Chapter 48: Lord of Radiance!
Gentle winds blew over the green grasslands.
In the distance, clear birdcalls could be heard as a lovely little deer emerged from the bushes, curiously looking around before bounding off into the woods. A crystal-clear stream flowed alongside the trees, where a gentle long-haired woman was playing, sitting on a stone by the water. Next to her, a dignified and elegant woman seemed to have her eyes closed, listening to the sound of the wind. Everything here was so beautiful; the woman in contemplation reached out to gently brush the petals of a budding flower, and soon she witnessed the flower bloom in the breeze.
A pure and holy radiance appeared in this world.
Everything here was so different from the Material Plane—there were no scarred lands, nor scars left by rampaging demons. This was a unique demi-plane, a space opened up by divine power.
The radiance gradually converged.
Eventually, it took the form of a tall man, who slowly descended from the sky.
“Father!…”
The graceful woman, who had been lost in thought, opened her eyes. She slightly bowed to the man formed from light in the sky and said softly, “What brings you here?”
The long-haired woman who had been playing stopped and humbly lowered her head towards the light, her demeanor as enchanting as a gentle spring.
She was the Goddess of Rivers and Lakes.
She was not particularly powerful, once sheltered by Mother Earth, and now belonged to the domain of the Agricultural Goddess. Many deities like her, born of nature and not of combat, were subordinate to the Agricultural Goddess.
The Lord of Radiance walked down from the sky.
He appeared radiant, filled with a holy and just aura. Ever since he moved his divine kingdom to Mount Heaven, the essence of the Lord of Radiance began to emanate a sacred light, and when he fused a certain power from Mount Heaven, he himself became one with something divine.
The Agricultural Goddess frowned slightly.
She could not remember when she started feeling that the radiance surrounding her father was too blinding.
The sunlight nourishes all living things and allows plants to grow, but if the radiance is too intense, it is not good for all living things. Although she was the daughter of the Lord of Radiance, the Agricultural Goddess preferred the essence of nature. After Mother Earth withdrew, she took over most of the divine duties, ultimately choosing to focus on “agriculture” as her core divine profession. She understood her father’s ideals—to establish a realm filled with light, justice, and beauty.
However!
Her father believed that to achieve this, evil must be completely eradicated; only then could a truly good and beautiful world be built.
But the Agricultural Goddess did not think so.
She believed evil could never be entirely eradicated and that to improve the world, changes had to be made through different means. As a new deity, the Agricultural Goddess still did not know how to improve the world, but she thought that if everyone could be free from hunger, perhaps many conflicts in the world would diminish. Thus, the Agricultural Goddess always hoped to find a way to significantly boost agriculture to ensure the world would not face famine and breed war.
Speaking of which, it had been a long time since they last met.
Since the Lord of Radiance ascended to the highest level of Mount Heaven, it had been over a hundred years since they last saw each other. If not for the Saint’s Cataclysm, they might not have met for a much longer time.
This may require an ancient text to recount the tale of the Lord of Radiance.
This text was inscribed on a stele in the Eastern Kingdom, detailing events from the time when the Lord of Radiance was known as the Dawnlight.
“The friendly demeanor of the Lord of Radiance made him widely cherished among the gods as well. However, compared to mortal believers, the deities possess longer memories. While many gods admire the Lord of Radiance’s proactive call to action and his selfless yet passionate beliefs, they still prevent him from causing too much disruption to the status quo. He shares excellent relationships with other noble deities, such as the Goddess of Springs and the Goddess of Joy, as well as those who actively seek joy and goodness in life.”
“He establishes friendly connections through his divine profession of creativity with the God of Knowledge, the God of Chants, and the God of Crafts. His deep hatred for undead creatures has also made him a steadfast ally of the King of the Dead—Klanvor.”
“The Earth Goddess seems to be the most appreciative of the Lord of Radiance’s abundant vitality among the gods. This may be because the God of Dawn has continuously illuminated her ancient soul. She and the Lord of Radiance both believe their fates are intertwined. Although their romance has seen numerous ups and downs throughout history, they have always wholeheartedly devoted everything they possess to one another.”
“The Lord of Radiance naively and stubbornly believes that evil deities—such as the God of Tyranny, the God of m*rder, the Goddess of Torment, and the God of Destruction, Talos—are responsible for much of the world’s misfortune and evil.”
