Depraved Noble: Forced To Live The Debaucherous Life Of An Evil Noble!-Chapter 672: The War Of Balance And Darkness

The moment the words left Joy’s mouth, the Goddess of Light’s expression changed.

A look of profound recollection entered her eyes—the kind of look that spoke of memories buried deep in the distant past, of events so ancient they predated almost everything Joy could conceive of.

There was nostalgia there, yes.

But also a bitter pain, as if she was touching wounds that had never fully healed.

Then, slowly, a gentle smile spread across her face.

"Evil and righteousness." She murmured, almost to herself. "Good and bad."

She tilted her head, her radiant eyes focusing on something far beyond the void around them.

"What a question. It’s almost as if you’re asking about the ancient past. About the very foundation of the universe itself."

Joy blinked, completely caught off guard.

She had asked about Cassius. A single man. A mortal—well, perhaps more than mortal, but still a single being.

How had that led to talk of the ancient past and the entire universe?

The Goddess floated closer, her presence enveloping Joy in warmth.

"But since you’ve brought it up, since you’ve made me think of the past..."

Her voice dropped to something intimate, conspiratorial.

"Do you want to know more about the universe? About how it was for the other Gods in ages long past?"

She leaned in enthusiastically.

"Do you want to know knowledge so ancient, so forbidden, that no mortal has ever dared to think of knowing it?"

Joy gulped.

Her heart pounded against her ribs. This was dangerous territory—she could feel it in her bones.

Knowledge like this wasn’t meant for mortal minds.

It could break her. Change her. Destroy everything she thought she knew.

"Mother I—" She hesitated. "I don’t think I should know such things. Isn’t that forbidden? Not to mention..."

She glanced around nervously

"...the Goddess of Nature told you not to divulge too much information."

The Goddess of Light rolled her eyes in a gesture so human it was almost jarring.

"It’s fine, dear. Totally fine." She waved her hand dismissively. "She told me not to tell you too much about Cassius himself. But this? This is about the Age of Gods. Ancient history."

A wistful smile crossed her face.

"And I really want to tell someone about it. Now that you’ve brought it up..."

She looked at Joy with hopeful eyes.

"So what do you say, Joy? Would you like to know?"

Joy’s mind screamed at her to refuse. This was forbidden knowledge. Not meant for mortals.

But a small, curious part of her—the part that had always wondered about the mysteries of existence, about the Gods she served, about the very fabric of reality—whispered differently.

She nodded.

The Goddess’s face lit up with delight.

"Good!" She clapped her hands together. "But before I tell you anything, can you answer a question for me first?"

Joy tilted her head curiously as the Goddess said,

"Guess how old I am."

Joy stared.

Of all the questions she had expected, this was not one of them.

"I...what?"

"How old am I?" The Goddess repeated, a genuinely curious look on her face. "I want to know what you think."

Joy’s mind raced.

She was a Goddess. Immortal. She had existed since the beginning of time, surely. She had to be unimaginably ancient.

"I think..."

Joy hesitated, then went with the first number that came to mind.

"More than a hundred billion years?"

It made sense to Joy. The Goddess was immortal. She had existed since the beginning of time.

She had to be unimaginably ancient.

But the Goddess of Light shook her head.

A mischievous smile played on her lips.

"No, Joy. Not at all."

Joy blinked.

"Would you believe me if I told you..." The Goddess continued, her voice light with amusement. "...that I’m only a little over ten thousand years old?"

Joy took a step back.

"What?"

She shook her head vehemently.

"No, no, that’s impossible!" She exclaimed. "Mother, you have to be joking! You’re immortal! You’ve existed since—"

She stopped, gathering herself.

"I mean, ten thousand years is a very long time compared to a mortal like me. That’s ancient to us. But for a Goddess?"

She shook her head again.

"Ten thousand years is young. Incredibly young!"

Hearing this compliment, the Goddess’s face lit up with genuine pleasure.

"Wow." She said, doing a small twirl in the air. "So you consider me young? That makes me so happy!"

She laughed, the sound like chiming bells.

"But you’re right." She continued, settling back down. "Compared to the gods who existed in the past, compared to my sister Gaia, I really am young. I’m basically a baby in her eyes, and in the eyes of the Ancient Gods."

She shrugged.

"But what can I do? I wasn’t born in the old era. I came into existence along with the rest of the new gods. So it’s only natural that I’d be quite young."

Joy’s eyes widened.

"Old gods?" She repeated. "New era? What are you talking about, Mother? I don’t understand."

The Goddess of Light let out a deep sigh.

"The history of the universe..."

She began, her voice taking on a weight that seemed to press down on the very fabric of the void.

"...is divided into two completely different eras."

"The first era is called the Age of Darkness."

Even through her radiant glow, Joy could feel the heavy emotions radiating from her. The Goddess’s face, despite its brightness, seemed shadowed by ancient sorrow.

"Let me tell Joy, that the beginning of everything..."

The Goddess continued.

"...at the very start of the universe, there was one key principle that governed all of creation."

"Balance."

The word hung in the air like a sacred truth.

Joy listened intently, barely breathing.

"Balance was the key to everything. Whether it was the balance between the number of males and females. Or the number of Carnivores and herbivores."

"The number of stars, the number of planets, the number of living beings on every world."

She paused.

"Every single thing was utterly balanced."

She leaned closer.

"And just like you asked about evil and righteousness—that was balanced too."

