Chapter 195: Judgement
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
The battle before us was already difficult to the point of despair. Even though the warriors weren’t afraid of sacrifices, the enemy was immune to ordinary weapons, and it was nigh impossible to scratch his defenses—any battle that was impossible to win would naturally lower the warriors’ morale.
“In front of True Gods, all are nothing but ants.” — Main True God of The Elves, Anslo Shusta Alderban.
Although I didn’t approve of such arrogant words, I couldn’t help but admit that these existences known as Gods were the most annoying types of entities, and it was all due to their undying natures and broad Divine Domains.
This, right now, was the perfect example. No matter how hard the mortals worked, they were unable to cause any life-threatening harm to Felix, and even if they somehow managed to injure him, Felix only needed to spend some divine power and would recover in the next second.
“What ants? Humph—it’s just that divine power is too powerful and disables the mortals from landing fatal blows… but, it’s not impossible to deal with.”
“God’s Descent!”
Yes, my method was God’s Descent as well. This was the ace card I had left for myself when I had ascended to a God; it was my safeguard against any powerful beings that may come looking for trouble later.
True Gods couldn’t be defeated? Even if this was treated as a maxim in this world, I had never believed it. However, I had to admit that the special concept known as divine power was incredibly difficult to deal with.
Since I wanted to reach my goal in this Holy War, I knew that I would be facing True Gods sooner or later, and the simplest method to deal with them was to also possess divine power. This was also why I had spent so much effort on creating a True God that was worthy of having believers.
What was the condition for a God’s Descent? It was that the souls should be similar and the bodies should be compatible. And there was nobody else who would be more compatible with Wumianzhe—we were the same to begin with, after all, and we could skip all the rituals.
The moon elves were able to achieve a God’s Descent with a synchronization ratio of about 60%. Karwenz had specially prepared Reyne’s body so that he could synchronize with her at about 80%. However, between Wumianzhe and me, our synchronization was 100% from the very start. Moon elves needed to change their soul wavelengths in order to begin the ritual for a God’s Descent, but for me, all I needed to do was make a connection with my other self in the heavens.
Of course, an overly high synchronization wasn’t necessarily good either, as two entirely identical souls would create another problem. But now wasn’t the time to be worrying about that.
With the two identical wills and souls connecting, a blinding, silver light descended as a lustrous balance appeared in midair. The judge’s silver mask materialized together with a similarly silver Divine Domain that began clashing with the grayish-purple Divine Domain.
Through my body, the Law God and Guardian God of the North, Wumianzhe, had descended!
“Heh, is this the feeling of a God?”
My awareness was crystal-clear; I could clearly notice Hemet’s shocked expression in the far-off observation tower as he dropped his binoculars. Falsity did not exist in a God’s eyes; a God could see truth and souls for what they were.
I could sense the enormous amount of faith transforming into strength as it rushed to my Divine Domain through the pillars of heaven. Most of the chains of faith in the Northlands were related to me as I was the Guardian God of the Northlands. These many believers helped augment my strength.
“…Increasing my strength right now isn’t a good thing. I don’t have much time; I should hurry.”
One body could only possess one soul. When two souls shared the same body for too long, they would instinctively begin trying to suppress and devour each other even if special methods were used to make one soul subordinate to the other. However, this wasn’t a problem for me.
Wumianzhe was just an automated version of myself to begin with, and our souls were identical. It was just like two file folders that contained identical documents; no matter how much you overlapped them, they would still be the same.
That wasn’t my problem.
“Damn it, we have already started combining…”
Yes, my problem wasn’t about the God’s Descent in itself; instead, it was about how I would separate from Wumianzhe after I was finished.
Let me make an analogy. A normal God’s Descent was akin to the mixing of oil and water; they would have to work on making two completely different existences come together and synchronize to raise the compatibility rate. On the other hand, my God’s Descent was like the mixing of water and water; the biggest problem was how to separate the two afterward.
Right now, I had already achieved a strategic goal, as vast amounts of knowledge and secrets poured into my mind and a tremendous amount of divine power filled my body. Even though I took a circuitous route, I was finally able to steal the knowledge and wisdom of the True Gods!
