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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Ruby
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Yuma looked down at his feet.
He could not see any stairs leading forward.
This meant that this place was the top of the staircase.
Yuma felt that his physical body had clearly changed.
He raised his head and spoke toward Ardolak, who would still remain as a thought.
“Thanks to you, it seems I have safely achieved that thing called molting.”
— “Yes, now this space has also fulfilled its purpose.”
The Transcendence Altar.
The space created to produce the first being to reach godhood in the Middle World had fulfilled its role.
“It seems I can go out that way now.”
There was no front to the staircase.
However, in the pitch-black darkness, there was certainly a single point of light.
Yuma was certain.
If he walked toward that light, he would be able to exit the Transcendence Altar.
Step.
There were no stairs.
But he continued walking.
Before Yuma’s eyes, the light had come close at some point.
The small light was facing him very closely.
— “Go.”
— “And I would be grateful if you gave those haughty ones a taste of their own medicine.”
Evil god.
Ardolak, the king of the Joyin tribe who had collapsed without reaching godhood.
Ardolak was certain that there had been divine intervention in his failure.
“How dare you try to break the norms of this world. Even if you are of the Joyin tribe, you are ultimately nothing but a mortal child.”
It was because he had been annihilated after finishing those words.
“I’ll try my best.”
Yuma nodded.
And he moved forward.
He pressed the single point of light with his index finger.
Crack…
A crack appeared.
The world slowly crumbled.
Yuma headed toward the outside of the crumbling world.
The Transcendence Altar completely collapsed.
The soul of Ardolak, which had remained as a mass of thought, was also completely annihilated.
Step.
After a very long time, Yuma stepped on the land of the earth.
‘How much time has passed?’
How much time had passed?
He could not gauge the extent of it.
At that moment, a strange sound echoed from the sky.
Grr—grung…
A black pillar suddenly appeared from the sky.
‘No, it’s not a pillar.’
Yuma realized that it was not a black pillar, but a door.
The direction was roughly where the Astes Empire was located.
Grrrrowl…
Yuma turned his back to the faint crying sound.
The Griffin Ethan was in a defensive posture with wings contracted and body crouched in front of the collapsed altar.
“Ethan.”
Yuma said this as he approached Ethan.
‘It seems Brigitte sent Ethan here for when I returned.’
The Griffin Ethan stared at Yuma with the sharp eyes characteristic of birds of prey.
He was certainly a human with the same ash-gray hair and blue eyes as his master.
However, the aura emanating from his entire body was too powerful.
And it was also heterogeneous.
However, as Yuma approached closer, Ethan felt that the strong sense of alienation that had been heavily cast was naturally lifted.
The person in front of his eyes was certainly the human who had been his master.
Yuma placed his hand on Ethan’s back.
“Let’s go, to the Empire.”
Grrowl…!
Yuma climbed onto Ethan’s back.
Ethan spread his massive wings wide and took flight.
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Gods.
Originally, they were beings that humans had no reason to encounter in a lifetime.
Even priests, who were beings somewhat related to gods, only heard their voices a few times and never met them directly.
Four such beings.
Moreover, they had manifested in the Middle World with their true divine bodies.
The gods’ body sizes were different from each other.
In the case of Omerta and Yenkal, they were as gigantic as the giant race.
In the case of Crios and Galua, they possessed bodies about the average size of adult men and women.
However, things like body size were not important to those who looked upon the four gods.
The Celestials and Elves opened their mouths wide.
“Finally… manifestation.”
Celestials, Lycanthropes, Elves, Humans.
The gazes of all four races were directed toward the gods.
Omerta, one of the Eight Evil Gods, [God of Flames and Sorrow].
Crios, not one of the Eight Evil Gods but a 1st-tier combat-type god, [God of Revenge and Courage].
Galua, a 2nd-tier god, [Holy Mother of Gloomy Compassion].
Yenkal, a 2nd-tier god, [God of Shallow and Deep Military Forces].
Mighty divine power spread from the bodies of the four gods.
Those who felt the greatest fear from the mighty divine power emanated by the four gods were, rather, the three foreign races instead of humans.
Among them, those at the pinnacle trembled throughout their entire bodies.
Rather, because they clearly knew the gap between themselves and the gods, they were more tormented by the emotion of fear.
Absolute Power so mighty that it made one unable to even dare resist.
Werrenford, the great warrior who had supported the Astes Empire following the command of Berkan, the current king of the Lycanthrope Kingdom, and had fought like a beast until just moments ago, gritted his teeth at the sense of helplessness rising from his toes.
Kerrurk…
High Elf Luinerif looked at the fire spirit Karennel, who was trembling with fear and letting out groaning sounds, and swallowed his saliva.
He had not shown such behavior even when seeing demigod-level familiars.
Karennel, who had an extraordinary rank that could be seen at a glance and was in the form of a phoenix, seemed to be expressing his intention for immediate reverse summoning to the spirit world through the abnormal behavior he was currently showing.
Luinerif nodded while his blue-green hair fluttered.
