When Aiden and the three Great Witches were playing chess, the Great Witches had once suspected that Aiden had been subjected to a suggestion, a kind of suggestion that disrupts cognition—

Abigail, "Could it be that you’ve been under some kind of suggestion, like... a trap that triggers once certain conditions are met."

Qiqimora, "There’s also a possibility that the suggestion just changes a specific cognition, one that could mislead you until you gain authority."

Lamia, "But after being promoted to ruler, such a suggestion might also be broken. It’s meaningless, right, kid?"

Aiden was also quite certain that his Spirit had been tampered with by the Conspiracy Goddess, those sealed memories, and the erased dialogue between the former Aiden and the Conspiracy Goddess, all indicated this fact.

And once Aiden obtained authority, he became a ruler, and he had the power to counter the tampering done by the Conspiracy Goddess.

But the Conspiracy Goddess had always been actively paving the way to authority for Aiden, preparing one challenge after another for him, allowing him to achieve progress in one year that others seeking authority could not achieve in decades, which made Aiden feel conflicted.

If the Conspiracy Goddess really had the intention of assimilating or hypnotizing him, then him gaining authority would be counterproductive.

But at that time, Aiden suddenly had an epiphany, a new idea formed—thinking inversely, what if the ultimate goal of the Conspiracy Goddess wasn’t to mislead him with suggestion, but rather to have him unlock this suggestion.

That segment of memory that didn’t belong to him was probably something the Conspiracy Goddess hoped he would eventually recall.

If, after obtaining authority and unlocking the suggestion, he was still under the control of the Conspiracy Goddess, then the greatest possibility that Aiden could think of was that he would "willingly" do so at that time.

For the first time, Aiden began to deeply question himself: Why had he naturally assumed that he was the transmigrator who had inherited the identity of Aiden Galahad?

Combining the experiences of the Nameless Witch with the hints once given to him by the Dreamer, everything pointed to a single answer—the assimilation by the Conspiracy Goddess had actually been completed long ago; he was neither Aiden Galahad nor a wandering transmigrator, but one of the embodiments of the Conspiracy Goddess.

Since the Conspiracy Goddess had the power to devour Spirits and inherit all memories of a soul, she didn’t need to let him inherit the memories of Aiden Galahad at all, she could have devoured the former Aiden and the transmigrator all at once.

When she wanted to continue the life of a certain identity, creating new memories, she only needed to slightly manipulate her own memories. Without the memories as the Conspiracy Goddess, "she" would naturally identify with the remaining memories as her own identity.

When he obtained authority or died, the memories would be revived, the misleading suggestion that he was Aiden Galahad would unravel, and the Conspiracy Goddess would either obtain an identity with authority or harvest the Spirit filled with the entire life’s memories of a pawn.

By this reasoning, perhaps Mr. Bloodcoat was also such a pawn.

Once Mr. Bloodcoat successfully obtained the "Hatred" authority, he would indeed become an existence equal to the Conspiracy Goddess as he wished, only the form would be slightly different—he would become one of the Conspiracy Goddesses, and at that time the Conspiracy Goddess would simultaneously possess three authorities of the Throne of Spirit.

Proceeding from this conclusion, the two hints given by the Dreamer also found a solution.

The Conspiracy Goddess had once approached the Throne of Spirit, that is, she almost obtained the "Hatred" authority, but in the end, the "Hatred" authority was held by the Goddess of Vengeance.

The power of the ruler can only be countered by another ruler.

The Goddess of Vengeance had, during her ascension, sacrificed all her past memories.

Once Aiden’s situation was replicated onto the Goddess of Vengeance, everything started to make sense.

The Goddess of Vengeance was originally an avatar of the Goddess of Conspiracy. Just like Aiden Galahad in the beginning, she was a mortal pawn favored by the Goddess of Conspiracy. The Goddess of Conspiracy consumed her spirit, assimilating it into one of her own avatars, then sealed away key memories, making this part of her believe it was the "Lady of the Phoenix," while the Goddess of Conspiracy secretly helped her gain authority.

During this process, it was very likely that the Goddess of Conspiracy had personally arranged the "Lady of the Phoenix’s" promotion ceremony—akin to Mister Crimson, the Phoenix’s object of betrayal might have been none other than the Goddess of Conspiracy herself.

However, during the process of ascension, the Goddess of Vengeance uncovered the truth and then began to resist the resurgence of her memories.

She chose to forsake those resurgent memories, along with the human memories she had no desire to cling to, thus embarking on a new path as a freshly born ruler.

In the end, everyone was in fact a puppet of the Goddess of Conspiracy.

Aiden could fully understand this notion.

Even if he knew his original personality, at the moment, he still perceived himself as the transmigrator inheriting the identity of Aiden Galahad, and to him, it didn’t matter whether the return of his memories was natural or orchestrated by an external force. From his perspective, both were a form of spiritual erosion. He would never accept becoming the Goddess of Conspiracy.

Although his time in this world was short, his life had not been meaningless, and he did not wish to lose this identity.

He shared his conjecture with the Goddess of Vengeance in advance, convincing her to believe in it.

Their objective then became clear: Aiden aided the Goddess of Vengeance in returning to her divine position, and then sought his own ascension. During his ascension process, he planned to use the Goddess of Vengeance’s "sacrifice" to completely abandon the memories belonging to the Goddess of Conspiracy that were resurging.

It was only the "sacrifice" of a supreme ruler that had a chance to erase the memories overwritten by the "common knowledge" of another supreme ruler; hence the essence of the adage that only a ruler’s power can contend with another ruler’s.

It was with this method that Aiden managed to retain his self-identity during the ascension.

And by a stroke of fate, assisting the Goddess of Vengeance in reclaiming her divine position happened to be the final ceremony for Aiden’s promotion.

This couldn’t help but make Aiden feel as if destiny truly existed.

"How many times have you done this? It couldn’t be that you have placed avatars all over this continent, could it?" Aiden asked, his expression stern.

"Rest assured, I only choose those with the potential to gain authority. Authority selects its bearer, and destiny brings those suited to it closer to power," Melissa replied with a smile. "And such individuals are not many."

Aiden thought to himself that there must indeed be quite a few, given that the Goddess of Conspiracy would have opened many such "alts" to satisfy her whims.

"There’s another question. You’ve experienced the overturning of the Goddess of Vengeance. Even if you’ve sealed your power to calculate the future, you should have anticipated the possibility of me doing this. Why did you still choose to let me approach the throne?" Aiden asked earnestly.

"Because it’s also very interesting, isn’t it? A game of chess requires an opponent to be played, and I haven’t found an opponent interesting enough to engage me in a long while. If that’s the case, creating one isn’t a bad idea at all," the Goddess of Conspiracy answered with a smile.