Game of the World Tree

Divine artifacts had truly earn their name because they contain the power of a deity, with some even possessing power of the very fabric of the world’s natural laws or partial authority over certain aspects of them.

Take, for instance, the Scepter of Life.

Crafted from the very essence of the former World Tree’s core, this divine artifact is imbued with the essence of life, elevating it to the status of a supreme artifact among others of its kind.

Given its prestige, if all the artifacts in Seigües were to be ranked, then the Scepter of Life would undoubtedly be amongst the top ten.

Nonetheless, the Scepter of Life is not an combat-oriented artifact but rather, its capabilities inherently lean more towards assistance and creation.

Back when this artifact was still intact, it mainly possessed enviable abilities such as granting and depriving life, enlightening and strengthening souls, purifying bloodlines, racial evolution, transformation, and creation, which made other gods immensely envious.

Originally, the World Tree created this artifact to save some races that were on the verge of extinction during the Twilight Era, and to rescue those kind-hearted ancient gods who were affected in the aftermath of the war of that time.

Of course, being a divine artifact, even if the Scepter shatters into pieces, it still retains some divine power of life within it.

As one of the most outstanding divine artifacts, as stated in the inheritance Evé received from the World Tree, the divine power value contained within the Scepter of Life almost reaches ten thousand points!

As for the upper limit of the divine power it can withstand, it is even higher.

It can even easily handle the output and consumption of the more higher ranked true gods, and is capable of serving even the most powerful deities who have outgrown the need for such artifacts.

Even if it was shattered into fragments, Evé could still sense that these pieces retained nearly two thousand points of divine power!

What’s more, it’s a divine power specifically imbued with pure essence of life!

If Evé were to extract and consume all of the divine power contained within the Scepter at this moment, then she’s pretty sure that she could instantly surpass the 3000-point divine power mark and regain the status of a deity with weak divine power.

However, Evé refrained from such action, recognizing that by doing so would render these fragments useless, ultimately making the Scepter of Life truly worthless, irreparably damaged, and beyond repair…

Furthermore, as it stands, Evé no longer lacks divine power at this point of time.

With the Withering Heart at her disposal and the inability of the gods to descend here in the mortal realm, she could effectively protect herself already.

Thus…compared to over two thousand points of divine power, the allure of repairing the Scepter of Life is far more important to her.

Although this artifact has been broken and she has only obtained two-thirds of its fragments, as the true god who has authority over the Divinity of Life, Evé can still unleash a portion of the broken Scepter of Life’s power.

For instance, even in its broken state, the Scepter can still purify the bloodlines of any half-elves and elevate them into pure-blooded elves!

Since converting the players into her own religion is quite a difficult endeavor, it would be more beneficial for her if she were to perform such miracles upon the native inhabitants of Seigües instead, since these locals are more likely to believe in her faith.

Regardless, whether she can foster believers from other races is still uncertain, but at the very least, the Elven race has a strong affinity with nature and are the children of the World Tree, which in turn can provide a value of faith far superior to that of other races.

Alas, with her having been revived for quite some time already, Evé comes to the realization that there may not be many elves remaining in this world.

Nevertheless, while the number of elves dwindles, the population of half-elves with elven lineage remains plentiful.

And these elven halflings…are also potential believers to convert into her religion!

By gathering them and purifying their bloodlines into pure-blooded elves, she can quickly increase the elven population!

After all, she’s sure that no half-elf can resist the temptation of becoming a full-blooded elf.

Because it means having a far longer lifespan and more stronger magical aptitude.

These elven halflings merely inherit the innate beauty of the elves but not their actual lifespan and magical aptitude, so they would be even more eager to attain these features if they were given such an opportunity…

Moreover, most of these half-elves have also suffered enslavement and persecution no less than their pure-blooded counterparts, thus, making it easy for Evé to gain their recognition.

In addition to purifying the bloodlines of half-elves, the broken Scepter of Life can also allows her to enhance the aptitude and strength of pure elves.

