Traveler of the River of Time and Space

Chapter 650 20: The Two Extremes of the Pantheon

Pantheon.

As Lord Stephen led Su Ziyu towards the ruins of the erstwhile Shattered Sunset, some beings beyond mortal comprehension silently observed them.

The existence of the Space-Time Hub does not surpass the Pantheon. Although, in terms of power, the Space-Time Hub might control some ultimate weapons from ancient times, as well as being guarded by the Space-Time Dragon race since their inception. However, the Pantheon has a massive advantage: a virtually limitless potential for ascension. A mighty divine power might not make the Space-Time Hub wary, but if ascended to Supreme God, the qualitative change generated by the Gods of Faith is terrifying.

And just as it happens, a Supreme God was indeed born in the Pantheon over the past centuries.

That is the Lord of Death—Soron.

"Is it this young man?" In the dim moonlight, the night covered a corner within the Pantheon. A hazy, graceful female silhouette emerged. She gazed with a radiant look akin to the full moon upon the scene before her, softly speaking: "I thought the ultimate controller of the Space-Time Hub would be Lord Stephen."

"But didn't expect he would choose this young man."

A figure standing silently in the center of the Pantheon looked at the projection before him and calmly said, "Stephen has no interest in controlling the powers of the Space-Time Hub."

"Otherwise, with his centuries of drifting through the Space-Time Turbulence, even without using the Hourglass of Time, he could have opened the Divine Hall of Space-Time."

In the hundreds of years Stephen has observed changes in the Pantheon, Lord Soron, the Lord of Death, has also been observing this young man. Before Stephen transformed the Crescent Moon into a Space-Time Fortress, he could guess what the other party intended to do. However, when the Arcane Wonders of 'Sun Crown' and 'Moon Crown' were completed, even he found it difficult to perceive his opponent's powers.

After all, these Arcane Wonders, even in the past Arcane Empire, were often just conceptual designs.

The greatest achievements of the Ancient Arcane Empire were the Secret Energy Core and the Floating City, that is, an endless source of Magic Power and the Star Realm Fortress. But this thing called 'Sun Crown' could be understood as a miniature 'Star'. Since it is miniature, if conditions permit, it could be made larger. It is not only an endless energy source but also an extremely terrifying weapon.

For example, a 'Supernova Explosion'.

Lord Stephen's overall power is far inferior to a Supreme God, but he possesses the ability to destroy everything and go all-in against any force. To some extent, he is the swordbearer of the Space-Time Hub and the only current Space-Time Guardian authorized to deploy the neutron star golem guarding the Ancient Prison.

This was the reason he was able to force Lord Soron to make concessions at the Shattered Sunset, or otherwise, even with good relations with his daughter, someone as strong-willed as the Lord of Death would not compromise on any decisions he made.

"This little fellow is too weak..."

A faint female voice came from a dark corner. Her position was very particular, in a corner of the Pantheon, and the mist projected behind her looked like a dense web, entrenched in a corner of the Pantheon, with limb-like projections extending from her back, occupying most of the visible area.

She gazed coldly with a hint of malice at the projected image of Su Ziyu, slowly saying, "Perhaps we should choose a stronger and more obedient candidate..."

Hmph!

A cold snort came from the center of the Pantheon, and instantly the spiderweb-like shadow extended by this woman shrank, with the spider projection behind her seemingly curling into a cocoon. Her eyes filled with awe and fear, looking towards the center of the Pantheon, she awkwardly said, "I was just making a small suggestion..."

"After all, this would benefit us more."

The Lord of Death - Soron withdrew his icy gaze from the center of the Pantheon. Here, many deities were once his enemies, and some even allied against him centuries ago. But all that dissolved as he ascended to Supreme God, and he did not hold these deities accountable because he knew that time no longer permitted him to cultivate powerful divine spirits anew.

The beings present are the crystallization of the resources from hundreds of millions of years of a Crystal Wall Element. They are useful pieces for him. As the sole player in the Pantheon, he must tolerate some dissent.

The nature of divine spirits is hard to change.

Some divine spirits are inherently in pursuit of absolute benefits, and the Spider Queen is such a being who submits to great power but is loyal only to herself.

"If you want to see Lord Stephen visiting your Divine Kingdom with the 'Sun Crown' and then blowing your Divine Kingdom into star realm dust, you can try doing this." The speaker was a female phantom standing behind Lord Soron. She was Soron's partner when he was in the mortal world, now also a deity with weak divine power.

