Strange, how exactly did Mithra ultimately defeat Raphael? Hayden finds it hard to imagine. Perhaps the Eight Great Bodhisattvas still have some hidden trump card.
He didn't see the end. Before the battle concluded, Hayden's last sight was of the eight bodhisattvas circling the angel like eight fireflies...
...and then the spacetime tunnel closed.
Hayden was left alone in the void, where faint light scattered everywhere.
The time-space tunnel—that's what it's called, but in reality it's more like an invisible river surrounded by all sorts of colorful lights, enveloped in a warm embrace that lulls you to sleep.
Hayden drifted along the current of time, utterly alone, with no one by his side. A profound sadness welled up from the depths of his heart.
Angela is gone.
Meeting, life, farewell. Angela, who had been by Hayden's side for over twenty years, is gone forever.
The sudden disappearance of someone you've grown so accustomed to, someone who's always been by your side, is less a feeling of terror and more a profound, unbelievable emptiness, as if a piece of your heart has been ripped out. One part of Hayden's brain is experiencing an overwhelming sense of loss, like a newborn infant experiencing the pain of birth. But another part has already grasped that this is reality, part of this wretched world.
"If... I had found an opportunity to kill Mitra beforehand, would the outcome have been different?"
Even though he knew Angela was no longer by his side, Hayden couldn't help but murmur in the void.
Actually, it probably still won't work. From the very beginning of the time loop, Hayden and Angela were already caught up in the situation. But, if Hayden hadn't just stood by and watched for those twenty years, if he had spent those twenty years earlier proclaiming the goodness of the angels to Mithras, perhaps the outcome would have been different?
...Actually, it's probably still 99% useless. After spending twenty years together, Hayden knew that Mithra was stubborn and 1000% confident, and simply wouldn't listen to different opinions.
However, even if it's probably 99% useless, since Hayden didn't even try, that's a huge mistake he made, and he can't shirk responsibility. That half-hearted attitude is the root cause of all his mistakes.
Therefore, Hayden concluded that, ultimately, this was his own mistake. Regret enveloped his mind, bringing with it a greater emptiness.
...However, Hayden did not despair because of this.
Angela is gone; this is his responsibility, and a mistake that only Hayden himself can correct.
He wanted to see Angela again.
Therefore, he will learn anything he needs to learn, invent anything he needs to invent, open any door, break any seal, and seek the source of all power.
He wanted to see Angela again.
Let's start from here.
——————————————————————————————
There is no wasted time in the river of time.
Although time flows like water, slowly pushing Hayden into the future, it can't be considered a waste of time, since he doesn't have much else to do in this river of time anyway.
For roughly several days, Hayden drifted through this time, constantly thinking. If his eyes had ever shown sorrow, it was at least not evident on his face. There were no dried tears on his face.
He was trying to think of what he could do right now, although it was difficult.
He traveled through time to help Angela regain her true name and gain the power to defeat Mitra. Now, while he has obtained both the name and the power, Angela is gone.
What a case of losing both wife and army!
Hayden has become a little stronger, but compared to the ultimate Mitra, this slight improvement is like giving away easy kills and probably doesn't mean much.
(Unbeknownst to Hayden at this moment, four hundred years later, the three bodhisattvas, Avalokiteshvara, Samantabhadra, and Manjushri, had just staged a collective act of "delivering food" (a metaphor for being forced to serve others). Ultimate Mithra had become so powerful that he could kill bodhisattvas like chickens, proving that Hayden's judgment was indeed correct.)
The modern Mithra is already the ultimate power, surpassing all others, even comparable to the Outer Gods and Angels. Without Angela, Hayden is not even as strong as the modern-day Bodhisattva, the supreme god four hundred years later. How could he possibly fight him?
To look at it from another angle, why is Mithra so powerful? It's actually quite strange. All bodhisattvas are strong, that's normal. But Mithra is clearly stronger than that. The ultimate Mithra four hundred years later is even powerful enough to defeat the entire world single-handedly. What's the reason behind this?
How did Mithra manage to do it? Could Hayden have done it too?
...If this were merely a difference in talent, Hayden would be doomed. But let's assume Hayden and Mitra truly possessed the same level of "talent," and let's assume the problem could indeed be solved...
...So first and foremost, the most obvious difference is time. Mitra was naturally gifted, and after four hundred years of farming, it's only natural that he's so much stronger than Hayden...but is that all?
