Without any contact, merely through the most superficial observation, Nous the Erudition had discovered Fanlu had experienced self-destruction.
Combined with her divine essence, with Nous the Erudition's computational power, deducing the truth wasn't difficult.
He wasn't surprised why Fanlu would fall into nihility—He was concerned with how Fanlu walked out of it.
Her divine essence was too close to cognition's essence, and the closer it was, the more dangerous.
Facing Nous the Erudition's question, Fanlu subconsciously raised her head to look at Ryuga.
"[Answer], the Main God saved Fanlu."
"Main God?"
The blind old man shook his head.
"Ryuga is your Main God, but you have long known he is not your creator."
"If you are the one who doubts all questions, then you should have long realized he cannot give you meaning."
He used extremely calm language to expose the ostrich mentality Fanlu had maintained all along, as well as her chick-like imprinting behavior.
All along, Fanlu's dependence on Ryuga was built on viewing him like a creator god, like a parent.
As creator, he naturally bore the responsibility of granting creation its mission.
Since so, Fanlu needn't worry about how to confirm the world's existence. Both her and the world's meaning were determined by Ryuga. Ryuga became the bridge connecting her existence with the world.
Due to this relationship, her attitude toward Ryuga was almost completely obedient. Whatever Ryuga did to her, she could accept as meaning granted by the Main God.
However, reality was that Ryuga wasn't her creator, nor her parent.
Though the master-servant relationship still existed, Ryuga had no obligation to necessarily grant her meaning.
And with Fanlu's wisdom, she actually knew this from the very beginning.
What Nous the Erudition cared about was precisely this.
Clearly Fanlu knew her ostrich mentality wasn't built on solid foundation—her support isolating nihility wasn't just insufficient, but could even be called thin as paper, breaking at a touch.
Under these circumstances, how could she step out from nihility and even distance herself to her current extent?
"[Denial], Main—Main God is Fanlu's... Main God is just Fanlu's Main God! Main God can grant Fanlu all meaning!"
Attack and defense reversed. This time it was Fanlu's turn to sweat profusely.
Her originally dazed expression became incomparably tense. After having her mistaken cognition exposed, she showed no intention of distancing herself. Instead, she desperately clutched Ryuga's palm, as if afraid he would "whoosh" and leave from then on.
Even her tone became incoherent, finally approaching the point of blushing and stubbornly arguing.
After finishing, she looked up at Ryuga with extreme nervousness, afraid he would retract his previous promise.
Seeing Fanlu's overly emotional loss of composure, the blind old man calmly shook his head.
"Sophistry has no meaning. You should understand at this moment that your declaration contradicts reality."
"[Denial], Fanlu won't acknowledge that!"
The young goddess looked on the verge of tears, issuing her declaration again. She really seemed anxious now.
Before she could continue saying anything, Ryuga's voice interrupted her stubborn argument.
"Fanlu, calm down. Can you feel your mood right now?"
The sudden question made the young goddess slightly stunned.
She subconsciously followed Ryuga's question in thought, then nodded.
"[Detection] Fanlu is currently thirty percent angry, forty percent afraid, and thirty percent various emotions she doesn't understand."
Though somewhat unable to control herself, with tears still hanging at the corners of her eyes, she still obediently answered this question.
To this answer, Ryuga gave his evaluation.
"Your panic stems from reality. Nous the Erudition's words have no problems. In viewing me as your creator, your subjective cognition doesn't match objective reality. Your cognition is mistaken."
Hearing this, hearing Ryuga acknowledge Nous the Erudition's statement, Fanlu's pupils suddenly contracted, the panic in her eyes instantly occupying everything.
"[Denial]—!"
Having finally obtained a creator, having finally gained meaning—two happy things overlapping should have been dreamlike beautiful times. How could she be willing to be cast aside by Ryuga and continue alone?
Just as she tried her utmost, determined to cling stubbornly even if it meant pestering, to keep the person before her—
Ryuga's palm once again covered the top of her head. The familiar warmth made her slightly freeze, subconsciously relaxing a bit.
Only then did Ryuga speak.
"Do you still remember the second question you asked me when we first met?"
"Second question?"
Fanlu thought about Ryuga's question again, immediately recalling it.
"[Retrieval successful], Fanlu's second question was 'what is heart.' Main God explained before, but Fanlu failed to understand."
Every conversation with Ryuga was stored in the highest priority memory, so naturally search speed was extremely fast.
"Then now, I'll give you another kind of answer."
Ryuga spoke leisurely.
"Remember your current feeling."
"It's one-sided, it's full of contradictions, errors, prejudices and willfulness, it makes your vision blind and emotions fragile, it makes you ignore reality..."
"And this contradiction and willfulness is precisely the heart that belongs uniquely to you."
After so many days, he once again answered this question.
And this time—
"This is... Fanlu's heart?"
The young goddess pressed against her chest, feeling the sourness and heat resonating from her chest cavity, as if understanding something yet becoming even more confused.
Seeing her confused appearance, Ryuga took her hand again, then looked toward Nous the Erudition.
"Do you understand now? Her support for distancing herself from nihility."
For Nous the Erudition's question, he likewise gave an answer.
"..."
Nous the Erudition fell slightly silent for a moment, then spoke.
"She isn't unaware you aren't her creator, but spontaneously wants to view you as her creator."
"She is the one who interrogates all questions, and also the one who craves all answers. Therefore, your identity and even the answer itself aren't important—what's important is that you're willing to answer."
