Chapter 825 Shrine of the Races, the Gods and the Multiverse (1/2)
There were many so-called 'gods' at the beginning of the Glorious Era.
The first type were powerful beings born when the world was created from various natural phenomenon, even primordial Steel Strength. They include the Steel Python, Ancient Dragons, Earth Goddess, various mountain gods, the Sun God and the fist generation gods of the seas and the skies.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click visiting.
They breathed with the world, grasping nature's power and were amongst the world's earliest and most powerful living spirits. That is why they are known as the Prime Gods, the main deities of various legends. Amongst them, Steel Pythons and Ancient Dragons were the most special since their definitions blurred lines, and the other nations could not be described on equal terms.
The second type spawned from the Prime Gods, powerful beings born in the world: such as the Gods of Thunder, Windstorms, Avalanches, and Tremors.
Such gods spawned from the power of the Prime, and were considered children that partially inherited their power. It was them who were the main form of the earliest deities, known as the World Gods and commonly seen in various myths.
The third type were superior beings born sheerly from human imagination, faith, and worship of certain concepts, including the God of Knowledge, the God of Craftsman and the God of Wanderers… There were so many such gods that some of their existences were suspected and mostly counted as divine spirits, and could be set aside.
Their existence originated from human faith. First comes divine class and then their birth, which was why these deities were different from the first two. Given that their power comes from their devotees, they were the only ones who need faith—otherwise, they would vanish into nothingness no matter how powerful they were.
But are the Seven Gods of men to be classified into the three aforementioned groups?
Certainly not.
”We are different from them—they are simply innately powerful, as if a mountain chain gaining consciousness and devastatingly powerful when compared to human. That said, their knowledge and skill was probably less than an Iron-class individual.”
The God of Life spoke serenely to Joshua in the Void sealed by divine power mist and Steel Strength. ”Unlike the perished, eliminated ancient gods, the 'True Gods' we refer to holds divine power, wisdom, and skill.”
”The three types of gods we spoke of are definitely powerful, but only just—they christened themselves gods but were simply powerful creatures, and it was a certain form of Nature's Power which sustains them.”
Such was what the ancient gods did day to day: strengthening themselves by absorbing power through faith, nature, and world. Civilization was their infinite bakery, suppling inexhaustive resources as they willingly live alongside humans.
'True Gods', however, did not require that.
Linked to the Root by divinity, every God could obtain near boundless power. The doors to that power was only that large, difficult to spread or develop and would be stimulated by mere conflict, they have to be careful not to touch the limits of divinity, leading to assimilation with the Multiverse Root—nevertheless, while True Gods were connected to the Root as well, they were the most powerful, the most perfect and the most difficult class to be accomplished.
”So, what are True Gods, actually?”
The white mist of divine power slowly fused into the Steel Strength, the figure of the God of Life gradually turning illusory. One could tell that its clone was about to leave, but neither Joshua's clone nor true form moved. The Warrior was fulfilling his promise—he would not fight since the God of Life had revealed the information he wanted to know, while the impulse from divinity dissipated, and Joshua regained calm.
”Simple-Minded One. 'True Gods' are but gods created artificially, and yet more powerful than all naturally created divine beings. It is a refinement combined from the ideas of Prime Gods, World Gods, and Doctrinal Gods, and in other words was the so-called 'Path to Divinity'. By fitting the conditions and possessing a sufficiently firm will, ideals and ability, even a mortal could sublimate from the self-refinement of Fated Legend to True God!”
The God of Life spoke with a pleasant but ever-calm tone. ”The essence of 'True Gods' was the greatest crystallization of an Extraordinary civilization's skill and the pinnacle condensed out countless people's wisdom. The 'True Gods' could even reach the frontier of 'infinity' by relying on their divinity and the Root, overturning the constants of reality in the world, something which natural gods would never achieve over their eternal lives.
”Infinity… huh.”
Joshua wrinkled his brow in return but said nothing. None could tell what he was thinking from his expression alone.
The God of Life shook its head, having appeared expectant over his reaction but now disappointed. Still, it continued, ”Therefore, Simple-Minded One… Do you know why the Sacrificial Grounds that Bridges the Multiverse' was known as such?”
”No, but I would like to know.”
Joshua replied simply. He was definitely very familiar with the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds and often spoke with the Commanding Will, but he only understood the 'Multiverse' part of its name in both past and present lives, and not that of 'Sacrificial Grounds'.
Some believed that Sacrificial Ground was that it was a ritual place for the arrival of countless worlds aided by the Mycroft civilization dedicated to the Sage, the gods and all of the Glorious Era. Others believed that it was the greatest creation of Mycroft, fated to claim the prayers of countless civilizations and races, a holy land of the Multiverse.
But the God of Life revealed a puzzling answer.
”The Sacrificial Grounds that Bridges the Multiverse naturally consecrates gods.”
Unlike the earnest but seemingly always-tired God of Might and Justice, or the cordial God of Love and Death that only ever emanated a depressing atmosphere, the God of Life showed extreme nonchalance, freedom and appeared unburdened from the very start, its expression inscrutable from behind its veil.
