**Chapter 41: Beast of Whimsy - Part 2 (Requesting Monthly Ticket Support)**
A question.
If a being of great power could, in an instant, create tens of millions, even billions upon billions of intelligent beings with independent personalities, exactly like those born naturally... no, even more perfect and flawless, without any adverse effects... would such a being still need civilization, that cumbersome burden?
In other words, if he already possessed such omnipotence, and could split his thoughts into billions of parallel considerations, then surely any barriers to knowledge or other obstacles could be effortlessly overcome. He wouldn't need the help of others at all. Creating intelligent life to assist him would be entirely redundant.
For a certain warrior currently battling an Evil God, the answer to this question mattered little. He looked forward to the future of civilization just as he looked forward to unknown, powerful enemies.
But without civilization, he could also walk alone. He cared about this and disliked it, but essentially, it didn't affect him... In a sense, he might be even more indifferent than the Emperor.
Because for Emperor Amos, the answer to this question was, of course, "Yes, it is needed."
"I quite like you all."
The colossal golden eye did not speak; his words held no falsehood: "I've raised you for so many years, how could there be no attachment? Even a tool you use casually, if it breaks, I would simply put it away, not throw it away or destroy it. You need not worry that I would stand by and watch the Amox people be wiped out by the Limit Virus. Before that happens, I will collect and preserve a portion of valuable Amox individuals."
"Probably up to the Commander level will suffice, haha, just like back then. Though perhaps, after removing most of the inferior population, you might develop even faster."
"Speaking of which, it is truly troublesome. Those Takur scum are actually quite formidable. For all these years, I haven't been able to break through their 'Infinite Divine Energy Fluctuation Source' blockade. Now, with the Limit Virus finally causing them internal strife, you all end up infected too."
Observing Elma, who was almost beyond speech, the golden eye prompted: "Tell that Mycroftian about this matter. If you don't know how, I can leave a message."
He had evidently come to view Elma and Krele simply as messengers to relay information to Joshua.
"Your Majesty..."
Elma's mind was a tangled mess. She knew this, had long suspected it, but hearing Emperor Amos admit it so openly still left her unable to accept it. Whether Amox or Human, when faced with an impact too terrifying, people think they can bear it, but only when truly confronted with that impact do they realize how fragile their inner defenses are.
"Pull yourself together, Elma!"
Fortunately, Krele was within Elma at that moment. Seeing her on the verge of collapsing under the emperor's unconsciously radiating pressure and her own self-torture, he quickly gathered his strength, stimulating her to regain consciousness as swiftly as possible.
"...Thank you."
Though Krele's strength was not great, the strange transcendent power augmented by his crisis-handling system could bring Elma back from her daze. She glanced gratefully at the sighing human captain beside her, then looked up and met the amused gaze of Emperor Amos's incarnation.
"So that is the power of that Mycroftian? Interesting structure, truly fascinating. Although the power is weak, its 'priority' is high. Such pure transcendent power... he has even found that path leading to the end? Truly worthy of being an ancestral race descended from the Lost Galaxy. You've given me a bit of inspiration."
He evaluated Joshua impartially, praising the refinement of his methods. This brought him great amusement, so much so that the golden eye rotated slightly to express his pleasure.
Elma, gazing at this absolute being who stood above the Royal Court, could only think one simple thing.
"What kind of past must he have had to become what he is now..."
"Even an Emperor must have had a time of weakness, right..."
The answer was no.
The golden eye tolerated his subject's idle thoughts with benevolence, and in his good mood, answered the question.
I was born powerful.
From the moment of my birth, the magic and Æther I commanded far surpassed that of my father.
He sought to kill me while I was still in my larval state, but he failed, killed by the natural Æther field I generated.
On the third day after my birth, I had already mastered the Amox language, understood the current political situation, and began to seize power, preparing to conquer the weak around me.
"I have never known a time of weakness, Elma. Only the weak are weak; the powerful are always powerful."
Below the golden eye, a tendril composed of Æther flow extended. It was slender, yet immense. Compared to the colossal eye, it was as thin as it could be, but for Elma, it was eighteen kilometers thick, like a wall collapsing towards her head.
But this tendril gently touched Elma's true body—her void battleship. It was like how a human, in a good mood, might softly touch an insect, with the utmost care not to crush it, curiously and pleasantly exploring its carapace.
The giant eye's gaze softened: "I can see that you are angry, resentful, because you feel my attitude is neglectful, dismissive. But this is normal. If I treated you as equals, that would be the greatest oddity, the truly strange thing."
"I can be angry, calm, attentive, serious, earnest in all things—but that is reserved for those who can rival me. Because their existence makes me feel my life has meaning... You, on the other hand, are life forms I created to look at and pass the time while searching for those powerful beings."
Humans need inheritance, need collective action, need cooperative effort. They raise children because humans die.
Because they die, they need successors. Because they die, they need to gather together to avoid dying from accidents. Because they die, they need to communicate, exchange, cooperate, divide labor, and work together to build larger, more stable, and less fragile collectives.
That is civilization.
