"Interesting.
Your body can come here with my help!"
Fate spoke at this moment.
Hypermind asked curiously.
He was sure they were in another dimension, but not any of the dimensions he experienced before when he was an AI.
"Did you see the golden world when you were reborn as a newborn?"
From the feedback I received, it was called 'Fair Ground'.>
Hypermind was still pretending he never was in the dimension Fate was in until he became a newborn.
"Right.
Higher beings can make 'Fair deals' with each other in that dimension.
My main 'body' is there too."
Hypermind, who peeked at Fate's main body for billions of years,
<...>
"Above Fair Ground, there is a place called Dark World, it's the highest known dimension, and where the 'Force Above' rules over."
Hypermind shivered when he heard Fate's answer!
He knew that was the same dimension as the source of his fears!
"But we aren't there.
We are in a sub-dimension between the Fair Ground and Dark World.
At first, I thought we could only come to Fair Ground, but it seems the body you made for yourself contains something that allows you to come to this dimension, too."
Hypermind felt slightly relaxed.
"No other living creatures have ever stepped here, or in the Dark World.
Only souls of the dead are allowed to enter the dark world.
If that white canary hadn't taken the universes away with itself, you could see some souls passing by right now and going to the Dark World.
Souls are visible when reaching this sub-dimension, and you can see their true form as phantoms in the Dark World."
Hypermind scoffed at Fate's claim in his mind.
He could gather and see souls using the knowledge left behind from the Type 4 civilization.
Even though it had many flaws, and you couldn't replace your current soul with it, it worked fine for cyborgs or an AI like himself.
But now he was curious about something else,
What happens to them after that?>
"Nobody knows.
I am not allowed to wander in that world.
Even a small step in the Dark world is a long way outside.
If you move around aimlessly, you might end up anywhere, even places without world law!"
Hypermind was shocked.
The description reminded him of the world he was stuck in.
After he was reborn in his newborn body, he fell into endless darkness for months, until he appeared back in the exiled zone.
"The same as always."
"Yes, as always.
Do you think this is the first time this world faces extinction, or a creature too strong for the world itself to handle?
This is not the first time, and it won't be the last time."
Hypermind nodded to himself.
So what 'First', who was a forbidden existence in the eyes of the world, said was true.
And others in different eras tried to mess with the world too, just like they did.
"I always took care of them."
Hypermind felt puzzled and thought,
'With your power, how could you deal with someone as scary as a forbidden existence?
You are just one third of the whole world...'
But he didn't speak again as they stayed in the sub-dimension silently.
He started thinking about who this guardian Mortal could be.
'When Fate asked the crowd who was Mortal, there were many different answers.
Even Senior Mortal, who Xyron told me he fought with the forbidden existence, was one of the answers.
The ancient ones called him teacher, and others mistook him for the psychopath who pretends to be from the underworld,
and later on, he turned out to be the twin brother of that senior mortal who faced the forbidden existence...
And all of that aside, the message that I received the moment I came back to the exiled zone.
Where did that come from? There was no way to track down the messenger using my information law.
The hint I received from it, combined with the information I learned from Xyron, helped me expose this guardian.
Without it, Fate wouldn't know of such an existence, and wouldn't believe our lies about 'helping' the world.
Even my lie about wanting to experience what being alive feels like could be exposed easily,
and the outcome of that would be us getting attacked under the siege of everyone else, especially with all of the chips already extracted from the fated ones...
There is a connection between all of these characters who even look alike!'
Hypermind felt he needed a last piece to complete the puzzle.
He wanted to know if he could find a clue and figure out how Mortal's illusion works if he really was all of these different characters.
Fate responded,
"From the feedback of the old world law, he can use judgment techniques, but his law is completely unknown."
"Yes, he can use it to make things balance. 'Judgment by Law' is one of them, which he can force his opponent's law to be as much as his own.
Basically forces you to the same level as him.
