Chapter 483: Chessboard
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
Marvin, who was speeding away at the other end of the Nightmare Boundary, naturally wasn't aware of the discussion between the two powerful existences of the Universe.
After obtaining the Crystal Statue, he had to find a way to leave this world, which was an external plane.
Although Marvin could enter the Shadow Plane, he only had the coordinates and the ability to freely pass into the Shadow Plane from Feinan.
If he tried to rush into the Shadow Plane from here, he might enter a strange area be swallowed by Shadow Monsters hiding in the Shadow Plane.
Just as Louise said, coming to this plane was very dangerous.
At that time, Marvin was confident that he could leave, but Louise jinxed it.
He couldn't leave the Nightmare Boundary.
As soon as he escaped from the ancient well, Marvin used the tool made by Madeline to create a temporary Teleportation Gate that would lead to White River Valley.
But he felt a headache coming on when he realized that this Teleportation Gate was blocked!
This meant that someone had used a formidable amount of power to isolate the path between this plane and Feinan.
Madeline only made a common interplanar Teleportation Gate for Marvin, but even a Teleportation Gate made by a powerful Legend Wizard would be unable to bypass this formidable obstruction.
Marvin felt the aura of Evil Spirits from the barrier blocking the path.
This most likely was Hartson's work.
He already came.
When this occurred to him, Marvin felt very troubled.
Although he had met Dragon God Tidomas' projection several times, they never really went all-out against each other.
Furthermore, this wasn't Feinan, it was the outer layer of the Universe!
Hartson could utilize his full power here. Even if it was an avatar, it would be able to kill Marvin easily.
Moreover, the current situation was quite serious, and Hartson would most likely come with his main body.
At this thought, Marvin felt bitter.
For an Advanced False Divine Vessel, he really attracted some major troubles.
In any case, he couldn't stop now.
Marvin didn't know whether someone would chase him, but he only had one path: finding Louise.
She was a Legend caster and could definitely find a way to leave this world.
The Nightmare Boundary had no sun and was in a half-hazy state all day, so Marvin's Night Walker abilities could all be used, which was the most satisfactory point.
Before entering through the Teleportation Gate, Marvin had preemptively plucked one of Louise's hairs "by accident" in order to be prepared for any eventuality. It really came in useful now.
After using Night Tracking, Marvin got an indication of her direction.
Fortunately, Louise wasn't too far from him.
...
While running through the endless desert, the information Marvin received from the Fairy kept repeating in his mind.
Perhaps only a few people in Feinan knew about these pieces of information.
This was knowledge that only the mightiest powerhouses would know, and even included some understanding of the Gods.
Because he transmigrated, Marvin's comprehension of this world was definitely higher than an ordinary person's.
From what he knew, each world had its own laws.
A Universe was like a criss-crossed chessboard. All lifeforms were chess pieces.
The difference lay in whether the pieces were strong or not.
The cruel rules of the competition prompted the powerful chess pieces to devour the weak ones.
And whether there was a powerful hand controlling the board, Marvin didn't know.
But the only thing that was certain was that if there was, it definitely wasn't those Gods. Nor was it the Evil Spirit Overlords, the Abyss' Demons, or Hell's Devils.
They were just relatively powerful chess pieces.
Only by jumping out of the board would they qualify to become chess players and play a more advanced game.
...
Looking at it from that perspective, since it was a chessboard, it inevitably had some rules, which formed the Universe's laws.
Some laws were clear, like the strict power table. And some were vague, so as a result, only very wise people were able to understand them.
The source of power of the chess pieces on the board was made up of Chaos Magic Power and Essence.
But they also made use of the laws.
At low level, people only paid attention to skills or ways of practising. They would go through challenging experiences only to raise their levels and power. In contrast, at high level, they would need more comprehension.
That comprehension was far beyond the numbers.
Like Legends' Domains.
This was one of the laws.
Each Legend's Domain was different, and the laws controlling them differed to some extent. Moreover, the number of pertinent laws varied from person to person.
But after reaching that final realm, one would encounter the great crisis.
It would be very difficult to strengthen oneself further after grasping a Domain.
Becoming a God was an easier path, but this path's price was also disastrous.
The so-called ascension was actually a method of fusing oneself with the laws through the Fate Tablet.
The Fate Tablet was one of the most mysterious things since ancient times. It made others go crazy over them, including the Gods that had already ascended. They obtained huge benefits from it, but they also became distressed.
Through ascending, a God would obtain a Divine Vessel, Divinity, as well as Divine Power.
The size of their Divine Vessel determined the extent to which they blended with the laws... the width, so to speak.
To give an example, the Ancient Nature God had a Great level Divine Vessel (known as the biggest), because the laws he controlled were extremely wide, encompassing all the laws of Nature. As for the God of Forests, compared to the Nature God, the laws he grasped were much narrower and only limited to forests.
In other words, the Godhood and Divine Vessel were mostly determined when ascending. The former decided the Domain and the latter determined the width of the Domain.
And Divinity determined the depth of control over the Domain.
Divinity and the level of the Divine Vessel were usually proportional, so in other words, the more powerful the God's Divine Vessel, the deeper the understanding of the Domain. This was a very natural phenomenon.
But few knew that Divinity was actually something like an [Authorization].
Without Divinity, one couldn't use these parts of the laws' strength.
Many treasures required Divinity and the reason was that these treasures involved the power of the plane laws and other rules.
As for Divine Power, it was only the external appearance of the power. It wasn't inherently superior to Chaos Magic Power, physical power and other kinds of power.
To sum it all up in simple words, a Divine Vessel was like a glue allowing the Gods to stick themselves to the system of laws and determine which ones they could control.
