Chapter 1207: Birth of an Epic (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The core of Nature City was surrounded by the artificial river. Twenty-four temples were spread out.
Over 300,000 believers surrounded the temple, and the most devout ones entered the hall at the center, heading towards the Goddess of Myers’ statue and offering prayers.
Outside the main temple, magic veins dangled from the top of the temple, swaying in the wind. Five-meter-tall demons clad in Heaven Knight Armor stood quietly between the pillars of the temples, holding a weapon most often seen held by the goddess’ warriors—halberds.
The Heaven Knight Armors were inscribed with tight holy prose. The words had a golden sheen to them and divine power flowed through them, as if they were soft liquids and clouds at the same time.
The tall steps spread out for several hundred meters. The height of the main temple hall far exceeded the surrounding ones. Even believers from far away would be able to see the middle of the temple and the tall statue of the Goddess of Myers.
The 24 most devout holy masters stood beneath the statue. The holy masters had advanced immediately after looking at the statue, making Saleen understand that they were the ones chosen by the goddess. That made them the Hallowed Ones in a conventional sense.
The holy masters stood in a line before the statue, leading thousands of believers in the hall in prayer. The chants were heard throughout the entire city. The believers in the temple chanted together. The temples were shrouded in pale green light.
Vibrant, raging power of faith emerged from the prayers of over 300,000 believers, all directed into the statue. Time passed and the statue of the goddess burst in green light, showering the believers beneath it.
The green light was unable to be contained and spread outwards, expanding several miles. Wherever the holy light passed, the magic seeds that were created by Eleanor and planted sprouted. The ones that had already sprouted before grew at an astonishing rate.
“A divine miracle!” Saleen was unable to help but voice his thoughts. He did not join the prayers. The demons who were guarding the temples did not join either. Faith was something that no one would be able to put down once they did it for the first time.
“Master, if there are miracles, it’s thanks to you,” Nailisi looked the excited faces of the believers and praised Saleen.
“Divine miracles are nothing. Hehe, I have a plan. Select a few hundred demons who are versed in both ancient Myers tongue and demon tongue for me. I’m going to write an epic foretelling the resurrection of the goddess. I’ll build a tall divine tablet here and carve the epic onto it. All who come will know that it was I, Saleen Metatrin, who prophesized the resurrection of the goddess and cast out the Lord of Glory.”
Don shivered. Saleen was becoming increasingly meticulous with his methods. With that, even if the goddess was resurrected, she would be overshadowed by Saleen.
“I predicted a lot of things, including wars between planes. This time, we shall decide the course of history and humanity shall once again regain their former glory!”
“Teacher, why won’t you write it yourself?”
“Because the light of the goddess was able to shine across the Myers Mainland plane. The demons are outsiders and I’m the master of the demon plane who happens to be an outsider as well. Only by doing so will I be able to keep myself out of any trouble.”
“Master?”
“Right, Nailisi, I’m going to unify the demon plane. The epic shall be written in demon tongue, then translated in ancient Myers tongue. I’m a human king and the king of demons. That should be considered perfect enough.”
“But too many years have passed, and I don’t know if the demon plane…”
“Nailisi, I calculated the change in powers of the demons you’ve summoned. The rise of power in the demon plane is not as quick as the one happening in Myers Mainland. By the time I reach level 12 and am about to break into level 13, the demon plane will probably be at about the same level as Myers Mainland right now.”
Nailisi looked calm on the outside, but she might as well have been shooting fireworks deep down.
She was an imp and yearned to return to the demon plane very badly. Furthermore, a part of her bloodline had been activated, enough for her to throw her weight around when she returned. Saleen definitely had no intentions of actually becoming a king of the demon plane. The title would be given to her eventually.
Green divine light swept through the ones who talked. There was not even a tinge of divine aura on Saleen and his people. The nature holy light of the goddess did not even seep into Saleen’s Ring of Gifts, showering only the believers who were praying.
“Master, since you’re planning to conquer the demon plane, why not be a devil?”
“A devil?”
“Prayers of demons are very devout and there are huge amounts of living beings in the demon plane. It’d be very easy for you to obtain such powers. Once you’ve reached level 12, it would be very easy for you to spark a divine fire.”
“Nailisi, why would I want to become a god? It’s a pain in the a**. Gods need to fight wars and pillage continuously to maintain their kingdoms. Being a mage is good enough. If I don’t have a country getting in my way, I don’t need much to stay alive. There were many level 18 professionals back on the mainland in ancient times, but there was only one level 18 god.”
