There, above Sun City, the real sun shone resplendently.
Outside Heliopolis, at the location of Thoth's ritual.
Not much time had passed, but the ritual track was largely complete. With a crisp sound, the most crucial and irreversible step was fully accomplished.
Above the high heavens, the Divine Pillar belonging to Thoth had dissolved, symbolizing the complete destruction of his 'Ka' that bore his authority. Theoretically, lacking half his soul, he was also supposed to perish.
However, the Life Force at the ritual sustained Thoth's vitality, and thus his fate was caught between life and death.
The gods of Hemenu could indeed die, so their fates were not indestructible either. When its master approached Destruction, it too would undergo transformation.
At this moment, the once-named Isis chose for Io to replace her in bearing fate, and then to die in her stead.
The fate of the Goddess of Life from Hemenu thus turned from 'life' to death, and she emerged as half 'transparent.'
However, Thoth evidently lacked such a convenient counterpart. He simply adopted a simpler, albeit not at all covert method. He directed his fate towards the authority he left over the Sea of Origin, deepening the connection that was already there.
This behavior fooled no one. It was utterly incapable of hiding his survival from La God as Isis had done, but as the bearer of the Wisdom authority, Thoth felt no one would care about his welfare at such a time.
The authority remained there, the fate stayed there—let the Outer Gods take them all; La God himself descended to the Lower Realm, and regardless of the outcome, Hemenu was bound to suffer greatly.
In such a situation, who else would care about his life or death?
"Hm~ of course I care."
"Apart from oneself, no one cares more about the life of all things than I do—"
Her eyes curved, her voice sweet and gentle.
Just like her past as a Goddess of Life, she had shown love to all things, and all things must indeed respond with love to her.
Spreading her arms, Isis gazed up at the sky. There, an indescribable pressure was descending, and anything that stood in its way would be eroded.
Only above the Sea of Origin was there still a swirling of black and gold. As long as the tasks Thoth had in the Mortal Realm were not 'failed,' then this power that had initially encircled him would not be withdrawn.
Theoretically, if the Outer God took away this power, Thoth would have completed the ritual, and he would then have failed; failing meant that the protective power would also disappear.
The old would be crushed, and a new Thoth would be completely reborn. Considering the experiences of the previous Pillar Gods, this shouldn't take long.
"But this time, I'm here~"
Indeed, Isis hadn't sabotaged the ritual entrusted to Thoth, nor had she intended to disrupt his completion of this step. What she wanted was always what the other party did not.
Since the soul reshaped by her ritual now possessed both 'Ka' and 'Ba' attributes... why could not the current Isis become a deity again?
"Just borrowing it for a while, I've earned quite a few merits, so He probably wouldn't mind, right..."
A light shout, and in the sky, the authority of Magic and Thoth's original fate slightly moved.
At this moment, what sustained Thoth's life was Isis's Life Force, and as a former Goddess of Magic, wouldn't she have stored corresponding Divine Power?
Not using it didn't mean she didn't have it. She had always given everyone the illusion of her use of the Life Force, keeping only what she called the remnants of being a Goddess of Life, but how could that possibly be true.
A profoundly different Divine Power emanated from her body, directly making Isis another bearer of Thoth's fate through the connection between the Divine Position and fate.
If he were still alive, this similarity would be meaningless, but the current Thoth was half alive, half dead.
After hesitating for an instant, divine light descended from the sky, and the authority of Magic and Thoth's fate directly collided into Isis's body. However, the black and gold glow still persisted, making the connection between the two somewhat awkward.
The next moment, pulled by fate, Thoth's original Wisdom Deity Position followed closely. When it also fell into that slender and frail figure, an aura almost touching the zenith of a True God immediately spread out.
Not far off, Thoth, still engaged in the ritual, suddenly felt a significant alarm in his heart; he seemed to detect the change outside but couldn't fully discern its essence.
"Hmm—just as I thought."
"Compared to life, wisdom, and magic fit better together."
Her eyes sparkled, and Isis's lips curled up.
She smoothly gathered the power around her body, then looked at Thoth who was still in the middle of the ritual.
The Barrier hosted by the Divine Artifact continued to function, and all the power brought by Thoth's Divine Descending sustained its operation.
Theoretically, the Isis who had lost her Divine Position couldn't possibly break it, and even slightly lesser deities wouldn't be able to affect this barrier for a while. Thoth trusted its power, just as he trusted the rituals tested by the Wisdom Deity Position to have no tricks.
"The fact proves that what you believed was indeed not wrong."
"The ritual had no issues, the previous me couldn't interfere with it either."
Her finger slid forward, and the indestructible barrier was effortlessly torn apart before Isis.
With the [Wisdom] authority she now possessed on her body, it was basically like using a key—unlocking it had no obstacles whatsoever.