Mortal Realm
*Rumble!* The sheer number of rank 8 auras that appeared at that moment caused Mother Core to be startled. “The power of calamity… You managed to get the Lords of Calamity on your side?”
Leylin only smiled, shifting the conversation as several powerful figures passed the crystal sphere to enter the World of Gods.
"The World of Gods... A place of eternal obscurities and mysteries. The Final War has begun once more..." The Eye Emissary and Molina led six more Lords of Calamity into Baator, standing proudly in the void.
Just the gathering of such powers caused calamity to spread throughout their surroundings, causing space itself to wail. Having reached an agreement with the World Will, their powers had been restored. Free of their constraints, they no longer had to seal themselves in that jail of a world.
Leylin, the arbitrator of the contract, was someone neither side wanted to offend. He could suppress the World Will himself, and with nightmare force his power had only increased. The Lords of Calamity came along as free help.
“These eight are about as strong as intermediate evil gods. Combined, they have the power to topple an entire continent…” Leylin smiled.
Of course, he didn’t oppress or exploit the Lords of Calamity. He was working together with them to gain more benefits. Dreamscape had given them a tremendous supply of energy to restore their powers, and now they had to go look for resources to replenish the world’s origin force. What better a place to plunder than the World of Gods?
There were two other people here alongside the eight Lords of Calamity. One of them was a young lady with extremely fair skin, her face quite exquisite and impish. She surveyed the world around her, and eventually sighed, “The World of Gods… I’ve returned…”
This was Shar, the goddess-turned-Magus who had come to rule the Shadow World. She had become Leylin’s subordinate after being forced into submission, being brought here for the war.
“Hmph…” Another young lady harrumphed from beside Shar. She had a bewitching expression on her face, looking more mature than her companion as each strand of her hair hissed quietly in the air.
“And the Snake Dowager!” Mother Core recognised this familiar face.
The Snake Dowager did not dare to be tardy when speaking to this peak rank 8 Magus, and she bowed slightly, “Mighty Protector of Earth! We meet once again…”
“Ten rank 8 Magi, together with your clone and Magus body…” Mother Core was now completely in shock.
This force could have helped them greatly in the last battle. Now, it was even more important to her, being able to influence the entire war.
“And you…. Your path is already perfect, and you can advance to the peak of rank 8 at any time you want…” Mother Core looked at Leylin with a complex expression. Although she’d regarded Leylin highly, she’d never thought he’d come to be of the same realm as her so quickly. His strength could not be ignored.
“Mm… The nightmare force completed my foundation. Now all I have to do is completely devour Asmodeus’ essence, fusing all my laws together to form the perfect law of original sin…”Leylin didn’t bother to conceal his path and plans, there was nothing now that could stop him. “I won’t participate in the war before I’m at the peak of rank 8, and nor will they…”
Leylin pointed at the ten rank 8s following him, and none of them raised an objection. This surprised Mother Core even more; she’d originally thought they were just allies, but he had astonishing control over them so it couldn’t be. With eleven rank 8 Magi now standing guard at Baator, even greater gods could do nothing about Leylin’s advance.
This was an absolute confidence, garnered from the strength Leylin blatantly displayed. Each of these existences would be of great use to entire factions!
“I’m about to finish up with my preparations, how are things on your end?” Leylin looked at Mother Core.
“You can be at ease. I already called out to the World Will, it’s slowly recovered over time and will be ready. The World of Gods was injured once again recently, so it’ll be at a disadvantage.” Mother Core’s eyes reflected the depths of the Magus World, “We’re in the process of preparing the spell formation to bring the will here. Five Magi of laws are standing guard, and we’ll soon be able to bring the Magus World’s will into the World of Gods immediately, changing the laws of this world…”
The few sentences that Mother Core spoke revealed a groundbreaking plan. The audacious Magi actually wanted to bring the Magus World’s World Will into this world, destroying the Overgod in one blow!
“It’s hard to predict success, but even in the worst case both parties will suffer grave injuries which will reduce the suppression on us.”
Leylin naturally knew what these Magi were planning. Just like the gods, they didn’t want their World Will to awaken completely. Even he wasn’t willing to just let the World Will wake up and suppress him. He thus had no objections to their general plan.
“Alright. I’ll enter a long period of seclusion now. I’ll leave this to you…” A phantom of the Nightmare Hydra appeared, bringing Leylin’s Magus body to the deepest parts of his divine kingdom.
“Let’s go, everyone.” The A.I. Chip’s clone body had already reached the peak of intermediate godhood. Bringing the ten others, it shot into his divine kingdom like a shooting star. Even without the defence of a divine kingdom this lineup would put fear in the heart of any god.
‘He’ll most likely be peak rank 8 the next time he appears…’ Mother Core looked at the divine kingdom, and light flashed in her eyes before she slowly vanished into the void.
All these events had been noticed by the gods. However, a force of eleven intermediate gods with the additional support of two greater gods and a divine kingdom derailed all their plans. Even Tyr and Lathander wouldn’t dare to fight them within Leylin’s divine kingdom.
As for Distorted Shadow, all traces of him had vanished. Nobody knew what he was scheming…
The plague in the prime material plane continued to spread, and the plans to move the worshippers into the divine kingdom had begun. The Filthy Evil Eye and the Chaos Lord stirred up even more havoc in the Abyss, joined by new beings of law as they headed deeper and deeper.
The aftershocks of dazzling fights lit up the skies of the various worlds, but Baator remained abnormally silent. Leylin immersed himself into finalising and perfecting his path of original sin, and the others had their own tasks to carry out. His clone managed everything else well.
……
Within the prime material plane, Doron struggled to bring the last of his belongings to a cart and tie them with a rope.
He felt like all the events of the recent past were a dream. Having expressed their rage, the burly man and Red Nose had disappeared. Farmers and even more thugs surrounded Old Holdman’s villa, taking everything. Not even the door was left behind.
They’d plundered everything in sight before setting the house on fire, reducing it to nothing. Doron pitifully dragged himself back home, hiding in there endlessly in fear that guards would barge into his house and hang him at any moment.
After several days of silence, he had realised one fact. The lord had forgiven them, not arresting them at all. The event caused him to kneel on the ground and pray to the gods for their blessings.
However, everything in Old Holdman’s house had been recovered a few days later. Doron then realised that his life hadn’t changed in the slightest, the same as the rest of the thugs.
However, Doron was simply unable to comprehend it. That mountain of barley and grain, the gold and silver cutlery, that stack of gemstones… Where had they all gone?
He suddenly diverted all of his anger into a pawn shop in the town, but he didn’t dare to take action. After all, the pawn shops were owned by a powerful lord.
Speaking of that lord, Doron remembered that villa that had been razed to the ground. Everything that Old Hoffman had owned now belonged to the him. Somehow, such a normal thing now angered him to no end.
“Those noble lords… They would rather watch the people die of hunger and sickness, and are not willing to even give a bronze coin away…” Normally, he would not harbour such treacherous thoughts, but it was different now...