How could one even battle in such an environment? Battles required calm calculation, thinking tens of steps ahead when your opponent might not even be able to touch a single step. But, in such a world, let alone doing so, it felt like it was impossible to even stay in the moment.

This was none other than Aritzia’s Origin Source. Unlike the other Ancestors, she seemed to ignore Dyon’s suppression of her completely, summoning it as she pleased. However, it also seemed that she hadn’t followed Dyon’s advice at all.

When Dyon still had his memories sealed, he had seen this world once before. His immediate reaction was that it was far too complex. He felt that an Origin Source shouldn’t be like this.

Yet, instead of making it more simple… It seemed that after her breakthrough, Aritzia had made it even more complex. If the Dyon of back then stepped into this world, he wouldn’t even be able to glance around before directly falling into a coma.

It was as though she was speaking via her own actions. She would follow a different path than Dyon…

Dyon chose friends and family. She chose power.

Dyon chose balance and harmony. She chose chaos.

Dyon chose the ultimate simplicity. Well… she chose the pinnacle of complexity.

The effect on Dyon was not small. He felt that his soul, his greatest strength, was greatly slowed. It felt that sweeping his Divine Sense over this world drained his Mental Energy away at a speed that was impossible to accept. It was practically the perfect counter to him.

This was the true reason he was suddenly slowly approaching the losing end of the battle. His soul seemed sluggish and tired, making it more and more difficult to create new techniques to integrate into his One Above All doctrine.

If another person had been in this situation, maybe they would start to doubt themselves. But, for Dyon, the excitement in his eye only grew. Even as bloody wounds opened across his body and crimson fell from his lips, the light in his eyes didn’t fade for even a moment.

It had been too long since he met someone with a comprehension of the Dao on his level. Even if there were those who were stronger than him in the past, it was only so. Dyon still felt it was no issue to defeat them simply because he was always confident in his way of doing things.

Who could say that his Junior Sister’s path wasn’t better than his own? The martial way tended to go through cycles of complexity and simplicity. Who knew if Aritzia’s complexity wasn’t the next cycle after his own simplicity?

If another had this thought, maybe they would try to find a way forward immediately. But, Dyon didn’t spare a thought toward this for even a single moment.

Dyon’s way of simplicity wasn’t as meaningless as following the path the martial way led him by. He didn’t like others controlling him, least of all this ‘Truth’ everyone else seemed to follow.

The reason he followed this path wasn’t so complex. The reason he took the complex and boiled it down to the simple was because this was how he viewed the world.

To him, nothing was complex, nothing was worth his furrowed brow, nothing was worth his effort.

A pinnacle martial art? Become simple for me. Origin Grade technique? Become simple for me. The Truth? Become simple for me.

Nothing was worthy of blocking his path, nothing was worthy of pausing his steps, nothing was worthy of staining his heart.

Not even this junior sister of his.

Complex Origin Source? Become simple for me.

A roar left Dyon’s lips as he stomped down hard on the greyish black lands beneath his feet.

‘Quintessence…’

A faint whisper caused Dyon’s subconscious to tremble. The last time he had heard this whisper, he had just undone his first seal. Back then, he had almost taken the entire universe with him.

He had lost his mind to the flames of chaos. It came to the point where the only things he could do to regain a faint trace of normality was to speak with his junior sister, a woman he still called The Entity back then.

‘Soul Quintessence…’

Compared to back then, the whispers were far louder.

Just what was the soul exactly? One would think that it was the center of all life, but if that was the case, wouldn’t Dyon’s mortal world have come to an end a long time ago? Why was it that they could survive with all their souls sealed away?

It was clear that the soul was beyond something so simple.

The soul was ultimately a bridge. Most thought it was a bridge to the Heavens. It was it that allowed one to see through the Dao, to begin to comprehend the nature of things, starting from mere Wills and rising up to the point one could form Laws and eventual Origin Sources…

However, Dyon had lived for a very long time. He had seen too many things, comprehended and grasped too many things. He had long since come to the conclusion that this bridge wasn’t as simple as a path to the Heavens.

It was only convenient to call it the Heavens. That thing that Dyon hated and despised so much… putting a name and face on it made it so simple.

He needed something to be mad at, so he turned his hatred toward the Heavens. But the truth was that the Heavens was just an instinctual creature. It had no thoughts and emotions of its own. Its only goal was to evolve the creatures and humans under its care to reach the peak of the world. As for the reason why… who knows?

This was why Dyon was so enraged when he battled Death. Seeing the thing he hated so much walk around like a clown, not even having a mind of its own, lit a burning fire within his heart.

However, weren’t the Heavens the same? It was quite ironic. Maybe had he met Death in his first life instead of his 109th, it would have taken Dyon much less time to reach the peak. No, maybe things weren’t so simple as this…

He had in fact met Death before. How else would Conquest, War and Famine be so afraid of him? The issue wasn’t that he hadn’t met Death, but rather that at the time he did, he hadn’t taken Death as seriously as the 109th version of himself had.

What was important was not only meeting Death, but also putting Death on a pedestal… Only then would he realize just how much of a joke it all was.

So what was the soul a bridge to?

The ultimate conclusion Dyon came to was a chance. It was exactly that, a chance. A chance to grasp something higher, to see a taller peak, to see the world as one should.

‘Soul Quintessence…’

The grey land beneath Dyon’s feet increased in size by a fold.

Golden rings lit in his eyes, a halo appearing above his head.

This was the difference between him and the Sapientia. They felt that there was something waiting for them at the top, that there was a lofty throne they needed to snatch away. They felt they just needed to follow a plan laid out before them. Since the world was tending toward Chaos, they too should tend toward Chaos. Only by following the path set by the Heavens could they sit on that throne. This was why they rejected the status quo. Since the Heavens didn’t want to maintain the balance, what was the point?

Aritzia thought this way too, didn’t she? She wanted to sit atop the world. This was the goal she strove for. But, this was never Dyon’s goal.

In Dyon’s mind, nothing was worthy of being ahead of him, this was true. However, he didn’t strive for a throne prepared for him by someone else. He strove for something far greater than that.

He saw a chance. Aritzia saw an opportunity to grasp.

It almost seemed like the same thing. This was where the concept of all Daos leading to the same road originated from. Yet, it was the subtle nuances that made all the difference.

He found it all to be quite funny. All of these people were striving after something the ‘Heavens’ had prepared for them, following a path that the ‘Heavens’ had laid out… Yet this entity they worshipped so much didn’t even exist in the way they thought it did.

“Bring out everything you have, Aritzia. Or else I will cut you down now.”

Aritzia could hardly fathom what she was hearing.

On one side, there was her who seemed refreshed as though she had just finished grooming herself. Yet, across from her, there was her First Brother, beaten to the point he seemed he might collapse at any moment.

Blood flowed from his body, bones stuck out at awkward angles, layers of skin were peeled off… It all left a grotesque sight, one eerily reminiscent of a rotting corpse.

Yet, in the tide of crimson, two blazing orbs of light stood. They were none other than Dyon’s eyes, shimmering with unwavering confidence.

How could he lose here? His junior sister had a goal to achieve, but he had no goal. His sights were beyond a mere goal. So unfathomable they couldn’t be explained by a word so simple.

‘Soul Quintessence…’

It seemed as though he didn’t feel the pain wracking his body at all. His scythe spun in one hand, his chain spinning in another. As though a guardian deity protecting the last line of defense the world had, he stood with his back straight.