"Helm! Helm!!!"
From within the massive scorpion monster came a human roar, but Helm's incarnation gazed at the gloomy sky, his expression growing even more solemn.
Suddenly, Laphinia felt a tremendous aura of majesty descend upon them, nearly sending her collapsing to the ground.
Boom! Boom!
Within the gloomy sky, bolts of lightning danced wildly, like countless silver pythons writhing and tumbling.
"This is… the Primordial Force descending! Someone is condensing their divine domain and ascending to true godhood!!!!"
Romis murmured, then looked toward the sky above the castle.
There, the massive scorpion roared, with dense clusters of vengeful spirits manifesting around its body.
"It's that creature! It's attempting to ascend right now???" Laphinia exclaimed in disbelief.
"What's going on?"
Not only the enemies, but even Shrive's own mouth hung wide open, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets, his face filled with utter disbelief.
This was supposed to be nothing more than a resurrection ritual—how had it suddenly turned into the condensation of a divine domain and an ascension to true godhood?
This isn't the script!
Shrive roared internally, but in the next moment, something seemed to click in his mind, and his face immediately filled with dark foreboding.
"It's that Divine Power crystal! There was something else inside it!!!"
……
"It's begun?"
At an unknowably vast distance away, in the hidden void, the incarnations of several false gods descended and gathered together.
"Chesterbert! You rose from blood and flesh, possessing the bearing to ascend to True Godhood. But the massacre of innocents — countless vengeful spirits trail in your wake. That is your original sin!!!!"
BOOM!
The instant Leylin's words fell, an army of wraiths materialized from the void. By their appearance and dress, they had been commoners of the Tree Fortress; now their faces were twisted in agony, their blood-soaked arms reaching out to claw at Chesterbert's body.
"My Lord! Be with us!"
A faint, murmuring chant began to permeate the void, raising the hair on the back of one's neck.
It was as though these vengeful spirits had crawled their way out of the River of the Dead, intent on dragging Chesterbert back down into it.
"The foundation of a Demigod cannot bear such a sin!"
Leylin understood this with perfect clarity. "If Chesterbert wishes to avoid another fall, his only path is to advance to True Godhood and use a Divine Kingdom to bear the resentment of the masses…"
In truth, this was all part of Leylin's design.
Of course, the ultimate blame still fell on Chesterbert himself. Had he not indulged his subordinates in conducting a large-scale blood sacrifice, Leylin would never have had the opportunity to fan the flames.
And now, he was merely adding another handful of fire to the burning pyre.
"The Divine Domain of Slaughter… similar fluctuations of Primordial Force will surely draw the attention of deities of slaughter like
Leylin thought without a shred of sympathy.
In the divine power crystal he had granted to Sliv, he had indeed mixed in other things — his own comprehension of slaughter, along with a substantial amount of divine power of killing.
These would ensure that Chesterbert met the most basic requirements for godhood, and more importantly, force him to take that final step!
"Lord Leylin… your schemes are enough to make the devils of Hell tremble with fear, and feel utterly inferior…"
Beside Leylin, several of the Demigods wore expressions of wariness on their faces.
One with the head of a human and the body of a blood-red lion stepped forward and spoke, while to its left sat a shapeless mass of black sludge resembling an ooze, radiating the glow of divinity.
"This is our unanimous decision!"
Leylin clearly detected their wariness and isolation, but felt no concern — for every move in his plan was an open gambit.
As long as these false gods still wished to ascend to True Godhood, they had no choice but to cooperate with him and accept the bait he had laid out.
"Besides… the things I gave you must have been tested repeatedly, right? Is there any problem with them?"
Leylin's rhetorical question immediately silenced the other demigods.
After that, they turned their attention back to the Tree Fortress.
Chesterbert's ascension offered immense benefits to all of them — not only the experience they could draw upon, but also the reactions of the established gods.
As for the poor Scorpion Church, it was naturally something these false gods had already abandoned.
Any faction that could not survive the crackdown and destroyed itself was utterly beneath the notice of false gods like Leylin.
In truth, Chesterbert's resurrection this time had been the last chance these false gods gave it, and in return, it used itself as a probe to test the bottom line and reactions of the established gods. It was a perfectly fair exchange, was it not?
Crash! Crash!
Streaks of blue-white lightning crashed down without warning, and the crackling arcs of electricity instantly annihilated the summoned scorpion legion.
Under the world's assault, the colossal scorpion phantom surrounding Chesterbert's body fragmented and scattered, revealing his true form clad in a black robe.
"Ah… I am the Lord of the Scorpion, master of slaughter, and I shall ascend to godhood through it!"
