440 Eva's Decision

As such, there were almost 30,000 homesteads and villages, around 230 towns of various sizes, and 16 cities also of various sizes, not including the capital. On the main plane, this would be a tier above a Divine Empire. 

Then again, the residents of Shinoka Continent were not subject to the Demon's millennial rampage, meaning that they had been able to carry their heritages and whatnot perfectly for all those years. 

If it wasn't for limited land since Shinoka Continent was an island similar to real-world Japan but about 15x bigger, they would have expanded more. As it was, the total population of this empire was around 1.7 billion people. 

Eva tossed the twitching corpse of an official from the mayor's house of one of the random towns she had stopped by. She channeled her Telepathy and Mind Control, both of which she had gotten a handle on after taking on her Goddess Form twice. 

As she used her bloodline abilities to glean this info, she returned to the back of Luxia in the sky with her Wings of Light, also manifested by her bloodline, just like Draco had his Dark Angel wings. 

Once she shared what she had learned with the others, they all nodded and Zaine asked the most prudent question. "How do you wish to proceed?" 

The other two gazed at Eva seriously, for her next words would be tumultuous. Would she commit a complete genocide against all citizens, men, women children, and even babies who happened to be unlucky enough to belong to the wrong side? Or would she limit herself to a specific demographic? 

Hikari hoped that Eva would choose the latter option, while Roma hoped for the former. Zaine was on the fence about this, which was what Eva gleaned from their minds through Telepathy. 

Eva had yet to make up her mind, so she pondered for a second, before thinking back to the agreement she and Amaterasu had struck to avoid Eva's body destroying itself during the Ascension Ceremony. 

[E: "What exactly will change about me?"] 

[A: "You will no longer feel averse to showing your face, be it in this digital world or the real one. However, you will maintain your current self that hates the idea of making all beings subservient because of your beauty."] 

[A: "You will no longer perform all forms of evils with no bottom line. You will have a bottom line suitable for a Goddess of Light, but you shall be able to act ruthlessly when the situation calls for it. However, you will no longer radiate malice, and people will henceforth love to be around you, instead of fleeing from you."] 

Eva considered the second change especially. A bottom line suitable for a Goddess of Light, huh? Where would such a being draw their bottom line? Likely with the second option Hikari hoped for. 

But what had come after was what had made Eva smile, that she would be able to retain and exercise Riveting Night's ruthlessness when necessary. As of now, the two thoughtstreams in her head were fighting an inner battle which grew in ferocity with every passing second and might even damage the outside world if Eva didn't subdue it. 

It sounded exaggerated, but she wasn't the most powerful psychic - aside from Draco - for nothing. Her careless channeling had created a psychic poison so deadly it could act as a species-ending plague, much less when her two matured thoughtstreams were going all out. 

To be cruel or to be soft? She could certainly pick out the various officials of the Storm Empire and purge them all, allowing new leaders she chose to take the lead. That way, the Storm Empire could be hers through proxy. She could also just crown herself as the new Empress, and suppress all opposition. 

While all this sounded clever and logical, there was one main issue. This clashed with how Eva wanted to handle the Shinoka Continent. She wasn't going to spend all her time here, she was just passing through to get some good stuff and open the eyes of her sister-wives. 

Since they won't even be here for more than another month or two at best, doing such a thing would be utterly pointless. In a few years, everything would go back to normal, and the Sun Empire might no longer exist if things continued as it were. 

And so, Eva's mind began to subtly change and shift in a unique but familiar way. Parts of the two thoughtstreams were extracted and mixed into a very thin and weak thoughtstream that had been suppressed all this while. 

Its light flickered weakly as it was just about to die off due to the terrible storm the other two thoughtstreams were raising, instead it suddenly found itself empowered by all these changes that were happening. 

It was only when the third thoughtstream emitted a small wave that canceled out the psychic chaos ongoing in Eva's mind that the two thoughtstreams formerly in battle realized what had happened. 

The darker thoughtstream paused when it felt the aura of the third and accessed some of its memories to understand what had just happened. It then remembered a snippet of info its beloved had shared, that he also manifested a total of three thoughtstreams. 

One evil, one benevolent, and one pragmatic. The dark thoughtstream, seeing that this new one seemed to be neutral, understood what was going on and retreated quietly despite its desire to raise more of a fuss. 

The light thoughtstream did the same, as it had accessed the same set of memories, only processing them differently compared to the dark one. It also understood that this third existence was necessary and would further complete Eva. 

The dark thoughtstream naturally represented Riveting Night without any bars or limitations. It was purely evil, amoral, and horrible in ways that even Draco would not dare imagine. When Eva had still been Riveting Night, the only thing that had made her behave like a normal person had been her fear of losing him again and her obsession. 

