Divinity: Against the Godly System

"I'm not a god. I'm just a normal human," Ryder replied. "But I'm not an idiot. So I know this is all fake."

"This is all fake?" Itsuki asked, curious. 

"That's right. Every person in this room other than you and me is fake. You know I might not be suspicious for a moment if you had only brought Alice here but bringing Shu gave it away. And as expected, it was all fake," Ryder said as he frowned.

He was told this by Janus only now. The guards that came, Shu, Alice, they were all fake. 

In fact, Ryder was even a bit upset that Janus didn't tell him before about this ability of Itsuki. If he had said it before, Ryder wouldn't have been phased like that. 

"Your ability is illusion and dreams, isn't it? The illusion you created is pretty good. I think it's something similar to what I did, but the only difference is that it's not in my head. It's the illusion right before my eyes," he further said to Itsuki. 

"Now that I think about it, you aren't sitting before me either, are you?" He suddenly asked, frowning. 

"So that's how you knew what I was doing, and that's how you said that no trick of mine would work on you, isn't that right? You're not actually here. You're in some other place, actually. You handle all the matters with your illusion. If I'm not wrong, this whole building is under your illusion, right?" He further asked.

"Pretty clever, Mr. Ryder. I must say, you've exceeded my expectations. So, what are you going to do about it? You want to kill me? But I can be anywhere in this world. I can even be in the Philippines or Korea? Or could it be that I'm in Europe? Hahaha, where am I? Guess that too," Itsuki answered, laughing. 

"You're not anywhere else. You're still in this building, aren't you?" Ryder asked as he rubbed his chin. 

"Let me take another guess. You saw me the moment I stepped inside this building since this whole place is in your control. That's why you hid in some other room? You sent your illusion with an excuse, acting as if you didn't know I was already there? How is my guess?" he further asked. 

Hearing his answer, Itsuki finally flinched. 

"Clever. Your guessing is powerful. Who actually are you? I don't trust that you're a human. It's impossible for you to be a human. Who actually are you?" Itsuki asked, frowning. "And even after all this, why do you lie?"

" You may think that I am lying, but it's the truth. And if you don't want to believe me, then I can't do anything. So I have a better offer. Come to the top of the building with your real self. No fake illusions. Fight me there," Ryder said.

" If you win, your uncertainty will be over because I'm not going to tell you the truth in any case. I'll wait for you there. If you're brave, come. If you're not, then I'll leave, and you won't be able to find me again," Ryder said as he stood up, yawning. 

He walked past the illusions of Alice. Even though he knew she was an illusion, he still tried to touch her to make sure. As expected, his hand passed through her. 

Itsuki watched her leave, frowning. He didn't try stopping her. 

He instead let Ryder leave. The illusions he had created also disappeared. 

In a different office, the real Itsuki was sitting with his eyes closed. 

"Interesting. His performance wasn't half bad," Itsuki muttered as he finally stood up. 

...

Ryder entered the lift and went to the top of the building. 

As he reached the top of the building, he was able to see most of the city, which seemed really beautiful from here.

'Janus, I'm really upset with you. Why didn't you tell me about Itsuki's abilities if you knew? You could also have told me about the fact that the god-sons that I absorb leave their aura on me, which makes others recognize me easier?' Ryder thought, frowning. 

He didn't speak out loud since he wasn't sure If Itsuki could hear him. 

" I can only help up to a limited extent," Janus answered. 

'I didn't ask you to help personally. You could've just given me verbal information,' Ryder replied. 

"I couldn't. Because of Itsuki's mother," Janus answered. 

'Itsuki's mother? What about her?' Ryder asked, confused. 

"His mother is the goddess of Destiny. She can see the destiny threads. I'm sure she'll notice if I interfere any more than I already did. In fact, I already helped you too much by shrouding your destiny aura, so she didn't notice the thread diverge."

" But if I do more than that, like giving you crucial information more than what I already did, it might cause too much disturbance. Since it's related to her son, I can't take the risk of disturbing the destiny like that."

"Whatever you do, whatever you find out from this point on, you must do yourself. Only then there won't be any disturbance, and she won't notice. So do it fast and finish him. That's all I can help," Janus answered as he walked on the outskirts of Indonesia. 

' Fine. I'll do it myself. In any case, I already have a general idea now,' Ryder responded. 

...

In Heaven, the Goddess of Life and Death was present in front of the Goddess of Destiny. 

"What brought you here?" The Goddess of Destiny asked, frowning. 

"I came here to inform you of something," the Goddess of Life and Death said as she took a deep breath. 

"Explain what?" The Goddess of Destiny asked, frowning. The Goddess of Life and Death never came to talk to her. For her to suddenly come here, something was really wrong, she assumed. 

"I have to inform you something about Chaos. There is a big scheme going on, I believe," the Goddess of Life and Death said as she sighed. 

"Chaos?"

Hearing that name, the Goddess of Destiny stood up, shocked.

"I haven't heard that name for so long. Why remember the dead? What is it about him? Could it be that someone is trying to do something similar to that idiot?" She asked. 

"No. It's something much bigger than that. I heard from one of my spies that someone is trying to resurrect Chaos!" The Goddess of Life and Death exclaimed. 

"What? Someone is trying to resurrect that monster? Who can be such an idiot? If Chaos returns, I'm not even sure we could defeat him again! Tell me who it is! I'll immediately call the Council of Gods to kill that traitor!" The Goddess of Destiny said firmly. 

"Unfortunately, I don't know who he is. My spy was heavily injured by the time he got to me. He couldn't even tell the name. So it can be anyone. We can't call the Council of Gods without any proof, or that person will be alert. We need to solve this mystery ourselves!" The Goddess of Life and Death said. 

"If you don't know who that person is, how are you sure that it's not me?" The Goddess of Destiny asked, frowning. "This doesn't add up."

"It's because I know that whoever that person is, it's a he. That's why I came to you. I'm sure it's not you. But I don't want Chaos back. I'm already hurt by the number of deaths in the last war," the Goddess of Life and Death answered. 

"That's why I stayed out of that. I don't want to go through that again, so we need to stop that from happening, and that too, without letting anyone know." She further added. 

"I also don't want that. I'll help you. What else do you know about this?" The Goddess of Destiny asked. 

What she didn't know was that it was all a part of Janus' scheme to keep the Goddess of Destiny distracted while Ryder killed her son and the others. He had been planning this a long time ago. He was only waiting for the right time, which unfortunately came sooner than he expected. 

....

While Ryder was in Japan, the Lord of Space was roaming the New Capital. He soon stopped before the building that belonged to the Necrosis Corporation as he frowned. 

"Interesting. Very interesting. So this is the place," the Lord of Space muttered as he teleported inside the building. 

He appeared in the office of Ion. 

...

Ion was sitting in his office when the Lord of Space appeared before him. 

As soon as Ion saw the Lord of Space, he couldn't help but stand up and step back. 

As the chair was behind him, he also fell on the ground, unable to balance himself. 

"So that's where you were hiding," the Lord of Space muttered as he stared at Ion. 

He started stepping closer to Ion in slow steps. 

Soon, the Lord of Space was only a few steps away from Ion, who had a pale face by now.