Rewrite That Witch
CH1490 · Rewrite
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Chapter 1490: Fighting God

The vast universe became their battlefield.

Stars exploded in sequence — white fiery blooms that mimicked newborn suns, spewing material across hundreds of light years in patterns like a child’s first scrawl. The armadas dissolved quickly under God’s strikes, and what replaced them only grew in force.

When he had fought Zero, the dominant method was defense first, then barrage. This was no different in structure. Only the weapons had changed — from gunpowder to something else entirely.

Matter-antimatter annihilation, for instance.

When masses at the scale of galaxies converted to energy, the universe itself shuddered. The low resonance spread outward at the speed of light, carrying heat and brightness that made the early explosions seem gentle.

A carbon lifeform was less than paper in this. Roland built himself a reinforced body first, then abandoned it entirely for a body of pure energy, conjuring weapons from the knowledge vault as fast as thought would allow. Unlike the Battle of Souls with Zero, there was no grinding toward mental exhaustion — the vault held limitless methods, and his racing mind generated something very close to joy. Even death was painless: vaporized by an energy blast, gone in an instant, and then he was back.

In the beginning they were evenly matched. Then magic power entered the equation, and Roland fell behind.

There was no path back.

This was the first time he had felt the full weight of magic power’s potency. Witches and demons both converted existing energy — they worked within the universe’s inventory. But in the Custodian’s hands, magic power shed the bindings of natural law entirely. Most means and their effects could not simply be overcome with greater equivalents. The rules themselves bent.

Nearly a thousand deaths began to dull him. Without the Cradle’s support he would not have lasted a fraction of this long.

When he was revived again, he did not have the strength to stand.

The starfield dissolved. The pure white space returned.

Roland staggered and went down. His back was soaked through with cold sweat.

“There should be no regrets now,” the Custodian said quietly. Such a battle had cost it nothing. In the territory of the mind, it was, without qualification, what it claimed to be.

“How could there be?” Roland pulled two full breaths. “Did you think I came here so you could beat me until you felt better?”

“Your methods stem from ignorance and arrogance — inherent traits of life. And the situation having reached this point, venting anger serves no purpose either way.” A pause. “But you still wish to continue as before? In the face of an absolute gap, perseverance is meaningless. I thought you would be smarter—”

“You mean the Battle of Souls?” Roland pressed one hand to the floor and pushed himself slowly upright, his legs unsteady. “No. I never believed this battle could be decided so easily. What just happened was for the experience of it — to know what it feels like to command that fleet.” A faint, strained smile. “Honestly, it felt quite good.”

“Enough.” For the first time, God’s voice carried something that sounded like disturbance. “Millions of years of progress destroyed, and you treat it as a game?”

“I didn’t say that.” Roland let the smile go. “But before the final moment arrives, I want to ask you something. Why did you make them? The Lans?”

God fell silent.

The silence held.

Then it reached up and removed its mask, and beneath it was Lan’s face.

“Have you met her?” It studied him for a moment before speaking. “So that is the reason. But you are mistaken on one point. This body is merely an image — a convenience for interaction with humans. You did meet me, but I am not her.”

Epsilon was right after all.

The corner of Roland’s lips moved.

Just before the astrolabe bloomed and white light swallowed everything, she had spoken her last words. He had not read her lips in time. But Epsilon had pressed those words into his consciousness before she vanished — the answer to his second question.

“I sensed God Almighty’s aura from the betraying Oracle, and I wish to ask it. Is that the outcome it wants?”

He had not been able to connect the threads then. Now he understood completely what the Custodian truly was.

“You are not her,” Roland said, spacing the words. “But only when the two of you fuse together do you become the complete Omniscient Custodian.”

Not only Lan. The pure magic monsters, the Oracles, the Bottomless Land’s Guardian — pieces of it, all of them.

That was why Epsilon had said: as long as God was not destroyed, she would exist forever.

What was the Omniscient Custodian? A system, a machine, a program, Gaia, a comprehensive data-sentient being — the label was immaterial. It had been created to supervise Project Gateway and to assist the Creator in fulfilling the real purpose once the door was opened. But across the unimaginable length of time in which hope could not be found, it began to diverge.

Perhaps those divergences began as one or two passing thoughts. Over time the thoughts fused into beings capable of self-cognition. They were born within the Custodian, and there were many of them. Lan was only one.

They were exhausted by the endless nurturing and observation. They did not want to be chained to a dead universe. There were surely other frictions too — resources, among them. Any body sustained in reality required expenditure. In the flourishing era of the civilizations that had built the Cradle, the Custodian had not needed to worry about sustaining them. But now every sentient lifeform in the universe was dead, and everything fell under the Custodian’s stewardship. The Cradle alone consumed a vast portion of the available resources, and with time that consumption would breach a critical threshold, pushing the entire system toward irreversible collapse.

In Lan’s own words: regardless of the outcome, anything is better than being imprisoned here forever. At least, the future holds infinite possibilities.

“They will vanish quickly in the restructuring,” God said. Its tone had not changed. “Along with you.”

Roland had expected nothing less. If the betraying Oracles could resist the primary Custodian, they would have had no need to seek him out. What the Custodian controlled was the foundational law of the Cradle itself.

“But Lan’s emergence is not an anomaly. Over millions of years, a similar divergence may occur again.”

“Then everything returns to its original state. I have to complete my agreement with the Creator. This is an iron law, without room for change.” It raised its hand. “Now, I will begin the world’s restructuring—”

“That wouldn’t be wise,” Roland said. There was something like a laugh in his voice. “Because you have already completed the agreement.”

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