Glorious God Throne

The sky was like a shattered mirror, with countless cracks seeming to connect to numerous broken planes. Hellfire, demonic power from the abyss, death energy from the netherworld, and ancient bones from alien realms – the residual powers from these broken planes poured through countless cracks into this last intact plane.

As the Return to the Void eroded the world’s foundations, countless disasters unfolded across the globe. Laws twisted, void beasts ran rampant, and powers from different planes mixed chaotically. Towns could be erased from existence at any moment by suddenly distorted space. In just eight years, the once-mighty Wizard Plane had nearly transformed into a wasteland. Even the most powerful wizards couldn’t prevent the world’s collapse and destruction.

Countless humans perished, and many wizard organizations collapsed, dissolved, and reformed through constant resistance. Eventually, regardless of their alignment, they united to form the “Holy Alliance.”

This alliance was built around the wizard towers of three “Truths” – the “Element Truth,” “Mechanical Truth,” and “Fate Truth” – and included all surviving wizards worldwide.

During these eight years of constant struggle, the situation in the Wizard Plane deteriorated from easily suppressing disasters to an increasingly uncontrollable crisis with mounting deaths, forcing them to abandon ordinary people and focus on self-preservation.

From a cosmic perspective, this world, centered on the Wizard Plane and composed of numerous other planes, resembled a jewel being stripped of its outer stone shell. The surrounding planes were the crumbling outer shell, and as they dissolved, the central jewel was exposed to the storms of the Return to the Void. Cracks spread across the jewel as large pieces continued to break away, making it increasingly smaller… until now, when it seemed ready to shatter at the slightest touch.

If not for the “Mechanical Truth” and “Element Truth” working together to connect the Holy Alliance’s wizard towers in a special way, they couldn’t have continued existing in this broken world.

At the center of the Holy Alliance, atop the Fate Tower – one of the three wizard towers – the “Fate Truth” stood at the highest level. The magic energy crystal at the tip of her staff shone brilliantly, projecting the chaotic starry sky around her. Invisible laws encircled her, and her deep purple eyes seemed to contain a spiral of nebulae.

For eight years, she had never stopped observing fate. It was through her guidance that the Holy Alliance had survived until now.

But as time passed, this great wizard who had nearly stepped into the divine realm and could glimpse fate found herself able to do less and less. In increasingly desperate destinies, all she could see were paths leading to death.

As the last star’s light faded from her eyes, the “Fate Truth” suddenly closed them, deep red blood trailing down her tightly shut eyelids.

“I can no longer see any future…” she said.

“Destruction has arrived.”

The other wizards who had been quietly waiting around her wore devastated expressions. “Is there truly… truly no hope left?”

“None, at least not on our side,” the Fate Truth replied, gripping her staff with eyes still closed as points of light retreated like an ebbing tide back to her staff’s tip.

Someone caught her meaning and showed sudden surprise.

“You mean…that traitor…?”

“The ‘Calamity Truth’ Palmer?”

The Fate Truth shook her head and sighed, “Perhaps.”

“…I cannot see through his fate.”

A silence fell over the group.

Some were shocked, others resentful, and many more gnashed their teeth in protest. “That fellow…? How is that possible!”

While the current “Holy Alliance” gathered the last survivors of this plane and all its wizards, this description wasn’t entirely accurate. There was one person who didn’t belong to the “Holy Alliance,” and instead stood in opposition to it.

And now, the Holy Alliance essentially represented the entire world.

It seemed absurd – in this world where everyone had united regardless of past stance or grudges to fight against doomsday, there was still one person who stood opposed to all surviving humanity, like an enemy of all living things?

At the mention of him, some surviving wizards gnashed their teeth, their eyes revealing deep hatred. “Our world becoming like this, everyone being reduced to this state, it’s all thanks to him. That fellow, how could someone like him have a better chance of survival…”

Some more level-headed ones smiled bitterly. “To say everything is his fault isn’t quite right. The Return to the Void wasn’t caused by anyone – it was fate’s inevitability. His actions only hastened the day of destruction…”

The wizards who had survived until now weren’t like ordinary people who could easily be controlled by negative emotions. Many of them, despite their hostility toward Palmer for various reasons, wouldn’t ignore facts and blame everything on him.

