Chapter Twelve: Collapse of the Plane
Treasure was scattered in the direction of the altar.
From the traces, these adventurers had likely disturbed the items inside the altar. Deities themselves do not require much wealth, but for their believers and churches, deities need to provide certain rewards. Even demons know to use wealth to tempt mortals, and evil gods naturally use wealth to attract some secular powers. The God of the Hunt’s every sacrifice returns some reward to the believers, but it cannot always be a grant of power, as this would result in too great a loss for the deity.
Thus, sometimes using gold and jewels to reward believers is much cheaper!
Every deity’s realm accumulates vast wealth, and these assets are used not only to reward believers but also for the construction within the divine realm. For example, this altar in front of them is surrounded by at least over a thousand gems, in addition to silver and gold ceremonial items, and the altar base appears to be made of obsidian. This is a large-scale grand altar, and the wealth expended on it is likely not much less than that spent by Soren when establishing the Half-Elf Grand Temple.
Conservatively speaking!
The wealth spent to build this altar reached over 500,000 Gind in the Material Plane.
This adventuring party was after those gems.
Unfortunately, they did not know that in the realms of deities, especially in places with astonishing wealth, there are often Holy Spirits guarding them.
A Holy Spirit nearly wiped them out.
Perhaps due to the altar’s destruction, this fragment of the divine realm shrank ever faster, and the void was gradually closing in, sweeping up everything: soil, rock, water, even air, all being pulled into the chaotic currents of the void.
At this moment, they couldn’t afford to be trapped inside.
For even if a deity were caught within, escaping would not be easy. It’s even possible to remain trapped forever.
—“Shadow Hide!”
Soren did not intend to waste time; this was merely a small fragment of a divine realm, not worthy of him lingering too long.
—“Shadow Travel!”
—“Shadow Assassination!”
—“Divine Power Shockwave!”
Just as what looked like an ape-like Holy Spirit prepared to end the remaining lives of those few adventurers, Soren’s figure suddenly emerged from the twisted shadows, his curved blade cutting through a strange silvery light, accompanied by a torrential storm of blows. In an instant, the Holy Spirit’s body was torn to shreds, ultimately being completely annihilated by a ‘Divine Power Shockwave.’
KO!
A Legendary Level Holy Spirit was thus directly killed by Soren.
With the d*ath of the Holy Spirit, the energy constituting its body gradually dissipated, and a grayish-white diamond crystal began to form in the air, gently landing in Soren’s palm.
A line of data appeared before him:
“k*ll the Holy Spirit Apostle of the God of the Hunt – Mara! …”
“Extract target’s soul energy! … You gained 3000 points of Killing Experience! …”
“The target possesses divine power.”
“Extract target’s divinity! … You gained 1 point of Divinity Value! …”
“Divine Power Conversion! …”
“Activate Killing Domain! … Activate Tracking Divine Profession! … You gained 6 points of Divine Power Value from the Holy Spirit Apostle! …”
……………
Killing experience was scarce.
However, Soren gained 1 point of Divinity Value and received a portion of divine power in return.
That’s right.
One can obtain divine power replenishment in the divine realm, but this must align with the domain and divine profession. The divine kingdom itself is constructed from divine power, and in the case of the fallen God of the Hunt – Mara, Soren could draw a trace of divine power to replenish himself.
Killing experience was indeed quite rare.
A Legendary Level Holy Spirit Apostle only provided 3000 points of Killing Experience, mainly due to the soul fragment in Soren’s hand.
A Legendary Level Soul Crystal.
The divine kingdom is a very special place, where many beings possess unique soul forms. This makes it one of the few places in the divine realm where Legendary Level Soul Crystals can drop directly.
This item can be directly absorbed, but its better use is for crafting Diamond Golems.
“Leave here immediately!”
In the blink of an eye, Soren had killed the Holy Spirit Apostle, and as the adventurers, who had just lost most of their companions to the Holy Spirit Apostle, stared in shock, Soren coldly urged, “Don’t want to leave? Or do you plan to stay here forever?”
A hint of murderous intent appeared.
The three adventurers instantly went pale with fear, realizing that the person who just killed the Holy Spirit Apostle and saved them might not be easy to deal with.
At the very least, he didn’t seem like someone you could befriend.
The three exchanged glances. With some regret, they took one last look at the vast gems on the altar and helped each other carry the bodies of their other teammates away, fearing that if they said one more word, Soren would impatiently k*ll them all.
Such a powerful being might not care about their feelings.
Soren did not have the energy to focus on these mortals. Had he not appeared, these people would likely have all died at the hands of the Holy Spirit Apostle.
Exploring the divine realm without Legendary Level power is tantamount to seeking d*ath.