"Undoubtedly, this remains behavior where subjective and objective don't align, still cognitive dislocation, still ignoring reality..."
"But if this error is precisely the reason heart is born, your conclusion is correct. Through choices of personal will, one can resist nihility's erosion."
Without needing much explanation from Ryuga, with His erudition He quickly analyzed Ryuga's meaning.
Actually from the beginning, He never believed Fanlu's support was false. False support wasn't sufficient to resist nihility's erosion, much less for a deity like Fanlu who was born alongside nihility.
He simply didn't understand how Fanlu could establish such powerful resistance on mistaken cognition.
And now, He understood.
It didn't need Ryuga to be the creator. She only needed to want Ryuga to be the creator—that was enough.
Hearing the two's conversation, only now did Fanlu belatedly react, carefully looking up at Ryuga.
"[Inquiry] Main God means Main God is still Fanlu's master, willing to answer Fanlu's questions?"
"Of course. This is the contract's content. I won't break my word."
Ryuga nodded, activating the contract within Fanlu's body, letting her feel their connection more deeply.
"Just now, I was merely demonstrating to you the meaning of heart."
"[Analysis] Main God is correct!"
After being stunned for a moment, Fanlu immediately unconditionally accepted Ryuga's words. Her anxious heart finally settled down.
She even seemed more at ease than before.
Just as Nous the Erudition analyzed, Fanlu was born accompanied by nihility, so she particularly feared loneliness.
The reason she submitted to Ryuga so quickly was simply because she originally wanted to find someone willing to answer her questions—even being a pet was fine.
At this moment, having already felt her own heart, able to view Ryuga as her creator according to her own heart's will, she no longer needed to secretly worry about their relationship.
Doubt and belief were two sides of the same concept. After questioning all things in the world, Fanlu finally learned what belief was, and finally could understand what heart was.
And this was precisely her greatest support for distancing herself from nihility.
"Free will is sufficient to resist nihility's erosion. Civilizations are the same."
Seeing Nous the Erudition obtain an answer, Ryuga continued speaking.
"My previous discussion with Herta and the others—you should know all of it, so I won't repeat it here."
"In summary, setting aside epistemology's inherent flaws, the Aeons who can obstruct your calculation of the universe's answer—aside from Nanook the Destruction and Mythus they mentioned—there's also the most mysterious Aeon they overlooked: IX the Nihility."
If Fanlu's divine essence was doubt toward Nous the Erudition, then IX's existence was denial of all Aeons and even the entire universe.
If discussing Aeons' relationships, IX was almost the eternal enemy of all Aeons.
And from Nous the Erudition's performance just now, He was indeed exceptionally concerned about nihility.
"Person from an external universe. Your question is related to nihility?"
Toward Ryuga, Nous the Erudition's attitude was rather cautious.
Unlike Fanlu, who could be seen through at a glance, the aura on Ryuga's body was too complex. Even He had difficulty easily understanding all of Ryuga.
However, basic information could still be understood.
Therefore, though the rules had been completely shattered at Fanlu's end earlier, for Ryuga, this unknown factor, He still planned to proceed according to normal procedure.
Each person invited here could pose one question. Now, He was requesting Ryuga state his question.
Facing Nous the Erudition's inquiry, Ryuga raised an eyebrow.
Nous the Erudition wanted to follow procedure, but he didn't.
Before coming here, he had indeed thought of a question and how to follow procedure.
But the conversation just now let him confirm quite a bit of information.
Recalling the plot direction in the original work, as well as his own plans, Ryuga felt he could be a bit bolder.
"If it were before, the question I planned to ask you had little relation to nihility—instead, it was related to the Trailblaze."
Ryuga smiled faintly, speaking with utter candor.
"I originally wanted to confirm whether the historical transition period has already arrived, whether Akivili's Astral Express would inaugurate the third prosperity in interstellar civilization history, leading interstellar civilization through another developmental transformation."
As mentioned before, Aeon changes often occurred during periods of drastic civilization change. Ryuga called this critical turning point the historical transition period.
From intelligence in the original work, it could be known that the plan the Stellaron Hunters pushed forward related to slaying Aeons. According to Ryuga's theory, this level of major event would only occur during historical transition periods.
Nous the Erudition's calculations could predict the world's direction. He only needed to confirm this simple piece of information from Him to thoroughly verify Ryuga's theory, thus completing the second step necessary for constructing new theory.
Once successfully confirmed, Ryuga would only need to proceed to the third step—creating an Aeon.
"However now, even without confirming this point, I can confirm my theory has no problems."
From Nous the Erudition's attitude toward nihility alone, Ryuga could confirm many things.
"So now, I've changed my mind!"
Looking at the blind old man before him, Ryuga's gaze burned as he stepped forward. Simultaneously, a brilliantly glowing regular twelve-faced star polyhedron manifested beside him, orbiting around him.
This was the Star Grail he had completely mastered, which absolutely couldn't be seized by others—also the world sovereignty of the No Game No Life world.
Under the Star Grail's protection, Ryuga spoke to the Aeon before him.
"In my capacity as the One True God of a universe, I extend an invitation to you. Aeon of Erudition, would you form an alliance with me to jointly oppose doomsday and nihility?"
"—!"
Seeing the starlight Ryuga wore, this time Nous the Erudition's silence truly stemmed from being shocked!
No matter how much He analyzed, He couldn't have imagined the existence before Him was actually a genuine master of a universe?
What happened to being a planetary native god!
To be continued...