Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Natasha thought about it for a long time, as if she was counting the possibilities with the help of the power of the Daughter of Fate and of the entire world.
Lu Zhiyu was in no hurry. Although he thought Natasha was unlikely to accomplish it, human wisdom was infinite. There must be a time when they could surprise Lu Zhiyu by accomplishing the unexpected.
It took until the sun had set on the hilltop, but Natasha finally looked at Lu Zhiyu indifferently and said, “I give up!”
“Not giving it a try before giving up?” As Lu Zhiyu waited, he sat on the rug near the stariway, leaning on it and looking at the sunset beyond the temple above the desert.
“Because this is a paradox in itself. Even if I put all people, including gods, into the web of fate, the existence of the Goddess of Fate is the biggest destroyer of the tight system of fate. That is unless I give up all consciousness and personality and become an observer of fate!” Natasha didn’t move an inch. She sat there like a statue. She would never move an inch unless necessary.
Natasha looked at Lu Zhiyu and said, “And even if I succeed in the end, it’s not what you wanted. What you wanted was to explore is the essence of fate, the truth of causality. You didn’t want to see your own fat, you want to break it at the moment of seeing it and be a master of it at the same time.”
Lu Zhiyu looked at Natasha and said, “So you’ve already owned your own will, not just the world’s consciousness!”
Natasha didn’t deny it. “Hence, I’m Natasha, not Maria!”
“Then you’re a Goddess of Fate who can’t control her own fate!” Lu Zhiyu quipped.
“Sometimes, it’s a terrible thing to see your own fate! Without a fate that can’t be changed, the world would be so wonderful!”
“Maybe fate isn’t destined to remain unchanged, maybe fate is only a guide for everyone to see the possibility of their future, and then they can choose to develop in their preferred direction! Perhaps this is the reason why I became the Daughter of Fate, it’s also the choice and desire of all living beings!” Natasha said, and there was a divine brilliance sparkling in her eyes.
“Everyone’s prayer towards fate is to hope for a good change. Those who pray and believe in me didn’t want to see their doomed fate, but to change their own fate.”
It seemed that it was because of Lu Zhiyu’s prompting that her thought process was geared towards what he’d hoped for her to gradually understand. Now, at last, she spoke in that way.
Lu Zhiyu saw more and more brilliance radiating off Natasha’s body, and the web of fate which had densely covered the sky above Enlightenment City was completely torn and broken. Those believers of fate who were previously like marionettes struggled and broke free from some kind of bondage.
Originally, the city had looked like a marionette city, a stiff and lethargic desert city. It suddenly seemed to glow with a new radiance.
The brilliance which symbolized fate was glowing on Natasha, the Daughter of Fate, and the radiance scattered and lit up the entire Temple of Fate.
In the night sky over Enlightenment City, one could see luminescent spots and threads pouring out of the Temple of Fate, akin to fireflies filling the Desert City. It was beautiful and full of hope and vitality.
The Goddess of Fate’s Divine Shadow rose from the temple bit by bit. The Divine Shadow reached thousands of meters into the clouds, visible from thousands of miles away, appearing as if it could directly touch the stars in the sky.
The people in Enlightenment City hadn’t yet fallen asleep. Many people followed the fireflies and the Divine Shadow out of their houses and into the street, immediately seeing the shocking scene.
Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of people rushed out. After that, tens of thousands, more than 300,000 people in Enlightenment City came out and gazed in the direction of the Temple of Fate. The lights and shadows of the goddess were mysterious. Among the brilliance of the mysterious Light of Fate, an illusory and hazy image of the goddess was tangled, the entire body hidden in the ambiguous dark robes, the face of the Goddess of Fate concealed by the veil, akin to unfathomable fate itself.
“The Goddess of Fate… has descended?” A lean, yellow-skinned old man in the noblest black robe of the Temple of Fate walked out of his house and knelt to the ground in an instant.
