Kapitel 615: Path of God

Michael doesn't know how much time passes like this, simply existing in the abyss waiting for something to happen... After a while, even with the sheer apathy forcing his soul into subservience, he makes the first move.

"Wha-" before he can even really start talking the being's eyes flash, their future completed conversation crashing its way into Michael's memories.

Everything he wanted to ask had already been revealed, the conversation itself was not one of words, but telepathically sent concepts that roughly explained the being's goals and overall existence.

This, was the Dead God. Its history was vast and complicated, but it rather easily boiled down to a few simple-to-understand events.

Long, long ago is the universe where 'Dota 2' supposedly took place, lived a mortal husband and wife. They had recently gotten married but it hadn't gone as either had wished... The Lord of their land at the time subscribed to the 'Right of First Night', allowing him to bed the wife despite the husband's wishes to the contrary.

So horrified and enraged by the event, when his wife fell pregnant with his son he refused to acknowledge the boy. Once it was born, the man flattened its head against a wall and carried it to the top of a nearby mountain that overlooked a seemingly bottomless pit.

The husband dropped the dead baby, ignorant of the fact that the baby lived on, and was well aware of the things happening around it... The baby had possessed the destiny of a great hero, and was fated to become one of the most powerful people in existence, makings its soul so strong that it resisted death, even as fate itself broke.

The babe fell into the abyss, and fell, and fell, until its mangled body splattered against a glowing green stone... Fate, unaccepting of the future hero's death, forced it to live, causing the body to drain the green stone dry, and causing green fiery to consume everything.

It spread far and wide in the catacombs under the surface of the world, creating a place called 'The Nether Reaches', which housed constantly burning corrupted green flames, which stole beings and breathed its own facsimile of life into them...

The baby grew, the flames eternally burning its flesh but unable to kill it. It wished for death but hoped better days would come. Eventually, the baby, now-turned man, clambered out of the abyss and tried to live on the surface, not knowing the language or anything about the customs of any country.

This proved to be his downfall, his immortality was soon discovered, and the man became the lab experiment of every country that got its hands on him. Countries conquered countries, each swapping ownership of the man, and unfortunately, one day they'd prodded too hard.

The man let out a scream that encapsulated the entirety of his wretched existence, accidentally imbuing the concept of Nihilism into his voice. So seductive it was, the very dead raised to bring about the end of existence.

The man, a blank canvas of hate and utter despair, didn't luxuriate in his newfound power, instead, deciding to put an absolute end to things. To free not only himself from existence, but every other being.

He developed his 'Nihilosophy' further, bringing his mastery of it up so far that even a whisper of it could turn a city's worth of corpses to life and to his service. Even gods weren't saved from this, his wretched magic weakening them enough for his undead armies to destroy them... Then he absorbed their divinities into himself after corrupting them to his cause.

Villages fell first, then Cities, then Nations, then Continents... Then, the world. After consuming after being on the planet, gods included, he turned his attention to the strongest beings in existence... The Ancients.

The Ancients themselves were corruptive influences too, the Radiant exuding Order and Intelligence, brainwashing and turning any creature that came into its vicinity into vessels that embodied these.

The Dire was similar, except it used Chaos and Strength.

There was also a third Ancient which was far weaker than the others, but it spent all of its power to try and control its brothers to stop the from destroying reality in their conflict.

The Dead God first devoured the third ancient. Then the other two, corrupting the concepts they ruled and adding to his own of Death and ultimate Nihilism.

Devouring the rest of reality was not difficult... But after that, there was nothing... Just the abyss.

In his efforts to bring about the end, he'd become too powerful for his existence to ever be extinguished...

So the Dead God spent countless years waiting in the abyss... Until it eventually thought of something else. Other realities.

Due to him devouring the entirety of his own reality, he was intricately linked with the abyss he'd created, completely unable to leave it, or exert any power upon other realities. So, he shrank the totality of everything into a single book, one that would join with a weak being in another universe and slowly gift them his Nihilosophy.

This, is how Michael acquired the book. And why he was in his current state, the Dead God's Nihilosophy changing his mentality to match it, so he would carry on the being's goal towards the end of all.

Michael wasn't linked to any reality, and his experience with Void Mages had allowed him to move to any reality he wished... He had become what the Dead God sought, a vehicle to gift his power to those he himself couldn't reach.

Michael blinks as he processes the conversation, his face contorting into a slight frown as he gives his first reaction since Megumin and Saya's fight. He didn't need to ask why he'd been chosen as the Dead God had already answered... He hadn't, the target was random and only required the victim to be weak...

It didn't matter if the holder wouldn't die from battle, old age would eventually take them, again and again, and again, allowing Nihilosophy to take hold after however long it took.