This is an unedited chapter. If you don't like slightly terrible grammar and occasional typo, please re-read in 7 days for the edited version. Thank you for understanding.

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A flash of starlight flew away from Reneedol and disappeared as well.

"The [Tears of Deities]!"

Reneedol reached towards her neck, only to see that the necklace containing Fate powers had disappeared.

"Damn you! Shroud, Rhode, damn both of you!"

She roared, causing the power of Apocalypse from her body to grow increasingly stronger, howling like a rampaging storm towards every direction.

Suddenly-------

「 I can see it! 」

The giant eyeball suddenly shouted, its voice resounding across the entire world.

「 The Reality Gate is opening; the true Apocalypse is about to descend------ it's all over! 」

The eyeball's voice was filled with unsure dread.

…

"It's still afraid of the Apocalypse despite being so powerful?" Gu Qing Shan whispered and asked.

"It was originally a part of the frozen corpse, as well as a part of the Secret Apocalypse. If the Apocalypses outside the Reality Gate poured inside, it would be the very first thing they would look for" Boss whispered to explain.

While the two of them were talking, only a bright red splash of blood remained in the sky.

Even the splash of blood was slowly fading away before it completely vanished.

------the giant eyeball had run away.

"Ahahaha, look at that, even it had run away!"

"No matter who it is, they must kneel before me!"

Reneedol laughed in a frenzied voice.

Her body began to exude an extremely dim light and an aura of terrible rot.

"Shroud, Rhode, both of you have been unable to keep up with me, I'm through wrestling with Fate, I've won!"

She gazed towards the end of the world upon the two of them, then abruptly raised her voice: "I am the Apocalypse!"

Gu Qing Shan focused his gaze and muttered: "Boss, I can't wait any longer, I'm going to kill her now-------"

Boss said: "It's a pity that my powers aren't enough, otherwise, it should be me who does this"

Gu Qing Shan turned to Boss: "You------ wanted to take revenge on her?"

Boss whispered: "No, she wants to destroy everything, while I want to protect what I think is worth protecting, that's all"

Gu Qing Shan grinned and began to happily laugh.

He lightly placed his hand on the ground.

The ants at his fingertips followed his finger onto the earth, quickly found an ant burrowing hole, then crawled back inside.

Gu Qing Shan clapped his hands as he stood up.

"Just take a rest for now, I'll go kill her. After everything is over, we're finally going to enjoy a nice dinner with everyone, then take the time to deal with that eyeball. Ah right, there are also the Apocalypses outside the Reality Gate, tch, such a headache"

He rambled on before stepping forward into a mass of white fog.

Everything paused for a brief moment in the world.

And then--------

Doong! Doong! Doong!

A heroic and resounding sound of drumming echoed.

The night had gone by, a new sun was rising, which painted the sky in a bloody shade almost like that of the setting sun.

At that moment, everything seemed to have become incredibly slow.

Reneedol suddenly found everything around herself grinding to a halt.

The angels, the wraiths on the ground, even Shroud who stood at the end of the world, all living beings had completely stopped.

"[Time Stanch]?" she muttered.

Hoh--------

The Apocalyptic aura vanished from around her body.

Reneedol's expression changed.

"No, this isn't [Time Stanch], this is time itself stopping" she muttered.

A voice replied from the void of space:

"Indeed, Time had fallen into a stationary state, as you and I are both currently inside a Time Gap"

White fog began to spread as Gu Qing Shan showed himself.

"Rhode… you can wield the power of Time" Reneedol said while attempting to summon something from the void of space.

"It's useless. Within this Time Gap, only you and I exist, the power of the Apocalypse cannot enter" Gu Qing Shan told her.

Reneedol looked at him with a shocked expression.

"Rhode, how could you wield such power! This is unbelievable!"

She tried putting up her hand to summon a starlight weapon, but nothing appeared at all.

Once again, she remembered that following the Deity of Fate's death, [Tears of Deities] was no longer in her hands.

Doong! Doong! Doong! Doong!

The sound of battle drums were growing increasingly more intense.

"This is the Occultism Deathmatch Dance. I only managed to initiate it to this degree because I went beyond the requirements during the trial, offering the heads of the three Wraith Lords to this Dance"

Gu Qing Shan calmly explained: "This is a completely fair fight to the death. Both you and I have lost all of our powers, so we must agree on a certain factor in order to complete this Deathmatch, otherwise, we're both going to be trapped here forever"

Reneedol silently listened and coldly scoffed: "You think I'm going to believe you?"

She mobilized her power again, but couldn't summon even a single star behind her back.

This time, she was truly flustered.

The Apocalypse could not enter, Time had been completely stopped, all of her powers lost.

------the only fortunate thing was that Rhode was in the same situation during this Deathmatch, we are equals here.

Gu Qing Shan leisurely continued to explain: "Now, you and I will both have to select a factor------- any factor will do, but I'll tell you first, I don't know how the Deathmatch will actually play out either"

"Factor?" Reneedol asked.

"I have the duty of explaining it to you-------- a 'factor' is the main theme of this Deathmatch, something that you're confident you'd be able to defeat your enemy in" Gu Qing Shan explained.

