Game of the World Tree

Under the cover of darkness, Maple Leaf City fell into a deep silence, its streets devoid of life as each household nestled into the embrace of slumber.

Only the occasional noises coming from stray dogs and cats, along with scavengers huddling in city corners seeking warmth, added a touch of vitality to the slumbering city…

But then, out of nowhere, the Cathedral of the Eternal Diocese in the center of the city suddenly emitted a burst of radiant light.

The brilliance was astonishingly blinding, akin to a rising sun illuminating the darkened world as if it were broad daylight.

What followed was a grand, majestic, ever-encompassing, and sacred aura descending into the unsuspecting city.

The homeless people nestled in the corners of the city stirred awake as the dazzling light pierced the darkness, rousing them from their slumber. Amidst their confusion, they traced the source of light and looked towards the direction of the cathedral, sensing a pressure that seemed to affect their very souls as awe and perplexity etched upon their faces.

Of course, there were also some people whose faces were filled with horror. They instantly leaped up, donned their hoods, and hastily ran in the opposite direction of the cathedral…

“M-Miracle… It’s a miracle! This is the miracle of the Lord! The will of the Lord has descended!”

An elderly scavenger looked towards the direction of the light, his expression fanatical as he quickly knelt down onto the ground and began praying.

However, in the midst of the blinding light, a deafening roar of anger also reverberated through the air, shaking the very foundation of the city.

“Nidhogg!!”

The thunderous voice was filled with boundless rage and murderous intent as it echoes far and wide in every dark and silent streets of Maple Leaf City.

By this point, everyone in the entire city had already been untimely awakened by this majestic and angry roar.

Each houses quickly relit its lights, as many people opened their windows to peek outside, and some brave residents even directly pushed open their doors to venture onto the streets to inquire about this sudden phenomenon…

“W-What’s happening? Is it dawn already?”

“I’m not sure… I thought I heard an angry voice just now, as if shouting something…”

Currently the populace were still feeling rather unclear about what had transpired.

But soon, they noticed the source of everything:

“The Cathedral… Look at the Eternal’s Cathedral! It’s shining!”

“T-This light! I feel the divine aura contained within it! T-This is a miracle! The will of our God has descended!”

Many believers were left awe and excited when they saw the eternal cathedral emitting a bright light.

—Alas…this excitement quickly turned into terror.

A golden pillar of light, exuding divine grace and majesty, descended from the sky as if crossing through the void until it struck the cathedral in an instant.

Boom!

With a deafening roar, the cathedral shattered amidst a dazzling explosion of radiance before dissolving into smithereens!

The very earth trembled in its aftermath, as if the end of the world were ushering in.

At that moment, the surrounding void was distorting, and even faintly showing signs of spatial rifts tearing apart the fabric of space itself.

However, the spatial rifts just as quickly disappeared under the grace of the golden pillar of light.

One by one, people crumpled to the ground as they gazed upon the radiant aura of faith from the Eternal Lord and were overwhelmed by its palpable force capable of rending the world asunder.

Their eyes widened in terror, and everyone wore horrified expressions.

“T-The wrath of god…Why is the wrath of god descending upon us!?”

“Eternal Lord above! What exactly happened inside the cathedral? How could it incur the wrath of the Lord!?”

“C-Could it be…our city is about to be destroyed?”

At this moment, some devout believers seemed to have thought of something. Their expressions were filled with grief as they prostrated on the ground, wailing:

“T-The Despair Church… it must be those bastards from the Despair Church! They must have provoked the wrath of the Lord here in Maple Leaf City with their unsanctioned proselytizing!”

“I knew it! I definitely saw this coming! The church officials had let them be all this time, so now we’re also gonna get in trouble and incur the wrath of the Lord! Curse them!”

“Divine punishment! This is divine punishment!”

For a while, silent tears streamed down the cheeks of every believers as they sank to their knees, their faces turned towards the radiant pillar of light as each of them uttered a heartfelt prayers from their lips.

