Book 12, The Descent of the Gods – Chapter 5, The Apocalypse War of Ten Thousand Years Ago
“What the right choice is, only you can decide.” Dylin said seriously.
The choice people made upon the moment when they became Deities by their own power would determine their future accomplishments and developments.
Linley didn’t have to think about it at all; his heart automatically inclined towards the second choice. He had walked on the path of understanding the wind and the earth, two different elements, this entire time. He truly would be unwilling to give up any one of those two elements.
“Lord Dylin, if one makes the second choice, for example, if I become a wind-style Deity, then the moment I become a Deity, if I put the divine spark outside my body, then the universe will naturally form a divine body around that divine spark, right? And my soul will be divided as well. In other words, there’s no difference in the soul between the original and the clone, right?”
“Right.” Dylin nodded.
“Then I want to ask, if the clone becomes a Deity, what about the original? Will it advance in power?” Linley held this in great importance.
If his clone became a Deity, but his original body remained at the Saint level, wouldn’t that be a huge weakness?
“There is an increase in power, and your original body will be able to borrow divine power from your clone.” Dylin shook his head as he spoke. “But unfortunately, that’s just borrowed divine power. Although you can borrow a great amount of it, since the original body has no divine spark, it will be much weaker than true divine power, due to the fact that there is no divine spark to merge with that ‘divine power’.”
The nearby Cesar laughed, “Linley, you should know that some of the Saints of the various religions can also sometimes borrow a bit of divine power.”
Linley nodded slightly.
Cesar continued, “You would be like them, except you’ll only be able to borrow divine power from your divine clone. But of course...there’s no need for you to offer tributes to yourself before borrowing a large amount of energy. However, without a compatible divine spark, the power will just be rather weaker.”
“Understood.” Linley nodded.
The importance of a divine spark was something which Linley understood quite clearly. If the original body had no divine spark and only had divine power...it wouldn’t be able to, for example, create a ‘Godrealm’.
“Although the original body will be weaker due to not having a divine spark, there are still ways to protect it. Because the clone and the original are actually one entity to begin with, therefore...you can reabsorb your clone into your original body.” Dylin laughed and continued, “And thus, you would still be able to utilize the strength of your divine clone.”
Linley secretly shook his head.
Merge the divine clone with the original body? Utilize the power of the divine clone?
In reality, that wasn’t an increase in power at all.
“If you do that, although your power won’t be increased, your original body will be protected better. Actually, the only real benefit of this second choice is...it will allow you to train in other Elemental Laws. The only real flaw...is that your soul will be divided in two!”
Dylin looked at Linley, saying seriously, “Linley, a soul is the most important part of a creature. It is very difficult to strengthen and transform a soul. This sudden division in half means that your soul will be weakened by half. In terms of both training speed as well as ability to resist enemy attacks, the soul will be affected.”
“I understand. You gain something, you lose something. How could there only be benefits and no disadvantages?” Linley understood this.
“It is good that you know this.” Dylin nodded.
Linley’s heart was filled with questions. “What’s going on with Dylin? Why has he explained to me all these details regarding becoming a Deity...it isn’t like Dylin, right?” Linley felt that today, Dylin was acting rather differently.
The War God, O’Brien, spoke out sonorously. “Linley, remember what we discussed earlier. I’ll hand over dealing with the Sacred Isle and the Radiant Church to you.”
“Don’t worry.” Linley’s eyes had a hard look flash through them.
Destroy the Radiant Church?
How many years had he been waiting?
“Alright. Then you can leave now.” The War God said calmly.
Linley, Desri, Fain, and Tulily all immediately rose. Bowing respectfully, they left the War God’s quiet, secluded residence.
Atop the quiet War God Mountain.
“Linley, congratulations. Today, Master and the others treated you with such friendliness that they clearly consider you to be one of them.” Fain suddenly said.
Linley was slightly startled. Right now, he could completely understand how bitter these other three experts had to feel in their hearts. Thousands of years of training, yet they still hadn’t made any breakthroughs.
“Fain, I believe you three will quickly break through as well.”
Desri suddenly laughed and nodded. “Right. We will break through soon. Fain, Tulily...have you already forgotten what Lord Beirut said? The three of us can break through in as quickly as a single day. The most important thing is that we have to have faith in ourselves.”
“Right. We will break through.” Tulily and Fain’s eyes lit up and they nodded.