"I choose Fate! I've always wrestled and won against Fate!" Reneedol immediately declared.

Gu Qing Shan stayed silent briefly before shaking his head: "The world is a much crueler place than you can ever imagine, but you don't understand that fact even now. This is Shroud's fault"

"Very well, then Fate it is"

"I will now show you just what kind of place the world truly is"

He clapped his hands.

A hoarse female voice resounded from the void of space:

「 Very well, Fate is suitable as a factor, then it is decided 」

「 Your Fates shall be exchanged… to see who would be able to survive… 」

「 A total of three times 」

「 Those who die more… 」

「 Shall step foot into the true path of death 」

A flash of light.

Gu Qing Shan and Reneedol both vanished without a trace.

…

The rain had continued for an entire day and night.

Inside a mass grave outside of a military post, something moved.

Pushing a bunch of corpses aside, Reneedol suddenly climbed out from the mass grave.

"Hah… hah…"

She breathed heavily and tried examining her body.

A suit of strange armor, a mixture of dirt, mud, blood, and rainwater soaked her body, even touching the armor lightly would cause a few of the pieces to fall off.

It was as if she had just gone through a desperate struggle for her life.

The downpour continued.

The cold rainwater buffeted the wounds all over her body, which heightened the pain.

"What's going on!?"

She grunted to herself and looked around.

Her Starforce has been weakened, but it has at least recovered.

Reneedol raised her hand and lightly tried to use it.

-------I can still use the power of Law to attack!

She finally felt a bit relieved.

Then, I'm currently in the middle of Rhode's previous Fate?

Reneedol examined her body more carefully.

Good, I'm still myself, I haven't actually turned into a man.

Then.

Right now, should I wait right here, or search for reinforcements?

While she was hesitating, a bit of light hesitantly approached her from within the darkness.

It was a night patrolman.

Reneedol observed them carefully and shouted: "Hey!"

The patrolman appeared shaken and immediately tumbled back as he dropped the lantern he was carrying.

Reneedol relaxed a bit.

-------that was a mortal, and a very cowardly one as well.

In that case, there must be some sort of shelter around here.

A few moments later.

The night patrolman from earlier brought with him a fully armored soldier.

"Finally, someone who's a bit braver" Reneedol scoffed.

She used the rainwater to wash away the mud on her face to display her peerless beauty.

------no one would be able to resist this face.

The soldier stopped where he was standing immediately after shining his lantern on her face.

The soldier clenched his blade tightly and asked: "Who are you?"

Reneedol glanced at the armor on her body, rolled her eyes, then said: "This humble one is quite heavily wounded, I'm currently unable to move, so please help me"

Unable to move?

The soldier's expression relaxed slightly and relaxed his blade-wielding hand, asking her: "Miss, which sect are you from? You're quite fortunate to be alive, let me help you up"

"Thank you" Reneedol said.

Finally, a place where I can rest.

However, he asked about my sect earlier-----

What's a 'sect'?

While she was thinking, the other party had helped pull her up and said:

"No need to thank me, die"

The blade slashed through the rain as a cold gleam towards Reneedol's neck.

The soldier's attack was extremely resolute, and he made sure to strike at the best opportunity, so Reneedol was swiftly beheaded and fell back into the mass grave.

One strike, over!

The soldier scoffed as he pulled his blade back and turned to the night patrolman: "Damned demoness trying to infiltrate our outpost in the middle of the night, chop her up and throw her back into the pit"

"Yes sir" the night patrolman replied with a look of admiration.

…

Gu Qing Shan opened his eyes.

He found that he was hanging on top of a tree as a fruit.

The light of dawn had just peeked through the darkness.

The light illuminated the top of the great tree to bring life to a new day.

Gu Qing Shan looked around.

He noticed that he was at the best possible spot on top of the three.

There was another fruit at the back of the three that couldn't even touch the light of the sun.

Gu Qing Shan instantly understood the situation.

Tch-----

So the Deathmatch had switched my Fate with Reneedol's?

…A best of three, was it?

If Reneedol had gone into my Fate, she would most likely not survive too easily.

And I've received her Fate----- during her entire life, the most difficult time was actually during the very beginning.

Would I be a man or woman after I'm born?

A fruit doesn't have a gender right?

Although, since the Deities of Fate have yet to arrive, there is something I can do that will immediately tell me everything I need to know.

With that in mind, he turned and rolled to the back of the tree.

Sure enough, there was a smaller, thinner fruit right here.

----this is Dusk who hadn't actually been born!

Gu Qing Shan felt emotional, almost unable to stop himself from sighing.

"Hey"

He called out while bumping against the other fruit.

The other fruit wasn't able to endure the bump at all and was pushed into a corner of the branch.

"Hm? Big brother, why are you here?" the fruit asked.

Gu Qing Shan sternly said: "What time is it that you're still sleeping? Get out there and start sunbathing already"

The fruit was stunned, then squeakily replied: "You usually don't let me sunba-------"

Gu Qing Shan cut her off: "From today onwards, you have to sunbathe, otherwise you won't get enough nutrients, hurry up!"

"Ah, yes, come with me too, big brother"

"Of course big brother is going to go with you"