Chapter 547

【ASCENDING TO INTERMEDIATE DIVINE POWER 】

Gazing at the silver rain cascading from the heavens, the two demigod Totem Guardians stood frozen, their expressions blank with disbelief.

“He has fallen… His Divine Majesty has fallen.”

Feeling the loss of their patron deity, even the most stalwart of the legendary-ranked Totem Guardians faltered, their auras flickering as panic and confusion surged within their hearts.

However, their daze and panic lasted only for a brief instant.

Once they realized what had truly happened, the two demigod Totem Guardians exchanged a glance. Rather than succumbing to grief or rage over their god’s fall, they simultaneously chose to cease fighting.

Of course, it was not an act of surrender.

Instead, while carefully gathering the falling silver rain, they turned and fled toward the distant horizon.

Watching them, Fenrir let out a cold snort.

Without hesitation, he threw his head back in a deep, resonant howl that echoed across the desolate plain before charging after them.

As an apostle of a true god himself, Fenrir understood their intentions all too well.

For unless all the demigod and higher-ranked followers of a fallen true god were completely wiped out, there would always remain a chance, however slim, that their god could eventually be resurrected—even if they had been slain by another divine being.

Of course, such resurrection would take an extremely long time and depended on the extent of their destruction.

If the fallen god’s divine kingdom remained intact, or if a fragment of their soul was retained, then perhaps their resurrection could occur a bit faster. However, whether this process would be interrupted by other forces, and whether the resurrected god would regain their former power and divinity, was an entirely different matter.

Nonetheless, in the end, the two demigod Totem Guardians failed to escape far.

Before they could cross the boundaries of the Domain of Nature and Life, several beams of golden light pierced through the heavens. In an instant, the light engulfed not only the two fleeing demigods but also every remaining Totem Guardian who had survived the battle.

As the radiance slowly faded, golden chains could be seen tightly coiled around their bodies.

Watching the scene unfold, Fenrir gradually slowed to a halt. Seeing all the Totem Guardians subdued by the divine chains, Fenrir came to a halt. Realizing there was no longer any need to pursue them, he lowered his head respectfully, knowing that the Goddess of Life had personally intervened.

In a life-and-death battle between true gods, completely annihilating the enemy’s high-ranking followers to eliminate any chance of resurrection was a necessary step.

As Evé currently had no demigod apostles serving under her, she had no choice but to do it herself.

In the next moment, a burst of gold and green radiance erupted from the center of the divine chains, and a majestic, overwhelming divine power engulfed Uller’s surviving totem guardians.

Bathed in the resplendent holy light, all the Totem Guardians disintegrated into ashes.

And so, the battlefield which was once filled with roars and clashing wills, quickly fell silent once more…

Watching the Totem Guardians be annihilated just like that, Fenrir respectfully lowered his head toward Evé. Then, his body began to shimmer with a faint, ghostly light before slowly dissipating entirely.

Since his assigned task was now complete, it was time for him to return and resume his duties as a guardian of the Underground.

High above the battlefield, Evé stood within the illusionary expanse of the Elven Forest, conjured by her divine domain.

She then withdrew her gaze from the ground below.

In her hand, the Scepter of Life shone with a silver brilliance that was pulsating with a heartbeat-like cadence.

It was the divine energy she had extracted from Uller.

Rather than consuming the power immediately, Evé had decided to store it within the Scepter instead.

At the top of the Scepter, embedded within a large gem, three faintly silver orbs of light could be seen—one large and two smaller ones.

These were the remnants of Uller’s divine soul and those of his Totem Guardians.

Although their consciousness had been utterly obliterated, their soul fragments remained in this state. If left undisturbed, they could persist for ages—gradually dissipating between heaven and earth, giving birth to new consciousness, becoming new demigods or true gods, or even regaining their former selves to achieve another revival…

Naturally, Evé would not allow such a thing to happen.

With no hesitation, she extended her will and activated the Scepter of Life. In an instant, the remnants of Uller and his Totem Guardians were crushed as they dissolved into purest raw form of divine power.

Instantly, the silver radiance pulsating from the Scepter of Life grew even more dazzling.

“As expected of an artifact that’s ranked among the top ten in the whole universe,” Evé muttered, marveling at the Scepter’s ability to contain such an immense amount of divine energy.

After she defeated Uller, a mysterious link still remained between him and his divine kingdom in the Heavenly Realm. As a result, the Scepter of Life not only absorbed the divine power from Uller’s true body but also drew in a portion of his divine kingdom’s power as well.