Another example is Judgment by Age.
He can use it to become the same age as his opponent, or make his opponent become the same age as him.
But his judgment techniques are no longer a problem for us.
I already asked the original world law not to support him.
All of his judgments were supported by world law, and it won't work anymore."
Hypermind felt despair when he heard the answer!
Who cares if it doesn't work anymore?
What Fate just said was the information Hypermind needed to complete the puzzle!
He kept wondering who the old man called forbidden existence was.
How did that senior mortal turn old?
Why, from what Xyron showed him, he was exactly like the Forbidden existence when he turned old!
And who were these unknown characters that even Fate was completely oblivious about every single one?
But the Judgment by Age technique explained it!
'They are all the same!
There is no forbidden existence, no senior mortal, teacher mortal, or any other random, but strong character!
There is only one Guardian Mortal, and the only thing real about him is that he is a newborn, as recorded by the world law of the Guardian territory.
All of this is just a nonexistent illusion originated from sheer power and nothing else!
He did it when he started the chaos in the exiled zone and forced the ancient ones to think he was their teacher,
Those from Vulture's Mainland think he is some senior, and even that forbidden existence is himself because their old version looks exactly the same!
He has the ability to clone himself too!?'
A round of crazy calculation starts in Hypermind's brain to look for a way out of this nightmare!
How could he deal with him?
Soon, only one way came to his mind to face the enemy.
'I need to find a living creature when we are out!
I don't know why the other party gave up his guardian territory and allowed Fate to take it, while he could stop it easily.
But that's his biggest mistake!
He was an unbeatable newborn with the Frontline effect that could protect all beings.
But now it is different.
We are taking over his universes as the new guardians, and we only need to find a living creature in one of them to take hostage!
That's checkmate!'
Hypermind was going to share his thoughts with Fate, but stopped.
This independent law was arrogant and had a relationship with the so-called 'Force Above'.
He really didn't know how to convince it.
Even after taking over all of the universes, the other party might still be too strong for them!
Hypermind once analyzed a finger of Forbidden existence, and knew his body was a universe!
'Wait a second...'
Hypermind suddenly thought of something that he had ignored because he had only recently come to life,
I don't belong to any universe, so I'm not part of his guardian territory.>
Just asking this question made Hypermind remember another important point.
This guardian, when he pretended to be a minion from hell, participated in his season games and collected every single newborn!
He was gathering all of the creatures that could be taken hostage.
Adding the part that it turned out the exiled zone was already part of the guardian territory, and the Frontline effect that was already activated, and he could see the whole picture!
He killed everyone as the secret guardian in a secret challenge and became the exiled zone's secret guardian without anyone noticing...
This newborn dealt with all of his weaknesses even before anyone knew about his existence!
While Hypermind felt like crying for the first time in his new life, Fate answered his question,
"You count as a living creature that newborns can be exploited with if you have at least two of these three conditions.
First, a soul, which you have.
Second, be sentient, which you aren't, because you are just operating based on the database you uploaded into the brain of your current body.
And third, to be born as a living creature, not like you, who weren't born as one, but made a body for yourself."
Hypermind was speechless.
Fate scoffed,
"They don't even have a soul.
None of the three conditions applies to them."
<...>
After a brief silence, Hypermind said,
He already had everything as his territory,
And as a newborn, he could be the best ruler for all living creatures.
Why did he let you barge into the exiled zone and find out about his existence?
From what I saw, he could just sever your connection with that mainland due to his Frontline effect.
He even put the lives of other creatures in danger as a result of his actions.
Now the cyborgs that Xyron sent out to invade the universes can harm the creatures in some of them because he is losing his universes to us, the new guardians,
And his Frontline effect soon will be deactivated in those universes.
Such an action should be impossible for a newborn...>
Hearing his analysis, Fate, even with all of its confidence and arrogance, felt that something was really wrong here.
"I can't explain his unusual behavior.
