Yuma was engulfed in a vague sensation.
He felt a powerful force weighing down on his entire body.
Along with that pressure, he also sensed a feeling of being pushed forward.
He looked at the ground.
All he could see were his own legs and feet, completely lost as to what space he was currently wandering in.
It was a strange land where he could only feel transparency.
Yuma looked up at the sky.
It was a world where only gray was distinctly visible. He felt a gaze from the sky upon him.
“….”
He lifted his head and met that gaze.
There was a Join Tribe member with a massive beak in sight.
It looked somewhat like a bird of prey, its deep gaze looking down on Yuma.
The huge beak slowly opened.
– Is it… human?
Yuma opened his mouth.
“I am human.”
– Hmph.
A heavy sigh descended.
– A human has entered the Transcendence Altar? And is undergoing the divine qualification assessment?
“Yeah, I need to become a god.”
Yuma spoke softly while looking at the giant gray figure of the Join Tribe.
No matter how he looked at it.
“But you seem like a dead being already.”
The two eyes attached to the head, which seemed to be halfway between an eagle and an owl, widened in surprise.
– Right. Coincidentally, I am indeed a deceased being.
The Join Tribe member easily admitted that he was not a physical entity.
– What you’re facing now is merely my thought—my residual soul left in this altar. It’s the spirit lingering here according to the rank I possessed.
The Join Tribe member continued speaking.
– My name is Ardorlac. I’m a Join Tribe member who died trying to grasp a divine rank beyond my means.
*
It had been four months since Yuma entered the Transcendence Altar.
Ella Brighton, the third commander of the Astes Empire, returned to the Empire as per Yuma’s order, stating that if she did not emerge within a week, she must return.
Time flowed swiftly.
The gods of the [Main Divine Realm], who were victors, began to invade the Intermediate World, opposed to the [Outer Divine Realm] where the defeated gods had gathered.
The continent targeted by the gods for invasion was Silmaria, located directly opposite the Geherden Continent, home to the Astes Empire and Resen Kingdom, among others.
Blood soaked the ground.
Corpses formed mountains. It was unbelievable that the ones rolling on the hillside weren’t monsters, but people.
“….”
Ragnak, a knight of Valkares from the center of the Silmaria continent, desperately tried to piece together his armor, which had completely torn away on his right shoulder.
The knight Ragnak from the Valkares Empire desperately adjusted his armor, which was completely torn off at the right shoulder.
His mouth was filled with the smell of blood.
He spat out saliva mixed with red blood.
Ragnak moved forward. Inside the tattered tent ahead, a man was crouching tightly.
It was Ricardo, the Second Prince of the Valkares Empire.
Kuhung!
Ragnak knelt on his left knee.
“Do you have any idea why the Red Knights, who protected the Empire until last year, are now attacking it?”
Shaking his head slowly, Ricardo replied weakly.
“…I don’t know either.”
Ragnak stood up again and looked down at the tragedy lined up in front of the palace.
The arms, legs, and entrails of soldiers were scattered everywhere. He saw soldiers and knights who had suffered fatal blows to their necks and hearts.
Pools of blood were forming in countless places.
Ragnak entered the thicket with numerous shadows. He peeked his head out from the bushes and looked up at the sky.
Chunks of blood and flesh were pouring down.
Woodduke woodduck—
The sound of bones crunching echoed through the sky. Bone fragments fell like hail.
Giant red birds filled the sky, using their razor-sharp, iron-like talons to snatch up people and chew them in mid-air.
“Kraaack!”
The screams resonated in the sky.
Tens of thousands bled out.
Half of the continent was drenched in blood.
All kinds of screams filled the world.
Pook!
Pook!
Bone spears erupted from behind the Goddess of the Dead Bones, Angelica. The bone spears savagely stabbed the beings in front of her.
“Kraaack!”
“Kiaaaaack!”
The spears, extending like spider legs, pierced through humans hundreds of times over.
Half were humans screaming and shaking, while the other half were already lifeless.
For Angelica, whether they were dead or alive seemed unimportant at all.
The goddess with gray hair and a gray face appeared to simply enjoy this predatory situation.
“Kihihih!”
Saliva dripped from Angelica’s mouth.
“Kihih!”
Dominance, massacre.
Everything violent gave Angelica immense pleasure.
All the humans beneath her were perishing. Blood oozed thickly from the bodies punctured like a beehive.
Angelica looked at the Death Knights lined up behind her.
“Wash them all away, my children.”