If they could break through on their own, they wouldn’t need a divine spark.
But breaking through on one’s own truly was difficult.
“Linley, when shall we head out to destroy the Radiant Church’s Sacred Isle?” Desri asked.
Linley was silent for a moment, then said, “How about this. It’s best to address this quickly.” Just thinking about destroying the Radiant Church made Linley feel his blood boil and made him feel alive. “Let’s all go back home today. Tomorrow, we’ll summon our forces to make preparations. The day after that, on the eighth...the morning of the eighth, come to my Dragonblood Castle, and we’ll head out together to slaughter a path to the Sacred Isle.”
“Alright. We’ll head out together on the eighth.” Tulily and Desri both nodded.
Fain began to laugh. “Linley, you are moving so quickly. It seems I’ll have to pick up the pace on my side as well and eliminate the Cult of Shadows more quickly.”
“Haha, Fain, then we’ll head off for now.” Linley said.
Linley, Desri, and Tulily immediately flew into the air, streaking towards the east.
Linley’s Dragonblood Castle was in the northern part of the Baruch Empire, while Desri lived in the southern part of the Baruch Empire. As for Tulily, he lived in the great plains of the far east. The three flew together for only a short while before breaking apart.
“Whoosh.” A strong wind was blowing, causing his robe to flutter.
Moving through the skies, soaring through the clouds and the mist, he flew at high speed towards Dragonblood Castle.
“Linley, wait a moment.” A sound suddenly rang out, and an indistinct blur appeared near Linley.
A devilish young man, dressed in a dark gold robe, was standing before Linley. In his forehead, there was a single slit, like a knife scar. It was the Deity-level expert, ‘Dylin’.
“Lord Dylin.” Linley was somewhat surprised.
Dylin, surrounded by a devilish aura, had a rather sincere smile on his face right now. “Linley, your flying speed is quite fast. It seems you have indeed progressed significantly due to your time in the Necropolis of the Gods.”
Linley felt utterly confused.
Flying fast?
On the road back to Dragonblood Castle, he was only flying at regular speed, and didn’t even fly at full speed. Why would Dylin say he was flying fast?
“This Dylin...why is he praising me for no reason?” Linley instantly could guess that Dylin probably had something to discuss with him.
“Lord Dylin, is there something you need?” Linley directly broached the subject.
Dylin took a deep breath. “Linley, to be honest...I, Dylin, was born tens of thousands of years ago, and experienced the terrible Apocalypse War of ten thousand years ago, as well as the war of the gods, the Theomachy, of five thousand years ago. I’ve been protecting my five children this entire time, but unfortunately, five thousand years ago, my children and I were imprisoned into the Gebados Planar Prison....”
Hearing this, Linley felt deeply stunned.
“Five thousand years ago, experts from other planes descended. I knew about this. But what is this ‘Apocalypse War’ of ten thousand years ago?” Linley had never heard that ten thousand years ago, there was an ‘Apocalypse War’. From what Dylin was saying, it seemed as though the war of ten thousand years ago was even more terrifying than the one five thousand years ago.
Dylin, seeing the look on Linley’s face, understood.
“You are curious about the Apocalypse War?” Dylin laughed.
He had a favor to ask, and thus he was very happy to have the chance to tell these secrets to Linley.
Linley nodded.
“The Apocalypse War was on a far larger scale than the war of five thousand years ago. In truth, in the past, this plane had five continents!” Dylin explained in detail.
“Five continents?” Linley had never heard of this before.
In addition, the history books had never mentioned the existence of other continents.
Dylin explained in detail, “There was a vast distance between each continent, and the Yulan continent is the northernmost continent of the five. The other four continents were all in the South Seas. Because there is a distance of nearly ten million kilometers between the continents, back then, ordinary people didn’t know about the other continents’ existence.”
“During that Apocalypse War...”
Dylin sighed. “That was a true, large-scale war, an utterly destructive, apocalyptic war. The waves of the ocean rose to the heavens, and space itself was ripped apart. Even the shockwaves of the battles occurring in the depths of the sea impacted the other continents. The four southernmost continents were all shattered and destroyed, and one Deity after another fell...the scale of this war was far, far greater than the one from five thousand years ago.”
Linley’s heart quailed.
The battle had been so vicious that four continents had collapsed? What level of experts had fought in this war?