The moment he was about to reverse summon Karennel immediately.
Crack—
A strange sound burst forth.
“Uh…?”
A bewildered sound flowed from Luinerif’s mouth.
The reverse summoning was not established.
Kyarrrrurk!
The phoenix’s cry became rough.
Blue flames were fluttering in the right hand of Omerta, who was floating leisurely in the sky.
Whoosh!
The phoenix’s right wing bent upright at ninety degrees.
Flames rippled thickly in the air.
Karennel’s body moved swiftly toward Omerta’s front.
As if being pulled by some telekinetic force.
The giant phoenix Karennel was grasped in Omerta’s right hand.
Omerta clenched his hand strongly.
Puwhaaaaak!!
The phoenix Karennel scattered red light.
Kieeeeeek!!
And it screamed as it was absorbed into Omerta’s right palm.
“High Elf.”
Omerta looked directly at High Elf Luinerif as if calling a familiar being and spoke.
“You should have managed your child well.”
It was a simple show of force.
A show of force to instill fear in everyone standing on this Empire’s land.
Luinerif’s highest-grade spirit was chosen as the sacrifice for this.
At Omerta’s words, not only Luinerif but the entire bodies of all members surrounding the already half-destroyed imperial palace trembled.
“…Your Majesty the Emperor.”
It was words that flowed from the mouth of Michael, Brigitte’s direct escort knight who stood beside her on the platform.
Michael’s voice tone was slightly trembling.
“It would be better to step back… no, to withdraw your body entirely.”
Dignity.
It was because he had clearly felt the dignity that the gods were currently emanating was of a different caliber.
Brigitte was feeling the same thing.
“You also realize that nothing would change by stepping back, Michael.”
Brigitte stared at the four gods who were watching the Empire with blue eyes.
It was words meant for Michael, who was right beside her.
However, Brigitte did not yet know that all the words they were uttering were entering the gods’ ears.
Omerta opened his mouth again.
“Yes, now the very survival of this Gehehrgen continent depends on our hands. Even if you flee to any place now, you cannot survive. Stand still.”
It was far from mere warning words.
The weight contained in the words.
[Holy Mother of Gloomy Compassion] Galua raised her right hand.
Thud— thud—thudthudthudthud!
Over 100 cocoons appeared instantly on the ground of the imperial palace.
[God of Revenge and Courage] Crios stomped his right foot down strongly.
Kugugugugugu!
With a tremendous rumbling, over 50 red statues shot up from the ground.
Inside the cocoons that Galua had placed on the ground were black giants.
And the red statues that Crios had summoned were all [Blazing Asuras].
Bell’s energy was completely drained at the fact that there were over 50 more of those twelve-armed demons that she had barely managed to defeat with all her might.
It was not only those two who had raised familiar legions again.
Ka—kak!
When [God of Shallow and Deep Military Forces] Yenkal, who had the appearance of a giant scorpion, clapped, over 150 insect familiars shot up from the ground.
Brigitte opened her mouth again.
Even though she realized that every word she spoke entered the gods’ ears, rather because of that, there were words she had to say.
Four gods and furthermore.
She was certain that she had to say something more definite about the nearly 300 demigod-level military forces that had now appeared before her eyes.
“O great beings.”
According to the words that Yuma had entrusted to her until now and according to the words of the Celestials and High Elves, they were certainly gods belonging to the evil gods.
“Please tell us a way to protect the continent.”
Omerta twisted his lips.
Omerta raised his right hand high and opened his mouth.
Crack
The [Blazing Asuras] that had been in the form of red statues broke their silence and began to move their entire bodies.
They recognized all beings on the Empire’s land in front of them as prey.
The numerous cocoons that Galua had rooted slowly broke, and black beings jumped out from within.
The legions of giant insects also glowed their eyes eerily.
“Seeing that you’re asking for a way to protect the continent rather than a way to protect the Empire, you already know that I’m going to blow up this entire Gehehrgen continent anyway.”
A touch-and-go situation.
The members of the continent felt the clear shadow of approaching death.
At that moment, one shadow overlapped on top of that shadow.
And a voice echoed from the sky.
“There’s no need to have conversations with those bastards.”
The Griffin Ethan landed right next to Bell and Cloney, who were standing at the front line. Yuma, who had dismounted from Ethan, looked around.
‘I’m late.’
The corpses of Celestials and Elves, and also Lycanthropes came into view.
Also the corpses of Empire knights and soldiers.
“…Yuma.”
Bell, who was right beside him, looked at Yuma with round eyes.
Cloney was the same.
Yuma patted Cloney’s shoulder.
“Step back.”
He took another step forward.
It surged.
A colorless aura from Yuma’s entire body.
‘Control is possible.’
Divine power.
Yuma did not bother to hide the aura surging throughout his body.
He spread the divine power surging throughout his body toward the four gods who were still floating in the sky.
Crack—
The ground Yuma was standing on split.
Crack… crack…
Countless fragments of stone rose slowly into the air.
Archangel Garenmun opened his mouth wide.