At presence, its clone was slowly becoming illusory as it tapped into its own divine power, smiling and spreading its arms at Joshua while a screen appeared before its body, displaying a grand blueprint in front of the Warrior.
”The Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds naturally consecrates the Multiverse and the Gods.”
What had appeared before Joshua was nothing other than the plans for the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds, dictated by the Sage and the Gods a thousand years ago!
The God of Life had, at this moment that exceeded everyone's expectation, revealed the purpose of that mysterious wonder!
Joshua's eyes widened, while the Silver Planet behind him rumbled.
What he saw was an infinitely large net that kept spreading as if at the speed of thought as if cotton but far more massive. Each line and strand were essentially countless dots that were worlds and planets connected, appearing to be a net in the God of Life's screen but was the smallest of units representing a living world.
”This is the original form of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds: a self-checking, self-expanding Multiverse-class spell that independently seeks living worlds to connect with. The Glorious Era had spent centuries to forge its very base, while hundreds of Legendary champions captured Steel Shards in the Void for it, creating a peerless authority for it while the gods moved stars and worlds, draining them out of energy and substance to sketch the spells' base.”
”In the very end, the Sage activated it—the greatest champion that was without compare and perhaps the strongest in the Multiverse spread the coverage of the spell, with unbelievable information feedback instantly spreading all over the galaxy, towards the boundless Void of the Multiverse.”
The network was so profound that the publicly-known plane of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds itself was its mere foundation. The Multiverse Project indicated that the facility would see countless renovations and expansion, becoming a new, profound world. When that time comes, Mycroft itself would be assimilated as the hub of that new world.
The God of Life displayed the most romantic of projects drawn up by innumerable Extraordinary individuals. They would connect virtually all living worlds in the Multiverse, making distance pointless to the Glorious Era: with that network, all who calls out would receive aid, and all could hear the cries of another. With the Sage's guidance, the Multiverse would no longer have any sadness—the good would laugh, the evil would cry.
Conversely, it was most important that the aid offered from the Multiverse Project was not one-sided. With the guidance of Glorious Era champions, even mortals of the Mycroft civilization could go forth to other worlds through the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds, hence obtaining raw resources and training their spirit. Even if their natural talent was lacking, they would rapidly improve with the near-infinite world resources.
Afterward, those champions would head to other civilizations and aid the races threatened by the Chaos or various calamities. They would learn about otherworld civilizations' in doing so, affirming their own ideals and hence obtain divinity…
”And then, accepting refinement to become new 'True Gods'.”
The God of Life was laughing, but its expression remained concealed by its veil—it must have been a gentle and expectant expression.
Almost transparent, the divine being then looked up toward the Void. ”That's the Multiverse Project, the purpose for which the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds was built… by connecting infinite worlds to secure infinite resources and infinite opportunity to train, everyone Mycroft could become Extraordinary champions and improve… in the end, with the graduation homework of saving one civilization or establishing a new civilization of Order, thereby earning the right to becoming 'True God'.”
”Such was the ultimate objective of the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds: the shrine that consecrates the Multiverse, the gods and every race!”
Far surpassing the ambitions of all races and all civilization boldness, it was the greatest feat of Extraordinary civilization: [Humans as Gods]!
”But that path reached its end.”
The God of Life's expectant tone finally turned into flat calmness as its form utterly vanished, leaving pure information flow that compounded with the spreading white divine mist. ”In the end, the romantic project drew the Evil Gods and Abyss, and the Glorious Era died in the face of infinite foes. That path was determined to have failed, for merely the power of champions would never hold against the countless unexpected things that Sacrificial Grounds brings.
”We have to find another path.”
Humans as Gods needed near infinite resources that naturally had to be realized by a boundless measure—the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds itself. However, when it lured in the Evil Gods when it fully activated and itself severely damaged, the Starfall Era should naturally assume another path.
At least, now they did not have a being of the Sage's caliber capable of creating another Multiverse-class spell.
Meanwhile, the God of Life left.
***
Even at the very end, that hollow and androgynous god was so whimsical, saying no words in parting.
Joshua naturally would not mind such frivolity—right now, the warrior was thinking.
He was not considering some profound question such as True Gods, the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds or civilization's choices, for the warrior never thinks about such things by himself. At present, he was considering the slight difference in history between his preexistence and this life.
”In the past life, the Seven Gods were never seen again after briefly repelling the Champions of the Abyss. Everyone believed that they had headed to the Abyss to subjugate various Abyssal Wills in a counterattack, providing an opening for the Legendary champions who were there to take heads.”
Joshua mused to himself. ”But now it appears that only one Abyssal Will and a single Demon King could hold their own against a True God.”
”Where had they gone to when they should be fighting? Could even the Abyssal invasion be insignificant to them, a frivolity not worth interfering over?”
That was naturally impossible.
Joshua slowly understood.
Indeed, if Yolanda, the God of Love and Death was aware of the Abyssal Paradise, it meant the others of the Seven Gods knew as well.
The Abyssal invasion came in a time of great strife for the world then. The Seen Gods never descended upon the mortal realm, while some Legends vanished without a trace… Everyone believed them to have fallen, but Joshua understood that they may have headed to the depths of the Abyss to suppress the Evil God that was stirring conflict over the Multiverse.