“The secrets of the right to become a God, the structure of the power of faith, reincarnation, the Hall of Valhalla—this was all worth it!”
Some things could only be seen upon reaching a certain level. I had been awaiting these divine secrets for quite a while, and now that I possessed them, the next step of my plan could finally be realized. My future personal development now became much clearer.
“I finally made progress. With this, I can focus entirely on increasing my personal combat strength…”
Yet now wasn’t the time to rejoice, as my consciousness was already becoming blurry. Wumianzhe was like a vast ocean absorbing a small river—me. If this combination continued, perhaps we would never be able to be separated again.
“No matter if Wumianzhe is pulled down here or if I’m pulled up to the heavens, neither is an acceptable end. That would mean everything I’ve worked for and waited for was all wasted!”
All these thoughts flashed through my mind in a short instant. The bystanders only saw Roland floating in midair as a silver judge’s cap materialized on his head and his divine power transformed into a Divine Domain.
The silver and grayish-purple Divine Domains clashed against and invaded each other; each tried to force itself above the other Divine Domain. The two descended Gods clashed against each other in an instant, using the most barbaric method of all to prove their strength.
Perhaps Roland as a host was far stronger than Adrian, perhaps Wumianzhe was simply stronger than Felix since Wumianzhe had two Divine Obligations, or perhaps Felix was still far too weak as he had just recently ascended to the position of a True God because it was obvious who the victor was at first glance.
The silver Divine Domain won overwhelmingly!
“A battle between Gods!”
The battle which would determine the master of the Northlands rose to the final level, as even the Gods began directly interfering in the fight. Although the current me seemed rather majestic, I actually had a severe headache, with my consciousness becoming hazy. I only wanted to go to sleep.
But I knew that if I slept now, I might never wake up again.
“Shadow!”
With a low roar, a hallucinatory shadow came to life and attached itself to my body as it greedily devoured divine power and grew.
This was the strength that I had obtained from that great snowy mountain. That Frigid Nightmare that just couldn’t hatch had finally transformed—but it had transformed into a piece of ice named Shadow. Currently, it was just a newborn that severely lacked nutrition, and divine power from the same source was the best nutrition of all.
What did I mean by “same source?” Wumianzhe’s divine power was from the same source as me, and this Frigid Nightmare was my companion and was also from the same source as me. As a result, the Frigid Nightmare and Wumianzhe had the same source of power.
Frigid Nightmares would grow together with their hosts and would absorb their host’s emotions in order to evolve. As for this newly-born Frigid Nightmare named Shadow, it had already absorbed more than three hundred years of negative emotions from me. Perhaps growing up in such a crazed and twisted environment created its frightening power.
Even when it had just hatched, it could already easily toy with and kill Fismer. If it could absorb enough divine power in order to make up for its shortcomings of being unable to hatch for so long, its growth potential was unimaginable. I was greatly looking forward to witnessing his growth.
After being succored by the silver divine power, Shadow, who was formerly black, began changing in color, and its hallucinatory form also began to materialize. Thanks to the power of luck and coincidence, a brand-new divine creature was being born.
From far away, Shadow seemed only like a pair of wings of light belonging to Wumianzhe, as it was actually shining brilliantly and beautifully.
Lustrous wings kept spreading out as a silvery-white hooded cape blocked Wumianzhe’s face, and Wumianzhe’s silver mask materialized in the mortal plane along with numerous one-eyed emblems. He was watching everywhere, judging the entire world.
To tell the truth, all this customized equipment was the form that Shadow chose to take. As it was a part of me, Shadow was currently helping me bear part of Wumianzhe’s divine power, and finally helped ease my burden so that I could spare enough attention to manipulate this unimaginably strong divine power.
“Target locked on Felix. Divine Art: Great Judgement!”
A silver light covered the entire world as the God of Law, with wings of light, reached his arms out to the sky and summoned a nameless massive Book of Law in front of him.
“Judgement!”