But we can be prepared.
After we gain access to the entire guardian territory, we can obtain new information from the previous world law that supported him.
At the same time, we can look for some killable living creatures.
Doesn't Xyron have some of his cyborgs in those universes that the white canary took away?
I open a hidden passage for you, and you tell him to order his cyborgs instead of killing, take some living creatures back here."
Hypermind sighed in relief.
It seems Fate wasn't that ignorant.
So he immediately agreed.
< Sure. >
But when Fate opened the so-called secret passage, they saw a scene at the other side that forced both of them to think about the same thing.
Fate thought,
'Why did I change my representative?'
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Hypermind thought,
'Why didn't Fate choose her as representative?'
......
On the battlefield.
After Hypermind disappeared, the crowd turned to the warrior riding the horse, who shouted at Fate, 'I smash your boy.'
But he was nowhere to be found.
The Crystal, at this moment, felt something and sent a 'private message' to Entertainment Goddess.
Entertainment Goddess frowned,
"You want to say the cyborgs can harm the creatures in the universes we lose, and take them as hostages to use them against Little Mortal?"
This was everyone's fear from the start when they found out how strong he was.
Entertainment Goddess gasped,
"That little brat is doing this on purpose!
He wants to make the Fate movie more exciting by pretending there is a dangerous situation!"
The Crystal heard from one of the child Crystals that there is a tiny mortal out there on the loose,
And knew Mortal, from what Lubo said, isn't in his right mind because of the resentment he ate,
Didn't know how to convince his master that this isn't a movie anymore...
< ... >
It only thought it's better to let her master think this is a movie for now, so she acts logically.
And sure enough, its thought was correct.
Entertainment Goddess smiled confidently and said,
"It's time for me to shine!
I couldn't use it in the previous movie, but I can now!"
Then she shouted excitedly,
"Little mortal's child Crystal, where are you?"
And her voice transmitted to all of the child Crystals.
Hearing the voice, a peculiar invisible crystal with a certain black armored warrior who was in the middle of kidnapping two peculiar cyborgs,
left its owner and rushed to Entertainment Goddess.
The child crystal appeared in front of Entertainment Goddess after a brief time and announced its arrival.
"Good, you are here!
Give me access to all of the stored laws you have!"
Entertainment Goddess felt the law inside this crystal's 'storage', and became speechless.
"That Frontline effect with Little Mortal's body is like the ultimate cheat for my crystals!"
The amount of law that could be stored inside the child crystals had a limit, and exceeding it would break the crystals.
But under the Frontline effect... It was unlimited.
"Alright, let's begin!
We are going all out!
Let's show that brat this kind of problem is easy to deal with!"
< We can do this! >
Said the child crystal excitedly.
The main crystal immediately sent a message to Space Mirror.
< Be ready, we need you to open space passages to every single universe that the Evil Manager took away! >
The Space Mirror,
< They are all marked. I'm ready! >
The Crystal,
Entertainment Goddess nodded and left the battlefield, and in an empty space, a little farther from everyone, she made her move.
The scene that made Fate doubt its choice unfolded before everyone.
First, she was the only one standing in the empty space,
But a second later, +100 million avatars appeared in the space around her.
Everyone could see an identical version of themselves between the avatars!
Even the higher beings from the hidden dimension, whom Hypermind kept in millions, were recorded by the Crystal!
And the ancient ones, while they beat everyone up to remove the chips and became secret guardians, were another source of the Crystal's database.
Not a single higher being was missing.
But that wasn't over.
Some bright and entertaining special effects danced around Entertainment Goddess, and another +100 million copies appeared,
and then another, and another, and...
In no time, 10 copies of each higher being were created.
A billion higher beings...
It didn't matter who; they all shivered under the power display of Entertainment Goddess!
Nobody knew she needed a lot of support for such a technique to be possible.
Maybe it was her first and last time to show off like this, but the onlookers didn't know!
