Apotheosis

One's body was the carrier of the soul, while the soul was the carrier of the consciousness. If one's body was destroyed, his or her fragile soul would then be exposed to enemy attacks, leading to his or her immediate annihilation. As the soul vanished, so would the consciousness contained in it.

Even if one reached the Holy Soul Realm, the Eternal Realm, or even if they became creatures of the higher-grade worlds, this rule would still apply.

Throughout the entire world, Clarence and Mastema were the only ones who escaped this restriction. Even if their bodies and souls were damaged, their consciousness remained intact. However, right now, Zen and the Evil God had also reached their status and became their equals.

All of them were now at the point of origin, where the concept of space and time did not exist.

Everything had been compressed into an infinitely small point. The pressure was crushing, and no living beings could possibly survive under such harsh circumstances. However, the downgrader was surprised as he discovered that his consciousness still remained.

"Ha-ha!

I did it! I survived it all!

Now, I am the ultimate winner and the only ruler of this world!"

For a while, the downgrader thought that he was the only one who survived.

He was ecstatic as he assumed that he had finally achieved his ultimate goal. He had downgraded the entire world to the World of Nothingness but his consciousness carried on.

With that, he thought that the world was now his belonging, including all substances and energy within it.

At this infinitesimal point, everything felt so crowded, including his own consciousness. He tried to sense his surrounding environment, although technically, the concept of "surroundings" did not exist at the point of origin because everything had been integrated into a single point.

But the moment he sensed his surroundings, he immediately realized that there was a familiar aura near him. In fact, it was attached to him.

"Clarence!

Why are you still alive?"

The downgrader was extremely shocked as he recognized that he wasn't alone.

"Why are you so surprised?" Clarence asked calmly as if he already knew all along.

"What?"

The downgrader couldn't be more astonished at this turn of events. All this time, he thought that he was the only existence at this narrow point of origin, but it turned out that Clarence had also survived along with him. Moreover, it was as if the two of them had become a part of a whole.

Furthermore, as the downgrader was still recovering from the shock of finding out that he was actually with Clarence, he suddenly discovered that there were two more auras around them. After carefully sensing where these auras belonged to, he was even more flabbergasted.

"What the hell?! How could this be? Why didn't you die?!"

Zen and the Evil God didn't respond as the downgrader addressed them.

At this point, all four of them had clearly sensed each other's aura.

They found out that the four of them co-existed in this cramped point — the downgrader, Clarence, the Evil God, and Zen.

This was actually a rather abnormal and extremely dangerous sit

isolation in the perfect land for countless years. Clarence's existence was several times longer compared to that of Mastema. Thus, it would be impossible for Mastema to complete the process before Clarence did.

After a while. Clarence replied in a soft voice, "Mastema, he… He has finally returned to me now. We've become one again."

"That's good to hear then," Zen said gladly.

"I see that you've also overcome him," Clarence remarked as he sensed a trace of the Evil God from Zen's aura.

"Yes. So, what now? Is it necessary for us to merge ourselves too?" Zen asked with a hint of hesitation.

He clearly knew that if they tried to devour each other's consciousness, then he would definitely lose. Compared to Clarence's seemingly infinite span of life, Zen's would look like just a second.

"If I wanted to merge with you, then why would I have to make the perfect land like this?" Clarence said with a positive tone.

He regarded Zen as a solver, thus it was meaningless for him to devour Zen.

"What happens after this?" Zen asked out of curiosity.

"Well, just wait for a while," Clarence replied.

However, at this point, there was no light, no space, nor distance at the point of origin. There was also no concept of time.

So, Zen just fell silent and waited just as Clarence told him.

Since time didn't exist, it was hard to grasp if a lot of time had already passed or if it was just a few seconds.

As they fell silent, it felt like a short moment had passed, but it also felt like it had already been several years.

Then, all of a sudden, Zen sensed a gap appearing before him.

He thought that it should be just an illusion since neither physical body nor soul existed here. Their consciousness was the only thing left. Thus, how could he be physically aware of this gap?

For him, it was such an incredible sensation.

"Did you feel it?" This time, he heard that it was Clarence's physical voice that was asking.

"Yes! What is this?" Zen replied.

"It's the point of origin. It is beginning to split," Clarence answered in what seemed like a riddle to Zen.