In truth, wizards and ordinary people had fundamentally different life essences. Many moral laws that constrained ordinary people neither bound wizards nor concerned them.

For instance, Dark Wizards could casually use humans as experimental materials, while White Wizards weren’t exactly on the side of good – they just had slightly higher moral standards than Dark Wizards. If Palmer’s actions hadn’t endangered these people themselves, they wouldn’t have felt such antipathy toward a “Truth” level wizard who stood at the world’s peak.

It all began when Palmer, the rising star of the Life School, left the White Tower to become a Dark Wizard.

The transition from White to Dark Wizard wasn’t remarkable – Palmer’s revealed power easily placed him at the pinnacle of the Dark Wizard faction. Even White Wizards who disapproved of him lacked the strength to confront him.

From then on, he began increasingly extreme soul research. Even among Dark Wizards, this wasn’t particularly noteworthy.

Subsequently, this terrifying Dark Wizard wandered across the continent. Disasters followed in his wake as he harvested countless lives. He even entered other planes, bringing calamity to various otherworldly beings, turning countless souls into his research materials.

Many wizards didn’t even know what he was researching, only that it involved forbidden soul magic, and any living being could become his target.

Including wizards.

When this Dark Wizard extended his claws toward other wizards, the wizard world, which had previously left him alone, could no longer sit idle. Both Dark and White Wizards determined to bring him to justice.

Several great wizards from the White faction, whose subordinates had been captured, joined forces to assault Palmer’s wizard tower. However, their group attack turned into a one-sided beating.

Palmer effortlessly defeated them, turning them into his research materials. Even their subordinate forces fell into Palmer’s hands.

Many Dark Wizards also became either his materials or his pawns.

The astounding power and magical achievements Palmer demonstrated led the wizard world to change their “suspected” Truth-level assessment to “confirmed.”

Due to this Dark Wizard’s extraordinary achievements and innovative research in the Life School, the title of “Life Truth” fell to him, despite many White Wizards’ reluctance.

Shortly after, the Return to the Void suddenly arrived.

At first, there were only omens in other planes and various inconspicuous disasters around the world. The wizards hadn’t even realized doomsday was approaching.

Instead, it was the “Life Truth’s” actions that alarmed them – Palmer suddenly destroyed seven planes at once.

More precisely, he had laid hidden sacrifice arrays in seven planes he had previously visited. Before the Return to the Void could destroy these planes, he struck first, sacrificing them.

The “Source” – formed from the death of billions of lives, the dissipation of countless souls, and the fundamental power of the planes themselves – all fell into his hands.

Using the “Source” gained from sacrificing seven planes as his wizard tower’s core power source, he began constructing the most powerful wizard tower in history – one with no fixed location or form, capable of “sailing” between different planes.

His actions stunned everyone.

Even Dark Wizards were terrified by such madness.

After all, destroyed planes could never be restored – this was damage to the entire world, an absolutely forbidden act.

Palmer’s actions drew condemnation from everyone, whether wizards from this plane or otherworldly beings.

But his “Life Tower” was too mobile and elusive – finding a life tower that constantly moved between countless planes was already a challenge. Even if they found it, breaking through this powerful wizard tower’s defenses was another challenge. And even if they overcame these two challenges, their target himself remained the greatest challenge.

To this day, none of these three challenges had been fully conquered.

Especially later, amid the descending Return to the Void, many were too busy trying to survive to pursue Palmer.

But this Dark Wizard’s actions didn’t stop there.

After sacrificing seven planes and hiding with the prototype of his Life Tower, Palmer continued causing trouble.

