"I have no interest in your theories of cause and effect," Goetia said flatly. "I only appeared here because I lost to this man and his companions in the Temple of Ti, and even lost the Ten Rings and blessings the Lord granted ."
"So you're dissatisfied and planning to get a little revenge here?" Shiomi asked with a smile.
"A boring guess." Goetia remained unmoved. "As I said before, both I and the monk over there are here only to witness the result."
Shiomi folded his arms.
"Only to witness? With your Clairvoyance, you should know what I'm about to do."
"To let Mystery on this planet decline completely, so that humanity can break away from Mystery and, in a healthier state, leave behind the cradle called a planet under the guidance of science and set out for the sea of stars," Goetia said lightly, stating the facts as if they were obvious.
"My husband intends to tear out everything your lord Solomon created by the roots," Morgan said. "A thousand years from now, there will be no Magi on this land, and no Holy Church either. Magecraft and miracles will beco nothing more than paper legends sealed away in old texts."
"And so what?" Goetia said. "If you believe happiness lies in humanity continuing to repeat birth and death, bound by brief lives, then do as you please."
The boundary record bands that already existed would not disappear.
The Heroic Spirits already engraved upon the Throne would not disappear.
And of course, the gods who already existed would continue to exist, still looking down upon that tiny planet in the universe.
Perhaps similar things would happen on other planets where life existed, but that had nothing to do with Goetia, and nothing to do with Yahweh either.
Once detached from Earth as its anchor, Yahweh would return to the essence of the cosmic Counter Force, rather than continuing to exist in this state as both a part and the whole at once.
But the decline of Mystery did not an the disappearance of faith. Earth, as the anchor point, would continue to exist as Proper Human History continued to flourish.
The only difference was that the seeds cast down by Yahweh would never again take root and sprout.
"So you chose to erase Mystery from the planet completely." Xuanzang Sanzang slowly stepped forward. "And not by forcing it through all at once either. You're leaving those who still seek Mystery a thousand years to accept its decline."
"This is the direction my husband intends to continue writing... no, the direction he has chosen for the planet's voyage," Morgan declared quietly. "In the na of the paradise fairy born in the Inner Sea of the Planet, I will walk beside my husband and see it through to the end."
"That is a fine choice as well." Xuanzang Sanzang smiled in understanding. "Perhaps you fought all this way only so humanity would not have to bear a false stigma, but you have indeed protected the many lives in this universe that have yet to et humanity."
There was no stinginess at all in the praise Xuanzang Sanzang gave to Shiomi's compassion.
Even if Shiomi himself did not think of it as compassion. He had only done what he could do, and what he ought to do.
"At the end of the day, I'm just an ordinary person. I can't accept myself and the people important to carrying a stigma we never caused." Shiomi shook his head.
Xuanzang Sanzang shook her head as well.
"What a pity. By all rights, since you were able to beco a god, even setting aside the favor Nüwa bestowed on you, your insight is extraordinary."
"You can spare us any attempt to persuade my husband to enter the Buddhist path." Morgan could not help laughing. "For my husband, the seven emotions and six desires are far more beautiful than emptiness. And those are exactly what allow him to remain human at heart."
"A lay disciple would also be acceptable," Xuanzang Sanzang added, still trying to preach.
The atmosphere was so relaxed and free that Shiomi was left sowhat speechless. He had never really interacted with eminent monks before, so he did not quite understand the temperant of people in the Buddhist order.
Fortunately, monks did not tell falsehoods, but they also knew better than to force anything.
Shiomi had no intention of converting to Buddhism, so Xuanzang Sanzang wisely stopped there.
Then Xuanzang Sanzang slowly stepped back. The rings on her khakkhara staff gave off a crisp sound as she retreated, until she ca to a stop on the opposite side, at roughly the sa distance as Goetia.
Morgan and Shiomi glanced from side to side and understood that the two really had co only as witnesses. If Shiomi had not taken the initiative to speak, Goetia probably would not have wanted to say a single word.
Xuanzang Sanzang, on the other hand, had taken the initiative to chat a little more.
"It's about ti. It wouldn't be good to keep everyone waiting any longer."
Shiomi crouched down, picked up a pinch of sand, and slowly let it fall through his fingers.
"In that place where changes in ti and space can't be felt, it won't really seem like they've waited long," Morgan said softly, gently stroking Shiomi's back to reassure him.
Shiomi nodded deeply.
His gaze passed over Goetia, then over Xuanzang Sanzang.
Then he drew his eyes back and raised his voice.
"Although this differs sowhat from my original intention, I'm grateful to both of you for appearing here as witnesses, to witness the curtain rise on the next era of humanity."
That was true for both Goetia, once his enemy, and Xuanzang Sanzang, whom he was eting for the first ti.
"Hmph..." Goetia only turned away with a cold expression, then seed to rember sothing and added, "At least pass along a ssage for to that man hiding in a human body, the one who abandoned his identity as the King of Magecraft... tell him to enjoy his life as a mortal."
It sounded full of displeasure, and yet it also carried a certain blessing.
Goetia clearly knew sothing.
That left Shiomi feeling rather helpless.
"For his sake, I'll pass the ssage on," Shiomi said.
Perhaps because Goetia had spoken his final words as a farewell, Xuanzang Sanzang thought for a mont and then added one more sentence.
"At the Calot Singularity, I had originally wanted to help your Chaldea, but it seems there was no need for to step in after all. So I trusted the Buddha's words and watched your battle from afar until the end," Xuanzang Sanzang said with a trace of apology.
Morgan looked sowhat surprised, and Shiomi did not know what to say either. It took him a while before he managed a response.
"Uh... right. Please don't worry about it."
After saying that, Shiomi turned around and clasped both of Morgan's hands in his.
Light began to envelop the place.
"To return the 'fabric' that was originally displaced onto the celestial sphere back to the planet, Mooncell really is necessary," Shiomi said.
"It's already prepared, isn't it?" Morgan said.
"What remains is our shared will." Shiomi looked into Morgan's eyes. "From here on lies the world I promised you. Let's go."
"Mm."
Morgan looked back into his eyes and answered softly.
Endless light engulfed the place, until in the end even the two of them were completely swallowed by it.
The Demon God King and Sandalwood rit Buddha also withdrew one after another into the light.
A new world full of infinite possibilities, and at the sa ti the original world itself, was waiting for them.
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