Ashur's mind gradually cleared, and everything he had seen so far felt as a lucid dream.
First, he organized his thoughts.
This wasn't the bed he had been lying on but an ancient, dilapidated temple. Several towering bookshelves, looking like they might collapse at any moment, were scattered around, along with various jars and bottles, all haphazardly placed in different spots. At one particularly cluttered corner, there stood an overly grandiose altar.
From outside one could see, the entire temple was carved from a single massive stone. Thin, light gray fabrics hung everywhere, embroidered with twisted, obscure, and dimly lit inscriptions.
The pillars that once supported the temple had long since crumbled. To make matters worse, a huge hole had formed in the ceiling, through which scorching light streamed, casting a red halo that outlined the "sun." A thin layer of mist covered the hole, partially shielding it.
He had reincarnated, as for how he had crossed over into this world, he had no idea. Before he fell asleep, he'd heard a strange call. Now, looking back and retracing the events with divine perception, a peculiar ability he found after waking up, he realized it wasn't a human voice at all. It sounded more like an electronic synthesizer.
'It said umm... hmm.... God?' Ashur questioned internally after mulling hard over what he heard back then.
Yes, a god. The god's name was the Faceless One, a deity that wielded the authority of "Confusion."
Ashur no longer had a face. His entire body was draped in a large white robe, or perhaps a cloak, with a hood that covered his head. His face had no features, yet he could still see and hear, as if facial features were merely unnecessary decorations, something that could be discarded without issue.
Around his white robe, a tight circle of dark energy clung to him, wrapping Ashur's entire being in a silhouette-like shadow.
Now, as for his identity…
There was a bad news and a good news.
The bad news? He was no longer human. But at least he wasn't a goblin or a slime. No, he had become a god—though an evil god, at that.
The good news? Every god left in this world was an evil god, so he was merely one among many.
Why an evil god and not a righteous one?
Well, that's because the evil gods acknowledged the existence of righteous gods. In fact, they had even preserved many of the ancient altars that once belonged to the righteous gods.
For the living beings of this era, most of the so-called righteous gods had long since vanished. In the ancient myths, only fragmented mentions remained.
However, the righteous gods had left their altars behind in the world, and these altars, like celestial trees, would breathe life into any star they descended upon.
The evil gods collected these ancient altars of the righteous gods and hurled them toward dead stars, causing life to bloom, turning them into breeding grounds.
Righteous gods needed positive emotions to stay active.
Evil gods, on the other hand, thrived on the negative emotions of all beings.
There was once a time when the righteous gods were abundant and powerful.
But for the evil gods, they had never witnessed that era.
Because the history of those earlier epochs was unknown to mortals, only the final years of the Fourth Epoch and the stories of the Fifth were known to the them.
And now, it was the Sixth Epoch.
"Let me think..."
Ashur was coming to grips with the situation. His original self, the true Faceless God, had become an enemy of another god and had been persecuted. His church was disbanded, his followers exiled, and his faith sealed away. In the competition among gods for believers and power, such things were all too common.
Without believers to sustain them, gods were gradually forgotten, trapped in time, turning into wax figures of eternity.
Ashur had only two weeks of existence left. While he wasn't about to drop dead immediately, there wasn't much time either.
He looked towards the massive altar.
The Faceless God, in a desperate resort to take revenge on the evil god who had wronged him and restore his faith to greatness, had decided to use this altar. It was the Faceless God's secret weapon. He had studied it for a long time, confirming it was a relic from the end of the Second Epoch, containing the inheritance of an ancient deity.
Ashur floated over to the altar. Suspended above it was a crimson orb of light.
Clearly, the inheritance had already been activated.
As Ashur hovered over it, musing at the intricate runes floating around the orb, the crimson orb exploded. With it a stream of information, ancient Second Epoch texts poured into Ashur's divine consciousness, then converted into symbols recognizable by the gods of the Sixth Epoch. It seemed to have a self-adaptive function:
[Enlightenment Terminal (Activation Rate: 5%)]
[Unlock access to the use of Enlightenment Runes]
[You have learned the Enlightenment Rune, which will help you better understand the workings of the world. "In theory," you now possess the ability to "construct anything."]
[The Enlightened still have an unfinished task.]
Ashur absorbed this information but didn't rush to act. Instead, he familiarized himself with these ancient runes.
