Chapter Sixty-Two: Encirclement!
The Church of Shadows is retreating step by step.
Although Modo does not have significant personnel casualties, the damage to the golem puppets is likely to exceed two million Gind. Arendelle’s national tax last year was just over a million Gind, which means Soren squandered an amount equivalent to Arendelle’s tax revenue for two years in less than an hour. However, this price is worth it. If such a large number of golems were not used to pave the way, the Half-Elf Church would have to pay thousands of casualties just to invade the underground.
Human lives cannot be bought with money, and Soren’s resources are limited; depleting core believers would mean a devastating blow.
The same logic can be applied to the Lord of Shadows.
He has never underestimated Soren’s strength and has always regarded Soren as a threatening enemy.
However, he ultimately underestimated the strength of Modo.
Indeed!
The Lord of Shadows gauged Soren’s strength but did not anticipate Modo’s hidden power.
In the Lord of Shadows’ view, he had a 70-80% chance of winning in a confrontation with Soren, which is why he actively attacked Soren’s church followers. However, he never expected that the combined forces of the Shadow Thieves and the Church of Shadows could never compete against Modo, which secretly possessed support from the Northern Witch Council, the Arendelle Ice Snow Witch Group, and the Church of Wealth.
The Lord of Shadows has lost.
But he did not lose to Soren’s personal strength; he lost to Soren’s influence in the secular world!
Because part of these golem puppets came from the Northern Witch Council.
In order to obtain Modo’s floating ring technology, the Eye of the North paid a substantial price, and today, some of the iron golems participating in the battle are from the Northern Witch’s Tower.
The Lord of Shadows’s secular power has been defeated.
Relying solely on the Church of Shadows and the Shadow Thief Guild simply cannot match Modo, so his only chance of turning the tide is to rely on personal power to kill Soren.
As long as Soren dies, Modo’s strength will immediately collapse!
Moreover, with his power as a deity of Shadows, he might be able to take over a significant part of Modo’s strength after killing Soren.
The current circumstances leave the Lord of Shadows with no way out.
If he avoids battle, the Church of Shadows will undoubtedly perish, and Soren will likely demolish his Grand Temple in the Material Plane. As a deity, he cannot stand aside while his church is destroyed, so his only choice is to enter the trap Soren has set for him, forcing the Lord of Shadows to take action against him. Then he would activate the most critical part of all his plans.
………
A powerful divine power surged within the dungeon.
Soren felt an intense sensation in an instant, involuntarily narrowing his eyes and murmuring, “Can you no longer hold back?”
He is forcing the Lord of Shadows to attack him.
The current situation is one of fighting in a desperate situation; even if Soren were in the Lord of Shadows’ position, he would only have two choices.
One is to give up the Church of Shadows and retreat.
The other is to slay the divine being of the enemy church and directly decapitate to dismantle Modo’s offensive.
—”Shadow [Domain]!”
An invisible force spread out, causing the surrounding shadows to become even more blurred.
Soren disappeared from his original spot in an instant. The next moment, the space he occupied distorted, and a pitch-black void crack tore open.
“So this is what you really look like!”
As the power of shadows dissipated, Soren’s figure appeared ten meters away. His expression was cold as he gazed ahead and slowly said, “The legendary Lord of Shadows. Your true form is actually a twisted shadow.”
In front of Soren.
A distorted human-shaped shadow was floating in mid-air, a special life form.
The Lord of Shadows had forsaken flesh, transforming his body into a semi-energy form of life through shadow energy; such forms of deities are rarely seen in the Pantheon, as most deities cannot completely abandon their fleshly bodies.
“Since you’ve appeared, then stay!”
A peculiar radiance manifested near Soren’s wrist. Immediately, intense fluctuations rippled through the surrounding space, and the temperature dropped sharply. A thin layer of frost quickly covered the ground.
—”Ice Snow [Domain]!”
The proud figure of the Princess appeared over a hundred meters away, as the divine ability to alter space blocked nearby teleportation. Even she could only teleport from over a hundred meters away.
“God of Half-Elves and Wanderers!”
The voice of the Lord of Shadows was hollow like the void, watching Soren coldly and slowly saying, “Is this your last trump card? You think a mere mortal’s help can kill me?”
The Princess did not undergo investiture.
In the eyes of the Lord of Shadows, even if she were powerful, she is still just a mortal.
Mortals are too weak for deities.
Of course.
This is just what he believes.
Facing the Lord of Shadows’ disdain, the Princess’s expression clearly showed displeasure, but she had no response, instantly sealing off the surroundings with the power of ice and snow. As the most powerful mortal in the current Material Plane, she possessed strength comparable to that of a deity, yet neither she nor Soren could single-handedly kill the Lord of Shadows.
“Of course, I wouldn’t underestimate you!”
Soren curled his lips into a mocking smile, slowly saying, “Since we are going to deal with you, we naturally need to prepare more helpers.”
Bang.
About three hundred meters away from Soren, a broad and aged figure slowly appeared.
It was a rugged-looking half-orc, whose chest bore a grayish white painting—the ashes of half-orc warriors that the War Shaman relied on to awaken the power of ancient ancestral spirits.
Ascendant—Eugene!
The aged half-orc approached step by step, and with each step he took, his momentum grew stronger. When Eugene gradually closed in on the Lord of Shadows and drew the white bone spear surrounded by ancestral light from behind, he emanated a wild aura. Ethereal shadows flickered behind him; these were the incarnations of the oldest ancestral spirits of the half-orc race, legendary figures that emerged in the half-orc lineage, gradually transformed into powerful heroic spirits through the power of ancestral sacrifices.
“Demigod?!”
The Lord of Shadows’ expression finally changed. Compared to the concealed divine power of the Princess, Eugene already displayed clear demigod characteristics.
This power was obtained by Eugene after slaying a Lesser Demon Lord!
Compared to the divine power hidden in the Princess’s bloodline, the divine power combined within Ascendant Eugene from the Bottomless Abyss is much more violent. At this moment, Eugene, having activated all his power, emanated a hint of abyssal evil god aura!
One True God, one Demigod, one mortal about to be invested as a deity.
When Soren, the Princess, and Eugene surrounded and locked down the Lord of Shadows, his expression finally changed, for even with his Medium Divine Power, facing this many encircling enemies likely spells doom!
What’s more, all three of these enemies possessed considerable divine power!
…………(To be continued ~^~)