Chesterbert swung his arms, and a wisp of dark golden flame emerged from within his body as the power of numerous laws coalesced around it.
This was a demigod's Divine Fire — the very foundation of their existence.
Threads of the Slaughter law condensed upon the Divine Fire, and countless runes danced and swirled, gradually gathering together as if something was being forged within.
In the face of the temptation to ascend to True Godhood, Chesterbert had poured everything he had into this.
"My Lord Chesterbert… you are the star in the heavens, master of the law of slaughter. The fear of mortals shall become your power…"
"My Lord Chesterbert… you shall ascend to the celestial kingdom and raise your throne high, welcoming our souls into your embrace…"
"My Lord Chesterbert… I offer everything I have. May your will be done upon the earth, may your dominion shine upon all gods, may you achieve immortality!!!"
Schliff knelt in devout prostration and began to pray with the most fervent of zealous devotion.
The other believers, following his lead, also began to do the same.
Schliff knew full well that the Lord of the Poison Scorpion was weaker than his enemies, and now, caught up in a conspiracy, had already lost the power to choose.
They, the believers, were in the same position. At this point, the only path to survival and the only opportunity lay in helping Chesterbert ascend to the status of **True God**! That was their sole hope of staying alive!
And so, the false god's believers gathered here all but began praying with their very lives.
Wave after wave of fanatical faith power converged upon Chesterbert, absorbed by the divine fire, gestating the strength of a divine authority.
In terms of the number of believers and comprehension of the **Slaughter** rule, Chesterbert was nowhere near qualified for godhood.
Even among demigods, his strength was not the greatest.
But none of that mattered! Because Linley was behind him.
His primary reason for helping the Church of the Poison Scorpion was its rule of Slaughter, which was remarkably close to the rule of Killing — extremely easy to convert.
With Linley secretly feeding him power, even directly pouring insights from the domain of Killing into him, Chesterbert was able to meet the requirements for ascension in an instant.
And Chesterbert, for once, showed a rare moment of cleverness: he did not attempt to lay claim to the domain of Killing, hoping thereby to avoid drawing the hostility of other deities who coveted the divine authority of Slaughter.
Unfortunately, his efforts were destined to be futile.
Accompanied by terrifying lightning and fluctuations in primal force, faint whispers of prayer began to spread across the entire Material Plane.
Nearly every existence above the **Legendary** rank turned their gaze here in unison. They could feel it — a **Demigod** was already charging toward the bottleneck of true godhood.
From the hymns, all could clearly discern Chesterbert's identity.
His true name was, of course, Chesterbert. No matter what aliases he had used during his mortal days, from this point forward, once he succeeded in his ascension, this true name would be permanently bound to him — and he would be able to sense a portion of the context surrounding every utterance of that name.
His believers would also draw power from his true name; simply chanting it was enough to establish a connection with the deity.
As for his divine authority, Chesterbert had chosen **Slaughter**. The line from the hymn — "The fear of mortals shall become your strength" — made it clear that he was a sinister god who spread terror!
This alone was enough to earn Chesterbert the enmity of every good-aligned deity.
"ROAR!"
And in almost the same instant, the spatial rift was torn wide open, and a colossal golden ape-like monster leaped through.
It hovered in the void, its blood-red eyes fixed on Chesterbert amid the lightning, as though it had just spotted its rightful prey.
The God of the Hunt — Mala!!!
"As expected… anyone who covets divine authority related to slaughter will inevitably draw the enmity of any deity who holds dominion over killing!"
Reilin shook his head as he watched from the sidelines, though a flicker of doubt showed in his eyes. "When it comes to the closeness of their divine portfolios, and their sheer power — what about Cyric, the Greater Deity of Murder?"
Even Mala had leaped out in response, yet that supreme figure hadn't left the slightest trace of himself, and several threads of probing curiosity crept into Reilin's gaze.
At that moment, inside the headquarters of the Church of Murder.
"Blasphemy! This is the blasphemy of a false god against our Lord!!!!"
The High Priest had already worked himself into a rage, his voice booming through the hall, while rows of acolytes and priests knelt all around him.
"Immediately order every [Legendary]-rank operative to drop their current missions and converge on the Venomous Scorpion Church!!! Issue a kill order! I want to see the heads of every clergyman from the Venomous Scorpion Church laid before me!"
His face twisted in a savage snarl as the High Priest issued his command.
Once everyone had departed, the High Priest knelt before Cyric's divine statue and began to pray in silence, a trace of helpless resignation on his face.
He alone knew that this Greater Deity, the Lord of Murder, had by now essentially descended into madness — he frequently issued orders commanding his own followers to slaughter one another, and the entire church, at its highest echelons, had already fallen into a state of chaos.