Chapter 321: Taking Inventory of the gods
On the 16th, Edward and Esna’s groups finally arrived, completing the four of the Alien Demigod group.
The moment Nicole saw Esna, the girl silently fished out Radgyn’s divine spark, the sheer amount of power rolling off the thing shocking the shit out of the army generals and officials who were nearby.
When they discovered that that was the Malevolent goddess of Water’s source of divine powers, their shock and awe reached new heights.
However, just when they thought nothing could surprise them anymore, they heard Esna’s reply to Nicole’s action.
"Oh? I guess that makes four dead now then."
"Huh?"
"Four what?"
"Four gods dead."
The godslayer calmly replied as she pulled out the divine spark of the Malevolent god of space, her casual actions breaking through the limits of how much shock the people of Gade could feel.
Heck, one of the older military personnel nearly had a cardiac arrest!
"What are the Elements of the gods again?"
"Water, Earth, Wind, Fire, Lightning, Space, Light, Shadows, Wood, Metal."
"In the place of the Malevolents, switch out Light for Darkness."
After Ayaan spoke, the group dropped all the divine sparks they had on the table, revealing the four coloured energy cores that were still emitting dense amounts of divinity.
"Earth, Water, Fire and Space are dead, that leaves six remaining.
There’s also the demigods under them to consider."
Esna remarked as she quickly picked up the divine sparks and tossed them into her interspatial ring before they could start affecting Nicole and Layla adversely.
"The space guy was quite powerful too, and he worked well with that Metal dude. If it wasn’t for my racial abilities, I might have actually lost against them."
The godslayer girl recounted the details of her battle with the Malevolent gods of Space and Metal, and naturally, along with their armies of monsters.
"Yeah, your racial abilities, and the fact that I saved your ass."
Edward spoke up, placing extra emphasis on the fact that he ended up saving Esna who was in quite a bind against the two Superior stage Epic Realm gods.
Sure, her racial abilities helped her a lot, but the Malevolent god of Metal was quite powerful, almost as strong as Gilbalar who was without a doubt, among the top 5 strongest gods on Gade.
"The dude was a half-step Legendary, but Esna’s presence pulled him down to the level of an average superior stage. As for the space dude, she straight-up turned that guy into an intermediate.
Turns out she can reduce her targets by a full stage now."
The Human boy gave more details about the strengths of the Malevolent gods, indirectly raising their Evaluation of Esna’s strength as she was able to hold her own against the two gods despite being two stages lower than them.
And she even succeeded in killing one of them before Edward came over and helped her to chase away the Malevolent god of Metal.
Sadly, Edward was not at full strength at the time or they might have not just chased him away.
The boy had just come back from rescuing one of the armies from another country that nearly got wiped out by the Malevolent god of lightning.
The Malevolent god of lightning was also quite strong, and despite not being at full strength after wiping out thousands of soldiers and killing the Benevolent god of Metal, Edward was unable to kill him singlehandedly and could only fight him to a standstill before the latter retreated.
As things stood, the Malevolent gods were down to six while the Benevolent were now eight left.
"At least, we still hold the numerical advantage."
"We do. But anyway, did you guys have problems with spies leaking information on your end?"
"You had those guys too?!"
Edward remarked loudly in response to Layla’s question as he had caught a few spies of the Malevolent gods on his end.
However, Esna and Nicole didn’t have any problems of the sort, leaving only Layla for him to relate with.
On a side note, due to the enormous amount of energy inside Gilbalar’s divine spark which Esna used to aid her breakthrough, she was now sitting at the top of the Inferior stage of the Epic realm and only needed a while to let her body adapt before she could push through to the intermediate.
When Edward heard this, he made a fuss about how slayer races are cheats.
ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ
A day passed and the month of October welcomed its 18th day, and on this day, the group made a public appearance in front of the civilians of the fort city and then the soldiers of the allied armies camping outside.
Layla had a hard time controlling her expression when she saw the tens of thousands of soldiers who bowed before them the moment they appeared.
They didn’t make any efforts to hide their strengths, allowing the soldiers to perceive just how much stronger they were and they took this chance to officially announce the deaths of the Malevolent gods of space and water.
This news did a good job of boosting Morale to new heights and keeping the soldiers hyped up for the big day.
Right after they finished their little announcement, Esna’s brow twitched as she turned her gaze towards the skies, a moment before all the Benevolent gods all reacted.
Immediately after a beam of bright white light descended from the skies and to the ground, followed by a figure emerging from beyond the clouds, descending gracefully to the ground.
All the people of Gade once again got on their knees in worship, and this time, the Benevolent gods also dropped on one knee to show their respect.
The figure landed on the ground in front of the group of four, the light show dying down to reveal a man standing tall at 6’2, emanating an aura of pure brilliance.
His physique was defined by toned muscles, and he was dressed in resplendent white half-body armour, adorned with intricate engravings that glistened with golden accents that made him seem like a beacon of purity and righteousness.
Each step he took left a faint trail of sparkling light, illuminating the path before him as he made his way over to the group of four.
The other Benevolent gods and some of their demigod children appeared along with him, taking their places beside Ayaan and the other two who were already present.
Studying him closely, the quartet could see that this man, the leader of the Benevolent gods and the god of Light, was a half-step Legendary Realm existence.
Like Gilbalar, he had also managed to cheat his way into using the powers of the universal law of light despite the fact that his realm was technically still the Epic Realm.
Silence pervaded the area as the four ’Alien Demigods’ faced off against the leader of the Benevolent gods, while Ayaan and the others watched the scene with bated breaths.
The one to break the silence, was Layla, the de facto leader of the quartet.
"That was...quite the entrance there, Mr Benevolent god of Light."
Ayaan’s brow twitched when he heard Layla address his leader the same way she addressed him while Edward muttered something about the Author being stingy with names again.
And then as if to shut Edward up, the Benevolent god of light went on to introduce himself as Idall, his tone laced with arrogance as he spoke.
Layla followed up, giving hers and the names of the other three, after which Idall narrowed his eyes at the four before saying.
"You all are only Inferior Stages."
"Yeah, so?"
The teenage devil replied nonchalantly to the man’s words, resisting the urge to roll her eyes as both she and the other three could all see the air of superiority he carried himself with.
Following up, Edward walked forward and slung his hand over Idall’s shoulder, tapping his back lightly as he spoke.
"We’re the kind of inferior stages who are very proficient in dealing with people in higher stages than us."
"And depending on the circumstances, we’re very capable of bringing down their level of strength when necessary."
Esna completed his words, clapping her hands twice and loosening her hold on her racial passive, causing the strengths of all the gods and half-gods in the area to drop by a stage each.
She then flashed a bright smile at Idall before concentrating the weakening effect on him, forcing his Existence Realm to fall to the intermediate stage.
A deep frown appeared on his face as he felt his strength escaping his body, and most importantly, he lost the ability to use the power of the universal law of light.
This caused the aura of brilliance he was emitting to die out like a lamp out of power.
One of the other Benevolent gods wanted to say something about their attitudes being disrespectful but before he could move, Layla only turned her gaze towards him, her Mystic eyes glowing with a green light as he and all the other gods beside him were rendered completely immobile.
