Magical Girl's Knight Brother

Chapter 602 The Fall

After a quick reconciliation, Tanya finally learned Tang Zijun's identity and was surprised to find that the other party was actually a new god from another world. As a native god, she did not know the relationship between the dream world and the real world. Tang Zijun also understood the meaning of the few words left in the previous transaction. It turned out that she had unknowingly made a deal with the god of merchants. No wonder no matter how she traded with him later, it would not work. That was because the god of merchants had nominally become her.

Inside the underground hall, the stench of filth mingled with the faint, lingering glow of the Star God, creating a somber atmosphere.

As Tanya recounted how she exploited loopholes in the laws of trade to forcibly make a deal with a "strange god" and thus descend to the mortal realm, Scáthach's dark purple eyes narrowed slightly.

Instead of pointing it out directly, she turned to Desk, who was slumped on the ground, completely bewildered, and Tang Zijun, who had just walked in not far away.

"So that's how it is..." Tang Zijun was also somewhat surprised and astonished. He felt a sense of absurdity, both annoyed and amused. He had just broken the deal and was preparing to see how the legendary God of Merchants would punish him, but far away in the void, this "God of Merchants," Tania, had actually used her authority to directly "hijack" the deal.

The sequence of events gradually became clear in his mind.

Tanya did not carry out punishment or divine retribution; rather, her punishment was simply forcibly changing the trading partners from the slave traders to herself. She also arbitrarily altered the terms of the deal, using her authority as the "Goddess of Merchants" as the "commodity" in exchange for a "passage" to the mortal realm. Recalling the writing left after the flames subsided, Xiao Xiao's guess was correct; the other party was indeed seeking her help, but they had intentionally concealed the details.

At that moment, one's own belt, or rather, the divine power within one's own body and the power of the rules of heaven and earth, somehow "confusedly" accepted this one-sided exploitation of loopholes in the deal.

Therefore, the transaction was actually valid at the rule level; he inexplicably provided the coordinates of the dream world and in return received...

Tang Zijun slowly looked at the dirty Tanya not far away.

...He traded himself for her authority as the "God of Merchants"!?

No wonder!

No wonder no matter how the slave traders tried to pray to the god of merchants, it was no use!

Because, according to the rules, the "goods" that represent the "transaction" authority already nominally "belong" to oneself, or rather, have been "mortgaged" to oneself. The world judges that one "already possesses" the core capabilities related to the transaction.

This is like someone who has already bought a bank. When he tries to make a regular deposit or withdrawal at the bank's ATM, the system will obviously give an error because he is now the owner and the regular service is closed to him.

In name only, the core authority of Tanya, the goddess of commerce, has temporarily "belonged" to him.

Those slave traders were actually praying to themselves at the time, but because the authority of the God of Merchants could not leave the Void Realm, this real power did not actually appear in their hands, which temporarily created the illusion of "the fall of the God of Merchants"—although it is pretty much true from today's perspective.

This truth left Tang Zijun feeling a strange sense of absurdity.

On the other hand, Tanya was no less surprised than Tang Zijun. After a quick reconciliation, she had learned Tang Zijun's true origins and why a new god had appeared in the dream world.

Because the other party actually came from another world!

Beings like Tanya, born from the dream world and becoming new gods after death, are completely unaware of the history and truth of the dream world. She doesn't know that the dream world was created by the gods of Earth, nor does she know that a real world exists beneath it. Initially, she naively assumed that the other person was also a new god born from the dream world, just like herself. After all, this had happened many times before; when a person's faith power reached a certain threshold, they would automatically ascend the ladder of divinity and become part of the laws. But she never expected that the other person's origins would be even more bizarre.

However, when Tanya thought about how Scáthach abandoned her divine power and was sent by the gods to a world called "Ark," she felt that the matter was not so far-fetched. Since there was an Ark world, it should be normal for other worlds to exist as well.

"So, Lady Scáthach, you've come back this time to help us?" Tanya asked excitedly.

"This is a bit complicated." Scáthach opened her mouth, not knowing how to explain. She herself was already overwhelmed in the wasteland. If she hadn't met Tang Zijun, she didn't know when she would have been able to return to the dream world.

She paused, then turned her gaze back to the massive body in the center of the hall. "Let's not talk about that now. Let's deal with the situation at hand. We originally came here because we sensed the divine power here, but we didn't expect something like this to happen."

