Chapter 427: Arceus? The Two Counter Forces: Gaia and Alaya?
....
After a short while...
"I'm just a passing Kamen Rider~!"
Nyaruko's eyes sparkled with little stars as she struck a rather embarrassing, theatrical pose!
That's right!
The content Seito had shared with her on his phone was none other than the Kamen Rider series!
After all, Nyaruko in the original series was a total, die-hard Kamen Rider fanatic!
Exchanging a full collection of Kamen Rider shows for crucial universe intel was a pretty fair trade, wasn't it?
Ahem.
Laughing internally, Seito cleared his throat and looked over at Nyaruko: "Nyaruko, I've got plenty of other Rider series saved here—Ryuki, Zi-O, Kabuto, Decade, and a whole bunch of others."
"Gasp!!"
Nyaruko's eyes shone brightly.
"Woah!! Seito, hurry up and let me watch them!"
Kamen Rider!
So many Kamen Rider shows! Nyaruko felt like she was floating on cloud nine!
"No problem," Seito smiled warmly, handing the smartphone over to her.
Taking the phone, Nyaruko tucked it away safely like a treasure. She suppressed her overwhelming excitement, forced a calm smile, and explained: "Because of the God Domain system, a large number of Main Gods and God-Kings were born in this universe."
"Mortals in the lower realms can usually only ever interact with lower gods."
"However, because Main Gods require Creation Energy to break through to higher levels, this universe has officially entered the Age of Great Exploration!"
Seito: "???"
Hearing Nyaruko's explanation, Seito was completely bewildered.
The Age of Great Exploration?
Your explanation jumped so wildly between concepts, how am I supposed to understand what you mean?
"Could you explain that in a bit more detail?" Seito asked.
"Sure thing!"
Nyaruko nodded and clarified: "This Age of Great Exploration is actually quite simple. Like I mentioned earlier, mortals can usually only ever see lower gods, which means lower-tier gods make up the vast majority of divine beings mortals encounter."
"Because Creation Energy is scattered across all corners of the universe, any deity wishing to ascend must go out and search for these energy traces."
"Main Gods generally won't personally intervene."
"God-Kings only step in occasionally."
"The vast majority of gods sent out to search for Creation Energy are lower-tier gods—and almost all of them serve as subordinate gods under the Main Gods!"
Hearing this, realization dawned on Seito.
So that was what the cosmic Age of Great Exploration actually meant.
Creation Energy had to be actively sought out, but Main Gods and God-Kings rarely made direct moves themselves. Instead, subordinate gods were dispatched to search the cosmos.
That made complete sense.
"Aren't there any large-scale wars breaking out?" Seito asked after a moment of thought.
"Of course there are! If two lower gods happen to spot the same node of Creation Energy, they'll clash fiercely for it!"
"Other than that, higher-tier gods rarely fight each other directly. All the Main Gods are closely monitoring one another, each aiming to become the very first entity to transcend the Main God Realm!" Nyaruko answered.
"Is there something special about being the first to transcend the Main God Realm and reach the Creator God stage?" Seito pressed further.
There had to be a specific reason why the Main Gods were holding back from all-out warfare!
"Spot on!"
Nyaruko nodded with a serious expression: "Because there can only ever be one Creator God! Whoever wants to break through to the Creator God rank must be the very first Main God to transcend the Main God Realm!"
"Right now, there are quite a few entities sitting at the peak of the Main God Realm."
"The Main God of Fate, the Main God of Causality, the Main God of Yin-Yang, the Main God of Five Elements, Arceus, Gaia, Alaya... all of them are absolute peak-tier Main Gods!"
Hearing these names, Seito's cheek twitched slightly.
Arceus?
Gaia?
Alaya?
Wait a minute!
If these were truly the entities from the pop culture of his previous world, this universe was wilder than he thought!
Take Arceus first—the legendary Alpha Pokémon, the Creator Pokémon from Pokémon.
Based on the lore from his past life, pinpointing Arceus's true power level was always tricky. Some claimed Arceus was a multiversal entity, while others argued it was at best a planet-tier entity.
However... considering Tet, Hestia, and Nyaruko were all running around here, having Arceus exist in this universe wasn't all that surprising.
As for exact power scaling... Seito felt it was useless to rely strictly on original anime settings.
After all, this was a merged omniverse! It was far better to go by the established rules of this current universe.
Having read sci-fi anime fan fiction before, treating Arceus as a peak-tier Main God powerhouse made total sense to him.
Then there were the other two familiar names!
Those two carried even grander origins—the two major Counter Forces from the Type-Moon franchise!
In Type-Moon lore:
The Counter Force of the Planet was named Gaia!
The Counter Force of Humanity was named Alaya!
These two Counter Forces represented similar yet distinct manifestations of subconscious will.
Gaia's will was simple: "As long as the planet survives, anything else goes."
Alaya's directive was human-centric: "Protect humanity and prevent human extinction at all costs."
Since humans couldn't survive without the Earth, Alaya intervened far more frequently in worldly affairs compared to Gaia.
That was the standard lore from the anime!
However, things were vastly different in this merged universe!
In the original anime, Gaia and Alaya were merely the Counter Forces of a single planet—Earth!
Here, however... their scope was on a completely different scale!
In this universe, Gaia was likely the unified Counter Force for all planets across the cosmos, which explained how she could reach the peak of the Main God Realm.
Meanwhile, Alaya was likely the collective Counter Force for all humanity across the entire universe, given that human life existed on far more worlds than just Earth!
After giving it some thought, Seito felt it was best to assess everything according to the current rules of this omniverse. The anime lore from his past life served as a useful reference point and nothing more.
Shaking off his distractions, Seito focused on his main goal.
His priority remained crystal clear: level up as fast as possible!
"Are you planning to contend for it?" Seito turned to Nyaruko, asking out of curiosity.
By "contend," he meant competing for the singular seat of the Creator God!
"Count me out," Nyaruko shook her head promptly. "I'm only an early-stage Main God. Compared to grinding for ascensions, I much prefer traveling through the cosmos and having fun."
Seito nodded at her answer.
Nyaruko might not care to compete, but he certainly intended to!
After all, there was only one throne for the Creator God!
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Thank you for reading.