A silver-white gavel generated endless waves in the air as the masked and robed judge began judging the sinner before him. In the Law God’s Divine Domain, there wasn’t a single crime that would be able to escape his eyes.
Currently, under the Eyes of Justice, an untold number of crimes appeared as the Book of Law kept turning to the page with the punishments for crimes. In front of the Law God and the Original Book of Law, there wasn’t a single existence that would be spared—not even a God!
“You are all judged to be guilty!”
The silver-colored Divine Domain began spreading. Since the beastmen were here as well, how could I possibly just let them go? They were still waiting at the scene of the crime to split their spoils, so I was going to judge them together as well!
*Hiss!*
Unfortunately, the Spider God Felix’s high-pitched screaming tore through my spreading Divine Domain, and dealing with its struggling took up much of my concentration, causing me to lose the chance to deal with all the troublesome beastmen in one go.
“Silence!”
I reduced the size of my Divine Domain and used silver chains to bind that gigantic Spider God. I had always believed in the maxim “better safe than sorry,” so I used all of my divine power and concentration on the opponent before me.
“Divine Law, The Primary Sin of the Thirteen Sins: Those who purposefully take away others’ lives shall be severely judged by the Law God; they shall suffer from impaling and fire torture even after death!”
The Divine Laws didn’t have a limit on their targets to begin with. They were the laws created by the Law God, as well as his teachings and the meaning for the Law God’s existence.
Yep, from the very start, I had never set targets for what the Divine Laws could and couldn’t judge. It had always been my intention to judge the Gods!
“Judge the Gods? Are you crazy?” Ayer was shocked at the time.
“No, this world is the one that’s crazy!” was my response.
“Just let someone as crazy as me to make you idiots high above us, you bastards who treat the lives of human—hard-working humans—as nothing more than toys! I shall teach you what the pride of the mortals is. If I don’t pull you bastards in front of me to be judged, then how could I ever end this damned battle!”
“Divine Law, Execution!”
The silver chains binding Felix began materializing and dragged the Spider God into the mortal plane as Felix’s purple divine soul started entering his body. This judgment was to take effect directly against the True God’s actual body.
A silver rack transformed into sharp knives and the Incantation of Law turned into a viciously boiling sea of magma. The Spider God was currently tortured in both this world and the other plane.
But, this was only the beginning…
“Divine Law, The Seventh Sin of the Thirteen Sins: Those who fulfill their personal desires yet forget their original Divine Obligations, break the laws, act greedily, and play around shall be stripped of all their jobs and demoted to mortal status!”
“Felix, you willfully descended and created a bloodbath, caused a battle, and killed countless lives. Many grudge-bearing souls in the River Styx are because of you…”
Even though he was currently being tortured by knives and fire, the furious spider was still trying his utmost to struggle and escape from his restraints; he had a premonition that this was about to be his end.
“…You no longer deserve to be a God. I declare right here and now that I demote the Poison God Felix to become mortal!”
The complete suppression of Felix’s Divine Domain helped the Incantation of Law Great Judgement be effective. At this very moment, Felix lost his Divine Domain, and now, no matter how much strength he had remaining, he was nothing more than a giant spider instead of a venerated True God.
I knew that after my Divine Domain dissipated, Felix would recover his status as a True God. I was still far from possessing the power to truly judge the Gods, and this type of power suppression wouldn’t be able to last long.
But it was enough…
Something white viciously struck Felix’s head and caused him to scream in agony. As my oldest and most trusted partner, Adam would never let such an opportunity slip past him.
The massive injury on Felix’s head didn’t heal instantly like before. Without his Divine Domain, and without his divine defense and undying attribute, Felix was now no longer anything more than a slightly larger-than-usual and more robust normal beast.
“Hurry! Don’t waste this opportunity that Lord Wumianzhe has created for us!”
“White Wolves! Victory!”
“Silver Cross, charge! Don’t let those southern hicks steal away the achievement of Slaying a God; this belongs to us!”
“Blackeye Squad, grit your teeth for me and hang in there!”
