?THE DARK SHRINE
Deep Caverns, Blackrock City.
The underworld was always deep and dim, with only the fluorescent stones at the cavern’s ceiling providing a little bit of brightness to the world underground.
However the arrival of these rather peculiar elves has brought about increased prosperity in Blackrock City, and recently, the presence of these tall and slender elves as they leisurely wander and interact with the small-statured local residents has become quite a remarkable sight within the city of the dwarves.
In fact, it was quite impossible not to draw such attention.
Elves are generally tall beings, with a minimum height of 1.7 meters for both males and females, and each one of them has outstanding appearances to boot. On the other hand, the dwarves, who live in the dark, aren’t that much taller than 1.5 meters, with an average height of only 1.3 meters.
Blackrock City, which was designed specifically for the short dwarven residents, presents an overall smaller and remarkably delicate appearance. However, with the arrival of the elves in the city, their slender and taller figures create a noticeable contrast with the dwarves’ sturdier and more shorter frames.
Nevertheless, the dwarves have gradually came to accept the presence of these elves within their city in their day-to-day lives.
For the local residents, these elves are a much better group than most of the other mercenaries that’s operating within the underworld. Surprisingly, even upon entering the city, these elves will willingly choose to disarm themselves and refrain from causing any major commotion. In fact, they exhibit exceptional politeness, a quality that many other mercenaries struggle to embody.
Yet these strange elves did it naturally, almost without any hesitation.
Moreover, if one happens to be a dwarven blacksmith, they would find that these elves can become even more polite towards them…to the point where they would even flatter and actively try to curry favor just to get some guidance on forging techniques.
As a result, most of the forges around the city have long been surrounded by the sight of these elves. Their admiration and enthusiasm for dwarven forging techniques leaves the blacksmith dwarves themselves feeling both honored and pleased.
Of course, what made the dwarves even happier was the exquisite goods brought by the elves to barter.
Among the items they were willing to trade are sturdy spider silk, nutritious surface wheat, fast-growing rice, and delectable sweet potatoes. Additionally, the dwarves were also introduced to a variety of fruits that were both unfamiliar and incredibly delicious.
These products were only available exclusively from the surface world, and dwarves normally could not acquire such goods underground. However, these Elves brought such commodities in large quantities to Blackrock City and exchanged them for minerals, magical materials, rare metals, and even valuable forging knowledge, igniting a frenzy among countless dwarves.
Upon Zero’s arrival in Blackrock City, she was greeted by a bustling and vibrant scene…
Zero, also known publicly as the Godwarden of Evé, is one of her disguises, an incarnation of herself constructed with the help of Hela’s soul-storing orb as the core.
However, during her transformation, she retained some characteristics of the elves.
This time, Evé has made a deliberate choice to personally utilize her own incarnation and has even labeled it as her own Godwarden. She made this decision after careful consideration for the upcoming task.
She still couldn’t fully entrust the delicate task of engaging with followers of other gods to the players, nor was it suitable for her own believers as well.
After thinking it over, the safest option was for her to personally carry out the task herself while using one of her disguises.
Labeling herself as a Godwarden is also a strategic move for Evé to better lead the players.
Although the Quest system and NPCs’ guidance were generally effective, there were instances where Evé found it necessary to personally intervene for better control over the players’ actions or to initiate crucial communication with the forces of other gods.
Furthermore, presenting oneself as a true god at this point is still too risky. Therefore, it would be a much better choice to don a disguise instead in the meantime.
Of course, the disguise Evé chose for herself is the third purple-class NPC, aside from the Saintess Alice and the Spider Queen Rose!
Upon entering Blackrock City, Evé, disguised as Zero, went about her way unnoticed by both the players and the dwarves around her.
Clad in black armor and carrying a meticulously sharpened longsword strapped to her back, she walked through the streets with confidence, as she savored the lively atmosphere of Blackrock City.