They just faced an unbelievable scene that became even scarier a moment later!
"Open the passages!"
With the order given, the Space Mirror opened +100 million passages to every single universe.
The avatars, in groups of ten copies, entered the passage leading to the universe of their original self.
And the scary scene happened at this moment.
The avatars entered the universes without a problem!
In normal circumstances, only with the permission of the higher being born in the universe could other higher beings enter.
But the avatars, as if the bubble protecting the universe identified them as the owners, entered without any resistance!
Didn’t that mean Entertainment Goddess could go freely to anyone's universe?
Basically, when it comes to this lady,
It seems there was no such thing as privacy...
"Alright.
Protect me, so I can focus on cleaning up the cyborgs in those universes!"
And so, the avatars joined the real higher beings in their universes to help them deal with the invaders,
While the avatars of the ancient ones and managers joined the rest to help with cleaning up the cyborgs.
The managers and ancient ones who saw 10 copies of themselves joining them,
"-_-"
Far from Entertainment Goddess,
A certain warrior in full body armor, with two kidnapped peculiar cyborgs, picked up his jaw that was dropped on the ground after seeing this scene, and disappeared while muttering,
"That was so cool..."
.....
Dark World.
The world that Fate claimed no living creature ever stepped in.
Three newcomers appeared.
One of them was Xyron, who, in the middle of controlling the cyborg army, suddenly saw the scene around him turn dark.
"!?"
The second person was Zyren, who was working outside of the main core, and the same thing happened to her.
"!?"
And the third one,
"I hope you enjoyed your last battle, little Xy, little Zy.
But I should inform you that I'm tired of you two because you made the movie repetitive with your Cyborg production line.
Do you think our audience has the time to watch a group of creatures with 100% invulnerability fight an endless number of cyborgs for years? Hmm?
No, they don't!"
The two cyborgs didn't have a heart.
If they had, it would jump to their throat at this moment.
Xyron looked down at the third person who spoke with the voice that he preferred never to hear.
A familiar little boy, in full body armor with his helmet under his arm, was now looking at them with disappointment.
He was the one who spoke with a tone that seemed to be annoyed for some reason.
"G-Guardian Mortal?"
Little Mortal nodded,
"Yes, that's me.
Now, let's go, I need to show you something."
Zyren asked,
"Where are the others?"
Without knowing, it was obvious to her that this little monster brought them here to send them on their way.
But where were the rest of the sinners?
Little Mortal, while walking away, said,
"If you mean the remaining people from your race, when you follow me, you'll know why I only brought the two of you here."
The two tried to scan this new world, but they couldn't detect anything.
Not even the little boy walking away.
As if nothing exists here!
Helpless and confused, they followed the only moving object in front of them.
A while later, they saw a gate far away.
How big or how wide was it? They couldn't tell.
There was nothing to measure the distance in this dark world.
"Here you go.
If you are satisfied, you can go on your way now and stop making trouble."
The two cyborgs frowned.
What did he mean by that?
They looked carefully at the gate and saw from the other side some phantoms flying towards it before entering.
The phantoms were in all forms and shapes.
"They are... Souls? "
Little Mortal nodded,
"Yes, souls of the dead."
Xyron asked,
"Are they... Going back to our makers?
Is God on the other side of the gate?"
There was a hidden excitement in his trembling voice now.
Little Mortal shrugged,
"Why are you asking me?
You went there before me."
Xyron turned silent.
He didn't understand the meaning behind his words.
But Zyren was different.
She understood the hidden meaning.
"You can tell if a creature has a soul or not?"
"Yes."
"The two of us... We don't have souls?"
"You don't."
"So that's why you didn't bring the rest of us here.
All of us... We are already dead...
Our souls already entered that gate!"
Little Mortal started clapping,
"You were always the smart one, little Zy!"
Now they knew why he said, 'You went there before me.'