“He especially despises the Lady of the Night, believing she represents eternal corrupting power and orchestrates those vile black hands behind the scenes, plotting against him and the church. The Lord of Radiance is convinced that the Dawn Catastrophe occurred because the spies of the Lady of Loss secretly undermined his efforts, and thus he is striving to ensure that such events never occur again.”
………………
This ancient text ends here.
Below the stele, records about the Lord of Radiance’s believers mention that the ancient record keepers of the Eastern Kingdom believed, “The priests of the Lord of Radiance are a group of passionate idealists.”
The Lord of Radiance did not speak.
He slowly approached the Agricultural Goddess, gently reaching out to caress her long hair, and as the holy radiance emerged, a trace of blackness, filled with toxins and evil, seeped out from the Agricultural Goddess’s being.
It was a hidden wound left by the Lady of Toxins.
To prevent the spread of plague, the Agricultural Goddess had secretly dealt with this evil goddess.
“Thank you,” the Agricultural Goddess softly spoke.
The Lord of Radiance slowly shook his head. No one knew just how powerful he was, for he had already been a being of Strong Divine Power when he was the God of Dawn. A single avatar could easily eliminate the evil power on the Agricultural Goddess with a wave of his hand; such strength was unimaginable even among the gods.
Since entering Mount Heaven, especially after taking on part of the Divine Profession of Justice, the gods had always considered the Lord of Radiance as the only being capable of directly confronting the Lord of Hell—Asmothiels.
In fact, it was true.
The fall of the God of Justice allowed the Lord of Radiance to take over the faith of the Paladins. When the Dawnlight became the fierce midday sun, no evil or darkness could hide!
“You seem to have made contact with the newly risen evil god, the God of Half-Elves and Wanderers?”
The voice of the Lord of Radiance finally rang out, filled with supreme authority that no one could oppose or resist.
The Agricultural Goddess furrowed her brow. “Yes,” she said slowly.
Her expression was somewhat resistant. Since her father grasped the powers of Justice, a gap had inevitably formed due to the nature of their divine professions.
At times, the Agricultural Goddess wondered if this was why her mother separated from him.
Her father was too radical.
If he hadn’t been so radical, the Goddess of Luck wouldn’t have died, nor would it have led to the emergence of the Fate Twins, and the battle between the Goddess of Luck and the Goddess of Misfortune had always baffled the gods.
This radicalism intensified after the destruction of the Arcane Empire!
As a new deity, the Agricultural Goddess was not very clear on what exactly happened during the Arcane Empire era.
However, there were a few things she still knew.
First, the destruction of the Arcane Empire was closely related to the gods, and there was a shadow of the Lady of the Night involved, who was secretly manipulating something.
The final catastrophe probably had a lot to do with internal strife among the gods.
Second, the destruction of the Arcane Empire brought great calamity to the world; the entire Material Plane was on the verge of collapse. Countless beings perished as a result, and life seeds were only preserved through the radiant protection of the gods.
Otherwise, living beings in the Material Plane would have likely faced extinction.
Third, everything after the destruction of the Arcane Empire led to the fall of the Father Oak, who chose to sacrifice himself to save nature. At that time, the sky over the entire Material Plane was nearly obscured by dust. During the long Darkness Age, the sky of the Material Plane remained gray and dull, with no trace of light.
It was at that time that the Dawnlight transformed into the Lord of Radiance!
The Agricultural Goddess did not know what exactly happened back then, as she was still too young for those ancient gods.
She only knew that after that incident, her father shifted from the Good Neutral faction to the Lawful Good faction, expending enormous divine power to move the divine kingdom from the Nature Hall to Mount Heaven.
The Dawnlight became the fierce midday sun!
In the last few years of the Darkness Age, her father officially entered the pantheon of Mount Heaven and, in the following years, broke through the dust that had shrouded the sky of the Material Plane, allowing sunlight to fall upon the fractured earth.
Since that time, the Agricultural Goddess felt her father had fundamentally changed.
He fused the powers of Justice, Light, and Holiness; to completely heal the wounds of the Material Plane, he even ascended to the highest level of Mount Heaven.
It was at that time that Mother Earth chose to retreat.
Mother Earth bestowed most of her divine duties upon the Agricultural Goddess, and after the Dark Years, the Agricultural Goddess began to learn how to be a deity.
The Agricultural Goddess held deep respect and even reverence for her father.
Because most people knew the Father Oak selflessly sacrificed to save nature, yet no one knew how much effort the Lord of Radiance put into bringing light to the world during the subsequent Dark Years.
All of this remained a secret.