It was a very foolish act!
Although Soren had swiftly killed the Holy Spirit Apostle, if he could not do so, this Holy Spirit Apostle would certainly have been able to drag on a long battle with him.
Because this was their realm!
Within the divine kingdom, these Holy Spirit Apostles can easily summon divine power from the outside. Regardless of how severe the injuries, they can recover in a very short time.
Can’t k*ll them quickly?
Believe it or not, they might toss a [Greater Restoration] your way next!
And then immediately battle you at full health again for three hundred rounds?
Deities are nearly invincible in their own realms, as long as the power within the divine kingdom is not depleted, the deity effectively has unlimited divine power to cast spells.
This is also why so many weak deities in history can stay safe and sound.
As long as they stay obediently within the divine kingdom, even if a deity with strong divine power comes, they would not feel afraid, and they could even gradually exhaust the opponent to d*ath using the power stored in their divine kingdom.
A war between divine kingdoms could even last for hundreds of years!
Holy Spirit Apostles are somewhat similar; they can mobilize the divine power of this kingdom, and if they cannot be quickly killed, they could potentially exhaust a whole party of Legendary Adventurers to d*ath.
Having killed the Holy Spirit Apostle before him, the divine power on the altar was also dissipating.
Naturally, Soren could not allow this divine power to dissipate in the kingdom, so he immediately stepped up to the altar and pressed his palm onto the central fist-sized ruby, its color resembling bl**d red; with Soren’s divine power influence, strands of divine power began to flow toward him. Ultimately, it was stored within his divine construct.
A total of 32 points of divine power value.
This was the portion of divine power Soren could absorb; the remaining divine power all dissipated.
Soren had not inherited the full divine profession of the God of the Hunt – Mara, otherwise he would have gained over a hundred points of divine power this time. But if Soren inherited all of the divine professions, then this divine kingdom would not have fallen, and he would have had no opportunity to absorb divine power.
This was essentially a dead cycle!
Having taken the divine power related to killing and tracking, Soren’s attention turned to the grand altar before him.
—“Greater Mage Hand!”
An invisible energy field emerged, causing all the scattered gems around Soren to levitate in mid-air. They soon vanished into the air.
Next, the Greater Mage Hand began to dismantle the altar before him. This fragment of the divine kingdom would not last long before vanishing, and Soren must take everything valuable with him.
Gems?
Take them all!
Silver and gold items?
Take them all!
Obsidian?
Take them all!
Diamonds?
Take them all!
Everything from this grand altar, apart from the wooden structure and ordinary metals, was packed into Soren’s dimensional space. However, as the grand altar was disassembled, the power supporting this fragment of divine construct grew weaker and weaker. In the end, the speed at which the void consumed it was astonishing. The entire divine kingdom space shrank to about twenty square kilometers.
“We must leave now!”
The void was already spreading to the nearby forest, under the collapse of the plane, all soil, rock, and trees were being swept away in an instant by the chaotic currents of the void. At this rate, in half an hour at most, this fragment of the divine kingdom would be obliterated.
—“Alter Reality! [Divine Ability]”
Soren reached out to the void, then his figure appeared to take on a semi-ethereal form. With a crack in the plane appearing, the next moment, he returned to the Material Plane.
By this time, the divine kingdom fragment had shrunk to about five square kilometers.
It seemed to have lost its final supporting power. The remaining space no longer shrank bit by bit but collapsed as a whole, this already small divine kingdom plane completely shattered, and the continental shelf’s plate looked like smashed biscuits. Then, the turbulent flow of time and space swept in from all directions, accompanied by a massive disappearance of matter, everything returning to the void. As the imminent collapse consumed all matter, the torrent of time and space thoroughly shredded this expanse of space.
This part of the divine kingdom fragment completely vanished!
The final scene was the legendary [Collapse of the Plane], where the twisted void connected to the turbulent flow of time and space. In this situation, even deities had no way to contend.
The only beings who could safely traverse within were one.
That is the legendary — Time Dragon!
Apart from the legendary Time Dragon, even deities caught in it would be in significant danger. Moreover, the rate of time flow within does not match that of the outside, and no one could be certain where they would end up.
However.
At the moment when the plane collapse led to obliteration, as if a singularity had appeared, a great quantity of matter twisted and reshaped together, over a square kilometer of land distorted and remade into a strange black stone of about five meters in diameter. It looked very similar to the demon stone Soren obtained from the Bottomless Abyss.
It was a type of substance born in the twisted void at the edge of the plane.
The torrent of time and space swept everything away, including the black stone formed during the collapse of the plane, which was instantly drawn toward an unknown location.
………………(To be continued ~^~)