"There was never too much horror in the world, but never too much goodness either. They intertwined with one another, coexisting in perfect equilibrium."

Joy nodded slowly, trying to comprehend.

"That was how the universe existed. That was how it was supposed to exist."

The Goddess’s expression darkened.

"But that period did not last very long."

She looked away, her voice dropping.

"You see, many people think that righteousness will always prevail. That light will always triumph over darkness." She shook her head. "But that’s not true. Darkness was always much more powerful."

Joy felt a chill run through her.

"It started to prevail. To consume. World after world, the light dimmed. The good in people—love, gratitude, compassion—began to drown out."

"In their place rose murder, lust, greed, and every dark impulse imaginable."

She paused.

"It spread across all the worlds. Everywhere."

"And then—" Her voice became barely a whisper "—it spread to the gods themselves."

Joy’s blood ran cold.

"The Gods who once prioritized balance, who were in charge of maintaining the holy axiom, became influenced by the darkness. They changed. Becane corrupted."

She looked directly at Joy.

"They became what we now call...Evil Gods."

The term alone made Joy shudder.

Evil was one thing. Evil beings, evil mortals, evil acts—she had faced all of those.

But Evil Gods? Beings of divine power twisted into instruments of darkness?

She couldn’t even imagine it.

"Evil gods." She repeated.

The Goddess of Light nodded.

"Yes. Evil gods."

She held up her hands as she continued explaining,

"In the beginning, there were seventy-two Gods. Seventy-two of us, ruling over the cosmos, maintaining balance across all of existence."

Her voice grew heavy.

"But more than half of them were influenced by the darkness. They turned. Became something else entirely."

Joy’s face went pale.

"Because of that, darkness continued to prevail. It accelerated. It consumed more and more of the universe. And of course..."

She shook her head

"—that couldn’t be allowed."

"The world was supposed to be balanced. It was never meant to be dominated by evil alone."

She then held up a finger and quickly added,

"But make no mistake—evil should exist. Without evil, there can be no good. Without darkness, there can be no light."

"They are two sides of the same coin. But one side cannot be allowed to overwhelm the other completely."

She clenched her fist.

"So the rest of the gods who weren’t influenced—they fought back. They tried to reason with them. Argued that balance must be maintained. That it was their duty, their very purpose for existing."

Joy leaned forward, captivated.

"My sister was one of them..." The Goddess added quietly. "One of the ones who fought for balance."

Joy gasped. "The Goddess of Nature?"

The Goddess of Light nodded.

"Yes. She was one of the Ancient Gods. And back then, she held an even greater title than she does now."

A note of reverence entered her voice.

"She was the Goddess of Light. The very representative of path of Light and Righteousness."

Joy’s eyes widened impossibly further.

"With such a noble title, there was no way she would succumb to the Evil Gods. She led the charge. Gathered all the Ancient Gods who still believed in balance and stood at the forefront of the resistance."

The Goddess’s voice grew heavy again.

"And when they realized that no amount of negotiation, no amount of persuasion, would ever work...they decided to go to war."

Joy felt her blood run cold.

"So the war began. The war between the Evil Gods and the Gods who believed in balance."

She paused, letting the weight of those words settle.

"It spanned millions of years."

’Millions of years.’ Joy gulped.

"And because of this war...multiple worlds were extinguished."

The Goddess continued, her voice filled with ancient sorrow.

".Countless lives were lost. Entire civilizations erased from existence."

"New laws that fundamentally changed the way the universe worked were destroyed. Other laws were created in their place."

She shook her head slowly.

"It was the most devastating, chaotic period in the entire history of the cosmos."

Joy couldn’t speak.

She had experienced war. Had fought in battles, seen comrades fall, witnessed the horrors that mortals could inflict upon each other. Even then, the sights she had seen were gruesome and brutal.

But a war between gods?

Destroying worlds and extinguishing civilizations as easily as she might swat a fly?

Her mind couldn’t grasp it. Couldn’t process the scale of destruction, the magnitude of suffering, the sheer impossibility of it all.

Just thinking about it made her head ache with the effort.

The Goddess of Light watched her, understanding in her eyes.

"It’s a lot to take in, isn’t it?"

Joy could only nod weakly.

The Goddess let out a lighthearted chuckle, the sound echoing through the void like wind chimes in a gentle breeze.

"Well, you’ll be happy and relieved to know...." She said, her eyes twinkling. "...that at the end of the war, the side that believed in order and balance was able to break through everything."

"They overcame all the trials and ultimately won."

Joy felt something loosen in her chest.

A massive, crushing weight that she hadn’t even realized she’d been carrying lifted from her soul.

For a terrifying moment, she had imagined a universe ruled by Evil Gods—a cosmos consumed by darkness, with no hope, no light, no goodness anywhere.

But the light had triumphed.

Good had prevailed.

The world was right. The universe was safe.

She let out a long, shuddering sigh of relief.

But then she noticed the Goddess of Light’s expression.

The lightheartedness faded, replaced by something somber. A deep, ancient sadness settled into her radiant features.

"However..." The Goddess continued, her voice growing heavy. "...to win such a war, countless sacrifices were made. And at the very end...the only God who actually survived was my sister."

Joy’s heart stopped as the Goddess sorrowfully said,

"Every other God—whether they were Evil Gods or Gods on her side—they all vanquished."

"They ceased to exist entirely and only my sister was alive."