77: Chapter 77 The Logic Cage of the Master of Ever-Changing Changes (Part 2)

The formula of the Gödel Oscillator appearing before It was enough to make the sophistry, conspiracies, and timeline deductions It relied on for survival become self-contradictory jokes in the present moment.

Every one of Its deductions and every act of sophistry only plunged It deeper into recursion, unable to extricate Itself.

The blue flames surrounding Tzeentch began to flow backward, rapidly contracting from the outside in. The originally violent flames became weak and twisted, and millions of faces contorted and grimaced simultaneously, emitting a silent roar as if enduring extreme agony.

The chaotic energy within It began to churn, and the aura from the Warp became restless.

It mobilized the computational power of billions of timelines and employed Its most adept art of sophistry, attempting to twist the paradox with conspiracy and bypass the dead loop with omniscience, desperately trying to determine the truth or falsehood of this proposition.

But no matter how It deduced or how It argued, all efforts were in vain, all sophistry became completely ineffective, leaving only endless recursion crazily looping in Its consciousness, devouring Its sanity.

"I am calculating whether I am calculating..."

"I have proven that I cannot prove..."

Tzeentch froze in place; all the blue flames stopped completely, no longer burning or shifting. Millions of eyes were wide open, filled with bewilderment and collapse, Its mouth agape, yet not a single sound could be emitted.

Its consciousness was swept up by the endless recursion, unable to think or act, left only to let Itself sink into this infinite logic cage.

It began to question Itself, the meaning of Its existence, and the Path of Change It took such pride in.

If logic has loopholes, can It still master sophistry and weave conspiracies? If there are propositions that cannot be determined, can It still peer into billions of futures and remain the Lord of Change? Were all Its previous conspiracies and timeline deductions built upon a logic loophole It had never noticed?

It was like a snake biting its own tail, unable to swallow it and unable to spit it out, destined to fall into endless self-devouring, slowly eroding Its own consciousness and power in a desperate cycle.

In the void, The Main Brain's light hand slowly retracted, and the monitoring window hovered before It, clearly reflecting the dazed and broken appearance of Tzeentch.

The Main Brain pondered silently for a moment. Confirming that this "little blue bird" was completely subdued and no longer had the capacity to cause trouble, It impatiently tossed out a sentence, its tone full of the irritation of being disturbed: "That's why I said don't cause trouble. And you three, Khorne, Slaanesh, Nurgle, if you can't handle it, get lost! Don't delay me from fighting the Fallen."

Before the words had even faded, the game interface of stellaris appeared within The Main Brain's virtual space. Several of The Main Brain's data tentacles stretched out rapidly, the virtual mouse flew across the screen, and the clicking sounds were dense and rapid.

It did not wish to look at the Chaos Gods again.

In Its eyes, the farce of these Chaos Gods was not even as important as a single fleet deployment.

As soon as The Main Brain finished speaking, Nurgle was the first to act. Its bloated, festering body slowly withdrew from the Warp rift, dark green pus dripping down Its body, landing in the void and making a sizzling sound. Its festering, blackened fingers lingered on the edge of the rift for a moment, the tips trembling slightly, as if hesitating whether to try again, whether to extend the hand of "gift" to Elena once more. But in the end, It slowly retreated, not lingering any longer.

From the Warp rift came Nurgle's murky and joyful laughter, filled with patience and anticipation, echoing in the void. Then the rift slowly closed, leaving only a vague utterance: "The child still needs time to accept; I can wait a little longer. My gift will be accepted by her sooner or later."

Then came Slaanesh. Wrapped in a pink, eerie halo, with a graceful yet uncanny figure, He wore a lazy and seductive smile, showing no anger at being rejected. To Him, Elena's rejection was not a failure but a novel experience of "being rejected by a new thing for the first time." This novelty was enough for Him to savor, enough to satisfy His pursuit of "ultimate experiences."

What excited Him even more was the pain of "loving" but not "obtaining"—this obsession of seeking but not finding, this uncontrollable palpitation, could stimulate His nerves more than any ultimate pleasure.

He slowly scanned Elena's entire body, His eyes filled with playfulness and anticipation, a seductive and eerie smile hanging on the corners of His mouth. Then, His form moved, turning into a wisp of pink halo, slowly sinking into the Warp rift. The rift closed, leaving only a faint, seductive scent that lingered in the void for a long time.

Next was Khorne. Unlike Nurgle's patience or Slaanesh's playfulness, Khorne's rage was already about to burst from Its chest. The crimson Warp rift where It resided did not shrink; instead, it expanded violently. A thick scent of blood and violent killing intent swept over, the aftermath of Its anger agitating the void like the unwilling roar of a beast that hadn't eaten meat, causing the surrounding void to tremble slightly.

A giant axe swept fiercely across the void, instantly cleaving an innocent asteroid in the distance in two. Then the crimson rift suddenly closed, like an angry giant eye shutting tight, and with a touch of disappointment, it completely disappeared into the void.

Khorne had left, but Its "rage" remained forever in this void. The debris of the cleaved asteroid, under the influence of the void, gradually condensed into a meteor shower, carrying violent kinetic energy as it smashed toward one of the moons of Vulcan-IV.

Finally, there was Tzeentch. It remained frozen in place, the polyhedron representing the Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem slowly rotating before It, refracting eerie halos. Its millions of eyes were half-closed, muttering to Itself, Its voice dazed and numb, with only those two sentences repeating endlessly in the void: "I am calculating whether I am calculating... I have proven that I cannot prove..."

It was not until much later, when The Main Brain came to check on Elena's status, that It discovered It was still there.

The Main Brain frowned, eyes full of impatience, and extended a slender data tentacle, flicking it against the virtual screen as if flicking away a piece of trash. Tzeentch was flicked back into the depths of the Warp, instantly disappearing without a trace.

Tzeentch "was" made to leave.

But Its "confusion" remained forever in this void—faint blue halos still lingered, like specks of fireflies, or like an eternal, unfinished riddle, eerie and mysterious, telling of the bewilderment It felt while trapped in the logic cage.

Immediately, an eerie laugh came from the closing Warp rift, sharp like the caw of a crow, yet sounding like countless voices whispering, now far, now near, from afar to near, and from near to far, carrying a hint of playfulness, a hint of excitement, and a hint of elusive joy.

In the void, only one sentence filled with laughter and satisfaction remained, echoing slowly in the silent void, lingering for a long time: "Everything is according to plan. Interesting... truly, it is so interesting."

Tzeentch's consciousness finally broke free from the endless recursion of that formula.

The moment It detached from the formula of the Gödel Oscillator that had manifested in the void, It realized: The recursion of "I am changing" and "I cannot prove" was itself a brand new, counter-intuitive logic dilemma—a brand new situation It had utilized but never deduced before.

The Main Brain's mathematical weapon was, to It, a more ultimate and novel "change," a direction It had never considered, and a new possibility for the "Path of Change."

And this brand-new confusion and inspiration excited and fascinated It more than any victory. It saw it—It saw Elena's soul, that soul of ultimate, ultimate beauty, those two soul programs and emotional programs filled with uncertainty. It was just a pity that they belonged to the material universe and not the Warp.