Chapter 322: Benevolent god of Light, Idall
Nicole was as silent as always, with a different animal-shaped spirit in her arm, however, the thousands of ambient spirits in the area all had their gazes locked onto the Benevolent gods.
The Horse spirit manifested its physical body beside her, releasing a bit of its aura as it calmly glanced around, taking in the surprised faces of the gods who saw that it was now an Epic Realm existence!
As for the other humans of Gade, they all watched this silent confrontation with bated breaths, not even daring to say a word or make a single sound.
However, in their hearts, some of them were rooting for the quartet instead of the gods of their own planet!
Suddenly, one person shouted out one of the titles that they had given the quartet, and that single shout began the beginning of a round of cheers coming from the thousands of soldiers for the four of them.
Then again, this much was expected as currently, the four had higher places in the hearts of the people of Gade than the Benevolent gods, after all, they had killed four of the Malevolent gods, in less than two weeks at that!
Looking at this, Layla only glanced around in silence before turning her gaze back to the Benevolent god of Light and speaking.
"To be honest, I understand how you may feel that your positions as gods may be threatened with our appearance and how you feel the need to make yourselves look superior and all.
But your worries are unfounded.
We don’t care about controlling your planet and are only helping you because the Malevolent god of darkness made attempts to kill us FIRST.
When we’re done with that, and after we’ve dealt with the aftermath and collected all the devices we gave you, we’d be leaving your world."
"We have no intentions to fight for your positions as gods here.
Besides, I get that you may be used to being revered by millions and are respected by the other Benevolent gods, but don’t expect us to be the same.
We’d offer you the respect and courtesy required as we are currently allying, but nothing more than that."
Edward picked up after Layla stopped, deciding not to state how the gods of Gade were nothing much back on in the Burning Realms Cluster.
"Anyway, long story short; we’re not trying to mess with your sovereignty in this world. But at the very least, until the Malevolent god of darkness is either dead or permanently sealed, we’d be the ones in charge.
Everything has been going as smoothly as possible under our control, and this is certainly NOT the time for us to change things up."
Esna concluded, clapping her hands lightly and restraining her racial passives once more. The gods felt their powers slowly returning to Normal and they all looked at her with gazes filled with traces of fear.
As for Idall, the man was quite incensed at the situation, but he knew that if he fell out with the four right here and now, it was going to be bad for him and the other Benevolent gods of Gade in the long run.
Then again, he had every intention of acting to suppress Layla and the others, just that he had not expected things not to go in his favour.
Left with little to no choice, he could only pull back as the current odds were far too much against him.
Seeing this, Layla only nodded in silence and walked around him, moving towards the front of the platform and quieting down the noisy crowd.
[We all rest tonight.
Each country is to allocate at least two Companies each to take turns in guarding the perimeter against monsters and other potential attacks.
We set out at dawn tomorrow.]
She spoke with magic power infused in her voice and a bit of sound magic, causing her voice to be heard by all.
After this, she had Esna and Nicole use large-scale rejuvenating Army magic to ease the fatigues of the soldiers who just arrived that day, and this had an added effect of improving their image in the hearts of the people.
ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ
Capital City Outskirts
Central Empire
Planet Gade
October 19th
Year 717 of the 50th General Calendar.
Thankfully, there were no monster attacks during the night, perhaps due to the fact that the enemy was also consolidating their forces for the decisive battle.
As the darkness of the night receded and the faint glow of the Sun emerged on the horizon, the allied armies began their final march to the Capital City.
However, the closer they got to the city, the higher their tension became. The sight they were left with had the soldiers swallowing their breaths and gulping in slight fear and trepidation.
Their morale which was at an all-time high gradually reduced bit by bit with each town they passed through on the way to the Capital.
In the distance, they could the ominous dark skies that were tainted in red above the capital and the surrounding area.
The light of the sun could not be seen anymore due to the numerous clouds, and if one looked closely enough, one would see that this cloudy domain of darkness was expanding by the minute.
When they reached the town closest to the capital, they were attacked by multiple superior grandmaster monsters, each one of them carrying a thick aura of death.
Like the monsters that attacked Ady’s group when the quartet found them, these monsters all looked like weird mish-mashes of beast parts that seemed to be strung together haphazardly.
They all looked like they had been dead for quite a while, as their bodies were decayed quite a bit.
Also, the parasite monsters controlling these ones were a lot larger and unlike the others they had encountered, these parasites were more than capable of attacking on their own.
Looking around, the ground was drained of life and there were no signs of fresh greenery, even in the large industrial farms that were once a major food source of the capital.
Only decay and emptiness could be seen.
"This Is a lot worse than I thought..."
Layla spoke with a frown as she looked at the scene around them. She could also sense the residual divinity in the area, showing that this phenomenon was definitely caused by a being with the divine factor.
Esna tried using Light magic to purify the earth around her feet, but her normal light magic was no match against the universal laws of death and darkness that permeated the area.
"It’s working, but the efficiency is horrible."
The instant she spoke, a streak of black light flashed through the air, beelining straight to her position but the girl seemed not to even notice it.
Just when the light was about to hit her, her jewel-red pupils darted to the side and flashed lightly, followed by the activation of a Tier 3 Spell.
’Sealing Magic: Luminous Veil of Abjuration.’
A magic circle array consisting of four three-ringed magic circles appeared in a square formation, prompting a radiant glow to envelop the surroundings.
A shimmering barrier of light intricately intertwined with the essence of the law of life was weaved into existence.
Faster than the eye could see, the barrier closed in on its target, a monstrous creature emanating a dark ominous hazy aura from its body.
It trashed and snarled to no avail as the net enveloped it, restricting its movements, while the elements of light and life sapped its strength and disrupted its aura.
Those who were outside the barrier all felt a warm and comforting aura radiating from it, however, from the reactions of the monster trapped within, they could tell it was feeling the exact opposite, probably even worse.
This spell had a twofold purpose: Sealing away unwanted targets, and counteracting divine influences.
It was a sealing spell Esna learnt from the Restricted Library and was relatively easy to cast once one got the hang of it.
Within the boundaries of this barrier, the effects of divinity are suppressed, rendering it ineffective and any attempts to breach the barrier was met with unyielding resistance.
"...this is...quite the sight."
Esna couldn’t help but comment upon taking in the sight of the creature that just tried to kill her mere moments ago.
It was a horrifying, grotesque monster that had skin peeling off its surface and armour fragments embedded into its body.
Any resemblance of whatever it originally looked like was lost as both protruding from its back and head, one could see both animal parts...and that of humans too.
From the lack of surprise on the faces of the Benevolent gods, this wasn’t the first time they were seeing this new breed of mismatched creature.
’Seems like the Malevolent god of darkness has done this before, huh?’
The godslayer girl really wanted to know what was going through the head of this god when he created these monstrosities.
