Chapter 7199: The Ultimate Sin Ves rarely interacted with his mother these days. Whether it was himself in the Red Ocean or Veronica in the Milky Way, the Oblivion Empress liked to be aloof and spend her precious time on her own plots and schemes. Ves understood it. Ever since he resurrected her, she became a True God, a transcendent existence who perceived reality in a very different fashion than ’mortals’ like himself. It was as if she lived in a four-dimensional universe while lesser beings were still confined to a three-dimensional universe. Even if their living spaces overlapped, their perspectives diverged too much to attain mutual understanding. A part of Ves hated it because his mother knew so much. She could help him avoid so many detours and gain much greater power at the fraction of the price. If she wanted to, she could use her superior might and understanding to quickly tutor him and rapidly rise to power just like she had done with his eldest sister Helena. Yet another part of Ves felt grateful that this scary energy-based life form that just happened to share a parental relationship with him kept her distance. She was an objectively horrible person who definitely shared the same opinions about humans as the Ascended Giants. She was the product of a very distorted culture and society that placed ordinary humans at the very bottom of society. This was not the kind of person that Ves wanted to befriend. As a child who grew up in an ordinary modern civilized state, he could never accept how Cynthia Larkinson treated ordinary humans like slaves. She had no respect for their intrinsic human rights and was not above sacrificing them to further a greater goal. Ves and Cynthia could never align their philosophies with each other. They clung tightly to their own worldviews, for the way they perceived reality defined all of their behavior. If not for the current crisis, Ves would have never thought about summoning the Superior Mother. He knew that if the ancestral spirit arrived, his Cynthia would definitely grow curious enough to descend upon her external incarnation. Ves knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that his mother had allocated enough of her attention to him to judge his situation. He could feel her presence scrutinizing everything. She did not bother to hide her powerful influence as her incarnation methodically swept his true body and his Spirituality from top to bottom. She also scanned the surroundings, paying special attention to the scuffed but largely uninjured Oscillating Fist. What was strange was that time appeared to have slowed down by a factor of at least a 100. Everything moved so much slower that they almost appeared frozen. It did not take much guessing that his mother was responsible for this effect. It appeared she wanted to reserve plenty of time to lecture him in person. Though Cynthia had yet to voice her judgment, Ves couldn’t help but feel like he had turned into a little boy again. Even if she was limited by her incarnation and the restrictions of her current descent into Blinky, her exquisite mastery of E energy allowed her to utilize it in a much more efficient manner than he thought possible! If Ves routinely wasted 80 to 90 percent of the potential of E energy, then a True God like the Oblivion Empress could easily reduce her waste below 10 percent or even more! While Ves was only able to observe and understand a fraction of her wizardry, he became profoundly impressed by her effortless mastery. Her comprehension and skills were so much greater than his own that he felt like a complete amateur in front of his mother! All of his experimentation may have unlocked a lot of interesting new possibilities himself and others, but the refinement and sophistication of his methods left much to be desired. He spent too much time and effort inventing new stuff and not enough time on refining his existing ones. While Ves did not necessarily regret his decisions, his mother’s demonstration of power reminded him that he had neglected a few options because he did not spend enough time on refining his existing applications. As his mother patiently completed her survey, her glowing incarnation addressed his other self first. "You call yourself the Dark Apostle, is that correct?" "Yes... mother..." It appeared that the Dark Apostle inherited Ves’ fear and deference towards his mother. Ever since she descended onto Blinky, the Ascended Giant lost all of his confidence and grew as meek as a harmless sheep. It was as if he came face-to-face with an apex predator. Everything in his bones told him that there was no way he could resist the True God even if she only diverted a fraction of herself to this site. The Superior Mother’s lips curled with intrigue. She appeared amused at how Ves’ current condition. "It is good that you still recognize me as your mother. If you did not, then I would have to eliminate you from my original son’s true body. Family is everything. You can steal, you can torture, you can kill, but unless provoked, you must never harm our family. As long as you hold that in your heart, I will recognize you as my own son. I shall love you just as much as I love Ves. Do you understand?" The Dark Apostle did not hesitate for a single moment. "Y-Yes, mother!" Ves grew incredibly jealous at how easily his mother secured the Dark Apostle’s submission and obedience. If he was as strong as her, he could have gotten rid of his alternative personality a long time ago! Why did she not do so? Why did she look at his unwanted foreign self and embrace him as a son? Shouldn’t she be horrified that an intruder had occupied his true body and seek to purify him so that he regained full control over his body again? Cynthia knew exactly what he was thinking. The Superior Mother occupied the same vessel as herself. He could feel her attention drifting towards her original son. "You must be wondering why I am not doing what you are fantasizing in your mind." "Ehhh..." "What you have spawned from your true body is a consequence of your own actions. You have toyed with forces beyond your comprehension. Do not be surprised when those same forces take advantage of your ignorance and exploit a vulnerability in yourself. You managed to get off lightly as far as I am concerned. Spawning a second personality that is not under your control is... not an uncommon occurrence back in the day." The Superior Mother smiled as if she was reminiscing about her own childhood. Ves simply felt shocked at how she nonchalantly dismissed his very serious condition! Even if she had no intention of dealing with the Dark Apostle, she could at least voice more sympathy! The Superior Mother shook her head and tutted. "When you reach my level of existence, you will learn that individuals are defined by their souls, not their surface personalities. You have split yourself multiple times in multiple different forms. Is it any surprise that an outside force has succeeded in splitting you in a manner you did not desire?" In other words, it was totally his fault that he ended up stuck with the Dark Apostle. "From Blinky to Veronica, you have also not shied away from assuming different identities." She continued to admonish Ves. "As far as I am concerned, they are all aspects of yourself, and so they are all my children so long as they recognize me as their mother. You may think yourself as special as you are the first and the eldest among them, but you can argue that this also makes you the least developed and evolved iteration of yourself." ??? What the hell was she talking about? Seeing that Ves did not understand her message, she dumbed down her explanation. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺 "It doesn’t matter if you retain a single personality or spawn a thousand personalities. I am willing to love each of them as my own son or daughter so long as their soul is tied to the boy I birthed and raised. Love transcends all barriers. I may not be able to live up to this ideal, but my tolerance is vaster than you can imagine. I will love you even if you choose to destroy the Dark Apostle. At the same time, I will love him without reserve if he somehow gains the upper hand and devours everything that defines you as Ves." What?! His mother was crazy! "Wait, doesn’t that contradict your earlier statement about never harming your own family?" "Cases like yours are... special." Cynthia delicately said. "The two of you are not brothers. You are different versions of yourself. Admittedly, the Dark Apostle has become contaminated by an outside force, but that does not fundamentally change my description. The two of you need to sort out your own cohabitation problems. I shall not interfere." "Really?" "Really?" The Superior Mother nodded. "You are both my sons, and I love you both equally. I will not play favorites, as only a bad mother would do so. I will accept any resolution or lack thereof. You may fight each other until the winner takes all. One of you may take the initiative to leave your true body and inhabit a different one. You may even choose to accept your joint ownership over the same body and maintain the current status quo." In other words, she was fine with almost every possible outcome! While the Dark Apostle clearly grew ecstatic at this news, Ves felt betrayed by his own mother. Did she not want him anymore? "It is not about wanting you or not." The True God directly stated to him. "You have made your bed. Now you must lie in it. Actions have consequences. Cultivation is inherently dangerous, and directly manipulating the soul is even more perilous. You cannot continue to play with fire and expect to remain safe all of the time. Sooner or later, you will get burned. The current outcome is hardly the worst case scenario. There are much worse fates." "I can hardly imagine." "I understand what you are going through, my son." She said in a heartless tone. "However, the most appreciated decision I can make is to respect the process of the survival of the fittest. If the two of you are determined to monopolize your true body, then only one of you will survive to the end. I shall commend the winner for his success. As for the loser, I have no sympathy for him. Weakness is the ultimate sin." Ves almost felt like fainting when she uttered those words. He truly could not understand what was going on in her crazy mind. Her norms and values were so alien to him that it was difficult to imagine that she used to be a human! "Is this how you view your own family? Is it too much to ask for you to divorce your ideology from your family." "You already know the answer to your own question, Ves. I am not the woman you think I am." She said as the Superior Mother looked at him with judgment. "As I have said before, I understand what you are going through... because I have lived through similar experiences. Your condition is not uncommon. Different personalities may spawn in our bodies for one reason or another. Do you truly think that I am the gentle mother who raised you back in Cloudy Curtain?" A horrifying realization dawned on Ves’ mind. "Are you saying... you devoured my birth mother?" "I am not a monster that has taken on the guise of your mother." She declared. "I am your mother. My love for you is real. Whether my current personality is an exact match to the one that has raised you in your early childhood is inconsequential. No matter whether I present myself as the Superior Mother, the Oblivion Empress or Cynthia Larkinson, they are all parts of myself. The same applies to you. The sooner you accept this greater truth, the sooner you will become mature enough to undertake greater responsibilities."