That was probably part of the reason, but Hayden considered it and always suspected it wasn't the whole story. He let his mind continue to think.
Assuming they have equal talent, and time isn't the only reason... then the next most obvious answer is that Mitra didn't believe in superstition.
Mithras truly didn't believe in superstition. He was genuinely, truly confident; he genuinely believed that everything he did was for the greater good of humanity, for the greater good of the world. He believed in his own righteousness from the bottom of his heart, not merely a pretext used by rulers to gain power, not just a pretense of being great and righteous. Moreover, even if the whole world told Mithras he was wrong, Mithras would probably remain completely unshaken, without even a millimeter of self-doubt.
This is a kind of overconfident strength that borders on cruelty.
Hayden didn't have that kind of confidence, nor did he want it. A person who has absolutely no doubt about themselves is terrifying. Angela had also told Hayden that it wasn't good.
Hayden cannot take this route.
So Hayden began to think about the other side of the problem, the most obvious opposite question: When did Mithra become so powerful that he could single-handedly dominate the entire world?
It was obviously around the time when [Reincarnation] was developed.
Although he was still the strongest in the world before that, because Mithra was exceptionally gifted and truly intelligent, he couldn't yet single-handedly drive the world forward like he does now. Previously, he couldn't truly place his will above everyone else, just as the system of the new god of capitalism was built upon the faith of capitalism… no, that's not right.
Think about it from another perspective.
Has Mithra truly placed his will above all others now, without caring what they think?
Right?
Thinking about this, Hayden suddenly realized something and finally understood.
The principle of reincarnation is essentially brainwashing everyone else, making their thoughts the same as Mithra's (or conforming to Mithra's requirements). In other words, Mithra cannot actually be "truly" indifferent to the thoughts of others; he merely brainwashes everyone, so from the conclusion, it seems like he skipped this step... In reality, Mithra did not truly "return his great power to himself."
The power of the gods still originates from the thoughts of all living beings. This fundamental principle remains unchanged.
...That being said, Hayden could not (and did not want to) do the same thing as Mitra.
Thor once said that he felt Mithra was a great hero—and indeed, Mithra certainly possessed the qualities of a hero. He was a great man capable of changing the world.
Hayden, in comparison, was clearly far inferior. His temperament was merely that of an ordinary person. Even if Hayden and Mitra truly possessed the same level of "talent," Hayden was still far inferior to Mitra in terms of dominance, determination, and charisma.
If there's anything Hayden lacked compared to Mithras, it was his own actions that were the biggest reason for his defeat. Mithras was a madman who could use his own will to rape the will of all humanity; how could Hayden compare to him?
How can Hayden, an unremarkable and unworthy savior (laughs), defeat the great hero Mithra?
Is there a magical or miraculous way?
No.
……………………No.
Have.
It's neither magic nor a miracle. There are ways for ordinary people to surpass heroes.
Hayden could only think of one.
...This idea is dangerous.
very dangerous.
The kind of danger that Hayden might actually die from.
He also knew that if he recklessly did something extremely dangerous just because Angela was gone, and ended up killing himself, Angela would obviously not be happy. Hayden didn't want to die like that either. Because Angela had told him, "We will have a chance to meet again."
Hayden can't just die before that.
So, after a moment of contemplation, he changed direction in the River of Time and actually dived down—to the bottom of the river.
As soon as he dived, an incredible sight came into view. This dive immediately took him into a realm never before explored by humankind.
There, countless scenes overlap and coexist, each shining with its own unique brilliance.
There is another Earth, in a (relatively) brighter spacetime, where all of humanity (relatively) unites and cooperates. In this spacetime, Hela and the Peacock King, in a different form, energetically fight together against evil demons to stop Satan's ambitions.
In another dimension, on an ancient and fantastical land that doesn't even seem like Earth, Hayden sees a girl wielding the power of the highest seraphim, raising a golden hammer to slay demons and punish evil.
In another strange place, Hayden saw an Earth without any fallen angels, ruled solely by humans. Unfortunately, even in such a world, humanity was not at peace. Nations and races continued to hate, fight, and slaughter each other.
All of this is probably what Mithra had seen before, the infinite parallel worlds existing within the endless sea of time. They are all infinitely extending spacetimes, formed by the interweaving, embedding, and piecing together of different possibilities. The overlapping and reflecting light woven from the infinite spacetimes appears dazzling and radiant.