The progress of a collective is the path towards the goal of 'immortality.' Although as civilization develops, 'not dying accidentally' becomes easier, the goal for individuals within civilization shifts to 'living better,' 'making life more valuable,' even to 'pursuing personal meaning,' 'seeking the unknown and truth.'
But that is like the pyramid built upon a foundation; the bottom-most, largest tier goal is 'immortality.'
"Humans need inheritance because humans die. Because humans are not immortal, they need descendants, they need inheritance."
The golden eye patiently explained the thoughts of a 'human' to what he saw as insects. He did not expect life forms that hadn't even achieved immortality to understand him, but who doesn't talk to themselves? Moreover, this little insect was quite interesting. She could doubt, resist, even want to betray him—good heavens, it was so novel, like finding a glowing diamond amidst a pile of stones.
Truly, it had been tens of thousands of years since there was such an amusing little creature.
"But I do not need it. For me, so-called civilization is merely the placenta ensuring my smooth gestation, birth, and growth. Since I am already mature, having reached perfection, the placenta must be discarded."
"But as I said before, I like you, and I am also quite nostalgic."
An undying, indestructible, ageless being possessing immense power, with thoughts splitting into infinity, the individual complete and the complete unified, capable of devouring galaxies, needing but a single thought to destroy a world—such an ultimate life form naturally needs no collective burden.
Selfish, egocentric, yet capable of selflessness and dedication. He could destroy billions of worlds for his own sake, sweeping aside other civilizations and intelligent life like trash, or, in a good mood, if he took a liking to someone, shelter a race for tens of thousands of years, even allowing them to live inside his body, much like allowing pet cats or dogs to crawl on oneself.
He could have whatever he wished, do whatever he pleased, with no one to restrain him. Concepts like good and evil, right and wrong—all descriptors for humans—could not be forcibly applied to such a life form. They were unconstrained.
Because their name was 'The Beast of Whimsy, the Immortal One.'
Elma was rendered speechless. Precisely because Krele had awakened her, she could now clearly comprehend Emperor Amos, increasingly understanding his perspective. She suddenly felt ridiculous; all her previous accusations against Emperor Amos were so absurd as to induce nausea.
What was even more ridiculous were the Amox people. They had lived alongside such an ultimate being for tens of thousands of years, and had even developed such a highly advanced civilization. Hahaha, the Amox people should truly thank the Emperor from the bottom of their hearts, and apologize to him. Because he had generously offered his own shell to be used as their capital for so long!
The Emperor was truly a kind being.
He deserved reverence and worship.
"Yes, the help we Amox people have given the Emperor is absolutely incomparable to the help the Emperor has given us Amox... It's so laughable, so laughable..."
Elma laughed bitterly. The golden eye had already departed, sinking into the nebular dome of the sky above the high towers. Watching this, she weakly raised a sensory appendage and waved it slightly: "What exactly was I resentful about, dissatisfied about... Why did I want to rebel..."
Ah, I see. All my resentment, all my anger, all my frustration and confusion—it was all because I was too weak... I was too weak, unable to grasp even a fraction of the Emperor.
And at this moment, an invisible fluctuation began to spread through the nebular dome, and indeed, throughout the entire dome of the Royal Court.
Emperor Amos had fulfilled Elma's wish—he began to disperse his own power, purging the Limit Virus fluctuations from the entire Amox Royal Court.
A trivial matter, nothing difficult, merely a grand cleaning. He could also conveniently sweep away the accumulated 'dust' within the Royal Court, including some useless fragments of shattered worlds.
Of course, the former was easily accomplished thanks to his many incarnations, while the latter would take considerably longer, possibly a great deal of time to complete. But this did not matter; what he lacked least was time.
Elma and Krele were sent away from the inner circle. In the blink of an eye, before they even understood what had happened, they found themselves within the dome of the Royal Court.
"At least it's a good thing."
Krele, having no other recourse, could only console her: "Think about it. Not only are we not dead, but Emperor Amos has also taken action to purge the Limit Virus. No matter how you look at it, we've completely achieved our goal."
"...Yes."
Elma forced herself to respond, her tone lost: "Our goal has been achieved... At least the Amox Royal Court is safe... Though you can't really say that. With the Emperor here, when was it ever unsafe?"
Losing a few people is nothing significant.
She mocked herself inwardly.
And looking at Elma like this, Krele's heart ached.
When he had first been revived by Elma, the human captain had seen a strong Amox woman: inwardly powerful, independent, with her own goals, and who was actually quite kind, willing to think for others. For others, for the future of the Amox people, she had chosen to try to break free from Emperor Amos's influence, to attempt rebellion and independence, to survive in the Multiverse on her own.
She had a meticulous plan, thorough preparations. If not for the Limit Plague, she might have already begun her actions. But because of the Limit Plague, because it would kill tens and hundreds of billions of Amox people, she had set aside her ideals and instead tried to gather information to solve this problem.
Even though she was an Amox and not a Mycroftian, this was still worthy of respect. She had not attempted to use 'harming others' to gain greater benefits for herself. Even reviving herself was only for mutual cooperation and benefit.
She was a deeply charming woman of a different race.
Not like now, with her goal achieved yet looking so dejected and lost.
Sighing, Krele realized with a wry smile that his problem was the same as Elma's. She was too weak, so she could do nothing; he was too weak, so he couldn't help her.
But at least, the problem was solved.
But was the problem truly solved?
Some time later, after dragging her void battleship body to dock at a void port, Elma sat alone in a daze. Krele, connected to her mind, was about to encourage her when they suddenly received a message.
"Elma, the vicinity of the frontier void settlement where you previously resided has been invaded by the Limit Plague again. We are organizing the populace for evacuation. Originally, we should have transferred supplies and mobile dwellings as well, but the sealing array on your residence is too powerful. We can't decipher it for the moment and can only leave it in place."
"Just letting you know, so you're not caught unprepared when you return later. Even Commander-level beings won't be corroded by the Limit Virus, but you should still be careful of potential Limit creatures. I know you killed one, but the fewer encounters with such monsters, the better, right?"
"A message from Clos."
Clos was the Royal Court Imperial Guard who had previously helped Elma evacuate infected void settlements to the collective zones at the Court's border. He could be considered an old acquaintance of Elma's, and seemed to still be responsible for plague-related matters in that area. Upon learning of this, he had passed along the information to this old friend, who he believed had just had an audience with the Emperor and was currently quite favored.
"...What's going on?"
Elma's originally vacant expression gradually became animated, her tone shifting from flat to incredulous, finally reaching the point of sheer disbelief: "The Limit Plague?!"
"The Limit Virus fluctuations have been completely purged by Emperor Amos?!"
Unable to believe what she was hearing, under Krele's shocked gaze, Elma completely shed her previous listless demeanor. She immediately unfurled her communication wings, frantically connecting to hundreds of bands, reaching out to numerous different regions. Some contacts were to acquaintances, some were direct returns using her own clearance, others simply to check for a response.
Soon, the shocking result emerged.
"Indeed, there is no more spread of the Limit Plague within the Royal Court... But at the borders, there is absolutely no change. No, wait, they say it did ease up for a short time, but the plague soon recurred..."
Elma looked up in shock, straining with all her might to gaze at the distant stellar dome, and further, at the center of that dome where Emperor Amos's incarnation resided. She finally understood what 'purging the Limit Virus from the Royal Court' truly meant.
The Emperor had indeed purged the Limit Virus from the Royal Court.
But he had not continued to protect the Court, to continue the purge.
Yes... how utterly normal. Emperor Amos had wanted to use the Limit Plague to test the potential of the Amox people all along! He had said so himself!
Elma had made a wish, so he had purged it. But if the plague were to spread back from the borders, that was not his doing... Besides, Elma's wish had not included that clause.
Don't be too greedy, little one.
Elma seemed to faintly hear the Emperor's voice in her ears. She understood that the Emperor would absolutely not act again... Furthermore, he was delighted, because he could rewatch his favorite 'virus infection' storyline again. It was like watching a zombie film; so novel!
After all, Amox people who had undergone Limit transformation were novel, amusing, and truly interesting, weren't they?
"Everything... everything is futile."
"Everything is in vain."
The Quinary Galaxy, in the center of the Dark Galaxy, at the locus of the Contradiction Spiral.
With a swing of his Black Hole Fist, Joshua ruthlessly tore an Evil God—already immobilized by the Triple Veil, its name unknown—and pulled it into the core of his Black Hole Engine. It would not be destroyed immediately but would be shredded between the immense gravitational potential of the two black holes, leaving not a trace.
But just as he prepared to set off again, to coordinate with the Triple Veil in continuing to purge those Evil Gods, he suddenly heard a voice. The voice made his scalp tingle, and he whipped his head around.
Then he saw it: a thread, already present at the center of the Contradiction Spiral, stretching to an immense length, lazily swaying in the void, twisting the surrounding worlds.
Light scattered, space warped. As this thread, whose thickness was impossible to discern, swayed, space fragmented and collapsed like building blocks, then re-fused. But in this process, within this region, the essence of the world became fragile, the strength of the world barrier plummeting rapidly. It was like someone stirring solidified cream with chopsticks—difficult at first, but growing easier and easier.
"Futile."
The Beast of Whimsy, Immortal and Omnipotent, sighed and repeated: "Meaningless resistance."
But what greeted it was the 'Virtual World' combined with the 'Cleave Through Mount Hua.'
"Whether a battle has meaning..."
Black holes howled, their violent force shredding atoms, tearing apart neutrons and protons, scattering quarks into chaos, causing all light in spacetime to distort into a fractured, chaotic mess. Gravity warped spacetime, making the target of the 'bombardment' feel, in an instant, that their time had accelerated, witnessing the birth and death of the universe, the decay of all things—it was not hyperbole, but literal fact.
Without a moment's hesitation, Joshua launched this strike. He did not need to ponder the question because he already knew the answer.
Meaning? That sort of thing...
"You only know by fighting."