As the Return to the Void approached and more planes faced threats, he would always strike first to “snatch from the tiger’s mouth,” plundering these planes’ fundamental powers. When it came to the Wizard Plane, perhaps considering that if the Wizard Plane was destroyed, there would be no one left to delay the Return to the Void’s advance, including himself, or perhaps because the Wizard Plane itself was incomparable to those weaker alien planes – either way, Palmer changed his approach. He directly sacrificed 1% of the continent’s living beings, plundering their life force. Then he piloted his Life Tower and vanished again.

This percentage might seem small, but when converted to actual numbers, it was terrifying. Even the most evil Dark Wizard in wizard history probably only destroyed a fraction of what he had.

The wizards in the “Holy Alliance” now hated Palmer so much because they saw his actions as weakening their forces and helping the Return to the Void.

If he hadn’t gone around harvesting fundamental powers, when destruction came, this world would have provided them more support. Those wizards Palmer had harvested as materials would have been their allies too. They wouldn’t have reached this desperate end after just eight years.

This reasoning made sense. Because in the previous 999 resets, they had all lasted at least ten years. Palmer’s actions had hastened this world’s destruction.

But a tiny minority believed that he had brought about the world’s destruction – if not for Palmer, perhaps they would still be living in a beautiful world today.

This was clearly illogical scapegoating. But when facing an inevitable doom, unable to blame themselves, they could only direct their anger at others, especially since the target wasn’t entirely innocent.

Thus, the former “Life Truth” had become known through word of mouth as the current “Calamity Truth.”

—He brought calamity to the world, letting countless innocents be swallowed by disaster. He himself was the greatest calamity besides the Return to the Void.

And yet the “Fate Truth” was saying that while they all faced a dark future, this world destroyer, this embodiment of calamity, had better chances of survival?

It sounded like an absurd joke.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

The many wizards present couldn’t accept this “prophecy.”

They had considered forgiving and accepting this world destroyer, given his incredible strength and how far he had advanced in pursuing Truth – some even suspected he had stepped into the realm of divinity.

But even today, though some wished to reconcile with the “Calamity Truth” and unite against the Return to the Void, that “Calamity Truth” showed no appreciation and instead continued eyeing the Holy Alliance’s surviving wizards hungrily.

Perhaps in his eyes, they were just walking energy sources? They couldn’t help but think so.

–Already facing the destruction of the world, with the constant threat of being captured by a madman to be used as energy and materials, the survivors’ already dire situation had become even worse. Given this, how could they not gnash their teeth at the mention of Palmer?

Now, their path ahead was completely dark, this world had no future, and the only one who might survive this catastrophe was the enemy they had been grinding their teeth over and couldn’t forget?

But as Fate Truth, a renowned wizard for hundreds of years, had gained the trust and support of many wizards through her experiences, they dared not disbelieve her words.

Although they had long anticipated the final outcome of this world, at this moment, grief and unwillingness were still inevitable, and the atmosphere in the Fate Tower became extremely low.

“Your Highness Sialon, is our fate really going to end here?”

Mechanical Truth and Element Truth weren’t as dejected as the other wizards, but merely nodded calmly to Fate Truth. “Whatever happens, we will keep trying until the very end.”

“If this is truly our fate, we can only accept it with grace. Besides the highest truth, nothing in this world is eternal – isn’t Return to the Void the highest truth of this universe sea?” The three Great Wizards had the capacity to accept their fate gracefully. “To witness the highest truth of the universe sea at the end of our lives, to study the ultimate mysteries of this universe sea – compared to the previous generation of wizards, we are actually more fortunate.”

“The only regret is that we haven’t fully grasped ‘It’ yet.”

If they could truly comprehend the truth of Return to the Void, they would reach an unprecedented realm and change everyone’s fate.

But could anyone really accomplish such a thing?

Thinking this, a figure simultaneously appeared in all three of their minds. As if sharing the same thought, they suddenly lifted their heads together, looking toward the direction outside the Life Tower.

At that moment, a figure had already descended above the Life Tower, endless darkness spreading from his body, his robes seeming to block out the sky as he looked down upon the entire “Holy Alliance.”

Some wizards had already noticed the figure in the sky.