[Information and knowledge can be freely extracted and combined. Even if it remains unknown, it is for the sake of the cycle of change.]
The cryptic godly words left by the ancient deity echoed in Ashur's mind. At the same time, a rule, spanning countless macro-epochs, took effect on his divine body.
This law embedded a segment of "Information" into his divine form.
Ashur watched as his hands glowed with a faint crimson light. The ancient rule was now telling him that he could use the Enlightenment Rune. The terminal's permissions had been transferred to him, and now, based on his understanding of the runes, he could create anything his heart desired.
All he needed was the appropriate "materials," and he could write its "information."
[Enlightenment Rune: Beginner Level.]
In the first stream of information, Ashur found a reverse flow against it, steeming from him. It was divine power—the power of the Faceless God.
Inspecing deeper into his core, Ashur witnessed the dissolution of the god's will. It had become the material for writing some form of information.
'It seems like the divine will has been broken down into data by the terminal. The self of a god, that is the "will", has completely disappeared. A god's will should be the most important part of their being, containing everything they are. Yet, in this rune, the grand will of a god is reduced to just 5%? Interesting.'
"So it seems, the original Faceless God no longer exists."
Furthermore, Ashur found a part of himself in the information flow.
Clearly, his soul, as a transmigrator, had been intercepted by the Faceless God and used to activate the Enlightenment Terminal. However, the god's operation had gone awry, causing the terminal to treat him as a high-grade material and break him down, instead of Faceless God. His information had been reverse-input, occupying the Faceless God's hollow shell.
Those jars and bottles around the altar? They weren't for holding dust or liquids. They were containers for "value" and "information," but now they were empty. The Faceless God had bet everything on this altar.
The Faceless God had even studied "information" to some degree. His research had advanced rapidly, almost touching upon the great secret left behind by the ancient true gods. But alas, luck had failed him.
Looking at his current state, Ashur noticed that the fabric of his robe had aged, and his ears picked up on some chaotic muttering. This was the power of time slowly encroaching upon him. If he didn't act soon and find new believers, his end isn't far away.
"I've only just revived as a god. Dying so soon would be a bummer."
The crimson power—the Enlightenment Terminal—was the first step in changing his fate.
And it was the most crucial power.
Suddenly, a shattered information filled with tens of thousands of strange variables, riddled with incomprehensible, twisted code fragments and ancient languages long abandoned by mortals, paired with nonsensical names, filled the terminal.
The whispers of the evil gods manifested. An endless tangle of codes intertwined, forming an unbreakable bond. As if the programmer of this code had sworn to make this code comprehensible to both gods and mortals, it was now a different type of Information Rune, more intricate than beginner level, almost reaching pinnacle of Godhood.
[Development Log 1.0 ]
[A new authority has been created.]
Despite being oblivious of what happened, Ashur could feel it was not something harmful. So, he decided to move onto the pressing matters.
"It's time to seek new believers for testing."
Due to the change in authority, the remnants of the old power of God Of Confusion had been rewritten into new skills designed to enhance the user experience. This, too, was a specialized form of manipulation.
Beside that, Enlightenment Rune came with an additional power known as "Enlightenment Value," seemingly originating from the rune's true master—the long-deceased ancient god. In his current predicament, Ashur's task was simple: to absorb this value and fuse it with his new authority.
"The God of Confusion is dead. Perhaps, because of the authority of confusion, he ended up confusing himself—never existing in the first place."
"According to what this terminal gave me, I am God Of Fiction with Authority of Fiction? Maybe, due to the authority of fiction, the God of Confusion was nothing more than an illusion created by the God of Fiction."
This was the purging of old divine powers, followed by the declaration of the new god's claim.
Ashur had seen similar declarations in the Faceless God's memories. He had once made such a declaration over another fallen god, a deity who had ruled over Loss, but ultimately, he was defeated by the God of Confusion.
Suddenly, Ashur felt a connection form within him, and the first words from his new authority echoed:
[To not exist does not mean one truly does not exist, for to be known is also a form of existence.]
This was the proclamation of a god, though it would never be known by mortals. It embodied the essence of the "God of Fiction."
As soon as this new authority was established, Ashur heard a voice calling out to him.
Following the voice, Ashur saw a sprawling city filled with factories and hospitals.
———
In a corner of the city, within a lively tavern, a young vampire lady sat at a table, busily writing and sketching in her ledger.