On some level, divine spirits are immortal because they have their Divine Kingdoms. Unless a Saint Cataclysm erupts, even a mighty divine power would have to pay a hefty price to destroy the Divine Kingdom of the weakest divine spirit.

But the Saint Cataclysm cannot be initiated casually, so most of the time, it is difficult for divine spirits to die.

However, if there were an extraordinary force capable of directly obliterating a divine spirit's Divine Kingdom, turning everything to dust, the situation would be completely different. In such cases, most divine spirits would be entirely annihilated if killed once.

And Lord Stephen is the one within the Space-Time Hub who possesses the absolute might to destroy the Divine Kingdom.

Death's Sovereign—Soron—had not spoken since he opened his mouth initially. His gaze was fixed ahead, at the opposite pole of the Pantheon, the domain enveloped in endless brilliance.

—The Lord of Light.

One of the biggest winners of the Saint's Cataclysm back then.

Now the master of Heavenly Mountain, once the polar opposite to him due to ideological conflict that sparked the War of the Pantheon, all the Divine Spirits from orderly good to neutral good alignments follow His footsteps. Though He has not ascended to become a Supreme God, within this Pantheon, no one can ignore the voice of the Lord of Light.

Pure good finds it very difficult to ascend to Supreme God status.

The Lord of Light's utopian ideal country is virtually impossible to realize unless He imprints a Thought Steel Seal on every newborn, but such an action is fundamentally pure evil.

Although the Lord of Light lost in the War of the Pantheon, His will cannot be ignored, because these pure idealists have the courage to fight against anything.

Even if the enemy is a Supreme God.

"This young man's soul is very pure. He bears the blessing of light." The deep voice of the Lord of Light echoed within the Pantheon, His golden eyes flashing as if penetrating the projection before Him, slowly saying, "He can be trusted."

Unlike others who observe Su Ziyu's strength, the Lord of Light observes the light on Su Ziyu.

That is the Plane's gift.

This young man has saved the world before, and not just once; the Plane's burgeoning consciousness has bestowed gifts upon him, which are a significant reason the Lord of Light acknowledges him.

At this moment, both poles of the Pantheon have spoken.

The other gods immediately fell silent, having received simultaneous recognition from both the master of Heavenly Mountain and the ruler of the Netherworld; at this instant, no matter how ambitious any Divine Spirit may be, they dare not make any private moves.

"The tragedy of Muhammad's Pantheon must not be repeated…" The figure of the Lord of Light gradually dissipated within the Pantheon, and before leaving, He softly addressed Lord Soron in the distance, seemingly as a warning to this Supreme God, and also a reminder to the other Divine Spirits present.

The destructive power of the War of the Pantheon is immense.

Ever since conceding defeat, the Lord of Light has permitted Death's Sovereign—Soron's—proposal, allowing mortals to choose their own paths; some worlds have risen to glory because of their choices, while others wither daily due to mortal greed.

The flourishing of life and death unfolds simultaneously within this Crystal Wall Element; some Planes witness millions of newborns each day, while others, under the influence of pollution, war, and disease, see countless deaths daily.

The entire Crystal Wall Element has been fast-forwarded by Death's Sovereign—Soron.

With the removal of the Divine Spirits' constraints on the secular world, the breaking of barriers set by the Divine Spirits, and mortals erupt with infinite vitality and madness daily.

In just one or two centuries, nations within the Prime Material Plane have undergone earth-shattering changes.

The Divine Spirits and the Church no longer dominate the direction of civilization.

The Lord of Light has visited the distant Mechanical Nirvana Country, witnessed the giant constructs that cleave mountains and stones there, seen the steam zeppelins gliding across the sky, and also seen the smoke-belching iron trains mortals ride daily; amidst those rising steel jungles, He gazes at the no longer azure sky in silence. He has also visited the World Forest located at the Ancient Gods' site, where the high elves have revived the glory of the World Tree, their newborns innately possess the great power of Magic, they build numerous beautiful and majestic cities upon the World Tree, spreading natural Magic power to every corner of the Plane, and then gradually indulging in pleasure amidst brilliance; they are indifferent to everything outside, even barricading and isolating the Plane passages to other worlds.

Death's Sovereign—Soron has lifted the shackles of all Planes, broke the barriers set by the Gods of Faith, and toppled the Wall of the Unbelievers, allowing all civilizations and races to freely choose their direction.

And He himself is merely an observer, watching the rise and fall of each race, each civilization.

And selecting the finest seeds of civilization from among them.

Now, the Lord of Light has ceded the chessboard to Soron, because He too wants to know what kind of world the other desires.

.........