Since Elves originally belong to a Silver Lineage, which elevates them to Silver-rank upon reaching adulthood.

Unfortunately, due to the racial curse inflicted during the thousand-year-long heavenly war, the Elves have lost such lineage, and newborns nowadays are restricted from reaching the upper limits of their strength.

Although the elves that have returned have now freed themselves from this curse and are gradually regaining their strength, their speed of growth is still too slow compared to the players.

Nonetheless, even though the players have far more faster rate of growth and higher aptitude, one aspect that she had to compromise for boosting these cheat-like enhancements are the players’ other abilities…

Nonetheless, even though the players have a far faster rate of growth and higher aptitude, one cannot grant such cheat-life abilities without paying a steep price.

Even if she’s a god, she still had to balance things out; thus, in exchange for these elevated enhancements, Evé had to compromise and lower some of the players’ other functions, mainly the most difficult and most energy-consuming aspect of creating a race—Fertility.

Yes.

The Players lacked reproductive ability.

It was also because of this that Evé was able to easily create their bodies in large quantities.

While the players’ bodies can be modified, it’s much more difficult for Evé to modify real elves with her current abilities.

Their bodies have already taken shape, and although it is still possible to forcibly increase their strength, it would be too costly for the current state of Evé.

But it’s different with the aid of the Scepter of Life.

Even in its broken state, Evé could use the Scepter to quickly restore the strength of the native elves so that they could keep up with the pace of the players.

At the same time, she can also reduce the consumption of her divine power to an acceptable level.

Furthermore, with the help of the Scepter of Life, the cost of resurrecting dead players will be further reduced.

Not only that, but by placing the Scepter of Life within her own body, Evé can also enhance her innate ability to absorb energy from the cosmic void!

Of course, the rate at which the mana of the World would recover would be further accelerated than it already is if she were to perform such a thing…

Overall, it can be said that obtaining the broken Scepter of Life was truly Eve’s greatest surprise at that moment.

And if she could successfully restore this broken artifact…

Eve’s heart stirred.

If Nidhogg could attempt to repair it, then why couldn’t she, as the Goddess of Life, do the same thing?

Come to think of it… I should have been the rightful owner of the Scepter of Life in the first place!

Thinking this, Evé closed her eyes and carefully inspected the current state of the Scepter of Life, then attempted to simulate its repair process within her mind…

—Only to furrow her brows in confusion moments later.

“The difficulty of repairing this broken artifact… is far greater than I imagined…”

“Sigh, it would probably take hundreds or even thousands of years to repair it unless I extract another essence of life from myself and merge it with the fragments of the Scepter of Life. Otherwise, my only method for now is to rely solely on using my divine power to nurture this artifact!”

Thinking of this, Evé shook her head helplessly:

“This time frame is too long; I can’t afford it…Moreover, even if I have already escaped from the state of pseudo-death by now, the essence within me still hasn’t reached the same level at that of my predecessor, who didn’t care much about removing their own essence without much thought.”

“Without collecting the remaining one-third of the fragments, quickly repairing the Scepter of Life won’t be possible.”

“What a pity…”

Regret swept over Evé, her thoughts churning until a spark of inspiration ignited within her.

“Wait a moment…”

“If I, the Goddess of Life, can’t repair the Scepter of Life… then how did Nidhogg manage to do it?”

Eve’s eyes narrowed gradually as she murmured,

“No…”

A flicker of doubt crossed her mind.

“Was Nidhogg… even the one who truly repaired the Scepter of Life in the first place?”

With a decisive gesture, she elegantly rose from her throne.

She snapped her fingers, and then…vine-like tendrils appeared from within the vicinity.

Each tendril tightly bound a Church of Despair believer whom Evé had whisked away into her domain.

Inside her Celestial Domain, these believers were completely cut off from the outside world, so Eve wasn’t worried about them revealing any of her secrets.

Now, it was time to extract their memories and delve into what Nidhogg had been hiding all along.

— 308 —

【 THE POWER OF THE SCEPTER OF LIFE 】

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