[Myth-ranked Main Storyline Quest: Look up at heaven from hell below… then drag heaven into hell!]
[Quest Requirements: Defeat the four Main God level existences before the ‘time limit.’ Every Main God’s defeat will reward you with 100,000 Fate Points. Successfully slaying a Main God will award you with an extra God Equipment at the exact moment of slaying. Punishment for failure: None. It obviously won’t be necessary to punish you if you fail here.]
[System Notification: I’m awarding you with God Equipment instantly each time you defeat a Main God. It will only get easier and easier the more you defeat! Don’t say I’m not helping you! What? You say you can’t kill even one? Well, it usually takes several millennia for a Main God to ascend, so it’s only natural that you can’t kill one. But do you really think that it’s that easy to use my energy to refine God Equipment for you? Cough, that’s just how my personality is now. Is there a rule that a Goddess like me can’t be in love with commenting? Who made such a rule?]
When my System’s notification rang in my ears, I could only sigh helplessly.
Originally, my biggest doubt about my System being the Goddess of Order Astrya wasn’t anything to do with logic or reason. It was that my System was obviously the shameless type, completely different to the legends about the Goddess of Order’s personality. Plus, even Ayer himself told me that the Goddess of Order was a loving and motherly Goddess. To be honest, even I admired her personality if not her way of thinking… But now that I had met the real her… the style seemed wrong. Could I ask for a refund?
“Ha! Actually, this is only to be expected. Any woman who’s been a virgin for several decades will be hysterical. Those who are virgins for several centuries or several millennium have basically gone insane (referring to Harloys and Amelia too). For ancient artifacts who are several tens of thousands or even several hundreds of thousands years old… Hehehe.”
But sometimes it was possible to overhear insulting thoughts towards others even if it was only in one’s mind.
[Previously, I acted just like what the stories about me said. The way I am now is all because of the viruses you’ve infected me with everything ridiculous that goes on in that head of yours. Do you dare write down everything you think about to show others?]
“Of course not! That would be far too embarrassing!”
[You see? You think I can still act ladylike after seeing nothing but such things every day? A girl’s purity and kindness are only because she hasn’t yet experienced the trials of life. Her soft and tender hands are only because daily household chores haven’t yet given them calluses. Speaking in a ladylike fashion instead of cursing all the time is only because she hasn’t yet seen all those ridiculous Korean and American TV dramas. My style was originally normal. It’s your fault for tainting me with your thought pollution! You need to take responsibility!]
Cough—cough—I was rendered speechless. I suddenly felt that the Goddess’s current style was quite normal—yep—quite normal! It definitely had nothing to do with me!
In a way, our souls lived together. Those who resided within the same physical body would typically discover their personalities and habits become more and more like each other’s. Even the silly cat, who had only been together with me for a few years, picked up my commenting habit. After several hundred years together, I had apparently—and unintentionally, of course—raised the Goddess of Order into an utterly shameless individual with zero limits whatsoever. If only her worshippers could see her now; there would likely be many more that wanted to hunt me down.
This time, the Quest she issued me was quite obviously designed to help me. If I managed to kill a Main God, she would immediately award me with a usable God Equipment. Killing a Main God would make the next one easier to deal with.
But killing even one was beyond my abilities. I had no way of achieving this. Any Main God level existence’s ascension or death would be a tremendous event that would shake the entire world. Their true powers, slyness and secret aces up their sleeve would far exceed a mortal’s imagination. And right now my grand scheme was just about to be completed. Even with such attractive rewards right before me I didn’t intend on completing the Quest.
My System knew this just as well as I did, which was why she added an addendum, the real goal I should aim for.
[System Notification: If you successfully defend yourself until Dragon World is completely replaced, you will be awarded 50,000 Fate Points and the free service of stabilizing your new dimension. Ahh! I feel like I’m getting such a bad deal here.]
This was basically the equivalent of the newbie completing the work and then the veteran helping check things out afterwards. It was nice that my System would stabilize the new dimension for me, but I still had no guarantee of successfully being able to defend until the time limit.
“So I suppose this means it’s time to begin the cheating? Four Main God-level existences? How troublesome. God of Holy Light, don’t you always proclaim yourself to be the mortal enemy of the demons? Shouldn’t you first kill off a Demon Lord as befitting of your status?”
I cracked a terrible joke that even I myself didn’t laugh at. While I really did want to be as relaxed as I always was, these enemies I faced were completely out of the ordinary.
Our actions here treaded upon the most foundational benefits of both the Chaos and Order Factions, so both sides didn’t hesitate to send out top-level strength capable of crushing us. Four Main God-level existences acting in unison would be more than half of all of the Order Faction’s top-level strength. When considering how the Chaos Faction was, well, chaotic, and how arrogant and unwilling to listen to orders the Demon Lords would be, this was probably all the strength the will of the Chaos Abyss was capable of throwing at us.
The demons and devils had already begun their battle. Their fighting reminded me of what would constantly go on in the Chaos Abyss. However, the current situation wasn’t a good one. On our side, only the Lord of Lies was at a Main God’s level. The other two Devil Lords added together might not even be as strong as a single Main God. We obviously lacked top-level combat strength. As for the lower-level combat strength…
“The demons’ ability to summon more demons is truly bug-like. Could they please stop cheating like this?”
Demon Lord Ladvioka, who was wreathed in green mist, simply raised his giant battle hammer, and dimensional tears appeared in the sky as an endless horde of demons jumped out. There were top-level common demon species such as Evil Four-legged Demons, Burst Sword Inferno Demons, Abyssal Fear Demons, as well as the weakest Demon Infants and Tiny Demons. To the demons, there was no concept such as ‘too little cannon fodder.’
