Hearing this voice, among the divine host near Indra and Canary, a petite and charming young girl, who had been pretending to be nonchalant but was so nervous her palms were clenched tight, suddenly widened her eyes.
The rims of her eyes turned slightly red, yet her gaze shone as brightly as the sun in the sky.
"Lord Su Mo!"
Roc Demon King cried out excitedly, her gaze so intense it could melt molten iron.
"Lord Su Mo?"
Garuda, who had just been snatched back from the brink of death, opened his eyes and stared at the being before him, his pupils filled with shock.
This shock wasn't because Su Mo had suddenly appeared before him.
It was because of the Dystopian Demon Lord, which had come to a complete stop in front of him, frozen solid as if it were an ice sculpture.
What was happening? Su Mo was a god himself, so how could he maintain his power in the presence of the Dystopian Demon Lord?
In a domain where divinity and faith were completely nullified, what power could possibly stop the Dystopian Demon Lord, a Human Final Trial?
"Y-y-you... My daughter Karyō has been in your care. I-I-I am Karyō's father, but... how did you do this?"
He answered Su Mo's casual question in a fluster, afraid of the slightest discourtesy, yet at the same time, he couldn't help but ask the question burning in his mind.
What kind of power could freeze time for a Human Final Trial?
"Changing the definition of a second... It's just a basic application of the Third Stellar Particle. Nothing special."
Su Mo waved his hand dismissively.
He wasn't being deliberately modest, because Canary had accomplished a similar feat a thousand years ago. When she was constructing her own Another Cosmology, she had used this ability on Leticia, who was still a Demon Lord at the time.
Similar abilities are actually present in other Another Cosmologies like the Three Thousand Worlds, or in other Cosmic Truths.
However, in the presence of the Dystopian Demon Lord, these abilities, which rely on mythological cosmologies, are naturally ineffective.
Up until now, in the entire Little Garden, only Su Mo could make this power effective against the Dystopian Demon Lord.
After greeting Garuda, Su Mo glanced down at little Karyō in the divine host, whose eyes were filled with joy. He gave a slight nod before shifting his gaze to face the one directly opposite him.
"World-Honored One, it's been a while."
"It has been a while."
Looking at Su Mo, who stood nonchalantly atop the Dystopian Demon Lord's head, the Buddha took a deep breath and pressed his palms together on his lotus throne.
Before seeing Su Mo, his mind was filled with questions.
He didn't know how Su Mo had bypassed the restrictions of the Sun's Sovereignty to rewrite the Akashic Records, nor how Su Mo possessed such confidence as to dare detonate the End Emptiness all at once.
But upon seeing Su Mo, for some inexplicable reason, he suddenly felt all his worries vanish.
Having lost the power of his divinity, he was, paradoxically, closer to the concept of an "Enlightened One" than before.
With his worries gone, he didn't ask his many questions, but instead spoke directly.
"If you need it, the divine host can offer all of its power."
Hearing this, Su Mo raised an eyebrow in surprise and re-evaluated the World-Honored One's current state.
"What, no longer concerned about why the End Emptiness appeared? Not worried about whether I can defeat it? Not agonizing over whether I can guide the Little Garden's future?"
Hearing Su Mo's string of questions, the World-Honored One lowered his head, a rare look of shame on his face.
"Formation, stasis, destruction, and emptiness are the natural order of the world. I was previously too attached to my duties as the leader of the Gods and Buddha, and thus was plagued by delusions, unable to attain Bodhi."
In the Buddhist cosmology, the "why," the "what," and the "what for" are not actually important.
What is important is for the mind to be like a clear mirror, observing things as they are.
After his divinity was nullified, the World-Honored One suddenly realized his past mistake.
He clearly had no power to guide the gods, no power to fight the End Emptiness, and no power to stop Su Mo, yet he insisted on shouldering the responsibility of leading the divine host.
This mismatch between power and responsibility had tormented him for a long time, but it was clearly not his problem to solve—at least, not one he was capable of solving.
Had he realized this situation sooner, he probably would have known what to do earlier.
Two words: give up.
So...
"Since I cannot stop it, it is better to go along with your plan. Regardless of whether it succeeds, it is the best choice at this moment."
The Buddha spoke in a calm tone.
"Wait, Shakya, you!"
Seeing the Buddha suddenly give up, the two goddesses were completely dumbfounded. They wanted to say something to persuade him, but quickly realized it was pointless.
Arguing Buddhist doctrine with a Buddhist had a low chance of success, no matter how you looked at it.
Especially with the World-Honored One in his current state of having seen through the mortal world, looking as if he might just drop everything and walk away at any moment. It was clearly not a state that could be changed with a few words.
Most importantly, what he said did make sense.
At this point, no one in the Little Garden could stop Su Mo, just as no one could stop the End Emptiness.
Therefore, their choices had been extremely limited from the very beginning. Faced with this overwhelming tide of events, they could either bet on Su Mo or be devoured by the End Emptiness.
Asking for more details was no longer necessary.
There was only one thing they could do: pledge their loyalty to Su Mo!
And so...
"Lord Su Mo, we too are willing to offer you all of our power."
The two goddesses looked at each other and made their decision in unison.
"If you are willing to accept, all of us gods are willing to become your shield. We will offer you all our power, to fend off all malice and harm, until the end of time... We only ask that you defeat the End Emptiness and grant the Little Garden a new future."
The two goddesses knelt on one knee before Su Mo, a sight that shocked all the deities and human onlookers.
In the history of the Little Garden, this was likely the first time that beings of the Full-Authority Domain level had chosen to voluntarily submit to another without being defeated.
If, before this, there were still some individual gods who clung to their unnecessary pride...
...then after seeing the two goddesses' decisive declaration, they all cut off such thoughts.
Even two-digit beings were kneeling and begging for Su Mo's acceptance. What right did they, mere Almighty Domain beings, have to remain arrogant?