“The True God we believe in! Are you really answering our prayers?” asked a housewife, bringing along her whole family to cheer at the sight of the Goddess of Fate. They were the poor people of the Moru Kingdom, North of Batko. Because they couldn’t survive the bankruptcy, they had come to the city under the guidance of the Goddess of Fate and that had changed their family’s fate.
“Look! It’s God! It’s really God!” Batko’s child had darker skin, and his brother stood on the top of a steam truck with his younger sister and younger brother in his arms, looking in the direction of the Temple of Fate in the distance, shouting excitedly.
His younger sister in his arms said, “It’s the Goddess of Fate!”
“It’s the Goddess of Fate who brings us good luck!”
“The Goddess of Fate who saved our family! I offer you our most pious belief and hope that you can bless us and my children forever!”
“Goddess of Fate, please relieve me from my misery and save me from my sorrow!”
At that moment, Natasha heard the voices and heartfelt wishes of everyone. It was the desires of all living beings in the world. She looked down Lu Zhiyu.
“Maybe this is fate, this… it’s the real Goddess of Fate!”
On the top of the sky, there seemed to be an unusual movement above the clouds, as if the whole world was calling for the last god’s arrival. The world was longing for her to become a god.
All the stars and Star Kingdoms appeared in the sky at the same time, just like when the Divine System had appeared and when the World Tree Model was first discovered. At that time, the peculiar emergence of all the stars symbolized a beginning, while their present emergence symbolized an end. They were symbolizing the perfection of the Divine System.
“Stars, so many stars, big ones!” In the airship flying above the clouds, a little girl looked out through the glass window and shouted loudly, immediately waking up the sleeping passengers.
Her father wiped his eyes and said incredulously, “It’s not a star, it’s a god! It’s the Star Kingdoms!”
At the top of St. Sarl City, the Temple of Light looked as if it was built above the clouds. The current High Priest of the Church of Light looked at the Divine Kingdom and asked, “What’s going to happen this time?”
“I wonder it’s a good or bad thing!”
Every clergyman, king, noble, or ordinary person in the whole world seemed to have a hunch that something important was happening in the world.
The divine personality of the God of Prognosis and Future, also known as the divine personality of the Goddess of Fate, fell from the star and transformed into the brightest light, it was akin to a meteor falling from the bitwall, eager to meet its master.
When the divine personality of the Goddess of Fate fell down, it fell into Natasha’s body like a blazing fire. Natasha’s divine body had undergone tremendous changes. Her robes were dancing and swept over the city, instantly scattering a massive flare that scattered over the whole city.
Many people in Enlightenment City, in the midst of the blazing brilliance, became Natasha’s clergymen and accepted the divine seed of the Goddess of Fate.
The black robe and black yarn which had symbolized the mysterious nature of Natasha faded gradually, and the robe turned white little by little. It had transformed into a friendly and bright color. Her mysterious and elusive aura from before was transformed into one of hope and warmth.
And the veil which had masked her face also gradually faded. It revealed a beautiful and delicate face, as well as eyes the color of a clear blue sky. Everyone could see the face of the Goddess of Fate.
At that moment, everyone in Enlightenment City jumped up and down madly. They cheered for the goddess, shouting her holy name and praying to her.
“I saw the face of the Goddess of Fate, and I looked straight at my own destiny!”
“Good luck was favoring us!”
“The Goddess loves us all!”
The city was brightly lit. Many people took out their alchemy vapor lamps and waved them on the rooftops. The whole city seemed to have transformed into a starry sky on land. The lamps and candles of myriad families gathered in one place and it looked like the milky way.
The Goddess was in a beautiful white robe, and with a mysterious smile she said, “Fate is in your own hands!”
Immediately afterward, a divine stairway leading to the Star Kingdom was seen and the Goddess of Fate followed the ladder of light, ascending to the clouds to enter the Star Kingdom.
When Lu Zhiyu watched the last God ascend her throne, he knew that the last piece of the puzzle of the Divine System had finally been placed and that Maria’s World and he himself would face the greatest changes as a result.