Meanwhile, the Evil Chaos Warrior God Donatis stood in his place as still as an unmoving statue. Faint traces of war songs appeared around him as ethereal heroic spirits started materializing. Polar Vikings in horned helmets wielded war axes appeared along with twin-dagger-wielding thieves who wore shadowy cloaks. A throng of battle-lusting heroic spirits walked out to fight for their powerful lord.
In the sky Holy Light swirled everywhere amid the sounds of war horns. High-level angels’ wings materialized in the sky, distorting the very air with their fierce holy flames. This squadron of angels was highly skilled in aerial battles and seemed intent on directly attacking our core. Meanwhile, the God of Holy Light’s incarnation seemed to be waiting for something.
Alright then. Judging from the overall situation, I should perhaps correct my words.
This “lower-level combat strength” wasn’t at all low. Just a single high-level demon would be capable of causing calamitous destruction in the mortal plane, yet here it was reduced to nothing but cannon fodder.
Every single heroic spirit that the Chaos Warrior God possessed would have their own epic or legend to them. Many of them had even challenged the Gods themselves. Yet here they were nothing more than cannon fodder.
And the angels here were no low-level angels like the ones that appeared in the mortal plane in front of Estrada. Their burning wings proved that they were at least at the third rank of Blazing Angel, yet here they were nothing more than cannon fodder.
“Although choosing this alternate dimension as our battlefield will avoid much trouble, top-level combat strength can easily be summoned here. Could it be that I shot myself in the foot again?”
Fortunately, the immemorial devils weren’t so easy to deal with, either. High-level devils summoned mid-level devils, while mid-level devils summoned low-level devils. Under this summoning chain there was so much cannon fodder present it was impossible to count them all. And the immemorial devils’ strange assortment of abilities would be equally powerful. Under the command of their lords, these ancient devils brought out their most powerful combat strength, well aware that victory here would help fulfill the greatest desire of their entire species.
We had a significant number of troops with our immemorial devil army. No problems should arise with the low-level combat strength battlefield at least for the time being. However, the difference in top-level combat strength was absolutely fatal. Although Karwenz, the Chaos Warrior God and the Lord of Putrefaction had yet to take action, their very existences remained as colossal threats to us. We needed to make preparations against their combat strength, yet this was obviously impossible from the very start.
The situation was so dire, yet I broke down laughing in satisfaction.
“…Haven’t any of your teachers ever told you the number one common-sense rule for adventurers? Never pick a fight against a mage where the mage has chosen the battlefield and had time to prepare. God of Holy Light, I truly regret that you didn’t come here in your true body. Otherwise, my new world would become even stronger.”
That’s right. Since I knew from the very start that top-level combat strength would come here to hunt me down, I of course made sufficient preparations. I had prepared a trap here capable of devouring even the Main Gods.
I lightly touched the ground, the catalyst to dispel my illusionary magic. The entire world suddenly changed around them as the temperature rapidly descended. The endless amount of snow and ice told everyone that they weren’t actually in the wild and primitive Dragon World. Instead, they were in an icy tundra where even inhaling the frigid air could be fatal.
The reason why the Ghostwind Plains had maintained its stability despite the entirety of Dragon World collapsing was because the Ghostwind Plains no longer belonged to Dragon World. Instead, it had become a part of my Frigidwinter Earth. And Frigidwinter Earth was the battlefield I had chosen for myself.
On the very first day I arrived, I had opened up my Frigidwinter Earth and begun connecting the two worlds. Well, considering the fact that my incomplete world had absorbed rules and nutrition from Dragon World, it would be more accurate to describe the relationship as a parasitic one. Since the host was at the edge of a complete collapse, there was no longer a need for the disguise. It was now time for the “parasite” to furiously consume the host and replace it.
The colorful collapsing world had one especially noticeable patch of white. As the very sky and ground started breaking down with dimensional tears, the patch of white took the opportunity to devour the land around it. More and more colors transformed into the white of Frigidwinter Earth, while my monochrome world also gained its own new colors.
“Ha! What a beautiful scene. Come, angels, demons and heroic spirits. Become the highest-quality nutrition for my new world!”
As I maniacally laughed, I dispelled the illusions and revealed this world for what it really was. After I stopped hiding the icy tundra, it was naturally time for the ambushers hiding behind the illusion to reveal themselves.
Pitch-black knights silently rode on skeleton steeds. Under the command of their Undead Emperor, these undead knights wouldn’t make a single sound.
Undead knights, Death Knights, Black Knights, Bone Dragon Knights and so on were all present. This tremendous undead knight squadron would forever be the vanguard of Yongye’s Army. And now they had secretly arrived on this battlefield, remaining as silent as they always did. It was just that the raging soulfire within their skeletons revealed how much they desired to slaughter and harvest souls.
And they were just the beginning. Behind the vanguard of these undead knights was an unending sea of undead. Since my Frigidwinter Earth was capable of storing an infinite number of undead, and now that I needed combat strength capable of opening up the future, the skeleton warriors from Xiluo and Sulfur Mountain City became my new Eternal Night Army.
Behind the sea of undead, a black obsidian skeletal Soul Summoning Tower slowly began rising out of the frozen ground. The skeleton eyes embedded upon it burned with cyan soulfire, giving off a pale glow, seemingly desiring the souls of the living.
Finally, as if it were crazily howling with laughter the skeletal head opened its mouth. The Soul Summoning Tower emitted a black light which transformed into a giant pillar that shot into the sky. The sky, which had been stained red, now changed colors yet again. Dark clouds and the night descended as a chilly breeze blew over the land. Lives began being devoured by their own shadows as even the trees’ shadows began to whisper. A country of the undead had arrived!
But this was still only the beginning.
“Ha! For us to create a country for the undead we naturally require the undead for the opening act. I never expected that I would one day gather all seven of my Original Sins.”