Game of the World Tree

The members of the Despair Church which was suddenly transported, found themselves in a state of perpetual wakefulness.

Confusion clouded their minds as they grappled with the sudden shift, their last memories having a fleeting glimpse of a divine presence before chaos engulfed them, spinning their world into uncertainty.

Until suddenly, their surroundings changed.

At this moment, they found themselves in a towering and magnificent temple, with thick, tentacle-like vines tightly coiled around their bodies.

Not only that, but they were also horrified to discover that all of their powers had seemingly vanished under the entanglement of these strange vines.

Thus, despite being ranked experts, they found themselves rendered powerless, resembling helpless children in their predicament.

Terror and bewilderment etched onto their faces as they grappled with the inexplicable turn of events.

For a moment they simply stood there, momentarily frozen in confusion, until their gaze fell upon a magnificent throne in front crafted from flowers, vines, and golden stones, which were then presided over by a majestic, divine figure.

However, just as they caught sight of the figure enveloped in divine light before them, they all suddenly grimaced in pain, with their eyeballs bursting as tears of blood streamed down their faces.

“A-A Deity! This is a True God!”

The elderly preacher who was the acting leader amongst them clutched his head in agony, as his expression twisted in utmost horror.

Just a mere glance had already caused them such a severe backlash… such a being capable of such feats can only allude to one kind of existence in the world of Seigües…

A True God!

Without the permission of these divine beings, no one below the rank of a demigod can directly stare at their visage.

Even if it is simply their incarnation, as long as the respective deity does not conceal their divinity, mortals like them cannot endure the backlash of directly seeing a divine being.

As a matter of fact, this is not a secret in the world of Seigües, where belief in True Gods is hugely prevalent.

At that moment, the hearts of these Despair Church followers surged with immense foreboding waves.

They actually encountered a True God!

However, their thoughts halted abruptly as they faced the presence before them. Slowly, they began to grasp the gravity of encountering a deity as their minds succumbed to a state of sluggishness.

Subsequently, these people only felt their surroundings slowly drifting further away from them, and the feeling of their souls being torn apart by facing a god eventually also gradually faded.

Their consciousness descended as if sinking to the bottom of the ocean, with each of their thoughts weighed down by the depths, growing more sluggish and blurry with each passing moment…

Until, finally, their minds disconnected completely, and each person fell into a deep slumber…

Within the Hall of the Temple.

Evé stood amidst the crowd of a hundred slumbering Despair Church believers, with their bodies tightly ensnared by her vines as their consciousness fell into a deep slumber.

With a gentle wave of her hand, a subtle ripple coursed through the entangled crowd, causing their motionless forms to stir, as their faces twisted with unseen emotions.

Vaguely, it seemed like something was being drawn out from within their bodies…

In actuality, Evé was attempting to extract the souls of these individuals.

As the deity presiding over the Divinity of Life, soul extraction was a fundamental function for her.

However, as Evé continued her efforts, wisps of black smoke began to rise out from their bodies, obstructing her extraction.

Evidently, that was Nidhogg’s power at play.

Nonetheless, Eve wasn’t surprised by this.

Considering that these individuals were personally chosen by Nidhogg to become his servants, it came as no surprise that their souls undoubtedly had several layers of protection.

However, despite Nidhogg’s thorough preparations, Evé had transported these individuals to her own domain. Thus, any protection that the old dragon had set up within them would be rendered futile in the end.

With just a little effort, Evé eventually extracted each of their souls from their bodies.

Yet as their souls were drawn out, the bodies of these individuals erupted with boils and cysts, covering their outer skin in a sudden and unsettling transformation.

To Evé’s astonishment and realization, their bodies mutated into patches of black scales, continuously expanding and swelling until finally…bursting into darkened-red mist before exploding into pieces.

This outcome was the result of losing their souls, which stabilize their existence. With it gone, their physical bodies could no longer suppress Nidhogg’s power that was constantly rampaging inside them.

