Chapter 47: Blood of Legends!
2015-09-15
Author: Floating Tower (诸生浮屠)
God of the Hunt – Mara.
This deity is known as the King of Beasts and the Black-Blooded Beast. The strongest evidence of His descent to the mortal realm is the large-scale activities of His predator followers, who have attacked some creatures in the Elven Forest and even angered an adult giant dragon. The God of the Hunt possesses unique powers; He can enhance His own strength through slaughter, but it is not like Soren’s enhancement in other areas; rather, it relies on hunting rituals to strengthen His divine power.
True deities possess divinity that can store divine power values.
However, in reality, the vast majority of deities do not have their divine power values fully stocked, because this limit is challenging for any deity to reach. Even among those with strong divine power, the maximum capacity for their divine power value is often far beyond what they actually possess. For example, Soren currently has 15 points of divinity value, with a maximum storage of 300 points of divine power, roughly a 1:20 ratio, but in fact, Soren rarely has his divine power storage exceed 100 points.
Other deities are similar.
The only way to easily replenish divine power values is to use the strength of the divine kingdom for transformation; however, this will deplete the power of the divine kingdom.
There is a saying:
– “Deities have nearly endless power within their own realms!”
In the divine kingdom, deities can draw upon divine power values to replenish themselves; as long as the divine kingdom exists, its power is endless, which is why so many deities with “weak divine power” and “lower-tier divine power” have survived through cruel history. Even deities with “strong divine power” do not dare to recklessly attack the realms of other deities; once they enter the enemy’s home territory, their own power is continuously depleted while the enemy’s strength is replenished from their divine kingdom.
A weaker-tier deity could even exhaust a stronger deity’s divine power within the divine kingdom.
Therefore, the struggles between deities focus on diminishing the enemy’s churches and followers in the material plane, as this fundamentally undermines the divine power of hostile deities. When an opposing deity’s divine kingdom weakens to a certain extent, it may be the opportune moment for a deity to launch a full-scale attack; that is when a real opportunity to kill the opposing deity arises.
Although Soren has already attained godhood, he has never truly enjoyed the treatment of a deity.
Such an experience, with nearly infinite powers restored through the divine kingdom, is something he cannot currently satisfy.
The Saint’s Cataclysm is about to arrive.
Deities are falling from the sky one after another; if Soren seeks death and wants to enter the divine kingdom, he would likely be struck down immediately upon entry.
At that moment, even if he doesn’t die, he would be severely injured!
…
The Saint’s Cataclysm is arriving.
Basically, all the deities struck down by the energy storm from above have no divine power left, meaning they fall to the mortal realm in a completely bare saint form.
Thus, deities are the weakest when they are first struck down; this is why the God of Half-Elves and Wanderers fled desperately at that time. In such a situation, he had very little divine power and could only rely on the ability of his saint form, with virtually no additional powers apart from those resembling other high-tier legendary professionists.
Divine power values have been completely reset to zero.
This situation is a catastrophe for any deity. Accustomed to strong divine power, during such extreme weakness, they will naturally seek every means to regain their strength.
Divine power values can also be replenished!
Because the divinity owned by the deity is a container for storing divine power, similar to how Soren’s church organization turns believers’ prayers into divine power values. Those values are then stored within him.
This is a channel for recovering divine power.
However,
The Saint’s Cataclysm effectively resets all deities to their original form, regardless of whether they are newly ascended gods or deities that have existed for long periods and developed their churches for thousands of years; now, when struck down by the energy storm, all divine power is cleared. Even if a divine kingdom has hundreds or thousands of points of divine power accumulated throughout long history, there is currently no way to mobilize even the slightest bit. To restore their divine power value, they must rely on the mortal churches and believers to start from scratch, accumulating divine power little by little from now on.
During the most severe moments of the Saint’s Cataclysm,
The divine power that deities possess will be suppressed, though it hasn’t fully exploded yet. The deities struck down are primarily those whose divine power values have been completely emptied.
A massive amount of divine power has been cleared.
What should they do now?
The first thing all deities that have fallen to the mortal realm do is to get familiar with the saint’s body. They then begin to accumulate divine power centered on themselves; this process, while very slow, can at least leave behind some residual power.
However,
This is a slower, clumsier method. There are actually other channels to increase their divine power values.
That is, performing prayer rituals and sacrificial rites!
For example, Soren now estimates that a normal day’s prayer may yield less than 1 point of divine power, but if a large ceremonial prayer is held on a rest day, it could result in an increase of 2-3 points of divine power that day.
Returning to the main topic.
The God of the Hunt – Mara is in such a situation; through extensive intelligence analysis, Soren concluded that the God of the Hunt is recovering His divine power through bloody sacrificial rituals.
He is referred to as the “Black-Blooded Beast.”
If Soren’s divinities of “Half-Elf” and “Wanderer” are considered passive divinities, then the God of the Hunt – Mara’s divinity of “Hunting” is considered an active divinity.
Active divinities possess special effects.
During the process of hunting by followers, the God of the Hunt – Mara can slowly recover divine power while expanding His influence over the material plane. For any evil deity, when others pray to Him out of fear, terror, or reverence, even mentioning His divine name can bring Him a touch of power. This is also why the Ocean Goddess has a relatively small number of followers, yet possesses strong divine power; the prosperity of ocean trade compels humans to pray to her for smooth sailing, and this process boosts her power. However, if the ocean trade dwindles in the future, her influence will significantly decrease!
Historically,
Many similar deities have risen to glory in a short time, only to be knocked back down after a while.
The most representative deity among them is the “God of War!”
…
The God of the Hunt has a special craving known as “Bloody Desire!”
He may be the most fond of “Legendary Blood” in the multiverse. The so-called legendary blood refers to the blood of any legendary-level creature, whether human, beast, monster, or other beings. Once they reach the legendary level, their bloodline carries a power that even deities cannot ignore. Anyone who makes a sacrifice of “legendary blood” to the God of the Hunt can receive His response and thus gain rewards, even fulfilling some wishes of the offeror. Even if that person is not His follower, as long as the God of the Hunt senses the power of “legendary blood,” He will respond to the prayer, regardless of whether the person is of the good faction or evil faction.
For the chaotic evil deity – Mara, He generally has fewer concerns; He only cares about His own power!
The movements around the Elven Forest are for the sake of bloody sacrificial rituals.
The God of the Hunt – Mara does not have as many followers as other deities; the church’s numbers and power do not reach the scale of other deities, and it’s possible that His number of followers is even smaller than the current Soren. After all, Soren’s church has a large number of half-elf civilians, while the God of the Hunt – Mara’s followers are primarily monsters, beasts, and evil hunters. Relying on this small number of supporters for prayer would hardly restore significant divine power; however, He has His own way, which is to leverage the proactivity of the “Hunting” divinity to recover strength.
And this point
Is precisely what Soren can utilize now!
…(To Be Continued ~^~)