Even Mithra, with his four-eyed divine eye, couldn't possibly see through the infinite universe's endless possibilities. Hayden's talent was even worse, making it even less likely.
However, he hadn't originally planned to go see it.
It's interesting to look at those distant parallel worlds, but what's the point? Right now, in Hayden's own world, there are things that are more important than that.
So unlike Mithra, Hayden didn't bother to look closely at those parallel universes. He brushed aside the chaotic flow of time and space and found his own world.
To be honest, if I ask myself honestly, Hayden and his friends' world is not a lovely world at all.
Now, looking down at the world from beyond time and space, somewhat like looking down at the entire Earth from space, Hayden suddenly felt an overwhelming and uncontrollable sadness as he gazed at the vast universe and the tiny Earth. Beyond time and space, he could see everyone and everything in the world at once. This intensified his feeling of inequality.
Why is there such great inequality among people born into the same world, from different families, regions, and bloodlines?
Sometimes, when this flawed world seems utterly abhorrent, Hayden would think that perhaps there is another place, a faraway place, that is far better than this hell on earth.
This flawed world looks utterly abhorrent.
However, Hayden still lowered his head, bent over, and swallowed the filthy water.
From Raphael's arrival to Hayden's return to the past, four hundred years of time flowed into his flesh and soul.
He didn't look into the distance, only into his feet. In the four hundred years since Hayden left us, all of humanity's experiences have flowed into Hayden's body.
Moreover, what flows into his mind and body is not only "history," but also the people who lived through those times, their entire hearts and memories.
Through a special karmic connection, Hayden allowed the past four hundred years—the suffering all of humanity had endured because of the new god, the despair, wails, tears, and cries of all those caused by Mithras—to rush into his own soul, shattering his own consciousness. His flesh and blood were crushed and reforged, his soul shattered and reassembled.
Is it strange? Does it sound unbelievable? But this wasn't a method Hayden came up with on the spur of the moment. Of course not. It was a tactic someone had already used once.
...This was actually a similar technique Adam used once when he reforged himself into Adam Cardom using the [Name-Breaking Ritual]. Hayden simply improved the method, making the forging process more extreme, intense, and thorough.
That's fine.
Use four hundred years of time to eliminate all foolish thoughts and allow yourself to be reborn.
To enable an ordinary person to compose music worthy of the title of "savior".
Hayden endured four hundred years, four hundred years of human suffering. He was destroyed (killed), he was reborn (resurrected).
He took a step back into his own time.
Heading towards the final battlefield.
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Wheel of Fortune - Upright
【Grand Arcana Card No. 10】
[Keywords: fate, transformation, unexpected events, decisive moment]
The prophet is the messenger of destiny. Destiny is the will of all beings.
If fate shares your will, then who can stop you?
When your own will is destiny, you don't need to resist fate at all.
Because destiny is under your control, yet it serves you.
425: Hellsword
Hayden was destroyed, Hayden was rebuilt.
Hayden recast himself into a vessel of destiny.
He finally gained the power to stand up to the false gods on the main stage.
However, let's not forget that this war didn't just take place in one place.
Past and future coexist. Hayden goes back, Hayden returns. However, at the same time, a battle with Mithra continues on the moon.
In the inner courtyard of the Tushita Palace on the moon, in Mithra's private meditation room,
The battle to determine the future of the Mitra Group is raging.
...That being said, this is actually just a stage for the strongest and invincible new god to display his terrifying power.
"I am the only one in heaven and under heaven."
"All living beings suffer, so I should bring them peace."
Mithra pointed one finger to the sky and the other to the earth, gathering immeasurable and vast divine power. A violent light burst forth from his fingertips, propelling the vortex of reincarnation and pulling in all other bodhisattvas and deities, dragging them in fiercely.
“How… is it possible!?”
This was a power that even Guanyin Bodhisattva had never seen before. And if she hadn't witnessed it with her own eyes, she would never have believed that Mithra was so powerful as to be able to wield such might.
"If you had such power, why didn't you say so sooner? Why didn't you show it sooner?! If I had known you were already this strong, I wouldn't have—"
Hearing Guanyin Bodhisattva's desperate protest, Mithra's reaction was calm: "Because I know, I can see. Even if I tell you, you will still betray me. Miaoshan, this is just karma."