Clearly, these were one of Nidhogg’s contingencies, originally intended to silence these people in case they might expose his secrets.

Alas, with Evé’s mastery over matters regarding the soul, she effortlessly stripped away Nidhogg’s power from the souls of these individuals and contained it within their physical bodies.

“These followers…were destined for a destructive end right from the moment they decided to worshipped an evil god.”

Evé sighed lightly as she observed the hundreds of lifeless bodies around her.

However, she had no plans of wasting their bodies.

With a light wave of her hand, all of the dead bodies and the chaotic powers within them each began to disintegrate, before ultimately turning into an energy imbued with the essence of life and abyss.

Then, Evé absorbed this converted energies right into her own body, as it gradually dissipated, leaving no trace behind.

Her divine powers had increased by eight points, slightly exceeding her expectations.

After completing all of this, Evé then set her gaze upon the hundreds of translucent souls floating in the air.

In the moment Evé forcefully extracted them, the souls of these people lost their physical anchor, with their countenances becoming vacant, signifying that their sense of self was quickly diminishing…

What she needed from them was only their memories, so without wasting any more time, Evé waved her hand once more as radiant holy light enveloped each of these souls…

Then, countless scenes began to appear as projections in the midair of the temple.

These were the memories of these Despair Church followers.

Various scenes flickered and flashed as Evé screened each and every one of them. Eventually, the subsequent scenes condensed into only memories involving the God of Despair, Nidhogg.

Some scenes showed countless followers praying to grotesque sculptures, while others depicted believers performing wanton slaughter. Another scene showed people making sacrificial offerings of flesh and blood before obtaining mutated abyssal worms as a result…

Seemingly endless visions like these kept appearing and flashing, until finally… they finally stopped at one particular scene.

In it showed hundreds of Despair Church followers kneeling in the underground lair, as everyone continuously prostrated towards the pyramid. What was odd about this scene was that the fragments of the Staff of Life floating above the pyramid were missing.

Then, whilst being accompanied by a loud draconic roar, black smoke began emanating from the golden pyramid, before the smoke gradually formed an illusory huge shadow in the shape of a dragon.

The dragon-like silhouette faintly resembles Meryer but is larger in size and more ferocious.

In an instant, Evé immediately recognized it as the true form of that old ancient black dragon.

It was definitely Nidhogg.

However, his form depicted in this particular scene is ethereal and indistinct, signifying that it is only his astral projection.

Seeing it, Evé finally understood the answer to the question within her heart:

“So… Nidhogg has been hiding himself all along because he still doesn’t have a physical body, and only his soul has been revived! No wonder he currently only has a weak divine power!”

“If I have to guess… his physical body probably perished during the thousand-year heavenly war… What did he experience back then? What sort of thing could make an ancient divine dragon like Nidhogg lose his body like that?”

At this moment, Evé also finally understood what Nidhogg wanted to do with the Scepter of Life.

Perhaps it wasn’t to repair this broken artifact per se, but rather to use it to create a new body suitable for himself!

“Too bad for him, the Scepter of Life is now in my hands.”

Evé shook her head slightly.

With this information, she could now roughly guess the current situation in Maple Leaf City.

Deprived of his body, with only his soul being revived, it’s no wonder even the once mighty ancient divine dragon like Nidhogg couldn’t contend with the Eternal Lord who only descended with his will.

As it stands, it is still impossible to kill the old dragon with a mere manifestation of divine will, but taking a beating and fleeing in embarrassment is a very likely outcome of their bout.

So the current situation of Nidhogg is this…

“An Ancient One who has lost his true body and the means to remake it… and is also a giant dragon who had his lair compromised with his followers probably being hunted by the enraged Eternal Lord… in addition, he also holds some secrets of the thousand-year heavenly war…”

Evé narrowed her eyes and subconsciously licked her lips.

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【 EXCELLENT INGREDIENTS 】

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