However, due to the isolation between realms and the vast distance, more than half of the divine energy was lost during transmission. Yet, even so, the amount Evé absorbed was still utterly staggering.

If Evé’s guess was correct, his divine kingdom in the Heavenly Realm likely also collapsed at the exact moment Uller perished, since the death of its master caused it to lose its foundation.

Gripping the Scepter of Life tightly, Evé now truly understood why, after the divine war a thousand years ago, so many gods fought desperately over this artifact to the extent that they even eventually broke it into pieces so that no one could wield its overwhelming power.

The reason was simple:

This divine artifact was downright terrifying!

Setting aside its authority over the laws of life itself, the speed at which it could devour divine energy was enough to make any god covet it.

However, Evé also knew that no other god could have absorbed such huge amounts of divine energy as swiftly as she had because her own abilities—the life-stealing aspect of the Scepter and her innate devouring capability—worked in perfect tandem, complementing one another.

Shifting her gaze away from the Scepter of Life, Evé turned her attention back to the exact spot where Uller had fallen.

There, three illusory, translucent crystal-like energies kept flashing with a strange light while constantly rotating. At the same time, they continued to emit a pure power of divine law into the surrounding area.

They were Uller’s manifestations of his divinity—or, more accurately, fragments of his divinity.

They represented Winter, Hunting, and Orcs.

However, the last fragment, which represented the Orcs, appeared far more illusory than the other two, as if it could shatter at any given moment.

“Orcs, huh…”

Evé murmured thoughtfully, her eyes lingering on the most fragile of the three divinity fragment.

Forming such a racial divinity was no easy task, but once a race acquired a patron deity through bearing such a divinity, the race would gain immense blessings as a result.

However, according to the inheritance Evé had received from the World Tree, Uller had originally not possessed the racial divinity of the orcs.

Rather, he must have only gained this racial divinity within the past thousand years or so, after the divine war…

The proof of this was that the orc divinity was still not yet complete, and from the looks of it, it would still require a significant expenditure of divine power and law to perfect it.

If Evé’s guess was correct, Uller’s attempt to seize the divinity of Nature and Life was not only to further elevate his other divinity, but also to aid in reinforcing the Orcs’ racial divinity.

Of course, all of that was now meaningless.

Evé glanced at the incomplete racial divinity of the Orcs once and, without hesitation, chose to destroy it, reducing it to pure raw divine energy…

“One racial divinity is enough for me since I already have one for the Elves,” Evé murmured. “Moreover, I have no intention of being the Patron Deity of the Orcs.”

Having said this, Evé turned her gaze to the remaining Uller’s fragments of divinity, which represented Winter and Hunting.

Winter was a corresponding subdivinity of Nature, while Hunting was barely considered a subdivinity of Life.

Both were closely related to Evé’s own divinities.

By devouring and fusing them with her existing Nature and Life divinities, Evé could further enhance her mastery over her powers.

Of course, she could also choose to preserve them and integrate these fragments separately, but she deemed it was unnecessary.

“I’ll devour them now. This is the best moment.”

Evé spoke softly to herself.

She was just short of advancing to the level of Intermediate Divine Power. If she seized this moment, using the divine power stored within the Scepter of Life to ascend, and simultaneously devoured Uller’s two remaining divinity fragments, then she would be able to assimilate the corresponding laws within them at the fastest possible speed.

However, before that, there was one more thing that needed to be done…

Raising the Scepter of Life high, Evé pointed it toward the sky and, with a pained heart, released nearly a quarter of the divine power stored within it, scattering it purposefully beyond her divine realm…

In an instant, the skies above the Desert of Death were blanketed with the aura of Uller’s divine power.

After doing this, while the aura of Uller’s divine power still lingered within the vicinity, Evé decisively sent the Scepter of Life and the two divinity fragments of Winter and Hunt back to her divine kingdom and silently chanted:

“Absorb!”

She chose to simultaneously devour the two fragments, along with the divine power of Uller stored within the Scepter of Life!

Responding to Evé’s will, the divinity fragments of Winter and Hunting transformed into streams of light, spiraling once through her divine kingdom before plunging deep into its core.

Along with them surged the radiant silver brilliance from the Scepter of Life.

The two fragments quickly merged into Evé’s provenance and were immediately drawn toward her divinity of Nature and Life, which absorbed the two fragments in an instant.