The Death Knights swiftly moved their bodies in response to Angelica’s command.
They quickly moved their bodies at Angelica’s command.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The army of death advanced toward the surviving troops of the Valkares Empire, escaping through the main road.
“Commander! It’s an enemy AAAAAHH!!”
A knight of Valkares shouted as he ignited a bright aura blade on his sword.
He swung the sword towards the armored troops of death, creating a sweeping arc.
But alas, that arc failed to reach the knight of death.
It shattered like fragments from a black blade. And the sword broke too.
Screech! Squeal!
Arms and legs were sliced off like pieces of meat.
In an instant, the knight’s breath stopped.
The strength wielded by the knights of Angelica was on a different level compared to the death knights conjured by dark sorcerers. The armor of the imperial knights crumpled like paper.
There was also a dark knight wielding a giant mace-like hammer.
KABOOM!
The head of the imperial knight caved in completely.
Blood and flesh decorated the land of the empire.
“Yes, yes.”
CRUNCH!
Angelica smirked as she stepped on the dismembered corpse of the knight sprawled on the ground.
Looking at the knight’s face, she said, “Humans must crumble so easily.”
Angelica’s gray eyes gleamed.
“Should I strike the Geherden Continent again with the divinity gained from killing these fools, or should I try to play the role of the deity of this Silmaria Continent…?”
Angelica and the three evil gods began to devour the [Silmaria Continent] in an instant.
The evil gods that manifested in the Intermediate World weren’t just these three.
Intermediate World.
Half of the continent of the Intermediate World was being eyed by the evil gods.
Through the processes of destruction and restoration, it became a space of causality for gaining divinity.
To the evil gods, the Intermediate World was merely a factory for obtaining divinity.
The Geherden Continent, where a being named Yuma had defeated two evil gods, was temporarily omitted from their target list for invasion.
Ragnak lifted his head to his trembling escort target.
“…First, we must move, Your Highness.”
At the knight’s words, the 3rd Prince Ricardo clutched his blonde hair and opened his mouth. His lips quivered.
“Understood.”
The small group of survivors from the Valkares Empire, led by the 3rd Prince, moved to survive.
*
Step.
Yuma continued his aimless steps.
He was walking.
He still couldn’t tell if this step was moving forward or backwards.
Here, the source of the Transcendence Altar was the gathering of countless divine artifacts and holy relics beneath the altar.
A compendium of divine beings that could be gathered in this Intermediate World.
Also, a thousand years ago, the priests of the Join Tribe literally burned their bodies to create the elevation of the divine status for the Join Tribe’s Ardorlac.
These two divine gifts possessed the power to awaken the divine status.
Standing fully at the top of the stairs would achieve divine enlightenment.
And now, the stairs faintly appeared before Yuma.
A staircase mixed with black and white.
Thud.
Yuma stepped onto the first stair.
Before him stood the Join Tribe’s Ardorlac, now a deceased soul, lingering at the entrance of the staircase he couldn’t fully ascend.
– …I still can’t believe it even after watching.
Ardorlac said, watching Yuma move forward.
What enveloped Yuma’s body now was the divine status of God Incrinew.
When Yuma had slain God Incrinew, he hadn’t recognized the [Divine Status Storage] occurring in his heart because he hadn’t transcended mere mortals, but the divine status had indeed been stored.
[The Suffering Mercy], Incrinew’s divine status acted as a protective barrier to prevent damage from the changes occurring in his body.
Unlike Ardorlac, Yuma hadn’t built up physical levels, so he needed a powerful barrier that could withstand the assumptions of this awakening.
That barrier was provided by the divine status of Incrinew stored within Yuma’s body.
And the root of the divine status that began to blossom in his heart was the [God of War and Strife], the combat god Barbatos.
Setting aside the deep sins of declaring war against the same gods, one had to call it great just based on the accumulated divine status of the Eight Evil Gods.
Among the Eight Evil Gods, the third tallest root of Yuma’s divine status emerged.
– How in the world did you kill two gods? Especially the Eight Evil Gods…
Yuma ignored Ardorlac’s astonished words and continued walking.
─Focus.
If his mind even slightly wandered, it felt like the stairs would collapse, so he had no choice but to concentrate all his senses.
Ardorlac widened his golden eyes and nodded vigorously.
– Yes, focus.
– You need to concentrate. Soon, the countless questions of causality will flood upon you, daring to reach the divine status in a human body.
Thud.
Yuma kept moving forward.
Towards the step of divine enlightenment.
