After exploring the planet's situation for a bit, Caelus found a center of civilization. He came to a town where the architectural style was not high-tech interstellar, but rather simpler, even ancient, with a medieval style.
In the center of the town, there was even a statue erected, but why was the statue made in his likeness?
The moment Caelus gazed at the statue, the eyes of the stone carving actually blinked slightly. When he met the statue's gaze, Caelus could feel a power flowing into his body.
Accompanying it was a continuous elevation of his vision and a clear perception of the Warp.
As that power flowed into his body, Caelus knew what it was called. It was the power of faith.
Or, in this world, it could also be called the power of the Warp.
With the blessing of this so-called power of faith, Caelus understood what was going on.
This was a miracle, a miracle unique to this universe, a universe that possessed the power system of the Warp.
After he left, Omacido, due to the temporal instability of Warp travel, returned from the future to the past. He chose his home as the final stop of his journey.
At the end of his life, all of Omacido's existence and causality were devoured by Caelus and transformed into a manifestation of the power of Nihility, which spread throughout the entire world.
The living beings of the entire world began to search for the meaning of life. Because of the hollow void in their hearts, they no longer wanted to live repetitive daily lives. To escape that feeling of emptiness, the nobles began to pilot ships to explore the galaxy, while the common people who could not leave the planet began to measure the earth beneath their feet.
Some understood that the meaning of their existence should be to revive the already dead planet.
Others believed the meaning of life lay in the transmission of knowledge.
Some believed life should be enjoyed, so they began to create various entertainment devices.
Others believed the meaning of their lives was to taste flavors they had never tasted before, so they became gourmets.
The living beings set aside their heavy work and the numb lives of the past. They lived each day in their own way, facing each brand-new day with an attitude toward life that could satisfy them.
Even if they would eventually be swallowed by Nihility, forgotten by everyone, and have every deed, merit, and great achievement attributed to that source of nothingness...
The things they did would be remembered by the world itself.
The blooming flowers were a symbol of someone's achievements.
The smiles on the faces of beings not yet fully assimilated by Nihility were proof that someone seeking happiness had once been there.
The recipes now owned by every family were the traces of a gourmet's existence.
The countless meteors returning from the galaxy were the countless people who had embarked on journeys and returned. Like Omacido, they placed the final journey of their lives in their hometown.
Some brought seeds from other worlds to this world, some brought knowledge from other civilizations, some brought more advanced technology, and some brought back interesting stories.
Even if everyone eventually embraced Nihility, in the process, every single person felt unprecedented satisfaction and found the meaning they pursued in life.
Death could not become their fear. Even the daemons that living beings feared and loathed could not block their steps forward.
Nihility would be the end for all of them, but precisely because of this, everyone lived their limited days more fully.
The corruption of Chaos had no effect on them, and the whispers of the Warp could not stop their progress.
After several hundred years like this, the entire star system was assimilated by the power of Nihility, and the beings of the entire star system began to pursue the meaning of life because of Nihility.
The bloated and massive administrative machinery of the Imperium finally noticed the huge changes that had occurred in the entire star system during a tithe collection.
They naturally assumed the entire star system had succumbed to corruption and depravity, so they unilaterally initiated Exterminatus, preparing to destroy the corrupted planets of the star system one by one.
But when the Exterminatus order was signed and the first planet was destroyed, the deaths of all those beings on that planet who possessed the power of Nihility triggered the spread of that power, to the point where the Warp in this star system was completely swallowed by the power of Nihility.
From then on, any living being that dared to set foot in this star system, whether they were Warp daemons, the eternally hungry Tyranids, or even the battle-crazed Orks.
As long as they stepped into this system, they would be submerged in nothingness. The intense sense of void and emptiness would drive those beings to seek the meaning of self. Those without much intelligence would simply give up on life due to the overwhelming void, becoming assimilated by it.
Such a unique place naturally attracted the attention of the four Chaos Gods.
Slaanesh averted their gaze the very first moment they saw it, refusing to touch any information or records related to it, and forbidding their cultists and daemons from ever setting foot there.
They treated it as if it did not exist.
The other three Chaos Gods likewise chose to ignore it. The Warp environment there had been completely eroded by nothingness. Any entity that dared to step inside would have a portion of themselves consumed by the void.
Once tainted by such a philosophical concept, it was not so easy to shake off. It was more disgusting than Nurgle's rot.
As for the Emperor, he remained as he always was.
Caelus felt terrifyingly powerful at this moment. With a single thought, he could cause the universe in the material dimension to be completely swallowed by the power of nothingness from the Warp, assimilating it into his own domain. When the virtual and the real merged, he could even use this power to reach the level of a Sixth-Order lifeform. He could then continuously sow nothingness in the Warp, eroding the entire universe. Once the majority of the universe's living beings knew of the existence of nothingness, he could become a Seventh-Order lifeform.
But he would not do that.
Caelus watched an old man in the distance sitting in the fields, surrounded by children, fanning himself with a straw hat while telling stories of far-off places.
A pair of lovers leaned close to each other, watching the distant horizon and speaking of a beautiful future.
A Traveler keen on commerce came slowly riding on the back of an unknown pack beast, bringing more news and goods from the outside world to this town.
Every person here lived very happily. From the moment they were born, they searched for the meaning of their own lives.
They knew what they lived for, what they should do tomorrow, what the future should be like, and how to fill the nothingness within their hearts.
Even though they knew they would one day fall into that endless nothingness, letting the world completely forget their existence and allowing all records of them to be replaced by the one and only God of Nothingness, Caelus.
But the existence they left behind in this world, even if it were a single flower, a single blade of grass, or even the sand that inadvertently blew past with the wind,
These tiny existences were the proof they left in this world, the traces that they had once existed here.
People had learned how to face nothingness and lived within it in their own way.
Caelus looked at this world, then took out the notebook he had collected from his train carriage.
"Omacido, my friend, you are the greatest adventurer in this universe."
The notebook lay quietly on the grass.
A few children passed by, laughing and playing. They discovered the notebook on the ground and, out of curiosity, flipped it open, witnessing the life of an adventurer named Omacido.
From then on, several more adventurers who longed for the stars appeared in the galaxy.
More Omacidos followed in the footsteps of their predecessor, moving toward an even more distant tomorrow.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)