Meanwhile, the torrent of silver divine power, under the influence of [Absorb] and the laws of Winter and Hunt, began to transform rapidly—at nearly a perfect conversion rate—into pure divine power of Life and Nature.

Eve’s divine power began to skyrocket!

9000… 9100… 9200…

In mere seconds, Eve’s divine power surged to 10,000 points, and then… it broke through in an instant!

Intermediate Divine Power!

Blinding radiance burst from Eve’s true form, and she felt a slight tremor ripple through her divine kingdom.

In that moment, beams of golden-green light radiated outward, and her entire divine kingdom began to expand rapidly. Vegetation throughout her kingdom flourished wildly, and even the relatively few believers and Oak Guardians living within it were affected, with their power soaring dramatically…

One hundred kilometers… two hundred kilometers… three hundred kilometers…

Silver mid-rank… Silver peak-rank… Golden lower-rank…

In just a short time, Eve’s divine kingdom expanded nearly threefold, reaching an area of sixty million square kilometers, forming an even vaster forest.

At the same time, the few elven believers and Oak Guardians also broke through to the Gold-rank, becoming truly high-ranking beings!

Outside her divine kingdom, transformations were occurring just as rapidly…

Within the hidden dimension concealing Eve’s true body, the World Tree began to grow again, its trunk shooting upward, expanding with an immense surge of power. In an instant, it tripled in height, reaching a towering ten thousand meters!

New buds sprouted across its trunk, fresh green leaves unfurled and grew along the branches, soon spreading out to cover the sky in a blanket of vibrant life…

Beneath the World Tree, the already lush Elven Forest was once again shrouded in a dense, glowing energy of life. Flowers bloomed in a myriad of colors, their petals glowing with an ethereal light.

Meanwhile, in the forest’s central region, the ancient trees that had already undergone several rounds of evolution during Eve’s previous ascensions now exhibited strange mannerisms in their movements. It was as if they all turned toward the direction of the World Tree, their leaves rustling reverently in worship.

Among them, the most ancient and flourishing trees, which accounted for nearly a third of all the trees in this area, showed a change even greater than before. Their movement had become noticeably more humanlike…

At that moment, these trees seemed to have… awakened faint consciousness!

They were no longer merely low-level plants and had become tree spirits, with strength at least above the Iron rank!

Although they still could not move like the Oak Guardians, they now possessed the ability to attack. Should intruders step into the Elven Forest, each of these tree spirits could act as a guardian, wielding their branches and vines as weapons!

Given enough time, they could evolve even further becoming treants like the Oak Guardians.

Thus, the central area of the Elven Forest, even without Eve’s direct intervention, had become a fortress of unfathomable strength.

In the City of the Chosen…

The players who had died in battle, as well as those who had not participated, all watched in stunned amazement at the miraculous sight before them, clicking their tongues in wonder.

They realized… standing in the City of the Chosen, they could no longer even see the World Tree’s crown—it was lost beyond the ethereal clouds.

Curious public beta players took screenshots and asked what was happening, while the veteran players warmly explained that it was likely a sign that the Goddess had recovered yet another layer of her power.

Just as the players marveled at the sight, the entire realm of Seigües suddenly trembled.

Sensing the tremor, Evé murmured:

“It’s coming.”

The final step of her ascension had arrived.

Void Absorption…

As the World Tree, it was a process she had to undergo during advancement.

In an instant, the [Absorb] ability activated automatically.

The cosmic void energy outside Seigües surged toward it like a flood. Most of it flowed into the realm’s provenance, while a small portion entered Eve’s body…

Eve’s divine power climbed once more, and the ambient mana throughout the realm of Seigües began to rise sharply once again!

At the same time, Evé also sensed dozens of immense, awe-inspiring presences once again turning their attention toward Seigües, seemingly trying to pinpoint the source of the sudden surge of mana…

Smiling faintly, Evé detonated the lingering aura of Uller’s divine power above the Desert of Death, scattering the divine energy tainted with Uller’s aura throughout the entire realm…

In an instant, Uller’s divine aura spread rapidly, expanding alongside the surge of Seigües mana and quickly covering almost every corner of the continent.

Meanwhile, the power of provenance stirred by Eve’s ascension was thoroughly hidden…

“It’s Uller’s divine power… His strength has been absorbed by the Seigües provenance.”

This realization dawned upon the mythical beings that were currently spying on what was happening in the realm of Seigües.

〘 PREVIOUS 〙

〘 NEXT 〙

— —

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep