Chapter 1115: Where does Faith come from?

Titanion Realm, Stoneheart City.

Orion’s eyes opened. He had awakened from his slumber, the experience of using the Rebirth Card to enter that bizarre Tower Defense World leaving him with more questions than answers.

To get those answers, he had to go to the source. Orion focused his consciousness, entering the Survivor’s Platform to contact his bro, Arthas. Though Arthas was supposedly in a deep meditative slumber, Orion was certain his bro wouldn’t be completely off the grid.

“Bro,” Orion sent, “the Faith I gained in that Rebirth Card world… I don’t get it.”

He was genuinely baffled. Based on his understanding, Faith was something generated by living, thinking beings. But in the Tower Defense World, he earned Faith just by killing mindless monsters. The fact completely upended his perception of reality, even making him question the nature of divine power and the universal Rules themselves.

It took about five minutes for a reply to come through.

“Faith is a poison.”

Arthas’s response only deepened Orion’s confusion.

“It fascinates every being who seeks eternal life,” the message continued. “We both love it and hate it. Myself included.”

“Bro, can you be a little more direct?” Orion messaged back, laying on the flattery. “Your student here doesn’t have your wisdom. My insight is a bit lacking.”

He was confident Arthas would give him a more detailed explanation.

A new message appeared. “What is your ultimate goal in your training?”

“To become a god, of course,” Orion replied without hesitation. “To achieve true immortality. To be the last one standing when the universe itself crumbles to dust.”

“And what will you use to achieve that? What will sustain your immortal existence?”

“Divine power? The Rules?” This time, Orion’s reply was tinged with hesitation, with doubt.

“An entire world can collapse for any number of reasons,” Arthas shot back. “What makes you think the divine power you accumulate will let you last forever? What makes you think the lifespan of a god is infinite? If gods are truly immortal, where have they all gone? And why are they so obsessed with harvesting Faith from every world they can find?”

Orion was dumbfounded. He had just wanted to ask about the mechanics of the Tower Defense World and get some tips on how to progress. He hadn’t expected a high-level philosophical deconstruction of godhood from Arthas.

“Take your own experience with that Flower Goddess,” Arthas’s message continued. “Why was she so interested in you? If she were a truly eternal, immortal god, everything you possess would be worthless to her. She wouldn’t have given a pathetic insect like you the time of day.”

Orion didn’t reply, falling into deep thought. He was right. If he were in the Flower Goddess’s position, he wouldn’t care about an Alpha, a lord, an arch lord, or even the demigod version of himself. None of it would have any value.

“All signs indicate that gods are not immortal in the truest sense of the word. Nor are they dispassionate seekers of enlightenment, free from want and desire. As you’ve seen, gods are constantly trying to harvest Faith from various worlds. They are scheming to get more of it.”

“Which brings us to the real question: Why do gods need to collect Faith?”

Like a true mentor, Arthas was guiding him with one thought-provoking question after another.

“I used to be just as lost as you. I went to the commander, and he gave me his answer. He said: ‘The universe is a sea of suffering; immortality is the far shore. Faith is what carries you across. It might be a boat, a current, or a gust of wind at your back.’ Faith, in the end, is only a tool — something to help us on the journey. If you want, you can picture it as an artifact, a piece of gear, even a buff.”

Orion started to get it. Faith was just an auxiliary tool to help one reach the shore of immortality.

“So where does Faith come from?” he asked.

“In my view, it is a manifestation of the thoughts, desires, and pursuits of all living things. It can be emotion, a value system, a moral code. Of course, it has other forms too: belief, willpower, worship, ambition, spirit…”

Orion agreed with most of what Arthas was saying.

“Therefore, where there is life, there is Faith,” Arthas concluded, summarizing his understanding—much of which came from the commander’s teachings. “This is the fundamental reason we are constantly expanding our territory and increasing the population within it.”

“Now that you understand what Faith is, let’s talk about the Tower Defense World.”

Finally, after the crash course in metaphysics, Arthas got to the point.

“The world you were reincarnated into is a malformed, broken reality. Its state is irreversible. Its universal Rules are incomplete. For some reason, only two fundamental laws remain: Light and Darkness, and they are locked in a battle to consume each other.”

“The creatures spawned by the law of Darkness possess life, but nothing else. No intelligence, no emotions, no desires. They’re like brain-dead husks.”

Orion had seen it with his own eyes. The dark monsters were mindless, charging the walls without a shred of strategy. He completely agreed.

“My theory,” Arthas continued, “is that these monsters do generate Faith, but it’s stripped from them by the law of Darkness through some special means. The war between Light and Darkness is like a high-stakes poker game. Every monster that dies is a chip, and the currency being bet is the Faith they carry.”

“And we, the Reincarnators, are mercenaries that the law of Light has hired to play on its behalf. The buy-in for this game is a sliver of our soul.”

Realization dawned on Orion. “Bro, are you saying we don’t get that piece of our soul back?” he asked quickly.

“Basically, yes. Not unless the law of Light wins the war. As part of the winning side, we’d be able to withdraw completely, taking our massive profits with us.”

“And what if Darkness consumes the Light?”

“Then our souls get consumed along with it. My guess is that’s why Darkness even allows Light to summon Reincarnators. Darkness wants to devour more than just its opponent, and Light is desperate enough to take the risk to win.”

With that, Orion finally understood the purpose of a Reincarnator. It was a three-way gamble. Darkness wanted to consume Light and any outside souls it could lure in. Light wanted to use Reincarnators to win the all-or-nothing bet for control of the world. And the Reincarnators were there to risk a piece of their soul—their entrance ticket—for the chance to harvest as much Faith as possible. The key was to earn more than you stood to lose before the game was over. And to do that, you had to keep killing the dark monsters.

“So, killing monsters is our entire purpose in that world?”

“Exactly.”

Orion let out a mental sigh. “Sounds like a hell of a grind. And I have to start from scratch.”

He finally understood. The Rebirth Card was indeed a channel for gathering Faith, just as Arthas had intended. But whether he could actually profit from it was entirely up to him.