“Is there anyone else left from the Rhodes Imperial Guard? Damn it, even if I’m the only one left, I’m going to charge! I won’t let anyone look down on me!”
The cannons on the Borealis had been overheating to the extent where they were almost unusable but were reignited once more as the heavily injured knights began their final charge. Amongst all the fatigued armies, the Four Elemental Swordcasters who could replenish their sources of power stood out most of all.
The other warriors had already used up all of their mana in this long, drawn-out battle, but as a product born in this new generation type of battle, the Swordcasters had already recharged their mana through the Borealis. They were currently tossing out Fireballs and Thunder Arrows, using the most basic elemental spells to deal irrecoverable damage to the former True God; Felix was on the brink of death.
“This isn’t enough! We won’t make it in time!”
I could sense that this wasn’t enough. Felix had yet to receive a fatal injury, but I was almost unable to maintain this for any longer.
I was already beginning to lose my mind as chaos and confusion filled my head, and I felt dizzier and dizzier and wanted to sleep, but…
“…Is there really nothing else I can do? It was so difficult to make it to this step; was everything but a waste? I can’t accept this!”
My soul and Wumianzhe’s soul were on the verge of complete synchronization, and if I didn’t cancel the God’s Descent soon, I probably would never be able to do so. I wanted to grit my teeth and hold on, but my consciousness was becoming hazier, making holding on any longer seem meaningless.
“I just want to sleep; why do I have to hold on—no, this is no good!”
“Then, let me cancel the God’s Descent; my soul is beginning to combine—I definitely can’t do that!”
“Who—who am I? Wumianzhe? Roland? Blackhand? Rolo?”
Alluring words were trying to steal my consciousness away, and Felix’s divine power was still struggling against mine and increasing the speed of the fading of my consciousness. My chaotic memories were affecting my mental stability, and I was almost unable to hold on for any longer, but…
“We Aurora Knights have returned!”
“Let these invaders taste the fury of the Mist!”
“May the Will of the Mist remain unbroken forever! We have returned!”
Their familiar battle cries snapped me back to my senses. Weren’t those in the sky our imperial knights? They finally made it just in time.
“The Imperial Knights of the Mist Kingdom, all fifty-four members of the Aurora Knights have arrived, and we pay our respects to Your Highness Roland! Your Highness, we have returned!”
Ah, my knights, I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me! After all, no matter if it was 378 years ago, 252 years ago, 132 years ago, or 1 year ago, you never disappointed me!
“The Aurora Knights of the Eastern Mist Communal Country; all one hundred and seventy-four members of the Aurora Knights have arrived! We pay our respects to Your Highness Roland! Your Highness, leave the rest to us!”
These new generation youngsters flew a circle around me with their teachers before putting on their iron helmets. They then began laughing maniacally as they charged towards the humongous spider who was still flailing around.
“Nice job, young one!”
The Lion King Frigid Nightmare who belonged to the first Mist King gave me his rare praise as he transformed into a colossal Lion King and pounced towards Felix.
But, he came up empty.
“Ah Dang is here! I shall beat up anyone who dares to bully my father!”
If it weren’t for that familiar voice, perhaps not a single person would be able to connect that gigantic furious titan with Gluttony. The giant, who suddenly landed, directly smashed Felix to the ground, as a huge bone dragon, which suddenly descended from the skies, shrieked and emanated death with every breath.
This was a rarely seen scene. Undead Knights and Holy Knights had allied with each other and were charging together, dragon knights and bone dragons were actually on the same side, and the corpse-eating king was actually using a human holy sword. Imperceptibly, I felt as if I was getting closer to the utopia I dreamed of…
I was already losing control of my hazy consciousness, but I held firmly onto the chains of the beast that was in my cage.
“Felix! You want to escape? Stop dreaming! Pay some interest for the amount of blood that you’ve caused to spill on this land! Later, I’ll go looking for Lorci to collect the principal ¹ !”
Note:
1. According to Wiktionary, principal —not to be confused with principle —refers to the money originally invested or loaned, on which basis interest and returns are calculated.