Chapter 221: 221

Jonas, sensing his father’s hesitation, added, “Father, if what she says is true, this could be our only chance to stop Silas. We need to be very active on this. The safety of the majority of our people is most important at the moment.”

Erik sighed, the weight of the decision pressing down on him. “Very well. We will collaborate on this. I already have an idea of where the pick can start.”

“Silas obviously will need to have eyes on key figures in my kingdom, so it would be no surprise if his puppets are those dear or near to those key figures.”

“I will give you a list of nobles and those I think you should pick out. We will offer no help except for the names, so handle it the best you can and risk not exposing yourselves,” Erik said to Iris, who understood his intentions.

“He will give us names and information, but at the same time, he steps back from the action in case it surfaces after a while. The blame can be put on us, not him,” Iris looked at Erik with a new appreciation. “It seems he is not that bad of a leader,” she thought to herself as she smiled at Erik before nodding.

A few weeks back, up in a place most mortals or beings will never have the chance to set their feet upon, five colossal beings stood with serious expressions on their faces.

Four of the colossal beings were staring at one of their own, a humanoid ape-like creature with forest-like features all over him.

The attention of the Origin gods was turned away when they noticed the presence of their mother joining them.

Ikenga cleared his throat. “I was summoned by someone we all know a few days back and was offered an interesting proposition.”

Jaws looked at Ikenga and said, “You have never had an encounter with him, so why did he choose you?”

Ikenga laughed and said, “I asked the same question. He said it was because gods who have a divinity close to nature, like mine, are those willing to sit down and have a conversation with him without immediately trying to kill him.”

Flashback to when Ikenga accepted the calling, his divine body was pulled down to the mortal plane. Only this time, Ikenga noticed his area of operation after getting down to the mortal plane was limited.

He was surrounded by thin golden light that didn’t look extraordinary, but he felt a small presence of his mother’s energy from the light.

Looking at the person who summoned him standing outside the golden light, Ikenga floated a bit closer before looking at the well-dressed skeleton with its skull head on fire.

Before Ikenga could speak, he heard the skeleton speak, “This would be our very first time meeting, Ikenga, god of nature and curses.”

Ikenga looked away from the skeleton as he pressed his hand on the golden light, applying force to shatter it, yet it stood firm and gave no reaction.

Looking at the skeleton, Ikenga sat cross-legged midair before he asked, “What do you want, Murmur?”

Murmur’s skull head tilted to the side as he began walking away with his bony hands behind his back. Ikenga’s eyes followed him until Murmur stopped at the kneeling figures of some humans.

Ikenga noticed the humans were in a formation and how a thin golden light stretched from their kneeling figures before coming together to form the shield/cage holding him.

Murmur began speaking, “For my own safety, I had to use this world-recognized first race as my resources.”

Ikenga said nothing in turn, letting Murmur continue. “As the first race, they have some rights. Your world is still young for them to know of these rights. In most cases, this right will never be known by them, until it is forced out of them. For now, I handpicked some humans to exercise this right for my own safety.”

Walking back to Ikenga, Murmur stared at him and said, “You feel it, don’t you? The energy of this world’s consciousness being used to form this shield.”

“Far, far back, when this spell was discovered, the gods of those worlds were a menace, had a nasty, twisted nature of feeding on the flesh and blood of living beings after they had been summoned. In order to protect themselves, that world’s first race discovered their rights.”

“For this spell to work, it means that the race using their right must absolutely fear the being in question, in this case, the gods. In response to their fear, they are able to harness the world’s consciousness energy to protect themselves.”

A hint of sadness slipped into Murmur’s tone as he looked at the humans. “Too bad, they all will soon die. If you had resisted more and tried to break out, their death would have been quicker, but since you gave up, only half their lifespan was spent. But either way, they will still die at the end of our meeting.”

Ikenga had many thoughts running through his mind after hearing Murmur’s words, but he still remained cold-faced as he asked once again, “What do you want, Murmur?”

“This world,” Murmur responded.

“I want this world,” Murmur repeated.

“You can’t have it,” Ikenga said to Murmur.

“I know,” Murmur said in turn.

“I know, but I still want it. This meeting of ours is my last try,” Murmur said.

A throne appeared beside Murmur, on which he sat with his bone hands on his chin.

“This world means a lot to me; it will bridge the gap between me and those demons who were born at the same time as me from the River Styx.”

“I spent countless years inside the stomach of the child of Kaos, missing a lot of time to grow. But luckily, this world came by. Conquering this world would push me to the Abyss Lord level, regaining my mark.”

“I could imagine it already: the news spreading through the Abyss of a great demon who survived an encounter with the child of Kaos and, upon his return to his great home, brought down with him a high-level world filled with Origin Gods.”

“My peers will all watch in envy as the great Murmur’s journey is imprinted and etched into the inheritance memory of all demons in the Abyss. My name will be etched into history for eons,” Murmur kept talking, losing himself in his fervor as Ikenga coldly watched, sitting cross-legged mid-air.

“This was how it was supposed to go, yet with each encounter with this world’s Origin Gods, I keep taking a loss, and now I am with no skin, deprived of the pleasure of the flesh.”

Looking at Ikenga, Murmur said once again, “I want this world. I really do. Which is why I bring a proposal to you Origin Gods.”

Ikenga, a bit interested, asked, “What proposal is that?”

“Before I go ahead with the proposal, do you know that worlds level up, increasing their quality?”

Feigning ignorance, Ikenga said, “I do know about other worlds, but I don’t know about the leveling up part.”

Murmur looked blankly at Ikenga before saying, “If you are thirsty or curious for knowledge, just say that. You don’t have to lie to get what you want. It’s beneath you to use such petty manipulations.”

Ikenga raised a brow at that, then nodded. “Then let me be straightforward. I would like to know more about this leveling up of worlds since I already know about conquering worlds.”

Murmur nodded. “Leveling up worlds and conquering worlds are connected in many ways. After a world is taken over by another, it would either assimilate into the winning world or become a subordinate planet of the winning world, depending on the choices made.”

“Most worlds with world consciousness are always targeted for assimilation, and those without are always targeted to become subordinates. This is not to say that worlds without consciousness can’t be assimilated, only that it brings not much benefit when done,” Murmur said.

“Your world is already a high-level world, a new high-level world, and a great target for other high-level worlds. Most worlds like yours, which become high-level at the start, always have an inherent problem.”

“This problem stems from inexperience. Unlike a low-level world that grew up and fought to get to a high-level position, gaining a lot of knowledge in the process about conquering worlds, worlds like yours are such a great meal for those worlds.”

“Thousands of years will go by and your world will make no progress in its growth, while other worlds with experience will outgrow your world in size and quality under the same thousands of years. Do you know why?” Murmur asked Ikenga.

“Because in those thousands of years, they were finding and conquering other worlds with the knowledge and experience they have,” Ikenga answered.

Nodding to Ikenga’s words, Murmur continued, “Your world is a sitting duck, waiting to be attacked. If left on its own, it will grow and level up, but that will take millions of years. Who is to guess what will happen in those years”

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