest among them...
actually joined the group of beings who ascended to godhood alongside the Holy Mother and the others.
When the Holy Mother and the others saw this newborn god, they were stunned.
His appearance also instilled in all the gods an intense sense of crisis.
Because these humans were truly no different from them, possessing divinity could also become gods, becoming equals to them.
Such a blow was too much for some gods to bear.
So they rolled up.
Regardless, Alka accelerated time once more.
Overall, the gods gradually returned to their positions over the following period.
However, where there were once hundreds of gods, only seventy or eighty remained. They had lost at least twenty or thirty of their brothers and sisters in this catastrophe. Honestly, Alka thought this was a good thing.
Among these deceased gods, with only a few likely suffering from bad luck, the others were all idiots.
They were the kind of pure idiots that even Alka couldn't bear to see; their deaths were truly worthless.
If it weren't for the world, if they weren't born gods, these idiots would have died long ago.
However, Alka could also see that these gods had changed drastically in this incident.
From what he had witnessed, many gods had amplified their hatred for humanity and transferred it onto the world.
Of course, there were also gods, like the Virgin Mary, who seemed to understand the world's intentions.
Later, these gods began to create their own races, emulating their mothers.
They began to enrich the world, truly shouldering the responsibility of its firstborn children. They began to protect the world, making it more prosperous.
And then.
This was the true arrival of the Golden Age.
Civilization, knowledge, and powerful individuals exploded.
It was also here that the keys to the world began to be unlocked in ever-increasing numbers.
Fragments began to appear one after another.
Sometimes, the spans spanned hundreds or even thousands of years.
Until this fragment.
The one who received the key this time was the first mortal to ascend to godhood.
"You are the one who obtained the secret?"
The God of Knowledge and Secrets, his golden crystal eyes matching Alka's, asked Alka.
When the god suddenly spoke to him, Alka was genuinely startled. His immediate reaction was to check if he was still in the historical illusion of the ancient world.
"No need to look. This is the historical illusion."
Looking at the Four-Divided God before him. Alka couldn't help but ask, "How do you do it?"
The Quarter God pointed to his eyes and said, "These eyes can see through all secrets, any secret happening in this world, including... the future."
"?"
"Isn't that the same as being able to predict the future?" Alka said.
He hadn't expected these eyes to have such powerful abilities.
The God of Knowledge and Secrets, or the Quarter God, before him had become the most powerful of the gods, though he remained relatively low-key.
Alka kept an eye on the gods' movements in almost every moment.
"You've been observing me for so long. What have you learned?"
"You're quite impressive. Honestly, I admire you deeply."
Alka said from the side.
He had witnessed the Quarter God's journey from beginning to end.
It was truly legendary.
"Keep looking back."
With these words, the Quartergod seemed to have returned to his original state, unaware of Alka's observations.
Time passed quickly.
The world had not yet reached its final stage of destruction; it seemed as if it were still in a vibrant era.
But the Quartergod had been a god for a long time.
Alka watched as the Quartergod's power grew stronger, leaving the other gods far behind.
He watched as he underwent various powerful adventures, his strength rapidly increasing.
And through his eyes that could see through secrets, he gained further advantages.
"I've been tricked."
Alka said silently.
He had finally realized that the Quartergod he had just spoken with was not the illusion of the Quartergod from the past.
It was the image of the god himself, cast into the phantom of time.
He tucked a portion of his memories and illusions into the phantom of the long river of time, chatting with others while they observed him.
He acted as if he were truly remarkable in this time period, aware of the observations from within the illusion. His subsequent chat was incredibly genuine and intimidating.
"Haha, you're scared, right?"
The Quarter God's illusion reappeared beside Alka.
"Indeed, but such methods and ideas are truly impressive."
Anyway, Alka hadn't considered himself capable of such a feat.
"Really? Hahahaha."
Looking at the Quarter God's smile, it seemed he was quite impressed.
"So you're the one who inherits this secret in the future?"
He nodded at this question.
The Quarter God said nothing more, but gestured towards the illusion of his former self.
"I'm no longer as proud as I was back then, you should be able to tell."
Arka nodded.
Indeed.
Although the Quarter God is now even more powerful than ever, standing at the pinnacle of the gods, he's inexplicably less high-spirited than he was at the beginning.
Arka has been observing this entire process.
And he's been observing very carefully.
"Because I've discovered a problem, you know? Everything I have actually comes from the secret."
"You're probably observing history through the world's treasure house, right?"
Hearing the Quarter God's words, Arka was genuinely surprised. He was certain that the phantom of the god he was chatting with was also just a phantom.
It simply possessed a certain sense of its own, existing only within this phantom of history.
"Judging from your expression, I guess I'm right. By secretly observing the world's treasure house, you're looking back at history.
Then your initial perspective must have been following the treasure house. But you know what? I once controlled this treasure house and took what I wanted from it."
Hearing this, Alka
He frowned. He had never witnessed such a scene before.
Because he had taken the key and then lost it.
"Because what I took from this treasure house was the secret. Naturally, you won't see me taking the secret, because it's hidden in the deepest secrets."
Hearing this, Alka suddenly realized. So this was the case, just like him.
For him, who also mastered the secret, he probably understood this method.
Everything related to the secret itself is inherently hidden.
"I am amazed why the world back then was willing to give me such powerful divinity.
It is thanks to this secret divinity that I have been able to reach this point step by step.
I have seen through the secrets of power, I have seen the secrets of which divinity is best suited to me, I have seen the secrets of my enemies, I have seen the secrets of becoming a god. I have seen..."
He spoke slowly.
Simply put, it was through this ability to see through secrets that he had reached his present state, surpassing all gods.
Because in the end, he could even see through the secrets of the future, discover the future he desired, find what he desired, and use it to anticipate his enemies' moves and stay one step ahead of them.
The attribute of secrecy had been developed and utilized to its fullest potential by the god before him.
"Then why didn't you see your own secret betrayal, didn't you see the destruction of the world?"
After hearing all this, Alka asked from the side.
"As I said, secrecy hides itself. I've used it too much, seen too much with it. I've long ceased to be myself; I've been split in two.
But secrecy itself can't see through secrecy, so the split self concealed my own problems."
"Huh?" Alka was stunned.
How could this be possible?
Thinking carefully, it seemed possible.
If it was split in two, then the other one must be Hidden.
Hidden hid itself, so much so that even it couldn't see its own problems.
Hiss... a little terrifying.
"Fortunately, in the end, it wasn't completely split in two. The problems I discovered eliminated Hidden.
Although I put in a lot of mental preparation, I finally did it. I cleansed Hidden and then threw it away.
But I know he's a part of this world and will eventually return."
"But what Hidden did is irreversible. A secret that shouldn't have been revealed has been exposed.
The world... has been destroyed."
The invisible old man, his face hidden in the shadow of his hood, spoke silently.
Alka looked at him with a strange expression and asked, "Didn't you try to make any preparations?"
"Of course I did. You should have seen it from watching from beginning to end. The World Mother is too doting. As a child doted on by her, I'm happy, but I'm also angry.
She's too doting!"
Alka nodded silently at this. It could indeed be called doting.
"You know, she's the world itself. I even suspected for a moment that she entrusted her secrets to me because she didn't want to peek into her own children's secrets.
She glimpsed a future she didn't want to believe in, or rather, a future she was willing to accept.
How could there be... how could there be such a parent?"
The Four-Fourth God was so confused that his tone became strange.
"But... as a child doted on by him, I'm lucky and honored."
Alka stood nearby, at a loss for words. "So, the world is willing to be divided, to let a piece of itself become its own child?" Alka asked.
"That's right."
"Although it was irreversible at the time, I could look to the future, so I divided myself again and again. It's already been split in half, so it doesn't matter."
Good boy, starting to give up.
"I made a lot of preparations, though many are now useless. But there are still one or two that can at least provide you with some help, even if it's just a little bit.
Now I'm going to tell you."