Tonight's massive explosion, along with the bizarre sight of two suns, one large and one small, appearing in the sky despite it clearly being nighttime, left everyone living in Trier unable to sleep all night.
Many believers of the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun began kneeling in worship, proclaiming that this was a miracle and that tonight was a blessing bestowed by their god.
They claimed that the massive explosion had occurred because an evil god was causing trouble, forcing the true god, the Eternal Blazing Sun, to descend personally to suppress the evil god.
However, there was no consensus as to which one was the evil god and which one was the incarnation of the true sun god. Instead, the believers split into two factions and attacked each other over the issue.
This situation further accelerated the schism within the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun, causing even greater chaos to spread.
Yet His Holiness the Pope, the central pillar of the entire Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun, had still not appeared, nor had he sent anyone to convey even a single divine oracle.
Such a laissez-faire attitude plunged the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun into a vortex of chaos from which it found itself unable to escape.
As the two suns gradually rose toward the starry sky, their dazzling radiance slowly faded. Darkness once again swept over the world, reclaiming the sky and earth that should have belonged to it.
Within the Hall of Stars, Hastur sat patiently in his seat, watching the battle between the Supernova Dominator and the Eternal Blazing Sun.
The larger sun was the Supernova Dominator, while the smaller one was the Eternal Blazing Sun. This time, their positions seemed reversed compared to before.
Having seized the initiative and successfully schemed against the Supernova Dominator, the Eternal Blazing Sun relentlessly stuck to Him this time. His objective was very clear: drive Him toward a crack in the Initial Barrier, then join forces with the other True Gods to eliminate this incarnation of the Supernova Dominator.
Having lost the initiative, the Supernova Dominator knew that this incarnation of His could no longer be preserved. He was also looking for an opportunity to break through the Initial Barrier.
Even if He couldn't succeed, He intended to use His remaining strength to widen the crack in the Initial Barrier.
At this moment, the Mother Tree of Desire and the Supernova Dominator's true body were already lingering outside the starry sky.
If not for the Initial Barrier separating them, the Supernova Dominator would surely have already charged down and smashed the Eternal Blazing Sun's divine kingdom to pieces.
As the two suns rose higher and higher, the God of Steam and Machinery took action.
He didn't directly target the Supernova Dominator's incarnation. Instead, He cooperated with the Eternal Blazing Sun to drag the Supernova Dominator's incarnation into the Eternal Blazing Sun's divine kingdom, intending to use it to completely erase His existence.
Although the Supernova Dominator resisted with all His might, He was ultimately drawn into the Eternal Blazing Sun's divine kingdom.
On the surface, everything appeared to show the Eternal Blazing Sun holding an absolute advantage.
But Hastur could clearly sense that, at the very end, the Supernova Dominator had deliberately taken advantage of the momentum to enter the Eternal Blazing Sun's divine kingdom.
The Eternal Blazing Sun wanted to use His divine kingdom to completely erase the Supernova Dominator's existence and thereby uncover the Supernova Dominator's secrets.
Meanwhile, the Supernova Dominator intended to corrupt the Eternal Blazing Sun's divine kingdom and thereby replace the Eternal Blazing Sun.
These two old schemers were about to begin another contest inside the Eternal Blazing Sun's divine kingdom.
The Eternal Blazing Sun most likely had other methods prepared. Otherwise, with His level, attempting to forcibly devour this incarnation of the Supernova Dominator could very easily result in Him getting dragged down as well.
If that happened, He would instead be helping the Supernova Dominator seize His authorities even faster.
After the God of Steam and Machinery helped the Eternal Blazing Sun seal the gates of His divine kingdom, only the Eternal Blazing Sun remained shining brightly in the night sky.
From that point onward, Hastur also lost his means of continuing to observe the situation.
He glanced again at the Supernova Dominator outside the starry sky. He seemed to be in a terrible mood, probably because He couldn't tolerate having been outmaneuvered by the Eternal Blazing Sun.
Although He hadn't lost yet, He had ultimately lost face.
Hastur could already predict the Son of Chaos's merciless mockery at the next gathering. It was truly something to look forward to.
After finishing his observation there, Hastur casually glanced at Bernadette. She hadn't encountered any trouble and was currently chatting with an elderly man.
Judging by the faint aura emanating from him, he was very likely the Pope of the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun.
This time, it was he who had helped the Eternal Blazing Sun set up the scheme that caused the Supernova Dominator to suffer such a major setback.
After only looking for a moment, Hastur shifted his gaze toward the Primordial Hunger.
The Chains of Stars behind him flew out and lightly tapped the head on the planet that the Primordial Hunger had transformed into. They immediately extracted a wisp of the Primordial Hunger's consciousness and brought it back to the Hall of Stars.
As his strength improved, Hastur's ability to utilize the Chains of Stars had also advanced significantly. He didn't even need the Primordial Hunger's permission anymore to bring a wisp of His consciousness into the Hall of Stars.
When that wisp of the Primordial Hunger's consciousness arrived in the Hall of Stars, it instantly transformed into a miniature planet.
The planet's surface was covered in yellow and black patterns, while the area around its head was snow-white.