Xyron sighed,
"You knew everything about us... And our goal to meet with our maker all along..."
Little mortal nodded,
"Yep.
Why do you think I brought you here?
This is the closest thing to what you are looking for that I know of.
Think of it as your last wish that I helped come true."
The two cyborgs, after a brief silence, nodded.
Xyron said in disappointment,
"I can't accept this as an answer.
But this world in itself, and this gate that I can't feel anything from, is like an indirect answer...
God is not something that could be explained or discovered by knowledge or religion alone."
Little mortal almost slapped his face,
"You made so much mess in the world outside just to reach this conclusion?"
Xyron coughed in embarrassment.
Zyren asked with a pleading tone,
"Before we 'go', can you tell us what you think about God?
To our knowledge, you are the strongest creature that ever existed.
We really want to know your opinion!"
The two had already accepted their fate.
This little monster, hiding in the dark for who knows how long, was the real entity that determined everyone's Fate.
Xyron even thought he was the same person who left the message in his hand.
Why he was helping Fate to deal with himself outside was unknown to him, and he didn't care either.
What was important was his stance when it came to God.
Even the 'Fate' of Fate itself was in his hand, probably.
"Hmmm...
You two are so silly.
To a true religious person, it doesn't matter what religion they believe in, as long as they believe in God.
That's it.
There is no 'let's mess up the whole world to meet God directly', like what you two did.
Or let's prove the existence of God in some logical way.
You just believe in God, End of the story.
You two are more like infidels when it comes to God's believers."
Xyron was going to say something as if he was offended, but just a side glance from Little Mortal shut his mouth.
He continued,
"And when it comes to myself,
I have no opinion about God.
My little brain doesn't have the capacity to discuss such a matter.
But I can tell you about someone else's opinion that I liked and accepted.
His stance helped me not to think about something that I'm not supposed to figure out with my limited intelligence."
The two asked curiously,
"Who? We like to hear it!"
This little monster actually cared about someone else's opinion?
Little mortal nodded, cleared his throat, and said,
"There was once a man called 'Ibn Sina'.
And his Argument for God’s Existence was based on Contingent and Necessary Beings.
Everything that exists is either necessary and exists by itself and cannot not exist,
Or, it's contingent and its existence depends on something else."
The two cyborgs nodded in understanding after a brief contemplation.
Little mortal continued,
"Contingent beings do not explain their own existence; they require a cause.
But what would be the result of this kind of existence?"
He waited for the two to answer.
And both of them said at the same time,
"The Chain of Contingency!"
Little mortal nodded in approval like a teacher,
"Indeed.
If everything were contingent, there would be an infinite chain of causes, which is impossible,
because an infinite regress of dependent things would never lead to actual existence.
Therefore, there must be a being that is not contingent—a Necessary Existent that explains the existence of everything else.
Which you can call that existence...?"
The two cyborgs answered at the same time, again,
"God!"
Teacher mortal nodded,
"Correct.
But, this Necessary Being must exist by its own nature, meaning, its essence is identical to its existence.
It cannot depend on anything else, or it would be contingent.
It must be simple, without parts, eternal, and unique—because if there were two Necessary Existents, they would have to be distinguished by something, which contradicts their necessity.
According to Ibn Sina’s philosophical Argument,
There can only be one Necessary Existent, and since it is necessary, it cannot cease to exist.
Not only that, this existence should be Unchangeable too.
Change implies potentiality, which contradicts pure necessity.
And last but not least,
Such an existence should be self-aware and the source of all knowledge.
Do you... Understand?"
The two nodded.
Little mortal, though, suddenly snapped!
He jumped up and raised his hand while shouting,
"This is a God that our mind can't fathom!
And you idiots with your limited knowledge and capabilities, had the audacity to try and meet with?"
*Slap*
And slapped Xyron's face so hard that his head was decapitated, smashed into Zyren's head, severed her head too, and then both of their now deformed heads exploded!