Curiously, it seemed as though everyone failed to perceive her presence, as they all simply went about their own business as if she weren’t there.
However the surprising thing was that, the pedestrians on the road would instinctively clear a path for her, before questioning themselves why they had done so in the first place…
And Evé, in a straightforward manner, confidently walked all the way to the front of the Dark Shrine in the center of Blackrock City.
Seeing it up close, this religious structure can be considered the most iconic building within the entire city.
The architectural style of the shrine presents a striking contrast to the structures found throughout the dwarves’ city. Rather than conforming to Blackrock’s rigidity, the shrine radiates dignity and grandeur instead. The main structure is meticulously crafted with stone bricks, adorned with intricate carvings depicting exquisite patterns and reliefs. Moreover, the dominant black color scheme adds to the overall foreboding ambiance of the Dark Shrine, evoking a sense of solemnity and coldness.
Standing in front of the shrine, Evé noticed a small fountain with a statue of a goddess wearing a black robe, holding an orb and a scythe in each of her hands as its centerpiece.
This should be the statue of Hela.
Evé thought to herself.
She looked at the base of the statue and indeed saw two lines of text engraved in both Dwarvish and Common language which states—
‘Death is the beginning and the end.’
This is the most famous and widely known religious phrase of the Church of Death…
It would be somewhat similar to her own religious phrase of ‘May nature be with you’ or ‘May the goddess of life bless you.’
Evé kept looking at the statue for a while before shifting her gaze, as she looked up at the shrine that belonged to the Goddess of Death, Hela.
While using her divine sight, this solemn shrine appeared a little different.
She could ‘see’ that this shrine was like a huge beacon of light in the darkness that enveloped the entire Blackrock City, as it radiates an immense network of countless flickering lights, with these firefly-like glows constantly converging towards the shrine.
This was the power of faith.
As a true god who had also established her own divine kingdom, Evé could see the power of beliefs and the network of faith that ordinary people couldn’t see.
And this shrine is the center of belief within Blackrock City.
The center of belief weaves a vast network of faith, absorbing the faith of the dark dwarves and storing it into the shrine, while also feeding it back to Hela in the Netherworld, thus transforming it into her own divine power.
If Eve’s guess is correct, there should be a statue specifically designed to store such power of belief inside the shrine, which is the core of this faith network.
In fact…Evé also used the same method when collecting faith energy.
Alice built statues in her own temple that function as nodes to collect beliefs and form her own network of faith. These statues also create a protective space where a true god can exert their influence, enabling more effective communication between believers and deities.
True Gods can use their divine power through these statues to control the surrounding area and engage in divine interventions or dispatch followers. However, this action requires substantial divine power, making it rare for gods to do so, except for Evé, who was in the same realm as her temple.
Demigod Volker was only able to cross realms using Night Wanderer’s assistance and Uller’s statue’s accumulated power of faith. Believers can also activate the power of faith stored in these statues to create defensive or offensive divine spells.
That is why, when hostile forces attack a city with an operational temple, their first priority is to always find a way to destroy the statues within the temple first.
The downfall of the Orcs stems from their failure to utilize defensive spells, resulting in the complete depletion of the energy stored within Uller’s statue, all brought about by the summoning of the demigod Volker.
While observing the shrine of the Goddess of Death, Evé felt slightly surprised.
She noticed that the radiance of the core of faith in the shrine seemed more dimmer than expected and the faith network was also rather unstable as well…
The peculiar situation indicates that the energy stored within Hela’s statues, which harbored the power of faith in the shrine of the Death God, was likely not accumulated significantly or has already been depleted.
Is it because of the existence of the followers of the Lord of Shadows?
Or perhaps the Church of Death had once used the power of faith stored within Hela’s statues?
Evé furrowed her brows slightly.
Then out of nowhere, a thought popped into her mind, leading to a series of guesses she started to consider.
Evé then averted her gaze and then took a gentle step forward, before finally entering the shrine…
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