It looked like an enlarged, colorful marble.
The Primordial Hunger was playing dead, maintaining His planetary form without any intention of communicating.
The Supernova Dominator had once used this very trick, so Hastur had plenty of experience dealing with this kind of situation.
With a thought, two Chains of Stars flew out, one on the left and one on the right.
The tip of one chain pressed against the bottom of the planet. With a gentle push, it tossed the planet away, where the other Chain of Stars caught it before throwing it back in the same manner.
After playing around for a while, the Primordial Hunger still showed no reaction. Hastur simply lashed Him with a Chain of Stars, sending Him spinning rapidly in place.
Ever since he stopped whipping the Son of Chaos, it had been a long time since he had experienced this nostalgic pleasure.
"Stars, I-"
A pair of eyes and a mouth appeared on the surface of the planet transformed from the Primordial Hunger. Before He could finish speaking, Hastur lashed Him again, sending Him spinning several more times on the spot.
"Stars..."
Smack!
Another lash. Hastur was beginning to rediscover the feeling he'd had back when he used to whip the Son of Chaos.
Realizing that Hastur was deliberately giving Him a minor punishment, the Primordial Hunger withdrew His eyes and mouth and remained silent, allowing Hastur to lash Him until He spun round and round.
Only after Hastur stopped did He speak again.
"Stars, please forgive my initial discourtesy."
"This is merely an invitation. If you are unwilling, you can choose to refuse."
"I am willing to attend the Gathering of Stars," the Primordial Hunger replied quickly.
In the current starry sky, the reputation of the Stars was already no less prestigious than that of the former Mysteries and God Almighty.
Any Outer Deity or Great Old One interested in understanding the world within the Initial Barrier hoped to receive an invitation from the Stars and attend the Gathering of Stars.
It was, after all, a gathering of Great Old Ones from which even the Mother Goddess of Depravity had been excluded. One could easily imagine what kind of force the members of this gathering would form when the apocalypse finally arrived.
Although the Great Old Ones refused to submit to one another and preferred acting alone, that didn't mean they lacked the wisdom to think things through.
Once some Great Old Ones began banding together, the others would naturally start gathering into groups of their own. It was a natural means of self-preservation.
Currently, outside the starry sky, the Mother Goddess of Depravity was using precisely this reasoning to contact the Great Old Ones who were unable to attend the Gathering of Stars. Unfortunately, Her reputation had never been particularly good, so the number She could rally was limited.
Most still chose to remain spectators, unwilling to involve themselves in the struggle between the Mother Goddess of Depravity and the Stars.
The Primordial Hunger had no intention of getting involved either, but now that He had been chosen by the Stars, He could only temporarily join the Stars' camp and attend this so-called Gathering of Stars.
"A very wise choice." There was an intimidating majesty within Hastur's calm words.
"What do I need to do in return?"
"Nothing."
"Is it the same for the Mother Tree of Desire and the others?"
"I merely provide all of you with a place to communicate. I have no intention of enslaving you."
The Primordial Hunger pondered for a moment before saying, "You are somewhat different from the image the Mother Goddess of Depravity has portrayed of you."
"You actually believe the words of Depravity?" Hastur's tone carried a hint of disdain.
"She is, after all, currently the highest-ranking existence outside the starry sky. Her words still carry considerable weight."
Hastur listened and continued discussing the current situation in the starry sky with the Primordial Hunger.
Only when he heard that the Circle of Inevitability seemed to have established some connection with the Mother Goddess of Depravity did Hastur truly pay attention.
He had always been wary of this Outer Deity. The authority over fate allowed Him to glimpse many things.
Hastur hadn't invited Him to attend the Gathering of Stars, which had apparently given Him a sense of crisis. As a result, He had turned toward cooperating with the Mother Goddess of Depravity.
It was a very reasonable choice.
"The Circle of Inevitability is an extremely petty existence. You need to be careful of His authorities and wisdom."
The Primordial Hunger seemed to have suffered at the hands of the Circle of Inevitability before and clearly had personal experience in this regard.
Hastur smiled and moved past the subject. After chatting with the Primordial Hunger about quite a few more matters, he finally allowed Him to choose a seat for Himself.
After asking Hastur about where the others were seated, the Primordial Hunger decisively chose the Son of Chaos's side.
"My relationship with the Supernova Dominator isn't good."
The Primordial Hunger offered an explanation. Seeing that Hastur was interested, He began recounting events from an unknown number of years ago.
He was gluttonous by nature and had once come into conflict with the Supernova Dominator. In terms of authorities, the Supernova Dominator firmly suppressed Him, causing Him to suffer a small loss.
After chatting for a while longer, Hastur sent the Primordial Hunger away. He then deliberately glanced at the star where the Circle of Inevitability resided. He remained as calm as ever, seemingly still asleep.
Hastur quickly withdrew his gaze to avoid being noticed by the Circle of Inevitability.
Finally, as usual, he swept his gaze around once before returning to the real world.
Tonight was the Night of Chaos in Intis. The Mentor of Disorder potion within him was almost completely digested.