As a mere thoughtstream, it had very little of that remaining. As for the light thoughtstream, it came into being as a result of the merger with Amaterasu. Ever since it had been the dominant personality Eva displayed outwardly, the 'compromise' between Riveting Night and Amaterasu. 

Basically, the personality we've been seeing so far. So then, what was this new thoughtstream and how did it fit into all of this? 

Just like Draco, whose mind and character had reached perfection once he created his third thoughtstream, Eva too had reached perfection. Hers was much more efficient and cleaner thanks to the road Draco had paved. 

Draco had been a pioneer/pathfinder who loved to explore new things and carve out a path for the people behind him, while Eva was a cautious shadow that would trail any beaten path as long as she reached her goal. 

That obviously changed once Riveting Night had died, but then Eva became a bit too benevolent and especially very prudish thanks to her Goddess-mindset. She wasn't truly in balance. 

She went from truly Eva to a weird hybrid that was best called Evaterasu. 

Now though, the third thoughtstream did the unthinkable. It gathered the fragile remnants of the old Eva and merged it with the darkest aspects of Riveting Night as well as the lightest of Evaterasu. 

This was the Eva that had existed from birth until just a few months ago where she received a load of memories from the future and was shafted by the tyrannical personality of Riveting Night, almost being destroyed in total. 

She had only survived because Riveting Night had thought that Draco might like to see bits of the old her around, so she locked it up and kept that part of her at the back. Now that she had returned to the fore, she sighed with relief. 

She had the same set of memories as the other thoughtstreams and knew everything about everything. She was still shocked by how horrible her future had been. Not only that, but that damned Riveting Night thoughtstream had abandoned Darkrow! 

It had been her father's legacy, which she had inherited! She might not have prioritized it over her beloved soulmate, but Riveting Night could have at least given the members some closure to absorb them into Umbra! 

She had just cut them off as they served as a reminder of the bitter past, a past the true Eva had yet to live through, but could see as if she already had. Since there was a pivotal decision to be made, the true Eva let the matter drop and pondered over the facts as herself. 

This all occurred in the span of a few seconds, so Eva turned to Zaine with a light smile and said: "Only combatants and political leaders are against us. All non-combatants are not to be harmed." 

Hikari sighed with relief and Roma looked despondent, but Zaine simply nodded. "I see you have finally reached Draco's stage. Which one will you use as your base?" 

Roma and Hikari did not understand what Zaine was referring to, but Eva did. Basically, Draco had three thoughtstreams, but if one noticed, his current personality was that of a goofy shameless idiot. 

This was what he had chosen to be his base, the thoughtstream and personality of his past self before being 'betrayed' by Eva. He chose that one because he felt it was the most comfortable one and Eva would like it the most since that was who she first fell in love with. 

He could easily switch to the edgelord of murder that was his dark thoughtstream, or the paragon of cold wisdom that was his neutral thoughtstream. Obviously, his shameless thoughtstream was the light side of him, which was why he hardly committed any atrocities anymore. 

Eva too was faced with the same choice. Always switching between the three would be unhealthy, so one would have to act as the base that could be influenced or interchanged with the other two when necessary. 

So, the choices were firstly, returning to good old Riveting Night while occasionally displaying benevolence or pragmatism when necessary, becoming Evaterasu who had been the Goddess-like one seen after the change from Riveting Night, or going back to the 'true Eva', the young 21-year-old woman who had just been starting out her adult life, yet was not laden with experience. 

Eva smacked her lips and decided to cope Draco. She decided to make her light thoughtstream the base, meaning that the current her, Evaterasu, would be her permanent 'normal' form for as long as she lived. 

Riveting Night sulked and slinked away while Young Eva sighed and wished Evaterasu good luck. Evaterasu smiled benevolently at her two other forms and told them to guide her often. 

Only Zaine felt this while Roma and Hikari continued to be lost. Whatever the case, Eva had led them to the capital city. The Storm Empire, which had largely been calm and peaceful in its own way was thrown into an uproar as the Light Phoenix appeared above them. 

They had already heard some snippets of news from the battlefront, that an incarnation of Amaterasu descended to the world and took charge of the battle. Now that she had appeared above them, what did this mean? 

Many leaders and fighters in the know immediately tried to flee as best they could. As for the rest of the citizens, they looked up in awe and confusion as Eva adopted her Goddess Form for the third time in three days. 

Once they felt that aura, everyone knew she was the real deal, and dared not gaze at her for any longer as they knelt. Eva summoned the astral projection and shone its light upon the entire kingdom with ease. 

The astral projection spoke on her behalf as it decreed to all living things: "Mortals of Susanoo's followership, you have been found guilty of warmongering against the Sun Empire without good reason." 

Her divine aura pressed down on all the living beings present harshly as she continued. "As such, I have decided on a suitable punishment for you."