“…This cannot be.”
The beings who first noticed Yuma’s molting were the Celestials.
Celestials.
Beings born to oppose the evil gods.
There was no way they could fail to recognize divinity.
“Your Majesty the Emperor.”
Ermel urgently stood beside Brigitte.
The person who second realized that Yuma had become a god was former Saint Ermel, who had already communicated with gods for several years.
There was not a single tremor in Ermel’s blue-green eyes.
“It is the moment of birth.”
Brigitte’s pupils enlarged.
“What…?”
It was just that among the Empire’s members, they were the first to notice Yuma’s divine awakening.
The four gods had naturally noticed first.
That Yuma had become a god.
[Holy Mother of Gloomy Compassion] Galua, who had the appearance of a gray-skinned woman with a lower body made of bones, trembled.
“For a human to become a god….”
Galua’s words were filled with disbelief.
“That aside, do you think it makes sense that a being who just became a god has that level of divinity?”
Galua looked at the three gods excluding herself.
The three also could not understand the divinity that the being called Yuma possessed.
It was a state that far exceeded the scope of their common sense.
“It’s like facing that person…! This level of divinity is!”
All three knew who the person Galua was referring to was.
The strongest god among the Eight Evil Gods.
The divinity that Yuma was emanating felt close to his divinity.
Incrinew, the lowest-ranking among the Eight Evil Gods.
Incrinew’s divine power had been used as a shield to prevent causal questioning during the process of divine awakening, but half still remained.
Even if he was the lowest-ranking, an Evil God was still an Evil God.
Half of the divine power of a god who transcended that hierarchy was now flowing in Yuma’s body.
The divinity that was used as the main ‘vessel’ in Yuma’s divine awakening was actually the divinity of Barbatos, the War God who had been competing for 2nd and 3rd place among the Eight Evil Gods.
The divinities of two Evil Gods had become Yuma’s foundation.
Yuma recalled the advice that Ardolak had given.
— “The first thing you should do will be to declare a holy land.”
— “A holy land is where a god’s myth begins and where a god becomes most great.”
— “You just need to act with the will to declare a holy land.”
— “If you establish a holy land in the Middle World, that would become the first holy land in the Middle World.”
Declaration of a holy land.
When Yuma had that will, something appeared in his right hand.
It was a flag.
A flag with golden light flowing through it.
“That, that is.”
[God of Shallow and Deep Military Forces] Yenkal opened his mouth blankly.
Yuma struck the flag down toward the ground.
Boom.
The flag was planted.
Golden waves spread widely with the place where the flag was planted as the center point.
The atmosphere distorted.
The voice that echoed in Yuma’s ears was completely different in type from the status window voices that had echoed in his ears until now.
Omerta let out an empty breath at the voice that echoed in his ears.
“…Hah.”
It was because that voice had not echoed only in Yuma’s ears.
Originally, it was a voice that only gods heard in the divine realm.
Star Sound.
The divine law established by the Primordial Supreme God.
There were few moments when the Star Sound echoed in the gods’ minds.
When another god achieved hierarchy promotion, the Star Sound echoed in all gods’ minds.
And the Middle World was originally not included in the jurisdiction of that Star Sound.
But now.
The Star Sound that ‘The Nameless God’ had declared the ‘Gehehrgen Continent’ as a holy land had echoed in the ears of Yuma and the four gods.
This meant that the laws of this world had recognized Yuma’s existence as a ‘god’.
There was no time to wait for the completion of a search that might never end.
Yuma opened his mouth.
“This land, the entirety of Gehehrgen, is my territory.”
Those were the words of a newly awakened god.
“You bastards have touched my land.”
Step.
Once again, the advice of Ardolak, the king of the Joyin tribe, came to mind.
— “Once this world recognizes you as a god, ‘divine domain declaration’ should be possible.”
— “If your divinity and conception of the divine domain are legitimate.”
[God of Flames and Sorrow] Omerta.
[God of Revenge and Courage] Crios.
[Holy Mother of Gloomy Compassion] Galua.
[God of Shallow and Deep Military Forces] Yenkal.
Crack—
“All invaders will be killed.”
The fierce and violent momentum that arose from Yuma’s toes strangled the breath of the four gods.
“That is the law of this land that I have established.”
Unlike his body that seemed ready to burn everything at any moment, Omerta stood still quietly.
“Omerta, what will you do? Are you going to attack?”
Even to Yenkal’s question, he had no mind to answer.
Heaven and earth screamed.
Kwaddeuddeuk!
Of course, he had thought he would just be a mortal anyway.
He had thought that if four gods joined forces, they could kill him simply.
However, he was too powerful.
The divinity of the nameless god who didn’t even have a divine name yet.
Yuma made a decision.
From the moment he saw the four gods and their familiars spread thickly throughout the Empire, the conception of his divine domain was complete.
To kill them all at once, that was the only way.
Yuma slowly opened his mouth.
“Divine Domain Declaration.”
Transparent light covered the entire ground of the imperial palace.
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Divine Aura of the Mightiest!