In the sky, storms collided with lightning, and molten lava obstructed the rivers.
The tremendous vibrations spread hundreds of miles, making the mortals in Heliopolis pray to the deities with even more fervor.
However, in reality, the pages in his hands swiftly turned, a mass of repeated text flickering before his eyes. Thoth had devoted most of his energy to the complicated runes in front of him, maintaining only a small part of his vigilance.
After all, he did not trust his enemy so easily, nor would he truly give her a chance to escape.
The battle between worlds does not necessarily correlate directly with losing to an Outer God, at least not for Thoth, for whom this wasn't the first option.
"This ritual, Life, Spirit... It's a pity, La did not entrust the authority over her Life to me, otherwise perhaps I could have deciphered its mysteries myself,"
"Hmm, not necessarily. From what Isis has shown, does she actually believe that including all gods, our souls are inherently in an 'imperfect' state?"
"The soul being divided into 'Ka' and 'Ba' is already flawed—no, she even feels that gods having souls is a flaw in itself."
Though he had only just engaged with it, with the help of special Divine Authority, Thoth had understood the principles of Isis's ritual.
This former Goddess of Life and Magic seemed to have a very different understanding from ordinary people; she believed that the more things coalesce and purify, the more perfect they become, and the more they disperse and chaos ensues, the more inferior they are.
Only a completely unified and pure spirit is a perfect spirit, only a deity that unifies spirit and flesh is a true deity. In her view, if this could be achieved, deities would no longer be limited by aging and death but could attain true 'eternity.'
This was a bold hypothesis, and Thoth did not know if it was right or wrong. Existing in Hemenu, even as the God of Wisdom, he did not realize that Chaos's deities were unified in this manner; they did not have separate bodies and spirits. Their Divine Bodies existed in a form that possessed both material and energy, changing states with subjective will.
He also didn't know that in the future Eastern mythology, it was believed their ancient practitioners also thought that the cultivation of the soul was about 'refining the yin residue, returning to pure Yang,' and the legendary Longevity Men were no exception; they possessed a state of 'gathered to form, dispersed to formlessness,' owning two different kinds of bodies.
Thoth only knew, his Divine Authority subtly told him, this method might truly be a righteous path to perfecting oneself. And Isis's ritual was centered on this principle.
In her philosophy, the body is one; the torso and limbs of a person are not connected by any medium, hence the spirit should also be unified; 'Ka' and 'Ba' should not be separate.
But considering that the All Spirits of Hemenu were inherently , Isis could not merge the two postnatally. Facing an imminent life and death crisis, she simply chose a different path.
"A person's body can heal when injured, so naturally, the spirit can also be healed when it is wounded," he thought.
"However, whether the injury can recover depends on the severity. Forcefully severing the connection between 'Ba' and one's own 'Ka' is like tearing one's body in half, an undoubtedly fatal act. But if the one doing all this also possesses the authority of [Life], then the outcome might not necessarily be the same..."
Runes flickered before his eyes, and Thoth couldn't help but admire Isis's audacity.
Since the spirit is naturally divided and cannot be unified postnatally, why not use external force to annihilate one part and then regenerate a new, connected other part on the remaining half?
This newly born spirit would then be unified, possessing both the characteristics of 'Ka' and the capabilities of 'Ba.' Or rather, it would be the complete spirit itself.
At this moment, Thoth felt that if it were not for external threats and Isis's current choice of betrayal, with this discovery, she might have been able to obtain the Godhood of the soul and further perfect the Order of the world, completing the unification of all life's souls.
At that time, she would have garnered countless followers and the favor of the world's will, with the existence of All Spirits being the source of her strength.
If she then unified life and Magic using the soul as the primary subject and devoured his wisdom... Isis might truly ascend beyond a True God and become as powerful an existence as La.
Moreover, La's strength is because the Sun of the Hemenu world is inherently powerful, born as rebirth, the supreme of the Stars, a confluence of Light, Fire, purification, and other authorities. If Isis succeeded, she would be creating a Divine Authority not inferior to the [Sun], by piecing together her own authorities.
This kind of miracle is almost unimaginable.
"Huh—it's hard to say."
"After all, who would choose to give up their authority and annihilate half of their own soul, if not facing the calamity of death?"
Shaking his head slightly, Thoth could only state that fate was such a coincidence.
Had there been no invasion from beyond, there likely wouldn't have been Isis's ritual, even if she had more advanced thoughts; she wouldn't have done something that could lead to death. But with the invasion, she invented this ritual, and as a result, she missed the chance for promotion.