Against The True Gods

As his mind fractured and split into the countless illusory avenues of life created by Fate, Caine's entire being fell under the control of his subconscious—the primal and instinctive part of his True Will that bridged toward his mind.

It perfectly mirrored his conscious self, his active True Will, possessing an ancient and primal cognitive ability. This primal Will processed and reacted to the world on instinct alone, with a sharpness that neared premonition, almost as if it sensed the tides of the world and Fate itself.

It was almost as though it were in tune with the world to such a deep level that it whispered its most intimate secrets to it without resistance.

This primal part of Caine's Will perfectly matched his conscious self, and now, its might would truly shine.

A primal and ancient aura erupted from Caine, only to rapidly settle into a calm wave of power—akin to the aura of a slumbering titan, a beast waiting patiently for its moment.

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The fractured pieces of his mind each fell into illusory worlds, worlds that could almost be called fractured realities of their own, hand-crafted by Fate itself.

In each life, he was born as a regular child, without any memory of who Caine Lerouge Velios was.

He appeared as all genders, living all kinds of lives, from all kinds of backgrounds, experiencing everything from unparalleled success to the most crushing of defeats.

From an emperor leading an empire on the brink of collapse, to a humble farmer tending to his fields, to a homeless woman shattered by the world, and even to the myriad possibilities of non-human existence—a demon bathing in sin, a violent beast, a tree, a spirit, a rock, or even an ant. The diversity of lives he lived through was endless, and each was filled with unspeakable peaks and lows.

Each life was one worth remembering.

From above, his Primal True Will observed it all, keenly studying the intricacies of life and subtly steering these lives with a soft and undetectable hand.

Caine experienced what it was like to be Fate itself.

He studied the painful predictability of life, its seemingly infinite possibilities, the sways of all hearts, the rise and fall of countless empires, the betrayals of the great, and the rise of false ones.

It all followed patterns—patterns one could read, patterns one could replicate, patterns one could recognize. Rarely, if ever, did anything stray from the chains of life and Fate.

They were all cogs in a wheel, tools used to shape a world controlled by forces beyond their comprehension.

His True Will observed it all. But it did not stop there. Beyond observation and experience, it acted.

As noted before, this trial was the perfect training opportunity for someone like Caine.

The countless lives and experiences of his shards all blurred into one grand tapestry of existence—both beautiful and terrifying.

Through these lives, Caine's knowledge and skills were refined, twisted, and evolved through endless perspectives. Everything he learned was picked apart and rebuilt billions of times before being passed from shard to shard, tempered and sublimated.

His True Will conducted an innumerable number of experiments, testing ideas Caine had never before had the chance to explore. It observed the failures and successes, and then tried again and again, iterating endlessly.

Each life brought countless enlightenments Caine had never had before. These insights were extracted, refined, and passed throughout the interconnected tapestry of his lives, deepening his understanding of himself, his abilities, and his aspects.

Finally, he had the opportunity to meticulously study everything he had built over the past few years with a sharp and focused eye.

All of it was neatly arranged and sorted, only to be dissected, peeled apart, and analyzed—layer by layer, inch by inch.

The countless millions, billions, and trillions of years of life his shards experienced were extracted and fed into his Hearts, leaving his youthful mind intact.

His Demonic Dao Heart feasted on an endless flood of Heart Demons, allowing its Demonic nature to ascend step by step, growing endlessly.

Simultaneously, his Holy Will steadily grew and surpassed its previous limits, entering a deeper and more profound state of serenity.

The two Wills danced endlessly, feeding off one another's growth and blooming toward infinity.

His Stars and Hearts cycled through creation and destruction, mirroring the way his shards experienced life and death. They destroyed and rebuilt themselves relentlessly, each cycle enhancing Caine's understanding and pushing him toward perfection.

The more he cycled through life and death, the more his comprehension deepened, and the more his enlightenments stacked and overflowed within him.

His Stars and True Will aged, gaining a mature and ancient flare that only the most eternal of existences could acquire. This maturity began to carry weight, take up space, and command dominance. It gained a royal nature that grew more imposing with each passing moment.

Caine's bond space, intrinsically linked to his mind, aged in tandem. Its qi production matured along with his stars, taking on a primordial and ancient hue that deepened as time stretched on.

The older the qi, the more powerful it became.

But that was far from the only change. The effects extended to his physical body.

Through the countless experiments and observations his True Will conducted, it began to subtly modify his body's structure, refining it step by step toward a desired state of perfection—or at least, as close to perfection as the current Caine could achieve.

His muscles rippled and shifted beneath his skin, like worms in a bag, as they were torn apart and rebuilt with surgical precision. His bones, organs, and brain followed suit, adapting to align with the countless possibilities he observed and studied.

Each life was a step toward perfection. Each death was a leap toward endless growth.

Together, they formed a progression that would have otherwise taken billions of years to accomplish.

Caine was akin to an ever-changing canvas.

Every stroke of Fate's brush refined him, every hue of its palette added depth to his existence, and every detail sharpened his understanding of the world, life, and himself.