1530 A Mages Deception Part 1 (1/2)
Saleen had no certainty of being able to acquire the secrets to the chaotic void. He pressured the Heretic God and had no intentions of sparing it. He was already able to learn something regarding the Heretic God's rules by analyzing the bits of its power of the Source, and he found that to be something utterly terrifying.
Common people would not even have had a chance to die when facing off against that Heretic God. It was out to make the entire crystal wall system into his own divine kingdom, before being able to advance to crystal wall systems of higher levels.
The Lord of Glory had been a far more compassionate god in comparison.
The Heretic God was backed to a corner, so it said to Saleen, ”you have to guarantee that you will never destroy all of my power of the Source. Only then will I give you the star chart.”
”Relax. The words of a mage are akin to an oath. If you're willing, we can sign a contract.”
”A contract? Good,” the Heretic God agreed, and he stuffed a contract scroll into the Aqua Fulgur.
Saleen never stopped attacking the Heretic God's divine persona while communicating with it. Cracks showed on that divine persona and quickly disappeared, looking like a world was being repeatedly created and then destroyed.
The power of lightning was brought to the extreme in that battle on the divine persona.
The Heretic God was forced by powers of such magnitude to yield and sign the contract. It hated every bit of it. It was unable to say anything about being set up by the Goddess of Myers, as they were both level 18 gods and had both lost their pinnacle powers, giving them the same status. However, the level 15 mage leaned on it again and again. It resented the treatment so badly that it swore that it would have all the friends and family of the mage become pillars in the Heretic God's temple just to let the Heretic God have a good look at them every day.
That would be a place more terrible than the Wall of Pain. The pillars holding up that evil were found at the deepest depths of hell after all.
The Heretic God signed the very unfair contract, which disappeared in the boundless Aqua Fulgur. The contents of the contract said that the Heretic God would give up the divine persona in return for Saleen leaving half of its remaining power of the Source behind.
Losing the divine persona would mean losing its power of rules, but that would be better than having its divine persona broken and its power of the Source all robbed away. The Heretic God dared not go on a match of patience with Saleen. The god felt that Saleen was in a place where many dead bodies of powerful gods were found.
The Heretic God handed the divine persona over. Half of its power of the Source gushed from it, wrapped up by Saleen's Aqua Fulgur.
Saleen was the only one left in the Hall of Gods that, and he only had two gods for company.
The Heretic God and Dante.
The level 18 divine persona was embedded into the magic array, and the Hall of Gods finally revealed its original form. The divine remains on the walls came alive, as if countless ancient scrolls of pictures were being unraveled, playing epics right before Saleen's eyes.
Furthermore, everything looked insanely real. Time flew and Saleen saw a great many nations rise and fall and many heroes wither with age. He witnessed what happened to all the level 18 powerful ones, as well as the level 18 gods...
He split the remaining power of the Source of the Heretic God into two parts, one of which belonged to Saleen. After Saleen purified the part that belonged to him using the power of lightning, he let Dante take its time to absorb it.
The Heretic God was terrified. The contract that it signed with Saleen had an effective period of 10,000 years. However, it had no idea that 10,000 years in the Hall of Gods only equaled a month outside.
A level 18 divine persona was able to let the Hall of Gods run at its full potential, so much so that Saleen's Ring of Cosmos turned alongside the place, releasing a myriad of rules, playing out the plane's rise and fall thus far.
Saleen never expected all of the changes to happen, but he nonetheless continued doing things methodically and let Dante absorb the power of the Source.
There were few rules left in the Heretic God's power of the Source after he cleaned them using lightning. They were reduced to pure energy, and one thing that Dante lacked most for advancing was energy.
The Heretic God watched the changes unfold and knew right away what was in Saleen's mind.
”You lied to me, mage!”
”I didn't. It's stated in the contract. I'll protect you for 100 years and within those 100 years, I would never let Dante touch you. But if you were to attack me, the contract would be voided,” Saleen smirked as he answered.
Duping a god was indeed fun, and the deception was successful, only because the Heretic God had given up its divine persona. With the divine persona, the magic array in the Hall of Gods was activated, and the Heretic God eventually ended up destroyed by its own hands.
If the two parties had clashed head on, the Heretic God might not have been a match for the frost dragon. If they dragged things out, he would have needed tens of thousands of years before being able to finish off the Heretic God, and that would have only been possible if he were to be able to advance quickly enough. If he were to remain at level 15, he would have needed to slog along until his death, and still he would not have been able to do anything against that level 18 divine persona.
The army was switched often within the line of defense. Tens of thousands of mages joined the line of defense and participated in the construction of the magic net. The entire line of defense had a magic net of a greater coverage installed. So long as there were ample enchanters on the job, the army that emerged from the gates of the divine kingdom would have suffered considerable losses.
The edge of the magic net was near the gates of the divine kingdom. Hundreds of thousands of enchanters cast magic spells at the same time. Their range of attacks was already extended into the divine kingdom itself.
Within the temple of the Goddess of Nature in the Purgatory Dessert, the divine beast patiently guarded over the goddess.