Apocalypse Forecast

Several times, he gritted his teeth and tried to act, but lacked the courage to make a decision.

Saying it is embarrassing...

He was afraid of pain.

Until an unfamiliar voice came from beside him.

"Can’t do it? Shall I help you?"

The speaker was Tong Ji, leaning against the column of the temple.

Balder felt as though relieved from immense pressure, and breathed a long sigh of relief: "Thank you so much."

"It’s okay, I’m a considerate and kind-hearted older sister." Tong Ji took the parasitic galla and winked at him: "Besides, my contractor has been under your care."

"No need to declare sovereignty at a time like this, right?"

Balder shook his head, somewhat sentimental: "I didn’t expect you to send me off... Is this what they call fate?"

Tong Ji looked down, playing with the parasitic galla in her hand, but didn’t hurry to act. Instead, she suddenly asked: "Hey, Balder, do you know the essence of something like fate?"

"Hmm?"

Balder was puzzled, thought for a moment, and asked: "The future? Or everything that is destined to happen?"

"Who knows?" Tong Ji said casually: "Mortals fear fate because it is unknowable, and deities fear fate because it is uncontrollable... No matter how cunningly you plan, things always seem to go wrong unexpectedly, just like what happened to your father."

"It sounds quite embarrassing for me as a son."

"Everyone has suffered the same loss, nothing to be embarrassed about."

Tong Ji paused, speaking solemnly: "However, from what I know, sometimes... during major moments, fate itself can be intervened."

"Intervened?" Balder shook his head: "Is fate still fate after being intervened?"

"Maybe it’s destined to be intervened, right? Anyway, it’s an ambiguous thing that can be interpreted in any way. But when you get down to its essence, it feels like it’s really fickle and has no principles at all."

Tong Ji said: "Because it stands on the side of the winner, or more accurately, on the side that has more ’weight’—it is like a strange balance, a constantly changing black box...

Ah, in modern terms, it should be in a superposition state of events, right? It sounds so sci-fi, completely unrelated to us gods. But once two fates collide, one of them is destined to be crushed. When the superposition state begins to collapse, the stronger observer will win.

So, events with very small probabilities happen in detail, leading to an endless series of variables, where one side seems to face a bleak fate but has a chance of success, though it’s actually already doomed."

"Isn’t this just a hypothesis?"

Balder shook his head: "Without concrete proof, it’s still baseless speculation."

"Sometimes, a bit of ambiguity and fuzziness is what makes things more romantic—this is a logic I guess you don’t understand?"

Tong Ji did not insist that her view was correct, instead she talked about it as if discussing an interesting rumor, with great enthusiasm: "Even if it is flawed and vague, at least it can explain everything that happens, right?

The impact of the ritual of god making and the possible aftermath it creates on Current Circumstances is too massive, causing fate to spontaneously deviate, trying to correct everything back on track.

And so, all this happened."

This led to many coincidences.

Because the attraction of sun god such a superior being, Huai Shi inherited the Heavenly Inquiry Route, coming to Helios.

Because God rebirths outside of Current Circumstances, which is a huge calamity for Current Circumstances. Thus, a deity who is least likely to harm others for themselves and easiest to be killed is the one who descends.

"In other words, your arrival is also fate’s choice... This is probably divine intervention, right?" Tong Ji said indifferently: "Or maybe it’s purely coincidence."

She said: "Whichever you prefer."

"Are you comforting me?"

Balder paused for a moment and smiled gratefully: "Sounds like the world now chooses me... this way of speaking isn’t bad."

"Don’t you feel resentful?" Tong Ji asked, "You are destined to die."

"No." Balder shook his head.

"Don’t you feel regret?"

"...A little bit."

Balder sighed: "If I have any wish... I’d really love to see the current world. But if the wonderful world Huai Shi spoke of will disappear because of me, that would be too regretful."

"You chose the world over yourself, didn’t you?" Tong Ji nodded, "That’s truly your style, Balder."

"Am I really that noble?"

"Yes, because you’re the kind of person who doesn’t want to make others sad."

Balder shook his head: "That’s not much of a compliment for a Norse God."

"It only needs to be meaningful to you."

Tong Ji paused, her expression solemn, expressing gratitude towards the god before her: "Thank you for everything you’ve done for Huai Shi, Balder."

She said: "Thank you."

Balder scratched his face awkwardly: "Will you mourn for me, former Taiyi?"

"No."

Tong Ji’s expression became disdainful, "No one will sympathize with a person who constantly brings up the dark history of a kind-hearted person—besides, there’s still a promise waiting for you, isn’t there?"