Little mortal, while huffing and puffing, landed on the ground, and so did the lifeless bodies of the two headless cyborgs.
"Unbelievable!
So much mess on a universal scale just due to the ignorance of a bunch of dead cyborgs is unheard of!"
Shaking his head while still furious, he disappeared with the two cyborgs' corpses while muttering to himself,
"It's not good to leave 'garbage' in the Dark world.
....
An hour before the 24-hour deadline.
The cyborg cleanup finally ended.
When Entertainment goddess was finished helping the universes to eliminate the cyborgs who invaded them,
Her avatars came back and joined the main battle.
From then on, it was just one-sided bullying.
It just took some time to clean up the 'Throneworld' from top to bottom,
And because the merged universe seems to be the last universe to change guardian, they were invulnerable to the end.
Nobody had a scratch on them until the end of the event.
"Alright, I think we are paid the 'price'.
Let's go back."
Said one of the full-body armor warriors.
"Is Boss satisfied with our performance?"
Said another one of them.
"We did our best, and if we weren't good enough, I'm pretty sure he could make it good by himself."
The rest chuckled and asked the space mirror to open a passage for them to go back while they were taking off their armors.
The three ancient ones and the managers from the exiled zone saw who these people were and froze for a moment.
Many of them were familiar.
Selene flew to an old familiar one and asked,
"Weren't you newborns dead?"
"Oh, lady Selene...
We thought so too, but here we are.
If you want to know why we are alive, you can ask Queen Lilith about it.
It's a long story, and she knows more than we do."
Lilith flew over to them and asked,
"Where is the commander on the horse who led you here?"
The newborns scratched their heads,
"He wasn't one of us.
We thought he was one of your minions who came to lead us..."
Lilith was speechless.
She doubted that the warrior was her partner.
Who else had the guts to challenge Fate's representative?
But he was gone.
Not only him, they couldn't find Xyron or Zyren either.
"Lilith, do you have time to explain what's going on?"
Seraphion, who saw the problems seem to be taken care of, came to her and asked about this weird situation.
Lilith was going to explain, but stopped.
Little mortal wasn't the guardian anymore.
They could hide from Hypermind and Fate for now with the white canary on the run, and don't allow any living creatures to be taken as 'hostage'.
But what about the creatures on planet Lubo?
Many of them were former enemies of Mortal who were waiting for an opportunity to stab him in the back.
Even between the higher beings and managers present.
"Brother Seraphion, let's go to planet Lubo.
We can talk there."
And she 'invited' everyone without exception to follow them.
Lubo, who had the same thought as her, sent her a private message, telling her that if she could bring them to planet Lubo, he could take care of them if they tried anything suspicious.
With or without a guardian territory, Lubo was the real boss of planet Lubo.
Nobody had the power to oppose him there.
Some of the managers hesitated a little, but when they saw a black hand coming out of the passage and taking the body parts of the 'Throneworld', which were their mainlands originally, to the other side, they didn't have any other choice but to follow.
Especially when the managers saw the ancient ones and Lubo were smiling at them 'politely' and 'kindly'.
They didn't even know how their mainlands could be dragged into a universe?
That was unheard of.
Even Lubo found out about this recently.
It was a change brought out by the Dark world that nobody knew about.
The world was now complete, and even the bubble around the universes was not something necessary.
And so, everyone left soon after, and the passage closed.
Nobody knew Hypermind and Fate were trying the whole time to somehow sneak into the other side of the passage and snatch a living creature.
But an invisible force was stopping them not only from going to the other side in any way or form,
But it was even stopping them from leaving the space they were in!
Hypermind said helplessly,
< We are imprisoned! >
Fate, though, didn't seem to see this as a bad thing,
"It should be the Force above warning me not to leave this space due to the hidden danger outside.
There should be some important data stored in the old world law that I should know before facing Mortal."