Nailisi was just saying that out of nowhere. She felt that not putting the many living beings in demon plane to use was quite a waste, but Saleen had decided to walk the path of a mage, and had no interest in becoming a god of any sort.
The Goddess of Myers had been a level 18 mage. If she had not become a god, she might not have perished on the mainland.
Saleen experienced the power of faith, divine powers, divine crystals, and many other godly products first hand. The comfort when using the powers and items was a stark contrast to what he felt when using his family badge.
In Saleen’s perspective, the indulgence was fundamentally throwing himself away.
Ever since he had acquired the ring capable of boosting his mental powers, he basically stopped using divine crystals to replenish his mental powers. The power of faith and divine powers would not accumulate on him.
The high from using the two types of power would make even mages addicts. If Saleen had not been using his family badge all year long, he might have succumbed to the temptation.
Saleen’s body had gotten used to pain, and it was only in pain that Saleen was able to feel a sense of safety. The sensation of comfort when using divine powers put Saleen in high alert.
As such, even though he had massive amounts of divine power within his Ring of Gifts, he had only tried using the power to train himself once, before giving it up.
Saleen took time out of every day to use his family badge to continuously train his mental powers.
Eleanor grew interested in the goddess’ powers when she her elvish seeds sprouted and grew into massive plants. From Eleanor’s perspective, nature divine arts had definitely borrowed from elvish magic.
Myers was definitely capable of traversing planes at will, and learning elvish skills in the elf plane was a piece of cake. She lost any use of magic skills after becoming a god, but her divine persona would incorporate the rules of such skills.
Magic was driven by magic chords, which were inherent in humans. Gods lacked magic chords and were incapable of mimicking the magic chords. However, gods were capable of manipulating rules.
Once Eleanor got a hold of the rules and advanced to level ten, she would be able to develop territorial powers and touch rules, which meant that she would be able to comprehend and develop powerful elvish magic from nature divine arts.
Eleanor did not lack for methods in training in such magics, but it could not be passed down using words.
If Eleanor were there to experience the power of the divine arts after breaking into level ten, she would be able to strip rules that originally belonged to elvish magic, making comprehension an easier feat.
The prayers went on for a whole day. None of the believers experienced any fatigue or hunger. The life force within their bodies grew several times.
Some devout believers even managed to grow their life force more than ten times. The 24 holy masters leading the event acquired massive powers from the statue, leaping from level seven or eight to level nine.
If there was one thing that holy masters were better at than mages, it was their speed at advancement. It was not peculiar for a level one holy master to advance to level nine instantly if they were blessed and favored by their gods.
Powerful gods were capable of modifying their believers using divine powers, making them into oracles. The dead would be able to keep their souls intact, which were absorbed into their kingdoms and made into believers who were even more devout.
Mages only had one life, but holy masters were capable of living far longer under the protection of their gods until their gods perished.
While the demons had no faith, their Heaven Knight Armor was imbued with divine powers when basking under the holy light, becoming even more durable. The divine spells on the armors brought greater power when they were activated by the holy masters.
The Goddess of Nature was versed in healing and restoration, while demons inherently possessed powerful life force. Being clad in armor meant that unless the demons were killed, they could bounce back from any injury regardless of severity. They would be able to suffer the worst of disabilities and fully recover.
The Heaven Knight Armor were created using fossilized gods. The fossilized gods, who were capable of endless restorative abilities, imbued the armor with self-healing abilities.
“Carry on.” Saleen was bored. He had analyzed most of the secrets of nature divine arts. A statue being activated by devout believers who had just embraced the faith was hardly able to produce miracles that would pique Saleen’s interests.
However, Saleen knew that sooner or later, the statue would wake up again, becoming a shadow of the Goddess of Myers.
Most of the nature temple knights’ members were not inside the city, as they were patrolling outside the city. They had yet to take the surrounding cities for themselves, but the Nature Faith’s power was massive enough for their generation.
However, they were still incapable of being compared to Qin nobles and the invaders from the Tanggulasi Empire.
War could break out at any moment, and the city was incapable of being protected by a group of knights. Saleen needed to wait longer to have Nailisi mobilize more manpower from Demon City to protect Nature City.
With that, Saleen’s epic would not be all lies, as the demons had truly protected the Goddess of Nature once, and that would be irrefutable truth.
Saleen’s plan was all interconnected, and it would need to prove the demons’ contributions to the Nature Faith. His prophecy would be made into legends in the Nature Faith.
History was created by many seemingly insignificant people. Saleen was only a level ten mage at the moment, but he was creating history.
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