Then, their bodies began to emit a faint trace of light, a manifestation of their faith, as this radiance slowly transformed into countless platinum-colored particles before converging into the pillar of light in the distance.

Yet, despite every believer of the Eternal Church praying devoutly to quell their patron deity’s anger, the sacred light hovering above the cathedral that had been reduced to ashes seemed to become more restless with each passing moment…

By now, even the most obtuse person could felt it—

The Eternal Lord…was truly angry this time.

In the Underground Lair of the Despair Church

Upon hearing the furious roar and sensing the majestic and divine aura that shook the entire world outside, Nidhogg’s believers were also filled with terror.

Meanwhile, beneath the pyramid, the players who had been watching Demacia’s actions via the livestream also wore strange expressions.

“Damn, they’re really setting things on fire, huh?”

Feeling the overwhelming anger contained within the divine aura, Evé was also a little surprised.

However, being a deity herself, she had a more profound understanding of this power that suddenly descended.

It was a power far beyond that of ordinary gods!

The sheer magnitude of this power sends shivers down Evé’s spine, evoking a sense of terror within her.

She hadn’t expected Etriōu to actually directly cross the void, manifesting his will before condensing his divine power into a pillar of divine punishment to shatter one of his own temples!

As the Patron Deity of humanity, the true strength of the Eternal Lord, Etriōu, was probably not weaker than that of the old World Tree back in its prime…

That ray of light just now that destroyed the cathedral, although the Eternal Lord had restrained its destructiveness, its intensity was still already at the utmost limit of what the World of Saigües could bear.

Confronted with such an attack, Eve’s avatar would likely be instantly obliterated, with even her true form at risk of injury if she were to directly face it without manifesting her Celestial Domain.

It seems…Demacia’s actions had truly angered Etriōu.

This rascal, no wonder he’s the number one tank in the entire server…anyone he taunts will immediately be filled with so much hatred.

But thinking in retrospect, if Demacia were to try the same provocative stunt against her then…

Um…

Evé felt that she probably would have angrily torn them apart too.

A deity’s religious statue is not an ordinary object that merely represents a god’s dignity but is practically the direct link that connects a god to the mortal realm.

Only gods hostile to one another would destroy each other’s statues, let alone with such blasphemous methods employed by Demacia.

What Demacia just did was tantamount to urinating and defecating onto the neck of Etriōu, since these statues were linked to their respective deities.

—Not only that.

But when a deity’s will descends into the mortal realm without employing an avatar or seeking a suitable body to possess, the usual method is to rely upon the statue.

In other words, these sacred statues that contain the accumulated power of faith of their believers are temporarily used by a god as their temporal body in order to perform a descent.

And in that case…

From a god’s perspective, a divine being who suddenly found themselves pushed to the ground by ants and be covered in the ant’s filth would probably be enraged, right?

Evé imagined it for a moment…

Ugh… miserable.

Such scenario is simply too awful.

She silently drew a tree symbol within her mind for the Eternal Lord, Etriōu.

However, Demacia’s success also confirmed Eve’s speculation.

That is, Nidhogg had indeed corrupted most of the clergy serving under the Eternal Church here in Maple Leaf City.

Otherwise, Demacia wouldn’t have been able to infiltrate the cathedral so easily.

And since that’s the case, her plan had a high chance of succeeding.

Besides… the wrath of the Eternal Lord, Etriōu, had not yet subsided.

The golden light above the ruined cathedral flickered once more, and a terrifying wave of energy spreading out, sweeping across the entire Maple Leaf City.

That was the soul magic of the Eternal Lord.

He was probing the entire Maple Leaf City.

After sensing the ever-expanding magical fluctuation, Evé quickly held her breath and ceased all her bodily functions, pretending to be invisible at all costs…

Of course, such rudimentary preventive measures still didn’t give her the complete assurance she sought, so Evé also used a miniscule trace of the Goddess of Death’s power, covering herself and the players with it, thus fully masking their original aura.

— 305 —

【 WRATH OF GOD 】

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