Hearing this, Tanya also looked at Ilúvatar. "Although I hate to say this, Chi is beyond saving. Nightmares have eroded Chi's sanity. The current Ilúvatar has become a manifestation of a mad shadow. Coupled with the power of the Great Old Ones, even if we save her, Chi will no longer be the person we know."

Scáthach remained silent for a moment before slowly speaking. "Where is the divine power within the pool? Where is the authority of the stars?" "I don't know. Perhaps Lord Kokata took it away?" Tanya guessed. "It may have returned to the world, or perhaps it has vanished into the void and the void of this world. It's uncertain. I don't have the power to sense its whereabouts right now."

Tang Zijun also looked at Ilúvatar.

Undeniably, she was once a breathtakingly beautiful woman.

The pool's massive body exhibits a pure, deep, sky-blue color, as if it were condensed from the nebulae of the universe's primordial beginnings.

This blue is not inanimate; its surface flows with faint starlight, like the flickering of breath, as if the pool's skin itself is woven from solidified galaxies. The pool's shape is strange and elegant—its upper body vaguely resembles a human, with smooth lines and a divine perfection, while its lower body is neither human nor an ordinary horse.

It had a body as strong as a centaur, but the four hooves supporting its body were not hard horse hooves, but rather longer and covered with fine starlight scales, like the hooves of a divine deer. This strange combination did not seem abrupt at all, but instead gave Chi a beauty that transcended ordinary imagination, combining strength and agility, like a cosmic creature.

Chi's head drooped slightly to one side, revealing a bizarre harmony between his profile and that of a half-human, half-beast.

The beautiful human jawline is covered with fine, pale golden down like stardust, extending to the cheekbones and forehead. The bridge of the nose is straight, but the tip of the nose has a sharp curve, similar to that of some kind of celestial beast.

Even though the broken mask partially obscured his face, the exposed chin curve and the remaining golden bloodstains at the corners of his mouth still revealed an ethereal, divine beauty that was beyond human comprehension.

Tang Zijun gazed at the dying star god. Beneath the enormous helmet, a magnificent scene involuntarily surfaced in her mind: in the vast, boundless, cold void, Ilúvatar's streamlined, sky-blue divine body trod lightly on all fours, each step rippling with dazzling starlight in the void. Like the swiftest and most elegant cosmic messenger, trailing long streaks of starlight, like a shooting star piercing eternal silence, it galloped freely across the dark sky, weaving the trajectory of the stars.

What a breathtaking sight that must have been.

However, reality shattered this beautiful imagination.

Moving the gaze downwards, the enormous, ferocious bone spear that pierced through Chi Xingguang's chest was like the most vicious curse nail. The dark golden divine blood had already solidified, forming a shocking, viscous lake beneath Chi's body, resembling a shattered galaxy.

What is most soul-chilling and utterly blasphemous is the layer upon layer of scarlet downy hair that wriggles and grows like living things along the edge of the enormous, gaping wound.

These hairs, like the filthiest moss or countless tiny, greedy parasites, densely covered the wound and even climbed up the shaft of the bone spear. They greedily absorbed Ilúvatar's remaining divine power and life force, and with each movement, they exuded a blasphemous aura that was as nauseating as the filthy realm outside.

A still-active god corpse, a body whose sanity has been completely corrupted by nightmares, a chest still pierced by a true divine artifact, and a wound covered with the corruption of the Great Old Ones—at this moment, they strangely maintain a balance.

"Such a big event as the fall of the Star God, and this place is so close to Black City and the front line of the River Basin, why are the people around here not reacting at all?" Tang Zijun was a little curious, and then the three gods turned their attention to Desk.

At this moment, Desk gradually understood everything. Although he didn't know the specifics, he was certain that Tang Zijun, who had always called himself a knight, was actually a god, and that the gods, like mortals, were also experiencing a war. Hearing Tang Zijun's question, Desk quickly got up. "My lord, we have never seen a star god fall. There are very few instances of things falling from the sky around Black City. The few times that have happened have been recorded, and it was the church on the front lines of the river region that intervened. But this... there really is no record." At this point, Desk suddenly thought of something and abruptly looked up.

"Besides, sir, this couldn't possibly be the site where the Star God crashed."

He pointed upwards.

"The ceiling is completely intact."