Divinity decided the depth of control that they had over their laws. It was like water in the sense that a drop was quite different from an ocean.
As for Divine Power, it was the power displayed by the Gods by taking advantage of the Faith gathered from the followers. They gained these followers through their ability to use their laws. A God without Divine Power was simply unimaginable.
...
After knowing the truth of becoming a God, it was easy to understand why Marvin was now even more unwilling to ascend in this life.
In the game, ascending was the easiest method to become stronger, so it was natural to choose it.
But it was a real world this time.
If he ascended, he would be thoroughly locked to this game.
Ascending meant merging with this chessboard. His soul would forever be imprinted on this Universe and eternally imprisoned within the laws.
Indeed, as long as these laws existed, the Gods would be immortals.
But what if one day, these laws were destroyed?
Even if it was just a potential future possibility, Marvin didn't want to be restricted like that.
He already knew that the Gods' attack on the Universe Magic Pool was an exercise in futility.
They were also a group of people pitifully trapped in the chessboard, and all of them were trying their best to jump out to look at the chessboard.
Unfortunately, they couldn't. Their souls had already merged with this world's laws.
Marvin wondered whether the supreme Wizard God Lance was a prisoner of this game too.
Did his disappearance have something to do with this?
...
Naturally, this was just Marvin's opinion. In short, he wasn't interested in ascending.
Since that was the case, he had to take another path.
For him to gain the power of the laws without merging with them, the only solution was to be above them.
For a lower dimensional lifeform, this was something very difficult.
But the appearance of the Advanced False Divine Vessel gave him an opportunity.
From the Fairy's words, the False Divine Vessel was actually a grand invention of ancient alchemy before eventually being buried.
The so-called False Divine Vessel was a man-made [Divine Vessel]. It was like a bridge that let ordinary people connect to the world's laws.
It was different from a real Divine Vessel in that a False Divine Vessel didn't merge its owner with the laws.
Even though it had this advantage, the power it gained wasn't more than a true Divine Vessel would, but the Advanced False Divine Vessel had a possibility for growth.
It only borrowed the power of laws, instead of merging and controlling them as the Gods did.
As an example, one could consider Marvin's current Domains, Shadow and Slaughter.
If he ascended, he would inevitably have a bitter struggle against the God of Slaughter and the Shadow Prince.
They wouldn't be able to co-exist. If Marvin ascended, these laws would be occupied by Marvin and they would have nothing left.
But the False Divine Vessel wasn't like that.
It only connected a bridge to borrow power. It wouldn't even be discovered by the Gods.
This was one of the benefits of the False Divine Vessel.
According to the Fairy's information, it could still grow!
Marvin could bind his Domain to the Advanced False Divine Vessel anytime, and thus obtain more power.
But ordering the laws took up a lot of energy. This was also the reason the Gods needed to get more followers.
The energy of their main body simply couldn't handle the consumption required to invoke a law.
This was the most difficult problem Marvin would face in the future.
In contrast, the information told by the Fairy concerning the body's restraints was already a lot simpler.
...
'This False Divine Vessel is really useful to me. This is something I had to get.'
'After returning to Feinan, I'll kill a few Divine Servants and gain more Divinity. I might eventually be able to raise the Divine Vessel's level…'
'As for breaking through the body's bottleneck, I might also rely on the Advanced False Divine Vessel…'
While thinking, Marvin had already run out of the desert and into a forest.
At that time, a burst of laughter suddenly echoed behind him!
He turned to look and immediately frowned.
Two Evil Dragons were charging over like lightning.
Their speed was very fast, a lot faster than before.
As for their appearance, they were both ugly, just like the corrupted Modana.
'As expected, those guys were also corrupted.'
Marvin was somewhat worried.
Evil Dragons weren't like normal Dragons. These bastards were made up of Negative Energy.
Being carelessly infected, one resistances would be reduced and they might decay.
Fortunately, this was a forest and Marvin still had many places to hide.
But what puzzled him was that Night Tracking clearly indicated that Louise was in the surroundings. How come Marvin didn't see a shadow?
Time was pressing and he didn't have much time to think. He directly jumped further into the forest.
"Roar!" The Dragons cried out and began to spiral down.
They were reacting the to the Crystal Statue's power.
As Marvin continued rushing through the forest, a crow suddenly landed on his shoulder.
"Kid, your ability to create trouble is outstanding."
Louise cracked a joke in Marvin's ear.
Marvin felt happy inside while remaining calm on the outside. "It's not bad. Tidomas descended, and most of the Chromatic Dragons turned into Evil Dragons."
"Do you see those two stupid Dragons above? It's not that I create trouble, it's all a huge conspiracy."
Marvin was thinking of explaining it to Louise.
But he didn't expect her to say, "I already guessed."
"How could Hartson be kind? That guy wasn't a God that would bless his offspring while alive, so how could he do something so superfluous when he fell?"
"I accepted Kangen's invitation here in order to look into this matter."
Marvin blanked out. That Louise seemed to know more than he himself did.
Before Marvin could open his mouth again, Louise quickly spoke, "There is a lake in the depths of the forest."
"There is a Teleportation Gate below the lake, I'll wait for you there. You have two minutes."
"If you aren't able to throw off these two sluggish Dragons by then, or if you don't arrive on time, I'll go first."
After saying that, the crow dissolved into ashes!
Turned out it was only a spell!
Marvin cursed. Such a deceptive teammate was too much.
He glanced at the two Dragons above and immediately thought up a plan.
...
Above the forest, the two Dragons were crazily searching for traces of Marvin.
But the vegetation was too dense, making it troublesome to find him.
At this time, they suddenly noticed a shadow escaping for the edge of the forest!
The two Dragons immediately gave chase!