Perhaps for mortals, history only reached a turning point at this moment, as the once mighty nature deities came to decline.
The chief deity of the nature pantheon, the Father Oak, fell.
The powerful God of Dawn became the present Lord of Radiance.
The ancient goddess Mother Earth retreated.
From this moment on, the destruction of the Arcane Empire directly led to the exit of three powerful deities from the nature pantheon stage. This previously strongest faction within the Pantheon has since lost any instance of a Strong Divine Power. The current nature pantheon only consists of the Forest Goddess, the Agricultural Goddess, the Unicorn Goddess, and other deities, the strongest among them being merely of Medium Divine Power.
The Dawnlight had long since departed.
The Lord of Radiance was on the rise.
As the current deity bridging the nature and human pantheons, the Agricultural Goddess was sure her mother, father, and the Father Oak reached some consensus.
But in her relatively short divine career, she did not know what they truly aimed to achieve.
The Arcane Empire.
This once-glorious and splendid civilization carried too many mysteries; the Agricultural Goddess witnessed mortals’ struggles against the gods and also the internal strife amongst the deities.
When the dust settled and everything faced annihilation, it was unclear who the ultimate victor would be.
Mortals lost.
Because the Arcane Empire had been destroyed, the once-powerful force that could resist the gods had now turned into a wasteland.
The nature pantheon also lost.
With the fall of the Father Oak, the retreat of Mother Earth, and the transformation of the Dawnlight into the Lord of Radiance, the entire nature pantheon was near complete disintegration.
………………
The Agricultural Goddess let out a deep sigh.
Everything in the past had already buried hidden flaws, and now the Saint’s Cataclysm had arrived. She had always been concerned that her father would act radically and attempt something terrible!
It seems her fears were not misplaced.
Because just due to her interaction with the evil faction’s God of Half-Elves and Wanderers, he personally descended to appear before her today.
Everything transpired in an instant.
The thoughts of deities moved very quickly, as they needed to handle tens of thousands of prayers from believers.
“Do not engage too much with him,” the Lord of Radiance said, gazing at the Agricultural Goddess before him. “He is a person outside of fate! For a mortal to ascend to Weak Divine Power in just two years is an occurrence that has rarely happened in the long river of fate!”
“I have a premonition.”
“He will be a pawn influencing the struggles of the gods. Getting too entangled with him might bring danger.”
“All the gods are silently watching him.”
“The Goddess of Misfortune is merely aware of more than we do, which is why she left her mark on him. Everything he does is intricately tied to elements of the Arcane Empire. Such uncontrollable civilization will only bring unimaginable disasters to nature.”
The Agricultural Goddess was silent.
For a long time, her views had been at odds with her father’s, just as the Lord of Radiance believed Soren’s actions were merely a repetition of the Arcane Empire, while she saw another future entirely, one completely different from the unrestrained ab*se of magical power seen in the Arcane Empire!
In Soren, she found a glimmer of hope.
The Agricultural Goddess had been quietly observing Modo. What she saw manifested her hope in inconspicuous corners.
Someone had indeed discovered alchemical knowledge from the Arcane Empire era in the past.
For instance, during the Rustwater River Battle, the Druids had fought against a wizard organization due to severely polluted rivers, to the extent that even legendary Druids could not restrain themselves from intervening.
In the history of the past.
Any application of knowledge from the Arcane Empire era would often lead to severe pollution and destruction, like the experiments of “Nature Destroyer”—Corinna. For instance, the energy mutation in the Rustwater River and the obliteration of Blackwater Town. Once these discovered pieces of knowledge were applied, they began to create wealth uncontrollably, bringing unrepressible trauma to nature.
However!
This had not manifested in Modo.
In fact, quite the opposite—the Agricultural Goddess could clearly feel that the natural environment in Modo was changing. Little by little, it was balancing out, little by little, it was improving, heading toward a future even she could not foresee.
Thinking of this.
The Agricultural Goddess raised her head to meet the eyes of the Lord of Radiance, slowly and firmly shaking her head.
Her father had his beliefs.
She had her own ideals.
The will of the deities could never be easily shaken by others!
………………
(PS: I had to go to the hospital yesterday due to some matters. This chapter took a bit longer to write… I need to exercise more for my health. Without health, nothing is useful. As long as I’m healthy enough to write, I can keep going for another thirty years! … If I happen to miss an update, I hope everyone can be a bit more understanding! Bow!) (To be continued ~^~)
