Chapter 44: Chapter44-Corruption and Contamination
"Could it be that gods truly exist in this world?"
"Deus Initium... Annasi... did they really receive the blessings of a god?"
At this moment, all the awakeners in the city were deep in discussion, their faces filled with shock.
Although they didn't know much about Thomas, they were well aware that Annasi was once nothing more than a small riverside village.
But now, it had grown so powerful—this was simply unnatural.
Only a god could grant such rapid transformation in such a short period.
Fox stared at Thomas's silhouette, standing amidst the ruins of the shattered mountain, his expression dazed.
The first time Jackson had told him that there was a god in Annasi, he hadn't believed it—he had even thought Jackson had been deceived by a spellbeast.
The second time Jackson had said that helping Thomas and the others fight the spellbeasts could earn them divine favor, he thought Jackson had lost his mind and even tried to stop their reckless actions.
But now, after witnessing the Earthborn Colossus—at its peak strength—lying dead on the ground, he finally believed.
Annasi truly had a god!
After a brief moment of shock, Fox immediately gathered a group of merchants from the local apothecaries and rushed toward the ruined stone mountain.
Many other awakeners, after regaining their senses, also hurried toward the mountain.
Even many ordinary citizens of Black Iron, who had always lived in fear, began running toward the Earthborn Colossus's corpse.
They wanted to see it with their own eyes.
They wanted to see the missionary named Thomas.
Meanwhile, in the Divine Space, Owen glanced at the fifth-stage task.
The original mission of slaying five tier-5 spellbeasts had now changed to four.
Clearly, the pre-tier-5 Earthborn Colossus, which had unleashed its latent power at the last moment, was deemed sufficient by the system.
Its death counted toward the mission's progress.
"Thomas did well," Owen thought, very satisfied.
He had only issued the divine order to slay spellbeasts yesterday, and by this afternoon, Thomas had already led the village's awakeners to eliminate the Earthborn Colossus—a beast that had terrorized the region for so long.
His speed, courage, and planning were all commendable.
After all, while the Earthborn Colossus appeared to be only a tier-4 mid-level spellbeast, if they had been careless, its sudden pre-tier-5 awakening could have put Thomas and the others in grave danger.
Judging by their final coordinated fireball attack, they had anticipated the worst-case scenario and prepared accordingly.
They had not grown careless or complacent despite having Owen as their divine protector.
Next, Owen turned his gaze toward the temple's outskirts.
There, he saw a large number of ragged, weary refugees steadily gathering toward the village.
These people came from the Fallen Lands.
After receiving Owen's divine order, Thomas had led his forces into the Fallen Lands.
And now that the region was free from the Claw Tyrant and Lady Black Goat, its remaining spellbeasts were no match for Thomas and his warriors.
The cleanup had been swift and absolute.
Afterward, they had begun escorting refugees back to Annasi, expanding the village's population dramatically.
Owen could already see that Annasi was no longer just a village.
Based on its growing population and prosperity, it was ready to be upgraded into a town.
And with so many new devotees joining, he could already sense his path to becoming a 2-Star Ancient God!
To ascend to 2-Star Ancient God, Owen needed 15,000 divine points, and his territory had to expand further.
There were also implicit requirements regarding the number of devotees he had.
For this, he had to turn Annasi into a town as soon as possible and convert more people into devoted followers.
Luckily, this was no longer a difficult challenge—it was simply a matter of gradual progression.
The biggest obstacle to his ascension to 2-Star Ancient God was still gathering the 15,000 divine points.
Even though he had amassed a decent number of devotees, the consumption rate of divine points was extremely high.
Right now, his current divine points were far from sufficient.
The only way to rapidly gain a large sum of divine points—
A Grand Offering!
The next sacrificial ceremony was approaching, and if the offerings were valuable enough, combined with his hundredfold amplification, he could gain a massive influx of divine points in an instant.
This would give him a real shot at ascending to 2-Star Ancient God.
"These days, all gods have realized the importance of divine points. Nobody has much to spare, and even tier-3 Infernal Artifacts are hard to sell..."
Owen sighed, disappointed.
Currently, 1-Star Ancient Gods were still relatively rare, and the cost of producing a tier-3 Infernal Artifact was 50 divine points.
If he sold one, he would at least need to charge 100 divine points for it.
But at that price, no god would be willing to spend so much.
Even though tier-3 Infernal Artifacts significantly enhanced the combat abilities of their ghostly minions, 100 divine points was almost an entire fortune for most newly ascended gods.
Many 1-Star Ancient Gods wouldn't even have that much divine energy left after their ascension.
Even Owen—who could gather divine points faster than most—was hesitant to spend that much.
Just then, Owen's spiritual awareness suddenly detected a strange disturbance at the edge of his territory.
His divine senses immediately extended outward.
And then—
He saw them.
Bizarre, writhing tendrils had emerged from the earth, their surfaces coated in mucus, greedily absorbing the elemental energy from the land.
Each time these tentacles pulsed and writhed, the ground beneath them withered, turning into lifeless, barren sand.
Owen hesitated for a moment.
When his territory expanded into this area, he had sensed nothing unusual.
But now—
These sinister tendrils had appeared out of nowhere.
If not for their aggressive rate of absorption, which created detectable disturbances, even as the god of this land, he might not have noticed them at all.
"Is this what they call the 'Aberrant'?"
Owen muttered to himself.
He had heard many stories from Thomas and the other devotees about these Aberrations.
Unlike spellbeasts, Aberrations were far more elusive and terrifying.
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There were cases where villages instantly collapsed, their people either dying mysteriously or turning into zombie-like creatures before disappearing entirely.
They came silently and vanished abruptly.
Impossible to predict. Impossible to prevent.
Still, Owen was not particularly concerned.
Even though these tentacles were far from Annasi, his territory had expanded tenfold since reaching the limit of 1-Star Ancient God.
The tendrils' location was still within his domain, albeit at the very edge.
Since they had the power to interfere with his divine influence, these Aberrations were indeed more troublesome than spellbeasts.
Owen stepped forward, his golden divine soul descending from the sky.
He stood in the air, gazing down at the writhing tendrils.
From what he could sense, there were seven in total, radiating outward from a central underground point.
The ground at the center had already been drained dry, turning into a yellowed, desolate wasteland.
Even wild beasts that wandered too close were immediately ensnared, their bodies liquefied and absorbed, leaving behind only a thin, tattered husk that disintegrated into dust.
At their current rate of spread, it wouldn't take long for these Aberrations to reach Annasi.
"Each tendril is roughly as strong as a tier-4 spellbeast... Interesting."
Owen narrowed his eyes and stepped into their domain.
Instantly—
The tentacles surged toward him.
And in the suddenly darkened world, he heard—
"Contamination... Corruption..."