“And it was also due to that battle that Lord Beirut formally assumed control over the Yulan continent.” Dylin sighed. “Linley, at that time, although I was already a Demigod, I could only hide here on the Yulan continent, not daring to participate in the battle at all.”
Linley could completely imagine that scene.
“I heard that the divine sparks and Deity corpses of the Necropolis of the Gods came from that Apocalypse War.” Dylin sighed. “But of course, that’s just what I hear. I don’t have any proof.”
Linley nodded slightly. Dylin had been hiding, after all, and didn’t take part in the battle.
“Five thousand years ago, my children and I were jailed into the Gebados Planar Prison. That place...was an utter nightmare.” Dylin said in a low voice. “My five children...two of them died there. Fortunately, we escaped back to the Yulan continent afterwards.”
To this very day, Dylin hadn’t told Linley that it was Linley who had allowed him to escape.
“But this time, yet another one of my children have died.”
Dylin’s eyes contained irrepressible grief. “It truly is too hard to become a Deity. My children are only Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions, after all. It will be hard for them to break through their natural limitations and become Deities. Perhaps Desri and Fain will be able to break through upon receiving some insight, but magical beasts...it is far harder for us to break through than humans.”
“Therefore...I, Dylin, would like to ask you, Linley, to give me one of your divine sparks.” Dylin looked at Linley sincerely.
Linley understood what Dylin was thinking.
“Of course, I won’t let you suffer too much of a loss. Only, I definitely don’t have a treasure as valuable as a divine spark, but I do have divine artifacts. I can trade divine artifacts for it. How about three divine artifacts? Or perhaps, I can give you my own personal set of divine artifact gloves.” Dylin said hurriedly.
Dylin deeply loved his children. This was apparent from the efforts he had gone to in the Gebados Planar Prison to protect them.
Originally, he had forbidden them from going to the Necropolis of the Gods, but Cleo and the other brothers all desired to become Deities. In the end, Dylin couldn’t stop them...but on this trip to the Necropolis of the Gods, one of them had died. Now that Linley had three divine sparks, Dylin had decided to thicken his skin and come ask him for one.
Divine sparks were far more important than divine artifacts.
Four divine artifacts for a divine spark...Linley was actually still trading at a loss. What was the chance for a Saint to successfully navigate the eleventh floor? It was incredibly low. Linley’s success allowed him to obtain these three divine sparks, but in the future, Linley probably wouldn’t have this sort of opportunity again.
“Alright. I agree.” Linley nodded.
Dylin couldn’t help but feel ecstatic. Dylin immediately retrieved three divine artifacts with a flip of his hand. All of them were bladed weapon type divine artifacts. At the same time, in Dylin’s hands appeared a dark gold divine artifact gloves. In terms of preciousness, it was still the divine artifact gloves which was the most precious.
“Here is the divine spark.” With a flip of his hand, Linley retrieved the Destruction-type divine spark. Linley had made this decision on behalf of the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions. After all, they themselves trained in the Way of Destruction.
Seeing the divine spark, Dylin couldn’t help but feel his heart quiver.
This was a divine spark!
If he himself wanted to enter the Necropolis of the Gods, he would have to start from the twelfth floor. It would be extremely hard to procure a divine spark, even for him.
“Thank you, thank you.” Despite his normal, terrible temper, Dylin right now felt so excited that he said ‘thank you’ twice in a row. “Wait a moment. I’ll dissolve the ownership bond I have with the divine artifact gloves.”
“Lord Dylin, I don’t need these divine artifacts.” Linley said.
He didn’t lack for bladed divine artifacts. Two or three extra made no difference! As for divine artifact gloves, Linley himself was a sword user, and so they wouldn’t be very useful to him anyways.
“What? You don’t need them?” Dylin was stunned.
“I don’t need them.” Linley smiled and nodded. “Lord Dylin, I only hope that if in the future, I need your assistance, Lord Dylin, that you can help me. That would be wonderful.”
In his heart, Dylin actually was quite unwilling to part with these divine artifact gloves, but Dylin was a very arrogant, prideful person. If he were to receive a divine spark from Linley without giving Linley anything good for them, he himself would feel uneasy. Dylin couldn’t help but feel rather frantic. “How can this be acceptable? Unacceptable...”
Seeing Linley, Dylin felt very guilty, as though he owed him a great debt!
What could he do to recompense Linley?