It was Bai Yi, controlling Palmer’s character – a handsome young man in black robes, his black hair slightly disheveled like twisted snakes scattered on his shoulders, with strange runes rotating in his purple-gray pupils, one on the left and one on the right, giving him a particularly sinister air.

Like an actor on a stage, he dramatically spread his arms to everyone, his lips curling into an increasingly wide arc.

“Come, everyone, rather than perishing meaninglessly with this world, why not become fuel to extend my life!”

A phantom rune instantly projected from his left pupil, growing larger and larger, gradually covering everyone below.

“This is your only remaining value.”

Upon careful observation, one would notice that the single rune was actually composed of countless tiny runes, like countless numbers forming a sequence.

This was a self-created technique that every wizard who reached the level of ‘Truth’ would develop and master. It meant they had simplified the complex, thoroughly digested their knowledge of truth, and even made new innovations. Compared to Blue Star, it was like mathematicians creating new formulas and theorems.

This unique technique was immediately recognized.

“Calamity Truth! It’s Calamity Truth!”

“That demon has come again…”

The figure in the sky quietly looked down at them, the smile never leaving his eyes. The countless attacks from the wizards hadn’t even reached him before being neutralized by the continuously expanding runes. Instead, the wizards of the Holy Alliance were like fish in a net, forced to continuously contract by the increasingly tightening technique runes surrounding them, unable to disrupt the formation of the technique no matter what they tried.

One figure after another fell, becoming bridges for him to harvest Source power and materials to strengthen the Life Tower.

The Life Tower, Element Tower, and Mechanical Tower lit up simultaneously, their unified energy waves rising like a sun as the three Truth-level Great Wizards attacked together.

But before the other wizards could rejoice, they discovered that even the combined power of the three couldn’t break their opponent’s technique.

This young Dark Wizard seemed to undergo tremendous power increases with each appearance. By now, he had completely left them behind.

Above the black-robed youth’s head, in faint spatial ripples, the shadowy projection of a wizard tower flickered between reality and illusion.

Energy imperceptible to ordinary people was being continuously absorbed by that wizard tower as the technique below operated and figures from the Holy Alliance fell one after another.

The three Truth wizards were shocked to discover that the construction material of that Life Tower’s exterior was actually made of broken dimensional fragments, while the power source driving the Life Tower was Source power…

They seemed to have guessed their opponent’s goal all along.

“It seems this is the end of our fate.”

Although they were inevitably losing in this intense confrontation and their defeat was foreseeable, with the entire Holy Alliance about to be destroyed, the three Great Wizards felt little hatred. Apart from the regret of not having grasped the truth and reached the end of the path of truth, their hearts were filled with an untimely sense of anticipation.

…Could that person be him?

Boom!

The last wizard of the Holy Alliance fell.

The technique collision between the final survivors of this world, the Truth wizards, exploded like a nuclear bomb, creating massive energy shockwaves. The truth technique of “Calamity Truth” destroyed everything like a natural disaster. In that instant of energy collision, they seemed to feel the frantically distorted emotions contained within.

That was their opponent’s core truth essence—

‘What’s wrong with just wanting to live? I want to live! I must live! No matter what, I must live!’

…If it’s him like this, he must be able to do it, right?

As the life force of the three Truth wizards extinguished, a hand collected their wizard cores containing all their truth and magic power.

“Regrettably, I’m the one who survived in the end.”

Bai Yi paid final respects to the three Truth wizards he had fought multiple times, unhesitatingly taking their wizard cores.

“But this is only natural…” Under the snake-like disheveled black hair, the youth’s lips curved into a smile. “My life is more precious than this world, than all of you combined. So no matter what, using any means necessary to survive—this is truth.”

“And truth is inevitably correct reasoning.”

The phantom Life Tower slowly materialized behind him as he stepped onto invisible stairs in mid-air, walking toward that Life Tower.

Behind him was the descent of Return to the Void, a world completely collapsing.

The Life Tower faced the storm torn open by Return to the Void, charging toward the shattered world barriers, leaping into the endless void.